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e e welcome to the sear workshop for the board of County Commissioners um I'll call the meeting to order commissioner delini will you lead us in the pledge of allegiance of course I States of America and to
the stands na indivisible and justice for all good evening again welcome everyone uh we will go right into our citizen um recommendations and uh for
the folks who signed up ahead of time oh I'm sorry do you need to say something first no no when you're ready to start oh okay all right and um so I can start with the with well yeah I think what we'd like to do if you would I'm going
to introduce Rachel horse who works in Space Coast government TV and she'll uh go through we're going to try to do it in the same format how the board did the uh workshop on tourism which will call up the uh individuals who who signed up
they've done it in the order in which uh they were submitted uh by the uh calling to indicate that they were interested in participating we got some that were like the very first day and right until the the the cut off date so uh Rachel also
has a few introductory comments she can make about it broadly and I I think uh I think we got some information I think you might have some at the end so we've got that I think ready to go as well so with that uh let me turn it over to
Rachel as Frank said I'm Rachel horse I'm the public information officer and I'm here representing the Communications Department just so everyone in the audience knows and of course our commissioners know we did receive 77 total recommendations from January 1st to January 30th and those were from 65
different residents following the board's discussion and action at the February 11th meeting we did go back through with Frank uh to review those and and determined that 13 of those recommendations were outside of our jurisdiction so those are not part of this uh we notified the remaining
submitters and their recommendations were as Frank said uh put on the agenda in order of their RSVPs to us so 11 presenters will be speaking on 14 speak up Bard recommendations uh Mr chair how
much time would you like to a lot three three minutes each please okay we will start with I'm Sor sorry this um is there any appetite um to because we do have a a lot of time of 3 hours
and so many people came to participate today is there any appetite to um extend the time to five minutes I think historically it's been 3 minutes so I'll leave that to the board any discussion on that
item all right it'll be three minutes I'd like to make a motion then um to extend the time for three minutes or I mean to five minutes do I mean do we have any idea
how many uh comment cards that we'll have toward the end either okay all right anyone on the motion all right it'll be three minutes all right we will begin with
Heather Elco followed by Terry M I would like to say I have three that I would like to speak about does that still mean three minutes each yes ma'am I'm sorry oh really okay and I won't take that much but I can speak slower so that
will be nice I I was ready for anything so um can you all hear me yes ma'am my name is Heather Elco and I'm at 566 Thomas Barber Drive Melbourne and um I've been a resident here for 45 years and uh this is a great opportunity I
want to thank you for it so um my first uh idea that I want to submit is that the County Commission call for and hold Summit meetings occasionally with the City Mayors and councils when there are
issues that would be best addressed cooperatively some issues in Bard can't be neatly compartmentalized as county or city issues we all we residents feel that we live in an umbrella and the umbrella is the county and many of us
are City residents also and a lot of times those lines blur um an example is homelessness it's a countywide health safety and economic issue though it has traditionally been treated as just a city issue I would like the commission
to call a summit meeting of yourselves and City Mayors and council members to discuss and brainstorm homelessness it can't hurt to work together to problem solve on this issue or any future issues that might come up that need joint cooperation for the best
result uh this idea holds no risk and very minimal expense and it has clear upsides one is the overall improved appeal that our County will have for tourists and a second benefit is that better off citizens I include myself there will be comforted to know that the
problem is in good hands and all our elected leaders are pulling together my second um idea is to restore County grants to nonprofits to focus on specific focused issues not not wide
ranging and I'm going to focus today on homelessness and at risk residents nonprofits are buckling under the demands of a burgeoning lowincome population while you all are doing a great job with affordable housing the
kind of housing I'm thinking about is having a place to sleep overnight shelters um nonprofits are capable of providing more services if they have more funding to do it temporary shelter emergency help with utilities and food
Mental Health Services transportations to Medical Care or to cold night shelters these are fundamental needs unfortunately nonprofits run out of money on a regular basis and they have to deny services to applicants even
though they would otherwise be capable of doing that I would like to see the county provide grant funding specifically to nonprofits that serve unsheltered and inadequately sheltered residents this in effect would be a restoration of grant
funding with a more targeted Focus that had been in place for decades and only really in the past 10 years has been um changed to not being made available in my more lengthy proposal I point out that this program can be focused
according to the commission's priorities of limited time duration and structured according to specific needs the county identifies for example funding for more beds or more access points for people who need mental health counseling my third idea aidea is um for
the commission to acknowledge speaker contributions made at County Commission meetings occasionally I do rise to speak and of course many many people do speakers sign up to speak at the commission meetings about issues they consider important but the three minutes
of speaking end and we go back to our seats not knowing if our words had any impact I would like you to devise a way to give speakers some kind of feedback that shows you have heard them perhaps staff could send an acknowledgement following the meeting the county will
benefit in doing this by rewarding citizens for being engaged and brave enough to speak publicly furthermore many have valuable expertise and ideas and they should be encouraged to share them thank you very much for your
time thank you should we acknowledge that she spoke yes we heard you thank thank you next we'll have Terry mop followed by John D hello my name is Terry M I'm a resident of Vieira East ma'am let me
just say real quick um if if they if they can't hear in the audience they won't be able to hear you on the video okay and that's a reminder for everybody here I don't I'm sorry I don't hear very well if if they can't hear you in the audience they they won't hear you on the video so just in the microphone oh sorry okay thank you uh my name is Terry Mt
I'm a resident of Vieira East uh my suggestion for the commission is to inspire the five entities that I'll list in just a minute to work together to create and execute a storm water education program for the residents of the VR East Community Development District these entities are Bard natural
resources um St John's River Water Management District University of Florida Institute of food and agricultural Sciences V East Community Development district and the V East Community Association ation for background information um my husband and
I built a home in VR East in 2001 uh for several years um where we built this home on a 4 and a half acre uh detention Pond for several years the the vcdd um maintain these properties uh this this
particular Pond by letting a natural vegetation along the literal shelves of the pond and um for they changed the policy at some point after about 15 years and when that happened we um we immediately had um an algae bloom and we
um have since had um major erosion problems for the past 10 years and so my property uh backyard the the incline was this when it started and now it's about like that and um it's so dangerous we wouldn't even have a toddler in our backyard and so um I alerted the the
ecdd and asked them to um address this issue and um we have been in the process of trying trying to get that resolved ever since um the main U concern um really is from the vcdd has said that the residents of VR East um don't like
vegetation in the backyards because they think it attracts snakes and alligators and so we have 84 detention ponds and none of them are maintained by the recommended standards of breast management practices of the bravard county so action taken um I've we've
been working I've been working with these uh each of these five entities for for the last few years um Bard natural resources decided they would try to uh get a de a Florida D grant for $50,000 to start an education program and so that Grant is still on hold right now
we've been waiting a couple of years for it to go through but it's not a priority because um Indian River Lagoon of course is the main priority and most of the outflows in Vieira East flow into the St John's river so um my concern is that um
these buffer zones keep eroding around all the ponds I've actually lost 2 feet of of buffer own property in my backyard and so in our inclines continually um increase and um actually there was um
there was a concern that the when you have this incline the The Ridge of the incline is unstable and there has actually been from what I understand um an accident in braad County where a toddler fell into um a pond and drowned
because it fell off and also we've there is um in the State of Florida there is an accident where um a lawnmower um service person was mowing over one of these unstable ridges and fell into the pond and drowned because the the ridge collapsed so we have those safety issues
so the action um we've taken is to try to um you know we're still waiting for provide natural resources to do this grant in the meantime I'm a Florida master naturalist I've taken all of the courses of Florida master naturalist program and I've also um been taking the
professional courses for storm waterer management of ponds and I've talked to every one of these five entities and they're all willing to address this issue and put together if they could come together in a joint effort I think we could set up a a um educational
program digital and also with Florida Master naturalists out in the communities teaching these residents that what's the right best management practices and how we can improve so anyway that's my recommendation um and I'm I'm retired and I'm I'm a former
military trainer I'd be willing to help volunteer do this project and I thank you very much we really appreciate um this program if you'll see Carol melino in the back and give her your information we'll contact you and maybe we could have a meeting in my office thank you very much I have a question thank you I have a question ma'am um I
was just wondering is it are you saying that we were doing mechanical harvesting there and now we're doing herbicides is that yes is that what's happen they do spraying um but they kill off everything right every month so thank Youk you sorry I'm sorry can I add there just
um the very last thing to start the excitement I the recommendation was to start a save the St John's river campaign where we could have three W's of um water wildlife and waste um Ed as part of the education program and I have also St John's River Keeper who who are
very excited about getting involved in that so we we have the program ready to go if you just launch it for us okay thank you thank you ma'am next we'll have John D we also have C4 on the agenda Terry La plant however she reached out and
is okay look at it look it around so after uh Tera plant is going to be not interested uh Inc coming up so next we'll have Jane Higgins after John D good evening my name is John D tonight I'd like to propose Bard EMS one this
would be unifying Ems for better emergency care which is going to be a bold step for Bard County imagine a system where every resident in Bard County no matter where they lived received the fastest highest quality emergency medical care possible that's Division behind Bard ems1 a countywide
EMS system that unites Bard County Fire Rescue and the city fire departments under one coordinated response model inspired by the nationally recognized King County Medic 1 program this system would be funded by a 1-cent sales tax ensure ensuring that paramedic training
salaries equipment and operations are fully supported without burdening local budgets by integrating resources across the county we can reduce response times improve patient outcomes and guarantee Advanced life support coverage for everyone at the heart of this plan is
collaboration City fire departments will staff their own ALS ambulances ensuring local control over hiring training and deployment Bard ms1 would operate these ambulances providing standardized protocols dispatch
coordination and countywide oversight to ensure efficiency ALS fire engines would remain staffed by City firefighter paramedics ensuring that rapid First Response and seamless handoff to transport units this model protects local autonomy ensures compliance with
employment laws and Union agreements and maintains unified County ydms response system without disrupting existing Department structures public education and Community engagement will play a vital role in securing this s on Cent sales tax referendum the 1 cent sales tax shifts
the financial burden from property owners and distributed across all individuals who contribute to the local economy individual visitors and tourists this ensure everyone who benefits from Bard County's Emergency Medical Services shares in this funding relieving
residents of the disproportionate Financial impact this funding model is designed to be sustainable efficient and here's what it would cover salaries and benefits ensuring paramedics are well trained and well compensated Advanced Training the idea would be a top tier paramedic education program preferably
partnership with fit's College of Medicine modeled after King County's medic ones program equipment and ambulances we would provide would provide Mo modern vehicles and life-saving tools to meet growing demand centralized dispatch and operations a cord data 911 system to ensure the closest most appropriate EMS units
respond quickly and of course centralized Supply standardized equipment and supplies would improve efficiency and reduce costs this approach allows cities cities to retain control over their fire department Staffing while the county standardized medical protocols transport services and EMS training to ensure high quality care
across the region a key part of this proposal is investing in the next generation of paramedics firefighters can promote into the MS division attending full-time paramedic trading while receiving a salary after training they would serve as a predetermined number of years in the EMS side of their Department before returning to the fire
suppression duties this creates a structured career pathway ensuring a high highly skilled EMS Workforce while maintaining fire department Staffing this plan includes the development of state of art training again coordinated with Florida Institute of Technology providing ex extensive
clinical training and advanced Airway Cardiac Care trauma response Hands-On field experience and tuition funding public Outreach will be critical in promoting EMS is a career encouraging young people and experienced fighter fighters like to pursue paramedic training we're not just improving response times we're making them Smarter
with a centralized 91 system by providing strategically placed ALS system uh paramedics and City Fire Stations for faster response times data driven performance metrics public education by leveraging technology and coordination and training bardi ms1 will be a system that works smarter and
faster for everyone though there's a now there's a particular road map that we could follow year one we would establish an EMS governing board finalize agreements with City fire departments educate the public about the sales tax referendum year two we could hire and train paramedics integrate the ALS units into the fire stations year three we
could fully activate this system evaluate performance and then expand on the public education side bardus ms1 is an investment in our community health and safety it promises faster emergency response better patient outcom smart sustainable funding
transparent transparency and accountability and of course Community involvement by together as a county we can create a best-in-class EMS system that delivers worldclass emergency care to every resident regardless of where they live now is the time to act I hope that the board of County
Commissioners would support this initiative and bring Bard ems1 to life let's build an EMS system that saves more lives Works smarter and serves our community better than it is now thank you sir you thank you very much guys have any questions um I Heard commissioner Alman first hold on that's
okay go go ahead commissioner Goodson okay um if this was all to come to your and pass who controls the money so there would be a governing board right Bard County would have that governing board and they would oversee the fundings that come in and then that funding source
then would be directed out to each stakeholder right so every stakeholder be it a city uh be it Palm Shores be it uh Grant valkaria they will have a stakeholder on this governing board and then those monies will be divvied up accordingly accordingly where does the
union fit in well the union would would fit in on the um the uh Personnel side so that the union is going to uh make work life balance much much better and allow things to work seamlessly between the county of one and then of course the
cities so you're saying that the uh funding would help Feed The Bottom Rung of the firefighters as opposed to the higher ups is that what you're saying so this funding if managed correctly by the gatekeeper which would be you M would be
able to provide funding from the bottom all the way up and if it's done correctly ALS transports should be free now BLS transports on the other hand would have to be farmed out to a private company because BLS transports generally
shouldn't be going to the emergency rooms and they should be taken care of Elsewhere so BLS uh transports put a greater burden on the system okay so if U if that all be said to be which I'm sure it would be us being the
board or the county being The Gatekeepers then they could regulate and the money to from bottom up correct that would be the ho okay well it hasn't okay thank you sir thank you thank you uh commissioner Alman
yeah appreciate the proposal it's a it's got a solution to a problem it's very thought out all the proposals so far question I have and I should know the answer is but I'm not sure are we allowed to use sales tax for Fire EMS
does FL florid of law allow us to do that I know there's a lot of restrictions in what we can use there's one it has to be substituted but I'll let Morris handle it there is a provision uh where a sales tax could be adopted if approved by the voters to
fund um fire and Emergency Medical Services however if you enact the sales tax you have to also adopt a corresponding decrease in other funding sources such as the assessment general fund Etc so it's a replacement but not
necessarily an enhancement so if I could expand on that and that would be the idea the sales tax would take over the EMS mstu and in the other property taxes that the is the financial burden that I spoke about semal County does this right now they offer a sales tax and it fully funds
their Fire Department in their EMS could uh go ahead sir I I had a follow up too but you go ahead have we ran the would there be any increased revenue or would it only be allowed to be a replacement the language of the statute
is that you have to reduce the other funding sources by the amount that the sales tax generates fall sir um I guess though you could benefit as the economy grew and sales tax revenue grew you know like
grow with the with the property tax you got the roll back issue and the cap and all that but that wouldn't apply to a sales tax would it correct I put it on the ballot this November I would love it I would love it I'd second that it's a I think you can
only I'll have to verify to be sure but my recollection is that you can only put a sales tax like that on the ballot in a general election year right that's why I said November and general you also have the agreements with the cities right in an even year and we would have to there would be
agreements with the cities or else there's a formula in the statute that takes place but ideally you'd have a agreement with the CI sort of like we do the and just to clarify that right because you collect uh sales tax countywide and you collect it in the
cities they have to get sort of their proportional share of that is that right absolutely okay commissioner Alman if I could uh this system has been going on since 1970 in the city of uh in the the uh King County region and it is implemented amongst the county and the cities they're all coordinated under one
umbrella it is overwhelmingly voted in every 5 to 10 years by its citizens because how efficient and how um successful this program is uh like I said so it's been running for 55 years this isn't I'm not creating a new wheel this isn't something that I just popped off on the top of my head this is a well oiled machine it's well funded it just
needs to be implemented and it now is the right time to implement it in Bard County because we we're in a climate now where um something needs to be changed um and this potentially might be the the time to get this done um either a sales tax or in King County they do it with a
levy so obviously it's a little bit different it's similar probably to our uh EMS mstu in our property taxes um but a sales tax may be um something that the community would bite off on um a little easier than than raising property
taxes at least the tourist would pay it right right now the tourists don't pay property taxes only fars Property Owners pay property taxes so again that would be the idea shift the burden off of uh the um the property owners and um and those folks so thank you sir very much
you're welcome thank [Applause] you next we'll have Jane Higgins followed by Sarah hodj hello um good evening Per County Commissioners thank you for this opportunity uh my name is Jane Higgins I've been a resident of Palm Bay
for about 45 years now and I'm on the board of the conradina chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society I'm here with other conradina members and concerned barara County Citizens to talk about low impact development and I wanted to ask everyone in the audience
that cares about this topic just to stand real quick to show their support because we have a lot of support amongst the citizens of bvar County hopefully you received the presentation I accidentally sent in twice so you've got
two versions of it so I won't really read it to you but just in summary wanted to talk about what is low impact development it's basically an an approach to Land Development that uses various land planning design practices
and Technologies to preserve and protect essential aquifers and waterways such as the Indian River Lagoon liid as the acronym offers many Environmental benefits that's in the package that you have who benefits from
Li everyone so developers municipalities residents and the environment it's not an US versus developers it's all of us it's a big we can everyone can benefit and the thing I wanted to take away the
most is on the last page the State of Florida has been a little slow to adopt liid permitting criteria so local governments are basically taking the lead and on that last page are the pictures of some of the other government emblems that we
could certainly learn from such as the city of Clearwater Sarasota County pinelis County Manatee County um Etc so there's lots of opportunities there so our request is that um we promote and
support legislation and projects that use low impact development and design throughout Bard County to to protect our precious Wildlife water and habitat my suggested um recommendation is to incorporate that legislation and perhaps
um create a um board to investigate um those other counties and what they're doing and how we could easily adopt that here I would personally be willing to serve on that type of a committee and I'm sure we could have other concerned
citizens as well as some of y all that might be interested in that as well is did everyone get a chance to look at this presentation so you kind I don't need to read it to you I think I think that would be Beyond needed so any questions that I could
answer thank you ma'am very much commiss um I I was wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing with us and whoever is listening um what are some are there some examples that you're uh particularly interested in right so low impact development is basically trying
to keep the water captured on the land instead of letting it flow through concrete down to the river since um grass only absorbs half an inch of rainwater grass loses a lot of water so anything we can do to stop it that
includes rain Gardens native plantings permeable pavers you see a lot of those in parking lots any anything like that to try to keep the water on the land so that it soaks down to our aquifer which is where we need it to be for future
usage um we're just trying to avoid having it run into that concrete or down those big drainage tubes into the river because then it carries a lot of pollutants with it as it goes to the Indian River so that's pretty much the
concept in a nutshell um there is a Statewide implementation website as well through the Department of Environmental Protection and they show a lot of examples like in Coco Beach they've diverted a lot of rainwater from the major roads Cape Canaveral has done a
lot of that work most of the municipalities have a low impact development plan in place what's lacking is legislation to mandate that it's kind of a voluntary thing at this point and
where it's most effective is when there's some teeth to it as you can imagine so thank you for that question anything commissioner Goodson question I think Tad you can maybe jump in on this but in the mid 70s is when uh Retention
Ponds were put on plans to hold water for 24 hours before is it 24 hours yeah I believe that's our our requirements to okay that being said what would you do with the total number of subdivisions inard County that don't have a retention
Pond that had straight outflow what would you do with those well if there's not a retention Pond and as we heard from Terry M Retention Ponds aren't necessarily the best answer um but keeping the rain on the site can be done
by using more native plantings and less grass because any other plant you put in a landscape besides grass is going to retain water oak trees are the best of course but they're the biggest right so that's not always a great solution but
any native Landscaping will cause that water to be percolated down versus running to the river so that's really one of the major goals of capturing that rainwater so You' propose that an older
subdivision with no retention Bond go go through and do all total new Landscaping correct just some native plants doesn't have to be 100% but any amount helps we're doing actually a project this um Thursday it's kind of top secret so
don't I know we're broadcasting and everything but um it's a flip my Flor ATA yard which will be at the entrance of an HOA in the Melbourne area and that's a great example of here's a space where nothing's going on really that you
could put some native plants and capture water versus having it run off with mulch so just any little space helps you know it doesn't have to be 100% no grass but any space helps I would imagine
developer developers would love this idea because that would give them their 20 acre Pond for more houses there are some um definite benefits for development developers using um low impact development it is a little bit of a mind Shift versus cutting all the
trees down from the very beginning um but uh it does reduce the land clearing and Grading costs reduces their infrastructure costs reduces rainwater management costs increases their lot yield as you pointed out and may reduce
impact fees and increases lot and Community marketability because a lot of people want to see some trees y commissioner ainson I just wanted to ask staff do we incorporate any um lid
at the moment and what we do so with our last year Amendment the county adopted the Peril of flood and in the Peril flood we talk about um the the low impact development aspect but um and
that would be something we be moving forward with along with the um creation of the Barrier Island critical area of critical concern so those are all things that are in the works at the moment
lots of opportunity ma'am I would just say one comment to you uh coming into this office one of the things I've I've come to appreciate is how expensive it is to move water right it's it's a it's an incredible amount of infrastructure
just to move temporary water which is storm water it's it's not there every day it's just when it happens and trying and trying to move that and so uh I I see it more your way um which is it's a lot easier to deal with it on site in my
mind than it is to try to transport it down down the road so I do think that governments will adopt it for a whole host of reasons one of them being that eventually it it will be cheaper and easier in infrastructure terms right and
and what's happening in the city of pal Bay I know is a lot of that concrete drainage that was built 40 to 50 years ago now is breaking down and replacing that is astronomical cost so it's a good time
for us collectively to look at some alternative solutions to concrete so thank you very much to okay thank you next we have Sarah hjj followed by Lori Alver um you know I'm a bad speaker so I
made a copy for everybody because I'll probably forget half this um I'm Sarah hodj and I live in merid island and um good evening Commissioners um I would like to see the public records put on the
internet uh for all to see without the cost and delays when trying to get them from the county by doing so it would free up County Employees time from doing so many record requests the more records available online the fewer requests needed and
cost to the public this adds to the efficiency and effectiveness of the County as well as the public perception and transparency and open government the clerk of court has their records um available on the internet why
can Bard County not do the same for the public it would save staff time and the huge costs people have to pay to get their records some requesters have problems and delays getting records in advance of meetings and sometimes items
are voted on before the records are obtained by the public last year at the time at this time the county charged two residents $35 per hour just to review the speak up Bard binders in the accy attorney's
office I recommend that the county post more records online I'm sorry I'm getting through um add hyperlinks to any Department Records and that are already online and track the number percent and type of records
that are added online each year which could be included in the County's annual budget update I would also like to see the records policy revised to increase the amount of minutes that staff provides to the public before records are charged for currently the public has
charged for anything over 15 minutes as excessive time I would like to see the county Post online the amount of money that is charged to the public plus the amount of dollars collected by the county each year for fulfilling records
request this information could be posted on a monthly and annual basis so the public can monitor how much we are being charged for the public access to our public records I think saving money by having fewer records request would be a
huge benefit to the county in a time when you are trying to find budget money this would uh be a benefit for everyone um residents deserve easy convenient and no cost access to our our
public records please put the county all the county records online and make them easy to locate for residents um I would like to um uh Dade Miami has a um Internet site for all
their public records it's awesome I would love you to look at it and maybe we can do the same thing I appreciate your time thank you thank you next we'll have Lori Alver followed by James
Erman good evening everyone thank you very much for this opportunity I'm Lori Alor of Satellite Beach and my citizen recommendation asked to repeal the injunction against County staff participating in non-mandatory Municipal
board meetings in i' like to request this in order to restore the ability of Citizen volunteers to interact with County staff at these meetings in order to propose new ideas potential new programming for the different County
departments that are represented by our boards to help bring the views of other citizens to the attention of County staff and also to disseminate information from County staff back to our fellow citizens this injunction was
put in place at the suggestion of former commissioner John toaya in May of 2022 following the pandemic shutdown as a cost-saving measure I question what costs have been saved at least in the
examples I know of I serve on the Satellite Beach County Library Satellite Beach City Library Advisory Board as well as the South Central County Library Advisory Board the meetings are held during Library staff time they're in
library or County places so there's no time for commuting there's no overtime this seems to be part of the duties of Staff of Outreach and communication and so the only cost I'm seeing is a
negative cost it's an opportunity cost of losing citizen participation in Municipal boards working with County staff trying to improve um we sent as the secretary of the Satellite Beach Library board I we sent a letter to the
County Commission following this injunction we did not get a resolution we only received acknowledgement of our letter so I respect request that this injunction be ended to end our disenfranchisement and restore
our ability for citizen participation and interaction with County staff as part of Municipal boards and County boards e as member of the county South Central board I take my time to go to Melbourne Beach and look at what they're
doing but I can't talk to the Librarians there I can't take those ideas back to Satellite Beach it just doesn't seem quite right so thank you very much for your consideration and obviously happy to answer any questions commissioner Delaney I don't
really have a question but um I just wanted to let you know that the Advisory Board policy is one of the things that I'd like to bring before the board sometime soon um I was going to let us get through the budget um process but then I was going to start going through
some of these policies that um are near and dear to my heart and one of them is the advisory board so I really appreciate this this request thank you very much appreciate it thank you ma'am thank you very much next we'll have James Erdman
followed by William hodj yes I my name is James Erman I'm from Mims Florida I'd like to start out by thanking all of you guys for giving us the time of day to be here and hear us as one of the few locals left that are born and raised in North Bard I have
slowly watched the out of control growth pollution in the river all destroying the our way of life as North Bard residents like the mim's comprehensive plan States above all Mims should remain Mims a special place Royal and small town in nature with history and future
all its own this includes people hunting fishing riding horses side by sides and that is why I'm here today to propose to allow side by-side ATVs and golf carts on County maintained roads in North Bard with speed limits less than 45 miles an
hour a family should be able to ride around on a nice afternoon and enjoy nature and Wildlife one seen while driving the back roads without any worry of getting tickets or stopped just the other week I was down in canaval groves and I saw three
Sheriff officers having someone pulled over providing ATV down the county road with all the crime vard County and only getting worse as people keep moving wouldn't it be better if our sheriff's officer could focus more on the crime in instead of someone riding down the road
on an ATV Florida Statute 316 2123 states that a county is exempt from the section if the governing body votes on it it could either be as an entire County or the count where the county can dictate roads or just by
District it doesn't have to be the entire County let's take uh verer for instance they use ordinance 10673 as a prime example they voted to allow golf carts to ride down their roads they can ride through the city on golf carts but in the county
if we do it they we get pulled over and they ride us tickets as long as their laws are being followed there's no reason why North Bard cannot have their way of life protected before it's all gone in closing let's work together and come up with an ordinance that allows people to ride side by sides on County Roads Road
in a safe and reasonable man manner thank you sir commissioner Goodson thank you um is there any truth to the fact that you can put a farm uh emblem on the back of your four-wheel and ride it used to be but they still pull you over they
still pull you over yes we were told that they do not recognize that on side by sides and ATVs unless you have a cow in the front seat with you right basically okay so um you would like to see an ordinance that would take you from 46 North is that
about the line uh just North Bard like canaver Groves Mims scotsmore just the Royal areas of Bard County we're keeping Bard Royal Port St John Port St John parts of it but it's not developed overdeveloped
and no can I just for my own education here are these vehicles that are titled in the State of Florida but they're but they don't have tags on so they're not registered as say low speed vehicles or what have you they're not they don't have a license plate on the back but
they are titled is that right that is correct the low speeed vehicle is reg is defined as vehicle that can do at least 20 M hour but less than 25 so really limits you to basically just golf carts but uh I think side by sides if you're going to take them in a state park it
does have to be titled in the state is that right that is correct okay you get an off-road registration for them too okay all right commissioner commissioner delania think is next um I'm I'm so glad that you brought this forward uh spoiler alert um I've been
talking with Sheriff Ivy about this and I think he'd be okay with me sharing this but um I think that I have his support to look into um you know what we can do as a county of course with board support um
to we have to stay within the statute so that it has to be registered um like the the bigger vehicles have to be registered they have to have insurance um the the smaller Vehicles Morris correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that they just need
insurance or do they need both it's um unfortunately it's a lot more complicated than that it's not classes of or sizes of vehicles but it's classes and they're very limited things that we are authorized to do under state
law U most of what the gentleman's addressing actually in fact there's actually a bill pending right now uh both in the Senate and the house for the legislature that would allow side by sides and similar Vehicles they they're introducing a new definition called utility terrain vehicles
utvs um that if passed it would allow those but right now not only are they not allowed you know on any public roads we don't have any authorization to allow them either we do have some limited ability with golf carts if we jump through C certain Hoops but um then the
ATVs the statute you read I understand why you would read it that way it's it's confusing though because it's actually reverse of that it's not that we can exempt oursel from the prohibition on ATVs that we can exempt ourselves from the state Pro provision that allows ATVs
on certain unpaved roads with speed limits of 25 miles per hour or less and actually the board of County Commissioners did that in 2006 adopted an ordinance opting out of that so in Bard County you can't even ride them on the unpaved roads but but even if the county took that on all we could do
would be to repal that ordinance which would only allow them on unpaved roads with speed limits of up to 25 miles per hour so our hands are largely tied with ATVs and side by sides there are some things we could do with golf carts although I've never seen it done on that kind of scale of a you know entire
portion of the county as opposed to more specific areas but but that's something that can be looked at yeah so hopefully this uh this new bill passes the state and the and the house and or the Senate and the house and we can get moving on something if the UTV passes they would
be allowed at a lot of places I think it's up to 50 m per hour speed limit roads they'd be allowed to go on commissioner Goodson thank you Mor so then you'd say everyone in Vera is a 20 or 25 under and they're not side by
sides is that what you're going to tell me I don't know how you know what I haven't weighed those vehicles or but uh supposedly they're golf carts of course if you know anything about anybody that's got an ATV or a golf cart you don't want one that does 20 or 25 miles
hour you want one that does 85 or 9 but it amazes me Viera got theirs but of course V's got much more clout than me no offense to the MS yeah I like Ms just just for a point I would start toing a cow around with you just for a
point of clarity you're talking on a multi-use trail versus in the street so I mean a cart for it to be in the street it's got you know it's supposed to have a a tag I I think and then they've got you know off to the side of the road
they have they have some Trails so up would you say if you went down to ver High there's 300 of them and you're telling me everyone of's got a t I'm uh no they they have the high school is they tell me they tell me that they do uh put a sticker on there to make sure
that that those um students driving them have at least a learner's permit so that's the part of law that the in Via they can only go on the multi-purpose Pathways like you mentioned Mr chair and um and then on roads with speed limits
of less than 30 m hour um you're looking at a Suntree ordinance potentially that would allow them on certain designated streets with lower speed limits so um well undoubtly Stadium Drive is a back bike you know maybe a not so well travel because you see them all the time
crossing the intersections up there that's that's the the V drri yeah they can cross they can't actually drive on you surely should be able to help Mims so you know I'm not I'm not against you sir on uh ATV in the North End of
the County uh there's a lot to like about Mims I like it too any other questions for gentlemen all right sir thank you very much right thank you now we have William hodj followed by Susan fin I have an easy suggestion doesn't
cost a lot of money so that should be easy good evening Commissioners Bill Hodge 390 Sanders Lane mirit Island I have submitted recommendation that I think the county can improve on the visibility and function of the con consent agenda currently the numbers the
numerous items listed on the consent agenda are voted on as one block with Commissioners occasionally stating that they are voting no on a certain item the current process does not provide a chance for Meaningful discussion by Commissioners or the
public and raises concern about transparency and visibility of the County Business there are sometimes more than two dozen items of County Business that are voted on in a single meeting under the consent agenda these consent agenda items are not read out loud and the
public has no idea what is being voted on by listening to the meeting or when viewing on the streaming platforms I propose the following changes to the consent agenda the county manager or the County Attorney should read each consent agenda item out loud and into the record as is done in other
local meetings including Titus hille and Coco beach the dollar amount of each action voting item should be clearly stated during the consent agenda reading and on the written agenda as well as a total dollar amount of the items being approved under the consent agenda
fear items should be placed on the consent agenda as consent agenda items are defined as being routine and non-controversial in nature Commissioners that are voting no on a consent agenda item should pull the agenda item and state why they are voting no on the item as is done in Cape
canille discuss the reasons Commissioners should more frequently pull items to add visibility and publicly raise the concern that many items do not belong on the consent agenda and should be placed on the regular business agenda before the meeting a brief statement could be read
out loud at each meeting and placed on the projector that informs the public that background information for every agenda item is available online on the County website with a new commission there is opportunity to improve the handling of the consent agenda to make it more transparent to the public
commissioner felner I request that you spearhead these visibility and transparency changes in your new role as the current board chairman those proposed revisions would make it difference to Residents and can be implemented immediately I request that my statement be added to the record of
this Workshop meeting and be included in my uh CER recommendation I'm also giving you copies of the statements thank you any questions any questions I would just like to say that um if if there's board
support for this I would be um I would I would definitely be in support sir thank you [Applause] okay next we have Susan Connelly followed by Lisa
Cen good evening Commissioners first thank you for your time thank you for each and every one of you to be here I value this opportunity to have a focus conversation with the entire County Commission to develop
Solutions to community issues we' have all seen the ads come to Florida come spend time on Florida's pristine beaches and waterways the truth is however the longest water system within
our Bard County the Indian River Lagoon is polluted for years we have had a large number of citizens organizations scientists even governmental bodies like this County Commission focus on the problems of the Indian
River Lagoon the majority of these efforts use words like restore remediate to describe their Collective and continuous efforts it's now time for a new word
prevention it is also time to resolve all the problems by prevention using the root causes of the problem one cause is from my beloved city of Palm Bay in 2024 alone there were 52
Wastewater spills directly into the central Florida Indian River Lagoon spill volumes range from 50 gallons to 1.33 million gallons of untreated and partially processed
Wastewater the insufficient and overc capacity infrastructure of Palm Bay resulted in us being a contributor my recommendation to the County Commission bring together from throughout all of bravard County anyone
who is already engaged start here tonight many of us are already engaged trying to attempt resolution bring us into an organized effort that includes root cause
Solutions that are quick comprehensive with permanent results we also need oversight and something all our community efforts lack accountability a strong system a
financial consequences for violators as well as a strong system of incentives for Creative Innovative and how about just common sense Solutions County
Commissioners there is something you can do right here tonight you can encourage the development of ecob businesses to address our Eco needs these will promote and assure the
success of ecotourism which is the life force of Bard County thank you for listening I noticed I went over my time I have a second recommendation and that's on uh bravard County Department of
governmental efficiency Doge doge is coming to bravard county in case you haven't heard the federal government has Doge and now Governor Dan santis in Florida has Doge let's not wait for the trickle down let's start
our own let's personalize and prioritize what we want in in bravard county and let's add a Twist in our Doge let's also identify and acknowledge what we are doing right thank you
all thank you [Applause] mayor and now for Bard County Tax Collector Lisa Cen good evening in 2009 when I took office I
inherited um a situation that needed some various items addressed and one of those things was the budget process that we used my predecessor just added 10% every year and moved
forward in 2023 um this board not this board but the board took an interest in uh several constitutional officer budgets and I wanted to share
why I thought the questionnaire was good and encourage you to do that with each of your departments the tax collector's budget as well as the Property Appraiser's budget is submitted to the Department of Revenue and as I look at the
questionnaire many of those questions that we were asked to answer we actually fill out an appendix or a budget section that answers each one of those questions and I don't know if you have that or not I I've not gone through your budget
process but I can appreciate the massive budget that you do have control over it's probably what about a billion dollars that you have discretionary um discretion over so I thought I would
suggest you use the questionnaire like you used for us in your departments I think it would be a good faith effort and and the the questions aren't out of line some of them didn't apply to us like uh I have no grant funding for
example but I do think it would give more clarity to the budget and help you know wrap a your mind around it because I had to do that in my own office so I use those schedules that we fill out for Department of Revenue and work through
it that way so thank you for your time thank you questions commission and I live in Wild Wild West canaville Groves maybe utvs are coming your way oh they're there they're there I I I know they are uh commissioner delini you had a
question um I was just wondering if you could give I don't know if you have it in front of you if you could give just for the people listening some examples of some of the things that are on the questionnaire um for example let's see it ask if we're a members we have
membership fees in any organizations um of course I belong to for example The Tax Collectors Association we're a joint lobbying group and share information travel I can tell you with Department of Revenue I have to tell them where I'm going what city I'm
going in how much I'm going to spend if it's airfare uh food lodging if there's any Associated cost with attending that conference uh such as a registration fee mailings uh of course do a lot of
mailings we have a whole postage worksheet that we do for Department of Revenue Vehicles it asked various questions about Vehicles we have a vehicle uh portion of our budget uh Capital
expend expenditures and contracts we send them a list of every contract with each of our vendors that we use um we AG increases how those are determined employee
benefits and I I believe all constitutionals um participate with you now in your benefits as well as some of the F FRS and state benefits but those are some of the things that it addressed and we do an appendix for each one of those in our budget thank you I know
that um speaking as a new commissioner um that all of that sounds really great and it seems like it would be a really helpful tool espe especially when you know we're trying to figure out um how to prioritize our money that we're spending and whatnot so and if you want to look at what the Department of Revenue uses it's right on their
websites for both tax collectors and appraisers you can look at the the different things that we have to fill out and submit as part of our budget submission and they they go back and they look years in the past did I budget for that three years in a row and not spend that money they'll call and ask
those questions so and for transparency too I think that that would be really great um you know it would give the the public like a cheat sheet of of the budget and how departments are spending money and whatnot I I really like this idea thank you thank you thank you all
thank yes sir commissioner Goodson how many expenditures do you have in your budget just ballp park I mean a year do you have 500 5,000 I don't know tell what do you mean by expend well check how many checks do you write out to vendors in a year's time
your expenses um a lot of my checks I try not to write checks sir but um a lot of those expenditures that you're talking about are actually AC would be a refund to a customer um I
would I would Hazard to guess my vendor list is much smaller than yours I would too um I would too but I I do have several contracts it's it's quite a few your contracts usually are buildings maybe improvements some buildings what would your contracts be um my contracts
are for I lease a building in Meritt Island so I have a lease there I have contracts with a queuing company that monitors our appointments as well as how you're called through the office it gives me a lot of statistics and then
our there's our overall comprehensive tax collection software where we use all of our it's used for everything within our office and it interfaces with our finance software um a lot of online presence and payment processing there so
those are some of the types of companies that I would have contracts with okay just some i' try to catch you good luck I would say that she does put multiple tax bills in one envelope yes sir so as well as registrations so is the trim
notices just uh we appreciate that thank you any other questions for the tax collector thank you ma'am very much [Applause] okay Commissioners we're going to go into public
comment thank you yes Casey Becket did I say that right yes you did okay I come up there yes ma'am okay just kind of wanted to see what was happening today this is one of the first
meetings we met in the elevator earlier today right but uh I just had some comments on some of to some of the people the uh Heather Elco with the homeless I do agree there's a real problem there we um as a
small farm do donate a lot of eggs we also are talking to other um small farms that can donate potatoes or other things be nice if there was a place place that people could find that they could donate
excess food instead of just throwing it out to the pigs or to other things um also um the I think both Terry and Jane Higgins hit on Retention Ponds and
they're a pet peeve of mine um basically the developer can come in build a retention Pond and and hand over the maintenance of it to the HOA and be gone and there needs to be a maintenance plan
for those Retention Ponds a lot of them need mucked out at some point they need to have plantings around them be nice if we could educate the HOAs to be able to help that out now to
James Ed Erdman um Grant vul areia does have um we could have golf carts all over our roads we just can't go out to US1 or to bcot but we have golf carts all over the place we still have our
horses we still have occasional cow in the road it's a little different place but yes we can have the golf carts and I think and then storm water runoff is
another thing I have seen on us one them pouring and I don't know who to talk to about this herbicides that are going along us one on the east side with waterways that go right out to the Lagoon right beside us
that destroys the seagrass that was paying a lot of money to try to bring back in you're not going to with herbicides being allowed to be poured down in there there's got to be a different way to
handle these storm water runoffs plantings um working with uh conradina places like that that they've got green ways to do it there's a lot of different little cities I've been going to a lot of different meetings that I know I
three minute War um that are providing these rain Gardens and people are loving it they're seeing flooding disappear in their neighborhoods and having beautiful little grass and pollinator areas that people could go visit so there's just I
just had a lot of things to kind of spill out so that was about it so did any question I just wanted to mention um one of the our natural resources department has really tried hard to
limit the herbicides and a lot of the roads that we're seeing um excessive usage of herbicides are fott so if you are inclined reaching out to fot um the Florida Department of Transportation
about this yeah I think that's who does us one because we're trying to get rid of it in the other Grant areas because we got we have charge of that but you call oh no have I know but if you if you email and if you can like rally anybody
you know that cares about this and if they get multiple emails like all at the same time they'll take a little bit more attention to it and then we could go to them as you know your commissioners and we could say hey we're getting a lot of Citizen input that you know you guys are contributing to what's going on in our
River and how can we come up with a solution and partner okay but first start with f dot definitely okay thank you thank you thank you ma'am Carl Weinberger they say that right I'm Carl Weinberger 26 Peach Avenue Palm Bay um
I'm also a member of the contentive Plant Society along with Jane and several other members here um again I'm advocating for low impact development um as you be have seen this
county is growing in a pretty fast pace and we are removing a lot of native trees and Native Shrubbery when they're building in these new HOAs so the idea of low impact development is to try to
keep the like it's been said before keep the water on the property you know mitigating the use of Retention Ponds swes you know and going to the main canals which eventually either go to the
St John's or go into the new rivon and as we know the Lagoon's in bad shape it's gotten a little better but not great um as a member of Conta we support
the use of native plants to remove is you know Lawns Lawns traditionally you know the use of fertilizer and pesticides have contributed to a lot of the problems in the river over the years and like she was saying you know the use
of herbicides and where there's sea grass it goes in and it kills it so you spend all this time money and effort and then you wind up shooting yourself in the foot by doing something like that um basically we know as contad we you
know promote the use of native plants we hold a yard tour every year highlighting a different area of the county or the city and showing what average people can do with their lawns to make them more environmentally friendly reduce the
amount of pesticides or eliminate pesticides you know limit the abuse of fertilizer so that's that's my basic uh pitch and I hope that you we the County Commissioners would consider trying
to put together the beginning of some sort of an IDL legislation that gets the the developers on board early because if you get them on late forget it it needs to be baked into part of the equation you know when
you start developing you need to get these things done first and I think in the long term it's better for the developers because they have a known they have a given you know better looking neighborhoods less problems with
flooding less pollution thank you thank you sir Elizabeth Blackford before I begin I need a little clarification because I submitted two cers and I also had a card for uh a
general topic so how long do I get here ma'am we was your your submission for the S you didn't RSVP if you will speak on your SE it discussed it with staff I did RSVP and I just wasn't put
on the list so I have two seers okay you're gonna let me talk for six minutes what's that I me I would be happy to yield you more time uh considering we're all here tonight uh could you do both of them in five minutes would that be fair yeah I
think I can probably curtail it and um forgive me I'm going to use my cell phone okay with notes okay um I submitted two Sears one was about dangerous traffic congestion and I won't
reiterate that it was number 71 the last two digits were 71 and I it uh with the increase in building here the traffic has increased
dramatically and I see an easy solution for cutting down on people doing drive-throughs the residential neighborhoods close to uh our major um highways are being used by commuters
to cut the corners is there any problem with simply reducing the residential speed limit to 25 M an hour flat out right now there's a variety running from 35 30
25 and as far as I can see the conditions vary all over the place um I have given you a good deal of rationale in my sear uh it's a revenue opportunity but I don't think it hurts anybody by
dropping the speed limit to 25 and there's no confusion involved so I'd appreciate your consideration on on that the second thing I wanted to bring to your attention is how many people uh have submitted suggestions along the
lines of low impact development principles and um basically we've been paying this additional sales tax for several years now and yet people flick their cigarette butts out the windows and fertilize
their lawns with high phosphorus and high nitrogen fertiliz iers and there's no signage at big box or even mod paw stores to show generally that there is a a limitation on that what I'm asking for
is more enforcement and more coordination I recognize that a lot of these are City issues but just like our fertilizer ban it took all of us within the county coordinating to make that
happen and it's only Mar Al Su successful so far so um I wanted to bring to your attention again I don't know if there's anybody here I did not submit Seer
number 68 but I think it's a very good suggestion recommending a certification program for landscapers these people would be taught the principles receive a certification and there would be renewal required
you get to give your contracts to them they bid but they get preferential treatment because they follow lid principles they recognize native plants and how to properly prune trees for Max
maximum effect I think it's a very good uh creative suggestion and whoever submitted it gets a gold star from me um let's see I'd also like to make some suggestions
about The speakup Bard uh Workshop thank you all for spending your time here this evening with us this is an important opportunity for those of us who work do our part as Citizens and so thank you uh
commissioner Delany for sponsoring this I see from the database in the past there have been recommendations that the period for submitting suggestions be expanded one month really isn't enough there was nowhere near enough publicity
for this event may I suggest that you open it for two months starting December 1st running to the end of January that gives people time when they are together partying spending time at home and with their families to look around them and
look for ways that they might improve our communities um I would also suggest that you use a drop down menu to coordinate topics into specific subject areas that can be
dealt with all at once we have everybody talking about one thing during this part of the agenda and then we move on to the next topic instead of using an RSVP system for speakers as you know we've
been all over the map this evening um let's try to keep it a little more coordinated and um I think that pretty much does it again I appreciate your time and I hope you'll
uh get some good information out of what we gave you thank thank you [Applause] ma'am Judy trandel I say that right y good even evening and thank you for
having this this reminds me of the delegation legislative delegation meeting and that's so important well I've sat here and I've listened to many um of the citizens and my
subject just goes right along with it so I'd like to talk about Wetlands um the importance of wetlands and every everyone's concern about Retention Ponds about storm water
runoff about um flooding nature pure water the Indian River Lagoon this is something that can
be attended to by your input on development when developers come in they like to mitigate Wetlands do away with the wetlands and put in a retention
Pond but what that does it takes away all of the Clear Water Filtration it takes away the the wildlife it takes away the hatcheries it takes away all of the things that Florida is
so famous for I just read just this week that the everg restoration remember way back when they decided to develop the Everglades make canals dry up the
marshes well I think I just read that Governor DeSantis was going to allot $800 million this year and next year for partial restoration they have to go back
in and try to fix all of the damage that was done before and that refers right back to us what we're doing by allowing the wetlands to be transformed
into a lake or just dry land and say we put a retention Pond somewhere else you're not doing a Florida a favor they don't last Retention Ponds deteriorate within 5 years is what I
read um um it takes away all of the natural uh defense from the storm water and and um things like that and really
we Floridians like to have a kind of a low life slow pace natural beauty let's not build it up with all the development um I saw somewhere that I
live down in P Palm Bay Santa is going to destroy 101 Acres of wetlands in our South Bard area that's a shame that's a shame so anyway I know my time is up but
please when you when you look at a development plan coming in I know dang the the damage is already done from behind us but from forward when you have a de Development coming before you start
with your staff make sure there's no Wetlands on the property your Planning and Zoning ask the questions are there any Wetlands on this property and then you as a commission again make sure that
we're preserving our Florida life so thank you and let's do this again sometime thank you ma'am Heather Elco just one more thank you to you um I budgeted and uh timed myself and tried
to be brief and I really didn't get to adequately thank you for having this workshop and I do hope that you will have it again um the suggestion of maybe a little bit more of a window would be wonderful for suggestions and um I know you're busy you've got a lot of big stuff on your
minds but I hope some of these ideas will stick with you and um we're really very very grateful for this time tonight thanks so much thank you ma'am that's most kind of [Applause]
you we we we appreciate happy words um Dana blickley good evening Dana Bly 3425 here in Lane uh part of my comments are going to be related to my role as property appraiser part of them are going to be related to
you as a citizen as a taxpayer of this County the first thing I'd like to recommend and I actually sent Jill an email I can't remember if I copied Frank or not but um the budget Workshop that you guys had in February unfortunately I couldn't be here I was in Tallahassee at
a legislative uh conference but that comes at a time when we don't have any information from you so it's hard for us to give you substantive information if you're needing that going forward with your budget process so I suggested that maybe
you set those at least for constitutionals in March or at a time when you have most of the mandates that you're going to give us because that's where we start our budget process so that just to me would make much more sense so I'm going to take you back to prior
to uh 23 because 23 was a dismal year for the relationship between some of the Constitutional offices and this board maybe not particularly the members that sit here uh but certainly the tone and while there's there's it was bad I don't believe it was done in good faith
there's always good out of bad right that's how I choose to live so the bad was uh it appeared to be a contentious relationship between those that are respons responsible for setting tax rates establishing budgets and those of us that are part of that process when
the truth is in the past it wasn't contentious at all uh as a matter of fact when it came timely in the year we were able to share with the County Commission uh and brag if you will what was going on in our constitutional offices what efficiencies uh we had done
changes we had done legislative mandates that were coming our way that of course uh you were having to fund so that was wasn't always a bad process and I would certainly like to see it get it get back to to that Spirit if you will having
said that I do have some recommendations and I'm going to tell you just from experience so prior to becoming property appraiser I worked there for 20 years so I had a pretty good idea about discover listing and valuing properties in this County um but my name wasn't on the door
so that meant that I followed the policies of the property appraiser at the time and management at the time which I was a part of but I can tell you when I came in the door I knew that I was coming um after the cusp of the bubble we all live through that um a time when the Property
Appraiser's office was bloated had 159 people doing uh and I would say providing less Services than 106 people now do that and we weren't able to do that without looking at ourselves hard and coming up with some changes where we knew we would be in a place like this 11
cycles of appreciation property values new construction everywhere and we certainly wanted to do that as efficient as we could and at the least cost of taxpayers so if you'll just bear with me one more minute um commissioner chair was with me during that process so he
could probably speak uh to you guys if you had questions on how we did it but one of the things that we did in open out of the gate is um there were 20% of the staff that found other opportunities before I came to be the property appraiser and there were 13 other
individuals we helped find their way out of the Property Appraiser's office and and it came through looking at who was producing a work product if I had a director that was supervising a manager and a manager that was supervising a department I can tell you that one of those managers went I was able to
streamline that and make the organization much flatter okay so I might take a manager that wasn't producing a work product and create two field appraisers that could pick up $1.8 Billion worth a new construction redundancy if you don't look at your
processes and if you've been at the helm for a long time we do things that we're comfortable with in the way that we do it and I can tell you that through Improvement processes we found redundancy in the Property Appraiser's office we found things that we were annotating uh during our mapping process
that our appraisers weren't using and it was done strictly for the appraisers um we found uniformity uh areas where we could uh create more uniformity we are geographically challenged just like everybody in this room we've got four offices we we found redundancy and
uniformity in making sure that people that were providing our services in Titusville were the same as in Palm Bay the users became more powerful because our tools became more powerful so with a lot of those folks that were no longer working for us um a lot of those reoccurring dollars were substituted
with a one-time expense so we acquired a $1.8 million computer system without coming to the taxpayers for a single Cent okay very proud of that you'll find quality control measures whenever you look at the way you're doing things you know we're we're all very comfortable
with what we know um but but sometimes we have to take a look within ourselves and fresh eyes are good for that uh less errors being made uh more errors uh being found through filters so uh one thing that I would offer to you is yes
um even though it was a contentious process for us in 23 I don't think it should be I don't think it's best for the residents of this County um and certainly it is not best for this board in the constitutionals when we don't have a good spirit of cooperation so I would like to see if the timing of
a few things change so we can have more substantive conversations okay are there are there questions for the property praiser just so Homestead season ended Homestead season ended today but it hasn't ended yet you can still follow online till
midnight oh okay yeah very very good and I forgot to ask um the tax collector just since you're here taxes are due in April they're late is that right they become delinquent April 1 okay so you haven't until April Fool's
Day to pay your taxes before they're late correct okay very good everybody pay your taxes actually you've collected most of it by now haven't you there is a good portion of it that has been collected yes okay we're we're nearing around I would say we're we're nearing
90 some per. we're getting close very good okay thank thank you uh Commissioners I'd like a five minute break uh we've got about nine cards left okay so let's try to keep it to
five minutes quick break [Music] [Music]
[Music] he [Music]
[Music] what [Music]
still have some comment cards Susan Connelly Susan Connelly thank you all again I want to thank you all for this process I think this Workshop is in been invaluable for me in the audience I
think that might be one of the unintended positives is that citizens here may also get on board with Solutions they've heard and maybe even educate us on what some of the issues are that are facing you all and have a little compassion for for you so um
thank you and continue this um I also think another positive outcome might be I know uh commissioner Atkinson is trying to fill all these advisory boards and here is a I've heard many people say
I want to be part of the solution me included both hands um I want to talk a little bit about the process I like that when I submitted my recommendation I could go in and see that I had my recommendation from 2024
was there and it kind of reminded me uh and I I like that um the recommendations are identified by ceer numbers I would like to see my name
and the other people's name and contact information because again it gives me insight and motivation to do something and I would like to be able to contact some of these people here I would also like to see as part of an outgrowth of this that where we the citizens are
contacted and there's some means of continual communication throughout the year uh communication that would involve what the Commissioners have decided uh I think some of these Solutions are ongoing and won't be overnight so again having that continual communication
would be very good um I would like to see the communication written and posted again where citizens who are who participate or don't could learn from the website or
wherever this information will be um it is the only disappointing thing for me as a citizen is 77 recommendations I was thrilled to see
that but when I walked in there are only 11 speakers so I don't know if that is because this process is so new and the workshop is so new uh that there there was confusion in my mind how to register
I wanted to make sure IID speak and how long and and all of that and I wanted to be uh uh acknowledging of your time as well CU if 77 had all or 66 had all showed up and spoken it would be more
than a f- minute bathroom break that we would need so I don't know the resolution to that but let's put our heads together on that so again thank you for this opportunity thank you ma'am we
appreciate that uh Christina fiser good evening lease turns are listed by the state of Florida as threatened lease turn turns winter in Central and South America and returned to the Us in Spring
to breed at one time Florida had many colonies of breeding leas turns but due to the extensive development along the coast they are only limited beaches still suitable for leas turn breeding as a result of the loss of their Beach
breeding grounds many lease turns began using flat top roofs of commercial buildings but only those buildings with gravel roofs are used for breeding unfortunately most of those gravel roofs have been re-roofed with newer materials materials not suitable for breeding
turns but there is a possible solution that is both easy and cost- effective many large cities such as New York and Atlanta offer tax in incentives to building owners who install or convert their roofs to living roofs also known as green
roofs um living roofs are engineered to allow the placement of soil a soil layer the planting of grasses flowers shrubs and even small trees living roofs have many benefits they reduce runoff um reduce HVAC and electricity
costs and increase the lifespan of the roof by up to 100% their aesthetic value cannot be underestimated many high-rise dwelling buildings list their rooftop garden as an important amenity however to improve
the chances of for breeding success for our Le's turns would only require a much smaller investment a thin layer of sand and gravel is all the birds need the building owners would not have to invest in soil irrigation plants or special leak
detection systems and only minor annual maintenance would be necessary the costs to the property owner would be minimal compared to the cost for the standard green roof in order to convince Property Owners to make the changes needed the county should consider offering monetary incentives such as real estate tax
credits additionally I think that providing some type of recognition recognition such as a plaque certifying the roof as helping endangered birds would be beneficial many businesses like to let the general public know that they are trying to be good environmental
stewards the Starbucks in downtown Disney has a green roof because Starbucks appreciates the Goodwill of the of that this engenders Bard county has dozens of volunteers some of them in the room who've spent hundreds of hours every year trying to help Le turns
successfully raise their young please consider helping us to help them thank you does anybody have a question commissioner Delan for a question I um had the opportunity of going to a presentation I believe we met
there um uh at The Bard Zoo this Alliance yeah right and um I this is a really cool idea and I bet um there are are probably a lot of businesses out there that would interest get somebody to give them the little push to get them
on board right I mean a standard living roof is still a great idea but it's expensive and it requires a lot of Maintenance a lot of engineering you've got to take the extra weight of the soil the extra weight of the trees this is just a little sand and Pebbles I mean honestly where where would be some of
the ideal places for RO years several years ago I noticed driving by one day taking my husband to a doctor's appointment that the U-Haul Self Storage building in merid Island by the mall I saw you know 100 Le turns flush off the roof and I went hey what's going on there's a they must be nesting up there
I spoke to Katherine who's here beo who's helps with the shird alliance and she said that roof wasn't on their list wow um they so I'm monitor to that roof with the help of multiple volunteers we spent hundreds of hours checking the roof because unfortunately the roof
didn't have any systems to keep the babies from falling off so whenever there was a hard rain Birds came down so I along with all these other volunteers we checked after every hard rain we check three times a day any birds baby birds on the ground we put back up with
a crazy chickaboom system which also Catherine helped with you know um so the parents could take care of them some of the birds sadly drown coming through the gutters but you know I mean at least we saved some of them okay right um so we put in hundreds of hours right trying to
save these birds places like that we we invested a lot of time FL of Fish and Wildlife has somebody who deals with this she tried for a long time to get somebody U-Haul to talk to us noo they wouldn't have anything to do with us and after that year they did something to
deter the birds from using that roof again so they have not been back sadly so we need to get somebody who can get business owners to see the value of doing this right and you know maybe give them a little incentive to do it I think ul's thinking from their standpoint of
what what did they get out of this nothing nothing but extra TR right right so you know if we could figure out some way to get them to understand that there is a value to this and they can use it in their advertising me if you go to Coco Village every little shop says dog friendly you know why because everybody
wants to walk their dog in Coco Village and they sell a lot more stuff if you can bring your dog in that shop right so we need to convince the you know give them plaque saying this building helps saved endangered birds or whatever you think is a suitable thing to say awesome thank you I think commissioner Alman
well I'd love those terms and we do need to protect them and you wonder I know we acquire lamb for um conservation and maybe we need to somehow p and there's conservation easements that we provide maybe we need to kind of purchase
rooftops or Grant to land owners like you mentioned tax abatements is a good idea are you aware of any U research that has been done by uh by um Unity universities or engineering firms on the
type of structures the architectural design of the type of roof that you would need okay not this specific roof there's lots of engineering done on the standard green roof right that has grasses and flowers this is a much TR you know but that doesn't mean I I'm
fully able to find an engine engineering firm and bullying them into giving me what we need yeah I already bullied my husband's friend who's a professional roofer into giving me a lot of information I've heard that the um the gravel roofs that used to be so common
and they're all being good in my day um but one reason I thought they they lost I've heard they lost flavor because in a bad hurricane they the rocks are blown off you know they become any flat roof is going to take if you
got a hurricane type rain is going to have an issue right right but the newer systems they have are lighter and they're less likely to leak it's too expensive to Reg gravel the roof you know they used to redo them but now it's cheaper to just pull that off and put in
these new I think they spray them on it's some kind of foam right um but you know so they're no longer suitable but if you just threw some sand on there they would suddenly become suitable again but even sadly the space force and Kennedy Space Center they put deterrents
on their roofs they have suitable roofs and I happen to have a badge because I volunteer at the Missile Museum so I check those roofs all the time and they used historically they were in fact used by Le turns they all they all have deterr to keep the turns from using those roofs and I feel a little distressed that the federal government
is not helping more with you know endangered birds right or technically threatened one thing we do have is the canaval National Seashore and the um Cape uh Cape County space force um I go to the Cape there's place I check they
do occasionally have nesting lease turns there are a lot of areas inside that I can't go to because they're just essentially off limits right to everybody who's not security so I don't know if there are any additional areas that have them um I assume just based on my knowledge of birds I'm a birer an
avid bder that if you go north of Pinda there's a very long stretch of beach between play Linda and Apollo Beach up in new smura that that probably you know has some but at one time all the Florida coast was just you know and the birds
made the switch to the graffle roof successfully right because they no longer had their historic reading grounds available unfortunately now the ra rooms are going too so they're really kind of in trouble can I ask one more question
sorry commissioner go ahead um is is it any gravel in particular or is it just any gravel well I think probably a mixture of and unfortunately I have done some research there's not as much known about reading lease turns as one would think I mean I kind of surprisingly um but
since they use beaches you know I I'm guessing a layer of sand would probably do the trick um some beaches are grally which is why the gravel probably appeals to them you know it kind of seems like a beach there are certain other requirements there does have to be a source of food obviously if they're
hatching chicks they need to feed them so there has to be a river or like the U-Haul is very close to the um Banana River so they could just you know grab fish out of the Banana River and bring them back if you had a building in the middle no nowhere near any water probably wouldn't be work no matter what you did to the roof right you would have
certain things you'd have to look at okay all right thank you very much for your time I appreciate it yes ma'am thank you Beth Blackford Beth I yield my time oh we appreciate the gentle woman uh
yielding her time back okay sander Sullivan all right Sandra Sullivan so uh I found an article the other day on Wayback Machine by uh The Bard citizens Coalition uh and they were the the ones
that pushed the idea of speak up rard and got our Charter changed and so just for clarity uh the citizens efficiency and Effectiveness recommendations is where the word sear comes from uh this
is Doge right so uh so relating to their article uh speak up of art allows citizens to submit ideas which would assist County government in conserving energy saving costs eliminating
duplication generating Revenue increasing productivity or preventing weight so I want to talk a little bit about um the latter idea of of of generating Revenue uh so I have a document here
this is a a federal document it's called Taxation and federal areas and it clearly states that um when um federal land is lease to uh private entities
that the local government has the the right to negotiate Taxation and I'm going to send an email to all of you it's page seven I think we need to look at this given the condition of the County right now and the
challenges that we're facing um I also want to talk about uh EDS specifically so this binder is from The Bard Coalition uh and it is all on Ed meds
and there's um a number of controversies uh and one of the things is EDS was supposed to be an Enterprise Zone that's what one of the things that was purported and promised but it is not so because I looked on the state site and is not listed one of Florida's
Enterprise zones um of concern to me fiscally what they talked about a lot and one of their major concerns is that this was taking tax dollars from the general fund that was not available to the needs of the county and so when I calculate it out
71% of the general fund revenue of of commercial and industrial areas it excludes residential and egg we're losing that Revenue so that those costs in District One have to come somewhere
else or or maybe they just don't have enough to do things so if you look at you know you got station 23 which is a condemned building up there for our firefighters and it's just sitting there and it's not being addressed and you got these guys all piled into one station from two
stations anyway there's other number of very um alarming inconsistencies including uh the monies from the tax increment the amount going into the budget exceeding what the tax increment is uh so there'll be a number of details
and a number of emails coming out on this so my request is resend or um take the ordinance and Sunset and beds it was only supposed to be five for five years and let's tax uh space Florida since
they're now pulling on us for resources and lastly I just want to say Kudos Katie this came to life today hearing people's ideas this starts a collaborative process this is hearing from the people and this is this is so
what we wanted to see and and just be heard it makes a huge difference to the frustration that a lot of us are feeling thank you Katie thank you very much Michael M majack I say that right
sir or is it myak ja my Jack lost I have a presentation to pull up they could bring it up for me it's electronic it's electronic presentation yes how do I control it with the mouse
maybe I I don't that was probably the voice in the sky uh I think Logan's working on it I'm not sure which presentation it is does it show up on this monitor is it well I can't read that it's on the top right okay
we have the technology just maybe not the capability there we go can we hit play okay good good I'm Michael maack and I'm here as a representative of the Indian River Lagoon round table and I
want to talk to you about a very big picture problem and I know your eyes are all glazed over you've been doing this for an hour or two but I really want to talk to you about something that's important when we started really building here in the' 60s we had a fishing industry that was world class
the Indian River Lagoon fishery was Second To None it's not here today part of the reason is back in the day we had this thing called banana Creek that used to connect the top of the Banana River and the Indian River Lagoon and it allowed them to flow and we had great
fishing it was really wonderful we had oysters and we had all kinds of inter interesting Critters and creatures and charismatic beings that live out here that is a definition of Florida residence in our quality of
life I want you to think about not just the charismatic ones and the little babies but everything that's out here this friend of mine Laura Lee told me once that she would sit down on the dock
and watch a school of mullet pass by and it would take 20 minutes 20 minutes for one school to pass not today why is that back to Banana Creek the space industry happened now you've heard of doing stupid after
bad that's kind of what our storm water is these days this is kind of what happened here we didn't know what the effects were going to be when NASA came out here with their DDT and our pond filling and well the North Indian River
Lagoon north of banana Creek is a disaster and it's because we have cut off the flow between our Lagoon both north and south and I want you to see it isn't just the mosquito
estuaries and the stuff that comes out in our storm water it is the water itself is poisonous in an estuary now the St John's River Water Management District they only deal with fresh water they don't deal deal with sailing water
so they don't look at it it's the biggest input in our Lagoon and our Estuary and why it's dying and why the manatees are dying and why our recreational capabilities are
dying now the quality of life that we have here is being threatened because there are many large entities the department of defense is one NASA is another you The Bard County
Commission you're in a unique position to create what I've asked for is a space force task force to coordinate how we're going to grow our Port how we're going to Intermodal that with Rail and now pent mode space flight
commercial space flight in a way we've never seen before you've got tens of thousands of new jobs coming you're going to need housing all these places and people and groups are affected and you need to
bring them all together to plan our future if we have a hope of creating Synergy with nature and our quality of life and the tsunami of growth coming from the space industry without proper
planning it's going to tank we're going to lose it all and so I want I want you to think about the resources responsible and needed for Accelerated growth I'll give you one groundwater I did a study with the St
John's river in 96 to look at putting a Dell plant in the IRL we started out hoping to get 30 million gallons a day we ended up with a study less than five because our model showed Lagoon was dead
in 2 years you can't can't go to the IRL for Dell unless you take the effluent somewhere else out to the Gulf Stream is what we came up with was the only viable solution 30 million gallons a day produce
720 10 cubic yard dump trucks full of dry salt a day we're not set up for that we're not set up for a sewage plant that's going to treat this County Titus ville's plant's going to be underwater in 30 years you want to put one in Port St
John to serve the Space Center well what about Palm Bay they're all on septics we need a regional solution for pable water for storm water for sanitary sewer for all of our concurrency
items and the space growth has to pay for that we need to make sure that we are taxing ourselves accordingly so that our impact fees are covered to supplant these these concerns we need a task force that
includes you taking the lead you have the world renowned Space Center in your backyard and they are home here now to play we have to take charge and take lead somebody needs to lead this task
force and I hope it will be you thank you thank you sir if you have any questions I'll be happy to [Applause]
great thank you thank thank you sir uh Celeste corado corado good evening my name is celest Cado I'm resident of Coco and I have just a couple comments or suggestions on speak up rard and I hope you don't mind
me at least talking through those first of all I am totally excited by what I saw here it is indeed the first time I've seen the objective be um citizen engagement and the second piece of this thing is I'm seeing even in the 77
submissions and the people in the room you've tapped into the collective intelligence of the community this is a really smart in community with um lots of skills and lots of expertise and I have no doubt if we collaborate between the county and the citizens that some
amazing things can be done we're already starting to see signs of that so I want to thank you I think this is the most encouraging thing I've seen in the couple of years that I lived here so I just had a couple of um suggestions because I'm really hoping the program
will evolve and I want to sort of paint a picture of both the the ttic and strategic sort of potential that it might go in just to you know throw out some ideas the first one we heard a lot of comments from Susan and um and uh
Sandra Sullivan too about some of the tips the Practical tips which is you know a little better on the communication thing it was really hard to sort of navigate that website and get all the pieces of information as a newbie to the process we heard about extending the time frame we heard about
um really good suggest question from Susan on allowing some of the submissions to be transparent so there would be collabor collaboration among the ideas so when they came to you you might see two or three different people sort of combining their ideas and so all
those things are the practical tips that I think would help um us as Citizens understand what it is you're looking for um the second tier of recommendations was basically you know you can help shape the submissions that come in and I
would suggest you do that because I know that it's probably a huge burden to take in all these sub submissions and review them so that would be make the criteria for submission explicit so we know what you're looking for what are the top five
to seven really hard problems you're facing let us get into it I know we have the expertise somewhere in our community to help solve some of those um so not just keeping it open to uh broad or broadly sub submissions but also on
really big challenge problems so maybe thinking thinking about shaping how you get those instructions out to us might give you some really good things back into you um so then on the Strategic level what I want to say and I'll end on
this point is a little broader thinking about where the program could go what I just talked about is actually the basics of an incubator of basically you know the county and the citizen incubator and if you thought a little bit more broadly about where that could go and actually
designing like it like an incubator I'm thinking you can actually get Beyond current day problems and start thinking about future problems so on that end I just want to say thank you so much and I am the first time ever encouraged by what I see here so thank you very much
thank you ma'am Katherine vesio is it veio or vesio vaco I know we met once before but I I didn't remember EXA exactly how to say it hello I'm uh Katherine veio and I just learned about this event on Friday so I'm not
too prepared but I first came to this uh the County Commissioners during the time of Kurt Smith where he then tasked me to uh reach out about my topic and my topic has been about finding habitat for the leas turn of which uh you just heard
spoke about so as a volunteer with the Florida Wildlife Commission Florida shorebird Alliance I had found that we as volunteers were having to look to the skies to rooftops to help this bird species so I felt I I it was beyond my
me to think that that's the way it should be we do so much in our community to help the manatees to to grow oysters now we're into clams and now we're trying to grow grass but I feel that um my my recommendation was to go to the
eels I went to eels eels uh Community um Advisory Board tasked me to read all the management plans I read them all and in those management plans I found not notices that specified that there were regions within our eels lands that would
uh be adaptable to Habitat for um shore birds and seabirds nesting but as our U nitrogen levels have increased our spoil islands are now becoming overgrown with with um Native vegetation non-native vegetation so at the time that those
management plans were written they would have accommodated uh Wildlife but now with all regulations that evolve we can't get you know that the land is not clear the sand is not there for them to Nest so I know I think someone earlier
had asked so back to eels so with the help of The Advisory Board to direct me and with Mike Knight's commitment he we we did find he did find an area within one of the eels properties but only through grant money will they allow
what's now looking to be the norm is a raised platform a raised platform is going to kind of be similar to what a rooftop is but for us as volunteers when we have to monitor a rooftop just like was explained earlier when that bird falls off we are we H we
don't always get cooperation with uh building owners so we have to put the bird up on the uh roof so so there is in there is a plan through the University of Florida there is something with American birg Conservancy they are
trying to develop a program to have such like a tech like an incubator to develop new Roofing ideas so I personally feel like I wish the birds could have the ground and do their native thing but because of we have so many predators
that are combined and packed into certain you know small spaces that the species can can't Thrive because you you got predation from the from the sky predation from the ground but they deserve a place to live too so what I would to I I I don't know to think about
this could be a revenue generator can I continue so this could be a Reen re Revenue generator Because by the time the chicks hatch out it's it's out of season like where they now we're lucky to have the birding Festival come back to merid Island but this could be a draw
when I first saw a chick on the ground from afar with with you know I was with Florida Wildlife Commission and saw them through a scope it's unbelievable how they protect themselves as a colony and we we do everything to protect our Ospreys we give Ospreys these platforms
on top of poles that we're not doing our part for this bird that is a native of this state and when that bird leaves and that bird come leaves and comes back all its habitat is gone and then the rooftops are gone so if you were to get
access to the Florida shorb database you can see that they had started taking data in uh 2012 so rooftops have doubled since 2012 to 2024 and and there could be other rooftops unfortunately the
ground nests occur in construction sites we can't see them we only hope that they are following FWC guidelines and they have environmental Consultants on board but I I don't know exactly how or what with you as a new Commission could help
direct this Mike Knight has been very helpful it's not in the budget to build a platform so if if there is to be a platform it's going to have to come through grants okay and I get it uh Department of Natural Resources I'm I'm also um attending the Citizens Academy
this SE this year and so I I I do try to bring it up to every director that we have the opportunity to speak to that if I thought it was applicable I did get to meet I did have some questions for Mr abbati at the time and met up met a lot of them so and I'm enjoying that but it's like I I don't want to be a can kick
down the road but this species has been here long before any of us have been here and we are neglecting them because they fly away we don't see them they come back and then we are at the mercy of private L uh Property Owners so the Air Force has the bash document bird air
strike Hazard protocol that they'll follow so they have the ability to stop birds I hear them in the morning I hear the I hear the low horns going off clearing the runway I'm not saying I want to Hur you know have any harm to our service members but they have open
space the birds are attracted to it they have gravel rooftops because governments don't move as quick to change out their rooftops so along with uh her recommendations I I don't know how this this could be a think tank kind of thing how can we help the species when it
comes back and it's coming they they're coming just like Winter's coming but the birds will be here within I'd say in the next four four to six weeks but we we appreciate everything that Mike Knight and the eels department has done but I've been coming and speaking to
different not to the new Commissioners but since when Kurt was County Commissioner now I think he's sits as an adviser on that board for eels so I think we got to we got to pay attention more to our Shorebirds and seabirds
thank you thank you [Applause] ma'am Sarah skywind is that right yes very good how are you thank you I wasn't planning on talking tonight but but here
I am somebody help me get up here okay um I'm the co-founder of Bard bark house we are a nonprofit rescue um for animal rescue team that would like the request to request the use of the building
located at 2605 flake road which is in Titusville that will be a topic or on the agenda for the 11th so I'm a little premature on it but it's really important to us so it is already set up
as an an animal shelter but is sitting vacant I have spoken with code enforcement and Facilities uh Department about our interest sorry in the building uh we hope to build a strong relationship with both
departments it will be a great space for our community to gather as we help ease the strain of existing shelters like The Bard County Animal Shelter it will be a place for the Comm for the community can find their new best friend volunteer and
gain education on topics like Behavior Health Nutrition enrichment and safety for their pad the build the building has approximately 38 kennels and our plan is to operate at 75% capacity so we can make sure we have
an area for sick animals and also have the room to Aid other shelters of their overflow our approach is unique we would like to provide each animal with a space resembling a home instead of a concrete cold
kennel each animal will have a set schedule for let outs feedings and training it will make their transition into to their permanent home much easier just to give you a little background on me and my co-founder we
were Florida raised in love bravar County we are not just animal lovers this is our passion in the last 6 months we have aided in finding permanent loving homes for 40 52 dogs have worked with local
feed and pet stores to get over 6,000 lbs of food to animals and need as well as collect over 3,000 lbs of other items like bedding enrichment items and grooming products we are two people that feel it's our responsibility to serve
the community the best we can and allowing us to use this building will give us uh the possibilities to do that ma'am uh I worked in North County for a while tell me where this is again it's in Titusville 2605 it's um right by
the little airport the Dunn airport it's right behind there okay okay and what who who's the tenant of or who's in that building now it's vacant right now okay who who was there before was a private um run shelter or yeah it was forever
home is that a county is it a County facility yes used to be located there but for a number of years it's been occupied by a private uh not for-profit forever home which recently uh left the facility
anded its lease okay we'll see you on March 11th is that what you said you'll see me in a couple days too I'll be here for that as well oh for the budget okay thank you very much preed me on something okay very good thank
you uh last one I have a c for is Kristen lorte good evening Commissioners Kristen lorte Coco resident D1 staffer and citizen Advocate uh local citizen Advocate I want to share a few
appreciations and some advocacy one I so appreciate your vote to say yes for this Workshop thank you for voting yes thank you commissioner delini for spearheading this uh and for everyone's participation everyone out in the audience's participation in this program um it's
really been amazing to hear all of the citizen advocacy so I first want to appreciate your votes uh I also want to uh on the advocacy side say that of the submissions that we received of the 13 that were El they were eliminated there
are five in particular that I'd like to draw your attention to as I disagree with the county staff's elimination of those and those had to do with the Constitutional officers so I believe that the Constitutional officers belong in this room we had two of them speak tonight we were grateful to hear them uh
the citizens who want to speak on those topics they belong here the advocacy belongs here I appreciate that the county staff is sending over the emails of those um recommendations but if those citizens want to speak they should be included in this event this first annual
event since this was passed by the charter in 2010 so on their behalf um there were five of them and all of them uh had to do with the shelter they had to do with the with the County shelters and so it's interesting that uh this comment piggybacks piggybacks on the last
speaker um but in particular we had two that came in um regarding stray holds and I'd like to read a little bit about them because those um uh residents aren't here tonight the County shelter has not been abiding by the legal stayhold and has been returning cats to the field before the owners have a
chance to reclaim them one recent case is that of snowflake her lottery date was set for today but she was released on the 3D and now her owner cannot find her the kitten came in with a pink Bell collar and I believe was microchipped yet still released the second one says that while I think trap new to return is
a valuable resource for the cats of our County the execution is simply awful cats are not kept on 5-day stayhold friendly caps are TNR without being a chance of adoption and often cats are dropped off in a place that is not their home Bard needs to do better additionally we had two that were very
um detailed those were uh seers uh let's see 011 and 012 um these are people who know intimately what our shelter system is like and I just I think that the the uh the sheriff staff should one receive those but then should have be able to be
represented those people represented the sheriff want if they want to come in and participate in that um they should be able to do that and I want those uh those on file uh and then lastly when it comes to the logistics of the workshop um we had some confusion in our office
we had people calling who weren't exactly sure how this this worked and we have an agenda that just has names on it um what was requested is that we actually add some more information so that this could be informative we had people calling in that said we don't understand how this agenda works we
would like this to be corrected um for the for the next um session and to let everybody know on the audience that when we go to vote there will be another vote for this and everybody can come in and needs to look for the staff comments that will be online prior to the meeting to see what the staff has done with all
of this advocacy and to be welcomed back again so I thank you for receiving my comments and for this Workshop tonight okay thank you before we wrap up here uh with board reports um is there anyone else you want to speak that we didn't have a card for
tonight okay um okay Commissioners we go into board reports first County Manager sir no report mors no report Mr chair commissioner Delaney thank you I have a
report so I just wanted to first um thank my fellow board members for humoring me with this I know that it took a little bit to um help you guys see um my vision for this and I just really appreciate um you all
collaborating with me and working through this to get to this point um where where we had all of this collaboration and input from the public um it just it really means the world to me and I thank you guys so much um
and and um to the public I just you know I uh this is one of the things that I spoke about a lot um throughout my campaign and myself and my chief of staff um we were
right outside this building about a year ago um with about 45 about 40 people um front page on the news uh talking about this program and it just it's incredible to see so much input and for everybody
who came and and spoke tonight um or just came to to witness what um what happened tonight it was extremely beautiful this is exactly what government is intended to be um for the People by the people and I just I'm so
encouraged by this and I know and I hope that this is the the first of many um all of that being said uh like many of the the speakers had
talked about there was a lot of agenda um confusion and I had my my staff send over an email almost immediately after um uh the agenda first came out um with some suggestions because I I I kind of
anticipated the confusion because when the agenda came out it it wasn't really um clear according to the uh information on the agenda and then with the citizen
recommendations um letter C it it just had the sear numbers and for residents it would have been really cool to just have like a um short thing you know what their sear was about rather than the numbers um so that if a citizen was interested they could click on it and
see you know see more of of what that was and um so I hope if we do this again which I hope we do um that we can collaborate a little bit more on this and the the the letters that were sent
out to the public I think were also another um a place where there was some confusion because people were wondering why they had to RSVP if they you know they it it
was just um we got a lot of feedback in my office that that there was a lot of confusion and I tried to talk with staff about it and honestly it it wasn't um super well received um when I asked them about hey can we send out maybe another
email or something to clarify um so what I did in my office was I had my staff Call um all of the individuals to let them know please sign up you are welcome we want you here all
of that good stuff and um the one letter that got sent out to the people who didn't get included um I would have really like to see uh in there that while their sear is not maybe under our jurisdiction that
they could have still come and spoke um during public comment uh because even if we're not over what their concern is this is still an Avenue um where they can come and speak and um I actually reached out to some of the
Constitutional officers to get their opinion about them being included in the sear program and what they said to me is that this would have been an awesome opportunity for them to to hear from the public because they don't have these venues like this um and we're dedicating
a night to do this anyway and all that they asked was that maybe they could be um part of it for those Sears that um were talked about and um they they seem to be on board with that so maybe that's something we could improve in the
future um and then I guess my final um thing is that I after the budget season like I had mentioned about the advisory boards um the speak up rard uh
ordinance is something that I would like to um see if we can improve so thank you and thank you everybody for being here tonight oh you know what I um also have slides I'm sorry about that Logan if you could help me with that um thank you
[Laughter] Kristen uh okay just because I'm blind I can't see that far away um where is it there they are okay so some people they're they're going to be wondering what's next um what happens
next with all of this citizen participation so the county staff um is going to continue their evaluation through the 120-day period that started on February 1st and then the staff recommendations will come to the board of County Commissioners during a regular
County Commission meeting and that date is still um to be determined uh letters will be mailed to the participants a minimum of 7 days prior to the meeting that way um they all know when to come and speak and
fight for their item uh the participants will be able to speak on their recommendations at this meeting and um you may also submit uh slides in advance to that meeting to accompany your your recommendations but
you got to make sure to do it at least 24 hours um ahead of time and this will be um like I said your opportunity to advocate for or against any of the sear proposals and then at that point the
board of County Commissioners will vote to approve or deny the sear recommendations at that meeting and so what I would love to do is just encourage people to come to that meeting um and and fight for your item speak for
against whatever um you you wish and um even if something doesn't get approved this time I encourage you to continue on with your county commissioner because like um I I believe it was commissioner felner said that um this is not the only
opportunity you have so if you really feel passionate about your idea and the answer was no maybe there's a Yes somewhere in there and you can work with your commissioner um to find that yes so thank you all so much thank you in board report commissioner
Goodson commissioner ainson I just wanted to thank everybody who showed up tonight um for all of your thoughts and for your Solutions and thank you to the staff for being here so late and for putting it all together commissioner Alman thank you Mr
chairman I as well want to thank thank everyone I thought it was really well done very engaging very stimulating in terms of ideas extremely positive input I think you always get a lot more out of that uh being positive and proactive and
Visionary and it makes me realize as a body you know we have a lot happening in Bard County we're heading in an exciting Direction and maybe we need to take a a a look at uh look at planning and visioning and uh kind of see in what
direction we're going and how we can get there I think um we're going to have to look at the fiscal challenges because everything that we try to do has a fiscal input and and I think um I think this is a good model and maybe as a
board we can look at doing some visioning and seeing maybe really if we can make a big difference for the future of our County thank you sir and and I hope future meetings have some ideas it's generated as ideas and I'll be bringing them
up later meetings at our reports and seeing what you guys think of them I'll just say on a closing note uh I appreciate kind words tonight um happy words those always much appreciated by
the board um we don't always get happy words so that's nice uh just as a reminder for the board and the public we'll be back in this room on Thursday at 1: p.m. for the next budget workshop and with that I think we're
done thank you everybody have a good night the opinions expressed by any member of the public during any period of public comment do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the board of County commissioners of Bard County Florida Space Coast government television or the program sponsor and
are solely those of the presenter the board of County commissioners of bravard County Florida Space Coast government television and the program sponsor hereby expressly claim any in all responsibility or liability for any defamatory or slanderous statements expressed by any member of the public
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