[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
he [Music] [Music]
w [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
[Music] e e [Music]
if you wish to speak to any item on the agenda or during the public comment portion of the meeting please fill out a speaker card each person addressing the board shall have three minutes to complete his or her comments on each agenda item for which he or she has filled out a card the chair has the
discretion to determine or alter the time limit on any agenda item the board of County Commissioners requests that speakers appearing under the public comment section of the agenda limit their comments or presentations to matters relating to County Business that are within the board's Control Authority
and jurisdiction good morning and welcome to the board of County Commissioners meeting we have a quorum I will call the meeting to order and today we have invocation by Pastor Tim Franklin of
Freedom Christian Center you recognize sir father we first of all pause to acknowledge your presence here in this place and I give you thanks for each one of these Commissioners and staff that serve our County and I pray that today you would
order uh all footsteps and that wisdom would abound I pray that you would uh just keep your peace here on each and every heart and may everything that needs to be accomplished
today happen to the glory of your name amen amen thank you thank you sir very much uh commissioner Alman for the pledge please face the flag pledge allegiance to the flag
United States of America to the stands one nation God indivisible Justice for All okay Commissioners we have minutes for approval from December 12th 2024
zoning meeting December 17th 2024 regular meeting is there a motion motion so move second okay we have a motion by commissioner Goodson we have a second by commissioner Alman clerk will call the role yes Vice chair Goodson yes
commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Altman yes chairman feltner yes and we'll show that passes 5 Z thank you we'll move into resolutions and commissioner Alman you have a resolution this morning go ahead
sir yes um I'd like to ask Samantha NZ na Nazario nario Nazario Nazario uh good to see you Samantha good to see um whereas bleeding disorders that include
hemophilia Von willly brand disease and rare bleeding disorders are characterized by Blood not clotting normally due to the lack of clotting proteins also known as clotting factors and whereas the united in the United States more than 20,000 individuals live
with hemophilia and rare bleeding disorders with 6,000 of them in the State of Florida alone and 1 to 2% of the American populations have Von wibr disease and while treatment can help the conditions are not yet
curable whereas symptoms of a bleeding disorder include unexplained and excessive bleeding large and deep bruising nose bleeds and bleeding into joints muscles and soft tissues and if someone has a bleeding disorder they may have extended bleeding with inany
such as injury or trauma Administration surgery or dental Pro procedures and whereas the bleeding disorder Foundation of Florida founded in 1996 supports the bleeding disorder Community throughout the state and its missions is to approve the quality of
life for people with the condition and their families through education information and referral services advocacy support and research and annually it annually hosts events throughout Florida to bring awareness to the the community and needed funding for
research and support services now therefore be it resolved that the board of County commissioners of Bard County Florida does hereby proclaim the month of March 2025 as bleeding disorders awareness months and encourage all citizens citizens to increase their
understanding and awareness of these serious bleeding disorders and thanks uh to the health professionals the bleeding disorders Foundation of Florida and National bleeding disorders foundation for their dedication and commitment to to improve the treatment and ultimately finding a
cure for this U Dreadful condition uh don ordered and adopted in regular session this 25th day of February and I some move the resolution okay we have a motion by commissioner Alman we have a second by commissioner
ainson clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman feltner yes we'll show that passes 5 congratulations
uh M you're you want to speak first and then commissioner Alman will come down for a picture with you okay thank you I'd like to take this time to thank the bavar County Commission this was a a pet project of me and commissioner s um Smith so this is amazing to see that
here we are s years later still helping spread awareness in bvar County um my name is Samantha Ario I'm a Melbourne resident and the mother of a 25-year-old son with Von will Bron's disease Tyler was diagnosed at 6 years old and without our local chapter and our national
chapter I wouldn't be standing here I would have never became an advocate and I know many of you in the community and uh Mr Alman from Tallahassee I'm I'm an advocate on a national level um no one really realizes that bleeding disorders affect everyone's life I'll give you an
example back in the N the early 90s at the height of the AIDS crisis we helped pass a law called the Ricky Ray law so any blood product you receive a blood donation a plasma product any kind of blood product the hemophilia Community fought for that for you and
after losing over 20,000 members of their Community due to Tainted blood so if anyone has ever had a surgery and needed a blood product we saved your life in 1998 by passing What's called the Ricky Ray law as a mom that lives in bavar County proudly for 22 years my son's medication cost an absorbent
amount of money one dose is $166,000 it's literally this big and takes 13 donations of plasma for one dose of medication there are no generics in our situation um he has been protected under the ACA thank goodness because at the age of8 years old he had almost capped
out at his $1 million lifetime which was what we used to have prior to the ACA I implore everyone to educate yourselves about the true meaning of the ACA what it does for everyone if you have a child with diabetes asthma Co it protects all of us it ensures that we're not just
worth a million dollars worth a lot more in a lifetime I also very grateful to live in a community that recognizes that awareness is important and this community has been so supportive my son Tyler created a t-shirt called team Tyler we're both wearing it right now
and Tyler has raised over $100,000 in the last decade for bleeding disorder awareness so anything is possible and any dream is possible I'm grateful that we live in a county where everyone is always so quick to pitch in and help and thank you Commissioners for um giving us this Proclamation for the seventh year
in a row and we are so blessed to live in a county like Bard thank you I I just I just want to say a few words and and thanks Samantha for bringing awareness you know I don't know if they still teach that but way back when I was in elementary school we
learned a lot about the the European history and and royalty and it was pretty famous that the many of the royal families in the crown in Europe uh British Russia Spain Prussia had bleeding go back to thear of Russia wow
it's a blue blood disease and Queen Victoria Queen Victoria lost three children to hemophilia before the age of three interesting I hope they're still teaching that in school it's just an interesting fact they're not you're young enough to know maybe we need to talk to our legislators and get our our
Schoolboard and get that back I will say so that you guys can to toot your H bavar county is the only School District in the country that recognizes bleeding this disorder Awareness Month interesting good for our our and this would be good yeah be a good time to teach it I'll come down yes sir
care if I move [Applause] this thank you thank you for that today commissioner okay commissioners before we get to consent agenda just a quick
update from last week um there was a negotiation with uh firefighters Union and so today we're requesting to do a special session um or executive session after the um Regular meeting we'll take
like a 15minute break I'll need to sign some things and then we'll we'll go upstairs to meet in the county manager's office so I already heard a motion second okay and it's so I have a motion by commissioner ainson I have second by commissioner Delaney clerk will call the
role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Altman yes chair feltner yes thank you commissioners so again we'll take about a 15-minute break afterward and we'll convene in the county manager's conference room all
right very good on consent is there anything anybody wants to take off of consent yes please okay uh F7 and F9 okay anything else all right uh excluding F7 and F9 is
there a motion for the rest of the consent agenda move to approve so we have com we have a motion by commissioner delini we have a second by commissioner Alman clerk will call the
role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner altner yes chairman feltner yes okay let's go to um F7 then good morning
Commissioners um F7 it's requested the board approve the following items approve to advertise a request for proposal for the county lobbying services pursuant to board policy bcc2 procurement and appoint the following members to a selection and
negotiating committee Jim lefeld assistant County Manager Community Services Group Jill Hayes County budget director and Virginia Barker natural resources management department director approval for the selection and negotiating committee to
negotiate the terms of the professional service contract and bring it back to the board for consideration all right Commissioners questions for Kathy questions there's no questions okay sir I would assume we need to do this
quickly because the legislature will be going in the session they've already started committee meetings uh there's been a deadline for Appropriations are we up against the time are we it's we we currently have a contract with uh book
yes for these Services yes and this would not be effective until when um I believe it's the summer so this wouldn't this it's not going to EXC wouldn't affect what we have now right yeah not this legislative session okay good I was I saw that and I
thought mhm we we were under a one-year contract from last year the board approved it to get us through this legislative session so okay we're just anticipating for the next year I quite candidly I I remember this conversation uh myself when when I was here and um
you know give the board uh the new board the opportunity to be a part of this discussion but also I I think we were expecting that Ron book would retire at some point uh you've known Ron a long time I have too so uh it's it's no harder than that uh okay and I'm he
having been there 21 years he does a phenomenal job his staff as well they're one of the hardest working maybe the hardest working group of Lobby you get your bang for your bucks so I'm glad we have them and look forward to them we're fortunate to have them yeah yeah absolutely I agree uh okay I don't have
any cards on that so in discussion uh so the only reason why I wanted to pull this was because uh when I was looking in the scope of work in the contract um I I saw a lot of emphasis on economic development and the
space industry and while that's great and we want to keep you know uh keep that going um I would really love to see an emphasis on Appropriations and our infrastructure going out for that um
that help from the state uh for those things so I just wanted to throw that out there I I appreciate what it what it may say in the contract but but in all cander it is he represents us on whatever the board gives him direction to do each each year so um just as a
just as a quick aside over the last five years what do you think just I won't hold you to it uh estimate the kind of Appropriations that that we've received here in Bard County well he's involved in in first all of it as a matter of
fact what I would say is that um you know depending on what the board approves as part of the legislative package that becomes his focus and he helps us and and and most of those items if you look at it they're all appropriation virtually all of them um
and so there's a lot of that's on and he right now up to now what I can tell you is our experience has been is his staff helps us focus on the items that the leadership has indicated are the parameters of what they're going
to be looking for so for some items are deprioritized uh because we are told that you know the leadership has said nothing of this sort is going to get passed this year so that that's the kind of relationship we have with him and he
and he does focus on on what the board approves it's part of the leadership package so whoever we go to the board decides to go to in the future my assumption would be that you would continue in that vein so um and the other thing we do we will do of course
is uh it's easy to what whoever is selected to emphasize in the contract add that as one of the if it's not there now and we we'll look at the the contract that's going to be come back to the board for presentation so you'll have a shot to look at it there once the
screening and selection committee makes a recommendation negotiates it the final contract and we'll make sure that that's emphasize commissioner is that satisfactory I think uh something also that uh you know may not say it in there but uh you know with having somebody
like um Ron book um uh or a competent lobbyist for us up there during session is there are things that come up in the middle of the night and there are amendments that happen the the next morning and sitting up here with two
members um you know how that goes and we have somebody who's who's there ready to answer those things for us immediately so is that is that all satisfactory today okay uh I don't again I don't have any other cards is there any other discussion on this item no is there a
motion move to approve okay so we have a motion by commissioner delini is there a second we have a second by commissioner Alman clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Altman yes chairman feltner
yes we'll show that passes 5 Z thank you very much F9 all right the subject of F9 is the request from The Bard County Sheriff's Office that the board approve an agreement between County sheriff and Eastern Florida State College um
regarding the Five Palms Farm out on Plucky bomb in Coco the county owns the land there and leases it to the sheriff pursuant to a lease that currently runs through October of this year Eastern Florida State formerly BCC has used the northernmost firing range and a
Associated training building out at the farm for its police training academy for more than 20 years after Decades of that use as well as use by the sheriff and The Bard County Law Enforcement community in general the range is currently in a state of disrepair and needs um some Capital Improvements in
order to be able to return to operational use including the replacement and repair of the existing back stop in burm and the installation of an advanced lead mitigation system um this agreement provides that the sheriff would take over those operations that were historically
Eastern Florida State the sheriff will fund and complete the required Capital Improvements to the range and resume the operational use of the range um the sheriff already operates an Associated shoot house which is a 360 degree excuse me ballistically safe
firearms training environment uh associated with that part of the farm out there uh the sheriff also intends to install a driving pad for training at the farm EFC efsc is willing to transfer their right rights and obligations regarding the range and training building over to the sheriff uh under
the proposed agreement efsc will be permitted use and access to the range training building shoot house and driving pad based upon request and availability with priority being given to police training academy courses the sheriff uh has indicated to me that bcso
will uh realize savings and that currently dues they have to pay annually to efsc for use of those facilities they will no longer pay Commissioners questions questions on the item
commissioner ainson so it says that the sheriff will assume responsibility for operating and maintaining the site so does that mean that um as the site ages Bard County taxpayers will be assuming that
responsibility and do they now so it would be part of currently efsc maintains that portion or or doesn't maintain as it's not currently operational that portion So currently the answer is no uh going forward the answer would be that it would be part of the sheriff's budget now there are
sources of funding within the sheriff's budget that aren't necessarily taxpayer or general fund types of sources such as forfeiture funds and things like that I'm not able to answer what you know buckets of of funding the sheriff invisions using for these improvements whether there are any Grant agreements
involved or anything like that I I don't have that information I think the improvements um are not as much of my concern as the going forward and the maintenance of it I just wanted to be able to point that out that it's yeah sorry it would certainly be part of the
sheriff's recurring budget now again how he funds that within the budget I don't know the answer to that this is part of what we call the farm yes typically okay um and I think I I understand and correct me if I'm wrong that uh inmates are a big part of uh maintaining that I
believe so yes okay so I I think that's been ongoing for quite a number of years are there other questions on this item okay I don't have any uh cards on this item we're in discussion discussion on the audium commissioner Delan thank
you for um uh going through this with me I I just thought that this was like a public interest um item and I got some inquiries about it and so I just figured there might be other people that you know were interested in this is a um I felt a a good opportunity to just give a
shout out to the sheriff and the um the work that he does and the Partnerships that he's maintained and um this is this sounds like it's going to be a good thing to help train our people and um you know good opportunities so I just wanted to put that out there so thank
you okay uh all right I think that's the end of the discussion is there a motion on the item move to approve so we have a motion by commissioner Delany we have a second by commissioner ainson clerk will call the rooll commissioner Delaney yes Vice
chair Gibson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Altman yes chairman feltner yes we'll show that passes 5- Z thank you very much all right we'll move in public comment and we have one card Sanders solivan good morning Sandra Sullivan South
Patrick Shores so what amazing time we have with Doge at the federal level you know the the satisfaction of the people to start cutting wasteful spending and now yesterday with our governor we have Doge
at the state level and he's going to even look to local governments and so I want to say we need we need a department of Bard efficiency we need a doge for barard County um we need a doge of common
sense um we need to stop doing we the money Taxation and and giving not taxing them and giving special interests a Break um in order to limit the tax increases on
we the people so we had a budget workshop last week um and not a pretty picture uh you're looking at $2.2 billion of costs for
transportation and every we have a fiscal crisis and every one of the proposed taxations were to increase the taxation on we the people so what are we leaving behind I
was just a gased with this statement by our director it is only the unincorporated areas that we collect impact fees for transportation so when you have a road through through a city like Wickham Road which is mostly
Melbourne guess what unincorporated is picking that up this is the how much money we have and that's how much we need and that's not even really when you count the the analysis what is coming
so um we have about 200% increases and costs and yet you guys haven't increased impact fees in 25 to 35 years that's irresponsible that's Doge you want to
stop the taxation on the people you need to do the right thing there needs to be fair taxation that means special interests pay their fair share uh that includes space you're not taxing them and by all the Federal agreements I've looked at including the
one given to me by the T by the property appraiser it says that we have the right at the local level to collect taxes when you have Federal lands leased to private entities you're giving away the farm and yet you want to just keep putting taxes
on we the people you want you you know when our when we have inflation our property taxes go up when we have inflation our sales tax goes up we are being squeezed and yeah all you want to do is tax the people more and
more thank you all right item i1 good morning Commissioners i1 is a request for the board of County Commissioners to approve the advertising the request for proposal for fire rescue facilities and Emergency Medical
Services facilities impact fee update study to appoint the following members to The Selection and negotiating committee Jill Hayes County budget director Billy purad intrum director of planning and development department and Deputy fire chief Klein fire department
approval for the selection and negotiating committee to negotiate terms of the professional service contract and bring it back to the board for your consideration Commissioners questions we on questions commissioner
D I'm not sure if this is the time to um bring this up um I I uh have a question about if the board would consider reconsidering um this and go for the comprehensive uh study from what I've
been looking at the return on investment with this is not very large when it comes to uh just going for the Fire EMS impact fee study but when we look at the comprehensive um it's considerable and I don't know if
Billy would you mind chiming in on that sure commissioner so if we a four-year look ahead for the fire and EMS um the cost the study cost we estimated 190,000 with a return of
32952 in new Revenue if you compare that to where we if we did all of the impact fee districts as you said a comprehensive study the estimated study cost is 498,000 but the estimated increase in fees received over the same 4-year
period is 10,278 161 and then what would that look like as far as like a year 5 to 10 estimated so this would be a growth from years 5 to 10 because I have no way of
predicting development Trends 5 to 10 years out um but so for the EMS over 10 years it would new Revenue over 10 years would be estimated at $863,000 for the comprehensive um at 50% it's uh an
increase in fees of about 70.5 million over 10 years Frank I I just wanted to add one thing that one option if the board decides to consider this is you could modify the existing RFP for the current study and
then ask them as an option what would be if you did a comprehensive one so you would have the two fees to compare one just for Fire EMS another for Fire EMS and everything else and then the board can make a decision at that point if the board so
chooses I a question I I'm sorry I missed the beginning what the cost of the fire impact fee study and the return was I got the second group of numbers but sure the for the the estimated cost for the fired EMS
study is of 190,000 with 4-year return of increase of 329,000 uh a cost estimate based on jurisdictions that have recently done it was between 450 and 500,000 to do the
comprehensive study which would include all of them other questions okay we have we have one card on this and then we'll discuss this after sander Sullivan Sandra Sullivan
so to to do in the comprehensive one that would be just would make my day would make my month would make my year I've been advocating on this for about five years uh and the the biggest part the the biggest segment that brings in
the most amount of money is transportation I want just put it in perspective in 2016 when the board previously looked at the last study it recommended a 67% increase for transportation and they
didn't do it and so that's put us as a county in a in a crisis by kicking that can down the road another 10 years and every year like so the last two years ago the budget was 800 million for capacity needs we're at $1.2 million now
for capacity needs you you know you're going to put your plan is to put all the burden on the people we need to do this to have Fair taxation because the people are going to get upset if all you do is tax the people and you're not taxing the special interest fairly and we see that
I also want to bring up so there was a meeting two years ago with West Melbourne with the chair felner not chair then um and uh the the county manager Abate and the it was brought up
that there was no interlocal agreement I've done a records request there's no interlocal agreement agement uh to collect EMS or sorry fire um impact fees from the municipalities that we are providing fire services to and then some
of these count some of these areas have had tremendous growth we're just throwing away millions of dollars this impact issue is one of the biggest issues that needs to be addressed in the county and so here's the records request that I had confirming that that fire
impact fees have not been colle Ed from the jurisdictions we are providing fire services to this is the irresponsibility in this county is just overwhelming and I'll put it this I'll call it stupid okay and we need we need to fix stupid
we need to have a doge in Bard we need to get to the bottom of what is going on in Bard because quite frankly what I see is it's entirely about let's not tax we the money let's put the taxes on we the
people thank you thank you uh Commissioners in discussion commissioner Alman I guess it's time for me to get my impact fee speech here I know we're pushing it uh I I supported the fire
impact V because I felt we are facing a an imminent crisis we're losing our Our First Responders our EMS and firefighters and I thought by focusing not only in that it doesn't get brought up in the larger scale debate of impact
fees so I'll talk a little about the larger scale impact fees I will vote against impact fee increases and I I don't particularly care for impact fees at all and I think probably uh what has really helped me come to that um
position over time is having children and then having children that become house buying age and then having children that really want to rais their my grandchildren their kids in Bard County and working through the process of buying a home and how incredibly
difficult it is to get a home with the price of Housing and the interest rates rates and then you throw in Impact fees on top of that it makes it almost it makes it impossible for many many many families and ultimately some of those
kids and families move away from bavard and then I so that special interest you're talking about our our children that are trying to get into a home our that special interest are families that uh young couples that get married and want to raise a family so if that's the
special interest you're talking about and that's the one I'm talking about I support them I don't I I think we need to make home buying affordable we I know in Tallahassee probably the most common thing we hear about is is the need for
more affordable housing so I really don't like the idea of of of the larger impact Fe study now the the point about the the cost return is excellent that staff has brought up and maybe maybe the cost return is not really really the way
to go let's talk about transportation and talk about what is more Equitable for bavard residents you know 50 60 maybe 70% of gas tax fees are paid for non bavard residents we have this huge
income provider called I95 we have a 72m long family if we really want to raise money for transportation and a real effective way and look out after Bard residents maybe we should consider a tax
revenue source that bavarians pay a a very small percentage of the folks passing through I I would challenge anybody to the to the benefit to Bard residents and how it could save them money and provide so I I'm just not
there on transp I respect your view and I understand it but it's a it's it's a burden on a lot of first-time home buyers and families I think it's it's is probably kind of expensive to administer uh the money is more difficult to to
expend because of the restrictions on it so I'm just not a fan and that that's an issue that I think I was on the Commission in the 80s when we passed our very first impact fees and those numbers were very small then and the restrictions of how you spend it
probably were even more so but I think as those numbers have grown and the cost of buying homes has increased it's it's too uh punitive for uh Americans wanting to achieve the American
dream that's my impact Fe speech any other discussion commissioner Goodson yes uh can staff tell me when the last time impact fees were raised or whatever what
year 2001 okay of course we hear people say 30 years ago so 2001 they were raised that's when the the current impact fee schedule that we use was implemented for all but education yes
all right any other discussion on the item commissioner delini um I just I just wanted to to give another uh opinion and while I do respect where you're coming from commissioner Alman I'm of the opinion
that the market dictate dictates the home prices and I honestly feel like the real culprit for unaffordable house the unaffordable housing crisis has to do with homeowners insurance and interest rates and so I was sitting in a room in this room
a few few months ago when the Sherwood fight was going on and I was in that back row speaking next uh sitting next to somebody that I found out was a developer and he literally leans over to me and says you guys really need to
update your impact fees and that really shook me that somebody who is a developer is actually sitting here telling me that we are so far behind that um it honestly it's going to take the whole community it's going to take
every piece of um every interest to get Bard to where we need to be it's going to take the public it's going to take the developers we have to fix this um and we're so far behind unless the state is willing to you know send us a few billion dollars that would be cool too
um but I don't I don't foresee that happening um we've already lost out on about 20 plus years of potential impact fee um fees and
um with the explosion of you know Vieira and the the south end of the County uh all these different areas we've lost out on on that money and we can never get it back and so I just really feel passionately that this um the Market's
going to dictate how um how much these homes are if the homes are sitting they're going to bring their prices down even if their impact fees go up because at the end of the day they want to sell their houses and so I just um wanted to put another
opinion out there and hopefully we can come to a resolution okay what's the pleasure of the board sir um sir I forgot to mention a couple things you know I think everybody hates taxes and if you look at
taxes the worst taxes are the ones you can't avoid uh you know income tax property tax and impact fees you can't avoid them if you want a home and um other consumption-based taxes uh consumers can't avoid them they
can change they can they can adjust and they can alter and they don't have to pay those and they can kind of move their their family budget around them and so I put this in the category that actually taxes really good behavior and
um it's impossible to avoid any other discussion on the item okay is there is there a motion on the item I'd like to um if somebody could help me out with this but I'd like to uh
amend the current motion to include the um comprehensive going out for the RFP for the comprehensive and for the Fire EMS I think there was a a suggestion uh maybe that um you could you could go out
for this and as part of that RFP to say what it would cost in addition to this is that is that the way you want to do it yes please the way that Frank suggested it yes Frank would you maybe say that one more time so we're clear on what what that motion would be we we would expand the current draft of the
RFP to include a second option which would be a comprehensive study that would cover all um impact fee impact fees as part of the study so moved that second okay so we
have a motion by commissioner Delany we have a second by commissioner ainson clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Altman no chairman f
yes okay Commissioners thank you we show that passes 41 now just so we're clear we that's just an option so that's something that the board's going to have to decide um again all right we'll go to uh
[Music] J1 Ian you recognized sir good morning Commissioners the item before you is a request to consider adoption of a resolution to dissolve the South Central Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and create two new advisory boards a South Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and
a Central Parks and Recreation Advisory Board this is following a request or direction from the January 14th commission meeting for this action attached the agenda item is a resolution resending the two resolutions that
created that combined board as well as the creation of the two new boards it allows for the membership both boards will be 7 members the South board will be consisting of three members appointed by District three two from district four
two from District Five the central board uh the recommendation is five members from District Two Two members from district one those allocations of membership were based on Parks facilities and services um the resolution also
aligns both advisory boards with the section of county code regarding the uniform Advisory Board okay Commissioners questions is there questions for Ian on this item commissioner ainson not a question
just a comment that I'm excited that D3 gets to have a voice again okay did I see you reach for your light oh I'm sorry okay all right we do have a card on this Sandra solvin good morning again sander Sullivan I just want to point out that we had a
referendum in 2000 and a referendum in 2006 for three uh Parks uh referendums so they are all separate so this should have never been combined in the first place legal should have caught that um in my
opinion um and so I just want to say I kudos to District 2 for bringing this forward uh this is awesome to have the separate boards and I would also ask the commission to consider restoring and allowing our advisory boards to meet on
the on a more frequent basis right now they're quarterly um there's not a lot of work especially for the budget Workshop board but also such boards as this um and also to consider a few other changes such as alternate members so
they can more easily reach Quorum um and enforcing more readily the terminal limits on the board so if you could pre please go and review the changes that were made uh they were very unfavorable and it upset a lot of people
in the county you're essentially shutting down the voice of the people and these advisory boards were created with an intent with with a desire they they are Doge right this is the people being able to look into I also heard uh
of a request by by the the budget Workshop board um being told that they have to pay for records requests when these boards make records request I would encourage you also to make the change that they are exempt because that's their job they're doing Doge this
is part of what doge is these advisory boards when you shut down the people when you shut down their voice when you when you obstruct them having records that's not transparency and efficiency for this County thank you thank you okay
Commissioners discussion on the item were you reaching for your like go ahead commissioner Delany if everybody's ready I'd like to make a motion to approve is it okay just real quick is there any other dis discussion on the item no okay go ahead I'd like to move to approve okay
we have a motion by commissioner Delaney is there a second second we have a second by commissioner Alman clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Altman yes chairman feltner yes Commissioners we'll
show that passes 5 thank you item J2 and Terry you recognized sir let me see if your mic's on Terry how about that this morning this morning's request is for
the transit development plan for the fiscal years of 2025 to 2035 this is a plan that is required by the Florida Department of Transportation in order for transit services to receive
state funds it's a 10-year plan that typically uh assesses our public transportation needs and gives information on what we need to do without the with in coming following years um a major update is required every 5
years with uh anual updates for the years in between the overall document is about 218 pages so I'm going to give a quick synopsis of the overall of the document itself and and uh also any major service changes
that are being requested have to be in this plan for the purpose of this plan there are some elements and one of the elements is the public engagement and stakeholder Outreach as you see on the screen there is numerous Outreach which guaranted a total of over 1,000
participants which include public workshops stakeholder interviews and writer surveys of our passengers that utilize the service this next slide shows the common themes from the Outreach that was completed uh to include better sidewalks increases in stop amenities more frequent service of
course is a common request and more direct routes for individuals to get to their destinations uh you also see the writers requests and how many destinations and Origins uh for our typical p passers utilizing the service the proposed service changes for
the near-term and longterm are listed on this slide uh to includes uh options for various routes throughout the entire County uh once again this is a plan that is uh it's a planning document for any major service improvements should they
be implemented we're not committing to anything specifically but if there is a need to implement any the services it has to be included in this document and with that I'm requesting that the board uh authorized the uh TDP to be
accepted and approved okay Commissioners questions for Terry are the questions commissioner delini I just wanted to say thank you so much for making this presentation um one thing while I was on the campaign Trail um one of the surprises was how much
people care about Transit and so um this was something that I asked you to put together for us cuz I I knew that there's people out there that care about this and so I just really appreciate you taking the time and um putting this out for the public so thank you you're
welcome commissioner there are other questions for Terry okay we do have one card Sanders Sullivan Sandra Sullivan so isn't that great a five to 10 year plan but we don't even have a fiveyear plan for the county but we have a department that has
one that's awesome so maybe we could take a cue from that um so reading the plan I have uh an objection for one of the things in here uh and this is uh
to uh to plan to access a range of Fleet electrification options including hybrid electric and alternative fuel vehicles to gradually transition to part of the fleet to cleaner Technologies and so um
again do we need to look when we're making a massive change like that we need to look at the cost benefit analysis we need to analyze what is the additional cost that that is going to cost for essentially a loss liter item
this is you know uh in the county um in previous TPO meetings this question was brought up and and the indication at that time which wasn't long ago maybe maybe eight months ago oh no we're not going to move to Electric these vehicles
are much more expensive they have much more maintenance you know um what do you see for Waste Management they use natural gas I mean electrification just because you know Green New Deal no let's sit down here and let's do a cost
benefit analysis before you make a massive change like that is going to make this Department be much more expensive um and the other thing I'd like to see is a unification of fees for municipalities you have some M municipalities paying
$85,000 for a um bus shelter uh with big belly and then you have others like satellite beachs getting it for free you know so like we pick and choose based on who our friends are who's going to get what no let's let's have unified let's make it fair across the county on what
our policies are for what we charge for what as a department thank you very much thank you okay Commissioners discussion is there a discussion on the item is there a motion on the item move we have a motion by commissioner Alman
we have a second by commissioner ainson clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman feltner yes we'll show that pass is 5- z
thank you Commissioners we will go on to item j3 and this is commissioner ain's item you recognized thank you sir so it came to my attention um that fot
has they're already pretty deep into the process of creating a pedestrian hybrid Beacon down in the South Beaches they did a study that determined it was necessary um it was done in 2021 after that study the area was designated as the uh
state area of critical concern so the letter that I'm requesting um you sign basically the TPO board at the last meeting signed a very similar letter we are simply requesting that fot uh
re-evaluate their current design for proposal to something more in keeping with the area of critical concern because one of the things that we're supposed to do down there is enhance the natural Scenic um resources to promote the aesthetic
benefits of the natural environment we're supposed to also ensure that development is compatible with the unique characteristics of The Bard Barrier Island and brought some pictures just to show everybody what this Beacon is going to look like if you wouldn't mind passing that down for me I think there's more in the back if anybody out
there wants to see it um so aesthetically this doesn't enhance a lot um along with the project besides this Beacon is a few feet of sidewalk
some lighting enhancements which they have said is going to be Wildlife sensitive um and pedestrian crossing signs you know the ones that say pedestrian Crossing and next. five miles so I'm just asking that the board um
ask fot to just re-evaluate this develop so that it's a little bit more in keeping with what's going on down there uh we do have one card but I have a question now have you met with uh Kevin Marquez at fot no yeah I I
strongly suggest that you that you have a meeting with him and he's he's willing to come from D land um to your office probably okay make a day of it in Bard and see other Commissioners I think think um he's a he's a good guy and um
he understands The Pedestrian crosswalks um so I I don't have a problem with your letter today but I think he's going to be the quickest path so I just say that as a means to be helpful yep uh are there any other questions on the item I
I have a question um commissioner ainson if you wouldn't mind um I I received an email from I think one of your constituents um I think they sent it to all of us and I'm pretty sure um that and they were concerned about this and so I didn't know if you wouldn't mind
letting us know is is that have you seen multiple concerns or was that kind of the only one or is it yeah we've gotten multiple emails and phone calls regarding it it's for some reason um the word started getting out uh just
recently and so everybody's been contacting the office with concerns in in support of this or against it most against it there's couple that have been in support of it there were a couple of accidents down that way over the last couple of years uh but most people are against the the intrusion of such a big
arm okay not necessarily against pedestrian safety right of course um but just the intrusion of such a big and not for nothing I'm sure that it'll be a lot cheaper well this is 1.3 million yeah so and if I may also say it's just getting
two gated neighborhoods across A1A to their private beach accesses okay thank you any other questions on the item sir you have question question um well we got a card so we'll come to comment I'm sorry uh David breelan I say
that right sir good morning David veland 5593 cordgrass Lane in South Shores Melbourne
Beach um I was the one that emailed you folks this only it mentions in this study that there was a fatality um Crossing A1A she was a
friend of mine and uh and it shook up our entire div um Comm community and I took it upon myself to call fdot and request some kind of
mitigation to help us get across the the road safely if you're standing where we traditionally cross the road and you look to your left like a good child was always taught to look both ways it's a
slight curve in A1A and there's foliage and so that you can turn look left look right and start to cross and then suddenly there's a car right there and I think that's what happened to Maryland uh
she had a visual impairment which didn't help matters but um nevertheless it killed her and uh fdot said to me that it's going to take a long time and your chances are fairly slim that they will be able to do
anything about it because there's a lot of other projects that they've got going so a year and a half after Marilyn died another friend of mine at the same spot was crossing hit and
killed Dave Clark nice man and within a day I don't now remember whether it was before or after but within a day of his death a bicyclist was hit in the same spot and
killed I I can sympathize with my neighbors that have sent you uh information that they don't like this they don't like the way it looks I don't either but for God's sake isn't it more important to save lives than to bother
people's uh aesthetic sense of their surroundings this is not something we want to change the other kinds of of uh Crossing with the blinking yellow lights and so forth traffic ignores that so
very often and believe me um the that the very often the traffic is going a lot faster than 45 miles per hour it doesn't give you that much time to make a mistake so I'll leave you with that and
pray that you uh forget about sending a letter to fdot thank you okay uh commissioner Alman you had a comment sir yes thank you uh this is a huge issue I don't know In Site Beach we
had Sophia Nelson 12 years old tragically killed Crossing A1A and that was after The Pedestrian C crossover was installed and um the actual crossovers can be dangerous they don't know how to use
them and they were confusing with all the Clutter so I think um I I certainly agree with what you're saying uh with it's we got to make Crossing A1A safer I do it all the time I live on A1A one of the joys I have was walking the beach
and having that safe Crossing going down to get my coffee you know it's important but it's probably healthy to take a look at options um to make sure that we get the best possible solution it was so controversial when we lost Sophia Nelson
that it became a bill in the legislature it didn't pass trying to address these design issues so I hope we do something I agree with you and I hope maybe this will be an opportunity to work with our transport planners and staff to to may even put
something even better I did notice and what I wanted to say I know down in Sebastian there's um some pedestrian crossovers that they have there which are really nicely done and most of the lights in the attention getter is
embedded in the concrete um and it's not intrusive and it does seem to get your attention more I think one of the problems that you have these design stand standards that are part of the national Transportation safety code and it kind of limits our engineers and
designers ability to be creative and Innovative but maybe this is an opportunity to do something unique um and to set some precedent so I I support what you're saying a user of those crossovers but let's really take a look I am committed to making this happen and
maybe we can do something even better than the designs that we're seeing it um I I appreciate the ones we have in in the north northern part of the beaches north of fifth AV and I support them but but I there's a there's a national debate like I said even on the floor of
the house there's a national debate on these design standards and um it it maybe could become a big opportunity uh commissioner delene I just wanted to say um I commissioner Altman you said that so beautifully and that's exactly how I feel so I just
wanted to second that okay I was unclear was that a motion or commissioner ainson this is your item uh I'd like to make a motion uh that the board agreed to allow you to sign the letter okay we have a motion by commissioner ainson for the letter second we have a second by commissioner
delini clerk will call the role commissioner Delan yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner ainson yes commissioner Altman yes chairman feler yes we'll show that pass 5 okay we don't have any more public comment cards we'll
go into board reports uh County Manager I have no report County attorney no report Mr chair okay commissioner Atkinson I all I'm sorry I'm sorry I I did uh commissioner
joany yes thank you so um I just wanted to give a quick update on some of the stuff that I've been up to the past couple weeks uh I had my first cfx meeting and uh shout out to them they run a great meeting and I appreciate um
all the help that they were getting me uh through that and there's not really much to report um in regards to bvar County most of the stuff that they speak on has to do with more of the central um Central areas um and then later on that
day was the TPO meeting which most of you were there so um this is more so for the public but some of the things that we discussed were about the road diets so meaning like shrinking of the lanes and things like that it was pretty apparent that um all of the elected officials around that table were were on
the same page that um we'd probably like to see some different ideas coming about and then public participation there was a um there was a uh pretty robust conversation about that and uh you know
getting the public more involved in uh in the design and the um uh whatnot of our roads um something in uh in my district that gets talked about a lot even though it's outside of my
district is Clear Lake Road and um it's it's always a topic of conversation um and uh luckily when I was driving out to through Lake Mary they were um I was on Highway 46 and the road that
they were repaving and redoing there was really nice in my opinion and there weren't um those harsh curbs and things like that even though they did some other safety things and so that's what I would like to see honestly moving forward in in some of our projects um I wanted to say thank you to
our North Parks um Ian thank you so much for calling everybody together we had a a meeting with with our North parks and it was just so great getting to meet everybody and um see you know they do such a great job maintaining our parks
in in North Bard um and uh I was able to go on a tour at the supervisor of elections so shout out to our supervisor he um runs a tight ship and um we should feel really good about our elections
here in Bard County um um and uh he he actually also won a national award which I thought that was pretty cool that happened recently um and then our let's see if I can get this right eastern central Florida Regional planning
Council that um board uh it was their yearly award so there wasn't really much to report from that but hopefully at our next meeting I'll have more of a report to bring back um but I did just want to bring up one one thing for um for our
board uh we had kind of talked about it a little bit at the budget Workshop but I I just wanted to bring up um how we do public participation in the workshops and I was wondering um when we had
talked at the budget Workshop um nobody was on board with talking after each item um which I was wondering if we could compromise to letting people speak at the the beginning and the end because if somebody comes prepared um with a
speech it would be nice to give them the opportunity to say their their peace and move on with their day if they're not able to stay for the whole 3 four hours um till the end of the meeting that's something that happened to me personally last year and um I would like to give them the
opportunity to speak at both because if if people choose to sit through the entire meeting it would be nice to give them the respect to um let them say their thing that they came prepared maybe they have further thoughts um after seeing the presentation so I didn't know if there was any board support for for
that any comment on that or questions are are you saying you're saying both or one or the other ideally both to choose sir yeah I certainly understand and we do need a place for public
participation but this is the opportunity for the board and individual Commissioners to hear from the staff and the complexities of our budget we didn't even get through I don't know if we even got halfway through we didn't maybe we we ought to
maybe focus a time for us and then maybe some other time for public input because I I I I just worry that bog us down that's all right it's more I see it more as a technical and and actually we didn't have that
many questions I guess we can ask staff personally but I see that as a technical briefing not as necessary a public hearing but it's a opportunity to hear the nitty-gritty technical components of the budget and hear the requests from the Constitutional officers I understand where you're coming from that was sort
of my impression I agree with that that you know that's really a time for um for for the Departments to come to us and tell us what our what their needs are and whatnot but I also feel like a huge piece that we're missing is we also
should take into account the public input to our budget and you know maybe like at the last meeting there was only two um public speakers and so I don't know how much time it'll actually take up um you know and I I this is something
near and dear to my heart that I ran on that I feel passionate about is bringing the public into the conversation of how we're operating um because I some people talk about the Public's apathy well the apathy came from not
feeling heard I'm sitting here right now because the public felt like they weren't heard and my message my the the things that I'm passionate about that's why my district got behind me because they finally saw somebody that um they
feel like would listen to them and uh so I just feel like if I give up on this message now I'll I'll I won't be um staying true to my word so that's understandable thank you agree that okay uh but I can compromise on
before or after if that's something that um that the board would do okay I I think that's something they'll Ponder a little bit uh longer here um thank you okay uh in board report um
commissioner Goodson um nothing other than the fact it's it's always nice to have something on the agenda that you don't even have to speak to but yet get a 5 vote so thank you so much okay uh commissioner ainson I do
have a report um I attended my first Indian River legon National Estuary program meeting and they elected me their secretary teach you to go yeah uh I just wanted to mention uh one thing that I mean most of it was so scientific and it was going to
take me a while to to figure out all of the stuff that they do but one of the things I thought was pretty interesting um a presentation was given called runoff to resilience smart watersheds basically the the idea is to use ponds uh near the IRL to help with
flood management and filtering water before it gets back into the Lagoon um they're doing a five-year pilot program which is all privately funded the reason I think that is interesting is because most of these ponds are going to be located in Bard uh just naturally that's
where they are so I thought that was pretty interesting um I'll also be attending the Lagoon Champion award celebration um which will be honoring Dr Dwayne def that's on February 28th um on February 7th a couple of my staff and myself went and toured promise
in Bard if you don't know what it is you should check it out it's pretty inspiring they also had a uh a fundraiser um where I went and bought a purse I don't need but promise is a a nonprofit which provides um housing and
a lot more for young adults with disabilities in our community uh they get a sense of Independence and inclusivity and some work skills it was it was really really interesting I went there several years ago not long after they opened um to check it out for a
place for my great niece uh but now that it's all done and complete and the residents are there like I said it's pretty inspiring to go to commissioner al man thank you Mr chairman I I want to I was at the TPO and was was able to
attend the uh celebration of life we lost an amazing Public Service servant who is a remarkable Bard County citizen with Paul googleman I'd known Paul Katie you're going to love the East Central Florida Regional planning Council the friends I made in that organization and
one of them was Paul googleman we served together there in the 80s but Paul City attorney for numerous cities he was our attorney for the TP attorney for the state TPO um You Meet A lot of people in this process and Paul gamman was right at the top what an amazing human being
very compassionate giving caring brought people together and he will be sorely missed um I just wanted to acknowledge uh his passing and to remember Paul for what he did for everyone also I um this is almost a
100th day anniversary I've been careful not to give too many reports but one of the more common questions I get from the public is how do you like being back on the commission you know after being there here for eight years and leaving for over 20 in the state and coming back here I I want to say that I love it and
I can tell this commission I love our commission I love our members this is a remarkable board with remarkable people every every one of you has something unique to offer and so I'm enjoying it and so my first 100 days have been very
positive I really am enjoying working with the staff uh I it's really heartening for me to know having been here in the 80s and my predecessor what go goes back to the 50s when I first ran I to see how far the county has come
um this is a great County and I have to it's probably the only County maybe the only local government certainly of our size you pick up a phone and you call your G County government somebody over there answers the phone it's remarkable and of all the things we do that's my favorite and so I just want to give a
call out for those who really are accessible to the public we are very very open and accessible to the public and then finally I know is brought up about Doge in the state and there's a lot of attention to do on the federal level which is great and I love Elon
Musk but I I want to point something out and I believe in that Jeffersonian principle of government closest to the people governs the best our County government's incredibly efficient and I I I found this from a lot of experience
that a lot of times people look at what's happening on the federal government and then they try to apply that same Paradigm to local government and as a result it creates a tremendous amount of harm to local government it
can actually impede the many good things such as efficiency and providing services to the people that uh that we have to be careful that we don't apply those same uh filters to our local government than we apply to a very large
and ominous and distant federal government that does need to be trimmed down I don't think it's any coincidence that a lot of those that are pushing do are talking about the money that we save let's put it down to local government
local and state government as a matter of fact um president Trump wants to do away with the Department of Education doesn't want to do away with education he wants to take the money and give it right down to the States and when you talk about giving it to the states you're basically talking about giving it to school boards so we're not a part of
that problem we need to continue to do what we do maybe uh work hard to to sell the message and show and demonstrate to the public how we are providing incredible services and saving them money so must my first 100 day report
and I I am really enjoying working with this board and the staff it's a great honor to be here we certainly appreciate um positive comments um oh okay I dop if I try I okay
I I I have I have a couple of things first of all uh Ian's in the box and uh you know we have the uh Veterans reunion coming up in Wickham Park um and I think that's a very important uh Community
event and um he has something for Ian sir thank you commissioner after some research uh we do have the ability the request was to see if we could figure out a way to help veterans from out of County who don't have access excuse me
to the resident fees for camping to see if we can provide a discount uh after research we found that in the ordinance in our code of ordinances in chapter 78 under Parks and Recreation fees there is language that allows the camping fees to
be wav from time to time by the department director so after discussion uh after conversations with the commissioner uh we are looking at putting in place for this event a 25% discount for camping fees for our veterans for that Traveling Wall
event I appreciate that sir very much uh and I again I think that's a that's a great Community event uh just real quick we had uh kind of gone through the exercise of trying to appropriate some monies that were left in the TDC for
some of the smaller events that kind of fell through the uh the new uh sort of category if if if you will of of what qualifies and and and what doesn't and um me and commissioner Alman uh we we
each came up with two so I'm going to I'm going to amend my prior request I'd like to have another crack at this because I think these are again good community events uh he put uh field Manor and also Green Gables yes I had uh
put the native rhythms um that's in Wickam Park um and uh also the Melbourne art show both free events open everybody they don't exclude anybody I think I think that's great anyways I'd like the rest of you maybe by next commission
meeting to come up with two not to exceed $220,000 okay and we take we have another crack at this that's that's your opportunity and if you and if you don't then we we'll move on without you is that fair everybody okay thank you all
right I think we're done and it so it's 10:19 uh let's let's do 20 can can we just meet at 10:45 in the um County managers um conference room is that good for everybody all right we'll see you
out there thank you 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 disclaim any in all responsibility or liability for any defamatory or slanderous statements expressed by any member of the public during any such period
[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]