hey hey hey heat heat feel girl hey 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 limits 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 again welcome to the April 22nd uh regular meeting of the board of county commissioners we have a quorum
i'll call the meeting to order this morning we have invocation by Pastor Brian Moore with East Coast Christian Center sir you're recognized thank you thank you for the opportunity i want to also say thank you for the acknowledgement of National Day of
Prayer next week we uh appreciate that let's pray heavenly Father we're uh we're grateful for today and uh we're grateful for this community and the leadership um that here is before us and God I just pray that your wisdom will be poured out liberally you say "If we'll ask for you'll give it to us." And we're
thankful for wisdom thank you for protection and for your blessing on this community and you've been faithful and we're uh we're thankful for that we have so much to be grateful for today and so God I just pray that your presence would be um among us and we're thankful that where we gather in your name that you'd be here and so thank you for leadership
and for guidance today in Jesus name amen amen thank you sir very much i'll lead us in the pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one
nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay commissioners we have minutes to approve from January 16th 2025 tourism workshop the February 20th 2025 budget
workshop and the March 13 2025 zoning meeting is there a motion for We have a motion to approve by Commissioner Delaney is there a second second we have a second by Commissioner Atinson the clerk will call the role commissioner
Delaney yes vice Chair Goodson yes commissioner Atinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman Felner yes we'll show that passes 5-0 thank you very much uh I have two resolutions this morning before we do that I just have a housekeeping issue and I don't want to forget it um I
have a request from staff to move the July 3rd zoning meeting to July 17th is everyone amendable to that is there a motion i think we have a
motion by Commissioner Goodson is there a second second we have a second by Commissioner Delaney clerk will call the role on the motion commissioner Delaney yes vice Chair Goodson yes commissioner Atinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman
Felner yes we'll show that passes 5-0 thanks for that Commissioners i appreciate that i think uh having the meeting right before Fourth of July is probably not a smart thing okay uh today I have two
resolutions and so Miss Manurva Rogers and your your group if you'd like to come up i have a resolution for meioitis awareness month in Bvard County
whereas residents of Bvard County are among those affected by myioitis and other rare diseases because nearly one in 10 Americans have rare diseases and whereas idiopathic inflammatory myopathies collectively referred to as
myioitis are rare chronic autoimmune muscle wasting diseases and myioitis often features debilitating muscle inflammation and other symptoms such as pain fatigue and trouble swallowing and meioitis can result in
meioitis associated interstitial lung disease and whereas meioitis is difficult to diagnose so treatment is often delayed and individuals generally experience difficulty in finding a health care provider with expertise in their condition
whereas all who suffer with meioitis experience reduced quality of life especially as no cure has been found and life expectancy is shortened especially for those with inclusion body meioitis and whereas the myioitis association TMA
is the leading international patient advocacy organization serving the myioitis community focusing on patient services education research and public awareness so as to achieve a world without meioitis the myioitis
association is organizing a nationwide observance of myioitis awareness month now therefore be it resolved that the board of county commissioners of Bvoulevard County Florida does hereby recognize May 2025 as myioitis awareness
month in Bvard County and that all citizens are encouraged to come together learn more about all the forms of meioitis and its symptoms and support the families in our community who will benefit from greater awareness of these rare diseases done ordered and adopted
in regular session this 22nd day of April 2025 and I'll make a motion uh for this one is there a second second there's a second by Commissioner Delaney clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes vice Chair Goodson yes
commissioner Atinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman Felner yes congratulations manurva you're recognized good morning Commissioner Felner um members of this chamber all the commissioners and everyone my name is
Minurva Rogers i am honored to be here today as an advocate for myioitis awareness as someone living with dermatioitis one type of meioitis I know firsthand the challenges that come with the rare and
misunderstood disease i want to take the opportunity to thank Commissioner Fner uh his team and all the members of this chamber for recognizing the importance of myioitis awareness month this
proclamation is not just words on paper it is a step forward uh toward greater understanding earlier diagnosis and better support for those affected with myioitis myasitis can be an invisible and but it
impacts uh is lifech changing fatigue muscle weakness chronic pain and skin reactions are daily battles for many of us that's why raising awareness is so critical by shining a light on meioitis
we are not only supporting those who live with it but also encouraging research better treatment and a stronger community today we recognize that no one should fight myioitis alone with awareness
comes action and with actions come hope thank you so much for uh standing with us on in this fight okay and I have a resolution framed for you congratulations thank you okay
commissioners miss Loretta may I bring your group i should be about half the room it normally is okay i have a resolution again this year
for a national day of prayer and and I'm honored you'd ask me to to do this again okay whereas civic prayers and national days of prayer have a long and venerable history in our constitutional republic
dating back to the first Continental Congress in 1775 and whereas the Declaration of Independence our first statement as Americans of national purpose and identity made the laws of nature and nature's God the foundation of our
United States of America and asserted that people have inalienable rights that are God-given and whereas the Supreme Court has affirmed the right of state legislatures to open their sessions with prayer and the Supreme Court and the US
Congress themselves begin each day with prayer and whereas in 1988 legislation setting aside the first Thursday in May in each year as a national day of prayer was passed unanimously by both houses of
Congress and signed by President Ronald Reagan and whereas the National Day of Prayer is an opportunity for Americans of all faiths to join in united prayer to acknowledge our dependence on God to give thanks for blessings received to
request healing for wounds endured and to ask God to guide our leaders and bring wholeness to the United States and her citizens and whereas it is fitting and proper to give thanks to God by observing a day of prayer in Bvard County when all may acknowledge our
blessings and express gratitude for them while recognizing the need for strengthening religious and moral values in our state and nation now therefore be it resolved that the board of county commissioners in Bvoulevard County Florida does hereby proclaim Thursday
May 1st 2025 to be designated as a day of prayer in Bvard County and encourage the citizens to observe the day in ways appropriate to its importance and significance done order and adopted in regular session this 22nd day of April 2025 commissioners I'll make the motion
for this one is there a second second there's a second by Commissioner Delaney clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes vice Chair Goodson yes commissioner Atinson yes commissioner Altman yes chairman Felner yes congratulations and Loretta are you
recognized yes thank you thank you thank you so good morning thank you to the commissioners thank you Chair Felner and and welcome to the new county commissioners it's good to see your faces i'm Loretta Doer i am the founder
of Dove Bible Club which is an after-school club that shares the gospel of Jesus Christ with students in schools i'm also the Bvard County coordinator for the National Day of Prayer Task Force and their goal and their mission
is to multiply into to unify public prayer for America so the leader the president Kathy Branzel and she uh she's over the entire United States where she's
gathering all of the states praying for America on that day um you heard Commissioner Felner say since 1775 and then there was a Truman President Truman in 1952 called for a day of prayer ronald
Reagan President Ronald Reagan in 1988 designated it as the first Thursday so every first Thursday in May there's a national day of prayer millions of people will be praying for family and
business and education the military the government the church and media we will be praying and this is just a representative just a few of the different ones that will be praying in Brevar County and I we just want to
thank you all for designating May 1st 2025 as a day of prayer in Brevar County you have done that for the last eight years and we give you a hand thank you so much thank you so much thank you
thank you and and if I will say um our president President Trump and he said "We need God we need God in our nation in our government we need God we want God." And when he declared when he talked about
the resurrection of Jesus Christ and he celebrated Holy Week Jesus died he was buried he came back to life and now he's sitting at the right hand of the father so we just want to introduce we want you to see your constituents and if you see
this here oh guess what the the theme for the National Day of Prayer this year is coming from Romans 15:3 pour out to the God of hope and be filled so call out to God you need wisdom call out to
God you need peace call out to God so let's uh this here we'll give you a brochure but thank you again for making this day a day of prayer in Bvard County
well I would love for the uh our volunteers National Day of Prayer volunteers introduce themselves so you can know some of your constituents pas well my husband Mark O trainer can
you you come on um over here my pastors um pastor of the mission church and we're just all we're there are several churches represented here but I just like to make a point that you do have a handout here that gives you the listing
from very early in the morning to um later in the evening uh the prayer events all around the county and there's 51 actual locations Some of them are churches some of them in business well I 51 locations and 64
um I'm sorry that I should have added the virtual prayer meetings but you can tell she's the leader of the National Day of Prayer and uh but you're right with the virtual and even the territories are getting involved the US territories we do have um one in Puerto
Rico but we know that there's more than what we have published here these all go up on the Florida website to show Florida and you should see the red dots all over Bard County that show the red dots of these gatherings of all kinds of
churches businesses it's um multiple languages ministries um home groups just uh uh kids it's schools and flagps government facilities um all all throughout our county and if
I didn't already say it multiple languages which amazes me and some of these churches are multi- multi-church gatherings in one place and or there are some churches that open and they just have uh all day prayer where people walk
in and pray at this time that time this time that time it is just so amazing but this day is important because it has come through our government requests that all Americans pray on this day but I'd like you to know that beyond this
day you are always prayed for that's right yes we we need it so I I appreciate that very much um Okay i have the frame of resolution for you and then Commissioner Felner I just want you to I want you to see who we have here just say your name and where you're from go
ahead john Keane and uh we oversee Acts 2 Ministries in Melbourne okay james Fontino love in the name of Christ my name is Richard and Evelyn Cologne we're part of a community gospel truth in West Melbourne
bana Bostik Sar Refuge Christian Center i had the pleasure of praying at one of your meetings a week ago two weeks ago so I'm happy to be here again today coco Coco i'm Edie from community um gospel
truth and I work also with DO and also volunteer for national day of prayer task force margaret Irwin from the mission church prayer coordinator Palm Bay Pal Bay Martinez Gospel Truth Brother Garcia sorry brother Garcia
missions church Garcia missions church and then from they have the prayer gathering in Varia Reverend Marcela Roas Palm Bay Brother Ed I live in Palm Bay worship at the mission church in Palm Bay very very good okay I have the frame of resolution
for you congratulations again thank you again thank you good to see i used to see you at the schoolboard meetings body can we get around evie come up here brenda come on brenda you're tiny
thank you all thank you i can see you okay god bless you god bless you sir god bless you god bless you god bless you Miss Atkinson thank you okay commissioners we'll move on to
consent is there anything anyone wants to take off and consent is there a motion for consent move to approve we have a motion by Commissioner Delaney is there a second for consent we have a second by Commissioner Alman clerk will call the
role commissioner Delaney yes vice Chair Goodson yes commissioner Atinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman Felner yes we'll show them passes 5-0 thank you very much commissioners we have uh cards on the G portion of public
comments elizabeth Blackford is Elizabeth still here there you are good morning good morning commissioners county manager i'm Elizabeth Blackford from Palm Bay here to talk more about some of
the excellent ideas from this year's SpeakUp Breard submissions i'd like to draw your attention to four suggestions that could easily be combined and approved they are numbers 23
36 68 and 75 these ideas are likely to succeed because they offer these advantages first they use programs already in existence at Keep Bvard Beautiful the IFAUS Bvard Extension
Office and the Sheriff's Farm programs second they offer landscape training certification and hiring incentives to county residents and inmates in a line of work with otherwise very low barriers to entry
third they reduced beach and roadside litter from entering and polluting the lagoon and finally they would steadily remove invasive plants like Brazilian pepper replacing them with properly maintained native plants and
trees while researching the feasibility of these four suggestions our ad hoc committee identified existing county programs that already provide necessary training and personnel two of the offices said their programs are
currently being revised and making this an ideal time to incorporate any new material with minimal effort i have provided a summary of the relevant seers to each of you and to the county manager briefly showing how
consolidation revisions and use of existing resources could bring four great ideas to life at minimal expense i hope you'll vote to accept these four recommendations with revisions at your May meeting thank you very much thank
you Dolores Conway good morning morning commissioners good morning um let's see i was going to try to I'm glad you know how that works i know i I think they can
see it on the screen up here oh okay all right that's good thank you okay all right my name is Dolores Conway i live in the South Beaches area of Melbourne Beach the microphone just a little closer to you just for the benefit of people at home thank you okay
i live in the South Beaches area of Melbourne Beach i'm from BIPA thank you for allowing the public comment today in July 2023 the Florida legislature designated the South Beaches now called the
BBIA as an area of critical state concern today I would like to address the native trees and shrubs on the barrier island in the area of critical state concern trees especially those in tight groups can act as wind breaks
slowing down the wind in a hurricane tree canopy also reduces the force and speed of the rain before it hits the ground roots hold the dirt in place and absorb storm water runoff trees are essential to the barrier islands years
ago the Bvard County Code of Ordinances excluded tree protection for most of the island many lots west of A1A are around 75 by 150 or 20.26 acres while others
are around 1 acre the exclusion site size for saving trees is one and a quarter acres and under the county code has 28 pages of detailed information about land clearing and tree protection but excludes most of the lots
on the barrier island i think this was an oversight at that time section 65 landscape performance standard states single family lots one and a quarter acres or less are exempt from removal
and replacement criteria as outlined in 62-4341 item 18 including specimen tree criteria the exemptions for lots under one and a quarter acres is having a devastating effect trees are being removed and not replaced once all the
native trees and shrubs have been removed from a lot it is never the same the trees are gone forever i have some pictures of before and after there's a lot before and here's after
here's two lots that before they were developed and this is how they look now there's just a couple palm trees and then here's a house where most of the landscape was kept the house was push pushed towards the ocean and then there was a driveway but most
of the trees were kept so there there are ways to do it trees that should be saved that are good for the island are live oaks sea grapes and sand like sand live oaks to save the native trees on the island
please consider the following amendments to the county code which basically removes 1.25 acres or less and replaces it with 25 acres or less so under section
65-4334 the single family lots of 125 acres or less that have a CO would go to 25 acres or less and the same with section 654341 in 2019 Kurt Smith and staff did
a lot of work addressing this problem but it was not taken up by the commission i want to ask if the tree preservation amendments could get a second look to try to get that exemption removed thank you thank you would you mind emailing that to us yes definitely
will i will okay i'll email everybody thank you and I'm from District Three thank you Christina Fleming good morning commissioners today I want to talk about the firefighter EMTs who have been serving their communities for
five or 10 or more years those who have stood the test of time enduring countless 24s been there through the holidays missed the birthdays celebrated in turnout gear and the life-changing calls that leave lasting marks these aren't new recruits these are seasoned
firefighters fathers mothers husbands wives and neighbors and now they're being told "It's time to go to parag school it's mandatory figure it out." But let me ask figure what out these are men and women who after years of stagnant wages had no choice but to
build a second job into their lives just to support their families to put food on the table to avoid housing in the very communities they protect they've created budgets that work barely budgets that don't include quitting that second job or coughing up hundreds of dollars in fuel for weekly
clinicals and classes budgets that don't stretch to cover the unpaid hours away from their families now we're asking them to throw that structure away to give up the few hours they have left with their kids their spouses just to meet a requirement that was signed years ago we're not talking about an
unwillingness to serve we're talking about exhaustion about respect and about fairness yes the job evolves and yes there is a need for medics but what's being done here is not support it is pressure it's force it's disrupting
lives marriages mental health and a financial stability we are cornering the very people who have already given so much we are taking the firefighter to become a paramedic and then in turn while they're in school getting their medic and then becoming medics after a
year we're hiring another firefighter EMT to fill the spot that they just vacated you're making it a shell game it's a waste of time and money if leadership wants more medics then they need to invest in them they need to hire them with comparable wages don't punish
loyalty with mandates reward it with partnership because here's the bottom line we cannot keep asking more from people without giving them more to work with we're not building a stronger department this way we're burning out at the core thank you thank
you Sandra Sullivan good morning Sandra Sullivan so the county is in a fiscal crisis $2.2 billion budget you got 2.2 just billion dollars in capacity needs and maintenance needs for roads and firefighters another illustration of
just how poorly this county has been managed fiscally but there's a big secret sh don't tell anybody we have a situation with Space Florida because they're not paying
taxes now you've probably seen the news that came out in Spectrum there's a massive amount of development going to be happening on Space Florida last year legislatively our legislators allowed live local there and now there's hotels and recreation and lots of other things
interesting the NASA agreement doesn't allow those uses by their lease agreement but I'm sure they'll change that so you guys did a study under public comment so the way it was done wasn't
legal um on the Merit Island Incorporation the biggest piece of information that came out on that was the unfunded liability for flooding between five and 10 million to the county that's why you wanted to hand
it off get rid of it okay because who's going to pay for that goodson's been great on this subject he's brought it up space Florida doesn't want to pay for it they they said right here in this me in this room we want to use other people's money
meaning they want to use the taxpayers's money this is the problem up there county paid a half a million dollars for a hydraology study that puts that on the 10-year flood plane this is the federal wetlands inventory very clearly a problem
so then let's get to NBEDs which is coming up and their minutes show that they want to tap NB beds to pay for the sewage pipes to Sykes Creek sykes Creek which has one of the highest dumps in Bvard County for sewage
dumps so you see we have a problem here because federal government says when land when federal land is leased to private entities that the local government the state and the and the local boulevard has the right to do taxation
when you read the state statute they gave space Florida the right to not be taxed landwise but not the improvements so says "You guys have a fiscal crisis ahead of you and you're putting your blinders on pretending you don't see
this problem it's time for you guys to go to the state get some legal opinions if you need to or to your own attorney who just seems to do the will of the commissioners which is why I suggest going to the state and get this fixed because the burden you want to put on
the people is too much." Thank you Carly Cook hello you guys good morning hello good morning my name is Karly Cook i'm a public affairs specialist for the SBA Small Business Administration for
Disaster and Recovery and right now our Florida declaration has been back open again so everybody is all of the survivors of the hurricane Haleem and Milton disaster are not able to get disaster loans we have physical damage loans which are loans for people that
were directly hit by the um hurricane and then we also have EIDL which are economic injury and disaster loans that were for people that were indirectly hit by the disaster so for all the survivors out right now we do have loans that will
be able to help you manage to get your house or anything back to where you want we have this is for businesses homeowners renters and more so it's open for everyone and is very beneficial to the
community and you guys can also at um www.sba.gov/desaster that's where you'll be able to apply and we also have BRC's all around the Florida that you'll be able to go to also with our um which are business recovery centers for the
survivors also and that's it for me thank you you came all the way from Atlanta to tell us that thank you i have a question is that right have a question one more time for me you came all the way from Atlanta to tell us that today or do you live in I came from um Palm Bay today to talk to you guys but the
address so I'm from Atlanta though okay yes all right uh Commissioner Alman has a question for you ma'am thank you for being here because I know it's a we want people to take advantage of these hardships when is the deadline for filling out those applications so for the physical damage loans the deadline
is April 27th and then for EIDL it's going to be Jul but after you also do have a 60-day grace period where they give you also to apply then too so they give you some room to work with you know great thanks all right thank you guys i do appreciate
you okay thank you very much okay uh we will move into I1 and I think Melissa Melissa and Kathy good morning commissioners um item
I1 is a request for approval of an RFP for the county manager searching consulting services um pursuant to the board's direction after the April 8th meeting staff drafted an RFP seeking proposals for consulting services to assist the board uh with the search for
qualified candidates for the position of county manager attached to the agenda item is the scope of services and the selection criteria for the RFP staff is requesting approval to advertise RFP in addition we're seeking approval um of the selection and negotiation committee
similar to what was done in 2017 the proposed committee includes the director of human resources the county attorney and either a commissioner or a um designate of the board with the board's approval the RFP will be advertised and the selection committee will review the
propose proposal submitted uh after its reviews of proposals the committee will bring its recommendations back to the board for final consideration once the board approves the selection of the consulting firm the selection negotiation committee will negotiate the terms of the contract and
bring that final contract back to the board for final approval okay commissioners questions for Melissa other questions no questions um now I just uh one quick
question just just to clarify we're talking about the consultant at this point not necessarily the minimum requirements for the next county manager that's something we'll work out with a consultant yeah once the consultant is selected they can work with you we're just on the RFP for the uh consultant
today okay um we don't have you have a question no questions okay we don't have any cards on this item so we'll move into discussion on the item there's uh Commissioner Atinson um I'd like to make a motion to approve the
requested actions um with the chairman appointed uh to the selection committee okay is there any other discussion on the item i don't know i have some discussion okay let's let's go to your discussion and then we'll come back to the motion i
don't know if you all had a chance to see some of the changes that I proposed um in in the RFP um personally I would really love to see this a little bit more in the public not so much behind closed doors with a
committee um some of the changes that I'm proposing is um to get rid of the cone of silence like I said I'd like it to be more in the public um for us to ask our questions you know um at a meeting or a
workshop or however we decide to do it um rather than a three panel um committee a three- member panel um I would like to have the whole board as the people who picks the um
consultant and then um I was also hoping that we could ask for uh email copies and um also it says in there that the county is not required to notify submitters of
um amendments and so I just thought that you know it would be it would be nice to for us to send that out to people so that they're aware if there are any changes that are made um and then majority vote required to
add um a candidate and I I just felt like you know um all of us should have the you know the ability to bring forward somebody that we um you know would like to interview
um and then the there was no minimum amount of candidates stated so I was hoping that we could ask the the consultant you know that are they um are they capable of bringing forward you know a substantial amount i put 20 but
I'm not sold on that that amount um no community engagement request specified i would like to request the firm's prior experience with uh community engagement so um not all firms are created equal in my
opinion and so some people might do a better job of engaging the public and so it would be nice to hear about that experience um there were no samples requested uh of the firm's RFPs and so I
just feel like um we should be able to see a sample of their work before we decide to hire them um another one is it states uh bi-weekly updates on the candidate search i would prefer weekly updates and then social
media is not included in the reference checks and in 2025 I just believe that we should be um you know uh they should be checking social media accounts but um just for my own clarification on that
when you say uh social media references now what what do you mean exactly by that for the for the consultant so social media you mean for the consultant or you mean for the uh the candidate when we get to that point so in the RFP for the consultant it talks about things
that we're asking them um which one is that number 11 basically we're we're asking them um it says verify the educational background of the board selected
candidates and conduct criminal um financial newspaper i'm asking to add social media and civil litigation checks okay for the consultant right okay um do you have other things on your list
i didn't mean to interrupt you there sure um there was no time limit requested and so if we could um provide a recommended uh event timeline for the county manager procurement process
okay okay so those are just some of the things okay um uh I think we're happy to to try to address some of those morris I I think uh there might be a legal question or two in there so how about how about you weigh in on that
first this issue of cone of silence I I think specifically all right so um BCC 25 requires the cone of silence in every solicitation the purpose of the cone of silence is actually for transparency and to prevent
individual lobbying of commissioners and decision makers in the process it requires a more transparent and public process it's a fundamental protection of the process reading from BCC25 it says it's designed to protect the professional integrity of the public procurement process by shielding it from
undue influence prior to the recommendation of contract award the board would have to wave BCC 25 in order to adopt that particular recommendation it's a requirement of every state agency under state law the state law chapter 287 doesn't directly
apply that to local governments most local governments have adopted it my thought wasn't to um wasn't to get rid of transparency i I would like the us to forego this policy and to to have this public so that you
know um basically the consultants could come to a workshop or a commission meeting and they could give us their spiel um and then the five of us you know decide so it was never intended for um any kind of backdoor deals or
anything like that understood reading from BCC25 the cone of silence does not apply to the county's designated representative noted in the solicitation or discussion at a duly notice pre-proposal conference or at a public meeting cone of silence doesn't apply to public meetings so um if that's the
concern there's no need to eliminate the cone of silence i don't think we're in conflict there i think we're we're definitely going to have multiple public meetings about this um um on the so your issue of the timeline
um so in in this RFP let's let's just suppose because I I don't I I think I can agree with you uh I'll just I'll just say in in theory in my mind uh at the beginning of the new fiscal we we have a county manager right is that is
that where you're headed on that one yes uh commissioners are we are we amendable to to that sure as a as a timeline amendment okay i I think um I think we could probably get that in the motion and then what about the weekly instead
of by bi-weekly updates from the consultant um is there any reason no melissa you you maybe you have more experience with this is that so the scope of services is just intended to give the the vendors an idea of what
we're looking for so that they can proide provide a responsive proposal excuse me um certainly as I mentioned before you know the the details of how the search is going to happen will still be worked out between the board and the vendor once it's selected so when we
hire the consultant we say "Here's here's what you're going to do and and here's the timeline those kinds of things." Yes sir uh but it wouldn't hurt if we had it in the RFP right like like the timeline we we just discussed yeah we did include that i'm I'm okay
personally with weekly um updates i don't think that's unreasonable close of business Friday you you send us an email right right something along those lines all right Commissioner and then the um I guess the two others that uh or three
sorry the three others that I've um feel really passionately about would be the samples of um RFPs that they've put out before and then um is that part of the process i don't mean to interrupt they don't do RFQS or RFPs they respond to
proposals that but they don't do any or proposals whatever their sample proposals have been in the past i just figured that before we you know hire somebody we should see what their work has been in the past so I guess uh they
have that would indicate that they've done this before in other jurisdictions and they could include basically a resume that says here's here's two other jurisdictions I did this in is that is that commissioner
what I'm what I'm hearing what are what does staff think about that we we do this RFP does ask for resumes of the people that are going to be working on this i I tell you what since that asks for the resume maybe we can
just follow up when we get to some candidates to say can you send us some samples can you send us some Okay I I think I think one will lead to the other and then the the next one is the um the emailed copy if if the um people who are
um applying for this if they could email their version not just the USB because I feel like that'll be more accessible easier um for not only staff if we get a public record request or something like that it's simpler to just pop an email over than it is to um you know have to
an email of their work versus of their um of their resume of their application for the job okay so rather than having a USB dropped off can we put that on a share drive or something those type of items are handled by the purchasing
process they apply to all current uh processes for RFPs and RFQS so if you want us to fundamentally change the processes we're doing you know that would that that's basically what we're talking about here okay well once we have an a consultant I think we can just
clarify that they're going to send us things electronically right is that Well I think this was more so targeted to um the the actual applications i just figured that it would be um more efficient the applications for county manager or the applications for the consultant for the
consultant okay because I think people are interested so they they're going to you know we we do get a USB drive on every proposal we receive right yes okay so we do have that so how about how about we split this whatever we get when we a USB is delivered we'll just put it
on some sort of share drive for the for the commissioners to have perfect yeah that's fine is that fair okay and then the final thing was the um three member three member panel um versus the five of us making this decision
that what that's the pleasure of the board um I'm I'm happy to do this or if somebody else uh is nominated by the board to do that um I think that was the motion though so um I'm Listen it's going to be a very
inclusive process all we're trying to get to here is get a consultant i would tend to agree with you that we need to we need to do that with some speed um if if we're going to meet our joint uh concern of having someone at the new
fiscal right so um sir I really don't know how you're gonna vote on this today with all the changes i think you're gonna have to go back and write a small book and send it to us okay i I I think I think actually the the clerk and staff they're are clear on
some of the things that that we just discussed so but it's the board clear okay so we need to probably restate the the motion then does that sound right sure i'll be happy to restate the motion my
motion is the same a motion is to approve the requested actions with the chairman appointed to the selection committee a second okay and but I think a couple key amendments in there is that we establish a timeline that we're going
to have a new county manager hired by the beginning of the new fiscal that friendly amendment is accepted okay so accept that as a friendly amendment accepted okay and then the bi-weekly to the weekly okay i think I think that's an administrative uh thing but but we've agreed collectively as a board um that
that's going to happen okay all right so thank you we're acceptable with with the amendment the clerk's clear on that we had a motion by Commissioner Atkinson we had a second by Commissioner Alman clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes vice Chair Goodson yes commissioner
Atinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman Felner yes we'll show that passes 5-0 thank you very much all right item I2 Commissioner Atinson thank you i'm just going to go ahead and and
make my motion um I move to approve the statement of legislative intent direct staff to prepare an ordinance implementing this intent schedule and advertise the ordinance for public hearing and direct the county manager to develop a fiscal year 2026 2025 2026
budget with the additional $3.3 million allocated to a specific fund to be designated to the BCFR budget okay um let's do questions first and we do have cards so is there questions on the item is it possible sorry is it possible to
um amend this today um and allow it to still go through if changes were made um I'll tell you what let's let's consider that as part of the discussion after we go to the cards we've got you know we've got I don't know
eight or nine cards here is that okay all right if there's no more questions we'll go to the cards okay all right jesse Wright sir you're recognized good morning commissioners i flew in from Los Angeles last night just for
this meeting uh I represent the old Sears Town Mall project which is a $220 million project with a mix zone of hotel assisted living and apartment complex i see my time is still not
running but ending inbed is the end of projects that can create jobs tax revenues and tourism it will end the dreams of the small business owners and developers
why because without incentives they will not survive what I'm requesting is allow the board to continue you can still kill the projects as they come through and see if they're legit or
not and promoting the small businesses this is about growth jobs and tourism i'm a witness to a hardworking people that have worked in in NBA for the last two and a half years
especially in my project that we are ending a runoff on a 22 acre project uh into the lagoon if you are killing the board for political reasons that I risk my case inbed drives local
growth it is built for Titusville and Northward County not Tallahassee or Washington ending it gives away local control of our community's future grants have revitalized commercial areas
attracted tourism and and also has helped reduce crime enb often serves as the final push that brings millions in private capital to Breford without it the money may go
to other counties or states weakening our competitive edge this is not a political risk it is a leadership opportunity supporting ENVBAT means protecting and creating jobs in this
community voters remember who is stood for opportunity not who backed down under pressure small businesses families and job seekers support this program because it gives them a real chance to succeed
and stay in Bre i'm hoping the commissioners to allow this board to continue and I know that Commissioner Goodson could possibly change his vote and I agree that as far as killing it
and I agree and I appreciate Commissioner Delaney that you have come and stated that you ran on killing the board and you have confessed that you don't need to do that i appreciate your time sir how much uh we have two questions um I have one real quick how
much are you requesting from the zone uh for the last two and a half years uh we've been working on a grant of about 2.4 million division of about 800,000 for each segment of the project as each section ends and of course Morris has
been working with the city attorney for well over two years okay thank you Commissioner Alman uh first of all I I want to thank you for coming to our community and working to upgrade Sirtown
Mall i grew up here i've been part of this community for a long time you were a little boy when this town mall opened up yeah I remember we used to have Tarzan land near there and um I can tell you all kinds of stories but um but it
really um Tisville is a special place and we're excited about what you're what you're doing and thank you for that question I have when did you make the investment when did you make the decision to purchase that that mall and upgrade it
uh the the offer was made back in uh 2017 and I purchased the property in February of 2018 the intention was to retrofit Sears unfortunately after Hurricane Irma that came through it
flooded Sears sears filed bankruptcy in July of 2018 and they wanted to uh rent it to a another entity which we ended up paying them to move out and retrofitting it was not an option and I saw the
community's need for a redevelopment we then started putting residential in the front facing US1 and we flipped the project and recently within the last couple of years we changed the um
independent senior living to assisted senior living because that is the need that the city city needs and that's why the project is moving forward as of right and we should be done with the infrastructure within the next 30 or 40 days the question I have for you your
decision to make these investments were those decisions based on or acting in reliance of our our local government providing this tax rec uh increment financing this
redevelopment entity to help support your investments yes because obviously uh we're getting rid of 1965 when Sears Town Mall was built and
you've had runoff for well over 60 years into the into the lagoon and so I assume that this incentive is going to be given to at least cover a portion of it and $220 million project 2.4 million is just a little over 1% yeah so this economic
development zone was something you based your decision to make these investments that is correct so my well I have a point during discussion but I thank you i think this would be a different meeting for me to present the project in a different setting that's what I understand
commissioner chairman I'd just like to thank you for remembering my name but there was two other votes so let me point them out to you okay commissioner Atkins Commissioner Felner you might want to make sure they change theirs okay i'll dance on this uh table right now if if that's what it takes for you
to change your vote we met before if we did have a meeting in my office okay sir thank you i have a question okay commissioner Delaney so can you tell us a little bit about um your project as far as um there is a business that is
actively polluting right now that you're not associated with onto your property and it goes basically directly into the lagoon and the upgrades and changes that you have made on your property are basically going to um make some huge
impacts to that correct yes Commissioner um the contamination from Cumberland Farms which is on the northwest corner of the project has been going on since
1983 and I've been fighting Cumberland Farms and I say this in public because we either end up suing them and FD because they believe that's their jurisdiction and city is not doing anything about it the contamination as you know it goes from west to east
ending up in the lagoon and we are putting them under pressure to end this either take it out and and do something to give us the no further action letter and yes I'm making sure I'm a standup guy making sure that this is going to
stop polluting the the lagoon and that's been going on again 60 years in addition to the runoff so this is really benzene that is going underground as you know the water tap is about 4 feet 3 to 4 feet so it moves
with the water going towards the lagoon thank you just to clarify the Cumberland Farms is on Hopkins yes right okay thank you sir thank you good morning uh I work for Space Tech Partners which is located in Titusville
and we are in the middle of operating standing up a training facility on Chaffy Drive to help out um manufacturing skills trades in the aerospace industry this started out as a grant from Florida Department of Commerce uh and we've also worked with
Troy Post in part of North Bard economic development zone uh for an agreement for funds to help us and also to locate in North Bard so uh to help in qualify for those funds we're in the middle of standing up and building out this this facility right now so I'm just wanted to
uh cover where it says honoring existing contractual agreements if that's going to continue to be the case i I believe that is the case sir that's required by law required by law that
makes me very happy thank you okay glad we answered that for you park agents good morning good morning my name is Bart Gchens chairman of the zone when I moved to unincorporated Titusville in 1990 I didn't know much about Bvard
County but became it became readily apparent to me that while working throughout the county that there existed an economic iron curtain starting at the beach line beline back then heading north to the county line
north Bard has experienced many economic downturns from the demise of the Mercury and Apollo programs the move of the governmental agencies to Vieiraa and most recently the end of the shuttle program and as you may recall in 2012
Scott P and 60 Minutes did a segment on Titusville after the shuttle program ended and they painted Titusville as dilapidated and inferred that we were finished we knew we needed to diversify and the zone was created some will say we
already have an economic development commission and that the zone is therefore a duplication of efforts i'm the past chair of the EDC and they do a fantastic job but not all economic consultants are aware of the advantages and the opportunities that North Bard
offers as these consultants often insist on locations in a better known area in the south end of the county therefore promoting the benefits of North Bard is the job of the zone staff and the board members many state that there is no need to offer incentives to the Bezos and the
Musks and yet all five districts in Bvard have employees working for these companies these employees buy homes pay property taxes etc which benefit the entire county simply put if North Boulevard has a population of approximately
45,000 and the future population and job growth decrease then the residents will be paying the increased taxes or receive less services as the cost of materials and labors increase the Jo the zone project portfolio lists 165 businesses as having
been assisted with financial technical or both services we have granted 54 incentivized projects where employees must meet employers must meet certain criteria or do not receive the incentive or grant dispersements some of the small
businesses which have created jobs in North Bard include Raider Outboards which is currently creating an outboard electric outboard motor for the Ukraine defense ministry paragon Plastics Gen H2 New Energy Electric Precision Shapes Red
Canyon Software all of these businesses started with less than 15 employees as you heard from Jesse we also assisted with redevelopment such as a Miracle City Mall if you all remember that and transformed it into Titusville
Landing and we are currently working with Jesse on the Sears Town Mall i heard comments such as "Well you all are back on your feet and need no longer no longer need the zone." To me that would be like Urban Meyer in a championship game telling Tim Tibo "It's the third
quarter we're up by three take a seat Tim we got this." The zerms the zone serves an essential function without the zone my fear is that we will see a reemergence of the economic iron curtain the zone is making North Bard a better
place in which to live work and play thank you for your time god bless you and God bless Bard County thank you sir bob White thank you Mr chairman members of the commission um I'm pleased to be able to
be here today to speak on behalf of this and to speak on behalf of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida you know our Jeffersonian principles are personal liberty limited government and free markets and I would just share something with you from the Declaration of Independence governments are instituted
among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed that phrase reflects the social contract theory which suggests that individuals agree to give up some freedoms in exchange for the protection of their rights by a government so there's always this conflict that exists between
individual liberty and the existence of government at all and that's where that consent of the governed always has to come into play um as far as personal liberty and go and and and limited government this by by doing this you
have an opportunity to eliminate an entire layer of government okay which obviously it served a purpose a very valuable purpose no one would argue that there wasn't a need at one point for a North Bard economic development zone to exist and clearly it served a useful
purpose but I do I'm one of those people that believes that it's it's run its course and it's no longer necessary and the consent of the governed ought to be now that we take those funds and move it to an area of expense that we would all agree is absolutely essential and that
of course is fire rescue and emergency services i don't think there's anybody in this room that would disagree that that is an essential government function and so this is an opportunity to eliminate a layer of government that's no longer in play no longer necessary and actually use that funding for for a
government that for a level of government a purpose of government that we all agree is necessary and as far as the free market goes that third principle if you will that third Jeffersonian principle I think clearly while there may have at one time been that barrier that was talked about at uh
at the beach line I don't believe that exists any longer i don't live in Titusville so I don't claim to know everything there is to know about Titusville but I've watched the development that's been happening up there and that's been going on and certainly some of that has been because of the Bvard Economic Development Zone but not all of it it's now standing on
its own pretty pretty firmly and I think it can continue to and so I would just encourage you to go ahead with this item and approve it today thank you very much i appreciate your time thank you sir robin Fiser good morning commissioners and chairman good morning i'm Robin Fischer 1625
Garden Street i um in 2011 I actually came down from that dis and walked down here and made a presentation to the board of county commissioners about the economic development zone and how I thought it was important to the future of North Bard uh it's ironic that 14
years later I'm back here trying to to save the zone um you know as a commissioner this a 72mi long county it's um your only strong is your weakest link and if you had a chain on that 72 mi and I always tried to as a
commissioner make sure that I was doing my best to represent the entire county and make sure I wasn't doing anything in one part of the county that hurt another part of the county and um I think this move would definitely hurt Northard some of the things during my time that we were able to do for example for
Commissioner Goodson in your district three I can remember the PY Homes property was one of those things that we tried to make sure that it was successful because it created uh the Fenbury um you know storm water thing in district uh three and five it was full
of dreams trying to create a park for kids with disability also in in district um five we also helped with St john Parkway which at the time if you guys remember in 2008 2009 2010 the economy was really bad and people were judging whether we ought to be buying property
whether we ought be we couldn't pave the existing roads why are we extending parkway but we realize the value of that parkway and your commissioner uh in your district commissioner aan towards um you know that and I want to thank commissioner Alman and and Commissioner Goodson when they were in the house to
help make that field a dream happen because you gave me state money and and that was a that was a big thing for us also i just um I think that it's important that we we realized and in district 4 the success of district 4 I know Duda had a lot to do with and the planning of it but district 4 has
greatly benefited from North Bard if you hadn't take the county seat out of it you hadn't take the school board out of it you hadn't take now likely the court the court uh system out of it i think that uh uh we would be better off and um I don't uh fault uh Vier because I think
they've done a great job and they're the golden child for the for the county but at the same time I think they need to be sympathetic to our situation up there because they have definitely benefited from it and I was the first one when the stadium Washington National Stadium was um uh going vacant and Washington
Nationals were moving that we created a UTSA for that stadium and it's been good for Vieier too and it's been good for the county and and we're we're proud of all those things so little factual information I just want you to know that in 1990 Statisville population was 440,000 people in 2024 is 50,000 people
in Bard County the population was 398,000 people in 1994 the population in Bvoulevard County right now is 658,000 so the counties grew 260,000 people and Titusville's grown 10,000 people so I don't I don't believe in the
notion that in 35 years if you're growing 350 people a year excuse me Mr chairman may I have just one second thank you um I don't believe that in in when only 10,000 people of the 260,000 people move to the county that you have now have arrived and you don't need any help anymore titusville still is is is
considered the weakest link of this county we're trying everything we can to change that the zone was a huge benefit for us and so I'm going to respectfully ask you to do something don't kill the zone this is if this is about firefighters what I my suggestion would be that you table this or you maybe make
the decision today but go back to the zone board and ask the zone board if they will reconsider how they allocate funds and I what I would suggest to that zone board might want to consider is that you have six fire stations I believe in district one and I'm not sure
that maybe firefighting happened but if if my research is right you got station 21 22 24 26 29 and 44 take half of the zone dollars and allocate it to those stations in in the zone you know zone
one economic development zone area and take half of those dollars and allocate it to those for the firefighters for infrastructure or salaries or whatever you have to do you don't have to kill the zone but at least you are you you know in in as as community in the north end we're putting our money where our mouth is and we're trying to help the
firefighters and that's the way to do it without killing the zone so if I was up there and making a motion uh Mr felner or Mr goodson or Mr miss Aerson I would say please table this let the give the um zone board a chance to reallocate
dollars and look at possibly uh how they could help the firefighters because that's what everybody said this was about and you can still keep the zone in place and at the same time u help the firefighters thank you thank you sir any questions oh question
questions for uh Robin yep thank you for being here commissioner and thank you for your public service thank you sir we don't get to hear from a from a commissioner offer often and it's wonderful it's usually not good when they got to come up i hear from them all the time actually oh do you i
mean in public here in our meetings um as we move forward and obviously we know what's happening with the challenges that we have here in Bvard to meet our economic growth our economic destiny
what's happening in North Bard what are some of the shortfalls the things that need to be fixed and addressed that may not be addressed if we do away with the North Bard economic development zone well I think the first thing Commissioner is is North Bard and
that that region getting its fair share we know that um um by the population statistic we haven't had the kind of growth that rest of county have you we know that um this the CRA from downtown Titusville is only creating $300,000 a year or so in revenue so there's really
no additional revenue coming in that would allow you to you know um um expand and incentivize companies to come i mean I I'll admit it and some people I love that community and I've been there for 35 years and and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else but we're not the shiny
penny on the block and that there's when there's opportunities for people to come to Bvard it typically is going to be in Malburn and Vieier and down south Breard and so the zone has given us that incentive to allow us to have redevelopment which is badly needed there's still sections of our community
that's in the 60s and you know the zone has played a huge part in helping make Titusville better uh are we proud of where we've been from the since 2010 yes you know since the the shuttle started rolling but we're nowhere out of the woods sir and I think that it by taking
your foot off the gas right now it would be the typical thing that's happened to Titusville in the last 60 years is you have a little success and then somebody yanks the rug from underneath you thank you any question yes sir uh Commissioner Goodson I don't know if
you've uh followed it Robin there was a developer wanted to develop uh Royal Oaks isn't that the name of the country club mhm chairman royal Oaks out on Carpenter right uh no that's Sherwood sherwood Sherwood wanted to put in town one is in uh Titusville
one of one of the projects and one of them's in unincorporated sherwood's in unincorporated but he wanted to do town homes homes and all that public came out in an outcry commissioner Delaney spoke against it okay it was approved in zoning so how
can it be always you're not the shining penny when you when people speak against development up there help me understand that i'm I'm not sure i think people in general all over the county if it it's going to affect them they're going to
speak about development and you're going to have some people that supportive of it and some people opposed of it I think and in that case people that lived on that golf course they were um you know they had their piece of the pie didn't want anybody else of course one lady stood up and I found this totally funny
moved from New Jersey and was going to have a lake behind her house but didn't want the alligator but yet you moved to Florida you think about it okay okay yes sir i understand hard to understand but thank If I could expand on that a little bit just because my name was mentioned
um Sherwood is a bit different from the things that are being redeveloped because of the zone like the Searstown Mall for instance that is a a major blight right smack dab in the middle of Titusville that luckily because of the
zone we have um somebody who's coming and and willing to put the the money in and get the infrastructure in and um get rid of that blight in that community sherwood is on the outskirts of of
Titusville and the issues there were flooding it had nothing to do with blight you're absolutely correct Commissioner but it has a lot to do with the tax revenue for district one so if you don't have infrastructure as far as homes developments then you don't become
the shiny penny isn't Isn't it more profitable for our community to have commercial rather than res starting to sound like debate and so with respect we have three more speakers let's let's get through the cards sandra Sullivan
Good morning Sandra Sullivan so agenda item uh and the last meeting so in the last meeting uh there was uh a motion made to direct staff to
prepare a statement of legislative intent regarding the discontinuation of county tiff payments to the NBED's trust fund the disillusion of NBEDs and the refund of any uncommitted TIFF funds on the deposit of NBED's trust fund to the
respective taxing authorities that contributed those funds including including the county this is official record so when you have this unfinished business up there you already took a motion to issue legislative intent the
only thing that you're adding here and the only thing that the motion should be for is a vote on the intent to put this on a critical need for the Bvard County to fire rescue the
decision to issue legislative intent has already been voted by this commission unless you intend to resend that today or you know what I don't understand the point of a of this item that contradicts with a vote that is already taken the
only ad is whether you're going to use this money and the intent is to use this money for fire rescue and that the vote should the motion should be amended to that point i also want to just uh add something here i brought up a lot of
points uh in the last meeting about the controversies with endbeds from it was formed in response to the agreement with Titusville on the doing the site planning and building permits on an agreement with Space Florida and um so a
lot of the money and a lot of the controversies involving uh for example uh bond funding the space coast infrastructure agency which is created by them and bond funding blue
origin you cannot bond fund if you are a special district formed by a vote by the commission and the county was sued and the clerk's office won okay there's a lot of controversy this NBEDS was
created and and that area recovered by 2016 it was supposed to be created for five years and sunset it didn't sunset we now have a much greater critical need we have many critical needs beyond fire
i mean just on transportation you have a $2.2 billion deficit for capacity and maintenance which matches what your entire budget is the county is in fiscal crisis it's an analogist of your house falling down and giving money to your neighbor to go on a vacation to Europe
stop this we have the EDC we have the EDC tax abatement we have a lot of incentives we have space Florida which is offering tax breaks on where they are as well you know so they don't pay taxes on the land they should be paying taxes
on the buildings that's a different issue mr fiser spoke over so I did too that's okay i I let you uh Larry Lincolnis I think I said that right
pastor did I say that right hello I'm Larry Lincolnis uh the founder of New Life Space Coast in Titusville Florida church that has served our community for over 40 years now uh my wife Sandra and I have lived in Titusville for 45
years titusville Revard County the Space Coast is our home and I'm here today to appeal to this commission to retain our North Boulevard economic development zone and a whole lot's been said about that and I have a
whole lot to say that I may I may not say i just would like to say but I don't think it's it's um good i don't think it's fair that this uh
commission has pitted the zone against the fire department because it makes everyone to stand here for the zone looks like they're opposed to the fire department that's not a good position to have to be anybody would be out of their
minds to be against our fire department our first responders they're our heroes they're our champions they run to what we run from and I just would hope that you would reconsider and with all of and
I don't mean this lightly with all of the wisdom and the experience and the ability that this commission has that you would find another way to finance the fire department without eliminating the zone the zone is very important to
uh not only North Bard but when you look at uh the zone related to um Blue Origin I mean that's not a Titusville issue if you would say well Blue Origin is a Titusville company somebody would laugh
at you but the zone was very u very important to what has happened with Blue Origin and bringing it and establishing it at the space center so I just would would hope that you would consider that for us that you would find some other
way we're not opposed by any means it looks like we may be looks like we are to the fire department that's that's ridiculous and you have put us in this position when we stand for the zone it looks like we're trying to take money from these fine men and women there's
there's there's ways you know we're intelligent and we're creative and we can do better so I just ask you to really reconsider and let's find other ways to uh finance the the needs of the fire department without eliminating the
zone because the zone uh has been and continues to be a vital piece of of uh help not only in North Bard but in Breard and we are not just North Bard we are one county we are one people and uh
we uh we're through i got beeped thank you that's okay sir thank you very much Robert Jordan good morning good morning i'm Robert Jordan 1605 White Drive uh good morning vice mayor vice
chairman uh chairman county attorney and of course uh county manager and rest of the commission i work alongside a great group of people on the zone who are a
reminder we're not paid for these services who have spent hundreds of hours making decisions for the benefit of North Bard and all of the county we are all small owners like myself that range from real estate sales civil engineering services
mechanical services sports video technology logistics and procurement and CPA services i want to take a moment to acknowledge the hard work and commitment that each of you bring to our community i know all too well the difficult
decisions that elected officials must make and I applaud all your work your efforts in managing our county's resources and addressing the needs of our residents are commendable however I'm deeply concerned about the recent decision to cancel the
North Bard economic development zone we embarked on the intentional practice of improving our community's well-being and quality of life while I understand that there may be reasons behind this choice it is crucial it is crucial to consider
how this action will affect not just our dedicated firefighters but also the 115,000 residents of District 1 who rely on economic stability and growth that the cancellation of this zone could lead
to diminished economic opportunities within our districts perhaps we can look into modified incentives or additional funding sources that would allow us to achieve both goals let us come together as a community residents business owners
and public servants to discuss how we can best support both our firefighters and our local economy i would like to respectfully request the county commission support a delay in the legislative decision today perhaps table
it or not even vote on it certainly that would make me happy the community of North Bard humbly seeks your divine wisdom and compassionate guidance in our journey together we can recognize the strength found in unity and the profound impact of a shared
insights your support is not just welcome it is essential for nurturing our collective spirit and fostering growth within our total community i sincerely appreciate the time and effort you dedicate to serving our community and I'm grateful for your consideration
of my words thank you once again for your dedication to our county i look forward to your deliberation and please note I will respect whatever decision that you make for the benefit of all of Bard County but please note North
Boulevard sincerely needs your love your support and your guidance thank you thank you sir commissioners that was the last card we're in discussion discussion on the
item sir Commissioner Alman I'll be brief i know we discussed this last time but my position hasn't changed i feel um that um this is extremely important i'd like to add one thing i I think it's important not just for
North Boulevard but I think it's important for all of Bard north Boulevard plays a very critical role in supporting our space center space businesses and activities and so many companies when they look to move here verse moving other places uh that are in
the aerospace community they first look at Tisville because that's in closest proximity to the Kennedy Space Center we need to have a a a strong base there and it's I support this economic
development zone not just to help North Bard but I truly believe it's in the best interest for all of Bard it's a part of our our package uh to be a quality community with a high standard of living a high quality of life good clean jobs and and and the ability to
meet our destiny as a community that's so rooted in in in aerospace and discovery commissioner Delaney I I just wanted to answer one of the questions that you had um Commissioner Alman uh about what are some of the
struggles that are going on in North Bard and why is this needed and um one of the things that I've been hearing from business owners is that one of the things that steers them to say South Bard is the fact that there are um ready
buildings for for businesses to move into and North Bard doesn't necessarily have that and so what ENBs has done is um helped incentivize these businesses to come with the help of getting sites
um ready for construction um because we all know that the site prep is a huge um huge investment um so just having those uh properties prepped for construction
makes a huge difference um yeah that's that that's a huge contributing factor as to why businesses would choose South Boulevard over North Boulevard and um you know I I've talked to business
owner um after business owner who says that if it wasn't for the zone they wouldn't have come to North Bard and uh so you know it's it's no um it's not a secret that before I was
elected I did not have a full understanding of what um what this group of people have done and what they've done for North Bard and uh you know spending more time reading
talking to business owners talking to you know the people up there i um I see the value in it and I still stand by you know if if if North Bard is going to sacrifice its
economic development everybody else should be sacrificing as well um you know I I'm not opposed to looking into ideas about you know um like some of the speakers had mentioned uh a portion of that money
going to the fire department and continuing the economic development is there is there any kind any way that we can continue some um funding of economic development in North Bard and you know attributing some of those funds to uh
public safety i I'll say that I I thought that was an interesting comment too um because uh I'm sticking to the matter at hand which is uh we we have a situation with our fire so I think it was suggested
earlier earlier that half of the the tiff would go to potentially the firehouses um something along those lines that are up in the north end of the county um so let me ask uh this question of Morris just
just so I understand if we were to move this along today and uh something was worked out um before the next meeting uh could could that be amended in the next meeting to include
that potential proposal i think so i I think as long as we advertise it broadly enough that would be an amendment that you either could make at the meeting when this comes back um or the board at that meeting if necessary depending on what different
action the board wanted to take uh compared to the advertised ordinance the board could ask for it to come back at a subsequent meeting um you can't use TIFF for that kind of general purpose government but what you
could do is just reduce the contribution question should recapture for the general fund portion of the TIF commissioner Goodson quick question you know one thing I haven't heard from from any speaker is what is Titusville going to do titusville what are they going to
do nothing aren't they on the hook to help their own city as far as incentives and stuff like that or is Titusville just let go free commissioner Delaney see you reaching for your mic there the zone encompasses
more than Titusville so there's there's a lot of places outside of the city of Titusville that um benefit from the zone chair sir I'm well aware the zone is outside of Titusville but if Titusville
is the weakest link and they're not the golden penny wouldn't Titusville want to help some they are contributing oh thank you well then that was so simple thank you there Commissioner okay all right Commissioner ask Ramen Fischer to
comment all right he's got all the answers right Robin no sir don't use my name again either you know I don't have all the answers sir just so you know though and and Morris could make reference to this but actually we had we had public comment i'm going to I'm
sorry i ask I'm going to You're answering his question okay oh yes okay that's that's all I was doing okay i just asked Robin Fisher to come up so I'm sorry all right do you want me can I answer his question sir or without objection we're going to let Rob Okay
sir yeah and and the county attorney and maybe county management answer that but the the um Titusville does contribute to the zone 40% of their revenue on the commercial business does go to the economic development zone so Titusville does to do that
no they do it i mean they Yes correctly if I'm if I remember this correctly those funds have to be used within the city though okay if if that is right do that that's correct there's an interlocal agreement um the city funds a trust fund
those funds are kept separate from the county tiff trust fund for example the first speaker Mr wright his um Searstown Mall project i believe the way that's set up is it would be funded entirely from Titusville's portion uh or
Titusville's TIFF trust account okay commissioner Atinson I just want everybody to understand that this is not going to be the only difficult choice that we have to make here we have some pretty serious budget problems this is
not the only cut or change that we're going to have to make that people aren't going to be happy with that's all are are you open to including your amendment uh the possibility that the next meeting there could be an agreement
that would include uh some of the revenue for um fire as suggested that doesn't mean we have to do it you're saying that at the next meeting
possibly change what we're doing today yes no okay you're going to go ahead with your motion yep would you like me to read it again okay i move to approve the statement of legislative intent direct staff to prepare an ordinance implementing such intent schedule and
advertise the ordinance for public hearing and direct the county manager to develop the fiscal year 2025 2026 budget with the additional $3.3 million allocated to a specific fund to be designated to the BCFR budget okay i'll second that all right we have a motion
by Commissioner Atkinson we have a second by Commissioner Goodson clerk will call the RO i have a question sir on the motion on the motion um and it's my understanding we're advertising an ordinance but if there were to be some sort of agreement or I mean we're
advertising an ordinance that doesn't mean we're setting in the concrete how we're going to vote that would go contrary to the intent of advertising so when the public comes and we hear if if there's some potential tweaks or changes or compromises we can consider
that yes that would be what the public Absolutely as long as they're within the scope of what was advertised you could tweak the ordinance if it's outside of the scope of what was advertised if it's so different that it's a substantial change then it might just have to come back in a different form okay was what was asked today is that would that be
consider uh considered a substantial change to what for the um 50% of the money to stay with the general fund to be earmarked for fire um fire rescue i'm going to try to write the
advertisements the ordinance titles pretty broadly so I'd imagine that's something that could be considered but I I haven't done that exercise yet so I can't say for certain okay but the board could always if a majority of the board wanted to do that it would
just be a procedural mechanism to how do you get there would it be at the same meeting or future meeting with additional advertisement all right we have a motion in a second clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes vice Chair Goodson yes commissioner Atinson yes commissioner Alman no
chairman Felner yes we'll show that passes 41 okay commissioners we're gonna we uh I'll tell you what I think Peter could be quick and maybe we could get return to him to other important tourism things he's doing so if we could sir
let's see if we can we can take up Peter real quick and then I'm with you i want to take a break too okay Peter yes sir good morning um J1 is an item coming from the TDC okay it is the 202526 marketing support program funding
and criteria okay commissioners questions on the item we have one card questions on the item okay let's go to the card we have Ruth Coughold did I say that right okay
good morning commissioners chair and staff um and thank you to Commissioner Al Alman staff for helping me yesterday i don't know where she's here but thank you so much for all the help that gave me yesterday so I just wanted to um I
have a very big concern with the application process for the uh marketing and um I don't know if this applies but I I just ran into all of this within the last week
the cultural grants applications need to be seriously reviewed because we cannot have people that are not cultural being or companies or anything like that be allowed to continue applications space Coast Pride is not a culture i'm just
going to tell you they're not it is a lifestyle that's chosen by people not a culture that you can see that has existed in this county for many many years this is ridiculous so that's all I want to say about that right now thank you
okay ma'am appreciate that okay is there Okay that's the only card we have is there any discussion on this item i um Commissioner Delink I have some concerns about I think I mentioned this when it was brought up before um about the
commission um splitting the 100,000 um and I was wondering if rather than that because I think the intent from what I remember was events that weren't large enough to qualify but couldn't we just make a
different one that was 0 to 5,000 versus giving each of the commissioners a $20,000 pot i just feel like any time in the past that that the commissioners have been given um a a pot of money to
spend um the public seemed to have some concerns about that and so I was wondering if that would be a friendly amendment well I'll let me let me address that as both
the chair of the TDC and and um you know the I guess the um person to move that forward the the marketing uh grant structure that we have we acknowledge that there are some smaller
events that wouldn't meet the criteria of the room nights that's that's the the the thing that we're trying to cure and so I recognize that again uh some of these that we had voted for before the Melbourne Art Festival the Native
Rhythms um in Wickham Park uh Green Gables uh Field Manor some of these other things um the zero to 5,000 is is is I I understand what you're trying to do there but uh specifically with the um you know let's also the Vietnam vets uh
all veterans of Bvard their situation is paying for the park which is approximately uh 15,000 I think so um I only mean that and by the way those are board action i don't get to just give these groups any
a dollar without you saying okay you have you have collectively we have to agree to it um I only wanted to put a mechanism in there where each commissioner I expect you to to know these events that are happening in your district and what's important give you the opportunity to say hey uh we've left
Melbourne Art Festival out of this somehow and and I want to try to help them that's all that's all that it's uh intended to do i'm certainly open to some kind of change in the in the future that somehow rectifies this um this situation there was just a nice round
number of 100,000 that was allocated for the smaller events divide by five there's five of us so in trying to be sort of uh you know open and equal um I've just suggested that we each identify um a couple events up to 20,000
that's it that's my only motive so um and also the board uh for the TDC while you know I think we have good representation um you know there there might be one area of the county that maybe doesn't have as much representation on there and so that
gives you the opportunity to uh to identify that group so that's And I wasn't meaning any ill intent i understand i understand i don't take it that way commissioner Alman sir I um I I read the um criteria and I think it's
well written i think the TDC's done a good job i think that um I agree with what our chairman says you have these small programs that no one knows better than those people in that local community and having each
individual commissioner to give their input and to make a recommendation um I think is good that's government closest to the people there's a check and balance though we can't allocate or appropriate monies that the commission as a whole has to vote and approve on
that um I agree about concept of how you define culture but that's not what we're doing here i that point is very well taken we will have to hear all these requests as they come and we'll have to make a decision as a collective body
what's good for the community but this is just a criteria and I think it's well written and I think it's a good story you know if if we not to interrupt sir uh to your point if uh you know the the veterans group came to me and they said you know we're we're a new group of
younger guys taking over for the older guys and we're not great fundraisers and we've had just a horrible time coming up with the money just to cover the park fees and so that's what they needed help with um they would never be able to meet the criteria of the room nights because
also quite candidly they camp so they're not staying in hotels they're they're camping at Wickcham Park and so that's just a textbook example and so and and that that'll be one of the groups in the future um that hopefully uh future
boards will help out that's it if you got an improved uh idea for the future I'll tell you what I would bring it to the TDC okay so I'll leave leave that option open for you if you if you can find another better uh way around that currently I don't have I don't have one
i think I I'll say something about prior boards with I don't know ARPA funds or CARES i think that's when they got in trouble we all acknowledged that but at the time in the beginning I think they weren't going to have board approval um and it's my recollection that the clerk
said "I'm not writing a check uh to anything without the board's approval." And so ultimately the the board did um vote on those things so your point's well taken um and if you have a suggestion in the future I'll certainly
be open to it is there other discussion on the Okay Commissioner Goodson prior to all these changes in the old days or the old time did you have near as much trouble as you have now and because I
would say you have more trouble now but you tell me what your thoughts are if you wish to uh well sir I think um these have you know these grants over the last four or five years have been well discussed at the board level and
you know been a lot of different positions on those um hasn't changed a whole lot in the last four or five years so So you're telling me right now you're happy as heck you would but if if you were to tell me you'd like to go back to the other way I'd make a motion let's go back to the other way why do we have to
make it so difficult why don't we make it a little easier on staff so if you're happy I'm happy no problem i'm happy if you're happy um let me just let me answer i'm happy i'm going to respond to one thing and then Commissioner Alman okay i'm
happy um I I do think we're in a better place because we've made uh some adjustments from where the prior board was um which was that when you were applying for the grants um the the TDC was going to do the marketing um for you
and so this board had decided that hey that might not be that's that's what we have in here actually before us today that it might not be the best thing for the groups that TDC does uh the marketing now there have been some groups that say that's wonderful because I'm not a marketing expert i'm good at
running an art show but I'm not a marketing expert and so I I think that's been a good thing but there are other groups that say we just need the the grant funding to pay for our security that day and that's that's what we're we're putting in here is giving them the option and I I think that's a that's a
cornerstone part of um what we're doing here so that alone has and Peter I know you try to stay out of the opinion business but that will probably make it easier um in what the group's future asks um will be would you would you
agree with that yes sir i think yeah I think the uh the way the criteria is written there's a lot more flexibility for the group so I think that's an advantage for them yes sir commissioner Alman sir well just going to and I know Commissioner Goodson
already knows this um any old guy questions certainly I'll be willing to fill them since I'm one of the old old guys i can go back the old old days when we first created it uh I think um one thing that's important you know there's been um movements in the legislature to
sunset TDC's which I'm against because I think they're very important but if we do have those laws that are passed and we have to look at sunset votes I think it's really important that we include as much as our local community as we possibly can on
these type of grants because we're going to need their support i can tell you I don't think I was I was the chairman of the TDC when we passed the tourist tax and it failed twice before we got it passed the third time and one way we were able to pass that was we were able
to be very inclusive and include broad spectrum of our communities and I think it's been a real positive uh growth of our tourist industry and it's it's been really positive and I'm I'm very impressed what's being done now and I
support it okay uh all right i think that's it for discussion is there a motion on the item motion to approve we have a We have a motion by Commissioner Delaney we have a second by Commissioner Alman clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes vice Chair
Goodson yes commissioner Atinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman Felner yes okay commissioners let's take a break and be back at 11 o'clock okay so you get a few extra minutes for that 11 o'clock heat heat
hey hey hey n feeling hey hey hey you're out there hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey
hey hey hey heat heat all right if you'll take your seats please j2 we're on item J2 item J2
all right Chief you're recognized good morning chair yes sir good morning commissioners yep i am uh Matt Wallace the director of the public safety group for BVAR County and I have with me uh Chief Pat Voltera our Bvard County Fire Chief uh we'll be going over J2 this morning i'll give a brief introduction
to the agenda item and review the requested actions and then I'll turn it over to the chief to go through the various options and get down into the details of those on February 11th of 2025 at a regular board meeting the board asked us to go back and update our seven-year plan uh
to include employee recruitment retention infrastructure and capital needs the board gave staff to bring back options to meet those needs and with potential fire assessment adjustments so in this action fire rescue is requesting board consideration for three actions
now each separate action would require a motion and a vote for those to be approved so um action one would be a proposed fire assessment not to exceed rate action two would be for the board to approve the fire assessment notice to the prop affected property owners that
may be found at attachment two of the agenda report we will update this notice with the not to exceed amount if the board so chooses and approves that in action one also we included at attachment three impacts to each property class so every property class
owner whether commercial or residential could go to that attachment and see what the impacts are for the various options action three would be to set a public hearing for final approval of the fire assessment staff is requesting that day to be the 20th of May at 9:00 in the
morning at the regular scheduled board meeting florida statute requires that 20 days after uh public notices are sent that the public hearing may be date may be set so if the date of 20 May is approved staff will again begin
immediately after this session to get those public notices in the mail to ensure that we meet that Florida statute additionally in the pro in the uh property notice uh the notice to assessment to the owners we include a phone number for Bard County Fire Rescue
that senior staff will be monitoring between now and the public hearing we will bring data back to the board as we get inputs from the ci from the civilians about whether they are for against or neutral for the fire assessment we'll bring that data back and allow and share that with the board at the public hearing with that I'll
turn it over to the chief to go through the individual options and the details of that good afternoon i'll go over the various options that you have in the package just as the options we spoke of when we met individually uh there'll be the options that are in both table one
and appendix one option one captures capital and infrastructure requirements and addresses future station and crew needs not identified in the previous seven-year plan accounts for inflation losses from years 2021 to 2025 and covers exhausted non-reoccurring ARPA
funds the option includes a 6% annual inflation rate for capital and infrastructure adjustments would use the current approved fire assessment methodology with annual increases equal to CPI rate or 3% whichever is less option one provides for the county's
proposed one-year contract including subsequent increases for two years thereafter option 1 A would be step plus CPI put a plus a modest additional wage adjustment 1b would be step plus CPI
plus an aggressive additional wage adjustment for the two years beyond the one year that we are currently in option two captures all those things that I spoke of the only difference being it's a proposed the one-year
contract and the subsequent three-year wage increases or adjustments step plus CPI modest wage adjustment would be 2A and 2B would be step plus CPI plus
aggressive additional wage adjustment option three is notated as 0% because that would be anything the board desired outside or above or beyond uh those options if none of those options
work for the current team option four submitted by district one works out the uh current options but adds in scheduling some different scheduling flexibility option 4 A would
basically be option 2B with the 3-week Kelly Day option option 4B would be option 2A with a 2472 work option and option 4 C would be a 2B with the 2472
option uh before I pass it back to you for discussion I just want to thank you all for the time that you've taken to uh discuss this with us and how you've really taken a lot of time in uh our discussions in getting to where we are today so thank you very much
commissioners questions i think Commissioner Delini's light was first um Chief could you just let us know what the modest and what the aggressive percentage is so percentages would be ne would be a
negotiated topic so the aggregate rates are what you see in the table um just as and you've seen the negotiation the the percentages vary from rate to rate and rank to rank so for me to give an exact one percentage would be tough and I and
I can answer that question commissioner the the uh the chart that you have that shows the impact shows the differential between each of the options so you would add the total uh additional fire
assessment revenue plus the total general fund impact for each of those options and the differential is the difference between a modest and a uh more aggressive one so if you looked for
example between um 1 A and 1B you would add the uh 9.4 million plus 7.6 six as modest and then the 12 uh 9 million and the 98 and the difference of those numbers
between a modest and an aggressive one the total inc uh total amount of revenue there would be the amount that uh would be available within the department to use and then whatever is negotiated with within that would be uh what would be
done if I'm remembering correctly was it six and 10% that's only one option Commissioner because that depends on what's negotiated what rank what position gets what so it's different amounts i'm just trying to put it out there in layman's
terms for people that's all thank you other questions commissioners other questions i'm sorry we have cards christina Fleming hello again christina Fleming District 3 resident in 2017 we were addressing the fire assessment then it
was increased but obviously either wasn't enough or the monies weren't used correctly you were given four options today whatever options you decide on needs to be extremely aggressive you are so behind the eight-ball that you need to be progressively thinking for the
next seven years your fire department is hanging on by sheer determination of what employees you have left and they are exhausted i am willing to support an increase and it actually for me if we did the aggressive 4C I'll be paying
$21.66 66 cents a month more than what I'm paying now i am more than willing to give up anything i will give up my coffee if I have to and they all know how big that is for me i will give it all up i will even take it if you raise my taxes i will pay it in order for you
guys to support your fire department and be what it is supposed to be the definition of budget is a plan for the coordination of resources and expenditures so you must plan for the future not now for the future and please
budget appropriately thank you thank you ryan Bareric good morning ryan Bareric Port St john commissioners thank you for hearing this item giving it the attention that it deserves public safety is a core function of government and your constituents appreciate being made a
priority i've met with all you on multiple occasions i know that all you support the fire department commissioner Felner thank you for always making appearances at our new higher graduations sponsorship signings promotional ceremonies your presence at these celebrations does not go unnoticed
commissioner Atinson the first time I met you was at our chili cookoff you were warm and engaging and our people were instantly enamored commissioner Delaney you were a permanent fixture at our negotiations for over a year you dove head first into our culture and labeled us your
firefighters this brought tremendous pride for your employees knowing that you held us in such a high regard commissioner Goodson and Altman you fought the fight for us at a state level for years your support of cancer presumption and PTSD benefits create tremendous benefits for our trade
additionally your support of FRS at the state level in ensured some form of postretirement benefits for us all for this we're grateful unfortunately I stand before you today at what seems like Groundhog Day from four years ago when fire rescuey's revenue sources were last explored none of you were sitting
commissioners at that time the fire assessment was amended however however over the past few months you've all been briefed on its shortcomings and burdened with fixing it record inflation and competitive job market made the last fire assessment increase inadequate what was sold as a seven-year plan was
ineffected after one or two years we've experienced soaring prices supply chain delays for the capital products that our trade is relying upon to provide life-saving services for our residents furthermore the additional personal personnel positions that were allocated to fire rescue sit unfilled our
administrative team has be has become incredibly creative with overcoming some of these obstacles but we are still coming up short with capital replacement CIP infrastructure enhance enhancements and most importantly staffing these staffing issues continue to plague our organization and we're approaching a
breaking point that has already resulted in service level cuts for our residents i suspect that these service level cuts will continue and soon ISO ratings could soon be affected by the difficult decisions that Chief Alter will have to make the competitive job market is a double-edged sword our great our great
country sits one full point under the nation's historical unemployment rates however this competitive job market means that employees have the options to sell their services to the highest bidder though we acknowledge that Bvard County will likely never be the highest bidder we continue to strive for the mean i acknowledge the relationship between
policymaker and constituent as it relates to taxes is intimate and a sensitive one they elect you to ensure that the core functions of government being infrastructure and public safety are met they also expect you to be good stewards of their tax dollars while showing them some form of ROI i think it
goes without saying which fire assessment option will fix our issues there's only one option that will provide a real fix for our personnel issues the rest will be a wet The rest will result in wet The rest will result in wet band-aid fixes not dissimilar to
the options chosen four years ago if another wet band-aid is chosen it will peel inside of two years and perpetuate the glaring issues that we aimed to fix thank you for your consideration my prayers will be with you as you navigate this difficult road as always I'm
available for questions now or your earliest convenience thank you okay sir thank you dr robert Ford I believe hey good morning thank you for granting me the
opportunity uh to speak in front of you today um for those of you of you who don't know me my name is Bobby Ford i was born and raised in this community i grew up in West Melbourne um I left the area after high school and uh made my way back here after my emergency medicine residency uh to serve my
community um and now I am proud to be the EMS medical director for Bvoulevard County Fire Rescue um EMS is a backbone of our community um it provides uh timely and life-saving care to individuals in their most vulnerable
moments our mission is to ensure that every resident receives the highest standard of care regardless of the circumstances this has been my mission ever since my own mother who was a nurse for 37 years lost her life just six hours after walking into a local emergency
department in EMS we can change a tra trajectory of people's lives before they ever reach the hospital and assure they get the care they need uh in a timely fashion in the last few years we have been working to improve this care for
our citizens one of the key areas we have made remarkable strides is in the management of sepsis sepsis is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to an infection causes damage to its tissues and organs prompt recognition and treatment are
crucial in improving outcomes one study showed the mortality rate increased by 7.5% for each hour and delay in antibiotic administration we have implemented advanced protocols for the early early detection of sepsis our paramedics are now trained to recognize
subtle signs and symptoms of sepsis allowing for quicker diagnosis and intervention using state-of-the-art equipment we can ensure uh measure vital signs that indicate the presence of sepsis before ever reaching the hospital our sepsis care bundles which include
the administration of IV fluids and in vasopressors are designed to stabilize patients in route to the hospital we now even give those life-saving antibiotics in the field avoiding any delays in administration at the hospital beyond sepsis care EMS service has embraced
several other advancements to enhance the care of patients uh we have upgraded our cardiac protocols incorporating the latest guidelines for the management of acute coronary syndromes and cardiac arrest our paramedics are equipped with the advanced cardiac monitors and
defibrillators enabling them to provide high quality care in the field i personally have performed something called double sequential defibrillation on someone with with retractory uh VIB with using two defibrillators with our paramedics the 50-year-old who otherwise
would have ended up dead walked out of the hospital after receiving their stent i'll move forward because we're running out of time it looks like um but it looks like we'll we'll yield you another minute okay okay that's great thank you we have a few units that I
have personally trained to use point of care ultrasound this will be the future of EMS care and our paramedics are currently using it it to enhance the care of trauma patients they can see if someone has blood in their abdomen from trauma or a pneumthorax or collapsed
lung and able to early alert our trauma center and someday deliver whole blood in the field they can deliver a medication called tranexamic acid which slowly helps which helps to slow the bleeding early they can physically tell if a heart is beating in cardiac arrest or if there's fluid around the heart
that's constricting its function we all know the effect the opioid epidemic has had in our community we have seen many friends and family members in our community die from the disease our paramedics um for BCFR are not only delivering immediately
life-saving Narcan in the field but they're now delivering buponorphan this drug is revolutionizing the care of opioid use disorder and helping to get rid of withdrawals and get patients that in the mindset of recovery with less chance of overdosing again once on the
medication they then can help these patients get directly to an addiction treatment facility rather than going to an emergency department only be discharged and overdose again i'll just get to the conclusion well it might be important is it okay if I speak a little bit more because this
is important part we we agree it's important all right all right these are just a few of the examples of the high quality care BCFR paramedics and EMTs deliver our patients recently we have been dealing with the closure of Rocklott Hospital which has been a
pivotal place in our community um to provide emergency care i am also the medical director of the emergency department there and we'll be working the last shift in the ER tonight uh as a team at BCFR we have been resilient and our paramedics have been
responding to the need they now have a longer distance to travel to bring patients to emergency departments that are fuller than ever we have worked together to reinvent our 911 system to be sure our advanced life support units are available in their
area to provide care for our community we will be creating a system that's more efficient and aligns the care with the needs of the patient in conclusion our EMS services are committed to providing exceptional care through innovation collaboration and dedication the
advancements of in sepsis care and other critical care areas are a testament to our unwavering commitment to the health and well-being of our community we will continue to strive for excellence ensuring that every resident receives the best possible care they need when they need
it most i have friends people who my sisters and I went to high school with and even family who are paramedics here and I am proud of the care and the direction we are heading thank you for your consideration thank you sir there any questions go ahead okay thank you
sir sandra Sullivan good morning Santis Solivan um I have always said that the burden should not be just put on the people and that seems the emphasis on the presentations by the county i I want
to look so this was the chart and the options presented in the agenda item 2B is 37% increase so we currently we currently pay
279.57 and this would increase it to 383.01 for a single family dwelling so 3 383 to put it that number so you did a comparable analysis of 10
counties so that amount would put us at just under Lake County which is the highest at 415 the problem is that's not going to solve your problems because in 2021 you did a 33% increase which was very much
badly needed and at that time in 2022 you had a cost of growth of $620,000 by 2025 that was predicted to be 30 million and then at the beginning of the year you were projecting
uh 43.5 billion a million sorry and then more recently 68 million what will it be next year and so in 2021 when you did the fire assessment this was to primarily bring
their wages up to be comparable with surrounding counties and it failed to do that because of the cost of growth and what you're not dealing with is the cost of growth so when I look at your RFPs online you're really quick to put
through like you gave a week's notice for somebody to bid on going out you know about $70,000 to go out and advertise this this assessment which is needed um but the impact fees is sat
there you could have accelerated that one and moved it up but you've been dragging your feet dragging your feet and personally I just think you're going to drag your feet on this i mean the meeting the selection committee is on the 28th you waited nearly a month for that but you were darn sure fast you
know RFP time period one week and turnaround quick on the on the on the selection committee then you got $7 million lost because of a dumb selection committee and selecting a vendor who had a history of being hacked and so you
guys got hacked and lost a ton of money on ambulance losses then I did a records request for that you obstructed providing those records still haven't provided it there's a lot of areas for you to find money and ultimately you can't just put this on the on the people
because it is not going to fix your cost to growth and so while I support this assessment of 37% you got to be smarter than this thank you ken Appling how you guys doing good morning sir oh
if I may if it's okay I apologize i just like to address Chief Alter i just wanted to tell you I'm sure you don't hear it enough i appreciate everything that you do for us as a fireman i know you do a lot of stuff uh outward you do a lot of stuff behind closed doors that we don't get to see and I know deep down everything that you do is for the
betterment of us and I'm sure you don't hear that enough i thank you from her brother to her brother always thank you very much um we won't hold that against your time okay all right fair enough fair enough fair enough it's amazing the job that I do and yet here I am nervous just to talk to you guys so I apologize for that
a public speaker I am not um the only thing that I have is this uh my name is Kenny Appling i'm a special operations lieutenant with BVAR County Fire Rescue i've been doing this for 23 and a half years um according to the base pay if you look at our pay rates with my
special operations incentive which is quite minimal has been the same for 30 years um I would be the second highest paid lieutenant in BVAR County on paper now obviously these guys work a ton of overtime because we have to um even with 1,200 hours of overtime in 2024 which
equates to about 50 extra days at work uh my family my wife and four children we qualify for Wick benefits through the county that means that I get free cheese and milk and that kind of stuff to make my family go that doesn't seem like that should make sense being the second highest paid on paper lieutenant in
Bvoulevard County Fire Rescue yet that is the case that we have also as a recipient of the uh cancer benefit that you guys some of you have pulled for through the state um because of the minimal and kind of not great medical benefits that you guys also provide us I
looked at having to come out of pocket for $3,000 of my own money to get the process started to have the cancer removed i wish we could make that better you know cuz I of course I did receive some funds but there was because we live paycheck to paycheck uh sadly you know
um it was difficult to come up with some of that money and so there was some choices that had to be made uh just I don't know how you do it i don't know how you go forward i'm not the guy to answer that but if there's a way I would appreciate it thank you thank you sir
okay commissioners that was the last card so we'll move into discussion or if you have follow-up questions commissioner Delaney I see your light first um Logan if you wouldn't mind putting up my slide thank you i just wanted to put this up for the
public um and Chief I appreciate you reading out all the all the options including the ones that I have um put up there um I think that you know one of the speakers talked about this is not just about the right now
this is about planning for the future um and with that uh I'd like to make a motion to propose um not to exceed 75% okay second that which option is that um 4C 4c but I
don't think that that has anything to do with that stuff really has to do with um negotiations i'm just talking about a percentage um you know uh to go forward and this is
just not to exceed this doesn't mean we're picking this amount this means that the letter that goes out to the public we are committing to them to not exceed that 75% and this is totally 100% still up to discussion between all of us
um after we get I'm sure a ton of public input um but I just really feel like we need to leave the opportunity open um to see what the what the community believes that our
people should be um not only our people getting paid you know the way that they should be but um you know taking care of our our equipment our buildings this has to do with everything for long-term planning and I really feel like we need
to catch up and um not have to come back for huge increases every you know couple of years if we reassess every time we do a um a contract for instance it could only be you know singledigit increases
if we got ourselves to the right place um so I just was hoping to leave it as open as possible to be able to include the most amount of um citizen input and leave all the options on the table okay we're we're in discussion other
discussion on the item commissioner Atkinson I think that it's important that everybody understand this is not just about your residents where you'll be feeling it this is when you go out to dinner as well this is when you go to your daycare everybody's This fire
assessment is not just for your residents so it'll be touching you and your pocket in many different ways other discussion on the item is there a motion on the item say which option that or the percentage
um I would like to make a motion to not to exceed 75% i'll second that all right we have a motion that's 4C i don't believe
an option okay that not to exceed 75% increase that's that's the motion right okay and we have we have a motion by Commissioner Delaney we have a second by Commissioner Alman clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes vice Chair
Goodson no commissioner Atinson no commissioner Alman yes chairman Felner no okay i'd like to make another motion um okay let let's let's get straight is
there anyone else who's going to make uh a motion i I'll defer to her if No okay all right go ahead with your alternative motion i'd like to make a motion to uh not to exceed 50%
a second we have a motion by Commissioner Delaney we have a second by Commissioner Alman clerk will call the role commissioner yes vice no commissioner Atinson no commissioner Alman yes chairman Felner no
all right commissioners this is there what's What's the option what's What's the rate that we don't want to exceed 37 may I go ahead
i was just going to say that it's I mean if in any other part of our lives we talked about a 75 or 50% increase we're talking about something that's generally unacceptable um it's unfortunate that that's where we
are but I think we have to have something more modest as a place to start from okay i I have a question um the 37%
um are would it be the will of the board to also roll up the MSTU so I appreciate that you brought that up Commissioner because that's going to happen at the um the hearing in July right the budget
hearing so you know there's there's two parts to this there's a fire assessment fee which has got this longer drawn out process and then there is the um millillage question that we'll face in July so um we haven't we haven't gotten
there yet with with the millillage so um that's going that's going to happen this summer so we're just on the fire fee now if if I could um I mean I think it's fair to say that there'll be increases in both right of course and and never was I suggesting
that like I said when I made my original motion never was I suggesting a 75% increase um I I was just trying to have it as open as possible so that all the options were still on the table that way we could have a discussion as a
community as what are our priorities what are people willing to do um and so um what can I tell you what I think is interesting about that as far as the process is concerned just quickly so
we're talking about letters going out to um taxpayers saying that the board is considering a fire assessment increase not to exceed 75% right i'm not sure that the end result of that would paint an accurate picture if you
wanted to consider that a poll because I think you're going to treat it like a survey is that right Chief is that fair to say you're going to compile those results and you're going to bring that back to the board and that's going to influence our decision making up here as as to the the increase that we do adopt
we we will compile the information if that's if you want the result of what we get after the month we'll absolutely report it yes sir and compile that data and bring it back as for against or neutral that will categorize along with two public hearings though so that would give the
and you know honestly this is such a um we are in such a crisis and I say that word because commissioner Atkinson you said that word the magistrate said the word and our chief said the word so we are in a crisis um and so
I think if we're at this this is my opinion 91 vacancies but I think if we're at OP on we're we're in part one and then we're going to we're going to have part two which is the millage question if uh we're asking the voters or we're making them aware
that we're considering a 37% increase was that the right option 2B puts us at 37% correct uh I I think the the results back from
your survey it's it's my belief that the community will be much more amendable to that if I could just put this in into perspective a and this is stuff that I mean the county put together for us this is not my information um 1,800 to 2200
square foot house okay which is about an average house you're talking $14 a month with a 50% increase you're I feel like you're speaking to a 75% increase the the 75%
increase is in here too even that even if it was that much we're talking a $21 increase for the average size home in Bvoulevard County i mean to have fire and EMS show up to your house or not I think that people
are willing to spend you know under $50 a month to make sure that you know when their when their kid ends up in a pool or when their you know grandma doesn't wake up or when these things happen i think that people are willing to pay for
these services and so characterizing it as this you know massive increase is just unfair when we're talking about $21 a month okay Commissioner Atinson and I think
that's the point though Commissioner we're not just talking about $21 a month it's going to affect you when you deal with every business that your life touches every single business whether it's the daycare it's the restaurant it's where you go buy your
groceries it's it's not just $21 a month for our information um Matt and Chief um because we're talking about the average cost per single family residents what's uh what's what's the cost to just in
general terms uh for for uh any commercial on fire assessment fee how how would we be able to get our I have that right in front of me okay it's um you know for 5 yeah 5,000 to 9,000 square foot you're talking $50 a month
that's for a 75% raise okay $54 i mean I can't imagine that would increase you know maybe a dollar or two per person i mean like like say if you're using a daycare you know a dollar or two if you're going to a fast food restaurant
we're talking um you know 2,00 to 3500 square f feet we're it's $42 per month and we're talking about our our public safety we will not have I we watched a whole room clear out just now
of people and if you don't think that Palm Beach is watching this that Destin is watching this that Miami is watching this our people are some of the best trained people in the country and they want our people and we just gave them to
them commissioner Wman sorry you're recognized okay just so for procedure are we on a motion for 2B have we had a motion we haven't had a motion on that yet okay well I'll wait for a motion well that's Do you want to make that motion sir
um well I I'm I'm going to hear from the others i supported the other two i Okay the 4C but I I think it probably it's What's the pleasure of the board i'd like to make a motion to accept option
2B which is the largest increase that the county suggested okay if I can have a point of clarification all right we have a motion second uh but Commissioner Delaney go ahead um accepting the 37% that does not
lock us into the 2B option correct meaning the the pay scale of you know it doesn't lock us into certain particular raises for our people it absolutely does not commissioner I just
wanted to put that out there as you've heard yes there's there there multiple components the board hasn't discussed at all the general fund impact which is part of that sheet but also the and I think it's what you were referencing you know there is the opportunity with the
MSTU now there's going to be a general component to that as well because it's a 5545 split we've tried to give you that in in the chart those are discussions that the board can have and uh depending on what the board's willing to do
there's some significant dollars that are available in EMS MSTU going forward okay okay we we had a motion by Commissioner Delaney for option 2B atinson it's okay i'm looking at you and I'm
pointing to her i'm sorry commissioner Atkinson for option 2B we had a second by Commissioner Alman clerk will call the role may have debate okay a little bit i'd like to say
um I want to thank this commission all five of us uh this this you cannot underestimate the significance of this i know I supported a higher amount that's a lot 75% but I felt it was necessary but the 37% is significant and it's
meaningful as well and I I agree with the chairman i think he was concerned about the survey and sometimes you got to be careful what you ask for you might get it because that might create a backlash that might make it more difficult for us to achieve some other
revenue sources one thing we haven't talked about is the staff we have such an amazing staff and they're working diligently and finding a revenue mix a a a way of raising revenue in a very diversified and dispersed way there are
other options that we have out there not just property taxes but other fees and and and some things that the cities are using there's a lot of tools out there and I'm I'm open to using all those tools so this is not an ending this is a a a beginning and it's not necessarily a
bad approach either because um by sometimes having a diversity of revenue sources is much easier for on the public and easier to sell so I I appreciate this motion and I support it wholeheartedly and I think um this is a
very significant benn beginning of a long and and challenging task that we have to really make up for pass actions that sort of kick the can so I know a lot of folks are upset and I understand but I wouldn't be too
upset because um this is this is just the beginning and and is a significant beginning something that I think prior commissions have not even agreed to do so I appreciate that motion and and your courage and insight and commitment to trying to solve this problem and I'm
optimistic as we move forward we're going to be able to fill those those holes in in the that are obstructing us and we can move forward so I think it's a good step all right any other discussion on this motion i just have one more thing to say
i just wanted to also put out there that the roll up of the MSTU um just for any of our public safety officers that are out there listening that gets us to a place where work life balance can be adjusted so um you know
there still is is hope for good things to come okay we have a motion by Commissioner Atkinson for 2B we have a second by Commissioner Altman clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes
vice Chair Goodson yes commissioner Atinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman Felner yes we'll show that one passes 5-0 now we need to do three things on here right so we need to vote on action two which is to send the
notice to the property owners i move to approve is we have a motion by Commissioner Atinson we have a second by Commissioner Delaney clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes vice Chair Goodson yes commissioner Atinson yes
commissioner Alman yes chairman Felner yes we'll show that one passes 5-0 on uh action three uh we need a motion to set the public hearing date for final approval of the fire assessment and so that'll be at the regularly scheduled
board meeting on May 20th at 9:00 a.m is there a motion for approve we have a motion by Commissioner Delaney is there a second second we have a second by Commissioner Atinson clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes vice Chair
Goodson yes commissioner Atinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman Felner yes we'll show that one passes 5 thank you everybody on this item we will move to item
J3 commissioner Delaney this is your item all right so I was hoping to get board support on a workshop to discuss the 2024 um year and area of critical state concern um
we before we were on the board um the last board suggested a workshop about this and um I've gotten a lot of people recently reaching out about um uh some of the changes and um some of
the draft uh uh some of the language in the draft and so I just really feel like we didn't have an opportunity as a board to um kind of go through that with the public and so uh I I would really love
to do that um there's some debate on some shells and some shoods and some different things and uh I brought forward four dates if the board is interested may 14th 15th 26th and 27th at 5:00 pm
and uh this is something that I understand there can't be substantial changes um but I really feel like uh if we're going to do this thing we should do it right and um make it the best that
it could be and uh so I'd love to hear if anybody has any support for that questions on the item you have any questions for the sponsor okay we do have two cards so uh Robert
Logston good afternoon robert Lson 9020 South Highway A1A Melbourne Beach Florida i'm here representing the barrier island um protection and preservation
association and I'm here specifically to ask you to endorse a motion to include BIPA and Thousand Friends of Florida Sea
Turtle Conservancy and other non-government agencies and they workshop that um we could possibly bring the agenda to the workshop and include
staff planning and zoning um uh Mr richardson and um commissioners that feel they need to be there and the reason I'm asking this is back in
2022 the state delegates for our district came here and we came to the meeting and asked for their support in helping protect the barrier island the
which is now referred to as a BBIA or the area of critical concern um our delegates including Mr alton responded by saying "What can we do to help you?" And out of that
was born or the result was the um Bvard County area of critical concern bipa had a major part in the conception of that we would like to be included
in the drafting of the policy more than we have been involved in um we we're just asking for participation and um I would certainly
like for you to present a motion where uh we could be included in a small workshop uh we are stakeholders and we'd like to be heard and um I I know it it's not according to me
and making the preference but we would prefer late May if you do so make the motion uh thanks very much thank you sir hold on hold on i have a question for Yes thank you chair have you been denied
being at their meetings or voicing your concerns no sir i I don't think we've been denied i just think we haven't been invited so explain to me what your purpose would What do you You just think you'd have more clout if you were on it is that correct no sir what would you do
i I think our input needs to um be relayed to the planning of this policy it it was um let's say uh it was through our efforts that we brought it forward and there um the the guiding principles
and so forth were through our effort and we just feel that we have additional input and would just like to um participate in it may I don't think it's um um do what is it you don't like that they have done well there's
protections for um let's say trees for instance which um a previous speaker spoke about there are additions in it where there are um additions to um density restrictions and so forth or
future land use element um references in the draft proposal that we oppose that we think that um that they're already in the future land use element of the comprehensive plan and we see no reason
to add future land use references into the existing okay or or the the future draft it it just we just don't see it as being necessary and that's why we would like to be able to we don't have a vehicle to have this discussion with the
people that are putting it together and and and this workshop would be that vehicle okay stay right there billy question is it not true or do I understand correctly that if you mess with this plan now you could affect funding from the state that is true if the if the board were to make
substantial changes with the which the board finds not to be in compliance that the state can withhold funding yes so chair may so so that being said when is the next official meeting that will allow this this these people to take
part take part in the LPA we're we're right now we're on track to to have this go before the LPA board on June 13th right that's the the plan that's already been approved correct the the plan that's been transmitted we have made adaptations since then correct including
based on BIPA comments and that and that would come forward on for the next LPA meeting my question is when can when is it going to be up again what year for you to rewrite the whole plan any so so the next year is in is is in seven years
but the board can choose okay without affecting the funding from the state that is correct sir okay thank you okay thank you if I could chime in I I think there is a very good product out there right now uh we're not asking to change the entire policy by any means we're we
want an excellent good policy and we just think we have input that could help uh identify uh a better product commissioner I would be happy to h to include these groups as the speaker had
said they were the um this this came from them they went to our state legislature they this was their idea they they brought it forward these people are the experts and and so I'm I'm more than happy to include them in this process and um Billy if if you
wouldn't mind we we have an extension correct for the a 60-day extension yes Commissioner 60-day extension was approved so and this the changes um unless they're substantial that won't
affect our funding correct it so so we have to do two things one is to well we have to we have to respond to the state comments that was included in the ORC report so assuming we do
that and not make substantial changes we we have that freedom to make non-substantial changes they don't say what substantial changes are so there's no definition it's what they you know we have to see what they say and then on top of that um some of the changes that
the state suggest suggested that came out of some of the suggestions of the people in these groups have not been implemented and so you know if the state is saying we need to turn these should shall or I'm sorry shoulds to
shalls you know I I think that it's um I don't and please board this is not a um a knock on any of us i don't think any of us are complete experts on this topic with the area of state critical concern except for maybe Commissioner
Alman because he was involved but these people are the experts and I'd love to hear their input on this and I think it's very important that we get this right the first time uh Commissioner Atkins Okay Commissioner Alman I guess you first and Commissioner
uh I know Commissioner Atkins is dedicated and committed to this issue and I appreciate her concern i'd like to hear from her and give a briefing on her where she is going she's working it hard so thank you um prior to getting elected
thank you um we went to the South Beach and we had a several hundred residents showed up and this is just the summary I believe
of all of their comments um I was there um Commissioner Alman you were there and the staff took all of those comments and put it into this document when I finally got elected BIPA came to my
office with all of their specific concerns we redlined each one of those concerns as I understood it was given to staff and Billy and your staff you went through every single one and addressed it i had
it back in my hands i had Bipa back into my office and as a group where the two of you were there you agreed and I believe Mr shantis even said "This is a great document there are a couple things that need to be addressed but in general
this is amazing we are so proud of what staff did." Now I understand that it needs to be tweaked my concern is that if we take too long and we end up messing things up that we could create some bigger problems for oursel and for
the county billy you've assured me and correct me if I'm wrong that some of the concerns that I still have about the document they can still be addressed after this thing gets adopted absolutely the board has the freedom to change its con comp and I will bring
those back yes commissioner let me remind you that we still have a couple cards but uh because it's starting to sound like we're in debate uh Commissioner Alman sir it feeds right into that question and I've had I've been brief with staff and very impressed with their
knowledge you from what I understand and to build what what Commissioner Atkins said that we might be better off and I'm happy to hear she's committed to those changes that's wonderful news from what I'm hearing from a technical point of view from a legal point of view from an implementation point of view and a
relationship with our state it probably would be better to do those at a later time is that is that what I'm hearing if the board is considering substantial changes for example removing the future land use part of the the BBIA element
then yes because you right now you wouldn't have the protection of having the state come back to make comments it would they would simply find you in non-compliance if they had a problem with it may I follow up how about the landscape
part of that if we were to implement a tree clearing ordinance for example would that be considered substantial so the ordinance aspect of this this if once the board approves this comp plan we have to focus on the ordinance aspects of this within one year so that
is kind of the next phase of this once we complete the comprehensive plan aspect we haven't begun well I shouldn't say some staff have begun drafting it but we're in the very preliminary stages of that at that point but we'll be seeking complete board input the the board has the freedom to direct staff to
make any ordinance changes it chooses whether or not it's a should or a shall in the comprehensive plan okay okay all right commissioners we have a couple more cards uh Mary Spar and then Sandra I haven't forgotten
you okay next mary Spar good morning commissioners i'm Mary Spar i live in Coco and today I'm representing Sierra Club Tertic Coast Group we have not uh been involved in
this process before except for reviewing uh quite a bit of documentation so um first with regard to the South Barrier Island area of critical state concern we
believe that you have a wonderful opportunity to protect a really important environmentally sensitive area of our county and in spite of the debate that's starting
here we do have an unusual situation with this barrier island um amendment where instead of one group wanting a targeted amendment for the
South Berry Island and another group not wanting it virtually everyone agrees with a concept of an adequate amendment so it should be energizing to
work together on this comp plan amendment since everyone shares the same overall goal effectively addressing the environmental challenges of the South Barrier Island and we ought to be very thankful about
this common goal and gladly embrace the timeconsuming task of evaluating numerous well-intentioned suggestions in order to identify those suggestions which will really solve and
prevent problems now some thoughts regarding both the barrier island and the ear amendments it's a fact that writing comp plan and language is not an easy
task and whatever else staff and the consultants do they don't want their proposed language to make things worse caution and careful study of proposed changes is in order staff has
now received an extension so the county will have until September to adopt the amendment taking some of the time pressure off all concern sierra Club believes that the barrier island amendment as currently
proposed needs more work if it is to be the very best product we can produce i am going to Excuse me can I go ahead ma'am i I don't have too much more i should say the very best product we
can produce without substantial changes because we know and we're familiar with uh the state process the ear amendment also needs improvement a workshop would be very
helpful in reaching the goal of excellence excellence we need to hear more constructive ideas from the commissioners and also from the public and if these ideas are heard in
May at a workshop staff will have time to carefully consider them we urge you to vote yes on holding a workshop for the ACSC amendment and the
year amendment thank you thank you ma'am sandra Sullivan thank you Sandra Sullivan so uh I I also was in involved with this uh I want to just say the first of all thank you to
Mr alman our then rep who supported this bill uh the thousand friends of Florida wrote the legislation and sea turtle conservies very much supporting this and I think the bottom line issue is the
process which the vote was taken under board reports by previous district 3 commissioner without public comment and the funded with said a number that wasn't a number they continue using Bonnie Landry for this process when the
state came and did the area of critical concern this is the first area of critical concern in 45 years this is such a big deal so they go to PNZ with the changes and PNZ voted to remove the key element
which is the loopholes that are in there for increasing density and intensity use that's the bottom line crux of the issue okay because the area of critical concern the whole purpose of it is to limit density increases because of the sensitivity of this environment for the
sea turtles for evacuation i mean is is very problematic um this was the survey that was done at the at the at the meeting that was hosted by Bonnie Landry the consultant that was hired and the very top of the graph that's density
that's the number one concern of the residents down there and what they deal with um there's some egregious you know on steroids changes coming to live local that are also going to be impactful but you know that we can't control that i would urge you to have a workshop invite
the stakeholders to the table because the the other commissioners here went and passed that PNZ the PNZ board your board rejected these density increases in that language and this board ignored
the will of the PNZ board your own board you didn't take their recommendations i was here i spoke other stakeholders spoke and said that the changes that were being sent to the state were violation of state law under
the under the area of critical concern so given those concerns that were pl that put on public record the thing to do now as a new board is to listen to the will of the people listen to the the law because there's some allegations
that some violations are in place and have a workshop and come to the table and let's get this done and let's let's let's resolve this because in and lives lives could be lost down there but
there's also the environmental concerns that is a very sensitive environment we are the largest loggerhead nesting in the world now because Amar was destroyed so thank you i have a question uh Alman has a question for you Sandra actually for
staff because I think you make a very good point there i'd love for staff to comment on the density issue in terms of the submittal the the the version transmitted and currently in existence expressly prohibits density increases in the area
okay so is the the exception that was put in there for when you change to a PUD and you can get an increase in density you're saying that language was removed after this commission voted for it and it went to the state and you've
since amended that no answer no he's uh Billy go ahead sir doing it right yes um there's there's I think there's a distinction that needs to be made between a zoning change and a land use change so what it prohibits is residential density designations from
being increased for example from res 1 to res 4 and the like the PUD issue is separate we have our current version that we're looking at has some language that no new PUDs would get a density bonus and I think there's been some
confusion there we've we've tried to split it as best we can so that the people that already have the very few people that have PUDS only existing get to keep their land rights that they have today but no new PUDs would get a density bonus other other questions followup
no okay sir no one cares for this more than I do and I love BIP i think we need more bipas in this they're wonderful and um I but I also the staff is doing a remarkable job as well as Commissioner Atinson tracking
this issue because I and I did the bill and and unfortunately we had to put an amendment on the bill right at the end to get it passed and and Sandra you're right that this was huge but the first and the U Sierra Club is right the first
uh area of critical state concern in how many years 25 years 25 45 45 years wow but we had to put amendment on right at the end that said that we would not be depriving any landowner of any existing development rights and I think that PUD
is you're walking a fine line here you don't want to violate the law because the whole thing could be thrown out and I think that kind of factored in as well didn't it that is absolutely the line we're trying to walk Commissioner yes yeah uh Commissioner Atkinson um I just
wanted to say I'm certainly not against workshop but I don't know that this is the right time for it i think that um it would be when we start to address the LDRs um and text amendment changes and things like that that's when I think it can be useful right now I kind of feel
like it would be spinning our wheels because we're not going to make any substantial changes to this thing because it gets us in trouble okay so there might just be a order of operations situation here where we need to send this now to prevent us from
having problems with the state potential funding etc but possibly could be September here in June yeah we're not Yeah we're not here in June when I had spoken to staff about this
um they Billy if you will um chime in on this too when I had spoken to staff about this they said that this would be the best time because then it would give them June to um make the changes that were suggested and directed from the workshop and then you know that would
give them plenty of time before that September deadline if I'm remembering correctly if the board were to wish to have a workshop the earlier the better because we need to have time to make whatever comes out of that workshop you know to make those implementations
so I I think we have a dilemma here we risk having problem with the state or you have a workshop um I mean you can send it not have a problem with the state you can have workshop make changes um and then potentially have a problem
with the state is that is that the choice before us comm yeah commissioner yeah we can't make substantial changes without risk okay but we can make nonsubstantial changes without risk right we won't know that
until the state tells us what they think is substantial or not yeah i mean there's certain tweaks like you know we've been making of course those are but there are certain there's a gray area there and some of the changes that were talked about even in public comment
today are clearly over that line so that that's you know so how do we make the changes from the shoods to the shells that were that were suggested by the state going along with the BIPA suggestions
uh that was included in the OC letter as a comment to consider what was in the BIPA uh recommendations so we had the freedom there right but if the people who established this this whole thing
and then the state also says make the should shalls I would think that that would we would here's here's my issue is that the the comp plan is basically the Bible for development in our community it's it's
the it's the law and so this the gray is where we run into problems and so if we could shore some things up to have protections for our community why not have those what's the pleasure of the board
is is there any board support for a um for a workshop i I think I think that that there's consensus that not at this time is what is what I'm hearing and is there anything that
um that we could do Billy could we bring up say an agenda item or something at at a at a meeting that would address some of those concerns before that um before it gets sent back to the state for final approval there there are multiple avenues one is the LPA meeting and if I
can make a correction when I said June 13th before it's June 16th and then of course it's going to come back to the board for adoption at that meeting which the board moved the meeting today it'll be July 17th is the projection because we have that 60-day extension will have
some time to implement any changes the board directs us to make okay it's I I'm just going to comment on this because I remember sitting in the audience hearing but it's you know you'll have time to talk about this when it comes before the board and time after
time the people see no changes made and things just pass through so I hope that that just all stays in the forefront of our minds as we're moving forward with this thank you okay we will go on to item J4
all right I am requesting um board support for a executive session in regards to collective bargaining um I believe that there is um significant hardship that uh fire rescue
is dealing with with the closure of um Rocklage Regional Hospital and uh from what I've been told from staff there are some things that we could do um to help slow the bleeding a little
bit within our ranks and um I would really love the ability to uh talk about that and see what we can do for our people who have been loyal to our community and have stayed um you know in our
community as we're working through these uh negotiations and I would just like to also um read some things that the magistrate uh said in his response to us um he he says this unit substantially
lags behind the average pay of comparable employers um he says in in either case one could uh expect current high levels of turnover to increase at the same time the negotiations for a new contract remained
unsolved um it appears that staffing levels barely satisfy minimum uh legally mandated minimums and if units were to receive
what they viewed as a bad contract um turnover would be expected to continue if not accelerate um he also goes on to say if the pay disparities are not um to be addressed now and this was
March 9th the wage gap will only continue to grow making subsequent efforts to address the disparities even more um difficult later and he says I'm not taking sides only pointing out what I see to be obvious and now this person
is somebody who you know both sides have agreed upon you know this is not somebody who is biased either direction this is somebody who heard both sides of the story and said there's a problem here and I I really feel like we need to
um see if there's something we can do for fire rescue right now while we continue on with the impass process commissioners
questions there any questions on um this item we have one we have one card sandra Sullivan sandra Sullivan i'm going to be blunt when people were campaigning the number one issue that was being
discussed was our public safety of our fire rescue it was a crisis then and a concern of critical service failure we're all seeing where this is going i just wonder what the agenda that is playing out by the county what is the
agenda that is going to come to light when you were campaigning the message was as soon as you got elected we were going to have a contract for the firefighters okay that was November
november December January February March April we're five months later now what should happen today is you guys should go into executive session and go talk about this and there needs to be a contract for these guys or
you're going to have I'm seeing the posts already online you're gonna have a mass exodus of people and if you think you're up the creek right now Yeah if you think you're up the creek right now with Rocklledge Hospital closing
today where do you think you're going to be in a couple weeks from now you guys need to wake the up and I'm allowed to say that under my constitutional right and if you don't believe me go look up the Mums for
Liberty lawsuit now I'm going to put this very clearly very disrespectful government is created for public safety and infrastructure that is the purpose of government and you are purposely endangering lives these guys are talking
at groups and talking about the ramifications of what is going on and lives are going to be lost and your lack of action is liability for the county wake up governments created for you to come down here and talk to us this way
thank you all right then act like a grownup all right why don't you go outside somewhere play in the Okay all right thank you we're still on the item that was it for the card that we had commissioners uh discussion on the
item is there a motion on the item i'd like to make a motion to have an executive session today after this board meeting sir do you want to say something just don't understand what we're gonna gain by going upstairs again when the
magistrate still got to rule we're trying our best to fund it with the fire assessment with raising the MSTU funding to hear the same thing again what purpose does it serve commissioner when does the magistrate give the final word
to us it should be within 30 days the briefs were due yesterday and I believe it's statutoily the magistrate has 30 days if I'm correct so we could have a closed door meeting before the June break with the
magistrates's uh decision process commissioner is once there once the uh decision is made by the magistrate both parties will have the opportunity to determine whether or not they accept the magistrate's decisions if both parties
accept the magistrate's recommendations then both then they would uh go before the union for a vote and come before the board when would the when would the um board of commissioners uh make the decision whether we accept the board
doesn't that's done that's done at a staff level we then bring it to the board okay um for a vote once the union if the union accepts it then they ratify it would come back to the board for a vote i believe that would have to be it
depends how quickly the magistrate renders this decision whether or not because the board has a break during June i understand so you either have to come back for you know a special meeting um and the more difficult process would
be if either party does not accept the magistrate's decision then you enter into a cone of silence where you are not allowed to speak to anyone but either on the county side or on the you know uh the union side or anyone in the bargaining unit there's a cone of
silence because the board will play a different role at that point and it would come to it would come to a public hearing and the board would make the decision as to what they would impose for the one-year period that one-year
period would end uh September 30th of 2025 okay if if I could answer Commissioner Goodson's question um from what I understand there's $7.6 6 million right now um that was planned to
be spent um on a contract if one was ratified uh back in October and what what we could talk about is um a memorandum of understanding we
could talk about um you know a way to uh give the people that have stayed here during this difficult time um the step raises that they have foregone um as
going through these proceedings and so there's there's still things that we can do to alleviate some of the bleeding right now especially after um you know the the earlier conversations with the assessment people are very unhappy um
and I I feel like if we don't do something to show our people that we value them that we will not have a fire department by July does for clarifi go ahead Commissioner
Goodson okay Frank explain to me they could have had that increase months ago correct they were offered a very I believe subst significant increase they know it back in December including retroactive pay
they chose not to the the county has never walked away from the impass um that's always been the union's decision which they had a right to do let me clarify on something on that that point um so that deal was is that still
effectively on the table they could take that at any time we have never refused to negotiate commissioner we've been there um every time early we've even been accused of uh you know uh negotiating uh too quickly because they
weren't prepared to come to that would be a that would be a one-year deal right now it could be a one year could have been a three-year right th those things were done back in December they were done at mediation and there was with all due respect I'm I'm sorry to interrupt
with all due respect there have been substantial changes since since that time we have a closure of a major hospital and we have more vacancies now so the job looks completely different today than it did even two months ago
and so it I understand there's a lot of history there's a lot of feelings there's a lot of you know um battling it out on both sides but what what I'm hoping that we can do is look from today look at where we are
today and see what we can do to help the heroes that are in our community as we're making our way through this process do you have some indication
that X Y and Z done today would would be acceptable i would assume that if I I don't assume anything i'm I'm I'm asking is is there is there some something that we're not aware of that
they would not more than anybody else watching social media or the news or anything else you know it's don't I don't consider social media to be a good source of anything but if we're going to have a closed door meeting today to discuss some specifics
um do we have specifics to discuss yes okay mr commissioner Roman uh this may sound strange but but it's
sort of how I feel and and we have gone we we've gone so far in this direction and we've invested so much time and energy both the union the special magistrate and the county and our county attorney i'm kind of curious what the
magistrate comes up with i'd like to see what their recommendation is i think that's why we have this process into law so if we go into any sort of executive session the intent would be to to try to work out an agreement prior to the med special magistrate giving the
recommendation which we've tried and tried and tried i don't I don't know if that's going to happen i'm at a point now let's see what the mag independent third party objective source it's going to be interesting and that's going to come out
when Frank July it should come within 30 days I believe okay july it's But that's longer than July is longer than 30 days we wouldn't have an opportunity to to make a change for our people till July that's what I'm trying to get to Frank
uh so do we get it on May 26 and you know what's the earliest date we could make a change for these people is what we're asking we've always been open to negotiation commissioner all they have to do is say they want to negotiate and we would be
at the table we've never The county has never walked away from the magistrate is what I'm asking what's the earliest date we could I can't tell you what the earliest date would be because I don't know when the magistrate
the process was extended at the request of the union attorney for 10 days so that period expired yesterday both parties submitted their briefs yesterday i believe the magistrate has 30 days after the
submission of the briefs to render the recommendation and provide it to both the county and the union so the earliest time would be um after the magistrate has given us that and both parties respond to what those recommendations
are they'd have to be reviewed by both parties and then they would have to make a decision i don't have on the top of my head how how many days that is that each party has do you know Melissa yeah it might be 15 days so either party would have to review what the magistrate
recommended and then decide do they accept or not if if they accepted then the union would go for a ratification vote and that would take a little bit of time and then it would come back to the board for final vote if not then we would set up the the the hearing where
the board would make you know the impose what they wanted to impose as the contract all right we have a meeting scheduled a regular meeting on the 20th of May so is it poss So it's possible we could have that decision
no it's a recommendation and then both parties would have 15 days depending how quickly they were ready to respond it could be you know I if he if he if he gave the rep u recommendation within two weeks you could still do it and they
would have the 15 days i just don't know because you know I believe it's the magistrates from out of state so I don't know how quickly we should expect that decision what What if What if we just bring this issue up again on the 20th
okay of May we have a we have a meeting anyways and if we have the magistrate's decision in our hands at that time then we could decide to have a closed door meeting to discuss the results of that at least armed with that information
aren't there things that we could do that would that could give get our people paid today that we could continue on with the negotiation process it we don't have the ability to impose
is that my I'm talking about like a memorandum of understanding that would be negotiations and as I've said Commissioner we're available today if they wanted to negotiate they just have to tell us they wanted to negotiate we have not walked away mr chairman may
I yes Commissioner i don't have a problem with executive session we probably could have had one by now if we've discussed here it's probably more appropriate we do talk about this so I don't have a problem it if we want to go into executive session i'm not I'm not
opposed myself i I I don't know what the Yeah it's it's hard i think it's hard to to figure things out before we have um what what their brief is what our um you know what what information we're going to get from the magistrate but I'm
so All right okay all right uh go go go ahead with uh your motion Commissioner i'd like to make a motion to have an executive session um today after the regular board meeting second all right
we have a motion by Commissioner Delaney for executive session after the end of this meeting and we have a second by Commissioner Alman clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes vice Chair Goodson no commissioner Atinson yes
commissioner Alman yes chairman Felner yes all right so we'll see you upstairs uh after we get through and I may I ask politely that we have a short board report so we can get to it is that is that a fair trade i know i know it i
haven't forgotten it thanks all right commissioners let's go to J5 and we did have three cards so we're minus one I think and uh J5 Commissioner Goodson or Peter
somebody want to introduce this i want to give $5,000 to each one of these as far as the culture alliance money we originally requested two items but I guess that's your prerogative I'll second it okay we have a motion by
Commissioner Goodson wait actually we have two cards i'm I'm sorry we need we need to go to the cards first ruth uh Coughfield after that bill Harwig sir if you're still with us
okay good afternoon yes afternoon commissioners and chair and staff and audience i sent out an email to every single commissioner and through the um tourism board la last night i hope you got it if you did not I have copies for
you did y'all get it or no or would you like a copy i'll just pass these out it's a quite lengthy email i'm not going to read it all but I am going to um try and give you an idea of what you're
walking into if you decide to um give money to Space Coast Pride uh Commissioner Good had an opposition to language spoken earlier yet wants to give money to Space Coast Pride pretty
hypocritical um in my mind but I would like to play for you what the plan is from people that are associated with this organization shoot sir m if you could just just tell us what
right we just tell us tell us before any video or audio those are supposed to by board policy be submitted in advance so staff can make sure that we comply with regulations broadcast this to the public that's why
we have that so you can You you could ma'am we just need this organization is coming for our children okay this organization is already funded by many organizations in Bvard County so that they don't have to answer to the
DEI crap so the DEI crap has already been addressed by our governor by our president and by many other people we don't need this type of cancer in our community to be given taxpayer money or
any sort of monies at all that come from the commission so I don't see any benefit to this and it's tourism so you want to advertise to the United States and to the world that tourism is
entertaining Space Coast Pride LGBTQ transgenderism and all you would say when you give that money to them that you support that and then that's what you're going to be inviting that's what you're going to be bringing to this
county we don't need it here all right ma'am thank you bill Harwick thank you yes ma'am good afternoon uh thank you in advance for three minutes uh my name is uh Bill
Hartwig uh Bvard residents county in West Melbourne uh as you all and we all are taxpayers uh I love this country i'm uh a veteran honorably discharged uh I had
a strong uh urge to uh serve my country um and also um also uh proud to say that I'm a grandson and a uh a son of city fire uh fighters in Rochester New York my concern is uh where my tax uh dollars
are going both federally and locally uh I have a grave concern for America's tomorrow and you know what our kids are America's tomorrow do you want this uh pride stuff going to these kids i don't that's my tax dollars i don't like it
i'm a taxpayer and I'm telling you all I don't like that uh that's the moral fabric you know our kids we got to look out for that and like I say America's tomorrow are our kids and if you any of
you voted in the past for any of this shame on you because you I don't have to stand here and tell you the direction of our company our country's been going we're in a mess and I applaud all of you
for the job you're doing it it's you're getting everything from everybody from everywhere please don't fund this crap do not do it we have firemen we got the first line you know cops i I could go on and on of the things that have happened
in this country and we all know that my wife funded the uh Rochester Police Department uh uh in her job and they got defunded and she funded them we're headed in a very wrong direction so please I urge you no more of this trans
crap it's destroying our country i believe in our Constitution i serve my country and it really irritates me greatly that we have our government's systems funding this crap i don't know if you remember uh during the Biden
administration when they had their gay day on the the lawn of the White House or the Easter Bunny and the transvestites bunch of crap if you support that stuff shame on you look at the videos if you've funded uh some of this in the past take a look at the
videos with those uh little ones no that that's that's sick so please do your best for our country and our kids thanks for the time that was our Is that it that was our last card on that okay i've got a
comment okay please in discussion yes sir these people are taxpayers just like you are you're not required to go to this function you're not even asked to go but they pay taxes i don't like the
venue i don't go but at the same token you answer this question do you have anybody in your family that could be of a different venue well maybe you do maybe you don't but you're going to persecute them and all about we hear about we the people we the people those
are the people so until they do something wrong in Melbourne that they get arrested for or they do something wrong then I'm going to give them the same funny money we'd give to possibly a German parade that wants to take the
Jewish people back to Germany so that's all I got to say if you don't want to vote for it don't vote for it but be prepared don't let me hear you say we the people again okay okay that's uh the end of the discussion or is there any other discussion
i have some discussion um I I um am opposed to giving tax dollars to Space Coast Pride um the things that I have seen um put out there
um that go on at this event is not what I would consider a family-friendly event um when these cultural dollars are uh were put out to be spent it was
supposed to be for you know things that everybody could go to and I don't think that that fits within uh what we're looking at okay commissioner Alman sorry
I saw you reaching for your light there i'm ready to vote okay um Commissioner Goodson it's your item sir okay i would like to make a motion for approval of my $20,000 okay i have a
motion is there a second sir would you like to amend your motion nope okay we we'll show that dies from a second then nope all right um we have one card on public comment
from the supervisor of elections good afternoon commissioners thank you for the opportunity um I just wanted to extend my gratitude to the men and women of Bvard County Firefighters um Melbourne uh fire department and the Forest Service uh last Wednesday the
April 16th uh we had a major brush fire that came up right against our election support center which had millions of dollars of voting equipment uh myself and my chief deputy were over in Orlando at a user meeting conference and got the call from our uh warehouse manager who
uh expressed our concerns uh Chief Voltter was uh uh was great to work with kept me in very close contact and uh we was on site with me as uh the fire approached got within 20 ft of our building uh so I just want to commend all of the hard work they did an amazing
job and they continue to as we get flare-ups even now uh we're still getting smoke out of that area so I just wanted to express my gratitude to them thank you very good um we're going to go in the board reports and we're going to keep it quick i'm gonna start because I I have two things and kind of a segue
into uh Tim actually uh we had discussion the other day and I suggested that uh because we need alternates for canvasing board and uh we do have a regular member and we have an alternate but it's it's it's hard to to meet at
all and so uh I would like for us to designate our chiefs of staff in each of our offices to be um alternates um for canvasing morris is there any issue with that think I don't believe so i know
we've done that before tim I don't chief of staff i think we've had we've had Danielle I think um before um do it for us so anyways um is that something we can go ahead and make a motion and an alternate what what does that mean i'm
Danielle's done it several times uh okay uh but when I mean canvasing board meets I think almost daily for 10 days or so during the election period yes sir will you just explain to the dilemma to us real quick
certainly so uh our canvasing board schedule is published on the votear.gov website it's not every day u there's a number of meetings it starts with our logic and accuracy test and ends through our post-election audit um I can assure you that the meetings this year are very short uh for the ones that Commissioner
Delaney attended uh Commissioner Goodson or the alternates sometimes we are in and out of there in an hour um this isn't like the regular election cycle uh but the most important criteria is the county commissioner or whoever is designated cannot be an active participant in any campaign cannot be on
any kind of a host committee fundraiser um openly endorsing a candidate so those are the what ends up disqualifying a number of commissioners unfortunately but I'm all I'm all in support of of the only the only stipulation was by per state law anybody
serving on the canvasing board and it can be any uh elector in Bvard County so certainly the chiefs is happening it's a wonderful idea they would just have to take the uh mandatory signature matching training and then there's also a canvasing board uh workshop video as well
and I think Danielle's been through this i'll motion will do it i can't see her raise your hand but I don't think she We're happy to share the I'll make a motion you'll make would be alternate well we'll we'll designate our our chiefs of
our office okay it's just uh everybody chief of staff so we have a motion by Commissioner Alman we have a second by Commissioner Delaney uh clerk call the role on that motion for us real quick commissioner Delaney yes vice Chair Goodson yes commissioner Atinson yes
commissioner Alman yes chairman Felner yes all right we'll show that pass 5 and just a reminder every individual does have to take the training you can't I have to have a certificate on file for each individual we'll make them available training we'll make available appreciate it okay very good
uh commissioners one other thing i got an update um earlier i'm going to read it to you um Representative Soy sent this to me orlando Health has agreed in writing to one fund 10 million in
assistance to Space Coast Health Foundation two demolish the building at their expense and three give the property back to the city of Rocklage that's it that's all that I have uh you'll have to call him with any other
updates on that uh that'll constitute my board report so uh Morris board report no report mr chairman okay mr county uh manager Frank anything no report okay uh Commissioner Delaney I did have a report
but due to time I'm going to forego that but anybody who's interested I'll put it out there on social media okay commissioner Alman no report commissioner Goodson Commissioner Dweeni sorry i'm sorry commissioner Atkinson
commissioner Kim just do that all right real quick uh I just want to say Palm Bay High School girls basketball team won their first ever state championship yay and Jada Civil from that team was named uh player of the year so I'm proud
of him good job let's uh let's do this let's Can we How about 110 okay so nobody can get lost in 20 minutes i have to sign some things for the clerk gives everybody a chance to refresh themselves a little bit and we'll meet in the conference room of county managers okay
all right thank you thank you everyone 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 Bvard County Florida Space Coast Government Television or the program sponsor and are solely those of
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