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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 evening everyone welcome to the February 11th regular meeting of the board of County Commissioners we have a quorum I'll call the meeting to order tonight's invocation uh by Mr Shan Grant of bigh
uh local assembly of Bard sir you recognized from the writings of the high Faith this is a prayer for America oh thou kind Lord this Gathering is turning to thee these hearts are radiant with thy love these minds and
Spirits are exhilarated by the message of thy Glad Tidings oh God let this American democracy become glorious in spiritual degrees even as it has aspired to material degrees and render this just government
Victorious confirm this revered Nation to upraise the standard of the Oneness of humanity to promulgate the most great peace to become thereby most glorious and praiseworthy among all nations of the world oh God this American nation is
worthy of thy favors and is deserving of thy mercy make it precious and near to thee through thy Bounty and bestow thank you sir if you'll join me in the Pledge of Allegiance flag of the United States of America and
to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay Commissioners we have minutes to approve for uh September 2 4 2024
final budget hearing November 12th 2024 regular meeting and December 3rd 2024 regular meeting is there motion for approval so move we have a motion by commissioner Goodson we have a second by
commissioner Alman clerk will read the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Altman yes chair chman felner yes Commissioners will show that
adopted thank you very much we don't have any resolutions tonight uh on the consent agenda is there anything anyone else or anyone wants to pull off of consent is there a motion for the consent agenda so moved there's a motion by
commissioner ainson second there's a second by commissioner Delany clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner adkinson yes commissioner Alman yes
chairman felmer yes okay good uh seeing the supervisor of elections in the audience and out of some difference um we're going to if you don't mind we're going to go ahead to uh
j3 do we have any cards on j3 no no Mr supervisor you recognize sir to explain your item thank you very much Commissioners it's a pleasure to be here to address you tonight about uh Bard's aging voting equipment uh Bard purchased its current
voting equipment in 2013 and this year it'll be 12 years old next month uh so if you have any technology laying around that's 12 years old that you're still using it's about the equivalent of what we have now we currently have 200 Precinct tabulators
they're known as the DS2 200s that need to be replaced uh the state recently certified a new version of the software which does not perform very well on our existing voting equipment especially with our early voting equipment last year this County Commission approved a
carry forward from the prior fiscal year to purchase half of the machines now and half in the um next fiscal year starting in October the vendor has offered us an option to ship all 200 units to us now
and at the time they had proposed shipping 200 to us now now billing half now and half in the next fiscal year however after Consulting with the county manager County attorney and the County Auditors um we cannot be um obligated to
I can't sign an agreement that obligates me beyond the fiso year that I'm in and would obligate me to something that I don't have approved by this board yet uh so I'm coming to you today to ask for the board to approve a budget amendment for the remaining $75,500
16 cents to purchase all of the units now instead of from 8 months from now this will save in shipping costs it'll ensure all of the units are under the same warranty cycle and it will potentially allow us to use them in the upcoming special election in June which
would be a great learning experience and training opportunity for our pole workers um it will also allow us to to deploy the same precin tabulator across all of our election day precincts uh it would eliminate the need to have to train poll workers on two different
types of equipment and then have voters experiencing two seeing two different types of equipment being deployed out there now for those of you who've been to our support center um everyone's been invited I know most of you have so I'm served on the canvasing board um we have space issues you know we barely have enough room to fit the the units that we
have now so getting another hundred units and holding them off and and and getting them through will be a very difficult challenge so if we can get them all replaced now we will be trading in the exist listing units that we have I've negotiated
$142,000 uh trade in value for our 13 12 to 13y Old voting equipment now so that's my ask and I'm happy to answer any questions that anybody might have uh commissioner Delaney do I yes please um
so this is just for the public to bring this up again because I think we talked about this last time we voted on this with these current systems that we have right now what are some of the things that could happen if we don't update so right now I am still borrowing units that were traded in from Orange County
that are a slightly higher model than ours because the model we have will not run early voting um period uh they will crash and they will not function properly um the higher combined precincts will run very slow um sometimes they won't want to boot up so
that's it's just a it's time to replace them uh you know from a security standpoint having you you know updated voting equipment and machines that's been recently certified uh will certainly help that process they also have um the newer units have additional seals on them to show enhanced security
as well so if we don't pass this basically you won't be able to move forward with your obligated responsibilities as supervisor of election we we will move forward with the 100 units um but I really will not be planning on implementing a 100 units and and running half and half half of
one type of unit and half of the other type of unit right okay um because then it comes down into a situation where cuz the new units are much faster they're better to work with and then it's like okay which precincts get the newer ones and which ones get the older ones and so forth so I'd rather not be put in that situation if exactly thank you thank you
commissioner Alman well yeah you know for commissioner Goodson and I 12 years ago was not that long ago no I remember the booth when the drapes would close behind you we still
have one of those in Titus SP on display check them out lot of memories well I appreciate the job you do and I know you're looking out after Bard County and we want to we have a great election system we want to keep it that way I appreciate it the best thing we can do is stay out of the
news uh commissioner ainson um I have two questions if I may first of all how much is this going to save us so just in the shipping alone it'll be about $33,000 in shipping costs I verified that with the vendor because they're shipping everything on a complete truck versus two partial trucks um but then there's also the the warranty coverage
is a big thing having half the units under one warranty cycle versus another we'll have to manage those and renew those at different times throughout the year also the vendor coming in and doing the support having them come in twice versus all to do it at once right okay um my other question is so you're
obviously looking forward to your budget this is obviously going to not be in your next year's budget it's going to reduce what you're going to need correct yes okay thanks I thought of a couple things just uh since we bumped into the hall and you
mentioned early voting so I think one of your challenges at early voting just for clarity is that I can early vote at any location in Bard County Des despite the fact that I live in Precinct 421 corre right so I can go to tville and can do
that so your Optical um readers have to discern between the different um ballots right because my ballot is going to be different than all the other precincts all the other parties during uh a primary right and that's that's something that that you need to upgrade
and that's the reason why early voting is affected most because those tabulators have to accept all the ballot Styles across the entire County whereas the election days only have to handle the ballot styles for those precincts that are at that location that's what makes it so much more complicated and so
um in a primary potentially you have over 300 different ballots uh in a primary we have 160 170 ballot Styles uh precincts time three right okay um so uh and then another thing is just just while you're here I won't I won't hold
you to it but you know we're looking at special election now you you definitely need these for the municipal election um but this is going to benef I mean will you have it in time for a special election if we had it I we won't for the April election but my hope is that we'll have them for the June and that would
just it's such a great time to deploy new technology and Equipment that's not a huge major countywide election cuz it's going to be low turnout it's going to be small it really gets us a chance to get our feet wet with a new equipment what what um and that's something that you'll have to come back I think another day to give us estimate on the cost of
the special do you do you have any idea just I'm not trying to put you on the spot but just just we're working on that right now we're waiting for the court cases to work through in the Supreme Court cuz depending on how they rule could change it we have preliminary set up and I was going to re I was planning on bringing that into the budget
Workshop actually okay I know it's not kind of related to next year's budget but I wanted to make the commission aware okay so uh now we do have uh the situation that we the county needs to front the cost of that and then we will be reimbursed for later how how long I
I've heard that it is as much as two years I would say at least that right now because there's so many special elections already happening right now that it everyone's in it's a first come first serve and I cannot submit the request to the state until after the election's over with and all the costs
are pay Okay so so as as the earliest you could do that is sometime in June uh well we can do it for April for the a for the primary election we that request and right away and then we'll get the June one in as soon as possible as well all right sir very good are there any other questions for the
supervisor uh oh yes sir just one quick question um I'm thinking we would uh pay that through the midyear supplement and make that a priority I just want to make sure that time frame which would be about April that we would know F certain those numbers and have the dollars
available from that source is that meet your in April if we wait till April to sign the agreement and purchase that that that's going to make it a challenge to be able to use as soon as the board can approve it yeah um I wasn't that's the first I've heard about any kind of a time frame
so I I I thought if you were looking for it next year I wasn't sure that's why I want to check now with the time frame so if the board gives us the authority uh to to as part of the motion if you decide to do this to give us the authority the county manager to pull
from the funds and then we will replenish those funds as part of the midyear supplement wherever we take it from if it's in April uh sir if that is in April I I think we should be fine because by the time we get the equipment shipped to us you know if the vendor was willing to split the cost between now
and next fiscal year I'm sure I could work if we can get it in March we'll try to get it to you during March and we'll do it that way I think uh just just to be clear we're we're talking about agreeing to buy it now but um paying for it in in April is that I'm I'm sure I
can work that out with my vendor that works for everybody especially do our best to get it to you in March okay because we won't actually pay them until the acceptance testing the equipment arrives they come and install everything so you know we probably be pushing that off until after the April election anyway um you know when we're in
election mode I'm not going to be be swapping equipment around so I can work with that thank you okay any other discussion on this item okay is there a motion that includes uh so what what do we need to say in the motion Frank uh if you'd
include in a motion giving the county manager the authority to pull those funds from wherever necessary uh during March and then replenish that with the midyear supplement from the midyear supplement
those funds okay uh is there a motion on on that for point of clarity does that mean like from reserves or what does that mean excuse me I'm sorry for a point of clarity does that mean from reserves or or well I'm going to work that out with the budget office and
figure out was the easiest place to get it because but we'll be putting the money back the following month correct okay is that Jill do you is that what you're thinking um yeah so I saw you shaking your head that's why I was um
that's why I was asking right yeah so there currently the board policy is that we keep Reserves at 10% we're at 10.4 right now just over 30 million so we would look there or if there's a another place
um which you know I think you know we have some projects that we may not be in progress until after midyear supplement so that would be another option too but either way we would look to replenish those okay so thank you for that any other questions or discussion
on on that okay is there a motion so move all right motion by commissioner Alman second there's a second by commissioner Delan clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes
commissioner Alman yes chairman Felton yes Commissioners will show that adopted 5 Z thank you very much I appreciate it commissioner Goodson I promise we'll have some good snacks for you at the next board meeting okay thank you he likes uh Vienna sausage and saltines just so you know the and pineapple
Lifesavers I think I understand I have that right okay all right very good okay Commissioners thanks for that um we will go on to uh item H1 oh I'm sorry I'm sorry we do have a
public comment card I'm sorry Sanders thin and then we'll go to H1 good evening Sandra Sullivan so I've made some comments up here uh over the last couple months about how deplorable the condition of the buildings in bouard county is how we
look so poor yesterday I drove up to district one to the Titusville building I took some photos I've posted them on waves action one of them is a building with a tree growing out the top and a tree growing out of the
saet mold up the side of the building and this is next to the fire station 23 which is from what my understanding is condemned and the fire and those firefighters are at other locations
housed in in facilities that do not have enough room for them so I want to talk about root problem I see here in Bard County and that is space is getting a free ride they're not taxed and I've been
digging into different taxing Federal documents that says clearly the the federal government trumps the state level when it comes to that that when you're leasing to private entities the local jurisdiction has the
right to collect taxes we also don't collect storm water and what I'm seeing for posts on YouTube on how much development is going to be happening uh blue origin is putting in
12 more buildings 75 Acres of buildings and all those storm if you look at the hydrology study that ler put into place for half a bill half a million dollars it shows they're no longer on the flood plane which means they are going to be impacting the surrounding
properties um I also want to point out regarding space Florida and the sewage that in looking up the document Federal documents on Space authorities and space ports that and I'm going to read this that a space Authority is has
a unique asset or Powers including bonding Authority which allows them to go to Great Lengths to support projects requiring large infrastructure Investments what did they say here we want to use other people's money we want
to use Bard County and that's going to bring me to some other comments I'm going to make later about how we using public money taxpayers money here in Bard for space projects including $8 million that was funded by Neds On The
taxpayers Backs out of general fund that went to give these companies dollars now that's taking money away from critical issues that we have and when I when I uh speak under
the fire assessment I'm going to come up here and I'm going to talk about some of those issues thank you okay uh item H1 Mark good evening board um the H1 is a petition of vate a drain easement for
Store Safe of rockage LLC it's in District 2 east of US1 north of Barnes Boulevard uh we're also uh in addition to requesting the uh approving the vacate signing and accepting a public drainage easement and access easement
and accepting a public sidewalk easement uh there are no issues Commissioners uh I think we have a representative uh from the project here if there are questions are there
questions no questions okay I was wondering does he have like a Spiel or something does he have anything to tell us about the project or sir uh James okay go ahead sir you recognized hi
James S uh Store Safe of rocklage uh located at 5301 Dempster sko Illinois I just came in for purposes of Murphy's Law uh figured if I didn't come somebody would have questions and if I did come and you didn't have any great
so uh flew down yesterday and here I am don't have a Spiel the Project's vertical working with Jee kritzky has been great working with Amber's been great um we've given the county what it wants which is to vacate an old easement and to give them a new one took a lot of
time but other than that I don't have any complaints it's been a pleasure to work with if um I could ask you just for the public cuz I'm sure a lot of people don't know about this project what are your plans for this project and um so the easement goes pretty much through the middle of the property are are both
sides going to be used for storage facilities or what what's what's your plan so as a matter of public record I mean we filed the Pud it's very well publicized every rendering every site plan we're building the approved site plan we're building about 100,000 square
ft of all climate controlled storage um phase two is to be determined um you know the way the Pud was enacted um to give our neighbors Comfort um the entire use of the entire site is storage it's
bu2 but there's conditions on the Pud that there can't be any outdoor parking other than that our neighbors were thrilled to have what is a I would consider a buffer use meaning um you know if you had a grocery store there you have trucks delivering groceries and a lot of garbage and a lot of refu a lot
of you know um pallets and blah blah blah storage is quiet and we put the detention pound towards our neighbors we had a really nice hearing we made friends with them we put the landscaping and retaining walls towards the back and you know we are just uh executing the
plan that was agreed upon after not vigorous public hearings but healthy public hearings so that's it thank you for being a good neighbor of course any other questions on this item is there any discussion uh actually
I'm sorry we do have one card Sandra suvin Sandra Sullivan so a little background so what was submitted to P andz was a storage facility from the top of the property to the bottom of the property but what what came in to site
planning which is not the part that the public sees is that site plan was changed is only the top half of the property is storage facility and so the concern has been for some time and I
have posted this for some time especially given the obstruction of Records on the 60 some thousand that was spent on on engineering which I got one page for okay and it's figure
three so there's more um so this is to be clear by their own website an affordable housing developer so he talks about all this transparency but the pnz board hearing was as if it was all going to be storage who could argue with that
right but the reality is when they submitted their site plan there was not quite a bait and switch but that's what I'm going to call it to where it's only the north half and I think that this whole chopping down the trees
on rockage Drive is for a large this is my prediction a large affordable housing development based on the one figure with the sizing of the lift station and the amount of property that the county is looking at purchasing from this
developer to put in everything that is needed so we have been told lies on the AFF for on the cutting down of the trees first we were told oh this is a safety issue we're cutting down the trees because it's a safety issue but we got
records and showed it's not a safety issue then I did research and I found out oh by the way there's a sewer going in and then the county lied about that said oh no we're not putting in a sewer system and I go here's the records you're putting in a sewer system so then I do records requests
and I get obstructed on records so what are you hiding question sir Mark could you tell us if there's any truth to that rhetoric there when can I buy buy an affordable house down there in rock so commissioner
not aware of any uh specific affordable housing um and to the tree issue uh there was only four trees that were removed that the property owners uh written Express per with the written express permission the rest were either
trimmed uh back or limbs were removed but they still exist today and have no tie uh to um what was just mentioned it was specifically for safety we have a engineering report that uh states that
and uh as a subsequent phase we are working with the utilities department they are working on a sewer project um but that is not the reason why the trees were removed could you chair could you tell me the sewer
project was that prior to my re of Tera was that during lber re of Tera Tera and the other Commissioners and did not want to do the sewer on the railroad or the sewer just came up during my reign of Tera commissioner I I don't recall the
exact timeline all right let's get Tom up here okay thank you let's get uh Eddie to and I would like the developer to step back up here too while Tom's getting seated could you tell me sir may may I chair in Canada
Tommy is Eddie Eddie yeah that's okay Eddie okay it's close enough it's it's good it's good enough anybody with the name out of Chicago I can't remember because I'm scared of them okay do you know when I can buy an affordable house on your project yeah I don't there's no reality to that you
will let us know though right I won't because it's not going to happen so Store Safe uh is in nine states we are a top 70 Self Storage Company I know um okay I don't know what to say here uh that's okay we don't know what to say
either half time but that's fine yeah I mean can you tell me sir when was the sewer line on River Road discussed uh prior to you that project is identified as a sorl project it's been in the sorl plan um and the
implementation of the sorry commissioner that's all right answer your question that's fine thank you I have no further questions I just get confused because that sewer plan is in the planning process now the the Engineering Process correct yes sir do you have just for the
sake so we can make it clear and of course please uh do the best you can do would you say the plans will be approved in what year or what date it'll be approved in 2025 and we're looking at around September to start uh that's when
the plan completions and then we'll proceed to a bidding bidding now and this is a phase type job you couldn't do it all at once I'm sure right correct and it's over how many years well the first phase is going to be River Road and then we'll subsequently be
backfilling so the soral area identified as the um the county the county boundary US1 to um rocklit Drive yeah yes thank you thank you sir sure and with all due respect I I have nothing to do with a
larger project in Bard County we were asked to improve an easement I would rather not have we spent a fortune doing it and a lot of time and we did what we were supposed to do thank you sir thank you chair yes sir okay any other
questions on this item we already did the cards is there any discussion on the item is there a motion motion to approve sir we have a motion by commissioner Goodson we have a second by commissioner ainson clerk will call the
all commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Altman yes chairman Felton yes we'll show that I adopted 5 Z thank you godamn thanks Tom slash Eddie we
appreciate that yeah Tom they call yeah take that with respect okay uh Commissioners item i1 commissioner delini this is your item you recognized thank you so um this is to talk again about the workup uh speakup
Bard workshop and um to see if I could get board support on this um what I had heard from uh the board the last couple of times we've talked about this commissioner Altman you mentioned that
you'd prefer something in the in the evening um so I proposed a 500m meeting and commissioner feltner you were concerned about the um total submissions and about the time duration and so I believe last time we talked about having
a 3-hour uh time limit on that and there were 77 missions um and 66 of those I believe are from uh there are 66
submitters so um with all of that being said I don't I don't believe that we're going to have 66 people show up to this Workshop because you know there are some people who you aren't going to be able to make it they're
um you know they it's easier for them to make the submission but for the people who do want to take time out of their day to come and expand um uh explain to us their idea um I just really feel
passionate about giving the citizens an opportunity to get involved in our community in our in our government um and in our processes and throughout this time um over the past couple weeks I've gotten
emails that were um submitted it looked like to all of us from District 2 three and five so there's there seems to be interest from uh the entire County and um so I'm hoping to get
support the three dates that I had put out was March 3rd March 18th and March 24th and I didn't know if anybody has any questions or comments commissioner ainson for a question so commissioner um at the last
meeting I also had a question about whether or not the county staff was going to have the opportunity to eliminate um those things that we have zero control over did you address that yes I'm so sorry about that um I am completely fine with County staff
pulling out the submissions that are um that we have no control over of course any other questions uh we don't have any cards sir commissioner Goodson if you picked one of those dates would the staff be
able to to review them quick enough to get back before the dates Frank you know if the board asks us to do that we have 120 day process to um review all the submissions that is currently
underway uh the public information office has coordinated and sent them out uh to the various departments um and if you uh if the board wanted us to give you a list of which ones um are outside the board's
jurisdiction we could do that at any of the dates that uh the board so chose okay any other questions okay did did someone say they had a card okay I don't I don't see cards for
um J oh I won I'm sorry I didn't put my glasses on that's my fault okay uh Marine rot maren RUP Commissioners moring rootport St John since
1988 98 sorry I have been on three Charter review commissions and in that yearlong process I have taken very seriously what every person as re commended as value for their quality of
life and I urge the County Commission to do the same please don't say it's too time consuming people have taken their time to speak or right to you please listen to their thoughts and
suggestions it is the job of the elected officials as it is you that the people have elected and placed their confidence County staff should not have the priority to say yay or nay to the various
suggestions I ask the Commissioners to say yes to a special meeting on this subject this is too important to try to bypass the electors the people didn't bypass you or you would not be sitting up there thank
you Miss Moren can I um ask you a question sure if I remember correctly you were on the charter review commission that passed this um past speakup rard yes is that correct and so what could you ex um
explain what it was like in that time like what was the the person who proposed this what was their Vision I canot remember these were yearlong processes they weren't just you know it took one year but the workshop was something that they had talked about
doing a a meeting of this and it was much more open then M um the last one I run was 2015 and nothing passed the charter review nothing thank
I was very disappointed because I had put forward and so had other people it were disappointing thank you so much thank you okay um Sarah hod Mr Hodge will be after
that Commissioners um I I'm here to request and encourage your support for the proposed speak up Bard workshop for the Commissioners to hear the citizens presenting their their
needs and wants um we participated in this program this year my husband and I as did other residents that would appreciate an opportunity for our commissioners to hear our ideas directly from us as well as the
final commission vote is taken before the final v u I'm I'm sorry I'm losing my car this has happened too many times I'm sorry it happened I went with Sandra when she
was escorted out by you didn't lose your card I have your card ma'am you have my card I said Sarah HJ yes but but you just said earlier that you know no cards I and J sometimes looks so like when you don't have your glasses on I'm sorry a
little forbearance I'm getting old too I'm just I'm because when two armed guards took us out of the room last time was no um but anyway
um I'm sorry and and you deserve your respect and I'm I'm sorry um it's an unique opportunity for the Commissioners to demonstrate their support for local citizen engagement please show your report your support for
the residents of District 2 and throughout bvar County for voting yes in support of the proposed 2025 speakup forvard Workshop best regards and thank you I'm sorry I'm having a difficult time with the car
that's fine thank thank you thank you all right William Hodge okay mayam over here did you did you want to speak I I don't think I I I don't have one one for you for I W
but you'll do one for us okay okay okay thank you all right good evening I'm Susan Connelly I live at 3901 Dixie Highway Palm Bay Florida Charles fking once said a
problem well stated is a problem half solved that is what speakup bravard offers a taking a look at some of the most persistent and complex
issues that continue Contin to come before us speak up bravard offers a way for many people to look at problems from many different
angles plus to offer solutions that is the heart of speakup bravard solutions to problems I participated in speakup provard for the first time last year
year and two of my suggestions were accepted I want to compliment the staff in how the speakup bravard is handled I was impressed with when I
submitted my response last year and this year that I received a quick response back with a number and everything so I can easily track it and I read some of the other submissions and just by
reading some of what the other people said is very helpful and thoughtful and expanding awareness and helping resolve these issues I want to continue to offer thank you to the
staff because part of the whole process is to record and to review and to offer to the Commissioners an opportunity to in a in a format that is
accessible a a way to review and to revise and to recommend so thank you thank you all of you for this program it is vital and I think the workshop can only help us reach again Solutions thank
you thank you ma'am okay I'll ask is there anyone else who wanted to speak on this item all right Commissioners discussion on the item okay commissioner Delan if if I have
support um to in order for me to make a motion um I would have to bring forward a date I would imagine so is there anybody who would like to talk about the dates if any of those would work at 5:00 commissioner ainson any of those
dates work for my schedule March the 18th is out for me okay any other discussion if I could ask the staff um would the 3D or the 24th be better for yall do you guys have a
preference either day um it's either three days proceeding or three days after a budget Workshop so it's really pretty much the same either day commissioner we'll be [Music] fine all right and commissioner delini
go ahead if you're ready I was I was going to make a motion but if you have more to I was just going to ask if there's any other discussion all right go ahead I would like to make a motion to um have a speakup Bard Workshop March
3rd at 5:00 pm okay we have a motion by commissioner delini we have a second by commissioner Atkinson clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes yes commissioner Atkinson
yes commissioner Alman yes chairman feltner yes thank you board all right congratulations okay Virginia you're recognized item
J1 good evening commissioners uh agenda item J1 is consideration of the Saar and univ Lagoon project plan 2025 update in addition to adoption or modification and Adoption of the plan it
includes uh Associated administrative authorities to implement the projects contained within the plan significant changes in the draft 2025 Plan update include revising the 10-year Revenue projection up by
$2,443 adding 19 new projects updating inflation for each project increasing the maximum homeown homeowner cost share for septic upgrades from 18,000 to 20,000 and then reporting on the cost
benefits successes and Lessons Learned From completed projects the consultant Marcy frick from tetratech is here to provide a brief slide presentation on the plan structure content and proposed
updates including the new projects and inflation adjustments consistent with board approved um policies and and priorities given to staff and the oversight Committee in past years and the draft plan that is in your packet
was unanimously recommended by the citizen oversite committee Marcy thanks Virginia and good evening and thank you for having me today to talk about your 20 2025 save our Indian River Lagoon project plan um so as Virginia mentioned I am going to really
just focus today on the major edits the version of the plan that you all have has highlights of all of the wording edits so that's mostly to make updates on things that happened in the last year if a study was completed if we have new results just providing the latest information um but before jumping in the plan I did want to give just a little
context talking about the history um so after the Super Bloom in the lagoon in 2011 the system was really really in a state of unrest and there were many um different blooms and factors that were affecting the Lagoon but in 2016 there was a very large fish kill uh there were
dolphin mortalities um the Lagoon was not in a good condition and the commission at that time asked staff if there were um what options could be developed to help um improve the Lagoon if there were um uh funding in place so as part of that I
supported County staff developing uh the initial save our Indian River Lagoon project plan in 2016 that looked across the board at the various sources affecting the Lagoon and potential options for addressing those that plan um was used to support the half cent sales tax that was passed by the
majority of um Bard County Citizens in November 2016 and the collections of the TA sales tax began in January 2017 um so support that sales tax a citizen oversight committee was set up um and that and they meet monthly to
talk about um information on the latest research and information about new project types in the lagoon to make informed decisions every year for these updates um the projects in the plan are are organized around what we call our four RS so reduce is reducing all of the nutrient
sources to the Lagoon these come from waste water septic system storm water excess fertilizer removing those Legacy nutrient loads within the Lagoon coming from um the Muk which is the organic material from previous discharges that can release those nutrients back into
the Lagoon restoring the natural system so adding back the oysters and the clams and the living shorelines and then responding to new information and opportunities to adapt the plan to most cost-effectively achieve the reductions uh the table of contents has been pretty much the same the last few
years we we made an effort several years ago to streamline um the information to try to make it a little bit more readable um it is a a hefty document but it covers a lot of information so um the first few sections one two and three are really providing background of the need
for the plan the context of the area covered by the plan the different pollutant sources and then the ultimate um what we hope to achieve by implementing the projects in the plan the meat of it is really in section four we talk um by those RS the different
project options addressing the different sources that section gets updated every year with the latest information that we have available on the latest projects uh section five is the project funding we'll talk some about that today that goes into where we look at the new um
inflation every year addresses contingency and shows how the dollars um are allocated by those R categories as well as how they've evolved over time from since the 2016 plan and then section six provides a high level overview of the plan summarizing
everything in one in a bunch of tables there's comparison to the Count's um total maximum daily load to show the nutrient benefits that'll be achieved by the projects as well as several tables that show the costs both from um allocated from the trust fund as well the total project costs from all sources
and then what we call the Rainbow table which is a nice um big map that shows over the 10 years how much money is needed each year for the projects um so going into the major additions the first one is always um adding the new projects uh so these have
all been as Virginia mentioned reviewed and recommended by the citizen oversight committee uh the first ones are two wastewater treatment facili upgrades and the COC did have some discussions about this there's some new regulatory requirements that require Advanced
wastewater treatment and so these were approved with the stipulation that um as these projects are moving forward to look at how much um exceeded those regulatory requirements and that would be funded so these um the recommended plan funding should be changing in future years once we have better
information this also includes a septic to sewer Quick Connect project for the city of Palm Bay um one veget harvesting project within the county two new clam restoration projects and two new oyster projects and then on this last slide 11
new storm water projects and those include from the county as well as the cities of Titusville Melbourne Satellite Beach and Coco beach so to um make funding available for those new projects uh we do look across the plan and and try to remove
the ones that are as not as cost effective um there's also ones that get withdra drawn each year either because they're not feasible or maybe other funding sources replace those so this table here shows those projects that were withdrawn from the plan we also looked at the storm water project lists
there are some Basin specific um project holders of you know we looked at the basins that have the highest loading and what could be done there so the ones that are the least cost affected were moved to um an appendix that has the unfunded projects those are ideas that we have come up with that we just don't
have the funding for and then there's also some um countywide oyster uh projects that were uh placeholder as we come up with addition you know s site specific oyster projects we replace some of those more generic ones so we reduced some of that Oyster
Bar funding to move it towards the specific oyster and clam projects that we received this year uh in addition to the projects there were a few um changes to the overall plan itself so one of these is as Virginia mentioned increasing the maximum allowable cost for the septic
system upgrades to $20,000 per parcel that up to $20,000 gets tied back to the nitrogen removed so the higher the um nutrients moved the more cost sure they're eligible for and the graph here shows um the chart of why that was changed these are all based on the um
actual costs of the projects to date and so the average is closer to that $20,000 um a parcel and then um also based on past board Direction about interst itial treatment in Muk projects we added some additional language about when those can
be included in the bids allowing um the dredging operations to move forward without the interstitial treatment initially and then looking for opportunities to include that where needed uh also uh an item that gets updated every year is looking at the
inflation and uh Virginia and her staff do an excellent job of evaluating this each year and then we modify the allowable inflation amount by year to try to account for Trends and as you can see um the chart on the right shows the
inflation in blue for um the US analytics index compared to the save our Indian Li River Lagoon plan in green and the goal was you know we were starting to drift away from that so trying to get that more in line um we do apply inflation up to 5 years after a project
is added into the plan and so we try to represent the um current cost so that we can keep up with the um high prices that have been occurring I think I just heard the other day that CPI is only 2.95 yeah so if you can see in like the
later years it it comes down quite a bit so it's um 2.4 now okay yep it was it was very high earlier if you look at the the CH the charts for 21 and 22 but it it's coming
it came down and projected out is um more in the 2.4 so we're using that moving forward for um also use the latest information to help refine the revenue projection and so the current estimate is about 55,78430 and that's about $20,000 more
than last year so so pretty close tracking to where we estimated last year uh this just shows a comparison of how the dollars are allocated between those R categories between last year's plan and this year plan and we did keep it um pretty much the same I think that
restored .1% difference is just some rounding but we we do try to maintain the category um the the funding allocated to each category and then on a bigger picture looking at how funding was allocated by project type in the 2016 plan to how
it's allocated in the 2025 plan you can see that originally um about two-thirds of the funding was for U Muk projects which is that gray part of the pie chart on the left and over time we've shifted that to um largely more of the Wastewater which is the different shades
of oranges on the pie chart in the right and trying to get a more um Equitable equitable distribution across the different sources to try to tackle the different problems and then this is a summary of how the cost changed between the 2024 and 2025 updates um so overall you'll
see that increase of $20,000 which reflected the additional um money based on the latest projections uh there's a big reduction in storm water and that accounted for removing some of those least cost effective projects that had some higher
inflation because they' been in the plan for a while um and some of the additional storm water projects came out to help fund those Wastewater projects where you see that increase by 5.8 million um the increase in the mck and interstitial treatment came from um adding inflation to projects that still
have not been completed and had not reached their five-year cap on inflation um there's a slight reduction in the restoration costs and that was from removing those um the countywide projects um and shifting that funding to the specific oyster and clam projects so
that reduce some of the um inflation and contingency that were on those projects and then the contingency overall came down for projects that were moving forward without needing those dollars so with that those are the big changes to the plan and we will take any questions okay Commissioners questions
for the speaker and then we'll do questions for Virginia are there questions for the speaker question for the speaker Comm do does the the $20,000 um that you mentioned does that pay for does that totally cover the
advanced septic or the hooking up to the new sewer lines uh it depends on the type of system uh but it is it's more in line with the average cost of those systems thank you any other questions for our speaker
no are there questions for Virginia I have a question commissioner D um so I had um I had Express to Virginia that I was a little um one thing when I took office is I really felt like I didn't
want to rubber stamp a vote and um I'm sorry for saying it that way because I don't um I just don't know any other way to say it but I feel like I need more time and I would love to have a um a briefing specifically on this to really
dive through what the plan is for 2025 because I I feel like um you know if I'm if I'm voting for this I'm I'm owning this plan and um I just don't know if I feel comfortable
with that at this point but I I believe that once I have a chance to sit down with Virginia that um you know if I I would I was wondering if it would be possible to bring this back at the February 25th meeting um for a vote well
hold we're we're I think we're on questions for Virginia we'll come okay okay just um and we have we do have a card is are there any other questions for Virginia no okay we're going to go to the cards Sandra suvin Sandra Sullivan so that was a nice
uh presentation by Marcy Frisk who is the wife of a board member of the St John's River Water Management District and of course that's has a lot to do with how this plan was contrived I would like to first point out that there's an article in December of
2015 talking about mock that they both fat Alman here was on legislation at that time with Debbie Mayfield they proposed a bill change to make it legal to use mck dredging for in a mck tax and
infrastructure Ser tax under state statute L um I was at the November meeting when the vote was taken to use funding from this uh for the study for the Port St John Regional sewage plant uh for space
Florida let's be clear and one of the members brought up that it was not legal under the use of the Lagoon plan so I think you should get for all this emphasis in moving towards Wastewater that you should look at into that as
well thirdly I just want to point out that staff has uh come and made presentations and been very clear that the direction of the Lagoon tax is to pay for septic to sewer and for sewer to
pay for the growth that is in Bard maybe not such a bad idea but again from a legal issue what we were sold was awt plant upgrades addressing nutrient loading and for that you know I I wonder
you know to the extent that we can use it for Wastewater plants since there's other items for that on the on the plan lastly I want to say she talked about instability of the Lagoon after 2010 I go back to the state change in
legislation in 2010 to switch to broadcast spraying of herbicides 20124 was the first year that South Patrick dve was not sprayed thank you feltner for doing that um that's a that's a
start so I mean I'm looking at this I'm like glyat you know that's they spray Aquastar 58% glyat on that on those ditches we know that feeds algae bloom the science shows that so why would the state have made that change there's
there's questions and lastly there's no pollution in the plant there's nutrient loading and we have posos and we have gly ofate and we have all these other other things and the plan is lacking in pollution thank you thank you okay
Commissioners discussion discussion on the item commissioner Delan I just didn't know if anybody had any comments about what I had mentioned I have a question sir would that would that create any problem if we allowed the commissioner a couple more
weeks to review it's it's quite a voluminous report and a lot of good work's gone into it but I can understand her wanting to have full understanding a lot of money too thank you it it is a large report um there are a number of those new
projects that are ready to go so they would wait an extra couple weeks um and there are about a 100 homeowner uh contracts for septic up upgrades that would be you know wanting that $20,000
reimbursement instead of the $18,000 reimbursement but I think those are the majority of of issues sir commissioner Goodson um since I didn't hear a second to Delaney's proposal I'd like to
propose acceptance of this second okay we have a motion by commissioner Goodson for approval we have a second by commissioner Atkinson clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney no Vice chair
Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman felner yes Commissioners will show that passes 4 one thank you okay oh okay let's take five minutes
thank you [Music]
[Music]
[Music] CH we have yes yep I I appreciate that
okay we have uh item J2 I think Chief are you going to introduce us no okay commissioner Delaney this is your itemad thank you um if Space Coast TV if you guys
could put on the couple of slides for me thank you so um I wanted to bring up uh the fire assessment because as we all know there's you know we're we're trying to work on getting our fire department funded and
um I just I just want to put this out there because there's been some um narrative out there about you know oh we're just going to raise taxes and and the I'm not saying that um we're that
taxes won't be raised but what I'm saying is is that that won't be the only thing I my thoughts are and you know I'd love other suggestions as well from the rest of the board um collaboration on this between the impact fees the fire
assessment the 1998 referendum and also curbing our spending as far as look at contracts and whatnot and um what we're paying for different things and seeing if there are better ways better processes to um go about contracts that
we could save some money um to free up some money in the general fund to be able to uh allocate more of that money to the uh to fire rescue and so these are just some key points that I wanted to bring up um because one of the things
that that uh was not part of our fire assessment study presentation was some of the Personnel um issues and so 121 Personnel separations since January 1st
2024 and while we have hired some people um out of that 121 uh separations we've lost a lot of experience throughout that time and while we appreciate people coming on to to our our our Force
here you can't make up the years lost of the people who have left that have 15 20 years I'm sorry 10 15 years on the job um and even eight eight years six years on the job um they're they're they're
the ones that are in our firehouses training our people and um you know creating that culture within our fire department that makes it so great and so replacing all those people
with brand new firefighters while we're we love to have you please come keep coming um you know that that experience is something that we really need and uh this was pretty glaring for me
24,6 192 hours of mandatory overtime between January 1st 2024 to 2 10 2025 and mind you this is not all the overtime this is just the mandatory
overtime the people who are um basically saying um you know no you can't go home we need you to stay another 24 hours these are the spots that couldn't be filled by voluntary um over
time in addition to that um we've spent seven m 297,000 warehouses as I believe um Miss Sullivan brought up earlier about uh a couple of the stations and um so we have
a lot of needs in our County and the biggest one in my opinion is Staffing and so that should be at the Forefront of of this whole conversation and um so I would like to
um propose uh I I would like support and ask asking for uh a seven-year the seven-year plan from our our fire chief and uh to move forward towards um going to the public with the fire
assessment update Commissioners questions commissioner Goodson CH this is to you Chief can you explain to me sir uh pull back up the the flyer she had that right there can you explain to
me the overtime is that overtime there also include sick leave vacation holiday and everything else the overtime you see there is as a result of sick leave annual leave uh military leave leave of
absence all forms of leave will lead into that mandatory overtime number you see there down9 people chief answer his question Chief if you want to does it matter if you're down 79 people
sure that number reflects some of that too yeah on help us out holy cow thank you Chief thank you very much questions other questions commissioner tinson the fire assessment um is this
something that would be done anyways at some point and if so because I'm new we we are I believe in year four of the seven-year plan that we had and so with this request as I understand it and we've discussed it because we gave the
the report back in January this would allow us to update that seven-year plan and so we would start aesh with the new one whatever it is that the board chose to adopt and we would move forward with that and then the board would have the opportunity to to raise the assessment
consistent with what ever Direction and and and what we would plan would be a multi-tiered approach where the board would have a variety of options to choose from we would do a not to exceed at that point uh on the fire assessment
portion of of the plan and uh and we would move forward with that other questions I just wanted oh I'm sorry I just wanted to uh point a Clarity um so chief is it correct that we would be
starting off the New Year in a $5 million deficit because of the um arpa money the art wasn't there arpa money that was allocated $5 million towards the fire department I'll answer and that's kind of running running the last
fire assessment when it was when it was approved by the board um the plan that they had put in for the seven years would have been a um 33% increase in the fire assessment the board did use some uh of those
resources um and spread it over a 7-year period a million dollars a year and so at the end of The Seven Year there would be a million dollar deficit so part of the plan that would be put forward would have to to keep things just where they
were under the seven-year plan you're going to have to increase it by that amount as a Baseline and then it would go from there for a variety of other um items that would be part of what we submitted to you thank you Commissioners other
questions okay we do have two cards Sandra Solomon Sandra Sullivan it's great to have this on the agenda of course the fire assessment isn't going to help for this year it will help for next year and so you really need to have a
conversation in my opinion and hopefully maybe even some conversation today about what you're going to do for this year because obviously we have a crisis so I'll give you an example $1.71 million pulled out of the Hat on
an item added to a meeting in an hour before the meeting for the for space for their for their phase two study which you don't even have a specification on pull that money have space pay their own study here's a start
and let me talk about a few things I am absolutely fit to be tied and livid I found out that station 62 where I live had mold issues water dripping down through electrical fixtures light
fixtures that were shorted out a fire hazard a health hazard for our firefighters that was identified in 2021 commissioner feltner here stood by
put out materials that he stands by fire rescue he was elected to office nine months later that was not addressed until an email came in from a prominent person to to commissioner steel at that
time who got the job done half a million dollar um restoration to that I just I've seen photos here's one of them this is mold black mold that
made firefighters sick and this isn't just going on in this station this is going on in other stations this there are issues with not only our firefighter stations but there the equipment that they're driving and when I talk about
the buildings being deplorable the way this county is being managed is a hornt I'm going to make a suggestion you all need to dig deep into your budgets and figure out and make some sacrifices
for fire rescue for district one you have station 23 which I understand is condemned they're not there how about we take EDS and sunset it since that's coming out of general fund and we put this year's
budget that's $4 million right there that could go to our firefighters impact fees three of you went with that study how many of you are going to vote and pass those impact fees that have not been updated in 25 to 35
years it's time to not put just the burden on the people but for you guys to look into the budget and just like you pulled out $1.71 million for space pull it out and rechange things around and address our
fire [Applause] rescue commissioner Alman I have a question Sandra question I know we have a presentation on the fire assessment serious problems yes do you
support increasing the fire assessment yes the problem that we're going to have with increasing the fire assessment as was spoken when this was brought up at a previous meeting meeting is you're going to increase the fire assessment but you have to also increase by a percentage
the EMS which is on the advolum side the problem you have this year is there was a referendum to increase the homestead exemption and then you have the property cap so how do you increase this side and you're bound on this side and here's
where I provided this commission an attorney general legal opinion that if we were grandfathered in before 2002 you can move that that uh assessment that EMS part of it to an EMS assessment
below the line and failing to do that I don't see how you can increase the fire assessment you can't increase the EMS side you're stuck unless you move it below question follow yes sir do you increase do you support increase in the
millage rate to help the fire situation I do not support taking away the tax cap I think this is a manipulation of ignoring the Attorney General I know from speaking to staff previously when I was running for County Commission that
there's agenda to remove the 3% tax cap I am not in favor of doing that sir so as bad as these problems are you you you don't think they're bad enough to raise I think you're manipulating the public I think you're being I think Bard County Commissioners
are catering to we the money speci special interests and not looking to the taxing sources that are available from space Florida and we I have research we have double leaseback deals with space Florida on lands that are not in their
jurisdictional by State statue as defined by State Statute the stinky BS that goes on in this County needs to stop sir I was just curious if you supported raising the millit rate to help the firefighter okay good question theia
Thorne hello my name is Thea Thorne I'm not a firefighter I'm a registered nurse but my husband retired from Bard County fire rescue in ' 09 as a tenant and there were two studies that I'm aware of I'm sure there were more there was one
in ' 06 the Cody study which was paid for by taxpayers there was another study in 2015 now none of you up there today I can't say none of you because there is one that was
here were aware of what that study showed and you guys can plead ignorance today if you weren't aware of what those studies showed they showed that not only the firefighters being below
pay but many of The Bard County Employees were below pay there's one person sitting up there today and I won't call that person out because that person knows who they are and all of you know who that person is as well he shot
it down and it is on record his shooting down I shared it on Facebook he went line by line and said no no no I don't know what his problem is with the firefighters but safety is of number one
and many of you have said that many of you have ran on that and I don't know why our firefighters continue to be kept down and I know that there's many in the public and maybe you guys feel this way too I just lost a good friend this week
because she had the audacity to tell me that firefighters make enough money $15 is enough for what they do because all they do is sit around in their fire departments you don't know what these men and women go through every day they
don't know what call they're going to get called on that day maybe they won't have any major calls I could I could list things to you that my husband has shared with me that could cause PTSD but my husband has not gotten that because
I've been there and supported him but many of these great men and women go through awful atrocious calls that you many of you would never recover from and I want to see you crawl into a burning building and pull a little boy out like my husband did he
couldn't even find his way out there was no light it was just all smoke and dark he could have not came home that night they deserved to have this money and no we don't need to increase the taxes the people already pay enough taxes but
there's so much corruption look at doge look at the corruption they're finding I'm sure that that corruption has went down into every little crevice and I'm sure that none of you want to go down as being corrupt so please do the right
thing do the right thing not only for the public the people that come visit for yourselves and your families if you ever need it one day thank you thank you ma'am [Applause]
okay commissioner's discussion is there discussion on the item I I have to clarify something for the record and I don't I don't do this often um when I became aware of a problem at the firehouse at C Park I
went there immediately and uh the public record will show that and I know the firefighters in that station will confirm that as well is there other discussion on the item have a question sir just basically staff as far as what is the process as
far as the assessment if we need to look at raising the assessment time frame we would uh and the board approves us tonight uh we asked for 30 days to come back and give the board um a
variety of options um the board would then provide staff Direction uh not to exceed amount on a fire assessment depending on what option or different option Direction the board G uh gave us at that time we would then send out to
um uh a letter to all the um uh residents that uh need to get that letter uh and that would start the clock U moving forward I think it's either 20 or 30 days later we could have the first of two public hearings on it and we need
to get it completed before September but we have plenty of time before then to get it done in this time frame you know our goal is to get it done as as quickly as we can it would be I would think uh by May or June we would uh definitely have it for the July board meeting but
hopefully earlier in May so that will take care of that piece of the puzzle um and whatever the amount is the board then is going to have the opportunity depending on what happens there as we go through the budget process there's two other aspects of it that would be
involved one you heard is the the general fund in the past the general fund we you know we have committed we committed to the board in the past and we'll try to do it again depending on what the board action takes do everything that we need to do but we would have the opportunity to set the
millage rates appropriately based on whatever board Direction gives us before that if in fact the fire assessment dollars weren't enough to accomplish what the board's wishing to accomplish then the board would have the opportunity as part of the budget
process process um that would happen uh starting in July once the you get the county manager's uh budget uh proposal that would look at whether or not an mstu increase would be appropriate and we would know that as we move forward uh
uh in the budget process uh after the board makes the fire assessment piece of it it takes care of that so that basically is the time frame that we would be looking at may I follow up yes sir so at this
tenure we wouldn't talk about an amount we would just ask the staff to come back with options right and staff will have they will know depending on the options what the what amount would be needed over
time to support the seven-year plan that the board approves and so and depending what you say the not to exceed amount is the board may say yes we'll go to this full amount you might say say it might be higher than that you might say it's
lower but if you want us to complete this 7-year plan and it's lower then we would look to make an adjustment to the mstu and you would have the opportunity to vote on that uh as part of the budget process sir any more followup commissioner
delini um the only thing that I would like to add is that um like it's been said tonight multiple times the uh this this just fects the fire side and so we have to also affect the EMS side and so
what I'm I'm hoping and I've shared this with some of the um with some of the Departments already I I hope that they come forward at the budget workshops with different ways that that we can save money you know let's look at some
um some of the projects are they necessary are they so necessary that um you know our that we need less money for our fire department um one of the things that I
like to pick on and sorry um Ian um is the seven Pavilions at or I'm sorry six Pavilions in uh s Point Park that just got replaced for um $735,000 you know that's I'm still waiting on records for
that um you know to me that sounds a little excessive I I um Miss Thorne what you had mentioned about uh you know what's happening at the federal level right now while our staff does a great job here I I can't imagine that we are
the one government in the whole country that is 100% efficient and that there's no way to you know curb our spending so I I'm sure that there are ways that we can do that and so I just wanted to put that out there as well I um I believe
that our voters put the tax cap in for a reason um that's something that they that they want and it's in our Charter and uh while it's there that we can remove it for um exorbitant needs critical needs and while fire is a critical
need um I would like to look at every option possible before we go that route um and if that means a couple less Pavilions at a park you know um
um that's when we go back out to the voters and say what's important to you um what's we go back out to the voters because our our our two biggest things that we have to do up here is fund Public Safety and infrastructure those
two things are the most important and if our people in this community want um other other things which those things are valid and people love them and we want them here in Bard um stuff is expensive so but fire and infrastructure
those are our top two priorities and um so I just wanted to put that out there thank you just uh quick clarification though you wouldn't be able to go out to the voters before 26 correct just just so that we all
understand that uh time frame okay other discussion on the item is there a motion on the item I I have a motion okay we have a motion by commissioner Alman we have a second yeah motion is to ask staff to prepare
recommendations for um the fire increasing the fire assessment so we at least know what our options are and what the impact would be okay and I heard a second by commissioner ainson clerk will call the role yes commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson
yes commissioner Alman yes chairman feltner yes all right Commissioners we'll P show that passes 5 Z okay we will move into board reports Mr County Manager uh I have no
report okay Mr County attorney no report Mr chair uh commissioner Delaney sure um uh Space Coast TV if you wouldn't mind putting up my slides thank you so
much you can go to the second one so I just wanted to share a little bit about what I've been up to the past couple weeks and um you know in addition to meeting with with residents and um you know dealing with uh citizen
concerns I I had the pleasure of going to the um the scotsmore homeowners meeting and getting onboarded with uh the um um my two different boards the cfx and the uh the planning um agency
the regional planning agency and thank you to them for making your way out to Bard to um you know get me briefed and onboarded and uh I had the pleasure of going to some of the lock heed Martin um
facilities and astrotech and wow those are pretty incredible um in district one I they do incredible work there and I'm so happy to have them in our community and uh I was able to go to
jun's Animal Medical Center um ribbon cutting which is pretty great our we have a brand new um animal hospital for our rescues and um commissioner felner you were there with me so that was pretty awesome and uh the EDC annual
meeting they were they were talking about some of the great um things going on in our Community as far as different businesses that are coming and um you know different businesses that have come and Linda weatherman she does great work
and so I was happy to be there and uh I was able to meet um at the at stpoint Park for the celebration of the 100th project for sorl we did some uh oyster um they they dropped oysters into the
river so that was pretty cool and Virginia and her team did a great job um putting that event on and the community absolutely loved it um and then there was a dedication ceremony for the Second Harvest Food Bank and Logan if you wouldn't mind going to the next slide um
it was a packed house and this place is just incredible um these this organization they they help get food to um different organizations and food pantries out there that uh you know
people can come to in our communities and they they serve all over Bard um helping get food to those organizations to uh feed our people and so they're they're pretty incredible they're looking for volunteers to help pack boxes and things like that so if anybody
if this is your um your passion to feed people this is a great place to go and do it um and uh so I just wanted to share a little bit about that and um um so that's my happy my happy
list um unfortunately I I've received um some complaints and I I really just wanted to talk about this because I I feel like we really need to um get to the bottom of this and like we all shared you know we're we're all
pretty much on the same um page as far as getting our fire department to a better place and um the the events that have happened over the the past couple weeks um you know I requested some emails that I talked
about at our our zoning meeting and they were between um the County's representation and the um unions representation for negotiations and there's a narrative out
there that has been um put out that the union is unwilling to come to the table and um I just from what I'm reading out of these emails I don't see that um on January
31st it was the initiation where uh the County's attorney went to uh the Union's attorney and said you know we have a proposal for you please let us know if you're available on these three days
um they were met with an out of town um it looks like a stock email uh that just says hey I'm out of town um if it's an emergency uh you know reach out this way and then our attorney proceeded to
uh contact the union president and his attorney um basically with the same email uh because the attorney was out of town on February 3rd uh the union asked for a copy of The
Proposal in writing and um he said that the proposal was coming and that it would be there in a couple days and our attorney did get um them the the the proposal um sort of in
writing um and I have that right here but I I don't know if I would officially call this an official proposal because it's it's just an email um it's not like it's a document of of um any kind and
that was on February 3rd um at that point the the County Attorney asked for and I'm sorry I don't mean Morris when I say County attorney um the County's representation in this
um they said that they have scheduled an appointment um a a negotiation session for February 6th from 9:15 to 4:00 p.m. um and at that point the Union's
representation did not say that they were available during that time um and so then then the Union's attorney basically said he he's not available and not
available that Thursday or Friday um and but they would get back to them o for a date over the next two weeks and at that point the County's attorney basically said you know that's and I'm
paraphrasing here that's not good enough we're we're going to go forward with our date and um that's when the union attorney came back with a question on the proposal about uh retro retro pay and that was on
February 4th February 4th continued with um the response from the County's representation and uh clarifying you know how how retro pay would be included and this continues on February
4th so this is all in a matter of a couple a couple of days um you know basically the the the the County's attorney would not they would not cancel the the public
hearing and I personally don't think that this is right um that we scheduled a public hearing without the other side saying that they're available and not only did they not say they're not they they literally respond that they could not be there
that the attorney had conflicts on Thursday and Friday and that he couldn't be there so I don't understand why our um our attorney went forward with this public hearing when they knew that
um that the other side couldn't be there and because you know the union is not going to you know I I would assume the union is not going to uh proceed with negotiations without their lawyer nor should we expect them
to um I don't I don't believe that that is negotiating fairly um I I think it's unreasonable and um this is not how we're supposed to be treating our people and
um I really would like an explanation as to why we moved forward with this negotiation knowing that um the other side was not able to be there I think commissioner uh Alman was re okay he'll defer to commissioner Goodson
a board report or a book report oh I can keep going I can only imagine thank you commissioner Alman um have have you ask the staff personally to go over this with you and give you an
answer uh BAS basically they said it's within their right and I to me I don't I about this correct okay um I think I'd like to request to have talked to them directly personally about it rather than hear their side of
the story rather than Dr it out here I would like to do that especially something sensitive as this is that a let me clarify you're not requesting executive session you just want to meet I think she was asking staff to were you
asking them to answer here or I I don't think this is the place for that and before we did that I think it should be scheduled on the agenda at least give the Commissioners an opportunity to have a direct personal conversation with staff I just feel like this is in this
has been pretty public I mean the county put out a um uh Communications with the news um so uh you know their their stance is out there and I just feel like you know for the people in this room the
people that are watching this meeting people care about this and deserve to know why we're negotiating this way I see anyone else reaching for the micing I just rather than trying to flush us out here the end of the meeting
yeah commissioner staff and I are available to meet with every commissioner individually what whatever time whenever you would like any of you on on these issues we're happy to do
that I'll I'll uh suggest that I think the board would like to move with the next step um in negotiations so I I think that's a feeling that we all sh all share so uh moving forward with with negotiations is a good thing well I I
just I the only reason why and I'm sorry to interrupt but I I'm frustrated and I this is the only place where we can talk about this because of sunshine I am frustrated that my um my workshop that I
proposed got cancelled by the direction of our lawyer because um possible topics that could possibly come up during that time so I I have a few questions here um and it's the reason why I'm asking these
questions is because I want to know why a workshop is any different um from these different things that happened and so here's here's some of my questions how and when did the documentation that one of the Commissioners disseminated at the
firehouses while the firefighters were on shift become public record was um wasn't that direct negotiations between a member of the legislative body and the union members who told this commissioner that this
documentation was a public record and or that she was free to negotiate directly with the members of the fire department while they were on shift other than um during the Christmas holiday time a and after
impass was declared did the Union say that they were not available to meet for negotiations and our County manager wants people to believe that the union leadership isn't filtering down information to its
members and I is this why I'm asking did the county manager assist the commissioner in doing this and is this why he did that I I'm
I'm I don't understand why why my workshop where I wanted to bring the public in to have this discussion about um how we how we go forward with funding the fire department with you know impact fees assessment um the 1998 referendum
the you know scouring through our budget all of these different things why could we not have that conversation why was that taken from us and then another commissioner had the opportunity to directly negotiate with our fire Union our the FI the fire Union president
himself was handed documentation from this commissioner's staff but we couldn't have a public Workshop I I deserve answers on this and the public deserves answers on this and
I know that this is not the ideal situation to bring this all out but this is what we have to do with Sunshine Law I don't have another opportunity to talk to you all about this in any other capacity so if anybody would like to answer any of my questions that would be
great I don't know that I can answer all your questions but a couple of things uh we can have a executive session where we talk about negotiations we I think we've done two of those so uh well if if the if it's the pleasure of the board to do
that again um you know I certainly would entertain that um so that's uh that's the first thing as far as on our commission agendas uh if there're I mean certainly during the budget season we're going to
go through the discussion on millage and all the rest of it we're going to have a budget Workshop we're going to we're going to go through that too but individual items I think related to the issue not necessarily would cause us a problem with Union negotiations but could be on a commission agenda and that
that would take uh place here in in a public forum so um again I don't I didn't address all of your issues but there there are a few things to consider um my only thing with that is January
30th was the date we would have already been gone past this whole conversation if we would have just had the workshop and we wouldn't be open to different legal ramifications because um documents were passed out at
firehouses and it this whole thing I and I I'm sorry I believe that I deserve an answer on this commissioner I'm going to suggest that you meet with the staff on on that um so that they can get all that information to you um we're going to
move on with the rest of uh board report okay so is I just want to put this out there the what you're telling me is that the public does not deserve to know these questions and this answer I I didn't say that I Mr chairman May
yes goad I think the public deserves to be notified that it's one thing to bring up all these questions and it's good to talk in public but also a part of the sunshine is is and the requirements of law before we discuss things in detail is we have to notice these things I feel
blindsided I I didn't see this was on the agenda these are pretty intense statements you're making I would love to see them ahead of time so we could we could think about them and we could talk to staff and ask questions so as if we do choose to have a public deliberation
we make sure we've we know the facts we we're prepared we can talk to our attorney to make sure we're not crossing any lines as far as the collecting bargaining law I appreciate your passion but I I'd like to have time to maybe deliberate the this with the
proper notice the reason why I didn't make this an agenda item was because this was really a question from staff and I've been trying to get that information from them and um you know it's I I'm I'm not satisfied with that
uh with with the answers that I've gotten and so um I just believe that the public while we are elected our County manager and County attorney I believe personally are also accountable to the people since the people pay their
salaries um you know and so like I said this is something that people care about and they deserve to know so that's that's why I brought it forward this way thank you okay thank you uh commissioner
Goodson and board report no report commissioner ainson no report no report commissioner Alman I'm fine no report all right I'm going to try to end on a happy note Bard Zoo you can consider this a special election if you
like uh there was a article in the Florida today uh this morning that The Bard zoo is in the running uh to be one of the 10 best zoos in the country now I have to disclose that I grew up in
Columbus Ohio and the Columbus Zoo has always uh enjoyed top spot uh thank Jack Hannah he was he was amazing uh there but uh I'm proud of Bard Zoo it is in my district uh so here's a plug for the zoo
go to the uh the the link is too long here for me to read but uh Michelle Spitzer wrote this and if you go to the floor today you can uh vote for bardzo as one of the top 10 zoos in the
country good all right I think we're done thank you everybody have a good night the opinions expressed by any member of the public during any period of public comment do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the board of County commissioners of Bard
County Florida Space Coast government television or the program sponsor and are solely those of the presenter the board of County commissioners of bravard County Florida Space Coast government television and the program sponsor hereby expressly disclaim any in all responsibility or liability for any defamatory or slanderous statements
expressed by any member of the public during any such period [Music] [Music] [Music]
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