for for
but spe uh good evening everybody this is the board of County Commissioners regular meeting March 6 2025 530 PM earning the M government building call to order please turn your cell phones to vibrate signs or offsetting the board of County Commissioners allows any person to speak regarding of item the speaker is limited to three minutes un it's otherwise determined by the chairperson to allow sufficient time for all speakers speakers shall refrain from abusive or profane remarks disruptive Outburst protest or other conduct which interferes with the orderly
conduct of the meeting upon completion of the public comment period discussion is limited to board members and questions raised by the board um point just so everyone knows we're going to have to do hand voting tonight because we have an issue with electronic voting um Dr J Robbins from warington presbyterian if you wouldn't mind coming up and giving the invitation before you get there sir I just want to thank you what your church does and for the bod dport Community it means a lot to those folks and uh it thank you so much please stand for the invocation everyone let us pray our lord your understanding is infinite you know the number of the stars in
the sky and you call them by name you are wise in heart Mighty in strength and Jesus you are the wisdom of God and we see it all around us in the beauty of the Earth the intricacy of our DNA and in the wonders of your salvation and now we ask for wisdom for the County Commissioners so they can best serve the public and bring prosperity to Escambia County give them a heart filled with
wisdom as they deal with the complex issues before them protect them body and soul for in leadership there are trials and tribulations a multitude of troubles and aity of support our savior Jesus we ask this in your name for Great Is Your Grace and with you there is a multitude of Mercies amen amen thank you sir uh commissioner stobber can s the Pledge yes please join me for pledge of
allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all please be seated okay commissioner Barry any items to add to the agenda Mr chairman I had an item I don't know if it made it through the way yes Jose okay I'm sorry wait a minute okay yes thank you it was just
a discretionary item thank you Mr chairman okay thank you Comm may I think we Steve uh J I think I had did they make it I mean they were not there this morning so if they all made it then there'll be none Mr chairman all right uh commissioner no mfer no sir okay and I don't have anything to add um all right uh does the board adopt the agend so move Mr chairman second please vote okay motion
passes 5- Z commissioner for commissioner Barry yes sir Mr chairman thank you very much I want to uh highlight something just happening across the street the sun Bel basketball tournament going on right now the women's and men's uh tournament and uh you know commissioner g Keith Gil and all the folks from the respective uh respective teams and universities that are here it's a fantastic thing and you know commissioner May and I were on the board when we were hoping to be able to land the Sun Belt some number of years ago it's uh you know amongst perhaps many failures it's one of the uh
you know one of those successes that um has had a huge impact on our community and I think it's fantastic and um I think anything the board is able to do to uh continue as well as enhance the relationship ship with the sun Bel conference is fantastic I'd love to uh maybe be able to host uh other tournaments that they have you know certainly have made the have taken the opportunity to speak to commissioner Gil about that over the last couple of years um but it's it's fantastic I think uh it's great seeing all these young people here they're staying at our hotels they're
spending money they're spending money here it's a it's a great thing um I also want to highlight something that happened over the weekend in District 5 something I'm not especially familiar with but it was uh uh it's ACA outdoor uh outdoor racing M mountain bike racing um if you're familiar with what people would commonly Call Trails and and the in a wooded area you know that the university owns a majority of um off 10 milei Road around the Chris the Chris plant as well as but it's majority University property we had 5,000 young people riding those Mountain Trails this
weekend and uh I I want to specifically recognize uh a friend from the from the state attorney's office named Chris forehand that reached out to me a couple of years ago with an idea about uh scami County being able to host a mountain bike event uh and I didn't know anything about the uh you know about that type of activity really but he said look you know it's it's something that it will it'll really draw a lot of people here I had no idea that we would end up with thousands
of riders on Saturday and Sunday um off at 10 Mile Road in in District 5 it was it was fantastic want to specifically recognize the Tate high school they have a mountain uh mountain bike club that excelled in the uh in the event ceremony they won won a number of the events and their young people did extremely well but really it's a it's an opportunity to to highlight A diversity of events that uh that I think we have the opportunity to host here you know baseball softball basketball
those those are things everybody recognizes but um you know the thought of you know 5,000 young people taking part in a you know in an out in an outdoor mountain bike event in March in Florida is uh is just something that you know I would not have I would not have considered as a possibility but it's something that happened I want to thank TDC I think a few years ago they we supported this event with 25 or $30,000 towards advertising for it but it was a it was a huge success Mike Road
our internal people in parks and rec as well as Jamie hiden at Public Works I know they met with Mr forand and some of the people from the ACA um on site to to identify what was needed from our side um additionally with it being University you know University and Florida Power and Light Property um Dr Saunders at the University was was very supportive as well as uh Rick bars David pedon at Florida Power and Light they were very helpful in getting the agreements that were needed in place to be able to host this type of event there are insurance I don't know exactly
what the parameters are but there are insurance requirements there are uh different types of written agreements that are necessary for the organization to host an event here so it went swimmingly well I think Casey leard for working with uh with Chris on you know kind of drafting a press release but I think it went swimmingly well we're hoping to host this type of event again and I want to reiterate something from public forum that you know that I think had broad uh commissioner support commissioner hoffar I didn't realize you were an alumni as well commissioner ker but um that's something that uh the issues with the university specifically related to
supporting the administration and supporting the uh the community uh related to the uh nomination of the trustees anything that we can do as a board that our board would be willing to do I would be willing to take the lead on and and and um and kind of help head up it's uh it's hugely important to me I love you know I love the university and um you know we don't need an exitus of skills and talent based on politics we need uh you know we need a continuing growing thriving University like
we've had for 10 or 12 years and I want to see I want to see that continue and uh you know I don't want to see anything stand in the way of that there's a lot of business interests that are also within the footprint of the University those are those are important we need you know we need young people there we need young people to come there and uh that means we need a Board of Trustees that are trusted by those folks that are coming here so thank you Mr chairman thank you I'm almost scared to say when I graduated it was over 20 years ago to my Master's down anyway Comm may I think it's been longer than 20 years when I served in student government in the president of black student union
and you probably were not a superstar like commissioner Barry was he was on the baseball field so uh go our goes and uh I Concur and had the opportunity to hear the great stories of Jim Spooner and uh and Steven Barry doing a great job on the baseball field but I Echo what my colleague has said and what commissioner hobber said uh the support and commissioner ker uh it's four of us that are the recipients of a great education from the University of West Florida and so uh I stand in full support of Dr Saunders and of of our great University uh which is the think tank of our
community I want to just take a few minutes one to um say that you know a great day for Florida uh we had no in Washington DC and we had the opportunity to be there to talk about the issues that are directly coming down uh there'll be many changes uh in many of our funding particularly our federal funding um a lot of changes to come in a lot of informative workshops uh and a lot of important information uh that's coming down particularly in community block grant money cras and those type of things and so it was great to be there uh with our colleagues from not only the state
but across the but across the country certainly want to send my condolences to Roy Smith if you've ever been to the Elks Club on 12th Avenue I'm probably the only one up here that's ever been but if you ever gone did you go one time multiple times multiple times uh if you've ever been there then you saw my dear friend Roy Smith and U um and we send our prayers and condol and condolences to him as well as a international and a national star uh Miss Gwen McCrae um who um lost her life in we're praying with her family and this weekend we'll be presenting a proclamation and uh to miss
Claudia Williams um unfortunately uh life lost too soon and our prayers are out uh to miss Claudia Williams and her entire family I do want to thank Michael caps um for the great job that he's worked with with a visit and with pentola sports uh in providing just a a grand opportunity uh for the Sun Sun Belt basketball tournament when it was first started uh it was um said that we couldn't get the support that we needed for basketball and uh Michael caps and his staff uh really make
hospitality great and Mike I certainly appreciate it and the hospitality to bring uh your group in uh it's important to me uh commissioner Barry said that it's bringing in tourists and it's bringing in people from you know all across the southeast but for me uh there's a little girl by the name of Janelle Jones that started playing basketball for me when she was four her grandfather Steve Williams who uh Jersey was just retired at the University of Florida in which the Washington High School gym is named after uh but Janelle gets to end her career uh in the place where she started
playing basketball right in Pensacola uh because of the efforts of bringing the sunville tournament and so we look forward to being uh at the um South Alabama basketball game and and watching uh Janelle um perform and and and watching her end the career uh that she's at age 20 three now that she started playing right here in scami County when she was at the age of four and I had the um awesome opportunity to be able to coach her and finally I want to thank our staff
um our library staff Todd HBL and Clare long um many years we talked about what could happen in Brownsville what may happen in Brownsville uh but we're about 30 days out uh from uh turning a old Masonic Lodge uh that probably was uh put there for a few but today it'll be a public library that's going to be inviting to all so certainly appreciate the staff and the support of everyone on this board uh for getting uh that Library uh for the Brownsville Community across
the finish line Thank you Mr chairman thank you uh commissioner man I'm looking forward that Library it's a stone throw from you know we split that district and I'm can't wait to see it open and help some people out in that area well no absolutely it connects our district and it's an old Masonic lodge and quite frankly when we talk about D and all those things we talk about people who will probably not have been allowed to go into that Library uh but it's everyone I mean from the homeless to the wealthy uh red yellow black and white everybody's going to be accepted and I think it's a great Testament uh to the work that this board is doing uh to make sure that uh
everyone has an opportunity to be educated and and learn to read and to uh have um the ability to not only get books but get opportunities in our library so I certainly appreciate your support Mr chairman thank Youk you I st M I'm sorry yeah if you don't mind I apologize I missed a missed a celebration this morning I I not especially good at at my emails but uh uh but I miss happy birthday is today your actual birthday it's no but I appreciate I invited you for cake
man he's the only one that missed today today was a celebration and Mr chairman I I apologize for missing that I I I heard afterwards that I missed it and uh uh you know I would have appreciated some cake in the festivities but happy birthday from uh from this end of the dies oh thank you and it was actually my AG's birthday and we have we a day apart so it's good when you have a Joint Force and so uh Mr chairman I appreciate you dressing like a Democrat you you seem very proud with all that blue on so that was pretty good stuff we're having a lot of fun up here if you can't tell all right commissioner stroberg can you have get some order here okay uh um this week
uh Tammy thoro the PTO key chamber president took me on a chamber tour of businesses in Pito key and on that was that was on Monday and that was a a great visit with all the businesses out there we visited thank you Tammy wherever you are um I went to civicon a couple of Mondays ago the speaker was Rebecca Kim from Kalamazoo Michigan uh this the discussion was focused on the issue of zoning regulation and affordability it was it was nearly a full house there at the
Methodist Church but if you haven't been I'd recommend you go to a civicon there's a a lot of lessons learned when you go there um the 11th of March is another birthday it's my daughter's birthday the same one who sang the national anthem at our swearing Inn in November she's going to be 40 years old so happy birthday honey um next is foiling week I think we have a video [Music]
[Music] [Music] [Music]
the okay I hope everyone most people got a chance to enjoy falling week I did it was fantastic I got a a summary of um some numbers here from foring week it's the first ever World sailing special event ever hosted here in Pensacola we had 13 classes of boats and um I want to say that it was it was one of the largest um boat at least variety of uh of classes that we've had it's boats and uh and board racing um there was a Special Olympics activation day with a single day Clinic hosted by um the
Hilton Pensacola Beach there were 182 competitors Olympians I think there were 18 Olympians and eight Olympic gold meders that were here for this competition 95% of these people are from out of town from 21 different countries New Zealand Australia all over the place and we hosted about a over a 100 races um there were four locations for this it was the Pensacola Yacht Club the maritime Park key sailing and um Pensacola Beach Yacht Club and of course the Hilton Pensacola Beach
um there were two sustainability events um there was an international falling film festival at the uh civil quarter hosted by civil quarter and there were four four foiling sailing clinics with Olympic coaches uh 67 school children attended an introduction to foiling through the centor foundation there was a race Village for a couple days we had 262 staff participating 31 people from
Europe here for foiling wheat and uh the rest volunteers and then there were 16 new equipment launches or they were at least displayed here for filing week and we attracted 31 different sailing manufacturers uh Global press there were three international press releases two video releases uh distributed and taken about 80 and there were about 81 news outlets uh taken by 81 news outlets
globally seven daily highlighted distributed um globally also uh let's see what else we got um we hosted 421 VIPs on the water 34 local and the remainder from the US 206 Americans and 181 International including the world sailing and uh and US Sailing and um what else it was fantastic
and next year it's expected to be three times bigger uh um how many were there there were I said 182 there were over 100 races there's going to be over 500 they expect over 500 uh competitors next year so it's going to be big the next foiling week and the home of foiling week is uh Garda lake in Italy and that'll be big but I'm told that this was bigger than their first start so I I think I mentioned that this is going to be an economic Renaissance for for uh Escambia and Pensacola
and I I truly believe it will this is going to be great for us what else um last thing is I wanted to say goodbye to Jackie so Jackie has been on the fourth floor helping keep my office and the rest of our offices in order uh since I arrived here since at least since Mike's been here lovely woman and she told me this afternoon that she's leaving for greener passengers Jack
will be staying uh will be will be moving on to the uh but staying at the county and going to Brownsville Library so that's great while we miss Jackie we congrat we congratulate her and we thank you Jackie thank you Mr H thank you so much your district for office has been working tirelessly to improve the way that we serve our community to my team Melanie Luna and TS Strickland thank you so much for your creative ideas and your tireless Pursuit for transparency accountability and
efficiency in our local government with that being said um we have found out that our phones are not always ringing so we are not getting quite a few of the voicemails that are coming through so if you have been trying to reach our office I encourage you to email us um Melanie or myself will return those emails and phone calls within two business days and that email address is District 4 the number four Mayas scambia so if we have missed your phone calls I wanted to publicly apologize for that we have put in a request to it they are great they are very helpful um so that is
what's going on with that we have also prioritized EMS response times and turnover because when you call 911 every minute matters in February our EMS team responded to an average of 145 calls a day so they are working very very hard to make sure that they are providing a great service for our Community we're committed to investing tax dollars more wisely specifically in firefighter pay and retention because retaining top talent is not only the right thing to do but it's the smart
thing to do for our community and we believe in transparency and processes and procedures across all County departments so that is everything from rfps to dmos and we are working to ensure that those are consistent fair and transparent practices so that we can paint a better picture to you the community on how things work within the government here locally we've discovered a few processes that need to be revamped and we are excited to start working on those and to see the positive impact that that's going to have on our community and of course we have something to
celebrate so tonight on our agenda District 4 is donating two pieces of property to the Habitat for Humanity um so those will be going for affordable housing and I can tell you it is an amazing feeling to be able to to help the housing crisis in our community so I would urge the rest of you to see if you have properties in your districts that might be available and a um good piece of property to donate to Habitat for Humanity as well good governance means working
more efficiently spending more resp responsibly and always keeping your trust at the Forefront and that is what we are doing every day in District 4 so thank you thank you commissioner hoffberger just a few things first of all I want to thank my for the nice birthday stuff and happy birthday to you and all the folks that came and ate cake that was very nice and I'm I'm not big on big things but I I do want let know everyone to know that I'm very gracious for all the things that we do for each other on the fourth deck and for our staff and then Steve I want to highlight at
Jackie I was here late the other night and she came in and told me she was leaving and you know I talked to her it's it's weird you build these relationships with people and you don't realize and then you're like man she's not going to be here anymore and uh you know so we I was I'm sad to see her leave but I'm happy she's going to stay in our system and be at Brownsville I want to talk a little bit commissioner stroberg did a he was really involved foiling week but the morning meeting we had this morning with ASM it just goes to show all the things going on you know I look at last night that Killer Queen we have the sun basketball we have foiling week
you know there's just so much going on it seems like every meeting that we come to we have all these great things to share about our community and it's exciting to me to see that so I am um I just think it's getting better and better what commissioner Hoffer just said about clts um I had the privilege of making a little movie this week for Sam young and he's getting a Pace Award here shortly and he's doing a great job over at Habitat for Humanity um and I do think they're doing great work I was out at Massachusetts Street where they're having five houses I know Claire was
out there with me and some of the folks from Neighborhood Services but they're doing great stuff this week um I don't I know if I don't know who else met with the base but we had a community realtor stuff that came from Jacksonville from cnic that basically is looking at property on Broom fi and softly filled some stuff on Corey and they're going to put together some um a working document for for the base and they told us they would give us that to look at some of the recommendations to use the excess property on the bases that we have now so I'm cautiously looking
forward to see what what comes out of that and the most important thing I'm going to end with is a few days ago I was getting my teeth clean do that once in a while every five years or so and um John Singley yeah I'm pretty good about that but John Singley text me and I said hey I can't talk to you he's he's a reporter and said I said I'm in the I'm in going to the dentist and he said he goes well if if you can't bite you can't fight I started laughing I hadn't heard that in
a long time the dentist used to say that and why why am I bringing that up that was a big deal on the operational side for anyone in the military but today at 10:18 this morning when we were in the middle of the cow we got a notification there was a potential active shooter on Cory station that's why if you saw when West came over all of a sudden we were going into what we'd call in the Navy general quarters and that was when uh Eric Gilmore activated the you know EMS life
went on the sheriff's department was out on the base I don't know the assets of what happened with uh the city but I know they were involved as well and I can tell you the base I talked to the co after they secured it a little after 1 p.m. today they could not be more grateful for the response years ago the base had their own hospital they had a more Rob bus Police Department um they they had ambulances they don't have any of that anymore so they are dependent on County support
if something like this happens and um and we respond and we respond quickly and we respond in a way that helps our fellow veterans and active duty members out there and they're very grateful um and it wasn't just that several Senator Scott's office called some other some under elected officials but everyone was very grateful and I just want the staff to know it matters it matters the base it matters to me to know that we have a a presence that can respond so quickly so thank thank you thank you very much and I know the base is very grateful as well that's
all I have today um let's go into proclamations uh can I have a motion to adopt or ratify the proclamations so move second please vote all right motion passes 5 to zero uh chips you're up okay good evening um it's Tim and my pleasure tonight to read and present this proclamation to China
Moore who is the esami County employee of the month for March Escambia County Proclamation whereas Escambia County has established an employee of the month program to recognize one employee to represent various departments and whereas China MO environmental enforcement services coordinator of the natural resources management department began her employment with the county on March 14th 2017 and is selected as employee of the month
for March 2025 for the standards of excellence she displays in the performance of her duties and whereas in her role as environmental enforcement services coordinator she handles compliance with and violations of of es scambia codes and state regulations and is in charge of the preparation for special magistrate hearings and whereas China was instrumental in training the special magistrate Clerks of the city of Pensacola's code enforcement division to use
my project now software to conduct hearings and whereas she is viewed as a positive employee by her co-workers and superiors and maintains an excellent work relationship ship with the City of Pensacola and the clerk of the circuit court and controller and whereas China serves as youth director and praise team leader of love and favor Pentecostal church and enjoys time with her husband Alex and her her boys Alex Jr and Adrien now therefore be it proclaimed that the board of
County commissioners of Escambia County Florida hereby commends and congratulates Miss China Moore in her selection as employee of the month for March 2025 Board of County commissioners of scambi County Florida Michael S Coler chair Ashley hoffberger Vice chair Steve stroberg District 1 Lumen J May District 3 and Steven Barry District 5 congratulations China woohoo
commission just very quickly um I want to introduce you to China oh yeah well but so then you already know that if you do get calls from your office on a positive experience with code enforcement it all starts with China and the staff that she's developed and so just um want to thank her for her leadership that she shows and continues training that keeps helping make our community better so thank you hey let China say [Applause]
something thank you thank you to all of my co-workers coming today and I'm going to make it short hey so I wrote it down and I'm going to try to follow it first I do want to thank God for blessing me to work in one of the best departments in escamia County Code Enforcement yeah thanks that's right that's right thanks to all of the Commissioners thank you um administrator
Marino amen I was to say Church okay I am grateful for my management team of natural resource management Mr Chips Mr Dave Mr Davis and especially lieutenant dicku and I do want to thank you thank you for your leadership and passion for this department to my mentor Miss Felicia Knight thank you to my admin staff I cannot do it without those ladies they are a big help um to the to the
sergeants and all the officers we you know they helped make this department suced every day a lot of people may not see it but we hear it and I do believe that we're doing it and also I do want to thank my COC family um to my friends and B thank you um Nicole and I speak about this honor often and it's a privilege to be nominated and to be selected also I do want to thank all my friends in traffic and Engineering I also want to thank my special friend horis Jones and the planning and
zoning department who always comes and check on me and our team so also and lastly not least I do want to thank my husband my sons my mom who always keeps us focused and to my additional family and friends thank you thank you thank you so much hey CH China standby I think some people want to give you some out voice commissioner Barry yeah I I just want to congratulate you Alex's GNA come up
there and take and take a picture with you I would hope he's G to come on up yeah he's he's got to come up and take a picture you know I he's going to hook us up at FPL baby come on Alex yeah I mean he's he's got one of those nice florid to power jackets probably but uh no congratulations China and you know you you certainly have a friend in District 5 and it's uh you know y'all do y'all do great work and I appreciate the help that you've given us and you know your family has a friend in District 5 since I don't know 1986 is about sixth grade nice to see you Alex sure thank you Mr
chairman thank CH I want to thank you long before I became a commissioner you were very supportive and uh since I've been a commissioner you've been helpful and you've been a friend of District 3 and uh you go well beyond the Call of Duty uh to make our district a better district and for that I'm grateful and thank you for always having a cheerful attitude a positive attitude and thank you most of all for just caring I appreciate that thanks so much China thank you China I Just Want to Thank You from my heart and I can't even tell you from my heart because I'm going to tell you why everyone in District 2 loves code enforcement we only have a few people don't but all the
you know Code Enforcement Officers you know I've had your back since day one and you deserve this and I know you take a lot of arrows but thank you for what you do it's a tough job but thank you so much thank you commissioner strober you're up next yeah let's around Applause did you want me to say something too I I ever since I came to the county I was working for for commissioner Coler I always thought that all the Departments just work for district uh two I thought they all did because everyone has been so responsive and now I'm asking everybody to
include code enforcement to you know refocus now on district one on district one but thank you very much because that's the way I really feel about that I Echo exactly how everyone else feels and Mike does about your your response your your I guess your love for the community it's a hard job I always say code enforcement is thankless no one thanks code enforcement but we do thank you very much thank you did you have something you say I was just going to say thank you I know
I haven't been here very long but every time Melanie and I call your department you guys are always so happy and you're so helpful and you're so responsive and a lot of our district is within the city so you're always like quick to point us to where we need to go and you're helpful beyond belief so thank you so much for that than you you're welcome thank you just one other thing and we appreciate y'all living code enforcement and I do want to shout out we do need more officers man CH you had us there for a minute everybody was crying and
then the money came then the money came [Laughter] CH come on you quite a sister you coming up by that's
right we do I've been out to a bunch of places it's a tough job [Applause]
than you a be car but even more thank so proud thank you thank you commission while commissioner stroberg working his way down um County Administrator administrator I want to thank uh the deputy admin W for filling in but did you have anything you want to say no Mr chairman I appreciate debie stepping up I had a phone call right before we came in here something I really needed I thought felt like I
needed to go ATT to so I was able to do that but uh always proud of those employees i' love to see that kind of a work environment that we just saw yeah uh that's what makes a makes an organization healthy thank you thank you CH strober where you at oh you're right there all right hi so this Proclamation is for flood awareness week and I I guess we're getting ahead of the flood aware awareness week is to make sure we're aware that floods
are coming because I I I think I experienced my first flood during Sally and that was in September of I don't remember what year it was it was a while ago I live on inner Rarity Island we're prone to flooding so this is a this is a good Proclamation whereas Escambia County has experienced severe weather in the past in the form of extreme rainfall and tropical system events resulting in flooding in both Coastal and riverine areas and this flooding has caused damage and flood losses to homes and buildings
in all areas whether they are high-risk special flood Hazard areas or low to moderate risk flood zones and whereas the scambi county is a volun a voluntary participant in the National flood insurance program that provides residents with the opportunity to protect themselves against flood loss through the purchase of flood insurance at reduced insurance premiums rates as well as higher regulatory standards to reduce the flood risk and potential flood damage to their property and whereas the reduction of loss of life and property damage can be achieved
when appropriate flood preparation uh preparedness control and mitigation measures are taken before a flood and whereas public education and awareness of potential weather hazards and methods of protection are critical to the health safety and Welfare residents the Florida flood plane managers associations have declared the week of March 3rd through the 9th 2025 flood Awareness Week to promote and increased knowledge of flood risk the availability of flood insurance
flood protection methods and how to repair for emergencies now therefore be it proclaimed that the border of County commissioners of Escambia County Florida do hereby declare the week of March 3rd through the 9th 2025 as flood Awareness Week in es scambi County and further encourage the citizens of es scambi County to increase their knowledge of how to protect themselves and their property from flooding the board of County commissioners of scambi County Florida Michael S Coler chairman District 2 Ashley hoffberger Vice chairman District 4 Steve strober
District 1 Lumen J May District three and Steven Barry District 5 thank you thank [Applause] you you sure do I didn't know if you wanted us to say anything before you uh this evening are the flood play Managers from Santa Rosa count Santa Rosa Island Authority City of Pensacola and of course the scambia county we work every day to provide Outreach to the citizens for this very subject and
we are grateful that you brought us up here and are giving us this Proclamation thank you thank you for what you do does anyone else want to say anything okay Mr chairman jener thank you and and Jennifer does a great job and I I would be remiss if I didn't say something about Robbie Weekley I mean he was with the county he's at the city and I tell you if you need something done you call Robbie and Robbie I personally appreciate it and I think a lot of the builders and a lot of community appreciate it and uh I like you but I love Tommy Weekley your dad I mean he keeps us going and and
your great wife so Robbie we really appreciate everything that you do my man commissioner that's how that's how that's how we are from tapate we we produce work we produce work he produce work IAL I talked to I talked to Tommy earlier this week we we produce work that's I like Tommy's the man thanks Robbie we appre thanks Jennifer thanks for all you doing thank all of you congratulations thank you Andy you want to get a photo yeah hold together okay thank you thank you thank you thank you sir
okay all right let's move on did the clerk's office receive the proof of Publications for public hearing on the agenda in the board weekly meeting schedule Mr chairman the clerk's office has received all proofs can I get a motion to wave the reading so moved second please vote okay moving into public hearings we have no speakers on none of the subjects from 5:31 5:32 533 535 um can we vote on these collectively we have to read each one Alon I would do them individually okay all
right let's do 531 public hearing to consider the petition to vacate and Ingress egress and utility move Mr chairman second okay please vote I almost got through it Alison number two 532 to consider ordinance repeal section 266 of esami county code of ordinance related to County Employees seeking elective office that was uh yours um do you have a motion I make a motion second please vote 533 public hearing to consider an ordinance Amendment 5-1 of scany county code ordinance related to use
of fireworks on designated holidays a motion I make a motion second please vote and then the 535 which has ab1234 public hearing fiscal year 2024 Edward Byron Memorial Justice assistance grant 2024 djag 15 pbga d05 609 some move Mr chairman is there a second second please vote all right thank you all that gets us to the public hearings um Madam clerk we're at the clerk and comp TS report sure quickly there's two items on the agenda the first one is the published
annual financial report I told you we wrapped up a four-month audit we have a clean opinion this is always good news for a county I've got a history of clean audits in the last 12 years um and throughout my career as a CPA the second is minutes and reports prepared thank you sir thank you have a motion to move the clerks and cont report so moved second please vote okay horse R to gmr what's wrong oh I'm sorry okay there it is okay uh 545 the first be on case Z2 25-01 from
low density residential to low density mix use the plan board made a recommendation for approval uh jmr 1-1 we have no speak cancellation okay I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm going here I'm H our thank you Miss Allison yes 2025 it was consolation I do apologize all right I move to move the 545 which is canceling the okay have a second second please vote all right gmr 1-2 we have one speaker horse do you want me to let him speak before we move forward the next item is to um um the 202 uh 202
24- 20 this time um 8210 n road from low density residential to low density mixed use the planner board made a recommendation for approval horse we have one speaker Miss bush is up so we'll hear from her before we vote thank you Meredith Bush 125 East in tendencia I represent the applicant uh planning board has recommended approval we're happy to take any questions we would just ask that you approve the resoning okay commission Bay this is in your District you
have yes sir I move to approve case z 2024 D20 from ldr to LMU and I'll thank them for taking you I thank Miss Bush for taking the uh the feedback from the board some time ago about the application that okay please vote right let's U move on to 1-3 I mean 546 sorry do the zoning map 546 adoption of the map there's no speakers so move second please vote motion passes 5 547
547 this is uh uh uh it's a desap removal from the sector plan to review and transmit there's no speaker speak all right I move uh the 547 in support Second okay please vote motion pass is 5 Z gmr we're at G item number five horse and we have one speaker actually we have two speakers on gmr 1-5 2024 d03 from low density residential to medium density
residential okay Meredith Bush if you'd like to speak and then Mark Casta you're up next thank you Merith bush5 East in tendencia um this case has been going on for quite a while this is one that came before you sometime last year um or actually maybe in 2023 um on a recommendation for approval from the planning board uh you denied that we took it up on a rid of C to Circuit Court
uh circuit court has remanded it back to you in August of 2024 um again we've met all the criteria of the code feel like it's an appropriate zoning category um the Circuit Court agreed with us and we would just be asking asking that you approve the resoning okay commissioner bars you have your light on do you have a comment on this sorry in there another speaker oh yeah I'm sorry are you done Meredith I am I'm sorry I'm sorry about that Mark kast I apologize if you'd like to come up and speak my name is Mark Casta I live at 2570 Trailwood Drive in cantonement this property
is behind mine that's in question for four years now we've been coming to these hearings to oppose Mr hosa's requests for zoning changes this all began back in 2022 when he wanted to change the ldr to the hdr on the lot in question after two failed attempts he changed it from ldr to MDR which was also denied and is now being reheard apparently I want to add that Mr host also owns an adjacent property U that he tried to reson to HDR and it also failed they're right back one next
to the other um the consistent theme throughout these hearings has been that he's failed to say what exactly he's going to do and what he's building we have no idea our neighborhood is made up of one-story dwellings we want to keep it that way um possible addition of multi-story duplexes or public meeting Halls basketball courts tennis courts playgrounds any miscellaneous uh facilities are a real possibility with uh this change uh I'm right up against this property and the constructions of any of these kind of things are going to greatly affect my privacy uh and
it'll greatly affect the value of my property the last thing I want is for one or more of these possible scenarios uh traffic's already a problem as well as the noise that comes with it more residents aren't going to make it any better they're just going to add to it uh as for the 45t height maximum that means there's a possibility of a three story structure right behind my house uh which will be uh most certainly be against the consistency and compatibility mentioned in the comprehensive plan and the zoning District Provisions um nothing will be improved by adding
all these people cars residents over one story I will add that while this is type of zoning change may not seem like a big deal the potential negatives to our community are to say the least very worrisome um I retired here to live in peace and quiet and I live here because I have a nice house in a nice neighborhood very private and I want it to stay that way um and the potential for loss of value and property is a great concern to me after four years we still don't know what he's building um um I will continue to oppose these attempts as long as he fails to disclose
what he's doing trust has to be earned um in closing from my perspective the problem is twofold because there are two properties so I have to come and argue this one and then if he does the other one I got to come and argue that because they're both within 2500 ft of my property so unless we have any solid plans um I I really would request that you deny this response again it's been denied denied many times and thank you for your time thank you sir for your comments okay at this point commissioner bar would you like to say some things yeah thank you Mr chairman
I don't know that the that the court agreed with the applicant I think what they what they said was they sent it back to us as if uh you know as if the board had not heard the item uh you know for clarification um what I would what I would ask my colleagues to do is to move that the board remand the case back to the planning board there are two Criterion I know we need to be specific when we do this but um there are two Criterion so I would ask that we remand it back to the planning board
for consideration of Criterion three to address whether this uh proposed up zoning provides for compatibility with the surrounding uses or whether it impacts the surrounding area in a negative way and that the planning board also reconsider Criterion five uh which is going to address the whether the wested up zoning is appropriate or is it premature taking into account whether there have been changed circumstances in the area so there are two Criterion specifically I'd like the um the planning board to address and um I would certainly like that those specific Criterion to
be addressed in the in the motion so that is my motion and I would hope that that goes to the planning board with a clear instruction that that is the intent of our board that they would hear that that they would hear those your Criterion um you know we've had some some issue with that that that's my that's what going to be my motion to is that your stated motion yes it is yes sir if that's your state of motion I second it okay uh it sounds reasonable to me commissioner Barry but uh Allison is I this sounds reasonable to be is sound reasonable to you as our legal counsel
your code does have a provision in it that does specifically allow the board to remand rezoning matters back to your planning board um the case is going to be challenged in that they the the Court's order is really limiting the evidence in a way that is going to make this a challenging case but you're not prohibited from sending it back to the planning board okay how many times has the
planning board heard this specific case once just once okay so this you got this the board of County Commissioners got got the original recommendation from the planning board last February February of 24 this board denied it it was challenged up to the Circuit Court and the circuit court has sent it back the effect of the Court's order is as though the BCC has never made a decision on this but the planning board's recommendation at this moment still stands was the planning board a
unanimous decision made didn't we know oh I don't recall it was it was so is there anything in the statute of the code that prohibits commissioner be for remanding it back to the planning board Council you your code does allow you to remand rezonings back to its planning board um I don't think that that is prohibited the the challenge here is that the planning staff recommended that the resoning be granted and that's the judge is pointing to that as competent substantial
evidence at this point you're stuck with that unless there's something else and that's why I'm specific about what I'd like the planning board to reconsider yeah and I two items there are two Criterion I would like them to reconsider I don't know uh you know I don't know that there was a it may have been unanimous in attendance that day but I don't know that there was a full planning board there that day so I I would just like them to reconsider it but I think you You' narrowed the parameters down I mean if if it's unless it's a violation Madam counsel I mean my
second stands okay what exactly did the court say just for clarification when they sent it back to us so the court is saying that the decision of the board of County Commissioners is quashed and what that essentially means is it's as though you never made the decision at all you are at this moment you have the record that was compiled by the planning board your decision must be made on the record that's compiled in the case not on extra things that you may know they did make it the
court uh also had concerns with relying on citizen lay testimony in that it they found that it's not it wasn't competent substantial evidence to rest the decision on um that's normal in a resoning case just generalized objection or support in a resoning case is not enough well and and and there I mean there weren't a lot of Citizen comments that's true there were I mean there were only a
few citizens that commented three Cien comments you know I I would take it as as you know as I have made you know many errors over the years I'm sure you know uh probably more than probably more than I'm even aware of um in the instance when it came to the board last year this is apparently what I should have done at that time rather than making a motion to deny the application I you know I I had these same concern last year at that time I should have asked the planning board to reconsider those two Criterion rather than denying the motion and this is an opportunity
for me to kind of say well I made a mistake last year and now I instead of recommending a denial I would like the planing board to reconsider those two Criterion I actually leaning with you commissioner I just want to make sure that our our attorney agrees that this is is a good decision to move forward it it isn't it's not prohibited you have a provision in your code that does allow you to remand matters to your planning board all right then all they do is make a recommendation back to us yeah for they they will have to yeah they'll either deny it or they'll uphold it is
that simple correct once we send it back the the code says that they will have to make a recommendation to you yes so my second still stand send it back and okay I think we have a motion in second unless there's any other comments I'm going to move forward the vote okay please vote okay motion passes 5 Z thank you horse we're up to six 548 548 y that item in this instance we would drop this item for this evening oh yeah move to drop second okay please vote motion passes
5 we're at gmr 5497 yes so 549 this is to this is the first of two public hearing concerning the par Mutual uh ordinance it went before the planning board if this is based upon the some distances and this is where we are today this is the first of two public hearings okay we have one speaker on this Meredith Bush would you like to make a comment Meredith Bush 125 East in tendencia so we represent the um holder of the State param Mutual license in the county we fully support this
ordinance and we just ask that you uh continue the process to recommend approval happy to take any questions yeah I I I've had some questions on this this I don't know if commissioner stobber if you have any questions on this it's in it's moving the from Dog Track Road do they know where they're moving where they want to move exactly someone asked me other day and I don't know so um they have looked at several locations uh there is a site identified but it's not been finalized given that we don't currently have zoning permission to be anywhere in the county so the ordinance
needs to be put in place so that we can get zoning approval and then close on a property I think my concern I know historically I know the District 4 commissioner had a concern with this being right next to pinol Christian College um I don't know is it commissioner bar you have a comment on this oh no sir I I I Comm I'm happy to move it when the comments are done not at all commissioner H so I do the piece of property that they're looking for is actually I believe still in your district and it is off of um Pine Forest Road if I'm not mistaken near the interstate interstate Circle
believe is the so my concern is if something happens with that property and that falls through if we approve this then essentially they could go in any other piece of property zone for this so I would like to see it as a conditional use approved by the board of County Commissioners I like the conditional use too I think is that wait I I didn't understand that what was well the conditional use is if this went there they would have to come back to the board basically to to you know whereever they were going to do it we are we are having a a a community meeting about this
Meredith knows about it and it's going to be on the 12th of March that's next Wednesday to talk about this at the Belview Library we're we're getting Flyers out to uh all the residents that that'll be affected by that that's in that neighborhood in it's intern Interstate Circle that's where we're going I believe so yeah oh commissioner strober are you asking to wave wave off on this until you have your public your meeting or you want to motion conditionally well yeah that's what I'm asking so okay so if I make the motion that we move it to conditional use as
approved by the board of County Commissioners it means they can go in where we approve it but they would have to come to us first so we would get the final stamp of approval so a Madam attorney you have a comment yeah so uh that would require that the actual wording of the ordinance be addressed and amended and typically conditional use if it's going to come to the board we would want some kind of criteria to work with for the board to apply so I would recommend that either the board send it back to the planning board to consider adding that in or give us
specific Direction and then allow that to be built in for subsequent public hearings which way would be the quickest and most efficient way well I I think what she said is the way to go I I this isn't in my district but I have people concerned about it I think we send it this one is one I would send back to the planning board and ask them to put in their conditional use I think that's that's what I would like to do but it's it's up to the board as a whole I would like that as well I'm not I I know it was a very short planning board meeting uh on Tuesday when
they did discuss this ordinance I don't know if that was even a consideration at that time it would certainly be something that they could chew on and have some language that could come to you all at the moment I think they're planning on having a public hearing back before you all on the 25th of March but you need two public hearings in order to change a permitted conditional or prohibited use and if I if if I may now we do we do have very very restrictive in this ordinance
very very I don't want to say restrictive but we do have distance requirements against it prohibits schools and things like that then but there are prohibitions against certain type of uses and there are add diss requirement as well th000 foot so so there are some there are some protocols that are in place right now in this draft ordinance I just want to bring that to attention to the board I just feel like with it being such a not the whole Community is going to be on
board with this type of business that we need to be able to hear our constituents and make sure that we have a little bit more control over that location uh commissioner Barry has a com yeah so you know it's whatever the majority of the board would like to do why it's an activity I mean it's an activity that's that's now taking place we have you know we have we have one you know we have one
possible uh proprietor of this type of activity in the county because of the you know because of the state limitations about uh you know about distance between operations so um and the current location doesn't impact any outdoor neighbors Meredith I've got it so I I understand what the what the board is saying if there if there is an issue with this property then then what is the possible impact my
only comment would be if there's an issue with this property then the board could retake up the issue if that if that's we wouldn't have to have the conditional use to do that so there are there there are time frames in place with you know they they don't they don't hold title to the property currently so there are there are time frames in place with this that have been um and I'm not saying it's any fault of the boards but there are you know there are um uh you know
there are limitations on real estate contracts so as this is the first hearing if there's any way the board would be supportive of the first hearing then perhaps we pass the first hearing to allow the discussion we've got you know two and a half weeks until the 25th and you know maybe some of those concerns can be subsided if something were to happen with this parcel which I when you look at the when you look at the specific parcel you you you clearly you don't
have issues with uh you know with schools you don't have issues with churches you don't have issues with um you you know you're very close to the interstate which are you know which is obviously a very commercial activity um I don't know that you could pinpoint another location in the county where it would be better suited it doesn't appear you know for the size for the size that they need for it um so if there's a way to have the board move it forward as it is
tonight and then take the two and a half weeks and see you know kind of allow discussions whatever discussions are necessary to happen um and if the project were to not happen on the property then we could always take up you know we could always take up the issue again if if need be okay um if it's going to move I don't know that there is a better there's a better local for
the move uh you know and commissioner May and I were you know we we certainly on the board when the discussion about another site was brought up a few years ago um and you know that that you know didn't have the legs to move forward to actually make it to the board at that time um some I guess what I'm getting at in my opinion something is going to happen and I don't know that we could pick a better place but we don't control the private side of the transaction
so if there's a possibility to move it forward as it is and then allow you know whatever concerns you know there are between now and then um it takes two hearings the first hearing doesn't actually do anything so if if these concerns stay in place for the next two and a half weeks then maybe we don't take it up at the second hearing but if we at least move forward for the first hearing I don't see the harm in that I I would support that okay and I guess Meredith how committed to this like are they love with this piece of property and that's where they're
going in and you don't see any thing inhibiting that and I do have a representative here but yes I mean in short this is a perfect property they're ready to move on it we're simply waiting on confirmation that they can conduct the activity and representatives from the from the business were happy to meet with individual Commissioners if to allay any fears on the prior property you know we could have pushed back a much you know much harder because they weren't wanted near PCC they voluntarily walked away and said we'll find another site um they've been good
neighbors where they're located now it's been out there 70 years with no no trouble and they intend to continue to be good neighbors and and you know listen to commissioner feedback and we're happy to meet with you okay thank you I appreciate that all right do we have a mo commissioner stobber I was just going to say that you we we've only had brief discussions with I don't know very minimal folks over there but uh they didn't want a hotel that was one thing they didn't want they don't want a hotel there so there's not going to be a hotel um they don't want an HOA either there's
no there's so we're trying to get everybody together this is the hard part to have this discussion and we're going to have at philview library I don't think we're going to have any problem with it though I don't think so what it is it a poker room what is it yeah it's um poker room I I don't know room yeah it it it can't become a casino I don't believe it can what I've understand reading about it but that's correct can't it's not a casino it's a a card room a game G certain types of gaming room is it gambling yeah gambling it's the it's the operations that are
at the dog track currently that's me yeah it's it's a yeah yeah have any oh I'm I'm sorry I if that was a motion if if that was a motion from commissioner strober I was just going to Second it but I'm sorry did you was that you want to repeat your motion commissioner strober uh I don't remember making a motion let me think what was it would been too it that that we make this the the first meeting Mee and um I I guess what we do we continue the discussion we move on to the we set the 25th for the the second if the board is in favor of keeping the language the way it is then
I would suggest that you need a a vote a second tonight on the language as it is and then they're going to bring back the second public hearing I think on March the 25th yes so y'all satisfied with the language commissioner yeah I am yeah okay I I move to 549 all right second all right please vote all right good discussion motion passes 5 Z all right horse gmr is always fun we just love it um 550 this is the um public hearing concer the review of ordinance repealing and replacing
chapter two of the barrier lighting um ordinance and if there's any questions we do have the natural resource department here to help answer those questions thanks for the help okay we don't have any speakers everybody you have a motion to move forward do you want to make a motion to it's in affect you to does anyone want to move it forward I make a motion we move forward I I second it all please vote all right motion passes 5 Z word gmr uh two gmr action it yes so we have our
action items for tonight move the item Mr chairman there uh there's no speakers uh I have a second second okay please vote whatever I guess I'm GNA have to heard cats here tonight all right but the consent agenda right agenda so moved second okay there's a motion and second please vote motion passes 5 to zero we can
move on horse to the County Administration part West let's push forward thank you Mr chairman there's 14 items on the technical public service consent agenda there are no changes there are no speakers have motion to move uh move move the item some move some move second all right please vote okay commissioner may you want to vote all right motion passes 5 Z West car Budget Finance 39 items on the Budget Finance consent agenda including commissioner Barry's discretionary
add-on and the fourth amendment to Management Services agreement for the Pensacola Baye center with SMG has been distributed so we got a hold 210 right there are no speakers all right Mr chairman uh item five and and Mr administrator I apologize I wasn't able to chat with you before uh before we convened this evening uh can we pull that and bring that back on the 25th oh the two 25 is this the 193,000 one yes yeah I had a question on that too the other day yeah it's in
my district I I AG green okay so we're going to drop 25 we can yes please okay all right uh and then we have to hold 210 and Claire can we get with whoever's handling that all right is besides hold uh drop at 25 to the next meeting holding 210 on ASM is I move the balance if there's nothing else needed okay is there a second all right please vote motion passes 5 Z and I think 210 West we just got to decide what we're going to do with ASM MH so as you
guys know there were two options this morning one was to uh um is Michael caps here come on up Mike I think you already know it but uh one was just to do the two-year contract with no changes the other one was two-year contract I think commissioner Barry made a very reasonable request by um the not having them mount for the study I think it should be done by ASM no matter what the cost is but the second part of that is a three-year extension that we would be up to is there any
any issues with that I believe I believe there was some Communications between uh between ASM and the county attorney's office or at Le that has been distribut okay all right so I'm I'm good with it I'm told that our people are good with it I'm I'm fine with that yes sir I would move the I I would move the item that had the uh uh that had them paying for the populace study as well as uh allowing the the possible three-year extension so option two yes option two yes yeah and my
get clearly we just go with the two-year with the option of three years um because it may be renegotiated I would assume once we decide on the capital outlay it gives you more time for option to decide on what we're doing what you want to do hey Mike the question I have for you now if the board approves this which it looks like going to how soon you going to get started on the popular study we're already working on it okay good all Mr chairman um and I second the motion and certainly support it but I would ask if we could and I think commissioner hobber U hobber said to me early that
she support it that we have this meeting with the other municipalities I mean to get ideas I mean because I hope that other people are not outdoing studies but they can give their input to Mike and then we can you know wrap it all up we got we got have you been working do like a public hearing for that we've done that for other things but it's it's it yeah we can do it with we could have a joint meeting with the city and the mayor and the school board I mean very simple I have had we we've done them all the we do them all the time I have had meetings with the mayor's office and
the mayor directly uh with other uh individuals with TDC and other parties in the community um and I mentioned we we're already working on it what we're working on is getting lined up uh to get the scope together all those kinds of things but the next step would get your feedback from each district on any vested party you may want to be part of the task force to to develop the the vision uh provide the input uh whether that comes from public or hotel years visit penso Sports all the other entities that are involved uh because again we want this isn't ASM driving the ship
this is ASM executing the study but it's getting the input from all of the community members Mr chairman what I what I would do and you you asked for my request today I would yield my Committee of the whole to have a joint meeting with the school board in the city council whenever my committee other the hold is it's next month so next month yep I would I don't know if you'd want your whole team or if it's more of a discussion item because I don't know if you'll be ready by next month but we could we could meet with all we we can meet and then give some direction okay so it looks like next month we may we may be working with with the instead of the Comm me out the whole
we'd meet with the city city council the mayor and the school board okay in Florida West PC pedc as well P yes ma'am okay pedc and I think Darren was here and um visit as well okay so we have a motion and second to move forward with option two um and then we we now have a c meeting for commissioner May next month to meet with the municipalities and other government agencies all right can we please vote on option two all right all right motion passes 5 Z all right Wes all right Mr chairman
quickly before we move on to car 3 I would want to say that as part of Car 2 uh the board just ratified the Union contract with an International Association of EMTs and paramedics and that is a huge deal and I appreciate Chris Watts and I appreciate the MTS and paramedics there at uh Public Safety and it's a good deal for them it's a good deal for management so congratulations yeah thank you County Administrator and the hard work you got to get that move that forward I know we're getting close on the sheriff's department and hopefully the firefighters are
getting as close as well yep absolutely car 3-1 is a selection of seven members for the affordable housing advisory committee we have uh nine applicants and Jose will be passing out those ballot thank you for
okay for
this for
Mr cam yeah while we're waiting I I I know that you know we have a discussion item number two but you want to move that up and then but yeah um Barbera and and her team have been waiting and Pastor Watson for quite a while I'd like to move it up uh to give to get them uh citizens from Englewood an opportunity to speak so they don't have to continue to stay here all night okay we'll do uh car 2-3 1 and then car three D or car 3-3 1 then car 3-2 second thank you I certainly appreciate it
how we doing and see one more second almost ready okay we didn't recognizes Miss YULA who probably worked at this County for 30 plus years Ula it's good to see you thank you for we appreciate all that you did for this County and what you do in the Englewood community so didn't notice you at first with the mask but we're glad that you're here no no keep it on you're good thank you
yeah thank you I think it this is the most important thing everyone knows the amount of money that we have for each one for
okay Mr chairman sorry okay please uh show the vote okay we have five votes for Laura Gilmore four votes for Ed Brown three votes for Anton zikov five votes for Charles Thorton two votes for tranessa white four votes for Deborah Mays five votes for Melody Neil three votes for Maya moss and four votes for Robert Strickland so uh did we have two two folks that had
two votes yes uh we have one one person that has two votes which is Miss White okay and then we have two people people that have three votes Anton zov and Maya Moss so can we just vote on those two and move the rest that that would seem appropriate is that okay with the board the two the three the two three vote receivers so can we get another sheet with just the two three votes and then we'll vote on that and then we'll vote on the whole team
hand for
top Mr chairman we have two votes for Anton zikov and three votes for Maya Moss okay thank you can we get a motion to move the top seven vote High vote counters for the advisory committee for um affordable housing second all right please vote okay all those in FA it was 5 uh thank you uh let's move to car 3 three we have 1 two 3 four 5 six seven speakers Betty Carter you're up
first yes hello everyone my name is Betty Carter and I'm in District 3 and I've been in District 3 all my life and the reason why I'm here tonight is because they are planning on doing something to our community that I don't think should take place but we want what's best for our
community we don't want our community to fall because they always saying that our community is already falling so what I'm going to do is step back and let her continue to tell what's going on in our community okay ma'am will you state your name hi good evening I am Barbara hell and that's h l e I represent the ingwood Redevelopment Shany town community along with others that will come after me to voice their opinions on our decisions on your decisions to
utilize the golden Elementary and your stating the former Henry T McMillan school as if it has already been purchased and have a new name for the building that's what was in the paper on Sunday were you not aware of our ingood Redevelopment and Shany toown Community neighborhood we might not be a HOA but we are a community once again you not you people but Commissioners
you're getting ready to do another Injustice to our community the first one in Justice was um you asked us what we thought about the Waterfront mission located on Herman and El Street we voiced our opinion that we did not want the Waterfront mission there but our voices and opinions went unheard the Waterfront mission was placed there however now that's an injustice to us because all those people out there they're homeless they come out they they can stay in there they go in at 6:
or 7 at night but they have to put them out at 6:00 or 7 in the morning all those people gather up their things their belongings paper and junk because they had have nowhere to go okay that's in the morning I'm tired as well as others in our community feeling like you can just dump any and everything in on us because now you have funding from ARP American Rescue plan act but today we are here disheartened with your actions and here to voice our opinion and hoping that you hear our
voices and take your great ideas that you weren't planning on including us the Inglewood Shany town community in on take it to another affluent community and I am sure the county owns property over in those areas as well as other areas however you're listening but are you hearing what I am saying because you're going to do whatever you want to do with our Legacy and that's the uh McMillan Center but just take this into consideration that what we want
that what we would want the building to be used for if you're going to take it from us without asking our opinion because nobody asked us anything nobody told us nobody invited us nowhere but it just put in the paper and that's how we can found out about it however this is what we want if you're just going to take it from us do what you want to do we want drug counseling not a stay uh not a end state but to get medication and counseling senior citizen um your three minutes
is up so I I'll listen to everyone but can you summarize your uh final thoughts for me yes I can sum it up but I'm going to give you a few more seconds I know there's some of you going to talk but I need just so I respect all the speakers and we know okay our senior citizen activities of school care for children students already in our neighborhood that does not qualify or the parents cannot afford for them to attend the Boys and Girls Club a GED program for people that need
their GED programs to help in preparing for the Work World mock interviews and this could even be a place for the Jacqueline Harris Preparatory Academy due to miss cestine was shot down from the gsum center due to it's going to remain a historic site also miss if I can get the next speaker I appreciate you I I can see your passion uh there's another Miss hail is uh okay who what's your name ma'am at oh you're atla uh okay you're you're you're M at hail she was I don't really it doesn't
matter I just have a list here do you want to go next yeah okay hi my name is atle Hill and as they spoke I'm going to speak too we are that uh school is set right down in the residential area okay I've I went to that school when I was young and all I'm saying is we could utilize that for good for the for children we got we we we heard a young man from Wedgewood where they needed a facility
that school has an auditorium where you can have Fellowship they got got build got uh rooms in there where where where you can do almost anything in there all we ask for it to be used for the up building of the community we also need a a a new new uh Center it could be used for that it's been used that building has been used for schools three schools have been in that building okay and it was
also used by the uh the sheriff department all I'm asking is to put homeless buildings in that in our area you don't know who uh who you putting in there you can put pedophiles and stuff like that people like that there we are a community which we don't have that much we got a lot of poor and elderly people if you put something like that in our community it'll drive away people it'll drive away good people and then then we'll have more crime in our area and that's something
we don't want because we already got that we're just trying to trying to say you know if you have just just just come in our area if you have some time come and look and see we used to use that that that that the grounds over there for uh the Shany toown reunion okay and we and and and and and I'm like we would just be all over the area in that in that in that in that school area and we were peaceful it was peaceful no no shooting no nothing it was peaceful all we want to do is be a
positive entity for our community and and and we got churches go lore in that area we a they we're not we we have we we only represented by one cuz Pastor Watson going to come up and talk but I just want y'all to if ever you have any time come out and see because it's it can be it can be better than just put a bunch of people that's going to be walking the streets still that's going to be on
the street still okay thank you for your comments I appreciate that M uh Mrs Johnson you're up next ma'am yeah Rosa Johnson all I want to say is uh I'm going to direct this at commissioner Maids I have me and my family have lived in that area over 70 years we're still walking on
dirt I've talked to you personally about a sidewalk our children have to walk in the middle of the street in order not to have dirt okay now you want to bring the homeless to our community we already just about homeless ourself and you are not addressing the needs in our community and I'm telling you here in front
of everybody I want to stop walking on dirt I want my community clean up we have everything in anything surrounding our community we have invited you to our Committee Member meetings you do not show [Music] okay so if you want to resp you want to respon at the new at the next
election commission may I'm going to hit the dirt and show you how to get out of office because if you don't do what you're supposed to be doing to that you promise US that you're going to do you won't be in that seat the next election I promise you commissioner may you want to make a com good I'm going to respond because she made a promise and um I hope you hold true to your promise uh so no there's no need for a response YULA so let the record speak and CLA can come up and talk U of the
millions of dollars that we put in Englewood the personal there's no response ma' Miss Johns Miss Johnson I'm going let y'all speak you need respond I didn't I didn't interrupt you um and and and so if there's a sidewalk issue unless there's an impediment we put over $12 million worth of sidewalks in Englewood we're going to continue to do it I'm here listening and barber can concur I've never missed a Shany Town um reunion and and we're there and we're very supportive uh on the books right now is a new community center that's going forth that's worth $5 million that's
going there uh we've done multiple cleanups in the Englewood neighborhood with all of the sidewalks that are going in the record is clear of how much we get and Claire please provide her with that with all that we've done Audrey uh if she's called get with her to make sure why we have not gotten the sidewalk or where she requested it and so we'll be happy to help that but a threat ma'am is not necessary uh anyone who desires to run should run for office and maybe you can get elected but as long as I'm elected we're going to do what's good for all of the citizens of District 3 as what we will do tonight so thank you for your comment I'm sorry that you don't
have that that sidewalk but I can get guarantee that we put more sidewalks in District 3 than in the history of District 3 since I've been elected thanks Mr chairman okay thank you commissioner we got three more speakers ma'am are you Miss seller yes okay I'm GNA go to you and then I'll go to Mr Watson so go ahead ma'am okay my name is Ula salers and as a lifelong resident of Inglewood Community I am strongly opposed to this project in my opinion it would never it would
never it would never improve nor add value to our local neighborhood while I understand the need to provide housing for the homeless at risk individual and those less fortunate I believe this location is not a good fit don't want that this for this type of project it is
crucial that we find a more appropriate site to address to address these improving needs without negative affecting the wellbeing of existing community so I pray and hope y'all take this into consideration thank thank you for your comments ma'am I can feel it coming out of your heart U Mr Larry Watson is Larry Watson here okay thank you sir come on
up uh Commissioners thank you so much for the opportunity to speak uh just wanted to raise a uh concern I'm a pastor uh and in the Inwood community our church has been there for over 84 years uh we're just our concern is we're kind of blindsided by whatever is coming it I think that uh it would have been honorable for whoever the developer is or whatever is going on to at least come into the community and express what their
desires are uh for what it is I have read in the paper that uh they are assisting homeless and as a church we know that you know homeless serving the homeless is something that you know that is biblical uh that we stand with but our community it seems like you know not just our community but black communities are being targeted it's it's already a weit there for us uh dealing with gentrification uh I'm an advocate for total development uh our church has made develop uh has made investments in the community buying uh dilapitated houses and vacant lots and
keeping them clean uh also uh we have uh been an advocate for our members buying property uh and moving back into the neighborhood and so as I'm trying to be an advocate to raise the value of of Engle wood Shany toown uh I'm I'm concerned about whatever is coming in if that's going to be a driving force to push people away uh from what I'm trying to drive uh in the neighborhood and so uh I uh I'm I'm I'm an advocate uh as the people of the neighborhood stand uh with their concern
as a pastor in the community uh do have a great concern I know that uh money has been allocated and if it's not used uh it it will be uh uh wasted I do understand that but I I do feel that if there's some way that the county I would stand uh as a partner if there's a way that the county and and the church could partner uh to create some sort of uh development that could help the community as far as uh uh child uh early early childhood development uh uh job fairs maybe an in inner city trade school um you know uh these kind of items but I at at at at the end of the
day uh I do think that the community is owed a response I know that this is not the County's property this is the school board's property uh but the funding will be coming from the county I think that there needs to be a diverse uh a group of people that uh have access to the funding and just a more conversation as it pertains to that uh is concerned again uh Commissioners thank you so much for uh the opportunity to speak today Pastor Watson thank you thank thank you for being here in a great a great conversation with you today unfortunately there's there's miscommunications
and misinformation gets passed on and you and so so we respect people emotions but uh as we've labored together in that neighborhood U we're going to continue to do that um and you know obviously you know the funding needs to be released uh I'm glad you identified that we don't own the property I mean we're we're releasing funding for housing which is a critical need which is on the agenda no one's made a decision uh but my record is very clear that I've never voted to bring uh any uh housing or anything into District 3 that would adversely affect property
values or the character of the neighborhoods so I think I probably been the biggest Advocate uh as an elected official of anybody in protecting neighborhoods and preserving neighborhoods uh and I can assure you that my position is going to continue uh to protect neighborhoods and to continue to invest in neighborhoods um in the Shany toown area uh in the whole Englewood and I appreciate the time that we spent together today uh and certainly those who have applied I've certainly expressed my concern of how critical it is uh moving forward uh that uh the neighborhood
association as well as all of the churches in that neighborhood are active Partners in whatever happens and uh it has to be uh the decision of the neighborhood uh and so that's why the C plan is important that's why you know the um citizen input is important and we appreciate people coming out tonight uh you know um can't make them all happy I mean some people are gonna be upset but we're gonna continue to do uh what's in the best interest and so for the record there's not one person uh that picks up more children in Englewood than me there's not one person that picks up and
take more kids to baseball basketball and football than me there's probably not one person that sponsored more kids out of Englewood than me uh and so we're excited uh about the uh new community center that's coming forward and about improving that neighborhood uh and as you take that lead um and Claire is here uh there's no question uh every sidewalk that needs to be put in and imp it is going to be put in in that neighborhood and every road that needs to be paved is going to be paved I mean uh we inherited a lot uh upon getting elected uh but we've tried to get it you know one
street at a time one block at a time and we're moving that way uh to bring that connectivity uh from Fairfield to downtown so I appreciate you and you'll find my support in trying to make sure that whatever is brought to that neighborhood brings vibrancy uh brings Economic Development and brings opportunity for children thank you so much commissioner we uh stand as partners in willing to you know move forward in that effort thank you so much Commissioners for this time thank you for your comments and thanks commissioner M um Miss nette Chandler is our last speaker good evening Commissioners thank you for hearing me and um my name is Nanette Chandler I am
the interim executive director of AMR Pensacola and I wrote the affordable housing portion of the grant for the McMillan school development before I get into exactly what we're doing let me first apologize to everyone who has endured the stress of thinking that you have a homeless project coming into your community that is not what we're seeking to do and I'm going to lay that out for you now so we can clarify that um your commissioner is absolutely doing what he says
he's going to do and advocating for affordable housing for people who are at 50 to 30% of the median income and this is um for the most part viewing the demographics it is for people that are aged 50 to 60 that's our biggest need within the community right now so what we're doing is taking two wings of the McMillan school in the first phase because this funding is only for aable housing it cannot be used for transitional hous cannot be used for community housing and cannot
be used for homelessness so if you look up here this is the original layout of the McMillan school when they flip to the next slide it's overlaid with what we're doing so if you see the two wings of the school that are on the left side those are all affordable housing units geared towards one or two person dwellings and the larger ones will have adjoining doors because we found that a lot of times the grandparents are helping take care of the kids and we want to make sure there's
enough room for everybody to be able to be there comfortably so phase one is making sure that we're providing affordable housing in the neighborhood and also making sure that a school that's historically used to support the community doesn't end up blighted because what normally happens like in 2019 when this school was shut down my first thought and what probably went through most people's minds in this community is first of all when something gets closed up it rarely gets reopened it normally sits there and rots away and then you know eventually it gets torn
down so for me um my background other than being in affordable housing is I own a construction company I'm a developer but I focus on this type of work I want to develop but I want to preserve the buildings in the community while we do it so this made me excited because I saw we could put 53 affordable housing units in the neighborhood all new Landscaping community garden you know this was a school that had a big cafeteria in a Rec Space while that renovation is not funded by any of this
grant money that's part of the school and part of what we're purchasing on a future phase to be able to incorporate M you finalize your thoughts your three minutes yeah absolutely so so in short the homeless component is not what we're doing we're not doing tiny houses on the site we're not doing homeless housing on the site this is affordable housing for residents that are 50% and less of the median income of our area that is the only thing that's happening okay thank you for your comments
I want to be fair with time can you scroll down so we can see the other pictures that are there thank you yeah so these are pictures of the um Community Gardens that will be between the two Wings there and that shared space we intend to have an outdoor like exercise area um you know an area for people who have dogs a little dog park things like that will the citizens in the community be able to use that that's something that we have to get approval for but with this land a certain portion of it is
specific to this funding so our funding for this grant can only be used for the affordable housing development when that is done we've submitted all our receipts and everyone can see that we have only spent that money on the things we said we're going to spend it on then in our phase two through AMR directly we're able to then open up the other things to the community okay thank you for the comment um I think at this point we're up for public discussion no I'd have a question for it please so or board discussion these and this stroll down are these public amenities going to
be available the the garden the playground in the open space for kids they're available to any of the residents who are living there and their guests okay okay and so for point of clarification uh and I I I think that you know the terminology of low income really may not be you know the right terminology about obtainable homes um because you know here's the candid truth no one wants a low income house put in their house that they've invested their future and their investment in you
know I don't right and and and nor could I be supportive of putting low income houses next to someone who has invested their entire life savings into building a house so I I guess you know the question would be as this is refurbished and retooled you know um it would be a new facad it'll be bring about appreciation and not depreciation is is I guess would be my first qu question to get your opinion in a second I mean what's the phase of making it this is a
beautiful picture if this is the way it really is is going to be I mean it yes brings about amenities uh to somewhat of a gated community so could you expound on that just a little bit well whenever we're doing the affordable housing to get the number of affordable units to really make a difference in the community what we decided to do is we don't need to spend all your time inside so we can make the actual units very space efficient and then provide there's a lot of outdoor space there so we can provide those other amenities in this way through additional funding
and another source so it allows it to be more of a community on the grounds well I appreciate it and and I would say this and um have a great admiration uh for for my dear friend uh uh Jim but words matter it's not really what you say it's what people hear uh and I know that you know to put millions of dollars in investment in this neighborhood means a lot because we when we look at the medium income or or the housing but affordable
is only affordable based on your income right you know affordable to some is not affordable to others and so I think that what people want in their neighborhood uh they want attainable they want high quality uh they want things um uh that improve the quality of life of of neighborhood and so I just think that in somewhat the communication to the residents is critical uh you know as you move forward you know in talking to the residents because I think every uh as barara said and maybe she doesn't have a formal HOA uh but she has longevity of equity of living
in the neighborhood all of her life and deserves the opportunity for the input of what happens in her neighborhood so I I I think there's no ill intentions but I certainly think it's important for us to work together the unfortunate thing about um many of our areas is that um because of HOAs and neighborhoods we somewhat find uh properties in despair as you still abandon schools and and we somewhat uh utilize those for what we would intentionally think that
it's Goodwill for a neighborhood but for the neighborhood you it's not to them right and so it quite frankly it doesn't matter what it means to me it matter what it means to those residents that live in that neighborhood that have to go through there and so uh I'm in that neighborhood every day I mean it's not one day I don't go through that neighborhood I I I go through that neighborhood every every day in my travels uh and I I see the blight but I see the Improvement uh and I think that you know no matter where the vote goes today I mean obviously the Opera funding is going where it has to be expended but um whatever development happens in the neighborhood
in my opinion the neighborhood has to be well for my support the neighborhood would have to be a part of the decision-making process absolutely and on our part it this was not an intentional leave the neighborhood out it's you can even have a conversation if you don't have funding because then people get their hopes up about something and it doesn't happen and that happens over and over and over so in fine-tuning the operation of the of the uh the school and the will be housing and other amenities and things that we intend to offer there in other portions of the school
we certainly do we intend to have different organizations offer different Services there for the community however that is not part of this round of funding so we cannot offer it until this funding has been used in order to keep all the bookkeeping very clear oh no no no absolutely and regardless of you know what fingers get pointed I mean I'm not in a finger pointing exercise I into you know a understanding in in in finding a a happy medium where people need to be I I would
say that we don't own the property uh we have Arbor funding uh but I feel the emotions of this group uh because of the closure of too many schools in District 3 whether it be JD picking Alan Nester Spencer BF a Dixon so I can understand the passion because I share that same Passion of the closure of schools and not be develop but uh I don't want any um directions uh pointed at you because you're buying the property uh the school board's selling the property and we don't
own the property the only thing that we can make a decision about is funding uh the school board will have to make a decision about what they do with that property and that's not on this board or nor myself or nor my colleagues but I certainly appreciate you and I do appreciate you know Jim for spending time um trying to understand this and for the record you know I had not had conversation about this project even when I was called by media I didn't talk about this project uh because of the blackout uh because of it was a a scoring committee and a staff committee uh that
was making the recommendation and so this is the only time that I get the opportunity uh to have this discussion so I appreciate it Mr chairman thank you yeah commissioner there's no other lights if they're not I'd like to make some comments and um I'll tell you why I want make comments because there's two of us up here to deal with this more than the other commissioners and I saw you ladies praying and um I get it um but I have a lot of the same areas like commissioner May I've got I you know low income attainable you can go up to 57th and Lil in we're building a 55 plus
attainable housing but I also got to say this to y'all I go to Jones swamp and I got people living out in out in you know the nature going to the bathroom in nature kids out there animals out there just like beg's Lane and that's not Humane either and I think as you know I I mean we deal with it I have like three of these different uh attainable low-income housings that they're
working on currently in District 2 there's another one across from lexon Park that someone's trying to put attainable housing in there it's this is never easy especially for folks FKS like myself and commissioner May that we have the communities that seem to have lower income and we keep having to deal with these projects in our districts and um but at the same time when I go to Joan swamp and I've got 30 to 50 people living with kids and animals and they don't have a place to go or they
won't go it it just uh it just doesn't seem right to me and I know Mr re is trying to um he's trying he has a passion to make attainable housing I've looked at his design there was things in it that obviously I I didn't agree with um I know the county doesn't have a tiny house ordinance and those things aren't in there got it we know I know what you guys can do with this housing um but I do think that I think commissioner May when I first got on the board I hadn't been here
I don't even think I'd been here three months and we did we voted for the Englewood thing was one of the votes I asked you about I didn't know it and I did drive around your community ladies I I drove around I see your concern but I also think you you know you never know what what the end results going to be um it may be an amenity if they do it right it may I don't know but I can tell you I I deal with this and I know commission made I dealt with it today behind
Walmart I got homeless I we have signs up at Lex and Terrace Park I deal with this more than more than you folks want to know and it's it's just difficult because as a county we're struggling to figure out how we're going to deal with this problem it's a big problem and this is just one little piece that can help a few people I don't have any other comments I think yeah Mike let me be clear I'm not going to vote for the item um but not because of any threats but because of my record of I stand and where I've been and so my record speaks very clear for me
and so uh for quite frankly for the last eight years on Christmas Eve and Christmas days I'm in Englewood giving out toys while every other people asleep on my truck and residents that know know that they know that children in Englewood get bikes every Christmas because I go on my personal time not County and I bring that to them and so um on Saturday mornings when we're out coaching children when we don't have so I don't have to justify my record of what we do for children in Englewood or our position in stands for community of what we done U there'll always be somebody that'll be unhappy um I do question um Mike and staff the process of this
arpa funding about Community input and so and in the selection Committee of who evaluated these who distributed the money and what input did we get would be a question that I would ask staff you know was was there some type of community input uh from the citizens uh as it relates to this entire process is you coming up to make or but you both are coming up good is that good that's a that's a great question commissioner May and obviously that's extremely important
the community input would be something we would make as a condition in order to move forward to award the funding so the only ones that we have two on your list right now for the affordable rental piece of it and Community awareness meetings whatever we want to say in there would definitely be part of that if I if I can make a comment on that cuz the amount of money for the affordable rental with the two that you have one's in the city and I called Tim canella yesterday and asked him they're about $70,000 short he said he was willing to go back and ask the mayor if they
would take that property on um they are and that's the Trinity Trinity house with the 70,000 that we wouldn't have um you know if we exhausted all of the affordable rent um you know I know AMR has the biggest chunk of that uh but you're right that that would eat up the just under 2.9 Million and then we'd have to figure out what we're going to do with the $827,000 34 of supplemental services and I think Liz that the board may want some guidance on that piece I I you know but but Mike
I don't want any guidance this is guidance I'm going to give for something in my district and and and certainly you know as as it's passed forward you know the guidance that I want in my district is that my constituents are consulted even if it's the idea that it's coming it doesn't have to be a reality uh people deserve to have the conversation now people can get upset and come yell at me if I had a meeting and they didn't come that's them but people deserve the opportunity to say this is what's coming to their District I mean whether it's a sidewalk whether it's a light U everybody
wants to help homelessness but nobody wants it in their neighborhood I mean everybody wants to help affordable housing but nobody wants it in their neighborhood and then there is a stigma of where these habitat houses go where these infield houses go and so people should be assured with confidence that we are not purposely targeting any specific neighborhood and putting things in their neighborhood we can't say after the fact uh now I got it I W it that's unfair to a developer they say you get the money and now have a town hall meeting I'm going to put a landfill in
your neighborhood in Wedgewood and now I'm going to have a town hall meeting about the landfill that's already existing there because the ship has already left and that's not to come down on anyone uh because I know we had to quickly and staff's worked hard to get these offer funds out but if I was sitting on the other side of the dies in my neighborhood I would feel the same way that the majority of these citizens did you know I mean I probably wouldn't walk the pay payments to get someone not elected but but that's their choice if they weren't do that uh but I certainly would feel
uh that way and so I hope that as we move forward with these projects with this funding that is very inclusive in talking to the citizens as we move forward and so well I don't think anyone's going to disagree with the citizens having inut that's and and I know we got to get through I don't we listen we we have a we have a low we have an attainable housing crisis in our country that's only going to get worse it's only going to get worse and so I know we we have to address that but we have to take the stigma off of this affordable low-income housing to making it attainable because
even if I'm giving you a gift I should only give you a gift that I want to be given myself I shouldn't give you something where I wouldn't live I shouldn't provide a housing that I wouldn't live in or I wouldn't want next to my neighborhood and so I think that you know even if it's more money I mean we have to make sure that the standards are high enough that we don't rubber band it we don't lipstick it that we give people the quality of housing that when they look next door and their kids go outside this is somewhere where I want to live this is not somewhere where the poor people live or they live this is somewhere that I can be proud of that I can call home I mean and so
everybody doesn't have to have home ownership I mean but everybody deserves a quality place to live and so that's what these funds are for and you know that's I hope that we Chang The Narrative from this affordable to attainable housing that's something that the neighborhood can be proud of commiss I thought you were done do you have commissioner hord I I do so I think the goal of the arpa funds were was to Elevate the entire Community by providing opportunity for those who
need it most and earlier commissioner may you made a statement that everybody deserves that opportunity and I think the goal behind the arpa funds is to make sure they have that opportunity um somebody made a comment about moms and kids and living in cars and that is a really scary thing that does happen in our community and when I was 14 my parents divorced and my mom was Raising Me on a salary and she made $12 an hour and we moved in with a cooworker and if we wouldn't have moved in with her coworker I don't know where we would have lived so the
fact that we're pushing back on providing homes for people in that situation I don't think is good I think as a community we need to Rally around people we need to provide affordable and attainable housing we need to we need to make it something that elevates the community that we can be proud of and we need to make it something like when you drive by you don't know that it's attainable or affordable housing it's just another their apartment complex and that's what that should look like we've seen it done in other communities Tallahassee is a great example
of this the fact that the city is also on board with this and they will help us BRD the Gap well for the one the one that's in the city they would I I guess they're going to put the other 70,000 but they said they'd be willing to supportive of it I would love to make a motion that we move forward and fund both of those projects then uh do I'll second it so Mr chairman yep Comm Mr Man for discussion if you understand generification you understand there's really no such thing as low
income and high income neighborhoods if you don't believe it Go all down all the alphabet streets in my neighborhood go down Montclair and and and and go down Belmont devillers go through Englewood it's the designed criteria and the standards that you require when you're doing these type of housing so it's it's important I I see where you are at I absolutely agree but we just got to make sure even if we got to put out more money that the standards are to a level that people will appreciate it and we if we think we're in a housing crisis now you wait till the cut the CRA funds get to get cut you wait till ship funding gets cut you wait till
HUD funding gets cut it's going to be a a not an epidemic but maybe a pandemic of housing in uh in in in our County so I just want to you know as I'm commissioner I agree with commissioner May don't you know the CRA is are a whole another issue I mean we deal with these These are the some of the lowest I want to say the I want to say poor but the lowincome areas in our County and we're literally fighting for our life to fund them and and and it doesn't matter if it's a trust fund it doesn't matter if it's a state it's it's just hard for me to believe that we're we have
to struggle to help the poorest communities but a kid is not going to an after school program if he doesn't have a quality place to live yeah you can have all the programs you want if a kid doesn't have a good quality of place to live uh then they're not going to develop into a positive adult and so you know food and shelter are are are are are two of the priorities that was just part I know there's a motion in second on the floor I mean and I I'll let you talk till you're done no no I'm listen I'm done um I I I do believe you know quite frankly that when we were Distributing
These arpa funds they don't belong to Five County Commissioners nor do they belong to staff they belong to the citizens of mamia County and the citizens as you distribute those funds they have to have input and they deserve they deserve to had input had there been communication and talking in town hall meetings we wouldn't have these people here tonight with all of these questions I mean um they that's not where it goes and we're blacked out I mean we can't have those discussions you know nor was I going to have those but it puts particularly the elected in a very difficult
situation uh to be supportive when I didn't have the proper information I mean I like it you tell me what I like to eat no you can't tell me what I like to eat you know I can tell you what I like you know what I mean and that's just the bottom line yeah Liz commissioner may we could also just hold the affordable rental for the next 30 days and allow them to do some community outreach and bring it back Liz we got a motion in a second so someone have yeah I'm sorry you couldn't even discuss it I mean OB Mr chairman I listen we could do that but my record is clear you know I have not
voted one time for you not since you've been on this board I voted down uh all all of those tax credit projects I voted down each and every last one of them I voted against the land Fields I'm consistent I don't even know why people would even show up to think that I would change uh who I am and how I sered and so I've been pretty consistent uh with my voting record I'm I stand on my voting record I'm very proud of my voting record of how I've supported this community and unfortunately I wouldn't be able to support that motion tonight Mr chairman well I'm going to I have one more comment and then if there's nothing else I'll we'll get to the vote but Jim I know you're passionate about
this I hope you're listening to the neighbors there um I think this board at no matter I I think the boote we'll see where it lands but we have a responsibility to help that Community I mean like all of these and um I I just I hear what you're saying um and I I I will be committed to helping that Community further in the future all right there's a motion in second this is on Mr chairman and so here's the confidence and if there's a substitute motion I I certainly would like to see
us you know I I I had I don't even I mean I I don't even know her name that's howw I I'd like to there's a motion on the floor to see you know at least uh some CRA dollars and a couple more million dollars moved over from infrastructure for lights and sidewalks into that neighborhood as we put that new community center in that neighborhood the CRA right it is yeah I mean clar I don't know what we have in that CRA but you know I know are you looking from supplemental as well well I'm how much do we have in FC Claire no well can we I don't can
we bring that back next meeting and see where you're at commission may we can certainly take a look at that okay what was that all right I said commissioner may we could certainly take a look at the Li and sign walks okay can you live with that commissioner May Okay we okay now which only helps this Pro it only helps all the infield building and then May Hood I mean it's a dumb quite frankly I understand them and I've gotten beat up I've taken it on the chin as Barber know about cleaning up on my personal dime in that neighborhood that neighborhood has taken
it becomes a dump for people that don't look like the people that live in that neighborhood don't live in that neighborhood and it gets dumped and we know when we don't have lights and we don't have uh neighborhoods that are nice they get dumped in and that neighborhood has become a Dumping Ground in many of the U infield areas and so I certainly would want to make sure that this board is supportive of us bringing back more infrastructure money uh to help this neighborhood okay I appreciate that okay so here's where we are the motion is only for the affordable rental
for AMR and Trinity house which Trinity houses in the city they will be 70,000 short on that that'll be on the city decide what they want to do with that um we had a motion by commissioner hofberger a second by commissioner strober please vote motion passes for any opposed commissioner May oppos mtion motion passes 4 to one all right we need to talk about supplemental Services now Liz would you like to or Garrett either one how we're gonna how we're going to go about that good
evening so I think we've got let me pull out my spreadsheet here we've got a number of applicants for the Supportive Service um piece of this funding we've got we've got bright Bridges we've got Ministry Village we've got opening doors Lutheran Services uh we have reap and then we have a portion of Trinity House's application
um where they're requesting some Supportive Service staff for uh one of their locations so Garrett we have about just under 1.4 million that on request but we only have 827,000 that's a plus or minus a little bit right that is correct okay is there is the board have any Um passion on where we want to go with this I would love to see money for Lutheran services that one is very close to my heart um and then just from a operational standpoint I would like to minimize our salary
gifts to a year of salaries for those positions I think expanding it over two years is a little much well in that case there could potentially we could do a little bit more if we did that cuz like here you got a psychology for four years and case management okay so Lutheran service is that across the board for all of the all of the positions one year is that what you're saying for every every one of these unless somebody has a different reason I would say yes just from an operational
standpoint if if they can't support it after that first year I'm not sure it's the best use of the dollars and for me I okay I would be willing to do that propose that for bright Bridges and as well as uh Ministry Village would be good I have a question on these bus tickets and stuff they're all over the place what was there discussion on that in the board on what we should do should we give everyone one one amount or I mean I don't know what what what was the discussion so so every applicant asked for um a different amount um and two the the committee had to really narrow
down what specifically hmark could pay for because there are a lot of federal strings with this money um a lot of what folks were asking for would not qualify um in some cases they were able to Pivot part of that ask to qualified um homeart items uh one of those would be bus passes um and if if it's helpful um to the Commissioners I did uh just some quick math here and if we
if we cut salaries down to one year across the board on every application and then left the uh mileage request in um I believe we would have enough to fund all applicants and have a remaining amount you mean bus tickets or mileage I was going to say get rid of mileage uh right right bus tickets um and really I think what we did here um well on a couple of them they pivoted to mile and then some do have bus passes on here as well I I would I would say get rid of mileage and just have
a flat fee for bus passes is mileage like what are we paying it's all over some didn't ask it some did but would 5,000 for bus passes for those that ask it be reasonable per for everyone I mean some people act for 20,000 didn't he no it was 20,000 85,000 I mean what I just want to use the money so that everyone kind of gets a fair share of I mean you know it depends on what they're riding too if they're riding microtrans that's $5 a ride you know what I mean and so it's it's not a dollar ride so I mean I think we we were restricted to just they could only use scam County Transit
they couldn't do other modes of transportation well that'd be good yeah yeah because then it come back into the county and and right now it's a great idea I think that if you guys just instruct staff what you want us to fund so salaries one year Max and then we can back the numbers in but make it consistent across the board for the bus passes and the mileage I I don't think we need to be paying M or take the mileage out whatever I'm I'm I'm not you can buy bus passes only from
mamia County from ecat correct or micro whatever the transit deal y'all so I I if everyone's okay I'd get rid of the the mileage go to one year and then figure out on bus passes or ecat which I actually really like that they are they would be ecap bus tickets okay then whatever's fair between the rest of them I could live with if everyone else could live with that I'll make a motion that we do exactly that okay I'll second it all right Is there further discussion all
right please so everybody that applied everybody that applied got funded was there some other that didn't get funded recommended uh correct there I believe there were 10 total applications uh the committee moved six forward for your consideration tonight so is the ranking inside the package I'm not even looking I believe I believe it is yes sir um number of the applications were um not brought forward because they had what we would call fatal flaws um they did not meet the pass or fail check on the initial application well I want to such as uh such as asking for um items
that were completely not um eligible um not having um site control of the property some I'd have to go back and look um but I believe all that has a score sheet that dictated that and Mike this is the only thing I think one of the big things was being able to operate on Standalone operate without needing money up front so to speak because this is a reimbursement program so we had at least one of those that couldn't do that yeah so if they don't use the obviously they don't use the
money they don't get it yeah that's fine so um so we had a motion in second and we uh so I I I no I know there's a motion so I'm not rushing you no well what listen okay canle if I'm going have the responsibility getting beat up I'm I'm I'm sure going to have the authority to make a decision um the tool that we're using to measure outcomes what's that instrument that we're using I'm just trying to find it so the first section was past fail sections um and because because we
did a notice of funding availability it gave us a little bit more flexibility with the applicants it wasn't so black and white like an RFP would be so there were I think four uh Community Partners that failed initially but we reached back out to them to allow them the opportunity to provide the information the three Community Partners that did not move forward were family promised um because they could not operate on a reimbursement basis uh overflow and offensive because they did not provide the required documentation in order to pass and then the other one was the Pensacola
Motor Lodge Smith and eny Smith and eny because they could not prove that they had funding to complete the project those were the only three that did not move forward right and so if we're analyzing the award so we're measuring how many youth they have how many people they got off the streets how are we measuring and comparing the effectiveness of one group versus the other group so depending upon if they're doing affordable rentals or Supportive Services there's going to be two
different types of reporting that's going to be required um Supportive Services it's you know they have to prove how many people they saw what they saw them for verify that they were actually a home ARB qualifying population and the outcome uh the affordable rentals is going to be more of ensuring that the people yeah I get the rental part I I'm just saying in the case management for the actual people are are we going to periodically say that they say they serve they were going to serve 20 people and they serve 18 are we going to get that I odically get that report to see every month every they'll come to the it's all on a reimbursement
basis so in order for us to reimbursement they will need to provide that report along with a backup documentation supporting it and we're case management not just taking their word on the the report we're actually going out in verifying yep that's one of the things that will'll have to do is site visits so they have to approve case load yes okay that's good yep all thank you okay any other comments before we vote okay we had a motion in a second please vote motion passes 5 to zero thank you very much all right let's move back to car 3-2a
F what's that H do we need a comfort break keep I had a commissioner just ask me so I mean we I'm I plan on getting out of here before midnight so okay let's push forward if if you got a break go break all right Olaf eight we have one two three seven speakers let's start with uh John Moore good evening from bua for years we've been in limbo regarding our commissioner's
dedication to uphold the olfa master plan this was a compromise between you and US during the August 2024 primary D1 ried around a somewhat unknown candidate and an absolute surprise to the entire local establishment Steve stroberg soundly routed the developer sponsored two-term incumbent Jeff pros this was not an accident we're asking you once again to consider the requests and please of an entire Community bu has never demanded there be either or no residential no light industrial or no retail development on ol8 time and again over many years our community
has participated in seminars meetings charettes surveys Tal Town Halls Etc and voiced our desire for a livable walkable Town Center atmosphere that we have been deprived of as we watch our area being overbuilt overdeveloped and crushed by the weight of thousands of new citizens and little infrastructure Improvement to support that influx the ol f8 master plan provides a perfect road map to deliver living and working relationships along with access to local Civic offices recreation in
industry and jobs jobs when available as even Florida West is now attested this is not a truly predictable or reliable metric district one commissioner stroberg has continually stated his desire to have the master plan incorporated into any contracts as an enforceable restrictive deed if I heard correctly County Council has stated that this is an achievable goal whoever this board ultimately chooses this doesn't seem like a hard ask did not break the law you codified do not alter the master plan that was a compromise between this board and the citizens of Bula the
master plan is your word I humbly ask that during tonight's discussions this board take heed of the Mandate given to our commissioner and show due deference to him and to his district as he tries to represent his constituency I've heard many of you ask the same of others I do notice that Fred hemmer and BTC are back for another bite of this apple I don't understand why on Earth Mr hmer would attempt to re-enter this circus but we do applaud his recognition and state stated willingness to work within the ol f8 design code and his request for approval of a
preliminary preliminary plat aligned with the ol8 design code that is one step in the right direction and we certainly need more of this the newest offer appears to be $2.5 million above the competitor's last offer is the competition has repeatedly stated a desire to discard some or all of the master plan elements and design code in their opening offers it seems like a slam dunk this board would at least accept these terms and reenter negotiations with Mr himmer and his group thank you thank you sir our next speaker is George Levy if he's still here
is George still here he may have left I don't see George anymore okay um okay Brian Spencer you're up questions oh okay so you're you're okay well when we get discussion if someone Chad are you in the same boat you want to speak okay can I get someone on a for one second please I'd just like to put something on the screen and I
have I have a hand out oh okay can Peter can you help or you have a hand out I do both okay yeah sure I don't need thanks I just need to log on to metrod development group.com just get on the website and it plays a
slideshow no Comfort up here I'll make it short okay good I just missed it so I just thought I'd play this in the background I'm out of town tomor
Wednesday then I'm out for spring break for a few days J call are you ready yeah go ahead I'm sorry I didn't see that they got you up I need I need another energy drink that's all right my name is Chad horn and I'm a principal in buo town center along with Metro development I initially came to Pensacola in Escambia County 15 years ago I've invested millions of dollars here including a community that will break down in that will break ground soon in cantonement that will be called Woodland Park that's roughly three times the size of olfa my partner Metro development
is the largest builder of master planned mixed use communities in the Southeastern us and one of the largest in the US Metro has built built and is currently building communities some of which are multiple times the size of ol8 they and I have the financial capacity not only to purchase the land but to put in the development and build a Legacy Community we can all be proud of we are prear prepared to provide proof of funds if requested at time of contract
if there are any questions about Metro development please ask me I've done business with these guys for 25 years uh in particular with Rob arons they're extraordinarily professionals extraordinary professionals I chose them to join us in both Bula town center and on Woodland Park in cantonement if there are any questions about them i' just direct you to their website which is on screen now these are some of the communities you can see the entry features they do some community ameni Etc
um I've given you a handout with bullet points of what the offer is I think that the contract represents everything that the county has asked for so if if I can just say in closing developing land creates the land's final crop ol8 produced generations of helicopter Pilots we take our OBS our obligations as developers very seriously and
will create a final crop for ol8 for which we can all be proud create employment living and enjoyment opportunities for generations to come thank you I would ask that you all approve and sign the contract as submitted thank you Chad I appreciate you coming back and I appreciate your comments thanks uh Bill Mitchum is B Bill Bill my neighbor hey Bill I'm Bill Mitchum I represent uh triw development and Chad Henderson um I think
you all know but we presented a form PSA to the county attorney um a few weeks ago we followed that up with a meeting on February 26 with the county attorney and staff um we had the form we presented addressed a number of the issues that we understood were important to the county uh in that conversation we understood there were some additional changes and uh items that might need to be addressed which we were amable to um we left the meeting which was a good meeting I thought um
with the understanding that we were going to get some feedback some either in the form of a red line or some some comments so that we could react to it um all that to say is the form of the agreement that's in the agenda package from our group was not necessarily the final form of the agreement it's what we presented that we thought we were develop we were going to negotiate um typically in a real estate transaction certainly in the private world you negotiate with uh the
party before you have your final agreement typically you have an exclusivity Arrangement while you negotiate with those folks we were negotiating good faith and we thought that we were going to get some response back and having opportunity to look at that uh we have not gotten that back as of yet um my client asked me to be here to Simply say look we're here we're ready we're willing to negotiate um we are real buyers I think if you look at Chad Henderson you look at Wilson development uh they have the expertise they have contacts and the debt and Equity markets that
are necessary to develop something of this U size and scope so uh again we're here and we're um we're ready to to discuss it hey Bill if obviously I think I'm going I think you should get a red line how how quick could you get back to the county if we if the board decided that oh within a week I mean easily I would say I mean I have very few clients who allow me to take a week to get back to anything Mike so I mean we're okay we'll get back to you very quickly all right that's good to know thank you we have that red line ready to go because I know when we talked on Friday
you said that it was on your desk so we have certainly uh worked internally on some of those tweaks I would prefer to walk through those with the administrator and agree that they are what we think the position of the county would be before I send it out but within one or two working days we could launch that over to them and I have spoken with Mr Mitchum on Are there specific questions that we need to answer for you right now since we're all together because I know we don't get an opportunity to discuss this um I think that would that would probably just be too hard it's
you know how to word things and stuff like that I think we UND I think I understand the board's position um but following that meeting um we did have commissioner stroberg there as a commissioner representative at the meeting that we had with Mr Mitchum as well as several other representatives from the triw group and it was at his request that we have uh held off on any red lines so uh he may have some additional Insight on that meeting can we can we finish with the speakers and then have the board discussion if that's okay um and I'm not I just want to get through
that's okay okay uh Bill if you want to take a seat we may bring you back up thanks uh Teresa Blackwell first I just want to say commissioner hoffberger you're a winner what' you win and so are you madam clerk I've been on that page so okay okay so uh a little history uh commissioner Robinson many a year ago uh through public documents I know that he wanted mixed use on ol8 and Navy Federal did
too so so that's just a little history and then there was the bua Coalition that I formed with Navy Federal I climbed over chairs to get to Cara Cardona and to say I think we have common interests on ol8 she agreed and the end result of that uh well I worked in an RFQ commissioner Underhill gave me the uh opportunity to work on it over a weekend and put new urbanism into it because it didn't reflect the political realities where we were at that time so three different uh
World level urban planners then applied and we got you know pick of the crop we got dpz so my uh priority has been all along who's going to adhere to the master plan because that is what will give us the opportunity to have not just a really nice place but a place that stands out in the state that could really draw in high level light industrial and so with when all these uh
developers have come in I've tried to be on the fence because I hope to work with them going forward and so I didn't want to be you know and and also the truth is I didn't think either one of them were going to follow the master plan so triw the spirit of the master plan could you be more vague the spirit and then they did at least take out the uh in their so discretion their plan
would be in their sole discretion they did at least take that out and um now they're just going to be generally consistent with dpz design code but it's pretty assertive of their rights to change so bu Town Center I think they wanted to just ditch the whole design code until recently and and you all recently were just recently were clear that you expected them to follow the the uh design code so now they've had a change of heart and um and their plan their
offer says consistent with dpz master plan they may seek minor changes to the design code they plan to work with dpz and they've told me that will you finalized your okay and um conclusion I have to say I'm not on the fence anymore uh I'm I'm leaning towards these guys and uh Buon Center and one note their offer says the county will say they don't have any endangered species
we do have gopher tortoises so probably we have indigo snakes as well okay thank you thank you m black I appreciate you coming out as usual thank you Mike Eric commissioner Eric sharpen come on up Mr chairman the way I see this is is until y'all close the offers this is never going to stop somebody come in offer a few more million dollars then they'll be considered people who've already started the process are going to think the
heck with this and just pull out so if you're got to keep leaving it open for higher bids the process will never stop four years from now yall still be here discussing it because until you close it for offers I don't know how you're going to get anything done do you have any idea on that I'm going to share them in a minute Eric do what now I'm going to share them in a minute when we have the board discussion you know but yes I do have a few ideas okay that's all I want to say is until they agree to close the timeline on the bidding once you get offers you you'll never
get it settled because look how long it's been now and they want to blame BOS and he's no longer here how long did he fight for it and it went on and on and on so I appreciate your time chairman thank you thank you for your comments uh board that's all the all the uh public speakers for tonight I guess we're open for discussion are we want me to start with commissioner Barry then we'll just start moving down the line oh sure sure buddy um I mean what I what I think is a
reasonable outcome for tonight I mean I I think certainly and and I would have thought that we gave enough Direction at the last board meeting but perhaps it perhaps it was not that uh that we could go ahead and send the red line back to triw I I would have thought that would be okay but you know that we have a meeting today so you know I would hope that the majority of the board would be comfortable with that and um if the intent is also I mean we we did get another another offer
from bu Town Center last night or whatever time we got it yesterday if the intent of the board is to send another red line back to them that I mean I don't I don't know that there's harm in that either but I would hope that we would send the red line back to triw I mean you know we're still you know on on The Bu of town center side you know we're I as as I mentioned this morning I mean just because you want something and you wanted it repeatedly doesn't entitle you to something um you
know we've uh on the same respect we could say the same thing we've repeatedly pulled language out of agreements that that reappeared but you know we we you know we I presume have a it's reasonable to think that we would respond so I'm okay with that if that's the intent of the board but I certainly want us to uh at least give it a give it a shot with triw and see if we can go back and forth with him and get to uh get to some terms that we could potentially agree to thank you commissioner B May
thank you Mr chairman and and I have no desire to be here all night talking about this because it it has taken days and days in my district we just we had a recommendation of what a sta brought to us for something that's far less than this that was uh I guess staff experts who brought a recommendation to this board on way we've done on criteria for all of the projects I've said this very simply what's the minimum amount we're going to take of this money what's the criteria that everybody wants send it back to the professionals whether it's a consultant
or sta there you've had two people who gone back and forth in these public meetings there there's no sense in that I mean that's a definition of insanity you send it back that's is the criteria per this is the minimum amount that we want to take you know for me $43 million minimum I mean that they're at 45 you know to me it's somewhere between 43 and $50 million make the motion have staff go back evaluate it analyze it critique it and bring us back the best recommendation for who can proceed rather than because we can you cannot negotiate in a public meeting that's unfair to anybody it's unfair to us and I'm not going to negotiate anymore in a public meeting uh
I mean we we we got two people I two two groups they they can take it get back I mean we can we going to redline it we're going to do this we're going to do that here's the minimum amount that we want to take here here's what's important to commissioner stroberg commissioner Barry because it's close to their districts Allison West bring us back your best recommendation of what you do as a professional and recommended to this board and now we've just taken the politics out of it and we can call a vote and that's my recommendation that and and I don't want to keep discussing it I mean that's all we doing we're just discussing and wasting time I mean send it back to the
professionals let them who whoever gets it let them get it and let staff who we in trust who make more money than I make uh who have the experience of doing it to do it so that's where I am Mike and quite frankly I'm not going to be here all night you know discussing it I don't think you will be tonight uh commissioner strober are you were you done commissioner Ma you done okay commissioner strober I'll second that motion too I I uh I I think everybody knows how I feel about this
because I've really done my homework on this the citizens trust me and I think it took a long time for me to get Teresa Blackwell to trust me but I think she does say yes you do so you trust me try yeah I know it's hard because it's like what I said when I was campaigning it's hard to get trust in an hour visit you know in a living room or anywhere else in at the doorway but
I think you know how I feel I think you know I've done my due diligence on this citizens trust me and I'm asking my colleagues to trust me too on this this is an important decision it's it'll it'll probably be the most important decision that I'll be part of while I'm on this commission at least for four years um I talked to a Santa Rosa County official earlier this week and he or she told me that they are begging for this same group Metro to come to Santa Rosa
to develop I had a prominent uh gentleman in our community email me um what they're up to in Santa Rosa about Santa Rosa outling field another field that I used to go land in they want to buy it they want to acquire it because they want to do the sort of things that we would love to do with ol f8 great things uh I don't know what Metro's bandwidth is I know they're
up to something up in cantonement it's going to be what it's three times bigger you said Chad three times bigger I don't know if they go to Santa Rosa next if they can even help us with olate but I'm I'm begging that we well I'm ready to make a motion but I'll let everyone have discussion first I I but you guys know how I feel about this thank you and and Steve I respect what you're saying but let me just tell you you couldn't come bid for a rehab job at this County without putting a bid bond in then you can have a performance bond I mean we we're having these discussions I mean it
should go back it should come back verification of funds ability money in the bank I mean the criteria we we're wasting our time coming back and for and all we doing is people giving us proposals it's not up to them to give us a proposal it's our land it's our development we should set the criteria we should fund should be verified capability should be verified it should all be vetted uh with the criteria we done a long time ago it should have I agree with you but this is the way we are that's why I'm saying close it we got two groups there send it back verify all those
things I mean because someone can I mean someone could say they got $50 million and they got $5 how do we know I mean I've bided projects public projects before they make me put up the money you know what I get it back I mean people bid on a janitorial contract and they have to put up a th000 $5,000 that they take 90 days to get back but we've negotiated wasting staff time wasting our time and we not even required for anybody to put any skin Financial in the game just submitting us a proposal is unacceptable I mean we should be requiring the people to put up their money if they
want it I mean any real estate deal if I want to put down on a on a house I I mean I put down some money you know that's that's how I lock it up and so that's all I'm saying Steve I mean all right that's I'm tired of just going in circles with thank you commissioner M commissioner um hoofer I agree with what commissioner May said about putting money down and getting serious I think that's hard when we have multiple parties at the table um you also said something about asking Allison and Wes what's your best take on this at this point so I know that you guys
have been dealing with it longer than I have what is your experience so far Allison and Wes what what is your best recommendation at this point knowing everything that you know I I don't like that we have a group that we told we were going to send a red line back and we haven't had the opportunity to do that because we did tell them we would do that so we haven't sent a red line back to either of these groups right no we we did the we have previously sent red lines back to the bu Town Center not not over last night's proposal
that is true another think it would be good for the board to address that specific point just so that they're not left unresolved I think everyone thinks Trey West should get a red line I'm I'm I'm that that's easy do you have another comment before so I here's where I am on this and for me it's a the way the board presents itself right now the last meeting I didn't like how we
landed at the end with bu Town Center y'all called me and came back Chad and then put in a proposal try West we've been doing this the whole time I've been here there's perceptions and you guys heard this as well as I when I start sharing with you that you're for tri West he's for bu Town Center Allison's working with you know there's all these perceptions out there that doesn't help this this decision in the long term because it's a big decision but what I think we should do is
I think what commissioner Barry said we should we got a new proposal late last night and I'll tell you Chad I told you this earlier you're killing yourself getting this stuff in late because you know the newspaper basic basically you know I I got it you know but the newspaper went out and said we had one bid I do think Tri West we should give them the red line we should also look at what town center it ain't going to hurt us to go two more weeks then have a recommendation but I also say this you can't keep doing the same thing and and I I'm you
know Alison I brought this up with you at my weekly meeting the other day I'm starting to think maybe we need to get someone outside of this body that will look non-bias to move this forward I I just m and I'm not saying we don't don't we don't get there before we actually sign a contract we're not even clo okay I I'll be candy we're not close to terms that I would ever support so we're not we're not dotting an eye crossing a te away from getting this across the finish line now before maybe before the the board actually moves forward with uh executing a contract and
you want to have outside Council review okay but it it doesn't ma currently it doesn't matter what anyone says for the one for the one that resides here on the end of the on the Das we're not even close right I I know where you're going but I think so I don't I don't want to pay somebody to review something that I won't even consider there's no I don't see the rationale in that I guess there's a few things I think we should be able to discern I know for commissioner
May price is an issue I think we should these both of these folks should be able to prove that they can fund the job have we ever done we haven't never done that I mean that that would actually make things simple right away um if if they both have to do a um proof of purchase I mean that would be nice to know you could actually afford to pay that kind of money and I think you both could I I don't know but you know I thought Ryan Bell could and we saw where that went nowhere so I mean I think that should be something it doesn't matter whether they can or they can't but I mean if we we got the president that we other people who be on things we check their credit scores
we check their bank accounts we check all that you're talking about somebody Bing on millions of dollars and we didn't even have their personal resume I mean you know it's proposals and that's what I'm saying I think we have that yeah I'm not saying that's a bad idea before we execute a contract but that's I mean at again just for my for for my you know disco of the input that's not my issue I don't I don't question anyone I don't question the capacity to be able to do the deal I question the terms at which we're being asked to do the deal and as I mentioned
this morning and mentioned earlier this evening just wanting something really really badly is not enough to get it over the line that that's and uh persistence is that's that's a that's a great character trait it's again it's not enough for me to support terms that I'm not going to support even if you ask me over and over again that's the that I mean the capacity to do the project yes does that come in to play before we execute a contract yeah that that's that may be the
advice that an out that an outside party an unaffiliated party would say would be look you know uh commissioners before I if I were in your position before I would execute I would want to be able to certify that they have the capacity that that's a reasonable thing I I don't think we're there I mean I just don't think we're there either if we can't that these offers could be for $100 million if we if if we're just giving someone an option on the property for an undefined period of time it doesn't matter how much if the terms aren't if the terms aren't acceptable to at
least three of us well I agree but you know I the last meeting we had Ryan Mr Bel come up and say I'm going to give you 50 million and and then he didn't have financers so I mean I don't want to waste the board's time how do we know he didn't have financers how do we know he's any different than anybody asked him to put him on the agenda at the last meeting asked Wes and he he didn't have he didn't have finances that could help him is what I was told I mean did the other two parties have financing he told me that he was left high and dry by his Partners so and he didn't want
to be on I'm just listen I'm just we we know I I I think that we can probably say that the two groups that we have left have got money I know Metro does I know Metro they're nearly $4 billion dollar company I don't think this is a big deal for them they just really want to do this for us um and and I'm ready to make a motion I'm going to make a motion right now I move that we have uh the county staff evaluate both PSAs from both triw and bu town center and that we take both offers
side that means taking both offer side by side and give this board some feedback additionally I think that we should we should have purchasing assess the developing partners because I think they're starkly different one does really good strip malls the other one has been doing plan grand plan communities for a very very long time and I think that once they do that once they take a look at that they're going to see the difference between the two and which one we should have the
difference I I I I'm just I'm telling you it's it's significant there's a significant difference between both of these developers I I don't think summarizing Chad's experience into strip malls is an appropriate summ of his experience yeah and Steve that's not I mean staff can't staff's not going to make this decision for us this is going to be us and they're not going to make the decision they're just going to give us some feedback that's all want I I don't think they're equipped to give that feedback this I mean this is going to come down to it's simply going to come
down to us making a decision and you know candidly we have list we have people in our we have we have people in our community that are that have the capacity to do this problem this project 50 times over um and if you look at balance sheets and uh just the access to the capital and the resources to do the project doesn't mean we'll actually get the money I mean we could I mean we could contract with somebody that can show financials and the capacity to you know to do the project at $200
million that doesn't mean will I actually ever see it I mean that that was I mean as as well capitalized as you think Metro may be they're not as well capitalized as DR Horton that's true DR Horton has unlimited access to funds you know10 billion company with unlimited access to very lowcost funds we couldn't enter a contract with them because the contract terms with which we continue to be offered we were never going to see that money so the that's what again to me that's
what the decision is going to come Happ are the a reasonable time in your opinion that we should get the money I mean all of it you know rather it's to close I mean really 12 to 18 months I mean that that's I I've you know and I don't I don't think that I don't think 12 I don't think 12 to 8 months I don't think I mean you're being generous I mean I want I want yeah I understand but the I'm I mean I'd love six months but it's a it's a it's a it is a big project the environment is
the environment is is not fantastic currently you know maybe by the time they close it's better but I mean we have you know we we you know currently we have two public builders that are here you know that are uh that are in our Market um you know they're both the very re I mean they're both back ret trading contracts that they have in place because of what's Happening of what's going on in the at least the single family residential or the town hall Market I mean there's the you know the environment is not fantastic so I don't think I mean I'm okay with 12 to 18 months the more
important part is not entering into something that has got terms that are ambiguous on the actual you know 12 day 12 months or upon receipt of X Y and Z because then we lose the control over any closing date and we just enter into a contract that's more or less an option on the property and uh you know some of us may or may not ever see ever see the closing date and that's that that was what I was
mentioning you know either last meeting or a couple meetings ago or whatever about just the fear of entering into a contract that has such bad terms that we end up you know the you know the the butt of the jokes as far as you know three years from now nothing's happened and we can't force our counterparty to close that's not ideal so I mean but if if the motion is sending red lines back to the two parties that have sent us things that I don't see any harm in that there's no more I mean I don't see anything else realistically that we could even do tonight other than just send the red
lines back to them and ask Wes and Allison to keep in contact with them commissioner Barry that's where I would like to end tonight but I want to get something out there and I want to ask both the County Administrator and the County Attorney because I've had these Frank discussions can you negotiate this deal Alison I'm actually talking to you both I mean I I want to know that you feel that you can get this deal across the finish line M Mr chairman I I'll answer that question yes
yes I do believe we can get this deal across the finish line but again it is negotiation it's terms conditions and contingencies the money can be what the money can be but if the terms I think the last offer we talked about was going to close over 25e period That's not realistic for this board or I don't feel that's realistic for this B that's not what we're looking for we have sent red lines back and the red line that Barbers gets put back into the contract to speak to miss Hoffer's question
so we have had some challenges I and Miss Rogers can absolutely throw something on that table this is what it's going to take we feel to get these deals across the table that includes the master plan that includes closing that includes hard money due diligence periods we can do all that but we need an Earnest we need an Earnest effort coming back Ste so what I would like to do is what commissioner I was gonna say I I support that I I I support what commissioner Barry saying Comm
strob Berger give them criteria the terms the guidelines what we expect and this is the only thing I would ask Mr chairman we keep saying get back here in two weeks that's a tremendous amount of pressure to put somebody give give I've asked them they said they could do it in a week I didn't make that up I mean I mean to me I mean we we we we all deal with lawyers every day I mean to get anything done in two weeks is a challenge I mean I'd rather give them you know a month from the day to make sure that they can negotiate the deal and you want a month I asked Chad he said days I'm not talking about them I don't care about them I'm saying giving our staff time
uh to evaluate yeah if if Alison needs to get some outside counsel to help her get it if not she knows the terms and which commissioner Barry wants commissioner strobbery wants I think we've said it enough what each of us want and she can analyze the bids compare the bids bring them back I mean it's almost put in the Excel spreadsheet time terms money and you can just boom match them up and they can give us a recommendation so I'm hearing and as Steve said we make a decision I'm not afraid to make the decision what I'm hearing from the board is we want to have both go back with the red line and come back is a month okay I was going to do it sooner I'd like to have some
clarification around that because the last motion we made was for Allison and West to negotiate with all offers that came in all of us voted on that that's what was put out to the public and then we stopped at the redline version at the request of one commissioner which I understand but again that was just one that's not what we voted on so what exactly are we authorizing them to do and how far can they take that can they get it right up until it's ready to sign or are they supposed to take a step back at some point I'm I'm good April 3rd man I think that's our first meeting in April I mean I
would think that Allison and Wes would meet with us individually and commissioner Barry can say Allison I don't approve these terms don't bring this to the board because I'm not going to vote for it and we can all say individually no this is not what we going to do I mean it's it's not in good faith to come out here you know every meeting and do this in a public meeting we're never going to get you you're never going to get a 3-2 vote you we're got to make the decision so I think right now we got two players I think we should let the the administration and the attorney go with it if youall want to give them to April 3rd they said they could do it sooner but I'm okay with that
if you think the county staff needs to do it and let's see what the recommendation is so just as a you know and Mike you may remember this you know we when we were interacting with Horton uh you know a year and a half two years ago what have you um you know we had asked them to negotiate well what ended up happening nothing ever came out the board never you know we never took another discussion up we never like we never explicitly voted to stop discussions with them it just kind of fizzled out because I I presume the up to the yeah well they they they wouldn't accept me we
we kept well they said they couldn't work with the board on our terms because they called me but that but I get it I get what you're saying yeah that's a matter of matter of perspective I mean they have they have their own as as I mentioned they're they're currently ret trading the contracts that have in place with folks so it's a it's a and we would be if if we had a contract currently we would be one of those parties being ret traded with probably but regardless I say that was bad decision yeah it it just didn't come back I'm just kind of saying it didn't come back to the board because there was never anything to really bring back because the you know I assume all five
of us interact with administrator and the attorney there was never any support for diversions that kept coming back so I would just you know we're going to if if we're going to send red lines back to these two folks great and then we'll see what we get back from them and you know Wes and Allison interact with each of us I I presume on a regular basis and you know hopefully there's something that comes from those discussions that's worth bringing back to the board I wouldn't put it on there as a standing item I mean we don't have to discuss failures regularly if it just fails it
fails and you know we'll do I mean you know I mean we don't we don't have debt on the property we're not at you know things again you know things are not great in that development world right now it doesn't it doesn't appear um so uh you know there are going to you know there are probably going to be you know what uh folks view as distress sellers that creates opportunities for for a buyer that have that has Capital um we're not that distressed seller so if we you know if if if we can't get a
deal and I've I've taken you know personally I've taken criticism from folks have known a long time about an in inability to get this across the line and all I've stated is that it's you know I I don't feel it's an inability to go cross the line I'm not going to support something that has bad terms I mean this is a it is a decades long thing that you know uh you know hopefully I'm young enough to be in the community for years after my public service and you know I don't want to be uh saddled with entering into something that has terms that end up you know the scoring of
a future board I guess you'd say so you know we give them the red line back and and we just see where it goes and hopefully something good comes from it and it and it's we get to the point that Wes and Allison are are comfortable saying hey Mike you know I think we need to put this on an agenda again we've got we've got something to bring forward to you so can you modify your motion to what the board's asking Steve to redline both give month is commissioner mayest and and then I would ask the county attorney and and um County Administrator to work diligently with both so
when we don't get in a situation where it's he said she said with either one of these I don't want any of that maybe take notes or whatever you got to do but um I I I can live with that I think we're all pretty close honestly I don't want think we that far off can do that out but I want to remind everybody that we we we'd be way past this right now if we had honored what we had said in the morning a couple of meetings ago where we were going to give them until March 25th and we never got there um so we weren't fair to them and we haven't been we're not being fair to um try
West either this would be fair this would be fair let's match them up Redline them both and um this should be the last time we have to do this are you going to sit in on these meetings with the the the administration or does Steve Steve commissioner Barry do you want to do any of that or I don't I don't know I don't have an interest but you two I think I know commission I I don't know that it's necessary I mean you know I don't know that it's necessary to have a commissioner I mean you know uh Allison has I think Allison and Wes have relationships both I do personally cuz I like to
have someone up there that's watching what's going on I like quality control man I love it I I like that idea too it's I mean it's okay if you don't want to do it I just thre it out to give you the opportunity I well we can go right to the motion if you'd like and we can talk about all that later let's let's see how the red line goes red lines go how about we do that so my motion is that we move to direct the county staff to begin redlining both PSAs from triw and uh bu Town Center
and then I and and with no time frame for feedback yeah the second just okay please yes well and actually you guys but I I'd like to brief on my weekly meeting on the status on this I'll just ask you right now you know so okay we have a motion a second please vote commissioner may you you arm getting tired motion passes 5 Z all right done with that gentleman I we're moving forward I know you know you wanted sooner but you got a month okay
uh County's attorney report there's one item on the county attorney's report I can answer any questions move the county attorney's report there's a second second please vote motion passes 5 to zero um I believe that ends everything our next meeting is on March 25th in the morning it's a Tuesday meeting other than that we'll see you then everyone have a great