What's up? >> What's up, Cop? >> What's up, man? >> Hey, good man. Ain't the old days. >> I'm sorry. You were a clown back then. >> Hey, let me tell you something. He's got to respect you. I don't punk.
>> You're a sir. Commissioner >> before I begin the meeting. Okay. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. You got it? >> Yes, sir. Apologize. >> You understand? >> Yes, sir. Chairman. >> Thank you, sir. >> Thank you, sir. >> All right. It is Monday, October 20th, 2025 and
501. The special call meeting will now be called to order. We'll begin with a moment of silent reflection for our first responders and the members of the armed forces followed by an invocation by commissioner vice chairman Daryl Law
and Commissioner Joe Airman will lead us in the pledge. Please rise. We will cover. [Applause] Please pray with me. Well, dear heavenly father, we thank you for this opportunity to meet in peace. Father, we know we have turmoil
throughout our world, throughout our state, throughout our county, and in some instances throughout our cities. Father, we ask that you guide us and you direct us in making the best decision decisions possible for this complete county. In your son's name, we say,
amen. >> Amen. Amen. >> Please join me in the greatest country in the world, the United States. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you all. Well, good evening once again. Uh, thank you all for attending. Uh, we this is a formidable crowd and we do appreciate
your attendance. Tonight's public hearing is specifically related to the board of county commissioner's written notice of action on the fiscal year 2025 2026 sheriff's budget request.
This is not a special meeting to discuss the budget and more specifically the funding level for the sheriff's budget. In River County held two budget workshops. The second was focused on the sheriff's budget exclusively
as well as the preliminary and final budget hearings where we adopted the millage rate and the county's overall budget 3 5475. That adopted budget reduced the amount
of the increased request by the sheriff in the proposed budget. Per state requirements, the board must provide written notice to the sheriff of these amendments. Tonight, we'll present those amendments consistent with
the $85.77 million budget approved for the sheriff's office. To be clear, any river county budget, including the sheriff's allocation, has been adopted. Thank you.
And I'll turn this over to uh our deputy county attorney. >> Thank you, Commissioner Susan Praau, deputy county attorney on behalf of Indian River County. So just for clarification from a legal standpoint, the purpose of this publicly noticed hearing is to clarify the written notice
of board action on fiscal year 2025 2026 budget request that was issued on September 22nd, 2025. Florida statute section 30.49 sub4 grants the board of county commissioners the authority to amend, modify, increase, or reduce any
or all items of expedenture proposed by the sheriff. Florida Statute 30.49 sub4 also requires a written notice of the board's action of reducing the sheriff's increased budget request. This written notice is to specify items
amended, modified, or reduced. This board held the two statutoily required budget hearings, one being September 10th, and the second being September 17th, 2025. That reduction amount was put into written notice date dated September
22nd, 2025 that was issued to the sheriff. This hearing is to go over the specific items that were reduced for clarification and to issue an updated written notice with those clarifications for the benefit of the sheriff. Please note that that does not mean that
there was a budget cut from the sheriff's previous budget for 2425 of 79691955. The sheriff's budget is still being increased by a $6.8 million and therefore this is not a cut to his budget but an increase from 79691955
to 85.77 million. Thank you. And I return it over to the chair. Thank you. >> Thank you ma'am. Appreciate it. Uh with that uh I just want to for clarification you saw that there was some documents
handed to us uh that is customary and those documents will be on permanent record and they will go to the clerk at the end of the meeting. I just wanted to clarify that we have a court reporter as well as uh some video taking place as we
speak. I now turn it over to the county administrator, John Tanich, as he will deliver the presentation on the budget amendments. >> Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Uh this evening, this is public
hearing on the budget board action on the sheriff's FY2526 budget request. to briefly go over the timeline of events. On July 9th, the board held a budget workshop at which the recommended budget was presented. The military uh
the proposed military rate was set. The board subsequently held a special budget workshop specifically for the sheriff's budget on August 11th of 2025 wherein there was continued discussion the sheriff's budget request.
On September 10th, there was a preliminary budget hearing which considered changes to the recommended budget. Adopted was the tenative millich and the tenative budget. At the final budget hearing on September 17th, there is considered changes to the proposed
budget. The approved and what was approved and adopted was the mill resolution, the dollar amount, and the budget resolution. This evening, we're having a hearing on the board of county commissioners notice of action for the sheriff's budget. This presentation, formal written notice of
the action, we have an opportunity for the sheriff to respond, but noting as the board me the board chair mentioned, there's no changes to the adopted budget in terms of the bud the timeline. On May 1st, the sheriff's office uh submitted
its original request for $93,547,675, which was an increase of 14.6 million or 18.6%. At the July 9th budget workshop, the board requested the county administrator to allocate additional funding to the sheriff without increasing the millage
rate. The proposed budget included $83,646,672 for the sheriff's office, which is an which was an increase of $4,734,717 or 6%. On July 23rd, a revised request was received from the sheriff's office
amounting to 91,126,840, which was an increase of 12,214,8686 or 15.5%. At the August 11th sheriff's budget workshop, the board of county commissioner approved an increase of $6 million or totaling 7.6% 6% over the
prior year's budget for the sheriff's office. At the September 10th preliminary budget hearing, the board of county commissioners approved an increase of 6,861,517 or 8.7% to the sheriff's budget. The total final
budget of $85,773,472 was approved. And now just to highlights in terms of the the tax role increase if the if the board will recall countywide was 8.8% 8.7% in the incorporated area. This
generated 8.68,681,310 of new additional revenue in the general fund due to the increase in tax role as we maintain the millillage flat. Uh the sheriff funding the board uh approved an increase of 6,861,517
or 8.7%. That's a reduction from the initial request of 14.6 along with a revised request of 12.2. The amount of new revenue for the sheriff's budget exceeds 72% of the new additional revenue that was
generated for the uh general fund. The total approved budget for the sheriff 85,773,472 and an FY2020 2526 approved budget for the sheriff represents an increase of 8.61%
over the FY fiscal year 2425 budget of 79,961,955. So, there's been a lot of discussion regarding the the funds, you know, how we can pay for this, what where we could pay for additional increases to the sheriff's budget. So, I would just like
to briefly review some of the and provide some understanding in terms of budget and funds. The general fund is the main operating fund for Indian River County. That is a countywide fund. the municipal service taxing unit or the MSTU. That fund covers expenditures related to the unincorporated areas of
the Indian River bud Indian River County. So these two funds are the two are the ones that fund the sheriff's budget. Next, we have the enterprise fund or funds. There's several of them. These funds operate like a business
where the service is funded by user charges or fees versus taxes. These revenues are restricted and can only be spent within their respective funds. So, I have a couple examples because we've heard a couple things out there. You're building a $13 million golf course
clubhouse at the expense of providing the sheriff additional funds. Unfortunately, the revenues derived from the golfers playing golf or purchasing items from the pro shop will fund the revenue bonds that will fund the
construction of the golf clubhouse. None of those revenues can be diverted legally to any other fund. Solid waste disposal district. We've heard that there's a, you know, we the trash tax or that we the the $13 million that it's
actually $ 8.9 million could have been diverted to help fund the sheriff's office. However, those funds are legally restricted. They're nonavalorm assessments and they're legally restricted to operate the landfill collection of residential and commercial waste and operate the customer
convenience centers. Again, they can only be spent on the solid waste expenses. The same would go for utilities. The rates and charges that and fees that we have related to water and sewer can only fund the utilities fund. These are business enterprise
funds. And so I just want to make sure that that's clear. And then the the other comment that's been out there is that the county has wasted $34.8 million in consulting costs that could have been diverted and/or directed towards helping fund the sheriff's office budget. First,
I'd like to note that the the $34.8 million covers the fiscal years 2223 and 2324. And just by way of categories to help understand where they go, those consulting fees go, you can see 32.1
million or go towards our hardcore engineering which is civil design uh for our utility system for roadways, construction engineering inspection, the inspections related to state road 60 and
43rd to any roadway project like 66th Avenue. Uh we also have uh 1.9 million for building inspection services. Those are private providers. Those are those are private contractors that we're we hired to augment our services during the
boon years. Uh we also have to do surveying when we do these road projects. That that totaled $775,000. And then there's architectural services, $575,42. Some of these expenses are no different than the expenses that the sheriff's
office had to pay when they were designing and doing civil engineering plans and site plans as it related to their administrative complex that's being built. The next in terms of the five departments, the top five departments, again these are going to be
all infrastructure public works. I mean they maintain this past year we maintained I want to say we did about 25 miles of roadways. That's that's resurfacing and having to do as well as doing some design. Uh utilities 10,353,000.
Uh, and I will tell you that number is not full because we issued a uh is not complete because we issued about a $3.5 million work order to uh HDR Engineering who's going to guide nearly a billion a
half a billion to a billion dollars of investment in water sewer and reclaimed water and and and they have the resources that our staff in terms of capacity equipment modeling just things that we do not we cannot do in-house. We
cannot process applications and review things and handle things. We can handle small projects but large scale project like that couldn't do it. uh building and facility services that's part of the building inspection services as well as architectural and some fleet uh not
fleet I stand but corrected natural resources that's our environment I mean coastal management a lot of that money goes to our in consultants that we're doing to monitor the profiles and to prepare the reports as it relates to maintaining our beaches ensuring that we have the documents necessary and
appropriate for the purposes of submitting expenditure or reimbursements uh also to the Indian Indian Indian River Lagoon management plan, the climate vulnerability assessment, all those things that we need to do to make sure that we're more resilient and we're also taking care of
the environment. Uh parks and recreation conservation, you have fees here for the these would be related to the master plan, the designing of parks. Uh you like Hobart Hobart Ballfields that's been on the books for how long and we're
getting it done this this upcoming year. That's a $4.3 million project. So that those equal 32.4 million out of that 34.8 million. But to be more pointed on some of the uh attention, you know, I know I've received a little bit of the attention on how much the county
administration has has expended. Uh the total amount for county administration and is $628,000. That includes the urban services boundary study, something that has not been done since the county first adopted it. absent two minor modifications. The
impact fee study where we study what the cost of growth is to the impact to the system to include the correctional to include public buildings to include uh uh public safety to include roadways to include schools. We have to study and
those that's in a its final phase and will be coming before the board for consideration. IT services if you recall we had a change. We needed to have some project management and also do some uh cyber security vulnerability assessment.
That 116,000 117,000 as a result of bringing on that consultant, we've received about $400,000 through a Florida cyber security grant. Uh executive recruiting that kind of split between administration and the board just in terms of the county attorney's
office as well as some of our senior directors. $63,000. There's another 11,250 pending as it relates to finalizing their objectives. Our compensation and classification study, we didn't do that in house. The most the most effective
way to do that is to do it externally from an independent source because then the employees know that it wasn't just, for lack of a better term, just moving numbers around. We did we did a full compensation classification study and analyst. We analyzed the knowledge,
skills, abilities, what people were doing, properly classified them. Uh and then the titles we are also there's still two things out there that they're updating is the job descriptions and then lastly our performance uh uh appraisal instrument. The last one I
would say is the economic development study. There's an act an asterk there because that is happening largely in this year but it did start la you know last year and that's still there there'll be about another 119,000 if they if they spend the full amount but the point is you know this the county is
studying its economic development environment way beyond the expertise and the capacity and uh and I can say that for somebody that has that has expertise in there that can do a shift share analysis do a quotient analysis there's a lot that goes into evaluating a market
and they're specialists for that because we want to identify those businesses and industries that complement our community and don't overrun them. What businesses are going to create the most opportunity for job growth to attract our future generations to come back. So you can see that that's just an overview because I
know this has become in the last month or so a big topic about we spent 34.8 million in two years. So next I want to uh just kind of go over some um budget terms um functional categories because this is
this this is how a budget is built or designed in terms of the framework. You have your fun functional categories. If I use the sheriff's office specifically they have general law enforcement, correction, court services. We have items like general government, debt services, capital projects. We also look
at physical environment. We look at the economic environment. We look at other things but they're categorized by a category or you know for that a purpose or the objective of that spending. And then we have object level budgeting. And this has been the debate you know
between object level and subobject. Object level focuses on highlevel objects for broad spending such as personnel services. All the expenses that are associating associated with hiring an individual and maintaining them, providing them benefits, covering
their workers comp, health insurance, all those expenses related to personnel. And then we have operating expenses. Those expenses that are, you know, non-c capital level, but maybe they're equipment, but they're al operating supplies. uh and then we also have uh
capital outlay uh we have debt service and grants or aids or other uses which is generally related to transfers and stuff. So the next level which is the most the most granular level that you can refined level you could get to is our subobject level budgeting again
refers to more detailed level of expenditures separates each budget item into finer detail. The subobject codes break down operating expenses for example further to specify the proposed expenditure. So when we say if we have
something in our operating expenses and we're going to buy you know a piece of equipment that's going to help us you know improve uh the way we read plans or or do our surveying whatever that is. It's going to be specified within that operating expenses or it could be office
supplies. It could be uh you know we also have shoe allowances and stuff things that we have to do that related to the basic operations of the the county or also the sheriff's office public safety the emergency services district. So it just breaks it down to
specify what that real expenditure is. And why is this important? See so section 30.49 49 sub3 sub paragraph 3 floor statute states the sheriff shall furnish to the board all relevant and pertinent information concerning
expenditures made in previous fiscal years and proposed expenditures including expenditures at the op the subobject code level. Obviously, I've added some emphasis there in accordance with the uniform accounting because that helps us when we're looking at our
budgets to really get down to what are the expenses, what are the items, so we know what we may need to look at at the next level up to understand what the full costs are. So, in terms of the sheriff's budget as
a percent of additional tax revenue and as a percent of the general fund, again, we've mentioned additional 8,681,310,000 of new revenue in the general fund. That's what the new amount was. It's
nowhere close to 12 million or 14.6 million. And the sheriff received 72% of that new revenue. The sheriff's budget as part of the fisc year 2526 general fund budget is 53.1%. But I really want to take a deep dive
into the sheriff's percent of additional tax revenue. Again, 72%. So what happens with the other 28%. You the board must fund several things. We must fund differences in the the increases for our uh other
constitutional officers, clerk of court, property appraiser, supervisor of elections, tax collector. We also must fund our state agencies. Those agencies that are providing a level or service to Indian River County residents through like the 19th circuit court, uh the
state attorney's office, the public defender, the medical examiner, excuse me, the guardian editum, New Horizons, and then last is the border county commission for your operating expenses or increases.
So, let's look at the the budget over the past couple years uh in terms of the sheriff's budget. And if I was to highlight over each one of these green bars, if I could just I can do this. Yeah, let me just to show you like this.
This one right here is going to Well, it's not going to do it. Nope. It's not it's in the presentation mode, but that's going to show you that we're in um if I highlight that, that'll show you 57 million to right here. I'm going to go to 85.7. Then I'm going to go back to
presentation mode. So, when we look at this, what that shows the green bar is the amount of the budget for that fiscal year. At the bottom of the of the uh the the slide, the chart on the left side is the amount in millions. on the right side is the percentage which represents
and corresponds to that orange line which has a a numerical percent. So in 202021 there was a 3.09% increase. In 2122 there was a 5.13% increase. In 22 23
there was a 12.26% increase. And in 23 24 there is an 8.61% increase. In 2425, there was a 7.91% increase and this year based on the
adopted budget, it's an 8.7% increase. So the 5-year increase that would be for after the sheriff, you know, since 2021 going forward would represent a 28
nearly $7 million increase or 50.28%. I would submit to you that's hardly defunding the law enforcement or the police. So this is the analysis that we shared uh and I think it's important because as the board continues to try to maintain
you know a budget that is fiscally conservative and looks not just to the immediacy but also looks to the future. The orange bar represents the the recommended amount uh where they overlap prior to the for the 70 for the 57.8
which includes electricity going all the way up to the 79.69 those are adopted budgets. And then when you get to that line at 2425, that's where they separate. And that's the revised sheriff's request for 91,939,286
versus the OP the uh adopted approved $85,773,472. [Music] If you extrapolate these out using a basic trend analysis on our on our trajectory, you're looking at about $109 million come 2930. If you use the the
the the sheriff's current requested budget or or his budget that he requested revised, it'll extrapolate out to $130 million about a $21 million difference. So with the board action on FE on for
fiscal year 205 2026 budget, sheriff requested 93.5 million budget on May 1st. The sheriff revised his request to 91.1 million on July 23rd, which was after the budget workshop. The board of county commissioners approved 85.77
million budget for the sheriff, which represents again a 6.8 million almost 6.9 million uh budget or 8.7% increase over last year's budget. So the board So and here's where we come down to the issue as it relates to what we've been
asked to clarify in terms of the lawsuit that was filed. So the board of county commissioners you know pursuant to the statute may not amend this is in sub 3049 par subpar 3 may not amend modify increase or reduce any expenditure at
the subobject code level. But then you go down to the next paragraph in the statute and it says the board of county commissioners may amend, modify, increase or reduce any or all items of expenditures in the proposed budget. Moreover, it goes on further to say the
board must provide written notice of its action to the sheriff and and I highlight this and specify in such notice the specific items amended, modified, increased or reduced. So we're not allowed to do the subobject code level. So we need to go to the code
level and be specific in that. So this presents that specificity at the code level. The for p the code level for personnel services is object 10 object code 10. The approved budget for 2425 was 59,340,581.
The requested budget was 67,639 639,93. then that that represented a 13.98% increase. the recommendation, you know, based on the adopted budget and is for the board's reduction and keep in mind
on the personnel services during both the second budget workshop and the first uh preliminary budget hearing, the board entertained several, you know, wage and uh uh or salary and wage scenarios to
provide all the sworn personnel average a $9,000 increase and our civilian personnel within the sheriff's office a $3,500 increase. But it it still results in a reduction of 2,00 or 2,260,87 with a revised budget amount of
$65,379,16 for object code 30, which is operating expenses. the the current the past year's approved budget was 17,323,730 and the requested budget was 20,645,682 or a 16.09%
increase. The the proposed board of county commission reduction is 2,825,283 and with a revised amount of 17 thou 17,250,000 and 30 $250,399. Capital outlay which is object code 60.
Uh the approved budget in 2425 was 2,247,644. The requested budget for 2526 is $2,841,963 which represents a 20.91% increase in the budget. And the board of county commissioners recommended reduction is
$267,999 with a revised amount of 2,573,964. So the total budget again in 2425 was $78,911,955. The revised requested budget from the sheriff's office is 91,126,840
which represented a 15.48% increase. and the board of county commissioners reduction was recommended is $5,353,369 for a revised budget uh amended reduced to $85,773,471. So I think just in terms of uh just
looking at the increase we already again you're providing a 6,861,517 increase for this upcoming year and that represents an 8.7% increase. So, these are specific items or reductions that
were considered, but and some of these were provided to the sheriff previously, but based on that statutory provision and the sheriff's uh legal complaint, we have excluded these out. But I do want to remind you again uh that consistent
with section 30.49 49 subp paragraphs 12 floor statutes in order to effectuate, fulfill, and preserve the independence of sheriff. The sheriff's have the statutory authority to transfer funds between the fund and functional
categories and object and subobject levels after his or her budget has been approved by the board of county commissioners. So, the sheriff gets to determine what the priorities are with the 85, you know,.77 million that you've approved.
We are not suggesting and haven't suggested any cuts to, you know, K9 food, car seats, anything of that nature, DNA kits. So, we've we're saying that 5,353,369
is is a reduction from his request of 12.2 million. So staff's recommendation is to approve the specific object level reductions to the sheriff's FY2526 budget request and issue the sheriff the sheriff revised written notice of board
action. With that, I'll return it to the board. Thank you, county administrator. At this point, commissioners, do you have any questions of the county administrator? Documentation is in front of you and has
been duly presented. Is there anything that you >> seeing a No. Um I I did have a uh question maybe for clarification. I know you addressed it in an item on uh object and sub object. Um and I again I realize
there's two sections in the statute, but it it still seems to be that there's some ambiguity. Um, I understood it uh uh thanks to Roy Raymond
uh serving with him but understanding what the the budget had to be delivered and that was always a prepared response as well. But there seems to be some ambiguity between
the either the sections or a communication challenge. Could you elaborate? >> Yeah. So, I'll go to that other show. >> I'll go to the other slide that shows the what these the last two bullets and
I have the specific statute right here. Um, and can read it in its entirety, but essentially you have two sections. One says the board may not amend. Well, if it starts off with saying the sheriff shall furnish to the board of county commissioners or the budget commission.
We don't have one, so I'll skip that. Uh all relevant and pertinent information concerning expenditures made in previous fiscal years and proposed expenditures with the board deems necessary, including expenditures at the subobject level in accordance with the uniform accounting system prescribed by the
department financial services. Then it goes on to say that the board may not amend, modify, increase or reduce any expenditure at the subobject level. And the last thing it states is the board may not require confidential information concerning details of investigations
which are exempt. And then in section four of that or sub sub paragraph four, it says the board uh the board of county commissioners as appropriate may require the sheriff to correct mathematical, mechanical, factual, or clerical errors as to the form of the proposed budget. Okay. At the hearings, the board may
amend, modify, increase, or reduce any or all items of expenditure in the proposed budget as certified by the sheriff and shall approve such budget as amended, modified, increased or reduced. And that's when it says and so after
that happens and then there's a period and then so after that action then the board or commission the board must give written notice to the of its action to the sheriff and specify a notice and such notice of specific items ended mod amended modified increased or reduced.
So I'd submit to you what we did first. So there there's a there's conflict between these statutes says you can't do it at subobject level but then the other says you got to do it the you know you got you got to specify. So what we provided previously and I even subsequently
provided again here you know updated but there but just so the sheriff has everything that he might need but this is exactly what the based on not doing it at the subobject level is what you get in terms of personnel services, operating expenses, capital outlay.
Perhaps maybe that this uh conversation uh gives way for the sheriff, the only constitutional officer has the ability to interfund at personal discretion. >> Yeah, that that that is correct. Uh and
that emanates from a 2021 lawsuit with Elatchua County. Uh and then a a corresponding change in the statute where it does say in sub paragraph 12, notwithstanding any other law and in order to effectuate, fulfill, and
preserve the independence of sheriffs, a sheriff may transfer funds between the fund and functional categories and object and subobject code levels after his or her budget has been approved by the board of county commissioners, city council, budget commission. And it it
it's all goes on says it applies to consolidated governor government's consolidated council. So I mean but the point is the sheriff has the ability to move money in and throughout this budget right here this 85.7 million in any
specific object or or category or object or subobject. He can move it as he sees fit he or she sees fit. Any sheriff can do that to meet the needs of their agency >> as happened in the past practice >> that that has happened in many years in
past past practice. >> Thank you. Did anybody else have anything? >> Must have been a good presentation at this point. Uh I see that the the sheriff is here and uh like to invite
the sheriff Good evening. >> Good evening, Sheriff. >> Good. Good evening. I'm here today representing not only the dedicated men and women of the Indian River County Sheriff's Office, but also the members of our community whom we
have sworn to protect and serve, taxpayers and voters, our constituents and yours. The road leading here today has been contuous, but I still believe we have more common ground than differences. I know we all share a desire to have a
safe community and my passion for that is solely based on my obligations as your elected sheriff and my love of this community. Whether you like me and respect me personally is immaterial, but I expect that you will respect the office of sheriff.
It is my preference that we continue to have a cordial and professional relationship. Mr. Chair, I know I should not address commissioners directly, but Sheriff Laura, you were once a mentor to me. You stood in the back of this room and
would complain to me about the county commission buying fire trucks on consent agenda. Budget amendments and wild spending. How as a constitutional officer, you are one of one and they are one of five. you would pour over printed copies of
their agenda, complaining about the outofc control county spending. For the past five years, I've largely stayed out of county commission matters. I proudly touted my record of 50 votes before you. I am focused on the job I was elected to
do, protect Indian River County. As I have traveled this county speaking to citizens, I keep hearing the same thing. Keep fighting them, Sheriff. Good for you for standing up for us. I've heard tales of business owners wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars
struggling to open businesses because of bureaucracy here at the county. I've heard nightmare stories of people trying to create jobs and open schools and other highly desirable businesses only to be mired in red tape. This budget battle started out with me trying
to get what I needed to fund our daily operations. And now I'm carrying the weight of our entire community who feel that the board of county commissioners are no longer responsive to their needs. So let's talk about how we got here. I submitted my budget on May 1st as
required by law. A copy of my 104 page detailed line item budget was delivered to all of you by email and a hard copy was handd delivered to your offices. Prior to that, I met with Sheriff Lure
on April 15th at my office. I took chairman cher uh commissioner man to lunch on April 16th at CJ Canons. I met with commissioner Flesher in his office on April 7th. During those meetings, before my budget was in your hands, I explained that this year would be a big
ask, that the cost of goods had all gone up, and that my goal was to get our salaries to be competitive with surrounding agencies. After my budget was in your hands, I met with Chairman Flesher again on June 3rd in his office and Commissioner Adams on
June 16th in her office. I spoke with Commissioner Moss on July 4th parade about my budget. I met with County Administrator John Canic on multiple occasions, specifically May 22nd at Rio Coco Cafe, June 4th, June 25th, and July 23rd at
his office at the county administration building. We met again on August 1st at Green Marlin for lunch, again on August 5th at his office, and most recently last Tuesday, Octo October 14th, again for lunch at Green Marlin. No tax dollars
were used for those meetings. Any rhetoric about me not meeting with commissioners or the county administrator are false. In addition to those meetings, commissioners Moss, Earman, and Adams attended a budget presentation given by myself and the
unions on June 6th at the taxpayers association lunchon at the Verb Beach Yacht Club. This doesn't account for the numerous evening and weekend phone calls with chairman Flesher throughout this process. The unions and I also gave detailed budget presentations with question and
answer sessions at the following. June 2nd at the Republican Club of Indian River at Point West Country Club. June 5th at the Verb Beach Chamber of Commerce. June 10th at the Sebastian Chamber of Commerce at Woody's Barbecue in Sebastian. June 11th at the Sebastian
Exchange Club meeting at Captain Hyrams. June 12th at the Sebastian Rotary meeting at the Sebastian Saltwater Restaurant. June 14th to community members at the Indian River County Sheriff's Office auditorium. June 18th at the Hispanic Conservatives of Indian River at the Ind at the River House.
June 27th at Republicans for Life at the Ver Beach Yach Club. July 1st at Vero Palma's mobile home park in Vero Palma Estates. July 2nd at Sunrise Rotary at the Riverhouse. And July 7th to the Ver Beach Neighborhood Group at the IG Center. You have all received emails
from a variety of these groups because I have personally seen you at their events in the past. Each of you has my cell phone number as well as my email and know how to reach me. There have been allegations from the dis that commissioners can't reach out to me. You and I both know this is simply untrue. I
have always been available 247. There have been statements made by commissioners about lunch money and allowance. I am the dy elected sheriff of Indian River County. I'm not subordinate to you. I'm not here to ask you for allowance like a child. I am fulfilling my duty to protect and serve
the great citizens, voters, and taxpayers of this county. I had to sue this board to get you to hold this meeting tonight. I regret that I had to sue our county and this board to force you to comply with the law. When you fail to follow the spec the specific requirements of the law, I not only had
no choice but to file the suit, but I had the obligation to do so. During the July 7th meeting, I opened by providing you with a printed copy of Florida State Statute 30.49 and highlighted the relevant portion of the statute that you refused to do. It was not said out loud
that you support cutting my request and what specifically you are choosing to cut. I conduct zerobased budgeting unlike the county. Zbased budgeting is what Governor DeSantis and Florida CFO Blazing Golia all recommend for counties. This board had ample time
during all the meetings I listed to conduct good-faith negotiations with me. At no point has the county administrator attempted to conduct goodfaith negotiations with me throughout this process. Arbitrarily choosing to fund a portion of my budget and not saying
specifically what you are cutting is not lawful. I appreciate that the board has recognized this and called tonight's meeting to attempt to rectifi rectify that portion of this saga. During the negotiations, I provided solutions on my end, including reducing my initial funding request by over $2 million and
offering to take on animal control in exchange for the $5 million in your current year budget dedicated to this item. Again, I have tried to negotiate, but I'm continually met with opposition. After the arbitrary or mathematically vague figure of 6.8 8 million for
employee raises was discussed by this commission. It was said from this dis that commissioners did not know what the other 5 million in my budget request was for that you wish someone from my office was here during the September budget hearings to answer that question. Commissioners, my budget request was
provided to you on May 1st of this year. It contained not only every dollar I was requesting, but it detailed exactly where I intended to use that money. It boggles my mind that someone can sit on that dis months after having my detailed budget in their hands and make the statement that they don't know what
every dollar of my request was for. You simply needed to read my submitted budget. Period. Then, since there was no public sunshine discussion about what would be cut from my budget, as is required by law, it appears you relied on the county administrator to make
those decisions for you. The same person who said there was no additional money, but who gave himself an unauthorized raise, but who you later ordered from this dis that he must repay, then somehow approved in what can only be described as an attempt to save
face. The cost of everything is up. We can all see it at the gas pump, grocery store, and through our daily living. Our patrol cars run on gas. Our inmates require food. The operational costs of public safety have increased. By not funding the sheriff's office, you are
making the decision to cut the services we provide to the public. So, yes, as much as I understand it gets under your skin, you are choosing to defund the police. As I said the first time I was here, our agency is tired of the county kicking the can on first responders. It
is time to stop acting like the money I requested is not available. Public records have shown this county has spent over 30 million on consultants in just the last two years. All that consultant money and not one of them told you that socializing trash pickup was a bad idea.
The fact that this commission took the decision about trash collections out of the hands of the public and forced a tax increase on our community was irresponsible. Indian River County residents are not the customers of waste management. A customer has a choice and can decide with their wallet how they want to spend their money. You removed
that choice, raised taxes, and forced your constituents to use a private company regardless of the level service they provide. What's next? Will this commission tell the public what internet service provider they have to use? What grocery store is the government approved option? Where does your control end? And
when will the public's freedom be insured? Funding part of the salary increases these men and women deserve does not address the advances in law enforcement that are necessary or the rising cost of doing business. The public is asking for better fiscal responsibility from you
and for law enforcement to be properly funded. I have heard over and over again how there is no additional money for us during this budget pl process. Your planning director was arrested for felony drug and forgery charges by authorities in Bvoulevard County, the same place your county administrator
came from. facts that should have been known then came out about your planning director that he had multiple previous arrests for DUI and may have been arrested on one of those DUIs while he was your employee. Yet, he was provided a taxpayer funded car allowance while employed here. He was not terminated
after his felony arrest, but instead remained on the payroll and was allowed to resign and receive a payout of his acred time. Sheriff Lure, you rightfully had strict policies about not hiring people with DUIs when you were the sheriff. Yet, as a commissioner, this guy appears to have slipped through the
cracks and was then afforded more taxpayer money after his felony arrest. I'm told there's another recent separation with simal pay similar payouts. We will see what those public records reveal if we ever see them. Ever the eternal optimist, I hope that my words tonight will change your minds. It
is time to start listening to your community. You forced socialized trash on us. You authorized the detox center in walking distance from the North County Charter Elementary. You put at the bottom of all your documents, dedicated to Indian River County through service, excellence, integrity,
responsiveness, collaboration. Those are great buzzwords trying to make it look like you care. Now you have the opportunity to show that you do. >> I have members of my dedicated staff and a mental health provider for our folks who will each make a short presentation to help you understand the critical
needs funded by our full budget request. I'll be providing each of you with a copy of their presentation and ask that be this be added to the record being made tonight. Will you allow them to speak to you? Chairman, Sheriff,
it was a lot of people took time to be here and you know that in the past and currently every anyone and everyone will have the opportunity to be able to express their thoughts to this commission. Fantastic. I'll invite my
team down now. We have a schedule of speakers who are going to come before you. We will also be providing you with printed copies of their presentation. So for your review, >> sheriff. >> Yes. >> Before we begin that, uh I just wanted you mentioned a few things uh during your presentation
and uh I I I will say that uh some of it was pointed in different directions. Uh rightfully so. Uh I'll tell you that uh I I will say that uh in the past uh
we've had uh great communication and we have spoke. Did did I ever mislead you in any way, shape or form is my opinion as to what was taking place because I I just wanted to talk about uh
the information that you portrayed uh in in the budget request. We did talk about it and we did uh have some comments and that was also uh some of that was prior to know exactly how
our funding ratio was going to be from the property appraiser as well. So, uh, there there might have been some anticipation of and I did hear some comments about what the tax revenue was
about the abundance or lack of later on and I just wanted to clarify because we had a lot of great conversation about it. Would you agree with that? >> We had a lot of conversation throughout the process. Yes, sir. Definitely more than I wanted
>> and and and I did not receive a lunch during that time. >> I understand that. >> I realize we mentioned that you had lunch dates, but >> yeah, we have members of our team lined up to present to you. I don't want to waste any more time. >> Surely was conversation. >> Yes, sir. Absolutely. >> Is there anybody else who would like to
uh address anything that the >> sheriff has stated >> with the sheriff? Let's let's let's just take I want to take a brief recess so that we can set up for the presentation. >> There's no there's no physical presentation.
>> I want to take five minutes. >> You take your time. You do what you got to do. >> We're just going to break for five minutes. Thank you. The meeting will now be called back to order. Thank you for the brief recess. I know that many of you needed to have a break as well. Uh with that in mind, uh
we will in invite uh as part of the sheriff's presentation. He has additional presentations and uh we we see the office manager budget come forward. >> Good evening chairman. Good evening. I'm going to talk about three parts uh
that were cut uh in the memo that we received from the county administrator. The personnel wages, the request was to provide an average increase of 9,000 to sworn and 3,500 to civilians. If we did this, compression would once
again occur throughout our ranks, which we fixed since Sheriff Flowers took office. Additionally, we would not be able to competitively pay our civilians for their duties. With the overtime, the request was to
reduce the budget from 1.5 million to 1.2 million, which represents no increase from fiscal year to 20 from 25 to 26. It the request is was basically to keep it flat. I did originally provide to the county administrator our
trend of actuals, but I wanted to state them here for the record. In fiscal year 22, our actual overtime was 2 point just under 2.6 million. Our fiscal three uh fiscal year 23 overtime was 3.3 million.
Fiscal year 24 was 2.6 million and fiscal year 25 was 2.1 million. These numbers just reflect the gross wages and exclude the respective FICA for social security and Medicare taxes,
Florida retirement and workers comp expenses. Overtime can fluctuate based on case load, calls for service and staffing shortages. We do our best and attempt to reduce overtime by flexing hours or allowing for limited comp time to be
earned. The only other ways we could reduce overtime is to run our patrol shift short, which obviously would increase would directly impact public safety. We could reduce the time spent on solving cases. Our detectives, they work
a lot of overtime. We could we could tell them to slow it down so that we're not paying overtime, which that will increase the possibility that the case will never be solved and or the affected public has to wait longer for answers or closure. I'm sure we can all agree that
we don't want to do either of those things. For the Axon contract, the request was to reduce the budget from 1.725661 to 1.467259. The county inadvertently did not receive the full set of contracts. I have with
me the Axon master agreement that I'm going to give the county administrator that verifies the 1.725 that was in our fiscal year 26 budget request that was due and already paid. My co-workers will will attest to some of the other things, but I wanted to add
just a few personal notes. A couple key differences between prior administrations and our current administration regarding budget and spending. The sheriff already had mentioned zerobased budgeting. Prior
administrations never zerobased budgeting, never implemented that. Sheriff Flowers did his first year budgeting for vacant positions. Prior administrations always fully budgeted for the vacancies
as if all of our vacancies were going to be hired 10-1. That never happens. It it just and I think if we did somehow were able to hire all of our vacancies 101, we wouldn't be able to handle the training load. The current administration while working
with Kristen the first year of Sheriff Flowers's budget, we phase in vacancies. We look at the different positions and based on the priority we decide can we get these people in 101 or as early in the year as possible. We phased in our vacancies.
Year in spending. Prior administrations year end spending was a free-for-all with the only goal being to return back as little to the county as possible. One of the tactics that helped doing that was buying items at two to three times
the cost just to not send money back. Under Sheriff Flowers, we review the items when we're going through negotiations for the future budget and we we defer expenses for items. We send the county the documentation for any
outstanding purchase orders and they the county has worked with us to use those extra funds strategically to purchase the items that we deferred in the future budget. That's never been done until sheriff flowers. And then transparency in the budget
submission. No prior administration to my knowledge has ever provided 45 pages of detail showing every single operating in capital expense. And I just want the commission to understand because I feel that sometimes there is a lack of appreciation for the sheriff that you
have. He's extremely transparent and he wants to do well by the taxpayers. And considering I am the CFO, I see it and I'm I'm proud to work for this agency. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, this is a business meeting. There's
no reason to applaud if it was a sporting event. I can understand. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Felicia Stole and I am the Realtime Crime Center Manager or RTCC as I'll refer to it. Technology is no
longer a luxury. It's a necessity. It gives us the eyes, ears, and insight that we simply didn't have before. When a high priority incident occurs, there's no room for hesitation. We need accurate information right then and there. Without proper funding, we
lose critical tools. Live video access, intel sharing, and analytical support that helps us stop crimes before they escalate. A suspect from Semino County fled to Indian River County after viciously beating a man to death with a shovel
inside of a mosque. Due to the suspect stealing the victim's vehicle, the license plate reader system was able to alert of its location in Indian River County. When deputies located the vehicle in the parking lot of Sam's Club, a confrontation occurred in which
the suspect made verbal and physical threats resulting in him being shot. This incident was captured on Axon bodywn cameras as well as the incar dash cameras not allowing the analysts not only allowing the analysts in the RTCC
to view it live but also to offer full transparency of the situation in its entirety. Losing these tools doesn't just affect the RTCC, it affects officer safety. Being able to monitor unfolding incidents, warn deputies of emerging
threats, and coordinate faster backup when needed is crucial. Our multiple There's multiple occasions the RTCC has checked on deputies for various reasons to include not responding to the radio, keying up the radio during an
altercation, and the high priority incidents when they are unable to communicate. These tools are not about convenience, but instead they ensure that those who protect our community return home after each shift. All the technology and coordination can
also help prevent larger scale tragedies. Connecting information in real time, monitoring suspicious activity, sharing intelligence instantly, and recognizing patterns early, the RTCC plays a critical role in preventing orchestrated attacks before
they happen. Many of us can recall the tragedy that took place on 911. This history reminds us that threats do not always happen far away. Sometimes they can be in our own backyard. The technology used by the RTCC gives us the ability to detect
those threats early, connect the dots, and act before tragedy strikes again. Advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, are enabling criminals to carry out even more powerful and deceptive attacks. Due to
criminals utilizing these advancements, we fall behind, and we're giving criminals the upper hand. Without these tools, we are not just cutting costs, we're cutting safety. We have an opportunity to continue to protect our community with smart, proactive policing. And we have come too far to be
proven and proven too much to go backwards. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Mandy and I am the COO at Emerald Medical. I stand here today because of the well-being of the Indian River County Sheriff's Office.
personnel is on the line and that means the safety of our entire community. At Emerald Medical, we provide round-the-clock mental health support services, a service that has been a literal lifeline. In the past years alone, thanks to this 247 availability, we have successfully intervened in
dozens of crisis situations for employees and their family members that might have otherwise led to Baker acts or potentially suicides. This support system has directly contributed to reducing emergency detentions, preserving the dignity and mental health of our officers, and
preventing family crisises before they escalate. In fact, by having this immediate access to both medical and mental health professionals, we have helped keep numerous deputies on the job and their families intact. We have seen firsthand how these services have mended
marriages, supported children, and ensure that those who serve us can continue to do so without the heavy burden of untreated mental health. Now, let me tell you what Emerald Medical's model has buil built into access of this crisis. We provide 247 access to mental
health support, meaning that any officer or their family members in crisis, day or night, can reach out to our staff immediately. The STAR team can reach out to us to help navigate and assist the community interventions as well, ensuring both comprehensive and
inclusive modalities are being used. Our team includes veterans and first responders themselves, which means that we understand the culture, the stressors, and the stigma better than anybody else. This support and the services that we provide isn't just a
nice to have. It's preventative. It intervenes before the crisises escalate, saving emotional trauma, law enforcement resources, and most importantly, lives. These aren't just numbers. These are lives changed. Every dollar invested in these health services
translates into a stronger, more resilient law enforcement community. And that in turn means a safer community for us all. I urge you to see the faces behind these numbers and these statistics. consider the real human impact of preserving this budget line.
Let's continue to provide the sheriff's office and their families with the support that they need and deserve. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Angela Rosado Jones and I am the captain of your Indian River County Sheriff's
Office, local jail. I want to begin by saying I have six items on the agenda that I will address. But before I begin, I want to begin by saying the kind gentleman off to my left said that as we look forward to the future, we have to
look for different ways of doing business and doing things in so many words. So in physical year 2024, the average the average cost for the inmates meals was $1.44 per meal with a daily count of 476.
In fiscal year 2025, we budgeted at $1.51 with a 5.1% contractual increase, which you yourself commissioners have said um was understanding based on your letter. For 2026, we budgeted at $162.
And as you can tell, the inmate population has grown for 549 inmates. We have accounted for 73 additional bodies and that does not include the ICE that's coming into our county jail. With that
being said, we also have to account for a interlocal agreement between the board of commissioners and the sheriff's office where we have to after taking care of our inmate population, we have to ensure that we provide meals for our
local agencies during a hurricane or a natural disaster with that. For instance, Hurricane Milton, we provided 970 meals last year. Two full days of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and one-third day of just breakfast by
itself. I said that to just say this, the amount of $842,000, that was the suggested number that came back, is quite lower than our historical actuals. For in the year of 2022 to
2023, the physical year, we budgeted for 476 inmates, yet 4,698 inmates came into the Indian River County Jail and that took our historical actuals to 849,000.
So, as you can see, the trend continued in 2023. Once again, we budgeted for the same dollar for the same image count with a different dollar amount of 144. The actuals came back at close to a million dollars. And the same thing for
2025. Well, with the amount of $8,442, when you do the calculation, approximately based on the numbers that we were given back, we're looking at 201mmates in our county jail who at some
point will not be able to be fed. So, I asked this question, who is going to make that decision? Which inmate eat and which inmate does not eat? Across the United States of America, there's a three to six% increase in the offset of higher foods,
labor, and cost supplies. And we oursel felt it here. So once again, commissioners, the revised amount of 842 is well below our historical actuals. And with that, I will move on to our
lease equipment. In your documentation, the letter, it spoke about leasing equipment. Do you know that the Indian River County Sheriff's Office, yes, we have a print shop, but 80 but 64% of the jobs that
are done are for the sheriff's department and other surrounding agencies. by that if we do not have the budgeted amount instead of spending the requested leased amount of $60,000 for
the equipment and to purchase a brand new equipment will be over $75,000 between $60 to $75,000 per equipment. But because we lease the equipment, we're able to get the upgrades, the full service, the maintenance, the supplies, all of that
comes within that lease amount. So I asked the commissioners this. Are we willing to cut the funding where we will have to outsource the printing of our material at the sheriff office where we're saving the county 35,000 to 50,000
annually and if we outsource it, it's going to be greater than that. I move on to the operating supplies. For the last 10 years, we have provided mental health to the mentally um troubled in our
community. We have provided two licensed mental health coordinators to assist with the courts. Funding was also part of what was being cut from operating supplies. Are you aware that with the fundings that would have been removed or is
currently being removed, our two licensed mental health coordinators are no longer will no longer be able to provide birth certificates, social security cards, driver license or Florida ID. Once again, we have been doing this for 10 years.
Under our operating repairs, you address the lawn maintenance and you also address the keys. Keys in any facility is a big issue. Lawn maintenance to outsource lawn maintenance where we only
spend $13,000 currently. to outsource our lawn maintenance is going to be $45,000 a year just for our county jail to maintain the safety and visibility for me myself and the inmate population. If
we outsource our keys once again that is another additional high expensive cost for as you know prices and materials and everything has doubled and with that to purchase one key what would have cost us
$100 or $1,000 or $500 for a key is now going to be three times the dollar amount. So to outsource a key to be made for a jail is to me ridiculous because under that we have a locksmith who is
advanced in certification as a locksmith deputy who makes the keys. So we are saving the county money by making our own keys. We only need a funding to have the keys readily available. And with that the capital outlay and I
will end with that. the capital la for the county as you can know as our jail we asked for 161,000 and we were granting and gifted 62,000 however please keep in mind that right now under the Florida model jail standards we are
working we are in need of stainless steel um inmate toilets we need proper willow lots to secure the the inmates inside of the county jail and we have a refrigerator which now is bulking which is constantly causing and cause problems
for our staff in um our warehouse. We are working with a 40y old building, a building that constantly has repairs, a building that every time you turn around, you fix it today and my god, tomorrow you got to fix it again. So
with that, we are asking for the necessary funding because the little work orders that we start with evolves to bigger capital outlays. But I will end by just saying one more thing and I I beg you for five more minutes. As we
look forward to tomorrow, I hope that the county will open their eyes and reconsider the dollar amount that is being requested by the sheriff. It is truly a pleasure to serve the community of Indian River County. And with that, I conclude my remarks.
Good evening, Ross Parti with the New County Sheriff's Office. I'd like to start with uh speaking about our service agreements that may be affected by these uh budget cuts. To start with Axon and within that Fus, the
Fus that we have uh integrates all school cameras, body warn cameras, traffic cameras, private residents and business cameras, and our helicopter cameras. It all pumps that into our RTCC that Miss Stole spoke about a few minutes ago. Fuses helps keep our children helps keep the children of our
community safe. Helps keeps our deputies safe as it allows the RTCC to remote into the deputy's body war camera when they are on a hot call so they can relay pertinent information to responding deputies as opposed to the onseen deputy trying to relay information simultaneously while trying to control a
crisis situation. Those seconds matter. Every second that our deputies are able to efficiently pursue someone trying to do harm is a life that we are potentially saving. As we again with Fusettes, as we continue to build out our partnership with the private businesses, we will see
the results in our clearance rates. It has already helped with the murder of a homeless man back in 2024. Had we not had the ability to review the video footage immediately without having to go through the store manager or corporate, which sometimes delays that process, we may have lost the footage and quite possibly would have not been able to
make the arrest that our our team at the University Sheriff's Office was able to make. Our bodywn cameras has drastically decreased the time it takes to investigate citizen complaints as we're able to quickly ascertain if the complaint is legitimate. This helps us helps us utilize our time as efficiently
as possible. This is all part of the Axon agreement. Incar license plate readers constantly runs vehicle registrations for violations while our deputies are driving and patrolling the streets. This helps helps our deputies identify drivers that do not need to be on the
roadways and it helps keep our community safe. Taser 10, another part of the Axon agreement, offers us the ability to create more space and deescalate conflicts due to its 45 ft range. When I when unable to deescalate, Taser 10 allows us to deploy 10 individual probes
without the need to reload. Helps prevent the need to escalate our use of force and again keeps us and the community safe. The flock example that Mrs. Stole gave a few minutes ago was one I was going to touch on, but we'll we'll I'll skip over that. And lastly, in reference to our
radar certifications, it speaks for itself. I'd venture to say that everyone on the dis has received a traffic complaint from a constituent. I get I I I know that that happens. Our radars are an essential part of doing our job. If they are not calibrated, our uniform traffic citations will not stand
up in court. And the same goes for our speedometer calibrations. These calibrations, again, these calibrations help keep our community safe. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. I'm here. My name is Jody. I am a health
service administrator and I oversee the medical department in the jail. I'm here with Nancy Lauraniano. She's our physician assistant and our health authority and Michelle Brennan who is our director of nursing. And I just want to briefly touch on what is typically
not really thought about um is the medical care for inmates while in corrections. Uh our department is comprised of 26 individuals. I'll say that again. 26. Uh, and we service over 500 inmates,
um, medical and mental providers. I have a LCSSW, behavioral health counselor, case manager, medication assisted treatment nurse, as well as registered nurses and licensed practical nurses. Um, all who work very hard to meet the needs of a very challenging population.
As you can imagine, our inmates range from low to high level offenders and similarly their medical needs range from minute to very significant. Patient acuity presents a growing challenge. An increased number of incarcerated individuals are entering
the system with acute injuries, serious illnesses, or unmanaged chronic conditions. The unfortunate reality is many of them, especially those with mental health issues, have been numbing their pain with the use of illegal substances while on the streets.
Their life choices have putting put them at risk for communicable diseases, and some have experienced a decline in health well before their arrests. Those with alcohol or drug addiction have not been seen by a health care provider in many years. Others may have
sustained injuries which caused their uh arrest, others during the arrest. So we see see our our share of lacerations, sprains, abscesses, wounds and and other things like that. But it's not just the minor issues we see. Some
examples of significant health conditions we've identified and managed include cancer, endocarditis, lymphoma, disitis, myioardial inffections, endstage kidney disease, diabetic ketoacidosis,
sepsis, hypertensive crisis and everything that goes along with addiction um which is withdrawal, seizures and severe dehydration. We also manage chronic conditions like I said such as lung disease and heart disease and hypertension and let's not
forget HIV and hepatitis C. Unfortunately those are very common amongst our population and um typically they require medications which are very very costly. Since we've been overseeing the medical
department, services such as withdrawal protocols, communicable disease management, diialysis, x-ray, ultrasound, EKGs, dental care, labs are all being provided on site uh through our own staff who receive uh specific
training, competency based training as well as thirdparty vendors. Mental health presents its own challenge. Uh last month alone about 11% of our jail population was under specialized mental health watch. This includes individuals
experiencing acute psychiatric symptoms such as active psychosis, paranoia, combiveness, auditory and visual hallucinations. Others are placed under special risk observation after expressing suicidal thoughts and tendencies. These
individuals require 24-hour monitoring by deputy staff to ensure safety along with daily checks by our medical team. Not to mention the expenses expensive use of psychotropic medications. To put this in perspective, last year our
mental health department provided over 4,700 face-to-face sessions, including mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, crisis response, and psychiatric interventions and evaluations. One of our most impactful initiatives is a group program called
Within These Walls, which provides an opportunity for incarcerated individuals to have um therapy through music, poetry, and other forms of expression. We're proud that in the three and a half years we've provided care in the jail, we've seen an undisputed improvement in
the standard of care. I'd like to share some data to quantify just how successful we've been. Between 2019 and 2021, prior to us taking over the medical department, there were 417 emergency room transfers from the jail.
Since assuming operational control of medical, that number is 207 patients in the last three years, 49.6% decreased transfers to the hospital. Our team's ability to identify and recognize early changes in patient conditions and
implement timely appropriate interventions has been a key factor in avoiding patient decline in reducing ER transfers. A comprehensive receiving screen, access to vital medical equipment and supplies and resources
have also contributed to that success. Again, between 2019 and 21, over 4,000 psychiatric evaluations were done. However, since our team took over, we have had a 48% increase with face-to-face mental health support,
counseling, and and services. As important as it is for us to provide a good standard of care, it is just as important as for us to be fiscally responsible with our county dollars. In 2022, we partnered with HealthyM for
communicable disease management and thrive for substance use disorder treatment. Our partners have elevated the standard of care with us while reducing costpayer money or cost to taxpayers through the support of their grant-f funded programs. For example,
grant dollars through HealthyM covers costs for screening, testing, and treatment of patients with hepatitis C. A three-month treatment would run us the taxpayers between 22 and $95,000. The cost of a Vivitrol injection, which
prevents relapse in individuals with opioid or alcohol dependence, is anywhere between $1,000 and $2,200 per month per patient. The partnerships with both these organizations have contributed to a 46% decrease in our pharmacy costs over the
last three years. We are also working on future grant initiatives that will allow us to extan expand our medicationass assisted treatment program through a partnership with Central Florida treatment center. All these partners provide released
inmates with an opportunity to stay on task on program and to avoid a trip back to the jail. I've been able to share our accomplishments, but I'd like to emphasize how far we have yet to go. As of October 125, our amazing medical team
has become part of the Indian River County Sheriff's Office, and we're very proud to be a part of this organization. We are so passionate about the task at hand, and we have some amazing plans ahead of us. We are um however, the funding cuts that are proposed have the
potential to stifle the progress that we've made as a county correctional facility and as a community. Future plans include a more robust medicationass assisted treatment program that will combine medications with counseling and behavioral health services to provide a whole patient uh
centered approach to treating substance use disorders. Plans also include an expansion of our case management program for improved linkage to community medical and behavioral health services as well as an infirmary that is much
needed in the jail. Our goal is to attain accreditation through the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. Achieving standards through NCCHC improves health outcomes in incarcerated individuals which can reduce mortality and recidivism and
strengthen operational efficiency and compliance with legal standards. I thank you for the opportunity to speak today. In closing, I'd just like to say it's our people who make our community. Our people make up our county. If we don't invest in their care and their
rehabilitation, what will our community look like? Funding cuts will affect our standard of care. Funding cuts will increase our potential for negative outcomes and litigation, which will result in increased money for the taxpayers. Funding cuts will contribute
to recidivism. And without the funds and the ability to invest in some of these individuals who want to change the trae trajectory of their lives, funding cuts will affect our community. >> Thank you.
>> Good evening. Uh my name is Don Robinson. I'm Marine deputy at the sheriff's office. Just coming to some of the cuts that you guys are talking about, right? Uh my purpose is to emphasize the critical need to maintain the marine unit's operational and maintenance budget to ensure protect pro proactive patrols, life-saving readiness
and maritime security for any river county. Okay. Our boats must remain properly serviced and maintained to ensure immediate response capability. Without this budget, we become more reactive, reducing safety and effectiveness.
In River County has one of the most dangerous inlets in the state of Florida. Okay. Reliable, well-maintained vessels are essential for safe and a timely response. Our coverage area is about 114 square miles of waterway, 22.4 miles of coastline, and our patrols extend 3
miles off the coast, which which is within our jurisdiction. Okay. The county also has 11,045 registered vessels. Our response time right now is about average 20 minutes if our boat's on the lift. If we got rid of
our lift, you're looking triple to quadruple that. Uh it's a 18,000lb boat, 250 gallons of fuel. You're looking at 20,000 lbs. You can't drive that maybe over 60 m an hour, but then you're putting yourself at risk and other people in the community. Okay.
A Coast Guard response time average is about 1 hour. Active patrols have directly saved lives during emergencies. Immediate readiness is vital for water rescues and search and rescue operations. A visible marine presence deters theft, narcotics trafficking, and boating under
the influence. We also serve as a deterrent for illegal immigration. Recent Fort Pierce landing attempt was thwarted by proactive enforcement down there in St. Lucy County. We were involved up here uh having those units on the water attempt or stop the landing
from happening. Well, it happened in the inlet. Everybody was arrested, including uh spotters on land. Regular patrols build public trust, demonstrate readiness and enhance awareness of the sheriff's office capability on the water. Um, the officer from Verbish Police Department, he just left. So,
their one marine deputy is now gone. Uh, Sebastian police department, they have a boat, they don't have a lift. It stays at their station, never moves. So, our boats on the water seven days a week. Conclusion. Right. Eliminating or reducing the marine unit maintenance
budget would endanger public safety, reduce crime deterrence, and response capability in emergencies. Maintaining this funding ensures we remain proactive, prepared, and capable of protecting the people and waterways of any county.
>> Thank you. >> Good evening. >> Evening. Um, my name is John Lozada. I am a one of the pilots for the Iner County Sheriff's Office aviation unit. Uh, this funding is critical for maintaining a safety, reliability, and readiness for all of our helicopters, uh, which are essential for public
missions, including search, rescue, suspect tracking, disaster response. Uh, all of our helicopters must must adhere to FAA manufacturer mandated inspections, and overhaul intervals. These are non-negotiable safety requirements, not optional expenditures.
The current budget supports these scheduled services to ensure the aircraft remains airworthy and mission ready. A reduction in maintenance funds would directly affect aircraft availability and could ground the any helicopter until required inspections and overhauls are completed.
Aviation oil and lubrication materials have increased 15 to 25% cost over the past two years. Specialized parts and labor rates have risen due to limited suppliers and increased demand for our helicopter components. Maintenance costs cannot be deferred without jeopardizing
airworthiness or compliance. Any deferral of these maintenance actions will result in the aircraft being grounded until the funds are restored. I'll give a quick example. The other day I was pre-flighting a helicopter and I noticed that the fuel cap was inoperable. That completely
grounded the aircraft. Uh that could we could not fly it unless it was fixed. We had to spend $3,600 to repair that to make it airworthy again. Okay. Uh the loss of aircraft availability reduces our ability to respond to critical incidents such as missing persons
fleeing suspects or any mutual aid for neighboring counties. Deferred maintenance also increases the risk of component failure and escalates long-term repair costs. These funds are essential for keeping our aircraft safe, compliant, and operational. And maintaining a full funding will preserve
our aviation units readiness and ensure continued service to the citizens of Indian River County. A properly maintained aircraft saves lives, supports deputies on the ground, and protects our community. And I ask for your continued support in ensuring that our helicopters remain airworthy and
mission ready through full maintenance funding. >> My name is Tommy Bird. I'm currently assigned to the Indian River Sheriff's Aviation Unit and have been a pilot there for 10 years. I just want to take a few moments to u explain to you why our aircrafts require maintenance. Uh four main four main factors. Flight
time, which is hour-based. uh that that flight time varies depending on the mission. I personally flew eight hours unfortunately when Miss Tamasi went missing. Uh we we searched and searched but that particular mission took eight hours of flight time. The calendar time that's databased. We we can fund for
items that we know that have to be uh replaced past a certain calendar date. The two things that are most important that we don't know are on condition and cleanliness. So on condition means if we see it and it's in a a need in a need of repair or replacement,
we have to before we take that aircraft in flight, it has to be uh replaced immediately. Flight time and counter time maintenance are mandatory and scheduled according to regulatory and manufacturer requirements. If a mission helicopter is going under
required inspection, the helicopter's out of the picture for for use, no exceptions. Helicopter inspections could be as quick as 1 to 5 days to two to three weeks depending on which inspection is being performed or whether any discrepancies are found. It's at that point it is important to have funds available to to have required parts on
the shelf if any discrepancy is found pre-flight or post-flight. Just a few items are landing lights, instrument lights, cockpit lights, helmet lip lights, helmet ear cups for noise, aviation oils, aviation greases, special window cleaner for pro uh polycarbonate windows, which are a special glass. You
can't use ammonia based items. Uh fully fund full funding would uh ensure all of the items spoken of would be on the shelf ready for use and not delay required repair. Removing funding from any aviation could
cause a delay in response to the call and could have tragic results. Uh the sheriff provided a detailed budget to move forward our agency forward. You cut corners on cakes, not unnecessary funding. Thank you. >> Good evening.
My name is Ryan Edgars. I'm a sergeant here at the Indian River County Sheriff's Office. I'm the current SWAT team commander and have previously served in the capacity as a training unit sergeant. I was hired in July of 2017 by then Sheriff Daryl Lure and I'm
a resident of Indian River County. Uh in uh response to the recommended reductions in the categories of ammo, gas, ordinance, and weapons budgets, uh a couple cost increases with ammunition. 9 millimeter training ammunition uh has
seen a 2.8% cost increase year-over-year since 2022. 9 millimeter duty ammunition has seen a 9.7% cost increase year-over-year from 2023 through 2025. 300 Blackout rifle ammunition has seen a
2 and a.5% cost increase year-over-year also since 2022. As it relates to ordinance, the the hand toss, right, the tear gas munitions, the things that you see on the news, uh we carry OC and we carry CS. The cost for a
single OC trichamber is $5063. The cost for a single CS trichamber is $47.84. 40mm impact munitions. Single co cost for a single 40mimeter OC round is $3155.
The cost for a 40mm CS direct impact round is 3137 per unit. As it relates to weapons and supporting capital purchases, the SWAT team is in the process of purchasing or refurbishing the rifles that we can. They were purchased in 2015. They are 10 years
old. The SWAT team is due. Armor expires every five years. Armor is due this year. The cost of outfitting the SWAT team with armor in 2020, uh, which was manufactured in 2021, was $66,500.
The cost for armor, which has to be purchased this now, this fiscal year as it expires in spring of 2026, is $86,927. the SWAT team uh uniform patrol uh also use drones which haven't been talked a
lot about a lot tonight. Um but in terms of uh overview for high-risisk operations, pre-planning for events and security planning and mapping for locations of elevated risk, right? The unfortunate tragedies that we see on the
news, churches, schools, uh active shooters, attacks at mass attended events. We use a drone software that allows us to do all of those things. It's $9,000 per year per license. As far as operations go with the sheriff's office, again, I was hired in
July of 2017. Since my date of hire, there have been nine officer involved shootings. On average, every 10 months, our deputies are put in a position where they have to use lethal force against a suspect. Since the re-election of President Trump and politically charged events such as
the assassination of Charlie Kirk uh and f reaction to federal immigration policy, you have seen riots and demonstrations all over the county or all over the country. On average, every 3 weeks, we are dealing with some type of protest or demonstration.
Uh so far this year, the SWAT team has been utilized on 54 different operations. That ranges from everything from uh security at events uh to um pre-planned operations, search warrant execution, and uh the most uh high- risk
being criminal barricaded suspects oftent times which are armed. Of those 54, we've had seven activations on those type of individuals. Their charges have ranged from first-degree murder to kidnapping to aggravated assault.
Where ammunition and costs come in, the agency maintains a active training calendar with a goal of deputy shooting across all three uh disciplines, right? Court, corrections, and LE quarterly. When you shoot that much, you expend
tens of thousands of rounds every single year. That also does not include ammunition for outside schools. That also doesn't include ammunition for both of the agency's tactical teams. You have special weapons and tactics on the LE side and you have the emergency response team on the correction side. Both of
those teams train an additional two times a month and shoot in addition to regular inservice training. as it relates to getting our hands on these squirrel supply chain issues. Uh using ordinance, for example, there's approximately a four to six month lead
time on any chemical munition or gas ordinance that's ordered with all of the activity and everything that's going on. That forces us to maintain a stockpile. We can't maintain, you know, enough to handle one incident and then wait four to six months and hope that nothing else
happens. That goes the same for SWAT and that goes for the same for ERT over in the jail. And I'll end on this training, especially in when you're talking about firearms, ordinance, deployment, high liability things, has to be more than mere familiarity. They
have to be to levels of proficiency. Uh I'll go back to the demonstrations, right? Uh if you pay attention to the news, you've seen numerous instances of agencies, both federal and state, being sued for improper application of less lethal munitions. People being shot in
the face or the heads with 40 mm pepper balls. Right? That's where the proficiency comes in. On Saturday, there was a demonstration at 58th and 60. There were 3,200 people in attendance. Up until this point, these protests in the county have or demonstrations have been have been
peaceful. This was the second one in a row where we have had physical fights break out and they affected arrest on an outofcount resident who showed up to our protest and got herself arrested for robbery and went to the county jail. Thank you.
>> Hello, my name is uh James Vetinort. I've been a deputy for Indian County for 14 years. I've uh served in multiple different roles, most of which were active reserve on a volunteer basis at minimal cost if any to inner county. I was appointed commander of medical
training on October 1st, 2024. In the past year, in collaboration with our first responder colleagues at the fire department, we have upgraded our BLS basic life support training to include airway management uh where we now are are a training site under fire rescue.
So, we are our own training site and we're able to issue more advanced training at a cost of $3.30 to the county instead of what we were paying before. We have upgraded our individual first aid kits to include burn gel, eye shields, improved combat gauze, eye and
wound rinse, SWAT tea tourniquets for small limbs like in children. Uh we now include stop the bleed and rapid assessment of triage. Junctional tourniquets are for femoral bleeds and growing bleeds. These are quite expensive. Uh they're almost $400 each.
Uh unfortunately due to budgets uh we've had to uh minimize who we allow to have these. Even though in my opinion every deputy should have a junctional tourniquet. The little combat application tourniquets don't work if you're bleeding from here or ephemeral bleed. We do have them issued currently
to our sergeants and lieutenants on the road, but that's going to be a delay unfortunately. So we've had to figure out a way to have them available as as quickly as possible with some limitations on the budget. You may ask yourself, why so much medical training? Well, the average response time for a
med truck, which I used to be a volunteer for fire rescue for approximately 10 years, um is 5 to seven minutes, and that's an average, assuming that the scene is safe. If the scene is not safe, fire rescue is not allowed to enter the scene. So, we're basically just us.
Um, and that's in a best case scenario. Our deputies are already on the road. They're zoned in places that are closest to the incident that occurs. So that critical time from incident to five minutes is what we're trying to uh take
care of. Irreversible exanguination can occur within three minutes. So if you have a real bleed in three minutes, you're gone if it's femoral. Irreversible brain damage can occur in four minutes and with without oxygen and severe permanent damage can occur in 9
minutes. So why is this so important? because of that 0 to 5 minutes. Our health and wellness uh center right now or team is trying to bridge that gap. Uh we are trying to figure out a best way to improve the chain of
survival. So LE to medics to ER to definitive care. Some quick numbers uh not to bore you but junctional tourniquets are $349. Our new AEDs, which are now have a feedback pad, which means that it'll tell you if you're going deep enough and
fast enough, and it runs the whole code for you. They're very nice, but they cost $3,184. Uh, our batteries are $481. This past year that I've been given this position as a commander of medical training, I've had to move monies
everywhere. I mean from corrections I beg people for monies and sometimes I use my own credit card if I really really have to. So total staff trained approximately in this last year 560 people at the sheriff's office are now trained at BLS airway management uh
first aid and and some of them even have a stop to bleed training. Uh the total county uh civilians that we've trained in ' 04 was 113. We have 14 scheduled next week. We would like to expand all of these programs in an effort to save
lives. That's what we're about with health and wellness. Thank you. Thank you, Doc. >> Good afternoon. My name is Amber Greer and I'm the procurement unit director. I'm going to have more questions than I'm going to have information and it's
genuine concern on where you would like for us to proceed. So, I'm going to address some things that we are already doing to eliminate and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, all those hot topic points. But, I'm going to start with uniforms and clothing. So, you've
recommended a $250,000 deduction in that line item. With those numbers, that will provide us $353,456 to purchase uniforms and clothing for over 400 staff members annually. That
would max us out, max us at three uniforms per person. So, if you've listened to my colleagues talk about how they run through the woods and they have um inmates that throw biohazardous material on them, three uniform
replacements per year. Is that really what we want our deputies to be focused on? I can't go and help after Hurricane Milton and remove debris and tree limbs and help victims out of their homes because I'm worried about ripping my
clothing. I'm worried about tattering or tearing my uniform shirt. I'm worried about losing my radio holster because that as of right now is $129 to replace. Okay. In March of 2025, we had two deputies that had to have their uniforms
replaced while on duty after an altercation with a combative inmate. In June of 2025, a patrol deputy required his uniforms to be replaced after a hazmat incident. He was exposed to fentinol. These are things that we have to consistently consider. What the
spreadsheets don't show you is that we've been in constant communication with our uniform vendors. We anticipated the 25% tariff. That's what our budget included. Okay. So, with that reduction,
we are unable to successfully prepare our staff for incidents that are beyond our control. The next area I'm going to talk about is vehicle and capital. Okay, vehicle equipment. You've recommended $135,000
cut. There's no indication, no detail, no explanation provided in this area. So, the best that I can do is ask, what are your recommendations? Our vehicles run 247. County vehicles for the most part do not run consistently all day, all the time.
uh mobile radios for those patrol vehicles. In 2020, we purchased them for $3,100. They're now $3,700. For the hot and pop for the K9 vehicles in 2020, we purchased those for $3,100.
In 2025, they were 5700. I can go on and on about price increases. the cages for the K9 vehicles, they've doubled. What are your recommendations for us to do? Is the county going to build K9 cages? Can we
get them at a cheaper cost because we can't find them? Um, the last area I have to discuss is radios and equipment. Okay. There's a 13,000 almost $13,000 reduction that is suggested here. Again, no clear response
as to why this recommendation was made. So, I'm going to give you an example. In July of 2025, our warehouse technicians sent a radio to Communications International to repair damaged speaker wire. CI provided a quote for $1,200 to
repair this radio. One of our rockstar employees that does not get paid anywhere near what a certified radio technician was able to complete that repair for $16 with a soldering iron off of Amazon. Okay. But because we did not
complete that work with CI, they build us a $78.50 diagnostic fee. What do you want us to do? Do would you prefer that we go back to outsourcing our radio repairs? Because right now we're doing the utmost, the very best
that we can to reduce our expenditures. What your spreadsheets don't show is how much we've reduced and we've saved from budgeting from repairs from CI across the board. So, if you have any insight, your county, your garages, your your
staff, where you're getting your uniforms from, please let us know because I know your uniform vendor can't match ours. Thank you. deal with that. >> Commissioners, I want to say thank you to our dedicated team. Now, you commissioners have a choice to make.
Fund our budget to meet the needs of our community or tell us why you refuse to do so. If you won't fund us, then say the hard thing out loud. Say you vote to not provide us with the money we need to purchase ammo, fuel, food for inmates, food for canines, and so much more. Say
it out loud in front of God and all the people here and all the people watching at home that you agree with county administrators John Canich's recommended cuts to my budget. It's easy to say all year long you support law enforcement, but you will show your true colors by saying the hard thing out loud here
tonight. Thank you. [Applause] >> Sure. Just one clarification,
sir. We're not cutting your your budget. >> Cut my request. >> Cut the request. >> Cut my request. >> And and and I and I just want you to know that, you know, when we realize that numbers go up, cost of
doing business goes up. This is not a budget hearing. Okay, this is the official delivery of the information recommended as per statute guidelines
to where we can move that you still have the capacity to move your funding as you so desire. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Does that conclude your presentation? >> That concludes my presentation. Thank you.
>> Okay. Is there anyone else that uh wishes to uh speak or >> commissioner if I may for a point of order because this is a public hearing we want to make sure that we allow as we said the public to speak is there anything else you would like to say is
that the public speaking >> well once again I see there's uh ample attendance and uh again it's it's it's been a meeting quite so far and I anticipate that uh there will be many that will speak. So, please limit your
uh statements to exactly why we're here and uh we can try to keep it under three minutes so that everybody has the ample opportunity to be able to speak. >> Mr. Chairman, >> that was nice.
>> Thank you for the opportunity to speak. You said in your opening comments that this meeting today is >> name and address for the record. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Joanne Barnhard live in Vero Beach. >> Um, you said in your opening remarks that this this meeting today is about
clarification. And I and I appreciate that. And to that end, I want to address something that I think has not been made clear. And I say that having attended all of the meetings you had, the budget workshops, the meetings addressing the budget, uh um
and attending the meeting at the taxpayer association board that we had with you and the county the county administrator. We keep hearing about this 8.7% increase.
What we do not hear is the percentage increase for operating expenses. Having attended all of those meetings and looked at the many charts that the and also having poured over the budget at it three times and looked at the many charts that the county administrator has
provided. It it appears to me that the increase, the 8.7% increase is being used to fund increases in pay for the deputies and the civilian staff. If that's the fact,
then that leaves absolutely zero for increased operating expenses. I did some checking and the uh Census Bureau for the United States is projecting a 2.8% 8% cost of living adjustment next year for social security which is you know
calculates cost of living increases um increases in the country and top economists project that inflation will be somewhere around 2.8% or 3%. So, if you subtract out the money that you've
allocated for increasing the deputy and the civilian pay and you multiply the remainder by 3% just for simplicity sake, you come up with $2.4 million
increase operating expenses. So, by the math, and I I did it sitting here today looking at the administrator's charts again and and um listening to the various people who were speaking, but by the math, the sheriff starts off at
least $2.4 million short because he has no increase whatsoever for operating expenses. And then having listened to the presentations that we just listened to, and I want to commend his the sheriff's staff because I think they all did a really superb job um in in trying
to be clear in explaining the effect that the uh county administrator's reductions would have on the office. But listening to them, particularly the gentleman, the deputy spoke uh most recently, the 2.4% increase or 2.8% 8% increase is
a far cry from the kinds of increases they're looking at for ammunition and u and armor and those kinds of things. So, respectfully, I request that when when you and the county administrator talk about giving
the sheriff an 8.7% increase, which you are, that you make it clear that that increase >> Thank you, Miss B. >> is to be used for deputies. >> Appreciate you. and and civilian pay. I have one last thing to say, Mr. Chairman. I want to leave you all with one of my favorite quotes from
Powell, who was the former Secretary of State, and he said, "Leadership is the art of accomplishing what the science of management says is impossible." And I want to commend Sheriff Flowers on his leadership.
No, this is not a sporting event. Once again, thank you. We appreciate Hi, good evening. My name is Tony Conselo. I want to start by saying I don't believe any of the county commissioners do not support law enforcement. I'm going to start with that.
But with that said, I stand before you today. I'm dismayed and and agitated that we're even here today. Okay. How Let me explain. I don't understand how it all started. You know, I think it's due to a lack of honesty and transparency by the board. And I'm going to explain that. You know, during one of
the very first board meetings, there was a statement raised that the board has not raised taxes. That was an untrue statement. You have not raised the millage rate, but you raised taxes. You need to be transparent and honest about what you're saying to your constituents. It was said, and you were the one that
said it, chairman. Okay. Next, when both civilian uh employees and swore officers began speaking about their hardships, those were dismissed by the chairman as being untrue. He even claimed that he had to fish to feed his family when he started working. I have a public records request right now to see if you had a
fishing license when you first started. It's not back yet, but I promise you when it's released, I'll let you all know. The next is when the administrator gave himself a raise that was not approved by the board. However, he advised he spoke to each and every one of you. But during
that hearing, some of you said he did not say anything to you and somebody said I told you no that you weren't entitled to that raise. Who goes to an attorney and asks them if they're eligible for a raise? It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. The next during another meeting there
was an idea that was presented that the entire budget be request I'm sorry that the entire budget be funded by utilizing county reserves. The county administrator talked about how much reserves were in the county fund, the general fund, and the
municipal fund. And there was determined that there wasn't enough in the budget to do that. Nobody talked about the over $600 million in reserves that this county has other funds. Do you know the actual number, administrator, of how much money is in
the county funds that weren't mentioned during these meetings? >> No, just not interrupatory. It's non-interogatory. It's just your opportunity to be able to >> So, I'm just asking I'll make a public request for that, too. Don't worry about it. >> So, I asked, was that statement taken
seriously? Were you really intended to fund it with the reserves or was that just to kind of make up for other statements that were made? My question, oh, and then in the last meeting when you guys came to the final budget and how much you were going to do, I asked I stood right there and
said, "Are you going to allow for public input now?" Because my question would have been, "What have you cut from the budget?" And you said, "No, commissioner." You said, "No, we're not taking any public input." So maybe that's why we're having this meeting today. This community deserves better. >> True.
>> Play it back. Listen to that last meeting. If I was standing right there and asked if I could make a comment and you said, "No, this community deserves better." And thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Chance Martin,
Senior. Um, I live in Vero Beach. I moved here 10 years ago from um the state of Connecticut. Um, I am a retired lieutenant from the Department of Corrections in the state of Connecticut. >> Thank you. >> Um, I have a whole family that worked in Department of Corrections in
Connecticut. Um, brother, sister, another brother retired as a warden. Um, my father's retired firefighter from Connecticut. My nephew is a firefighter. My son is a state cop and my son-in-law is a state cop. So, it runs in the
blood. So, I'm here to protect and hope you guys understand what this badge means. All right? Because I've lived it. And all these people in this room and all these people are watching that are in
this business to be first responders are living it. So, I know many concerns have been brought up by people that come with spoke. Um, but in my mind, if you don't or you're not part of law enforcement,
you're not part of the military, you don't understand. And no offense to anybody, there is just a part of us and what we do and how we do our job and how we live our life. And when it comes to this county, these families of these
sheriff's office, they deal with the stress, but also these people are putting their lives on the line every day. Murders, burglaries, name it, and then they got to come home to their families and talk to them about it because it's hard to deal with. Um,
the shar uh I'm sorry. Well, let's me let me just let me just kind of close up. Bottom line is I think you all got lost. You got lost in this whole budget thing, okay? And it's your responsibility. In other words, what you did with our taxpayer money, you got
lost somewhere because funding law enforcement, and I'm not saying you're defunding it because I will not say that word, but not funding it for what he needs compared to the other money you people spent is like taking change out of my Jeep and
going to the bank with it. That's that's what he's asking for. The change in my ashtray and you can't give him that. That is a failure. You have failed the taxpayers. You have failed the badge.
And to me, it's shameful. And lastly, I'll just say I got 19 seconds that I hope you take this seriously because I know there's a lot going on right now with this whole thing, but
again, to me, it's pennies on the dollar. I wear this shirt proud. Connecticut team cuz I was there and I know you two of you guys were there too and that badge means everything. Thank you for hearing me out and thank you for
being coming back from your break on a timely manner. >> Okay. >> Evening. I'm Michelle Raspulli. I've been employed with the Indian County Sheriff's Office for almost 10 years now. I'm also an Inver County resident. The county originally had a great
opportunity to work cohesively with the sheriff's office. Yet, you made the decision to restrict our funding and demanding exactly where the funds should be stripped from. I hope you understand that the consequences of your decisions won't be immediately evident. You all
make decisions under no real urgency or imminent threat to your life or the lives of others. while in your climate controlled office, in your comfy chair, enjoying a cup of coffee. Meanwhile, sworn law enforcement is expected to make split-second
life-changing decisions where the consequences or rewards of their decisions are typically revealed shortly after, if not immediately. The consequences of your decisions may sometimes go unnoticed. for example, a K9 deputy being forced to cover the cost
of dog food or for a life-saving vet bill. However, I assure you the consequences of your decisions won't go unnoticed when the life of a deputy is lost on the account we couldn't afford to supply them with more ammunition
or a rifle plate insert for their vest. Clearly, there are a number of other very predictable consequences that I could list. However, I know we don't have that kind of time. But in the words of Gordon Graham, if it's predictable,
it's preventable. And with all of that being said, just because you can doesn't mean you should. Thank you. >> Good evening, Indian River County Commissioners. My name is Pearl McKenzie and my son is part of the Indian River
County Sheriff's Department and he comes from a from a family of many law officers. My dad was a policeman. He has an uncle that was a policeman. And I'm here for two reasons. for my son and my
grandson who's here because he has a merit badge that he's trying to attempt to do and it's called Citizen in the Nation. Okay. My son desire is to say serve and
save lives. He has three children, two who will soon need to go to daycare and daycare is very very expensive and he has had many many stressful
nights and he's come to me and I just said to him, "Son, move on. Go to the next police agency." Port St. Lucy pays a good amount of money. Martin County pays a good amount
of money and West Palm Beach County which I was born. I said you can always go there and work. Fortunately for me, my retirement is in place. I continue to work to help him out. My
message to the Indian River County Commissioners, increase the pay. It it will and may make the difference between lives usefulness and of the Indian River County Sheriff
Department. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Lolita Jenkee and I've been a resident of this community for uh well over 25 years. In the past year and something, I have
attended almost every uh board of commissioner meetings. >> I am very sorry that our esteemed sheriff left after before he could hear
what the rest of the people were going to say. I definitely respect all those who put their lives on the life for us in our community and in our nation.
This I don't think this whole thing has blown out of proportion. Had we started this earlier, this discussion, this nitty-gritty in public, today I learned
the most about what our sheriff's department did. I mean, I was so amazed at everything. I mean, we know how much they do, but each one giving a report to us, I wanted to sh, you know, I wanted
to clap and thank them. So, this is not about us not wanting to support the sheriff's department. This is who can we take money from the community and give to them?
Who can we penalize? And I sit here and I watch. I have no axe to grind in this. I have no dog in the bone. I'm retired. I am just here coming for the meetings to make our county commissioners accountable so they
know that somebody is following. So I'm asking y'all, I mean, who can we cut? Which nonprofit can we take money from? Oh, I I talk to women and people.
Everybody's hurting. Everybody wants more pay. Everybody doesn't have uh money for uh to go to the doctor. The needs are tremendous. And it is so sad that we can't take care of everyone as they deserve.
But please, let's not divide our community and say the commissioners don't want to do something. Maybe there's another way of saying how can we work this out? Who can we take the money from?
Because I was at the meetings when they were deciding should we take the money that we've got in reserve and what are the consequences of taking the money out of reserve should there be a problem in the community should there be a hurricane.
So this is not that we don't respect. This is how do we work together to support each other. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Jeff Andrews, county resident. >> Um I just wanted to to address a couple
things I heard during the uh county administrator's presentation. Um, we heard a lot about ways the sheriff's office cannot get the money they requested slash need. One thing I did not hear was how the county administrator tried to get them the
money they requested or need. It was all about how we can't give it. There's no money there. I think we need to look at credibility. During the beginning of the budget season when negotiations were supposed to be done, the county administrator in the dead of night was organizing a raise
for himself, which he wrote down. I'm not going to tell the I'll tell the commissioners later. It's all there. Come to find out, the county attorney was in on it, too. They both got two raises now. And you guys made him give the money back for a little bit, but gave back to them anyway. There's been
so many coverups >> in this county lately. Everything from the uh the cleaning people that ran around your offices that was covered up. We have plenty of money to give golden parachutes to employees who uh got some
felony charges who may be friends with certain brass up there. We have money now to take care of a county vehicle that got submerged in a uh covert because somebody was taking a joy ride that uh Oh, that's right. That didn't come out yet. um
that we that person's getting a golden parachute. I mean, can you really the the letter the reason we're here is because there's a letter that was not done properly. It wasn't done during the workshop. It wasn't done during the budget meetings. It was done days later which kicked off a lawsuit and that's
why you held this meeting today. If the letter was done on time, we would not be here. I don't think anybody can disagree with me on that. But I have to ask all of you commissioners, seriously think about it because I asked you the last time I spoke, what is the ceiling for this county administrator? Is there a
ceiling here for what he can do wrong? I don't believe these negotiations were ever in good faith. Um, there's a lot more now with these consultants, too. All of a sudden, it's the first time I've seen this presentation about how the consultant
spending is not my fault. He says, which coincides with the recent Ray McNelte article. Haven't seen it. I've made public records request what, Miss Pra? Five, six months ago for all the consultants. I did it with you. They just started fulfilling them. There's something that was left out of this. I don't know about all the spending,
though. The addendums. Well, I'm looking through those records now. That's where the fund's going to be. the addendums. But again, commissioners, I do not believe negotiations were done in good faith. When you have somebody more worried about giving themselves a raise
that y'all had to take back rather than fund our first responders, there's a problem in this county. Thank you. >> Hi, Thomas Kenny. Uh live in Southwest 2016 13th Avenue. Um,
Mr. Tanich in his presentation said that the increase was 28%. Can you correct me on that if I'm wrong, county administrator, over the last five years? So, was it 28% or 28 million and 29%? I can't remember exactly. It was a It's
been a long evening. >> 50% increase. >> 29 million. >> Okay. Just so you know, 21 4.7 22 8 23 4.1 243 25 2.4 and were
projected according to Miss uh Barnhard 2.8. These are your consumer price index increases since the sheriff has taken his position, 23%. So you have a huge
influx of costs. Everything you've given them, the 21 or 28 29 million over the last five years, it's gone. It's gone in costs. It's just gone. Whether that's uh cost of living raises, increases with
costs, all those is gone. It's gone because the costs are skyrocketing. Now they've they're going to come down. there the rate of increase is slowing but during his time it did not. Now you guys have sat around here and said you
know we got to look at the forecasting economically and all these different things. You never accounted for this inflation never did in this stuff. So now you not have you have serious compression on his uh giving raises or or just
bringing people up to the level that they can survive in this type of environment. And that's just reality and that's something no one thought of. Now I I applaud the sheriff for trying
to get the process proper. When you read 3049, it's a two-way street of accountability about how this is going. So, you look at the proposed budget and if you make amendments, you have to give it to them in writing. But it's supposed to be done at a public hearing, which you're calling this tonight. And all of
his people came down here. Actually, this is supposed to happen when the millage rate was assigned. Then they were supposed to come here that evening with all these things and say, "Hey, don't cut this. Don't cut that. Maybe we could do this. Maybe we could do that." But no, we're doing it here on a meeting
that was announced uh around October 9th or 10th as far as I can tell. Normally these uh public meetings have a 28 day lead time. Now to go back to your cost of living increases and and the inflation,
there's a committee here that's gotten 12 to 15% for the last three years called SEESAC. >> Thank you, Mr. Caddy. >> Good evening, commissioners. Thank you for hearing us tonight. My name is Lamar Noter Jakamo. I live in Vero Beach. I can't help but notice that the TV
cameras are gone and we're no longer recording, which is a shame because I really think that is the recording on. >> Okay, I'm not seeing anything. Okay. All right. Very good. Well, thank you. I stand corrected. Um, I just wanted to point out that Florida's uh CFO Bla1
Angolia has repeatedly argued that when the tax base increases due to rising property values, local government should decrease tax rates to prevent an increased financial burden on residents. But I wanted to thank um Joanne Barnhart
for stating the obvious is that after um the sheriff and his staff came up here and laid everything out in detail, uh I think that there is money in the county commission uh for their needs. And I believe like Joanne Barnhart
stated that they need more money, not less. So, I would hope that you would put public safety first above all the other things that you spend money on. That's already been detailed by other people. I won't go there now, but there's a lot of places that you could
find the money to give the sheriff proper funding. And also, I've noticed that you have a state-of-the-art facility here and the school board 7.3 million, however long ago, that was about 10 years ago. Uh the sheriff's office to my knowledge has never been
updated and so uh we need to give them everything they asked for and more in my opinion because public safety comes before everything else. So thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Uh Rob McCllum
Vero Beach. I'll keep my click because I just hear numbers and numbers and numbers. I want to make sure that, you know, we don't lose sight of the fact that these are humans that are working in our county to protect us and want to make sure that we want to when we're making these decisions, they have to
eat, they have to put food on their table, they have to go to school, they have to pay for daycare, they have all these other expenses that we as, you know, as you know, citizens have, but they are also needing to do all this stuff when they could just go to other
counties, make 20, $30,000 more. So, we want to make sure as a business decision, are we keeping our top employees and are we paying them a competitive wage? That's my main focus that I want to make sure that we don't lose sight of because we've set I mean, I'm a business guy. I really like
numbers. I'm kind of a geek for numbers, but I'm even like my head's like, what is going on? So, I want to make sure that, you know, we don't lose sight of at the end of the day, we're making decisions right now on a budget that is essentially talking about, you know, helping our patrol people out there do
their job and make sure that they can live in our community and contribute in our community in positive ways. As a business owner, if my employees are happy, my business is going, it's running smoothly, it's doing everything it needs to do, and everything is just a lot better, welloiled machine. So, just
want to make sure that we don't lose sight of the fact that there's humans at the end of these numbers that we're really trying to take care of. So, that's my two cents and I did it in under a minute and a half. So, thank you. >> Thank you, M. McCall. >> Good evening. Michael Sears, Indian
River County. You heard from all these amazing divisions. You know who you didn't hear from tonight? You didn't hear from your explorers, all those advisers. You know why? It's Monday night. They're teaching baby Serenity, I'm sorry, Lieutenant Serenity to make sure when she wants to go in law enforcement, she can. So, they couldn't
be here tonight, but Papa Bear is. Let's go over a couple things. Body cams. I heard about Axon. That was music to my ears. I screamed about body cams for any M County Sheriff's Office. Couldn't get a meeting till Sheriff Flowers came in. Accountability, accessibility, and
transparency did not exist. It was a good old boy system. You heard it over and over. Sheriff Flowers inherited a mess. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this single father turned his mess to his message. Commissioner Lure. And you know
something? I was attacked. But you can't keep a good guy down. Unfortunately, Sheriff Flowers came in new under sheriff. A darn. I'm going to miss under sheriff Harper. But let's keep the main thing. The main thing. A wise man once said that. Re-entry, combating
recidivism. That has been done day one since Sheriff Flowers came in. You guys know about the farm. You know the female inmates are out there. You I I can't even imagine about these cuts. When you talk about mental health, the mental health of law enforcement, the
mental health of these inmates being out there on the road, and you know, a couple other things. Unfortunately, I got a little nervous tonight because Copville was in the building, so I'm I'm trying to compose myself. But for those haters, one at Rock Road that the
$100,000 pack didn't quite work out for, and for the other one that has family that works at the sheriff's office, it's amazing. The tabloids, how do you guys speak? And not always, but how do you guys speak to these clowns in the media, not the real media, Sebastian Daly over
there, but Mr. Chair, you taught me something. There's a workhorse and a showor. My sheriff is a workhorse. Commissioner Flesher. And lastly, shirts. I wear a lot of shirts. I don't know where Tom Lawler is. I don't know
if I'm gonna do Consalo or Flesher, but it's right around the corner. Ladies and gentlemen, people are listening. This is ridiculous. Remember what Sheriff Flowers says. You're not funding him. You're you're not giving him any more money. His is set by the state. So,
let's remember these men and women that you got to hear from tonight. And that was the best one. I remember sitting here in a budget meeting and listening to machine guns for booking, but we've come a long way, right? So, ladies and gentlemen, let's keep the main thing. The main thing. And as my friend Wilford
always tells me, Psalms 27, that's what I'm reading right now, ladies and gentlemen. And Frog Lake Festival's right around the corner. Good night, guys. >> Thank you, Mr. Mos. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [Music] >> Good evening. My name is Doug McKenzie.
Most of y'all know me. Retired. It's been almost a year now. Pretty amazing. Uh 36 years law enforcement for the In County Sheriff's Office. I want you all to remember something. 36 years. When I first started here, there was one deputy, maybe two deputies
working South County, State Road 60, maybe one or two North County, and a sergeant. That's all we had back then. We're talking late 80s. We're now where we have what probably almost 25 to 30 people working a night. All these people
that are working right now. I've sat in those meetings with you guys over the years. The MO meetings, all these different meetings that I've sat in. We have a a growth in this county that has ballooned
up to where it's insane. Oslo Road is getting ready to get that new interchange. I just went down 43rd Avenue the other day, South County. We have a whole new subdivisions getting ready to go in down there. What's that traffic going to be like? What's Oslo Road going to be like?
What is the subdivisions that are getting ready to go out west of town on State Road 60? When those go into into play, what about the ones in the Sebastian area, all they're going to go into play? All the traffic that's getting ready to come into this county. What are you going to do about that? Cuz
right now, I don't see anything getting done about it. No one really cares. We're out there with gold shovels making digging holes so we can get the construction going. But what is going to happen when this when because my children now on the road, my children
are now driving just like you guys all had your children growing up. Mine now out there. I've taken pride I took pride in it especially with you Sheriff Laur. I took pride in the traffic unit and made that traffic unit to where it was
just me. There was a time where we didn't have any raises. We didn't get any raises and you had just me in that unit as the only traffic homicide investigator in Indie River County for a little while. And I but and I prided myself on it. I still pride myself on that.
>> I sit here today and I want you all to think that that agency right now has three deputies. When I left the unit a year ago, there was six unit six deputies and a me. Now, there's three and a sergeant, but only three of those
guys are traffic homicide investigators. They're out there patrolling. They're out there working their butts off. Those guys, you hardly ever see them out there on their bikes anymore. You hardly ever because they're filling in zones. They're having to fill in the places that they don't need to be. They need to be out here doing the enforcement. They
need to be out here doing the work. Right now, you don't have that. What's going to happen when Oslo Road opens? What's going to happen when those subdivisions get built? You know what's going to happen. All of you are going to be calling the sheriff. Hey, I need the help out there controlling the traffic.
I'm getting all these people complaining about it. You know it and I know it because I've received those phone calls. That's all I got to say. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Good to be last. Hi, Kevin. Uh Ver Beach
resident, uh 28year Navy captain. Um, I understand budgets, uh, but I am new to this argument. A social media post brought me in here to figure out what was going on. So, couple questions. I'm just trying to understand what I heard
tonight. First, I'd like to thank all those of you who are serving the community on the board who are uh, civil servants and our first responders. I understand that that is a thankless job and all of you are dealing with the thanklessness right now. Um, what I
heard tonight, uh, is that the sheriff's department in received an 8.7% increase. What I didn't hear tonight is what that increase is based on and what the needs and requirements are for the department. I didn't hear anything
about crime statistics. Are they going up? Are they going down? I didn't hear anything about base pay, where we are within the state, with where we are within the country. I heard a lot of anecdotal information, but I didn't hear any real metrics that drive
requirements, which is how budgeting actually works. I also didn't hear about other departments, education, public works, whether or not they're taking hits. And none of these are hits. Apparently, we're going up. We're just
complaining or or not necessarily complaining, excuse me, it's a bad word, but we're having a disagreement it sounds like on how much it should go up and it should be based on metrics and requirements. And I didn't see any of that here. If I'd seen this in a in a
DoD budget review, we wouldn't sent out the room, come back with your facts. So, I I really don't even now understand where we are in this county when it comes to law enforcement. Are we less safe, more safe? Where we
were 10 years ago, 5 years ago, those have been nice to hear. It sounds overall, and I I I I won't repeat what people have said, but if needs aren't being met, either we're going to have to increase taxes
or save money somewhere else. So, it sounds like the budget process for this particular department went arry somewhere or else I wouldn't be at this meeting and I wouldn't have seen a social media post I thought I'd never see coming from Indian
River County. I I don't know can offer any kind of suggestion other than I just want to know did I hear what I heard tonight which was more of an airing of grievances between two factions and when
can I come to another meeting and hear requirements metrics and understanding the state and the health of our law enforcement in this county. Thank you. Mr. Chair, commissioners, good evening. My name is Adam Federman. I'm the general counsel for the sheriff. Uh had
I known I was playing cleanup tonight, I would have put on a tie and I apologize that I am not properly attired for you. I have been representing sheriffs for 20 years come this February. And I've had the pleasure of representing six, including Sheriff Flowers. Uh even spent an interim time representing Sheriff
Lure and I'm proud to do so. And it is uh been a marker of my career to be able to do this. I love seeing democracy in action like I have tonight. And I have to tell you, of all the county commission meetings I've attended across the Treasure Coast, you have the mo
Indian River County has the the most educated electorate I have witnessed firsthand. Um you should be proud regardless of what the outcome is tonight. This is the first time that I've seen a budget dispute get to this point, and it's unfortunate, but you heard the presentations tonight from the
sheriff and his team, and literally every single bit of the budget is critical. There's nowhere that you hear to cut. And I understand that we're talking about a reduction from his request and not a cut. I understand the semantics. But your attorney can advise
you if you don't want to believe me as to the standard upon which you will be judged if and when we have to file an appeal with the state. And that is arbitrary and capricious. And I want to define those terms that arbitrary means that it is not supported by fact or logic. Capricious meaning that is made
without thought or reason. And Mr. Tatkanich presented his made his presentation tonight. I'm making a public records request for that PowerPoint presentation, please. and he presented the same numbers that he did in the letter that he sent us with no justifications. And I am hoping that
before you leave tonight, you will provide us with those justifications. We do not want to proceed with the lawsuit. We do not want to proceed with an appeal to the governor, but we will do the things necessary that we are permitted to under the law and that we have an obligation to under
the law. And you have the obligation, folks, and I understand the difficult position that you are in, but you have an obligation to tell us the facts and logic that support the reductions of the sheriff's budget. You have the obligation to provide us the thinking
and reasoning behind that. And we have seen none of that. That is why we are here tonight. Mr. Chair, you said this is not a budget hearing. You have the opportunity for it to be so. You can amend a sheriff's budget anytime you'd like. That's why you have an
opportunity for it to be so. But you've chosen not to. And you're looking at this, and I'm just taking this from the words that you've shared, as a check the box because we sued you and demanded that this type of hearing occur. But you have the opportunity to make this right.
And so I will hope that a you will fund the sheriff's budget to the request that he has made. Secondarily, if you cannot do that, provide us the thinking and reasoning. Provide us the facts and logic behind your decision. Thank you for your
service and your difficult job that you do. >> Thank you, council. >> One last thing, the sheriff is still here. He is listening in the lobby. >> If if I may, Commissioner, I would ask a point of clarification from counselor Federman. What portion of the statute are you citing that it says that we have
to give the specific logic and reasoning for the position that you have taken that I can see from the actual language that is word for word verbatim from the Florida statute is the board or commission must give written notice of its action to the sheriff and specifying such notice the specific items amended
modified increased or reduced where and there does it say that we are required to provide the logic or the reasoning >> if you look at the Ford administrative code that governs the appeals process. What I said what I said was that the manner in which you will be judged at
the appeals process is on the standard of arbitrary or capricious. And if you read the Ford administrative code that appeals to that applies to the appeals process, that is where it clearly states that these are the that that's the obligation that you have. >> But you will agree with me that that's not the thing that you cited in the
lawsuit which the sheriff filed. Correct. Oh, because that's that lawsuit was a mandamus action to force you to do your jobs to do the thing that you are that you are commanded to do under 30.49 which was to hold a public hearing at
the millillage setting setting forth the manner in which you are amending, modifying, increasing or decreasing the sheriff's budget. You did not do that. That was the basis for the mandamus action. We have two separate tracks that are occurring here. We have the mandamus action uh track that is occurring to
hold you accountable for frankly your failures under 30.49 and we have the appeals process that will also occur that will seek to have the administration commission make a decision as to where the sheriff's office should be funded if you cannot
arrive at the right funding. >> Did the sheriff ever call anybody here to ask for anything to be amended prior to filing that suit? >> Oh, as a matter of fact, I believe he did. I don't know the exact the actual days, but I do know that a a um an amendment was sent over to the chairman
uh requesting some items be placed on a uh commission agenda and there was crickets. >> It's on tomorrow's agenda. >> No, but there were crickets for quite some time until Thank you.
>> It was not and it is on tomorrow's agenda. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> That request was made on October 1st. >> Yes, that's that's correct. I believe it was made on October 1st and I believe that predates the filing of the mandamus action
>> and it it missed it missed the printing of the agenda and it then was placed on the very next agenda available which is tomorrow. >> I appreciate that, Mr. Chair. I was simply answering councily. >> That's fine. I was answering council's
question that but we we were responsive council. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Any administrator? Yes, Mr. Chairman. >> So, Mr. Chairman, I'm not sure I have much to add. I know we provided detail
and we were kind of chastised in the uh in the actual lawsuit for providing detail. And so we've gone back and we provided at the object level which is require that that was stated in the the brief and and in the statute. Uh, we
thought the information we provided before was sufficient to provide the sheriff and I actually personally asked the sheriff at lunch if there's any information that he needs that he does not have, let me know and we'll provide it
because we didn't think the lawsuit was necessary for the purposes of we just felt it was a waste of taxpayers dollars. So with that uh our our we have completed you know everything that's required by statute. The sheriff, you
have recommended a $6,861,517 increase to his budget, which is 8.7%. Those are there's the three categories around the object codes and the percent increases and the revised amounts. Uh these are the more specific items that were considered. And just to go by to to
share uh as as noted in the initial letter, uh we looked at three and fiveyear trends. We looked at last year's budgets compared to this year's budgets uh in terms of making consideration and uh recommendations
and so and then we looked at the documents they provided us. I mean by own admission today by the CFO they now have the full Axon agreement which is $1.7 million not something that was provided to me back in September. So
with that being the case uh I don't have any change. I recommend that you approve the specific object level reductions to the sheriff's FY2526 budget request and we issue the sheriff a revised written notice board of action. >> Thank you,
>> commissioners. >> Mr. Chair, if there's no um further discussion from the commission, I will make a motion that we approve the specific object level reductions to the sheriff's fiscal year 2526 budget request and issue the sheriff the
written notice of board action. >> Second. >> That's a motion by Commissioner Adams, seconded by Vice Chairman Law. Is there any further discussion? Councelor, >> if I may, I just want to verify, did we
close the public hearing, Mr. Chair? >> Uh, we did not open the public hearing. Uh, this was, uh, this was an opportunity for the public to speak. So, I did not gavvel it to open it nor to close it. >> Thank you, Commissioner. But everyone
had the opport anybody who wished to speak spoke and they were not uh treated as a quasi judicial hearing where we uh had people sworn in. So at this point uh
we left it open to everyone and anyone who wished to speak with the time limitation. Some went over but we heard from all that wish to. I believe we did. Thank you.
So, we have a motion on the floor and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries unanimously. 50.
That concludes this meeting. Thank you.