We're just trying. >> Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We will call February 24th, 2026 Board of County Commission meeting to order. Uh, please note that Commissioner Adams is absent today. She is representing the county and
Washington DC and we do appreciate her that. Uh we will start this morning with the invocation by Mr. Dale Glatting of Risktakers for Christ. And prior to that, we will show our respect, a moment of silence for first responders and law
enforcement. Following the invocation, Commissioner Flesher will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Please rise. Thank you. Father God, the scripture reminds us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so, Lord, because our commissioners need wisdom to
govern us rightly and fairly and justly. We pray that you would give them a supernatural and irreverential fear of the Lord. Father God, we just pray pray that you would bless them as they seek to serve you by serving us. And we ask this all
in the name of our risen savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. >> Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the greatest nation on earth, the United States of America, home of the free because of the brave. I pledge allegiance 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. At this time, commissioners, we will entertain any additions or deletions to
the agenda. Mr. Administrator, do you have any additions or deletions? >> Consent. We have no delete. Uh, we just want to pull 9 L for discussion. >> 9 L for discussion. Commissioners, any
others off the agenda? >> No, no, no. Discussion. >> For discussion. >> Move approval. >> Second. >> Motion by Commissioner Flesher. Second by Vice Chair Moss. Any further discussions? Hearing none.
All in favor? I. And the motion carries unanimously. Our next uh item of discussion will be proclamations and presentations uh honoring Black History Month. This morning, Commissioner Flesher will present a proclamation
recognizing two of our pioneers. Calvin Coach Cal Moment as well as Keith JK Woolard Commissioner Flesher. Welcome >> coaches. Come on up. Love to see you at the podium.
I know it's not a field. I know there's not too many youth here today, but I want you to know it's a great privilege and honor to be able to present the both of you with a proclamation.
You know, I believe that Calvin, we've had some turns in the in the process and some challenges and you have overcome those challenges.
Both of you putting youth at the forefront. It's cool to be a coach, but I think it's a lot more than just knowing the game, knowing the sport, and guiding them through the sport.
The nurturing that you provide, the transportation you provide, getting them on the field and doing all you do. And again, there were coaches before you. And yes, we have acknowledged them.
But I believe that you, the both of you have been coaches during some challenging times, okay? And you got through it. And you're to be commended
putting youth first. That's the importance of the game, not the games. Thank you. I' like to start with presenting this proclamation for recognizing
African-American pioneers Calvin Coach Cal moment and Keith JK Wool. Whereas African-American Pioneer Month is an opportunity to recognize individuals whose leadership, service,
and perseverance have strengthened Indian River County and positively shaped the future generations. And whereas Calvin Coach Cal Moment is a proud resident of Indian River
devoted to and a devoted husband for 26 years and a father of four, founded in the Vero uh Beach Foundation Gators in 2017 and now known as the Vero Beach Foundation
Indians for Football and Cheer Corporation. Creating a youth program rooted in character, discipline, mentorship, and the purpose while partnering with the community and the school leaders to help
develop the responsible young men on and off the field. Whereas coach Keith JK Woolard, a lifelong member of the Vero Beach community, has devoted husband and a father of five,
founding uh Indian River Elite, the track club in 2011, and to provide young athletes with strong fundamentals and a national level of opportunities
for produc producing AAOU all-Americans, national champions and collegiate athletes while serving as a lasting mentor and positive influence. Whereas through the athletics, the
mentorship and unwavering commitment to the youth development with both coach moment and coach Wullet have demonstrated exemplary leadership and have made a profound and lasting
impact on the lives of countless families in our community. Now therefore be proclaimed by the board of county commissioners of Indie River County, Florida that African-American pioneers month is hereby recognized and
Calvin Coach Cal Moment and Keith JK WLED are honored as exemplary community pioneers whose service the mentorship and dedication continued to strengthen in any River
County duly adopted this 24th day of February 2026 and it is signed by all five county commissioners. Gentlemen, we have a proclamation for each of you although we included you in both of you
in the proclamation. Coach, >> thank you. >> Well, thank you very much, gentlemen. Um, coach, >> thank you so much. You know, uh, Commissioner Flesher, uh, was a coach in and of himself through
the years and his previous career. Uh, we have, uh, Captain Man, who also is, uh, a certified umpire in baseball, softball, and the like. Uh, but I will tell you that through our lives, we may
forget our science teacher and OMC teacher, but we never forget our coaches. And I can vividly remember all of the coaches that I've had, you know, whether it be counseling the youngsters or dealing with some frustrated parents
at times through grace and grief or whichever that we uh deal with. And for that, we say thank you. Uh with folks like you, we wouldn't have the community that we have. So I say thank you, Commissioner Moss. >> Yeah. Yeah. Say that's a very good point and thank you very much for the work
you've done in our community, >> Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. >> Being a you can do a lot of things in life, but but when you're a coach, it's a calling. It's it's just something within you that
that that you do because you love doing it. Whether it's no matter what sport or whatever it is, it's just a calling to be a coach. And and it's a service to your community. It's a service to the almighty. And it's a service, especially
a service to the kids to make them better because like Commissioner Lur, that was very well put. He's right. You may not remember your science teacher, but you'll remember your coach for the rest of your life. >> Great job. >> And you see those youngsters throughout the community coming up to you and
calling you coach, and it's a great feeling, >> gentlemen. That's that's exactly the point I wanted to make. You know, we've seen you on the field and you're doing what you need to do, but the more important thing is when
you're when you're just in the community, maybe by the parade or maybe in a store, when you see the youth attached to you and connect even five years after you've
mentored them as a coach, That's what it's all about. Thank you for being great role models. >> Come on up, gentlemen. Thank you. >> Get your picture. >> Now, coaches, you probably want to hold
your proclamation. want to bring up uh a crowd. Is that >> Well, we could take two pictures over here. Over here. Anybody want to take a picture with the coach? >> They'll slide. Come over here. >> You got to slide over here. You're never
going to be in a picture over there. >> Everybody kind of kind of squish in. >> Might as well be down. >> I know. >> You can tell. >> All right. >> Thank you. All right, commissioners. That brings us
to the uh request for the approval of the January 13, 2026 minutes. >> Move approval. >> Have a motion. I'll second that. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I Commissioners, that brings us
toformational items from our staff and items not meeting needing uh board approval. I will bring to your attention 7A and 7B which are both uh significant and somewhat of a milestone in our
county. Many of you obviously know about the ELAP bond funding from November of 2022. Uh this is the historic day and this is the first of the two properties that we um have finally got to the point where
uh they will be procured. So any questions about 7A or 7B? That would be the Jungle Trail Island Club as well as Osprey Estates. All right, that brings us to public comment for members of our public.
Anything that is agenda related uh you'll be happy to to speak on that is agenda related. That would be anything on the agenda and if you have something outside of what's on the agenda, we will entertain that at the close of the meeting. Good morning, sir. Name and
address for the record. >> William McCazzlin representing Aleppo and VLE. We just like to thank you for considering bringing in the new temporary fire station. So, it's a needed object that we do need and we cannot go without it because
we're growing astronomically. So, we appreciate you taking the time to consider that. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> All right, commissioners. That brings us to the consent agenda. Uh
with the exception of 9L, uh another opportunity was is there anything anyone would like pulled for discussion? Hearing none, we will entertain 9 L. Mr. Administrator, >> you want to vote on the consent agenda
first? Absent that. >> Yes, we will entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chair, move approval as amended. >> Second. >> As amended, we have a motion and we have a second as amended with the exception of 9 L. All in favor? >> I. And the motion carries. Mr. Administrator, let's try it.
>> This is mainly justformational. I know I spoke with each member in the Hampton Park PD phase and we talked about the timing and how they were while they were near completion of the improvements they are seeking the additional year for the
purposes of being able to complete some of the improvements after the homes have been constructed because they've had as in is my understanding they've had issues before that they damaged some of the stuff that they have put in. So, they want to complete the final
improvements after the homes are constructed. Is that And I think Deputy County Attorney Susan Prada has worked with them. >> Yes. Good morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, Commissioner Susan Praau. Um, yes, that is that is correct. Their complaint, I guess, is some of the
curbing um there's some cracks that happen in the curbing if as they're constructing the homes, um, it becomes damaged. because in this particular phase, it's my understanding because they haven't begun constructing homes, they're afraid of the curbing becoming damaged. Therefore, they're asking for
an extension um to complete this because under our code, the curbing is one of the required improvements. Um so, this is an item that an extension does require um board approval at this time. Um and so that's why we're here today to ask if they can have an extension for
another 12 months so that they can complete that um at a little bit of later date. And we also have and I just got picked up this morning dropped off to my office was the new letter of credit and the executed agreement from the developer. So that was dropped off hand delivered just this morning from
them. >> Okay. Does that offer any further comfort to you Mr. Minister? >> Oh yeah. Yes sir. So we staff would continue to recommend approval. >> All right. Thank you commissioners. >> Move approval. >> We have a motion by Commissioner
Flesher, a second by Commissioner Urban. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? >> I. And the motion carries. >> Commissioners, that brings us now to public hearings. Uh
item 11 A1 as we have no constitutionals present today. This is application of operating assistance section 5307 from the Federal Transit Administration. I see with us this morning is Mr. Brian Freeman. Welcome.
>> Good morning, commission. Uh Brian Freeman, NO staff director, and this is an application for um section 5307 uh federal transit funding assistance for operating assistance. The section 5307 program or urban area formula program is
the single largest funding source for the county's public transportation system, which consists of the goal line and community coach. Um, there were some leftover funds from fiscal year 2021 that were not used by other Florida transit systems and a portion of those
funds were made available to us. And in order to obtain those funds, we need to conduct this public hearing and then complete the application process. And the amount of that funding is $712,014. >> That's a Christmas gift. A little late, Mr. Freeman.
>> Take it anytime. It's free money, sir. >> And we'll take it. Commissioner Man. >> Motion to approve. >> No, >> we we have to open >> It's a public hearing, >> right? It It is a public hearing. At
this time, we'll >> apparently warning >> open this hearing for public comment about our transportation windfall. >> I'm going close the public hearing. Make a motion. Have a motion by
Commissioner Man, second and >> a second by Commissioner Flesher. Any further discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor? >> And the motion carries. >> Commissioner, the next item is 11 A2 on the agenda. This is a request from
Hires Properties LLC to reszone approximately 18.08 acres from A1 to R3 uh single family. Uh the parties to this proceeding are
any river county and hires property LLC which is the applicant. At this time we will ask general counsel for some comments. >> Yes. I I wanted to introduce this matter. This matter was considered by the board of county commissioners on
January 13th. The board held a full quasi judicial hearing and voted 4 to one to approve this resoning. But we realized after the hearing that the the actual adopting ordinance which is necessary for the resoning was inadvertently omitted from the agenda
packet. So it was not in technically and formally included as part of the record for the hearing. Based on this, I recommend that the board reopen the January 13th meet public hearing. Ask the clerk to swear in any witnesses who
intend to speak. allow staff to present the ordinance and offer it as additional evidence and accept public comment on the ordinance. >> Okay, this time we will reopen the public hearing and we'll ask the clerk swear in any witnesses who expect to
speak. >> Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? >> I do. All right, we will start with a presentation by staff and and Yes, sir. >> Mr. Chair, I just a moment then and
clarify with the attorney. Uh this is a continuence. >> Yes. >> So, do we have to uh swear as well? I I do think that you made exparte uh
disclosures and addressed those matters in the first public hearing at the beginning. >> So that would just >> Yes. So we're we're kind of reopening at the point where we would have >> just to check. Yes, I appreciate that. >> Sufficient appreciate that. >> I know it's a little bit confusing.
>> Thank you. So, so commissioners, uh, to briefly summarize, this will be the third opportunity that we've heard this, this is being, uh, reheard, uh, because the ordinance was not part of the initial package. Uh, all of the facts
remain the same. Uh, and this is a process that we're going through. We have Mr. Murphy here. I see Mr. Stole, Mr. Sweeney. Uh, so with that, uh, we will take a presentation by our staff. Good morning, members of the board. Patrick Murphy, chief of long-range
planning. Um, as was stated earlier by the county attorney. This presentation was originally made on January 13th. Uh, there's nothing really new in the presentation. All the material is the same. The property is the same. The request is the same. Just to kind of go through it really briefly. Um, this
property is located on the south side of 18th Street, excuse me, glass 8th Street. Uh, includes 18 acres. It's in the urban service boundary. Uh, the property is zone A1. They're looking to reszone this to RS3 in order to build a
conventional single family residential subdivision. staff has conducted a full analysis and believes this is consistent with the comprehensive plan and it meshes well with the existing development pattern that is in along this road.
At this time, you know, since we already had a a full presentation on this, I'm really here to answer any questions you may have. In addition, this is really, in my opinion, more of a formality since we didn't have the ordinance the last time, but there's really nothing new in this request than we had last month when we heard this. So, really, I'm just here
to answer any questions that you might have that maybe you didn't have on the last hearing. >> Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Commissioners, this is, as mentioned before, come before us twice, and we have had similar cases
u as the hire's property. This time we will accept any comments from the public. If you have any comments specific to this project, please come forward. Let the record reflect we've given ample time uh for that. Do we have any closing
comments by staff? >> Uh no sir, this uh was approved 4 to one at the at the last hearing. Um staff believes this is a good change in zoning. If you recall, this was a project that originally came before the
board as a PD and was not approved. Uh recommendation by staff at that time was to go with an RS3, three units per acre. They are going to be developing a subdivision with around 2.2 units per acre. So, it's a very low dense uh residential development. It's consistent
with the development pattern in this area. We have no further except to recommend approval. >> Mr. Chair, >> yes, Commissioner. the um the minutes for that meeting January 13th say that the vote was 5 uh 0. So I wasn't sure it
was 4-1 in the memorandum and there but there's no video posted so I wasn't able to check it. I was trying to remember because usually if it's 41 I'm the one and I didn't think I had voted against this particular one. So that that's it's in the minutes on page 13. Okay. So it's
5-0. >> Um we can check the video when it becomes available. I didn't see the video posted. >> Okay. Any further comments by the commissioner? Does the clerk have any additional information that she may need?
Record reflect the clerk clerk has what she needs. Does the And I don't see the applicant here. Does anyone from the uh applicant have anything? Have they electronically sent anything, Patrick, that you know of? Uh we reached out to the applicant's
representative and he said he would attend. Um was expecting him to be here but >> I do not see him. >> Hi Liz Diaz with Mil Short and Associates. I'm representing the applicant. If y'all have any questions
I'd be happy to answer them. >> Commissioners, any questions for the hearing? >> None. Seeing none. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any further final information from staff?
>> Yes, sir. >> All documents are secure. Tangible evidence has been admitted into evidence. Uh, all of those items have been secured a time or two already. This will close the public meeting. Commissioners, what's your favor? >> J move approval.
>> I'll second that. We have a motion by Commissioner Flesher and a second by myself. Any further discussion from the commissioners hearing? None. All in favor? Any opposed? With Commissioner Adams being absent?
Commissioners, next item is 11 A3, also legislative in nature, the final adoption of the 2025 any river county comprehensive plan evaluation and appraisal report, also known as the ER, sometimes referred to as EAR, based on the amendments and the direction that we
were given. Good morning, Mr. Murphy. >> Good morning again. Um, as the previous case, this was also heard in January and it was inadvertently uh left out the ordinance. So, we're bringing this back so that this can become the actual final adoption hearing uh for the ear
amendments. This is uh Can you switch? >> Oh, thank you. Um, this is two years in the making. This has been a long process involved a lot of staff, a lot of departments, with our consultant working closely with the county administrator, county attorney's office. We've had really fantastic public involvement in
this. Uh we really do appreciate the public being involved in this. This is an important document and we've had very good discussion with the board of county commissioners in addition to the planning and zoning commission and we have met I'll just do a really quick timeline on this. Uh this originally
came in before you in November 12th, 2024 through a special call meeting uh where we decided to go ahead and present the contract to Kimley Horn to help with us to be their consultants. In June 26 of 2025, the airbased amendments were presented to the planning and zoning
commission in a public hearing. In August 12th, 2025, the amendments were presented to this board which directed staff to take the presentation back to PCC for further discussion. We did so on August 28th, 2025. Presented that uh to them, had about an hour and a half
discussion on that and then we came back before you on September 9th, 2025 and that was our very lengthy discussion was a little over five hours. We had very very good involvement in that. Um ultimately the board approved the transmitt of the amendments to Florida Commerce. We have done that. We received
our comments letter from Florida Commerce. They had two policies that they thought were more restrictive or burdensome. We removed those two policies from our final package of amendments and we're now here February 24th 20 26th to hold our second and
final public adoption hearing um upon recommendation from the board to transmit. That's what we will do. We'll have to do that within the next 10 days to Florida Commerce. With that, happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Murf? >> Yes, ma'am.
>> I have uh one question and a couple of comments. Um, first of all, I want to commend staff. It was five hours and uh, as you may, as my colleagues may recall, there are a lot, it was fast and furious and we voted on it, but not everything
was in writing. There were a lot of comments made that were to be incorporated in the final product. And I checked the minutes and compared the minutes of that meeting that was uh, September 9th to the final product. And it looks like everything made the trip.
So, you're to be commended for that. I mean, that was it's an incredible task. Um, I do have a question though on the building heights. Um, as you may recall, the height restriction brought a lot of people here. Um, there was, um, I'll call it a misunderstanding that we were
going to change the height limitation. Uh, we did not. We added additional language. Uh my question is uh are building heights still uh listed in only in policy I think it's 1.38 which is uh really it's new town
development and of course the height restrictions apply to everything in the county but so that's that's my only question is that is that the only place that the uh height restrictions appear within the the comprehensive plan >> in the comprehensive plan the only
mention to a rest a specific height a specific figure is in that actual policy number. Uh we have heard many times throughout the years really uh from the public from the board that um 35 ft is sort of that magic number that we that
the public didn't really really want to go over. We do have this littered throughout the land development regulations in each u lot and dimensional criteria which is under the use table of all the commercial and residential districts. It's specifically stated maximum 35 ft. So in all of the
categories, it's listed throughout the LDRs. The only way to change that is come back through public hearings in front of both the planning and zoning commission and the board of county commissioners for discussion to to be able to talk about whether or not we wanted to do that. That is not something
that staff could change on its own. It's not something that could be done very quickly or easily. Um it is locked into the land development regulations throughout the code. Um, so at that time we did not believe that it needed to be in the comprehensive plan since it's already in the LDRs and it's already a
formal process that would be required to change it if there was even a will to do so. >> No, I I think it's good. It is within the the comprehensive plan that policy 1.38 and I think that that um increases the comfort level of of the community
that it's not going to change. So I was I was happy to see it there. Uh my question specifically was that it was under New Town Development, but it applies to everything. So that will be uh clarified in the the LDRs then. Is that is that what you're saying, Mrs.
Sweeney? >> Yes, it is. >> You're shaking your head. >> Yes, it's it's already in the LDRs now. It's been in there for quite some time. We have no intention to change that at this point. >> Okay. And myself just I just had two comments. Of course, um I'm very
disappointed to uh that policy 2.6 and that's the uh US geological survey has been stricken from it. Um I know we made the case I know it's become my cause celeb but actually uh I'll say for the
chair I did was not the originator of the idea it was the uh soil and water conservation district and that was back in 2021 invited all five of us to one of their meetings and requested that we designate funding to update it and uh
you know I obviously thought it was a a great recommendation but it didn't pass muster with everyone still yet um take a moment to mourn its loss. The only other thing um that I really felt concerned about in here
had to do with um open space and you heard from you know it's it's under a recreation and open space element policy 1.1 and the county hereby adopts a recreation level of service standard of
four recreation acres per 10,000 permanent population. for the community. In the past, it was 6.61 recreation acres. So that's more than a one-third decrease in the number of rec recreation and open in the amount of
recreation and open space of acres per 10,00 population. Um and in the past I know that that reflected uh seasonal changes in population and that was stricken as well. Um, you know, with what's going on right now in uh in
Tallahassee, it pains me to give this up because if you wanted to take it back, it probably would would not pass. You know, Tallahassee would would not agree with you that you you can't get it back is my point. Like, you're giving up more than
onethird of your open space and recreation acres per thousand. And it's something that at least in the current context uh we would be unlikely to be able to get back should we should we desire it. So and I
and I know there's a huge concern about open space and we just saw that a couple of weeks ago with waterway village and that was over over well I can say only 18 acres. It's not my 18 acres but to them you know they live right next door. it's their they view it, you know, it's
their 18 acres and it's very precious to them. So, I understood that, understood the upset and uh you know, the concern about that and those are my comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, Vice Chair Moss. Uh fellow commissioners, any comments?
Hearing none at this time, we will open public comment. Anyone wants to speak about uh our E comp plan? hearing. None. We will close public comment. Commissioners, again, this is the the second reading and this is
somewhat timesensitive. >> Move approval. >> Have a motion by Commissioner Flesher. >> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Man. Any further discussions? Hearing none. All in favor? I. >> And I'm I'm going to remain opposed. I was opposed originally.
>> We have motion carries three to one. >> Thank staff for their work. that vice chair Moss dissented on the vote. Commissioners, that brings us now to the county administrator matters. This is
something significant for us on 12A of legislative update with respect to Felsmere Water Control District. I see before us is our legislative affairs director, Miss Kathy Copelan. Welcome. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Kathy Copelan, legislative and
communications manager. Are we gonna have Commissioner Adams on the phone? >> We >> I'm here. Okay. >> We have Commissioner Adams joining us. Welcome, Commissioner Adams. We miss you. >> I miss you guys. It's cold up here. >> I'm sure it's cold down here.
Commissioner Flesher's over here uh shivering. It >> Yeah, I am a Floridaian. >> You are now. Welcome, Miss Co. >> Okay, this is um we are in week seven of the legislative session. Thank you. And
I just wanted to give you a brief update of what's happened since the last time we spoke. And remind the public um what we're talking about, House Bill 4093 and 4095.
And the both of those are going to make a split in what currently exists as the Thank you. That's not working. Belair Water Control District. So, I put in here in addition just to
let everyone know that the Felsmere Water Control District does include 2,326 acres that belong jointly to the St. John's River Water Management District and D. The Florida Department of Environmental Regulation actually
manages the property and I'll refer to it again, but I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that that was an element of the project that we are in discussions on and it is included um in the bill in terms of the acreage.
So, how do I this isn't working. Okay, I this just gives us the idea and again this is for review that the Felsmere Water Control District is going to become a dependent district under the
governance of the county which means that you as the county commissioners will become the board of the Felsmere Water Control District and the independent district will now be known as the headquarters water control district and they will be a 298 just
like it is now. I want to emphasize to both the public and to staff that this is a transfer of governance. It is not a subsidized the county is not going to be subsidizing operations of this district
and we are not adding a division in public works. This is going to be a 298 that is moving over under the governance. The operations will continue to be managed um through contracts which exist now and those hopefully will
become part of the ILA that we would like for you to consider. Well, how do I go back? I can't. Since we last spoke, I think I mentioned to you that the city of Felsmere had a concern. They had a an annexation agreement that was um
executed in 2007. Their attorney, Mr. Dill, was emphatic that he really wanted this reference in the actual legislation. A lot of um us and and the attorneys thought that it might be duplicative, but because they felt very strongly
about it, everybody agreed to add it. So today the bill is being considered in committee and this is an amendment to the legislation. You're going to have to switch it for me. I can't. It's not working.
Okay. I want to emphasize for you that the highlights these are concerns from the citizens. Representative Brackett did hold a conference call. A very there was a lot of um the citizens that called into the conference
call and these are the highlights that were articulated. This has been a theme throughout the whole ever since we started talking about this months ago. They are very concerned about the overall management of the canals and the
ditches primarily as it relates to the expenditures of their money which those folks who are in favor of this are have a lot more confidence in the county's ability to manage that. They feel like it's going to be more transparent. Um
many many of them have expressed a fear and extreme hike of their assessment. The county has been very clear that we cannot promise them that there won't be an increase in the assessment, but we do have in the legislation the development
of a water management plan. And we also are proposing an interlocal agreement between the county and the Felsmere FJB that would articulate the two of us working together and highlight that anything that we do would be
transparent, discuss with them. We've talked about a five-year plan, looking at the the canal and dividing it up in sizes that we can afford to um clear and make the vegetation so that the conveyance of the water
is more operative. Um the people seem fairly comfortable with that, but they did want me to make sure that you all understood that they're very concerned about their assessments and how much they pay. Right now they pay $39 an acre. Um they are
aware that that's probably low in terms of what they want to have happen, but for now they would like to stay at that level and they are okay with their level of service. They just want to make sure that the money that they're putting into it that they can actually see what's
being done in the canals. They also requested a citizen advisory committee. As you are aware, there's several different options for that. We did not put this into the legislation or describe what the committee would look
like. We just said that the board would consider a citizen advisory committee um made up of those folks that own property in the area and we will let the board decide what that should look like. This is the annexation language. You can
skip that. This is the St. John River Water Management District information. I just wanted to make everybody aware that the Water Management District does own 5,416 acres in the park known as the St.
Sebastian River Preserve. They manage it for conservation and preservation. They like it wet. It's supposed to be that way. They don't feel like the actual canal system serves them in terms of
everybody else. It drains the property. Um they just are they're in the system. And so what we have had conversations with them, our county attorney and I talked with their attorney and then I spoke with their intergovernmental
representative who relayed to me that he had had conversations with the executive director and their leadership and that they are comfortable working collaboratively with us um through a transition if the bill does pass and that they feel comfortable that if we
need to develop any kind of formalized relationship that they have a good working relationship with the county and they feel comfortable that we can get there without any wording in the legislation. Is that it?
Okay. Um these were the I just wanted to remind you that these were the highlights that came through and the first amendment. Um these have all been addressed. I put these in there just for reference. we go.
This is all backwards. Okay. Um, again, this is just to remind everybody of where we have been. And this bill is up today in the state affairs committee. It was up at 8:30. I don't know. I'm I'm guessing that it's
it's either passed or passing um with the Felsmere amendment. You go to the next one. Keep going. I need the one at the end. I do have Yeah. >> You're going backwards. You need to go
forwards. >> Yeah. >> It's not going. >> Go back one more. Go back. >> Wait. Right there. >> One more. >> That's it. >> That was it. Wasn't there assessment rates? >> No, I don't want We don't need that. I That was just in case we had a question.
>> Gotcha. >> The one you had. Yeah, you had it right. >> The recommendation, right, >> commissioners? What we have basically is an update on the on the legislative process and the interesting thing and I think the promising thing is >> right there.
>> Not right there. >> I'm sorry. I Go ahead. >> That's okay. Go ahead. I just would like for you all to understand that what everything that is not in the legislation. We have proposed a
interlocal agreement so that we can actually describe the assets that would be transferred over from the reserves to the building to the equipment the contracts. Those are the kinds of things that you don't put in in legislation. But to give us a level of comfort and
the citizens a level of comfort, we want some mechanism to describe what's going to happen between when the bill passes and when it becomes law. Their assessments, there will be a meeting and their assessments will be determined at that time, the high level. They can
always take it back down. But we would like to make sure that any expenditures between the bill passing and it become law is actually that there's consultation between the county and the FJB. So this is just something I
would like the board to give the county administrator the ability for us to formulate an ILA with the county attorney and then for him to execute it and then we can bring it back to the board. But because this is moving, I just
thought I would mention it now to make sure that you all are comfortable with us moving forward. >> Okay. Thank you. Any questions? Commissioners, please keep us apprised of the process of this legislation and we thank you
>> commissioners. Up next is the economic >> I'm sorry. It was a specific recommendation that Kathy made that I think she that I think would require a a vote of the board although it wasn't actually something that was included in
our agenda packet before. So that is a little bit problematic. >> I didn't read any. Okay. >> Okay. So, um I think her recommendation was that there that you authorize the county administrator to uh sign an
interlocal that had these matters in it. Um and I had not seen this before it uh was created today, but I do I I think you you could add this to the agenda on a
unanimous vote. I know Commissioner Adams is here. Um, and that if you were to take this action to authorize the county administrator to sign this interlocal, I would recommend that it be subject to the review and approval of the county attorney and that it be
brought back to you for ratification if the board wanted to take this action. Otherwise, I would recommend a special meeting. >> Commissioners, what's your pleasure? >> Well, we we we are very pleased to have Commissioner Adams on the line. Commissioner Adams, you still with us?
I'm here. >> Thank you. I know this is a very important matter that uh impacts your district. Uh however, council for for the record there, Commissioner Adams, we're calling for a vote. Could
Commissioner Adams vote via telephone on a matter? I believe that was addressed in the in Tallahassee. >> So, I um did did kind of look at this because I was aware she would not be here. And there is nothing in your rules
of procedure that prohibits her from attending remotely. There has been guidance put out by the attorney general on whether a local government commissioner or council member can attend remotely. And the guidance that was given was that it would require that
a majority of the commissioners be present physically, which is met here, and that the requirement for the remote attendance be some extraordinary circumstances. In other words, it would not be convenience. It would be either an illness that prevented attendance or
in this case, I understand that Commissioner Adams is up in Washington DC attendings to some business up there for the county. I believe or counties. So, um I do think it would be allowed in uh because your rules of procedure don't
prevent it. But in this case, because it would be an action item added to this agenda, I I think there should be a unanimous vote to add it. And that um I have made some other recommendations with regards to that. >> Mr. Chair, I just I wanted to clarify
because post app discussion, >> yes, >> we did have some challenges that uh rode back up to Tallahassee and we were given a directive and I wanted to ensure that we were legally sufficient. >> I agree. I agree. Thank you. >> And to include Commissioner Adams
>> because it had gotten out of control and there weren't a majority of >> Yes. >> members present physically and yes, that's why the attorney general came out with that. >> Thank you. So, basically, in the absence of a vote, this could perhaps
jeopardize. So, it's pretty clear what we need to do today. >> Yes. >> Let's make a motion to approve and direct the county administrator to And and is the motion to in um included
in the agenda as an action item? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I would also add to following up on what uh the county attorney had mentioned, it would be subject to the county attorney's review and approval and subsequent ratification by the board of
county commissioners. >> We have a motion by Commissioner Flesher. I will second the motion. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Those in favor? >> I >> I. >> That motion carries. Commissioners, the next item is economic impact in river uh
lagoon and stakeholder workshop. We will be taking a 9-minute recess and reconvene at 10:00 a.m. >> I like that. Good morning again. It's 10 o'clock. The 24th of February, 2026 board of county
commission meeting resumes. The next item, fellow commissioners, is the economic impact of in River Lagoon and stakeholder workshop. And we see Kylie, director Kylie Yanula. Welcome. Good morning.
>> Good morning. So, it is my pleasure to introduce some guests that we have today. So, we have Dr. Dwayne DeFreeze, a man who needs no introduction to you all, but regardless, he is the executive director of the Lagoon Council and of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary
Program. He is here with us as well as members of the Balmoral Group, Courtney Cortez and Maddie Drury. So, they are here today to talk to us about the $9.4 million Noah grant that was received by
the IRL NEP for restoration work and then they're going to talk about the economic valuation of the Indian River Lagoon. After that, staff has a little bit of a recommendation for you all to consider as well. So, with nothing else,
I'm going to go ahead and pass this on to Dr. DFreeze. Good morning, Dr. >> Good morning, commissioners. It's a pleasure to be here, and I'd be remiss not to take a moment to thank you for your leadership. Thank you for the
support of the IRL Council Interlocal Agreement. I just came from Tallahassee and I think we're all worried about the same things that are going on in Washington and Tallahassee as it relates to funding. Uh, at the moment, the council is in good shape, you know, so
2026, I think we're in great shape. Uh we're just entering discussions up in Washington for fiscal year 27. Uh but we've had really good bipartisan support so far. What I want to do is just quickly set up kind of where we are and
also how we got to this economic study. And I'm going to start with just saying the update will be very very brief but all of the information is in your package. annual reports there, economic uh uh
summary, but also I went ahead and printed out the PowerPoint uh so you have it, you know, in your package and hard copy. This is what we look like since 201516 when we created the council. Uh over 267
projects funded by the council. um over $29 million and we can't do this without your partnerships and without your projects. And as you all know, we do this every year through a competitive
request for proposal uh opportunity uh both in you see nutrient reduction and a little money was heading your way again after this uh last two weeks uh for water quality. uh community engagement,
habitat restoration and science and engineering and modeling. And so we've kind of spread our modest money around uh to try to fill gaps and do the best work we can. None of these projects alone are transformational and many of
them in fact most of them have matching grants uh from our partners including Indian River County. I thought you might be interested uh in looking at how this lays out county by county and you notice uh Indian River County over that same
time period 21 projects almost 2.7 million and then lagoon wide and these projects impact and benefit all the counties along the lagoon uh 7.3 million and 110 projects. So we're typically
managing, you know, somewhere between 40 and 45 projects a year and with a small staff that's a lot of oversight. I want to just focus on our Noah transformational habit habitat grant. You're going to hear about one of the
products in a minute from the Balmoral Group. uh when the infrastructure investment jobs act fund uh was first uh passed by congress uh you know I forget what year it was but it was in the last administration about 1.3 million a
billion you know hit the street for infrastructure uh Noah had very large notices of funding opportunities that none of our individual projects would have reached what they wanted was transformational
projects in habitat restoration or in coastal resilience. Uh the first year we assembled a team uh put in a proposal you know trying to get Noah to think about our partnership and these small
individual projects coming together as transformational. Not only the project themselves, but we made the case that our partnership was transformational, that the workforce and the community of
practice in habitat restoration, uh, they came back that first year said, "We really like this project, but we're not going to fund it." A lot of folks, and my message here for anybody listening, your staff and all of our partners, is don't give up. if you get a even a
halfdecent review on a proposal, bring it back. And so the second year, we worked with Noah, found where they had some interests and some areas they weren't interested in, and actually got the funding, then had to renegotiate.
And so our project now is 9.4 4 million awarded, 15 restoration sites, 10 subawwardees and and you are one of those subawwardees as the county. However, the workforce underneath those subawwardees
is significant and I just listed it and the one I'm most interested in is the funding that's coming through the public sector reaching our private sector and you can see in this 16 industry consultants and also a lot of volunteers
which is free labor but those volunteers many of them are students who wind up looking at engineering or marine science as future careers. So, we're deep in year two of this project and two of
these projects are in Indian River County. The first one, uh, you are the lead on the seaggrass restoration at Big Slooh and Preachers Hole. Uh, that project is complete and I'd be remiss not to thank Melissa, you know, for
Meisenberg for her lead on this. We know she's having some medical issues and but we are with her and she's done a great job. Uh what's left on this over the next year and a half is that the county will continue continue to monitor. Uh
but we've also got Tetrate Tech under contract to do as builts on all these projects. We're not that was not part of our original proposal but Noah has supported it. So you can see 12.8 8 acres of seaggrass herbivy devices.
Everybody is looking kind of to scale this up. And I want to go on record, we are not going to plant our way to 140,000 acres of seaggrass loss uh since 2010 2011. Water quality is going to be
the key, but we can accelerate seaggrass restoration with these plantings. The second project is also in Indian River County and that's with the Indian River Land Trust. Uh that project has multiple partners and components
as you all know with your own projects. It takes a long time to get permits. You know, we're at local, state, and federal. Uh we finally are starting to move this project forward. And in March too, uh, working with the mosquito control district, uh, we'll be starting
to put culverts in for fish fish passage at Begum Point. So, we're moving forward. Uh, your projects are actually leading the pack. We've only got one other project completed up in Bvard County and the rest are underway.
Everybody says, how do you know this is working? And we've got data now both for habit, you know, harmful algo blooms and habitat recovery and this is recent data from the St. John's River Water Management District. We are seeing seaggrasses recover, but it is the
beginning of that recovery. We were a decade of loss and we're going to be years getting back to where we were if we can get there. But this is a very encouraging sign and we're going to have ups and downs and I just want to let you
know we've got some algaal booms popping up right now even with this cold weather and with all of the you know debris and plant death along the shoreline. I'm just a little concerned what the spring's going to bring. The good news
is we can't predict this. We just need to be ready, you know, if it something happens with a harmful algoloom. But we're on the right path if we can keep investing in these projects. One of the deliverables which was in the
first notice of funding uh from Noah then was pulled uh was socioeconomic analysis and economic impact. We felt very strongly that we along the Indian River Lagoon needed to have an update of
that 2016 economic study. Uh so we approached the Noah folks and said we're going to go ahead and line item and we combined uh $75,000 from Noah with the remaining funds that we had from our EPA
funding to make the work that you're about to see a reality and and this work was considerable by the Balmoral Group. Uh there's three two major uh products. Uh,
one is a socio socioeconomic profile that kind of led in to what Courtney is going to show you today an economic valuation and this is going to be very unique because it drills down to a benefit cost ratio which she'll talk
about for the Noah project. So we can go back to Noah and say you gave us 9.4 million here is your return on investment in a real estimate. Uh we've got an E executive summary which you have in your package and we've got an
interactive dashboard. Courtney, you may mention that, but that's still kind of in the works. So with that, unless there's questions for me, I'm going to introduce uh Courtney Cortez, a senior senior economist at the Bal Moral Group.
And the data she's going to show you is a a little over a year's worth of research. So when you saw that, you know, $330,000 cost, this is not an inexpensive process
to drive it as deep as we have. And I I'll say working with the Bal Moral Group has been my great pleasure. Uh they are as good as they get when it comes to this kind of valuation, not only in America and Florida, but in Australia and Europe. So unless you I
have questions, I'm going to turn it over to the expert. The last thing you want is to have a marine biologist talk about economics. >> That's pretty high on the list, Doc. Thank you. Uh measures, any questions
hearing? None. Mr. Cortez, welcome. Thank you. Uh good morning. So I am uh did it pull up? Hold please. You doing >> great. Thank you. So, good morning. I'm Courtney Cortez. I'm a senior economist with the Bmoral Group. Um, you Dwayne
had introduced me. With me today is my colleague Madison Drury, also with the Bmoral Group. We're really appreciative of the opportunity to present our work uh today in front of you all and the public as well. Um and as well as you know thank Dwayne and his team at the NEP for being able to produce uh this uh
results for you. So um with that um one of the things we did different with this economic update. There was done one done uh completed previously for the Indian River Lagoon but this um update really focused on the inclusion of ecosystem services within the valuation um as part of this process. So the Indian River
Lagoon is really rich in its resources. There's over 900,000 acres of natural and agricultural lands retaining more than 100 billion gallons of flood waters annually. So you can imagine um those uh flood waters would have nowhere else to go um if those lands were not intact and
they would end up you know in your businesses uh streets and buildings as well. Um so we thought it was important this time to focus on some of those ecosystem services including um over 50,000 acres of natural lands providing additional coastal protection over 360,000 acres of land providing
additional water filtration and purification uh ecosystem services and these lands are generating really substantial values for habitat recreation and aesthetics. Um and so those um model the modeling processes for these uh ecosystem service values u
generate over10 billion dollars annually um across the lagoon uh system. Uh it ranges uh greatly across the different ecosystem services types. So they're in the largest chunk uh $6.8 billion in recreational values um and activities.
Um, but importantly, we do want to highlight that there is over a billion dollars in uh your aesthetic values that are tied to your property value premiums. Um, and then down so forth to $250 million in coastal protection. And so the way that we look at these
ecosystem services is by um these specific modeling processes that estimate what would have what would have been um the process um if that habitat was not there or what that value would have been had that habitat not been maintained. Um so this box on the top of the screen is highlighting the model
that we model processes that we use is the invest model. So the integrated valuation of ecosystem services tool out of Sanford uh Stanford University. Um so this calculates the exposure to those different coastal hazards with and without the natural processes intact. Um
so this screen grab on the right is showing the Tquesta area um mangroves and oyster beds. Um and these are showing that the those um lands if they were not preserved um across the lagoon in general. So this is you know again
just an example of that if those natural processes were not intact um these are conserve or protecting over a quarter of a billion dollars annually across the lagoon. Um so as mentioned by Dwayne uh there were the Noah funded projects that we looked at as well um that are either
underway or completed. Um, we do know a number of those have been completed and we estimate that these are providing an additional $8.4 million in ecosystem services particularly for coastal protection in this example. So water filtration is uh similar uh this map
here is showing the values um ranging from $50,000 up to $4.3 million by those subbasins here. Um and so across the lagoon that's an additional 360,000 acres uh providing um water and nutrient
filtration. And this is really important to highlight as those um would otherwise have to replace infrastructure. Um so think those really expensive uh treatment plant upgrades and so forth. And so these are important ecosystem services to the tune of over half a billion dollars annually uh for those
water filtration um services. The projects underway now. So again, those Noah funded projects are expected to add another $38 million at full completion. And from a wildlife habitat perspective, uh the people of Florida have consistently, uh stated a high
preference for uh preservation of the environmental habitats of our wildlife and habitat connectivity. Um we find that these habitats across the lagoon are generating over a billion dollars annually in ecosystem services, particularly the public's willingness to pay to protect those. Uh so that ranges
greatly across the lagoon shown here um in this uh subbasin map. Um and we find that these are generating um excuse me $400,000 um up to $90 million uh by those subbasins. And then finally um talking about the
property values or the aesthetic value. Um so these are uh your cold hard cash values. Somewhat of a little bit of a easier number to digest from the public's perspective considering this is uh the value that's generated um by proximity to um in this case the lagoon
system. Um we look at this by looking at the sales transaction data from the county property appraisers and then we do u modeling to statistically tease out what that value would be for a home if it was say right on the water versus very far away from the water. So, we take, you know, a standard house, a
three-bedroom, two bath for an example, I'll just use next case, what that value of that home is right up against the water versus very far away, and we can statistically tease out that amenity associated with that. Um, so in Indian River County, being within 100 meters of
the lagoon adds about $660,000 over and above um the value, all factors being equal. And of course, this does vary greatly across the counties within the Lagoon system. So in Palm Beach County, for example, that uh number of being within 100 meters of the lagoon
jumps to close to a million dollars in premiums. And so in Indian River County, uh we end up with about $3.1 billion in property value premiums contributed by the lagoon system. So that does sound like um a large number, right? 3.1 billion. But to
put this into context, um the just values across the entire county is about $51 billion. So that represents about 6% but that's a really important 6%. Uh we annualize um when you're talking about this in the context of an annual number um that's contributing almost $190
million uh to the local economy. And then we also looked again as Dwayne had mentioned, we looked at those uh Noah funded projects specifically um that I that I also touched on earlier in the ecosystem services um looking at the
different habitat types um across the lagoon. So salt marsh, oyster reefs, living shorelines and and so forth. Um we looked at the project costs over 10 years and then the project benefits over 10 years. And I that's an important point to um highlight here is those that
10-year period is generally when those um habitat restorations are considered at their full maturity. Um which is why we looked at it in the 10-year context. Um you can see those two points those two um projects that Dwayne had mentioned um earlier u just using Big
Slooh as an example that the Seaggrass project of $600,000 in costs over 10 years is generating uh $5 million in benefits. So substantial um return in that in that case. Um I do want to highlight there are two really large projects um that were included as part
of this analysis including the Merid Island National Wildlife Refuge there um with 55 million in benefits uh for that restoration effort and then the Beum Point Marsh um at 30.7 million uh for their their full benefit values there.
Uh so really huge numbers and transformative projects benefiting um the lagoons and the fisheries here. Uh those two projects are you know restoring flows to um coastal wetland habitats particularly in uh the Marana National Wildlife Refuge that's you know removing some of those impoundments.
And so when we look at this um in terms of how these projects uh shake out um in terms of the benefit cost ratios uh representing how many benefits you receive per dollar of cost here anything over one is considered uh good. So, your benefits are exceeding your costs and
when that um number exceeds one. Um, as I just mentioned, those two very large projects, Beum Point and Merid Island National Wildlife Refuge, um, those are, you know, very large BCRs, but when we take those two out of the conversation here across these, um, ranges, right?
You still have, um, a BCR of 10 across the lagoon. So, $10 in benefits for every $1 in cost. Um but you know bringing this back to the bigger picture here including those you do have um a return of 24 times um so $24 in benefits
for every $1 in cost. So these are really good expenditures of public funds to restore those habitats. And lastly covering those traditional economic impact results um we use uh for economic impact modeling we use an input output model through an implant software. This
measures the effects of spending as dollars flow through the regional economy. So that spending data is margin for dollars that leave the local economy. I'll use um buying a gallon of gas for an example here. So when you purchase a gallon of gas, there is a certain percentage of that dollar or the
the spending associated with that that leaves the local economy as petroleum is not primarily produced within the state. Uh so you know most of that does not stay local. Um so those local purchases you know that do get that do occur here um can contribute significantly in these
types of models. Regional multipliers are then used to um estimate those impacts and that includes your tax revenues. And I do want to highlight that the induced effects in this case are largely from your visitor activity. And so when we look at this across the entire lagoon we end up with about 27
billion in total output. um that is um contributing $15 billion to your local GDP um here in the Indie River Lagoon region. Again, this is uh for across the region. And then um looking at that property value impacts annualized, that
is $1.4 billion annually um in your property premiums. Um so this does support 128,000 jobs um across the lagoon system and you know really significant impacts. And so looking at this across the sectors uh specifically we can see how this teases out from
everything from recreation to natural resource management into your aerospace industries here within the region as well contributing significant shares to employment um as well. I do want to take a a minute there to highlight the aerospace as it does you know contribute
and and depend on those wide open spaces um without development. So again, maintaining some of that habitat connectivity um is important for that sector to um thrive here um as been demonstrated over time. And I do also want to highlight that for natural resource management specifically um we
were able to contribute um estimate 450 direct jobs um in natural resource management activities across the lagoon. And that spending associated um with natural resource management generates more than $1 in local GDP uh for every dollar invested. So as you might recall
from my petroleum example, the much of that much is leaving um the local economies. These these dollars are are staying here locally and they are supporting um additional indirect and induced jobs associated with that. So for those 450 jobs are contributing an
additional 600 jobs over and above them. And finally looking at these results in the context of Indian River County specifically to drill down. Recreation is you know the lion share of the contribution here um with over 674
million in value added to the local economy and supporting over 800 sorry 8,400 uh jobs in that sector specifically. and natural resource management um is you know still significant there with over 148 jobs uh contributed all told
including your property value premiums annually um this is $878 million in value added uh to the local economy and finally Dwayne did touch on the dashboard tool that was a product of these efforts um this this dashboard
allows it's publicly available allows users to slice and dice the data by city county over time and so forth um and The link there is at the bottom of the screen, but I I do believe it is also on the NEP's website as well for for you to access and look at this data. And with that, you know, thank you so much for
the time to share this information with you. And um I'll open up for any questions. >> Well, thank you, Courtney. Thank you, uh, commissioners for listening. Any questions for Courtney? >> No, I don't have any questions. I got a
few things to add that I've seen this presentation obviously before. I've had some more information probably than you're actually seeing today. And what I what I tend to see in this is a a lot of B's at the end of the
number with some M's directly related to any river county. So what that tells me is if you don't look at the lagoon, the whole estuary is a as a diverse
ecological resource for fish and snook and red fish and trout and birds and ospreys. You ought to look at it as an economic aspect. if you can't look it at the
ecological aspect aspect. So it's amazing to me from the fakers that like I was aware of and what we saw back in the 2020 as to what it is now. It's just
incredible that that 28 billion dollar number is thrown out throughout the whole 156 miles of the estuary. That's that's huge. So again, if you're not going to look at it from a from a conservation and ecological standpoint, look at it the economic impact of what
it has and how vital it is to our economy to not let this valuable, you know, piece of estuary go down the tubes because we we didn't try. I can tell you that u
I'm no I'm no Dwayne dece. no marine biologist, but I was, as I've told you many times, I spent most of my life out on that lagoon at various times, more more and less. But I'm very well aware of its health
and and it's definitely different than what it was when I was growing up here as a kid because we have more people. We have more stuff. But I can tell you, we're fighting the good fight. We're making a difference. It might be too slow for some people, but if we keep up
the momentum and look at it from a from a not only an ecological, but an economic standpoint, I think we can continue to make a difference. So, the money that this county is spending on the lagoon is certainly not wasteful.
And I can tell you from being your your chairman the past year on the Indian River Lagoon estuary program, the RLNP for here, that money is is well spent. There's no
there's it's just well spent. It is well managed. Uh Dwayne, Dan, Kathy, Aaron, they all do such a great job of running it that that that that I was I'm very proud of them and what they do. But
commissioners, I can tell you that we need to keep working real hard on this and you see the numbers support it that we're making a difference out there. >> It's just it's not something that can be
done overnight, but we're making a difference. I had the opportunity to take uh go out with Matt Stevens, part of our our our fine group at our natural resource department, and I and I took Max out with me and we went and looked at the some of the seabed plantings. I
didn't know we had that many here out there planted, but there's quite a few and it's a it's a big deal and it's kind of labor intensive, but it'll it's working. It's definitely working and and uh if it continues to work, we can do
more. But the the the the fact is that and and and Matt made a good point which I didn't realize that these scientists now can take the seaggrass that grows and they can take it back to the lab and look at the genetics of it and see why
it's growing better than other species of seaggrass. And so it's just amazing of the science that's out there and everything else, but but some of it costs money. So as long as we uh put the money in the right spots and do it for the right reasons, we'll we'll make a
difference some someday in the lagoon. I mean, yeah, I mean, there's other things we need to do except to sept sewer and and all those type of things. get that done and and and worry about our storm water which our natural resource department for us is on top of
it along with you know our conservation lands and you know earlier we we was under item seven about our conservation lands that we're that we're buying on the lagoon. So any river county is making a difference. we're doing the
right things, pushing the right buttons. And I think, you know, by having Courtney here in Balmora Group just gives it another view to say, look at it from an economic standpoint, too, is what we're gaining, what we would lose
if we just, you know, let it go. So, I'm done talking, sir. >> Appreciate that, Mr. Ross. >> Thank Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I have a question. This has been very interesting to see the um property values quantified
in terms of the economic impact uh of the lagoon or economic value. So that's positive. Okay, it's positive number uh positive economic impact. But it's to me, how do you reconcile that
with a negative or adverse environmental impact of people living along the lagoon? Because certainly when you have developments on the lagoon, that's that creates uh environmental problems. I mean, so on the one hand, it's positive, but on the other hand, it's negative and
they seem to be at odds with each other. So I don't know how you reconcile that if there's some kind of mathematical equation, you know, how does it come out? What's the final uh what's the sum total? Is it positive or negative? You know, how much economic how much money
is added versus how much of the environment is destroyed? You know, where where where did we end up? Is is there an equation or is that calculated in any way or taken into consideration that reconciliation >> in this study? Not directly. Um but that
there you know there is certainly a modeling uh pro process that can be done. Um we had also uh been the consultant for the inland navigation district and I do know you know in other counties um we did have to look at um some of those frontage um effects
differently um you know particularly in the northern end of the um on the east coast in Duval and Nassau County, right? You have very large loss of marsh area um in front of those developed um lands. Um and so there, you know, there are ways that that those effects can be
teased out and um understood. Um in this specific case where you have um most of your developments already up against the water. Um that's um a different um way to look at it in terms of how you would model that effect had those not already been um developed. Um in this we do have
um you know some other um effects where we've considered property values in the context of um water quality. So looking at where you have harmful algo blooms negatively impacting your property values as well. So we do recognize that there certainly are environmental
trade-offs from both the development perspective as well as from um those uh water quality perspective as well. You know if that waterfront looks terrible if you know there's a fish kill on in the front of your property um every year right u that property becomes
significantly less desirable and and we do know what those effects are in other areas of the state as well. So, um I hope I um answered your question. >> Thank you. It becomes very expensive over time. One of the things that we're facing right now is the conversion of septic to sewer and especially in the
north county. A lot of it was along the lagoon. A lot of the septic and and converting that uh becomes very costly, but it's been it's been a real source of uh pollution. It's been very very negative negative impact uh on the
lagoon. So it's uh you know it's an it's just an interesting consideration. >> Thank you. >> What's the sum total? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, Commissioners. Any any further comments?
>> Courtney, I just want to say uh thank you. I think Dr. Freeze had had mentioned the cost factor of going so deep into this reminds me of uh I don't know if you remember you don't remember 1975
>> that was when I was studying marine biology and uh and diving and the the focus was in on what was within the waters and I just want to thank you for the
scope of the study and to understand and include what's happening outside the waters and what we have to do to go forward. It's going to have a significant impact. I'm very pleased and
thank you for your uh part. Uh I understand the the group has been working uh for quite some time on it and this is a great tool and an instrument for us to make positive decisions and
funding. >> Well, thank you >> Commissioner Flesher. You know, it's f we're finally hearing I think Commissioner Man hit it on the head. This might be some of the first time we've heard good news with respect to kind of good news with
seaggrass and uh we're very thankful for that. We've been very very patient. Oftent times commissioners we we think of our 22 miles of lagoon and we forget about Breard and St. Lucy and Martin. So although we are the smallest with our 22
miles, we are the mightiest and we will continue on that charge. So thank you Mr. and Julie, if you'd like to bring this in for a close. >> Thank you so much, commissioners. So, just a couple of wrap up items that we'd
like to talk about. So, I think everyone here can now truly appreciate the economic value of the lagoon as well as the uh ecological resource that it is. So, just you know, a couple of reminders. So the county has been very heavily engaged in regional recovery
through your participation in the lagoon council and the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program. So some of our local efforts in addition to some of the things that were touched on by Dr. Defreeze and Courtney include our water quality initiatives. So some of the
projects related to storm water. So, we do have our four major storm water treatment facilities that do provide a lot of service in that way. Um, Egret Marsh, Morhead Marsh, uh, Osprey Acres, and then I think we
should probably rename the PC main screening structure because when you compare it to the other ones, it's not as pretty of a name. Um, but yeah, right. But also we have some major infrastructure projects as Commissioner Earman mentioned the septic to sewer
conversions and those treatment facilities are major infrastructure in addition to a lot of our roadside swale networks our smaller retentions and whatnot. We have you know invested quite a bit of money locally in land conservation. So just at Commissioner
Moss's point regarding the development happening adjacent to the lagoon, this is one of the ways that we can strategize to help prevent some of that development in that critical area. So that's another effort that the county has focused on as well as our
restoration activities. So we had talked about the seaggrass plantings resiliency. We just completed a project where we put oyster reef balls outside of Laurens Island. So that's been in place for about a year now. We've got that um wrapping up resil uh in our
resource management. So I'm sure everyone has gotten quite a few calls about derelic vessels and our removals about those and whatnot. So the county really is taking this very seriously. We have a lot of local things that are
going on. So going forward, so right now our department has widely been focused on our efforts as they relate to the Indian River Lu well Indian River County Lagoon Management Plan, which was adopted by the board in September of
2023. We are interested in working towards an update to that plan internally with staff just to go through the projects, list some of the areas where we've made some progress and then to try to strategize areas where perhaps we
haven't made as much progress. And then also we continue to support the central Indian River Lagoon basin management action plan or as was aptly pointed out by the leadership there is an acronym for that. So the serial bmath. So um in
order for us to continue to succeed, we really need to continue our stakeholder support efforts. So we feel that this is an essential element in maintaining the momentum forward and uh you know we would like to focus a little bit on some
of those county project efforts. So, in order for us to do that, staff is proposing that we move forward with two workshops so that we can get all of our partners at the table, talk to the municipalities, talk to mosquito
control, work with our environmental groups, work with our tourism groups, work with our realy groups, and get some um local input in terms of our project planning. Uh enhance the communication that we have across jurisdictions. After we did the seaggrass planting project,
the town of Orchid came and expressed an interest in seeing what we could do to perhaps move that further. Then the 23 acres that were planted. So that's an example of that. Um, also the town of Orchid and the town of Indian River Shores have expressed interest in having
additional conversations about how we may be able to partner towards the c the well the serial BMAP efforts um the city of Felsmere as well. So really, you know, there's a lot of interest locally in how can we coordinate, how can we get more bang for our buck, if you will. So
basically, what can we do to leverage resources in order to better protect water quality and to have a greater impact on the lagoon. So that's kind of what we see as our vision going forward as our next step. So with that, I have a
staff recommendation that I'm requesting that the board consider. So, we are requesting that you approve staff to work towards hosting two stakeholder workshops. One focused on that lagoon management plan and one focused on the serial BMAP with a budgetary impact of
staff time and printing. I guess I didn't put that in there, but printing costs and whatnot. So, again, thank you for your time. >> Commissioner Flesh, >> that that's an easy one. I just had this discussion. Dr. be at the workshop.
>> The answer better be yes. >> And I have a slight indication it might be approved, so I didn't want to put you on the spot. >> He's a busy man. >> I I know you have a busy schedule, but we will be happy to help you in any way we can, either presenting, providing
additional data as you need on the bigger picture. Uh there's no question um these workshops um are a way to kind of advance the longer strategic plan than the day-to-day operations. I just took took
you know I just lost my that's the chemo brain occasionally coming in and my brain doesn't talk to my mouth. Uh we just did two workshops with Bvard County Board of County Commissioners who today will be talking about extending the halfsent
sales tax and so a number of us were asked to actually participate actively uh in two public workshops and hearings. So we're here to support you. You tell us you know what you need from us uh including even financial support if we
can you know find you know some support there. Uh we see my team and our program is your program. You invest in the council and uh we try to do everything we can to make your jobs easier and your staff's jobs. So whatever you need will
help. But I do think that strategic planning, the forwardlooking uh to Commissioners Moss's statement, the tension between private property rights, zoning, 800 people a day still
coming even though it's slowed into the state of Florida, property by property, these conflicts are going to happen. In Breard, it's Kennedy Space Center and the massive growth that we'll see up there, especially with workforce. Um, I've looked at the projections on
population on a per cap basis. The two fastest growing counties, at least on the last projections, will be Indian River County and St. Lucy County. And so, you know, it's it's a good idea to start thinking about the big picture and
to think what you want Indian River County to look like, not just the lagoon, but you know, the whole county itself. Uh but it is a challenge and it is one that if we don't do it proactively with a vision for how you want ind
Indian River County to look then it's you're going to look back and say wow that happened really quickly. I've been here 47 years. I'm stunned. And like you commissioner I grew up in New York. I saw this in Long Island and then I saw
it in Rhode Island. you know that what were sleepy somewhat rural residential communities are now urban centers. And so a lot of this is the vision you want for your community. And in our comprehensive conservation management
plan that we developed with you all and and certified back in 2019, we made a statement uh which is really relevant today that the NEP supports local home rule and we're all fighting that issue
on a regular basis these days. >> And the bay up there, Doc has twoft visibility. would need it longer. >> We have our days. So, when I showed you the seaggrass map, we're not improving
at the same rate in the same areas. Um, I'm going to guess that, you know, this is going to be up and down for a while. You know, 10 plus years of algo blooms, that's not going to stop overnight. Uh but for us as scientists enough clarity
to get sea seaggrasses not only rebounding uh but spreading in density to support our fisheries. You know that's that's the start and we'll be at this for a while. I know that Courtney mentioned I think maybe it was
Commissioner Earman mentioned the seaggrass nurseries. >> Mhm. We have five operational seaggrass nurseries now. Uh one in Martin County, one at Harbor Branch, Bvard Zoo, Sea and Shoreline is using the the funding that
we used for some of your out plannings and then up in Valuchia County in New Simra Beach that was all funded by federal funds. You know, this economic study, federal funds. So that's the power we can bring in our partnership.
you know, keep those federal funds. And also, I'm gonna ask this since he brought me back. I'm going to be up in Washington DC at the end of the month for two weeks. And so, if you have what they are now calling community requests
at the federal level, um, by all means, you know, have the county manager let me know what your priorities are. Uh, you may have seen the news just a while back. Uh, Representative Mike Heradopoulos brought $14 million worth
of community projects to Bvard County. Of those 11 projects, nine of them are Indian River Lagoon and water quality related. So, we're here to help in any way and would enjoy a workshop with you all. >> Well, thank you very much, Commissioner
F. >> Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Dr. priest for taking his time to come up here today. I in the last almost six years I've watched him work every day and it's just amazing to what what I've learned
that I didn't know about the inter lagoon and I've even lived here longer than he has but he's a lot smarter than me. So I appreciate it. So with with that I can tell you that that u from the stakeholder standpoint I talk with staff
a lot about this with regards to how we wanted to form it. We had some different ideas but now that we have a natural resource staff which I think is the best thing that this county has probably ever done. Creating a new bureau within the county
is the best thing we've ever done. The fact that we have now we have a staff and personnel to help our natural resources projects come to life and to monitor them has been a great thing. So we talked about how we're going to have
say a little lagoon counselor or what we're going to do how we're going to form it and what we came up with and I know that that I think she met with all y'all. What we came up with is what you were told. We came up with this stakeholders idea versus forming a a
actual committee that we could have more open conversations. We could do things faster and would get all the minds and the people that are involved and the people that want to be a part of it and make decisions and give advice to the
natural resource department to bring to us that we thought this is the best way to do it for now. We'll see how how the the two turn out. If we need to go to another plan, we can do that. But I think this is such a great idea and a good start and anybody that wants to be
involved in in lagoon management and the betterment of the lagoon can attend these and everybody will be able to speak, but it'll be kind of operated and and run by the natural resources department and they'll figure out who they who you know who the
stakeholders are. and I'm sure more will come forward, but I think this is a great idea and I commend Kylie and her staff for for coming up with this and taking the forefront on this, but uh they're doing a great job. We got a lot of good things going on. So, with that,
I'll approve staff make a motion to have staff hold two stakeholder workshops focused on the lagoon management plan, the other focused on the central IRL basin management action plan. >> Second with discussion. We have a motion
with a second from Commissioner Flesher. Yes, sir. And uh the motion will does include to have two workshops where I believe we will have a cultivation of there are
many PhDs, doctors in in the field that over the years we met over the years have had input and I think this is a great invitation with the information from the
Balmoro group and >> that we will cultivate >> my ideas is >> not a committee. >> Yeah. Yeah. My just to leave it with the professionals that we've hired to run this natural resource department to
determine that. I think they'll wear aware because all the people that I know that that have an interest have been in touch with our natural resource department. Those are the people that we want. Um, you know, people that have a have an
interest, have the knowledge and uh, no matter what, just, you know, give good input as to what we can do. >> Yeah. >> All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion?
Hearing none. All in favor? I. And the motion carries unanimously. Thank you, natural resources friends. Thank you, Doc, for being here. Thank you again, >> Mr. Next item is the
local jobs grant program. This will be a discussion head by led by our economic development manager, Mr. Doug Donrowski. Good morning and welcome, Mr. Don Browski. Morning,
Chairman Lauren, commissioners. Uh, item number 13 I1 is requesting authorization to revise the local jobs grant program for future consideration of the board. Um staff is requesting this
authorization in an advance because the current program was formerly approved by this commission. Um and we're also sensitive to the staff time that will be involved in the revision of this uh program as well. Both our department planning and development services and
the county attorney in 2025. An objective of the planning and development services department was to evaluate the county's current economic development programs for utilization, for effectiveness, for consistency with Florida statute and code. Um, I'd like
to thank the uh county attorney's office for uh helping us through that as well. Uh, periodic evaluation is just good economic development practice and it's consistent with your economic development strategic action plan that you passed in January.
Goal three of that plan uh calls to enhance county resources by evaluating the existing programs and for implementing new programs. I'd like to start with just an overview of the program basics of your existing
program. Uh the grant is for job creation for new and expanding businesses within the county. It has a target industry eligibility. So business has to be a target industry to to apply. It requires a minimum of five jobs being
created by the businesses at 75% of the county average wage which is currently 55,448 and grants are paid after the job creation. Um it's so it's a reimbursement after the jobs are created and they provide evidence to the county
that th those jobs are in place. Uh the the chart below shows how much grant per job is provided to the businesses and it's incentivized uh by the job wage category. In other words, the higher the wage uh the higher
the uh grant that they're eligible for for those jobs. Staff uh evaluated this program participation and performance over a 10-year period between 2016 and 2025. We utilize the county's controller approval
and payment data to do that. Um, and you'll see through the chart here below, nine businesses were approved by the board. Um, two received grant payments over that period. Um, but those two uh
businesses um did not receive all of the grant that they were approved for. Uh, the data infers that the program is not meeting its intended potential. Um, and it's really it appears to be more programmatic issues after after the uh
grants are approved by the board. Um, county staff and chamber staff um received um information from uh businesses that cited there are program barriers for participation and successful util utilization of this
program. the business has indicated weak financial return on investment and that's really essentially because it it takes too long to realize the grant funding. Uh the grant funds are dispersed as one-third payments over a three-year period. So, in the example
below, a $5,000 grant, say for a $70,000 job that's created in the county, uh the business would receive $1,666 each year. Uh the businesses indicate the program is time consuming, so there's a cost benefit consideration to
it. uh it requires uh much time technical assistance throughout the process from application implementation and reporting. The businesses are required to submit quarterly reports and an annual grant request. So that's seven reports
annually. Um and I'll just say business investment in capital and labor is not a really quarterly decision. Um that's more of a long-term decision for businesses. The program agreement um they mentioned
is confusing and complianceheavy. There are multiple hiring phases, commencement dates and compliance dates. Uh and the current agreement has uh complex grant calculations which are the quarterly aggregate figures.
Uh and the agreement for this program can extend out for more than six years. that which which would require 29 reports to the Indian River County. >> Uh three final thoughts as you consider
this authorization. Uh three final thoughts uh for the uh Indian River County jobs grant program as an economic development incentives. Uh this 10-year program review revealed underperformance
programmatic flaws after the approvals. Uh I would just just say it's it's good to have this incentive, but it's better to know that the B it's being effectively used by the businesses. Um economic development uh programs in general should be really attractive to
those that are want to apply or come and invest in your community. It should be an inducement for that private investment and providing sufficient return on investment for them. uh these programs should not be too complex for business participation and compliance.
So you can imagine uh this program with quarterly reports for a small business it it it can be challenging and lastly effective economic development incentives are performance-based. Uh so staff uh will maintain the
standard of a grant reimbursement after job creation. uh but we would also have reasonable compliance and reporting to ensure that the representations they made to all of you upon application they follow through with
um with that the next steps uh that for this uh before we came to you we did go to the economic development council they made their recommendation to this body to authorize staff to revise the local jobs grant program on January 20th
uh today We're requesting your authorization. Um, if you do provide that authorization, planning and development staff will work with the county attorney with revisions to the program and agreement. We will return to the economic development council for further
feedback and recommendation to this board and then we'll bring uh all the program elements back to the commission for consideration and adoption. Um, with that, staff would recommend um authorization for revision of the Indian
River County Local Jobs Grant Program and associated agreement for future consideration of the board. Um, with that, staff would take any questions that you may have. And in addition, I believe uh Lance Lungsford is here as
the EDC chair if you have any questions for him. >> Well, thank you, Doug, and and commissioners. I I will just say from my perspective spending some time with Doug uh this is a natural progression I think in the direction of this county is going
under uh the leadership of Mr. to Tanch who obviously has a background in this. Uh Doug is credited with a lot of things often joke that he brought SpaceX to Bvard County. That's a joke. You're you can laugh. Uh but Doug with with uh the
authorization that I presume will happen today. A lot of expectations and a lot of demands uh to be expected from us towards you. So brace yourself commissioners. Um I I just have one question with regard to the uh the
salary slide. I think it was 55,000 and then it said 75% of that having to do with the salaries for jobs. Is that is that what it is currently or is that a suggested? >> So Commissioner Moss, the $55,000 figure
that is the current average wage for Indian River County. >> That I think like 75% of that sounds kind of low. you're talking about the they'll call it the Alice population. >> Yeah. Um you know and they can't afford to live here and so that's uh that's
problematic. >> So that's one area that we'll probably review um that will be brought up with the economic development council. Uh one comment that I had heard already from the economic development council is that um at some point in time uh during the
recession they had lowered that standard to 75% of the average wage um just to help bring more jobs into the county. >> Okay. All right. So you're going to review that? >> Correct. >> Okay. Yeah. Sounds >> Thank you, Commissioner Mosque.
>> Widen the threshold for the granting. Commissioners, any any further comments for Doug? >> Pressure's on. Doug, >> this would require a motion. Commissioner >> motion to approve. >> Second. >> Motion by Commissioner Flesher and a
second by Commissioner Vice Chair Moss. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? >> I. Commissioner is now 11:02. We will be taking a six-minute recess and we will rejourn at 11:08.
Thank you. Pressure's Welcome back and good afternoon. It is uh 11:08 on the 24th of February. The year is 2026 and we resume the board of county commission meetings. Fellow commissioners, up next is utility
services. I see our director Sean Liski present. Welcome. Good morning. >> Good morning, Chairman Lure. Commissioners, Sean Leki, director of Department of Utility Services. Um, with me is Howard Richards, our capital projects manager. Uh, we've got an item here today where we are going to be
asking to reappropriate some capital improvement element funds um, associated with a couple of projects at our Gford water reclamation facility. Um, we had started a project earlier this year under operational um, funding to uh, replace or actually do what we call a
cure in place um, pipeline repair for a pipeline. And if we can pull it up real quick. I just thought I'd give you a quick idea of what we're talking about maybe. So we have our Gford water reclamation facility and we have a drain line here
that kind of captures a lot of the um the associated um waste from the facility itself. And that line here that kind of runs along this this this roadway, internal roadway, um is was found to be leaking. And we were going to be doing
operational repair to do just basically some repair work on that line. Um when they came in to do when the contractor came in to to do an evaluation of that, they found that the line was actually more damaged than we had originally thought. Um and there was actually a structural when you do these CIP and
these other kind of repair works, you need a really good structural component of that pipe. The pipe was actually completely um eroded away at the top. So there was no structural element left of the pipeline. And so we are having to go back and actually do a whole full
replacement of that line. And um what we are asking for is we had another project at Gford uh that because of long lead times is going to have to be deferred. Uh so we're asking to kind of replace that project with this project, defer the the original project um which was
associated with some filters. We would defer that till next year. and we use the funding for that project to help fund this project in the amount of $532,875 um to basically do the line replacement. Um originally we had thought it was only going to be around what was about 57,000
I think was the original operational um cost. Um but you know it's we've because of the the integrity of the pipe being uh compromised we have had to now do a full line replacement. So we are um what we are asking and we are recommending the Indian county board of county
commissioners approve the department of utility services to undertake the process waste drain line replacement at the headworks project at Gford water reclamation facility outside of proposed capital element improvement element for an estimated cost of $532,875 and I would be happy um to answer any
questions any questions for Sean or Howard commissioners also doing business running a county. Gentlemen, >> motion to approve staff. >> We have a motion by Commissioner Man and a second by Commissioner Flesher. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor?
>> I. And the motion carries. >> Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thank you. >> Get to work. >> Commissioner's next item is a presentation by the Solid Waste Disposal District. Before you, you see our director, Himachu Meth. For some reason,
he looks kind of like a recycling bin. >> Vegetative waste. >> He's vegetative waste. >> Good morning, commissioners. Himan Schmetha, managing director of the solid waste disposal district and >> one whole yard, >> aka Mr. Yard Waste today. Um, h happy to
be here with you this morning. Uh, I'm certainly proud of our our yard waste cart colors. Uh, a a quick story on that. Originally was supposed to be all orange. Uh but staff kind of intervened and and uh we decided to go with with the brown like a tree trunk and then the orange uh top more uh more of a fall
feel and more of a nod to citrus uh industry in Ind County. So uh I think people are starting to to like it. >> Thank you. >> Uh um so good morning. Uh we're here to talk about the second amendment to the solid waste and recyclables collection
service franchise. Um, and just as a background, this this agreement was approved back in July of 2024. All of you were part of that exciting process that led led to the approval of that. It was a two-year effort to get there. Um,
in uh December of 17 of 2024, so even the franchise wasn't even activated yet. It wasn't effective until October 1 of 2025. Uh, we we did the board approved a first amendment to the agreement and it provided some reductions. uh for fees for residential, multif family and
commercial customers. So we were actually before even the agreement started, we started looking at certain things and how we can reduce and and improve certain things. Um I think uh we also provided um uh exemptions there for blue cyprus and things like that. Uh so
so that was the first amendment before even the agreement started. Um and then in June uh you know 2025 around I think uh when when WM started sending postcards to everybody and said hey we got we got carts coming. Uh we had a lot
of HOA communities come to us and so that was even again prior to the franchise agreement starting in October of 2025. We we listened to the input from from these communities. uh we came to the commission and in June 17, 2025, uh the board approved staff
recommendations uh for for number of things. One was the yard waste exemptions for HOA communities uh and also an earlier card swap. Originally, we envisioned that we would get all these carts out, people would try them for 90 days and then January 2nd, 2026,
they could call in and ask for a different size cart. But again, we we we heard from a lot of residents. They were they weren't they weren't happy, you know, with some of these big carts. They were they had small ones to begin with. And so, um, so again, we we listened to the public, uh, and what their concerns
were. And, and again, thanks to the board, we we worked with WM to initiate, uh, early cart exchanges. And then, uh, I think, and I'll mention, I think a little bit later about about those card swaps. Um we did come uh late last year,
December 2025 to uh memorialize some additional changes via a second amendment and um um but at at the time I think at the discussion we had uh related to commercial uh charges, supplemental fees and also yard waste
exemption program and u board asked us to basically continue further negotiations with WM and and here we are today to to memorialize those. So today's purpose is again to provide the updated second amendment. Uh just briefly go over the yard waist
exemption, the standardized carts and cart swaps, uh commercial and supplemental fees, and then we do have some exhibits that we have in the original agreement that we're updating the yard waste exemption process. Uh currently the final numbers, I think the agenda had some average numbers. We we
this week uh prior to this meeting, we basically fine-tuned our list with WM. We have about 39 communities in unincorporated in county that are actively participating in the yard waste exemption process. That's about about 38
uh 3,831 residents, if you will, when you count those individual communities. And um and and so we were able to prior to delivery of the yard yard wastist cards for I think majority of them, WM was able to um not even deliver them the
yard waist carts. So we worked out the process. they submitted the forms and and and we got that in place. Um what we did originally in that exemption process was again it was a quick decision to to grant them the exemptions. We came up with an agreement and we went forward.
One of the things that that we originally had in the exemption it was that it was going to be a fiveyear to potentially 10-year exemption. It was a one-time form and uh and nobody could sort of opt back in. Um and after
the other a aspect of that is that you know these communities are are paying for a service and um and they're not utilizing it. That's their choice. However, we're we're collecting the money and paying WM. So originally in that that first exemption process, we
had asked WM for some concessions for or benefits for other folks outside of those uh communities. And after further discussions with WM and our county attorney's guidance, one of the things we we recognized is that HOAs and POAS
and COAs, they certainly have their rights and and responsibilities to govern their communities. Uh however, because of this, you know, uh universal waste collection process administered through the non-adabor uh process through the tax bill, uh we're
collecting individual fees and assessment from individual residents and and the benefit is really for them. Uh and it's their HOAs that are making the decisions that that they they don't want this service in the community. That's their right, but individual benefits and
what they're paying for uh we feel still need to be protected. And so what we did is we we've kind of separated out we we basically left the benefit to those individual residents. This new yard wastist exemption process is going to be an annual process with the HOA boards of
these communities. Um and it so it it it should be a you know I'll reach out to them annually prior to July 31st. We'll get them to resubmit the form that their community still wants to continue to be exempt. At the same time, starting uh
this next fiscal year, residents in those communities, if they want a yard waist cart, they will call WM directly. Uh and WM will deliver a yard waist cart and provide weekly service to them. Um and we feel that that's been a good
compromise. U that benefit remains with those residents that are paying for it. If they want to opt back in, they'll have the right to do though do that. the HOAs can continue to ask for an exemption for their whole community and um and it keeps the benefit again within
the community. Uh so we have not asked for any sort of uh outside relief out of those communities. Um Miss Schuler, if if there's anything to add, please. >> I don't I think you described it well. >> Okay. All right. I appreciate it. >> Um so um that's that's the yard waste
process. I don't know if you want me to pause here if you have any questions on that at all or I'll just continue on uh with the presentation. Um the the next item on the update in the second amendment is just to uh you know we implemented this uh again we came back
to the board earlier in the year back uh where we authorized WM to start doing cart swaps as of October one. They've done over 6,000 exchanges. So you know uh basically the standard 65gallon recycling cart that we provided uh
residents either exchanged that for a smaller one a 35gallon cart or they could have gone to a larger 95gallon cart. Same thing occurred uh with the trash cart. We provided a standard 95gallon cart and residents had the option of going smaller to 65 or 35 and
about so far uh I think you know I think 70 80 carts a day is is what's what's going on in terms of uh cart swaps. So, uh, folks can still call in, uh, 772-569-1776. Uh, call WM and if they have a cart, you know, size that's too big or too small
related to recycling and and and trash, they can they can still make those, uh, make those changes. Um, commercial and supplemental fees. I think we had a a pretty good discussion last time, but for the record, I'll just quickly go over this. Uh we we do recognize the commercial rates did increase in this
new contract by 93% from the previous contract. Um originally if you look at the fee uh uh for per cubic yard was 558 per cubic yard in September of you know 2025 that rate per cubic yard with the
new contract went up to $10.79. What I'd like to point out though is if we go back 10 years prior to that it was about an 18% increase over a 10-year mark. So d we we had a very good contract that controlled those rate increases. Uh so they only saw about an
18% increase over a 10-year period. Uh so so we know that there was a market correction. Uh the other competitors also had comparable you know prices uh with that and I think I have a table that'll show you that. Um other factors I think were certainly COVID and labor and equipment cost that factored into
the increase. Um, one of the new things that we did not have in the previous contract that did did result in increases is a provision for supplemental fees that were added to the contract. We call them allocart services um such as opening and closing gates and
rolling out and returning dumpsters. These were not in the old franchise agreement. Uh, and that they were they were providing that service and was part of the rate. Uh however we we were hoping that by separating these services out that we would could keep our rates from increases you know uh as high but
unfortunately the market adjustment was there and at the same time you had these supplemental fees and so it did result in dramatic increases to multifamily and commercial businesses. A lot of them reached out to I think commissioners individually and and we quickly you know
got to the table with WM. Uh the county administrator had a meeting with WM uh to to really kind of look at what what could be done. Um and overall these these changes actually have been been implemented already but and and this second amendment is just to codify it.
But one of the things is originally in the agreement we had a recycling rollout fee that WM could charge for that for multifamilies that has been removed to zero now. Um and opening closing doors and gates has been changed from like a per month cost to or from from a per
event cost actually to a per month cost which is a substantial reduction. And they've also capped the total amount of cost that they could charge a community if they have like five or more gates in in in a particular multif family area. Um the other thing in meeting with the
county administrator was key is WM is basically obtaining written approval for these extra services from these communities. If they don't get a written approval, then they actually need to go back all the way to October one and provide a credit for those communities. So if the community decides, you know what, you never obtain approval for me
about opening and closing gates and going forward, I don't want you to open and close my gates. I'll have somebody open, you know, the gates for me. then they can actually go back and give them the credit for that. Um and and again these reductions and and reductionist
fees were implemented back in November of 2025. Um just a lot of information here, but the main thing is to just to show originally the recycling rate was, you know, $20 for rolling out. Then we revi reduced it in the first amendment 10. Now it's down to zero. Um the
rollout fee originally was 75. Um it it was reduced to 40 in the first amendment. So, so no no change there. Opening closing, you know, doors and gates. It was $75 originally in in the agreement reduced to $40 um per event in the first amendment and now it's do $40
per month. Uh so again, the these uh we have seen and WM is here. Debbie Perez um has been working with communities one by one and and and working with them to uh make changes that fit their community and and and yes, the costs are higher
than they were in September. Uh however, they are able to take advantage of these and and see what works for their community to try to try to get some reductions. Um this just as I mentioned earlier, uh WM 93% increase. their old rate was at
18% I mentioned earlier and then this this is how the other comm uh you know competitors were two higher two lower than WM um and again same table that we have for commercial as we had up there for multifamily
um update on the exhibits we're basically you know have we've had all these updates in amendment one and amendment two we just have an updated exhibit one it's a consolidated rate sheet so we could if anybody asked for the rate sheet for the contract it would have everything updated and and intact.
Um, same thing with exhibit 8. This is uh providing government buildings and facilities recycling services that WM provides. We um originally I think in the previous contract they were 64 gallon carts. We've updated the list to reflect 95gallon carts is what all of
these locations have now. Um we uh you know Sue and Jill are out there. they they actively go out to government buildings, work with the fire stations and other folks and whatnot to to to and audit kind of what's going on, what do they need, what what can be done for
approving recycling at our facilities. Uh and and they're they're making sure the the the list is accurate and updated and reflects what we're paying WM. So we we've decided to do I think two audits a year to make sure that our government services that we're we're setting the
example that you know we're leading by example on on on how to recycle in in in the community. So um with that um happy to answer any questions. Staff does recommend the board approve the second amendment to the solid waste and recycling collection franchise agreement
between SWID and WM and authorize the chairman to execute the agreement. >> Thank you commissioners. Uh we've all been through this together. We understand the the test that IU and his team have faced. Uh it's not lost on us
that over 220,000 carts were exchanged in the last six, seven, eight months, which is truly a remarkable feat by your team. For that we do appreciate. Commissioners, any comments? >> I'm glad to say we got it worked out because I don't want to relive the
greatest time of my life. as we did last. >> Is that in the form of a motion? >> It needs a motion. So, yeah, sure. So, motion approve. >> We have a motion from Commissioner Flesher. Second, >> we have a second by Commissioner Man. Any further discussion? Hearing none.
Thank you so much, Deb Suachi. Sean, >> thank you. All in favor? I motion passes. Just just be careful as you're meandering about dressed in this attire
braces, I guess. >> Okay. All right. I'll be careful. Thank you, sir. >> Commissioner, this brings us to public comment on any non agenda related matters. None hearing none. And seeing none, it is now
11:47. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.