Is that you? >> Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today is Tuesday, January 27th. It is 9:00 a.m. We will call the board of county commissioners meeting to order. We will start by rising with a moment of silence for our first
responders and law enforcement, followed by the invocation by Pastor Tracy Moore. Please rise. Our father in heaven, we come to you this day. And Father, I just pray that you be with our city, that you be with these commissioners and the decisions
that they make. Father, give them the wisdom that they need and as they care for the people in this in right here in this city, in this county. And Father, I just ask you to to guide them in the best way possible. Father, we are so thankful for the
sacrifices that each one of them make and even their families and so they can do this job. We thank you for the citizens of this of this s of this city as well. Father, just continue to be with us and bless us in everything we do. And it's in Jesus name we pray.
Amen. >> Amen. >> Thank you, pastor. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, welcome. Commissioner Adams is just three or four minutes behind. She got uh held up this morning, so we will proceed.
Uh, Commissioners, any additions or deletions to the agenda? >> Mr. Administrator? >> Yes. Uh, Mr. Chair. Uh, under 5B, we have a presentation for the Quail Valley Charities and other charitable organizations commitment regarding the
Indie River County Youth Training Center at Sanage Club. And then um, Sanage Golf Club rather. And then uh, at 9 L is a resolution to that effect. So possibly we can read that resolution at
the same time after the presentation. The board can consider that. That' be one uh 9L. Uh we the Floravon Shores septic to sewer project. We need to pull that for one meeting or so because we uh
the community meeting is being uh needs to be planned and we want to have that before it comes to the board. And then the last thing I would just uh is under the consent agenda 9A uh
approval of a simply gov enterprise workflow automation platform. Uh we will want to move that to departmental matters which would be under information technology would make it 131. >> So 9A goes under 13 B1.
>> E1. Yes sir. Echo. Okay, >> commissioners, any uh additional changes or addition or deletions? >> Mr. Chairman, I was going to offer what the county administrator did about the Quail Valley resolution. I would be uh
honored if you'd let me read it, sir, when that time comes. >> Absolutely. Yes, sir. >> Move approval. >> Second. >> We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion about the additions or deletions? Hearing none. All in favor?
>> I. Commissioners and friends, the next agenda item will be a presentation and proclamation for the Vero Beach Museum of the Arts, the 40th anniversary, and this will be administered by
Commissioner Joe Flesher. Commissioner, >> Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for the honorable privilege of presenting this proclamation. Uh, as you're aware, uh, no civilization is complete without
a museum, a library, a a place that we can contain, maintain, procure uh, the the art the art of a civilization. And we're we're pleased
and honored to have had that benefit for many many years of 40 years. Uh would you like to come up to the podium again? It's uh with great pleasure to uh present this and we anticipate hearing
some great things that are happening just right at the podium would be great um that we'll hear some great things that are happening at the Vero Beach Museum. Thank you once again. is the Vero Beach
Museum of Art 40th anniversary. Whereas the Vero Beach Museum of Art, a nonprofit organization, founded as the Alliance for the Arts in 1978 to create a regional center for the
appreciation and teaching of the arts and humanities and opened to the public debt-free on January 31st, 1986 in Riverside Park as the center of the arts. Whereas in 2002, the museum
changed its name to the Vero Beach Museum of Art and was recognized in 2025 by RE Museum as one of the best attended small museums in the nation, serving
78,000 annually. And the blockbuster exhibitions such as Art Deco Mu uh automobiles that drew 40,000 over a three-month period and through those programs for families, schools,
uh the experience for prek, grade 12 art classes, and the community access programs that provide and enrich to 39,000 each year. And whereas in November 7th,
2025, the museum broke ground on a new building and transformed the campus to ensure its long-term sustainability and resilience, double its gallery space, extend its programming capabilities, and create a
new public space for the community gathering and exchange. And whereas the Vera Beach Museum of Art on February 14th, 2026 will celebrate the 40th year of service
for the Indie River County with a free community celebration of the arts. Now therefore be proclaimed by the board of county commissioners of Indie River County, Florida that the board congratulates the Vero Beach Museum of
Art on 40 years of cultural enrichment for the Indian River County and its residents. Duly adopted this 27th day of January 2026 and this proclamation is signed by all five county commissioners.
>> All right. >> Good morning. Good morning. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Miss Elis, if you'd like to say a few words. >> Yes. >> Um just just a couple on behalf of my colleagues, uh Maryannne Sprinkle and John Sophranic and and Brady Roberts who
our executive director who's not here. Um we really recognize and we are grateful for the vision of the community members who came together to create that center for the arts 40 years ago. Um, and as we look toward our future, um,
their great vision and their great commitment to this community will only be, um, magnified through the work that we will continue to do as we move ahead. So, thank you very much for recognizing our 40 years. >> Well, thank you. It is an exciting time for sure. I think a few of us were at
the uh, ribbon cutting not long ago and and each of us have had a tour and it's a very exciting time. So, we thank you and and welcome. We'd like to take a quick photo if you don't mind. >> We would love to do that as well. >> Thank you. Congratulations. >> Thank you.
Wait after you do that. Thank you. >> Congratulations once again. Thank you. Fantastic. And thank you to the museum commissioners. Next is a presentation uh for the Quail Valley Charities and the
other charitable organization commitment to fund and design and construction of the In River County Youth Training Center at Sand Ridge Golf Club. Uh it is very exciting time obviously this morning not only with the museum but the things that are coming up at at Sand
Ridge and 2026 looks to be a wonderful year so far. Welcome Mr. Zto. >> Thank you Mr. Chairman and good morning commissioners. Uh just a brief presentation on uh the companion item 9L under consent is the actual resolution that you'll be voting on. Uh but with us
today uh is a u a very positive collaboration of youthbased charities in Indian River County. Uh primarily the Indian River Golf Foundation and Roger Van Dyk whose name is synonymous with that organization is here today with us.
Um Paul McInley is a household name in golf. Uh he's um a European Rder Cup champion, PGA Tour champion, a familiar face on the golf channel and has um approached Quail Valley Charities together with the New York Golf Foundation to start a conceptual
discussion about um building a youth training center uh not uh not for youth collegiate golf uh but for to uh for the underserved residents of Indian River County who we want to um establish an outreach program to bring them into Sand
Ridge and train um under Bella, under the IRGF and under Paul's um collaboration. So, it's a tremendous opportunity, but it's not our first foray into youth golf. In fact, standing next to me is our golf pro Bella Naggi. I'm proud to say he's been uh supporting
youth golf for the last 30 years at San Ridge and the last 18 of which has been in conjunction with the Inn River Golf Foundation. So, Bella, tell us about some of the events that we and programs that we're currently running and now now we enter this new chapter. Uh good
morning everyone. Uh excited to be here today. So what started as a couple summer camps when I first uh started Sandridge back in uh 95 has now blossomed into uh yearround offering with 5day a week programming basically for kids in uh in our county. Um plus
we've become the the mecca now for junior golf uh in the state of Florida and attract junior golfers from around the world with our American Junior Golf Association event that we have in June every year. as well as the Florida Junior Tour, South Florida PGA um and US
kids. So, it's uh wonderful time right now and I'm really excited um to have this opportunity with Paul McInley and uh for the Indian River Golf Foundation and Quill Valley Charities. Really appreciate Don Meadows and Kevin Gibbon uh for bringing this opportunity to us.
>> Thank you, Bella. So, as he mentioned, uh Don Meadows is the is the golf pro at Quail Valley and Kevin Gibbon is the general manager. Um and u we've been meeting with this group for about a month approached you all u individually uh but today we're going to give you a
little more detail but again this is just in support of a resolution very similar to what the commission did for the Martin Luther King park project where you gave your um support of cooperation that if the funds are raised we would be there to collaborate with the land and the construction. So very
similar concept here today. Um, just to give you a little background, we did um compile a short video and this is uh put together by uh Danny Cortez in recreation who condensed 18 minutes video into three minutes for your
benefit. So, it's um some talent involved there, but you'll see it bounce around a little bit. That's just to give you a feel for the celebrity of Paul McInley for what the Quail Valley Charity's mission is all about. um in the river golf foundation and um of course Paul mentions in the video that he's working with the city of course
he's endearing to the city of beach where he's in sconce to live um but he is actually working with the county in this endeavor along with the other two groups that I mentioned so without further ado if we're fortunate enough technology will play and we'll
see what we have Okay, try it again. >> Okay. Well, if um while we're working that out, we'll give you some more detail and we'll put it up on our website and uh email it individually to you all, give
you some more background. But uh this may be a good time to ask Kevin to come on up and give you um some detail from his perspective. Mr. Given, if you want to come up and join us, we get that going. We'll just interrupt. >> Yeah, that's fine. >> Good morning.
>> Good morning, commissioners. uh Kevin Gibbon uh one of the owners here at Quail Valley. And >> so we go from Luke Donald to another successful European Rder Cup. Back in 2002, Paul famously stunk this putt in the 18th hole to Belfry to secure the halfpoint needed for team
Europe to win the RDER Cup. And then in 2014, he successfully captained the European Ryder Cup team to victory at Glenn Eagles in Scotland. Europe defeating team USA 16 and a half to 11 and a half to win their third straight RDER cut for taking the time to
join us today. It's a pleasure to see you. Let's let's start talking about the McKinley Foundation. What is the mission of your foundation and how did it partner with Quail Valley in this collegiate invitational? >> My ultimate goal is to uh try to raise some money um to build a facility. Uh
we're working with the with the city uh and we're hoping to uh with the golf association in Vero Beach as well too and we're hoping to um create a facility uh that's going to be something that I can spend more and more time with as the years go by uh down the road where I will spend more time doing do spending time around it funding it and bringing
young kids in particular into the game. I brought to Kevin and Steve the idea of what do we think about a collegiate event? um you know, I've got a little bit of a background in doing that and I've got some connections, if you will, with coaches that are still in the industry and they like the idea >> and we obviously want to promote amateur
golf and uh the collegiate was the the way that we decided to go with that with the addition of the Mcinley Foundation with Paul McInley really stepping in to elevate it. Uh we we look for the next decade to be uh great years ahead. >> My foundation was formed in 2013, the year before I was writ captain. We've
been uh raising funds for um uh initiatives that particularly around young people. That's really what we try to do more than anything is uh help out young kids and it doesn't have to be just golf. >> I've been here at Sanders Golf Club for over 30 years and worked with thousands of juniors in the last 18 years with the
Indie River Golf Foundation. We've had a shared goal of molding kids into great human beings, not just good golfers. And we're so excited because the IRGF has been proposing a training center to the county for many years, but it's just been a bridge too far. Now, with the
help of Quail Valley Charities, we can make it a reality to help grow the game of golf in Indian River County, but mostly benefit our youth to grow in both life skills and enjoy the game of golf. >> Well, I'm 10 years now living in Vero Beach area and played all the golf courses around here. And >> the other thing about this tournament
that's so important is the charitable aspect of it. Vero Beach is a very giving community. There's there's so much philanthropy that goes on here and to be able to give to grow the game of golf locally in particular and with this Indian River Golf Foundation and the Mcinley Foundation really making a
commitment to Indian River County is very very special to us. We also are a big part of the community as far as giving. Uh we have an arm called Quail Valley Charities Inc. which we've given out 14 million uh since inception. >> Yeah. One of the things that's that's really impressive about the whole
community here is how welcoming it is and and to have this collegiate event here. You know, money has been raised invested back into the community and my objective is to take that and put a bit of profile around it. Uh use my brand and and uh hopefully build a facility. That's what I'm really aiming for. I want to build a really really good
facility here. That's my vision. I am involved. I am in Scots in the community. I will be here for a long period of time touchwood and uh that you know I want to do something for the community and give back to it and I want to be identified as a Vero Beach uh resident and the best way for me to do that is is do it through the the conduit
of golf. >> Yep. >> All right. I I'll jump back in again. Good morning and thank you for having me up here. I'll just touch on the video to kind of clarify a few things. So Quail Valley Charities Inc. uh we started that in 2002. Um, and we've given a little over 14
million to uh nonfor-profit uh youth and uh children and educational programs here in Indian River County. That's been the goal of our of our organization. This past year, we partnered with the Mcinley Foundation.
uh Paul and I sort of hailed from the same part of Ireland together and and when he moved here and his foundation was set up a number of years ago with sort of similar alignment with us. So we have used our collegiate um amateur
event that we've had for about 13 14 years now as a springboard to raise money uh for this facility to uh to jointly partner with Sand Ridge and the Indian River Golf Foundation. So that's where all the idea came behind. And our goal is to raise, you know, three and a
half $4 million to be able to to get this facility done. And I would be remiss not to thank Mike and and Bella. They've been great to work with. The county should be very proud of these two individuals. They're they're true gentlemen. Uh if you haven't, for those
that may be watching or in the audience, if you haven't been out to Sand Ridge, I've been in the golf business for for 40 plus years. It's one of the finest public facilities in the United States. And also uh I want to thank Roger Van Djk. I've known Roger since I moved here
about 35 years ago. And um you know he wears it on his sleeve every day. Uh he's, you know, been a golf professional and then trans, you know, transitioned into uh promoting youth golf. And you know, this was his original vision and we want to kind of help him carry that
forward uh with everything. So, I'll stop there and if anybody has any questions, I'll be glad to uh step in and answer any questions as well. >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you very much and thank you Bella and Mike for what you do and we look forward to this this partnership.
>> It's good times and with that um >> Yep. Go ahead, >> Mr. Gon. Uh, I I just have to say that from the the very start when Mike and Bella
began to talk about this early on, I was excited. Clearly, it reminds me of the program that Major League Baseball has provided for the youth. reminds me of the gifted
youth orchestra putting a skill, a talent, recreation, and discipline into individuals who would not otherwise have had the opportunity to do. Uh it's it's
very exciting. It's not about the bowl and the club. It's about what's created. And I I have the opportunity to watch Mr. Van Dyk the connection and what it does for youth development.
This is this is just priceless of what's about to happen. And personally, I can't thank you enough. Uh I think the county can't thank you enough for moving forward with such a vision and
facilitating an opportunity that would never have existed otherwise. Yes, they do a great job at San Ridge and watching the youth and the skills other than just again striking the ball and getting it
where it has to go and one day be able to say I've struck an eagle. U that's about all I know about golf. I' I I'm a kid from Brooklyn. I we there's not many golf courses. But to
watch the children to be able to connect, remove their cover, shake a hand, be connected to what's right. That is the key here. Yeah, they'll
learn golf, but more importantly is it's the tools that you implement in the process. I'm very grateful. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Flesher. And I also just want to as part of the uh the
resolution that's in front of you, it is our hope to uh encourage other like-minded nonforprofits, other clubs to join us in this in this fundraising effort um so that we can u you know, make this a reality. And again, we thank
you for your time today. >> And speaking of fundraising efforts, the Quail Valley Charities 5K is this Saturday at 8 a.m. I'm signed up. It's going to be a hot race on a cold day, but uh I think the sign up is still open. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you, Commissioner. >> Thank you for that. I uh understand Commissioner Man would like to read the resolution, sir. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a resolution of the board of county commissioners at any river county
supporting local charitable organizations led by Quail Valley Charities commitment to fund and the design the construction in any river county youth training center at San Ridge Golf Club. Whereas Quela Charities is the 501c3 organization and since its
inception in 2001 dedicated to funding select nonprofit organizations and programs in any river county which focus solely on children and their education. Whereas Sandridge Golf Club has a rich and illustrious tradition of developing
youth golf in any river county since 1987. Whereas the tradition expanded with the creation of the Indian River Golf Foundation, the IRGF in 2008, dedic dedicated to developing youth through the game of golf, offering programs that
inspire confidence, character, and lifelong skills on and off the course. Whereas Quail Valley Charities has expressed their desire to develop a youth training location and building for the benefit of the children of Indian
River County. Whereas Quail Valley Charities is poised to engage in a fundraising campaign to fully fund the design and construction of the Any River County Youth Training Center at San Ridge Golf Club. Whereas the location of
any river county youth training center will be located on San Ridge golf club property at the south end of the current driving range. Whereas any river county wishes to express its support for the Indian River County Youth Training
Center at San Ridge Golf Club in this endeavor in this endeavor. Furthermore, Indian River County is eager to coordinate with Quail Valley Charities to develop this center. Now therefore, be it resolved by the Indian River County Board of County Commissioners
that the Indian River County Board of County Commissioners offices pledge of commitment to work in earnest with various charitable organizations led by Coil Valley Charities to design, construct, and donate the building to
Indian River County. So far, this resolution was moved for adoption on this day and shall be can be motioned and seconded upon being put to a vote as follows. So, with that, I know it's kind of ceremonial because it's under consent, but I'd like to move this
forward and make the motion to accept and approve this resolution. >> Second. >> We have a motion. We have a second. >> Mr. Chair, I'd just ask if you want to ask if there's any public comment on it. >> Any public comment involving this resolution? Hearing
none. Seeing none. Any further discussion by the commissioners? Hearing none. All in favor? >> I. >> And the motion passes unanimously. Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, commissioners. >> Commissioners, that moves us on to the approval of the minutes. Uh item 6A is
the preliminary budget hearing meeting on September 10th, 2025. So move. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> I know it's cold outside, but good grief. >> We have a motion. We have a second. Any
further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I >> I. >> Item 6B is the final budget hearing meeting of September 17, 2025. >> Second. >> We have a motion and we have a second. Any further discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor? I. Item 6 C
is the regular meeting of October 7th, 2025. >> We have a motion by Commissioner Flesher, a second by Commissioner Adams. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? I. 6D is a special call meeting of October 20th, 2025.
We have a motion by Commissioner Adams, a second by Commissioner Flesher. Any further discussion? Hearing none, those all in favor? I. Item 6E is the regular meeting minutes of October 21st, 2025. A motion by Commissioner Flesher, second
by Commissioner Adams. All in favor? I. 6F is a special call planning and zoning >> joint workshop from October 23rd. We have a motion by Commissioner Adams and a second by Commissioner Flesher. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in
favor? I. Item 6G is a regular meeting minutes from November 14th, 2025. We have a motion by Commissioner Adams and a second by Commissioner Fleser. Any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I.
>> Next is 6H, regular meetings for November 18th, 2025. We have a motion by Commissioner Adams. We have a second by Commissioner Flesher. They're warming up, ladies and gentlemen. All in favor? I. Item 6 I is a regular meeting. Finally, from December 9th, 2025. We
have a motion by Commissioner Adams and a second by Commissioner Flesher. Any further discussions hearing? None. All in favor? I. Uh number seven, uh commissionersformational items from staff or commissioners not requiring
board action. In your packet, you have item 7A, administrative approval, uh by the uh administrator. 7B is the first quarter uh fiscal year 2025 2026 budget report. I'll just add
commissioners that is a valuable read as we are already in the first quarter of this fiscal and at the end of this week we will be onethird of the way with our fiscal budget. Uh item 7 C uh is timely,
very timely. uh commissioners if we can uh indulge you with the Treasure Coast sock drive. Uh I don't I can't think of a better morning that we need warm socks. Uh and with a brief presentation this morning is Lisa McClung. Welcome.
>> Good morning. >> Good morning, >> Mr. Sher chairman and commissioners. My name is Lisa McClung and I live in Indian River County District 2. You might say, "Why socks?" Well, this morning tells you why socks. But really
truly, wearing socks to bed helps you fall asleep faster, sleep better by warming your feet, which triggers distal vaso dilation, >> the opening of blood vessels. This
lowers your core body temperature and signals sleep. Improving circulation, adjusting heat. It tells your brain that you should go to sleep and alleviating symptoms of Rayod's disease which some people have
which is being very very cold. So last year um Barry Shapiro and I've I'm standing here for him today because he wasn't able to make it. He um he started the Treasure Co sock drive eight years ago with
expectations of I think a thousand pairs of socks or 300 pairs of socks. They collected a thousand and they went to three charities. So therefore, they started up the sock drive. Last year they collected 17,500
pairs of socks. This is my first year being part of this and I'm very honored to be here today to talk to you about it. So there are many families being financially squeezed every day and organ or organizations like the hope for family center and the hibiscus
children's center where in addition to hundreds of pairs of kids socks we distribute they are now receiving men's socks for the feet of the fast growing boys. The treasure co sock drive is not a charity.
We simply collect socks. We are a small group of friends and neighbors who just want to be kind to those in need. We do not take money. Our boxes for collection are now in over 50 collections from Melbourne to St. Lucy County. There is a
box here in the building and for those who would like to help contribute, you can just drop your socks in there. Couple of events. The Cops and Socks coffee event will be held on Thursday, February 5th. It's at the coffee house 1420 downtown.
I hope some of you will be able to join us and meet the members of the Vero's finest men and women from Vero Beach Police Department as they pour a cup of Joe for everyone who brings in a pair of socks from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00. Another
event is Saturday, February 7th at 7, music by Professor Pennyg Goods, and it's the 4th annual sock hop taking place at the Walking Tree Brewery. That's going to be an event where you bring in a pair of socks and receive a
free beer, enjoy dancing, contest, prizes, and more. So, those are the two events that we're going to have. And I am going to go ahead and tape those two events to the box that's outside so that in case anyone forgets or they needed to see the dates again, I'll tape them on
the sock box outside. Do you all want to hear some of the um businesses that are part of the in the community? Would you like to hear this? It's not long. Are you good? >> In the interest of time, if you if you could be brief. Sure. >> Yes.
>> Go ahead. Um so one of the first companies that started is um Alexander Insurance. Um this year signing on Align Aesthetics and Wellness, CJ Cannon, Gordon Chiropractic, Grace Lutheran Church, the Loyal Order of Moose, IRCIG
Center, Hometown News, Marine Bank and Trust for all four locations. So Bank, all three locations. Old Dixie Barberhop, Mr. Smokes Boutique, Sea Coast Bank, 12th Street, Sebastian City Hall, Vero Beach Chamber of Commerce on
14th, Vero Beach City Hall, Dale Sorenson, Coffee House 1420, Sha Ryan Pub, The United Against Poverty, Holy Cross Catholic Church, Engel and Vulkers, The Hen House in Sebastian, Pacmail, Beachland, Christy's gym,
Orange Theory, Temple Beth Shalom, Pincha Penny Pools, Royal Palm Jewels, the Center for Spiritual Care, Gford Community Center, and there's many more on the website. We especially would like to acknowledge the generous support of ABC Printing, Sorenson Real Estate,
Addex 60, and White Glove Moving in Storage who supply the boxes. We deliver men and women's children's socks to over 26 charities listed on our website. I'm here today to help spread the word to as many as we can reach and ask that you help us to do so. For ease and
convenience, you can go to the website. It's treasurecocks.com. There's an Amazon link. You just click on the link. It takes you to order a pair of socks and they go directly to us. Another way is if you're in town and you see a QR code on one of the flyers,
you take your phone, go up to the QR code, text you to the website to the CR code, and you can order them directly through there. Thank you kindly for your time, generosity, and continued support. >> Thank you, Lisa. And just for our friends that are in the audience, there
is certainly a box right outside and I think by the end of the week, we will certainly be needing some socks. >> Thank you. >> And thank you for your time. >> Appreciate it. >> Commissioners, uh, it's a time with public comment for any agenda related
matters except for public hearings. Do we have any agenda related matters that you would like to speak of? Seeing none and hearing none, commissioners, we will move to the consent agenda. What is your labor?
Any items that you'd like to pull commissioners from the consent agenda? >> The one item was moved from consent. >> Correct. >> 9A was moved. >> Hearing none. Seeing that, >> move approval. >> I have a motion to approve the consent
agenda with the exception of 9A. We have a second by Commissioner Adams. Any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I. Commissioners, that brings us next to our constitutional officers and government agencies. I see uh in our
audience, our supervisor of election, Leslie Swan. Welcome. >> Good morning. How's everyone doing today on this cold day? >> Yes. Morning. Well, we are making preparations for the 2026 gubanatorial election cycle and the county
cannibising board is the one that proi uh presides over canvasing of the ballots. So, the canvasing board is made up of the county court judge, the chairman of the board of county commissioners and the supervisor of elections. But if the chairman of the board of county commissioners is up for
election, then we need to appoint someone to be the canvas and board member and also an alternate. >> Great. Well, thank you, uh, Mr. Swan. Uh, Commissioner Joe man has expressed
an interest in being the, uh, canvasing board substitute. >> Okay. Uh and then in his absence then chair will decide on a an alternate to the substitute >> if that works for you.
>> Okay. So commissioner man will be the canvasing board member. >> Yes ma'am. >> And then you'll appoint someone to be the alternate >> and I believe Susan Adams would be the appoint the second. >> Wonderful. Okay. So, what we'll do is we will send you the agenda of the meetings
so you'll know which ones you can attend and which ones Commissioner Adams can attend. >> Perfect. >> Well, thank you very much. Appreciate >> Thank you very much, >> Mr. Chair. I would just recommend that the board vote on the substitute member,
which would be uh Commissioner Earman. >> Okay. I can under these circumstances I can make that motion. Mr. Chair, we're appointing uh >> appointed by the chairman.
>> So you're you're appointing uh Commissioner Airman as the canvasing board member, >> correct? >> Not as a substitute and Commissioner Adams as the alternate. >> Well, technically according to the
statute, the chairman would be >> We can't because of >> correct. and then the the chairman would automatically be the canvasing board person. But if the chairman uh is seeking reelection, then it goes to what
we call a substitute. Is that correct? >> Yes. And and I it's a the statute is really not very consistent. The statute says that the board of county commissioners appoint the substitute and then the chair appoint the alternate. So that's why I just said I recommend that the board take a vote on the substitute
member because the chair has selected an alternate. >> Correct. >> So moved. >> We have a motion. We and we have a second. Any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I
>> thank you, Miss Juan. >> Thank you. Happy to do it. Uh commissioners, the next item is item 12 under the county administration matters. Uh this is the Felsmere water control district legislation. Hopefully
each of you have been provided some associated backup documents and I see uh our legislative affairs liaison, Miss Kathy Copelan. Welcome. >> Good morning, Mr. Chairman, commissioners. Um, for the record, I'm
Kathy Copelan, legislative affairs and communications manager. I am here to give you an update, as promised, on the Felsmere Water Control District legislation. We talked a few weeks ago about the two bills that have been introduced, um,
House Bill 4093 and House Bill 4095. One of them addresses the Bellsmeir water control district as it currently stands becoming a dependent district under the board of county commissioners governance. And the other
one addresses the remainder the split the farm side becoming an at the headarters water control district which would be an independent district. We talked a little bit last week about the or two weeks ago about what the
difference is. I think everyone pretty much understands that, but I just included this um this slide because it will be in the record so people can understand the difference between dependent and independent. The status right now is it was filed on January the 9th. January the 15th it was
referred to the intergovernmental committee. It will it has two referrals. it will go also to the um state affairs committee and then to the floor. So our first opportunity to submit language for
an amendment is now um prior to it being on the calendar at its first stop. We have been working very diligently with uh Chris Lion who is the lobbyist for uh the Felsmere joint venture and we have
been in in conversation I I explained a couple of weeks ago with the the citizens and also uh Mr. Warren Dill had submitted some comments from the city of Felsmere and the city manager
Armando has also been in communication. I did send them the bill language. Um, it was late last night, so I'm sure they haven't had a chance to actually digest it, but there is time for them to have a comment. We have ref made some refinements to the
issues that were raised by the citizens and by others. I've made I put a list. Um, do you have that? It should should have been emailed to you. Um I some of the refinements were for
emergency operations. In the event of an emergency, the non-compliant district shall be given a reasonable extension of time to fix the problem. We've requested that this addition also means we've let me rephrase that.
in a case of an emergency, we do not want to wait 30 days to get permission from them to go fix the problem. So, that is an outstanding provision that we need to work on. I don't think it's going to be an issue. It's just that there were so many changes that we were
making that it didn't get into this um this version, but that is something that we are working to add. We've also identified the designated level of service needs to be tied back to something either a document or to an historical level. We level of service is
a form of art used in defining flood control, but we want to make sure that we understand what is the level of service of this water management system. We added dredging to the maintenance in both bills. both. We want everything to
be reciprocal. So, in terms of the dredging, we want to make sure that maintenance includes more than just trimming the trees um and pulling the weeds out that it actually does mean dredging the canals or the ditches. So, those are
examples of the some of the refinements. Some of the other outstanding revisions are, and this is something raised by uh legal, the office of council when we were going over the bills with them, is that we would like to see a provision stating that the dependent Felsmere
Water Control District shall not be liable for any damages, claims, suits, liabilities, losses, expenses that occurred prior to the October 1, 2026, which is when if passed, this bill would go into effect. We would also like to see canal
maintenance and access to the right of way, including our ability to access the canals using their right of way. Um, so that still needs to be refined and we are in conversations with them as we speak. We did have this bill reviewed by
uh Kylie in natural resources and we would like to see something in this bill related to BMAPs. Water control control districts are required to follow BMPS, but they do not have the same uh load allocation associated with them that we
do. And so we would like to have a conversation with D um and our just to make sure that when it becomes under the governance of the county that the compliance is clear. So we have some
language that we would like to offer and again office council has looked at this. So the request today is to for consensus for staff to continue to move forward with the discussions and the refinements
and to acknowledge the strikeall bills that were provided and to be offered as an amendment. Again we can make further refinements as we go to the next stop. the we can make amendments or
amendments can be made at on the floor and then once everybody once it passes we do have the opportunity for one of the legislators to pull the bill either representative Bracken can pull it on the floor or Senator Gro can pull it
when it comes over to the Senate side but that's where we are today and I would be happy to answer any questions >> commissioners any questions Commissioner Adams. >> So, do you just want um consensus today or do you need um a motion on
the strike all? >> It would be helpful if you all could acknowledge that the strikeall as it is in there now. Um it you're comfortable with it. Again, Danny and I've been working with staff. So, we we're the framework we are comfortable with. There
are a few refinements we would like to make, but we would like for you to indicate that you're comfortable with the bill to date, understanding that we are still working on it and it is fluid. >> So, um, Mr. Mr. Chair, would you like us
to express that in a consensus manner or would you like um a motion to um >> I I think for us to recognize that we're serious about this a motion would be most appropriate.
>> Okay. I'll be happy to um make a motion of approval for the strike all amendment with the understanding that we're still working on a framework um and we'll have probably other changes brought back to us in the future. >> So second we have a motion. We have a
second. Any further discussion between commissioners hearing? None. All in favor? I. And we thank you Kathy Copeland. >> Thank you. I appreciate your support and I would like again to acknowledge that the the Felmeir joint venture and their
lobbyist Chris they've been very good to work with and imanable to our all of our requests. So thank you so much. >> Thank you commissioners. The next item is departmental matters. Uh we have moved 9A to E information technology. Uh but at this time we will be in recess
until 9:55. 33. The board county commissioner January 27th meeting is back in session. Uh, next item commissioners is 13E, Departmental Matters, Information
Technology. I believe our administrator wants to initiate this conversation. Mr. Administrator. >> Yes, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Um, if you recall last year, we hired
Stonehill and with them there was also Red Leaf and we looked at a couple different, you know, opportunities. They did a plan for us and they identified some situations where there would be opportunities for the county to u be
more productive, more efficient, more effective and and one of the things that was identified in addition to some cyber security issues uh was an enterprise platform that would provide a more comprehensive I would say integrated
approach to managing our business processes, our data and tools across the our organization. uh currently we have multiple single a large number of single point solutions that are specialized softwares that
target specific problems but often it leads to fragmentation and so some of the benefits and I don't want to go into it because I know they have it but it just one the ability to integrate and reduce data silos uh having a
centralized management system uh it's you know it's more secure the ability to have a more scalable and flexible pro system where as if you when you read this it's like we have unlimited number of workflow processes or business processes that we could
apply this to uh it would obviously improve our efficiency and I know savings is a cost is is a factor or cost is a factor and one of the things that I would add is just in in short order looking at 13 different applications
that we currently use and there's a multitude of other ones that are being used. Uh it could come out to like as if as we track as our licenses or agreements expire with these other applications and then we con if we were
to convert to this simply glove platform once they were all done just the 13 you know amounts to about $732,000 a year. So, if you think about that, you know, and I know this is a a $3 million five-year, you know, commitment, but
with caveat that it does have a termination for convenience. Uh it just but you can just see there's a savings there. And then we have the ability to do the uh we have the ability to just grow any process that we have and make
it digital, make it, you know, automate the process and it adds a lot of benefit. It lowers the integration and maintenance costs. It provides for greater security. For example, we have I think it's four payment processing systems. So, that's four opportunities.
I think we're familiar with what happened with utilities back in a couple months ago when the the system went down and we had to convert to all people coming in and all pay and people pay not able to pay online. Uh and then I guess training and onboarding because you got
one system versus a multitude of systems. So, with that, um, I'm going to introduce, you know, we have obviously we have Eric Harvey, our IT director, and I'll let him introduce and bring up, uh, Jamie Grant, the CEO for Red Leaf,
and also Jay Odum. And I think we also have um, David >> David Okonnell. >> Yeah, David Oonnell here, >> our simply >> with Simply Gov. >> Good morning, Mr. Harvey. >> Good morning, Chairman Lure, commissioners, staff, team. Uh, thank you for allowing me to speak on this uh,
matter. This is a uh and I appreciate county administrator's comments and input that he's provided because he's nailed it on the head. One of the things I have the the pleasure of doing as a new IT director here at Indian River County is to put my feet down, kind of turn over every rock and start heading down a road where we're looking for ways
to break silos down to create more efficiencies and better provide tools to our employees countywide to empower them to make sure that they can have a system they can work with that are solely focused on serving our customers. So with that being said, Stonehill Innovations was an IT assessment firm
that we had hired to come in to look at all the areas of IT to see how we could identify areas for improvement and to strengthen our IT posture and cyber security um hygiene. Uh with that being said, they also brought in Redleaf who's another consulting firm that we brought in to look at not only that but
transformative innovative ways to address cyber security but also the county as a whole and where it really gets in kind of a bubble and thinks more and less about themsel. Redleaf has helped us to open our mind and think more about us countywide and how an enterprisewide solution such as
simply gov could benefit us all. So, I have really gone through and I'll say it like this, the heartaches, the trials and tribulations of making sure that I as an IT director do due diligence coming in for Indian River County to make sure that those rocks that have been overturned get addressed and when we think more
strategically in the direction that we're heading that we are truly investing in the right tool that's not just about the money, but it's about a bigger picture and what we're going to be doing here for the constituents is is I really had to make sure that I was in line and and going through that process. I asked a lot of questions specifically
as staff and we bounced ideas off and whatnot. And as I begin to break that bubble and think more outside of the box there and thinking about yes I am an IT I'm an IT director and we need to be transformative and and make sure that we are innovative in our approach and what we're doing looking and grasping for
anything tool systems to accomplish that is not an easy task. So I won't I just wanted you all to know that I have spent a lot of time maybe some sleepless nights really making sure that we are making the right decisions and that when I stand before you that I'm solid ultimately that this is the right
direction for us to head from my chair only. So with that being said I want to bring up um Red Leaf Jamie Grant CEO also Jay Odman who's also a VP of um customer uh service I don't want to mess that up but also here we do have Dave
Okonnell with Simply Gov. These folks work with other Florida counties that are utilizing this product and they have begun various initiatives whether that's through consolidation um replacement and or enhancements to existing systems to build a more robust
and uh solid stronger foundation for our systems if you will. So, at this time, gentlemen, if you'll come up, I'll turn it over to Jamie, and he'll share more or less with you um from the the side of their assessment, what they found, what they learned, and the direction that we
should be taking as an approach to technology here at Indian River County. >> So, if we can just have clarification, the gentleman that you're bringing up now uh were hired by us to examine
different packages Yes sir. Yes sir. And we did do we did do that. We did go through the process working with purchasing to make sure that uh whether we use various state contracts uh that we were uh dotting the eyes, crossing the tees, making sure that you know we were abide by that. But
not only that, this firm also focused heavily on cyber security initiatives and finding pain points which we've come a long ways. they haven't touched on and I don't want to steal your thunder, but as part of uh Florida uh digital services and the grants for cyber security, they played a very instrumental part in that process,
making sure that we uh had major cost savings to the county as well. So, um me coming into this environment with these type of resources and caliber of folks at the table has been very positive. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair, Commission. Um it's an honor to be here and I I
appreciate it. Um, my name is Jamie Grant. Uh, as as Eric and and John had mentioned, um, recovering lawyer that spent a career uh in the software industry, spent a decade in the Florida legislature, uh, where I overcame the very low bar of being the technology
policy guy uh, to help uh, advise on that front. Um, and kind of the combination of that is when the governor asked me to be the state CIO for three years. Um, three hellacious years to be candid. Uh, and I say that only to say that a lot of the challenges we
uncovered are are pretty normal. I'd say what's abnormal and and was a positive indication from the beginning is the leadership uh at the time uh with a vacant IT office uh at the helm uh that the county administrator showed in the expectations of kind of how we address
some of the realities but do that in a costefficient way. uh if I were to stress kind of our our company's existence started uh because I had never seen a more tragic form of partnerships than when I was the state CIO and trying
to deal with the technology industry uh and what we had to do in Tallahassee where no two agencies had ever collaborated on cyber security in the history of of Florida. So uh where you have one agency that is the uh enrollment for Medicaid uh and another
agency that is the application of Medicaid uh data security between those two things pretty important non-existent um and so in those three years we had a lot of work that we were proud of but it was painful um I would if you'll indulge me uh Mr. share for one second. Just a
quick story that kind of set the stage for a lot of the work we do, but our mantra around the state was smaller flags. And that was born out of uh Jeb Bush as a candidate running for governor uh realizing there was no state flag on the old historic capital. And he said to his team, "If I'm the governor, we're
going to have a state flag on the old capital." And he got DMS, the Department of Management Services, to say, "Uh, hey, if we're going to get going, uh, I need to understand like why we don't have a state flag." Law didn't require it. He gets elected and he says, "DMS, go get me a state flag." DMS reports
back to him and says, "Sir, good news and bad news." Uh, the dome on the old historic capital cannot support a small a larger pole and the pole cannot support a third flag. That's the bad news. The good news is we've commissioned architects. We've spent about a million and a half dollars and
in three years we can, excuse me, I have that backwards. Three and a half million dollars. In about a year and a half, we can get a reinforced dome, a larger pole, and have your flags. Finally, a 20-year-old kind of interim staffer says, "Sir, it seems to me that if we use smaller flags, we could have it
fixed next week." That's really what we try and do. So, our company, when we come in, we serve as an agent uh for our customers. We do work around the country with states and localities, uh where we negotiate on your behalf. We don't think you should have to deal with the onslaught of sellers without some level
of documenting what are the requirements, what are the budget, what are we trying to do. When we came in, two very glaring findings. Uh number one, data security and cyber security. Um the good news, uh we had established a grant program at the state level that was not to just
ship dollars. We spent a lot of work, uh a lot of time, a lot of work trying to build partnerships around the state. We had 334 municipalities opt in to receive those benefits from the state directly. Uh and when we got here, found out that the county had not enrolled in that. Um and so, uh Rachel, uh and the team up
there quickly engaged. We helped uh Jay Odum, one of my co-founders, uh comes out of the software uh space and we did a lot of business requirements, vendor vetting, help Rachel and team identify which solutions would be deployed there. Those are solutions that cost the county
no money currently. Um and when we talk about uh some of the advocacy in Tallahassee, we spend a lot of time trying to make sure that program survives and continues funding, which it has kind of to date. They're waiting on this year's funding, but that was a way to solve some cyber security vulnerabilities that are pretty significant pretty quickly and without
coming to the commission saying, "Hey, we need several hundred,000." The second thing we noticed and this is a very common trend is that it around the country has a tendency to show up at boards like this or in the legislature and say we need a thing to
do something rather than showing up and saying what does the customer need and what does our staff need and what does that solution look like inside uh of funding. And so we try really hard to shift the narrative from projects to
enterprise platforms. projects look like multiple departments all paying for electronic signature licenses that are redundant and duplicative and you're wasting money. A platform approach says, "Hey, I need every single department to be able to ingest data from constituents
or from different departments. I need to be able to route that information efficiently, ideally getting off paper and stopping email as kind of the operational protocol for government and then being able to route that all the way through the different workflows even
documenting the signature or capturing payments in a really efficient way. And so when we started talking kind of what maybe would get routed up as IT operations, we try very hard to say guys, we need to be talking about business operations. We need to understand what the departments need. We need to understand what the fingers on the keyboard that are serving your
constituents need. We need to understand what you need. And so, um, I would maybe strongly encourage a shift away from thinking about it as a back office thing that gets new computers and new whisbangs going and instead thinking
about it of how can we drive cost down and impact up. That's really what we've tried to do here. I'm going to stop there. Mr. Chair, I can continue going. I don't want to just lecture at you. I wanted to just kind of set the stage for how we got here and what we do and see if there's any questions, but encourage all maybe to uh interrupt me, ask
questions or I could keep going. >> I certainly appreciate it. Um, commissioners, any any comments for the gentlemen? >> Perfect. All right. Well, then I'll kind of Yes, sir, Mr. Chair. >> Yes, sir. >> Yes. >> Okay. Sorry, I didn't know if you had a question. I apologize.
>> I I don't have a question right now. So um with that framework um that was kind of where we started looking um there's very clearly a need to give I would suggest uh a I hate to use the
term dashboard but think of it as a source of truth in 10 years in the legislature begging and three years as the state CIO I cannot stand before you and tell you what the state spends on software um to me that's malpractice When you have different departments
buying different things, I would stress that if I'm back here again, I would like to be able to stand in front of you and say, "This is what your portfolio looks like. This is what you're spending. This is where you're spending. This is when it renews. And here's the savings that you were able to achieve
year-over-year." In order to do that, um, and I think each of you in your respective businesses can appreciate the concept of an asset inventory. Um so sir whether that's as a a former sheriff and you think about the assets inside the sheriff's office it's no different in technology it's just different types of
assets um one is being able to get that asset inventory in place to give you a clear look at am I actually making an investment that's delivering impact or am I just spending more money where we started with the IT operations uh you may have seen uh or some folks have have
seen kind of the term ITSM that stands for IT service management that is just an important baseline fundamental. Uh but we explored everything. Uh when I was the state CIO, we deployed service now in the middle of hurricane Ian. We had the largest Starlink deployment in
the history of SpaceX outside Ukraine. We launched a missing person's portal. We were ingesting AI data to locate folks. We were giving first responders satellite coverage uh as part of urban search and rescue. We also had unlimited resources.
That's not the case here. Um, and so if we were to go down the path of kind of your traditional IT service management, um, and deploy something like a service now, that could make sense in a county of this size at some point, that's a million half dollar investment pretty quickly out of the gate. And it's not
going to do anything to empower the departments or the constituents in a notable uh, noticeable way to get going. Instead, we looked at it and said, "Hey, if we can start automating workflows, what would that look like?" And that's where the deep dive on simply gov truly came in. Um we pressure tested them
pretty hard and said hey you claim to be a no code low code platform. We want to see that in action. We want to know where you're doing other work and we want to write those requirements up to see how that kind of goes. And it's been about a year-long process um of of collaboration around a number of
different solutions to say okay if if I'm going to put my name on it and stand in front of this board and say this is the direction I think things should go. uh what does that look like and I need to be able to do that with confidence. That's where this kind of started. Um and so as we continued down that path,
we realized that there was a way to truly adopt this as a platform that could do everything from constituent services, could support your office, could support utilities, could capture payments, effectively an unlimited scope. uh to go back to what the county
administrator had said previously um impact across every single department and capabilities to make sure that stuff works together and in a way that would deliver immediate savings quickly. We then started kind of the negotiation process. In the negotiation process, uh
simply gov prices three ways. They have projects. projects would be um uh a kind of a a single project domestic violence injunction or hey uh the county planning agenda that's obviously their smallest
license limited to kind of a project. The next step up uh is a program or a department that would be like HR or procurement or utilities. Um and then allowing workflows inside that department and then they have their enterprise license which is uh the
applications across uh the entire department unlimited workflows. what became pretty clear and and I'll take ownership and confess on this. Uh for me to stand at this podium typically in this situation, I would have I should have led to meet with each one of you
and get questions and make sure that we were uh briefing on that. Um and just kind of through the process that didn't happen and that's on me. That said, it became very clear that there were workflows coming from across the departments as some of the kind of power users and champions. Scott in the IT
office, Scott Johnson, Natalie Novak, um supporting Eric's efforts to say, "Okay, where are the different places that we could provide an impact?" And then simply go in the negotiation process offered um to provide the enterprise license at the cost of a program, which is about an 88% discount off of uh the
NASPO pricing. NASPO is the National Association of State Procurement Officers for folks who are not familiar. And then the state of Florida has a participating addendum through DMS with NASPO. So, it's quite frankly a more efficient process often than state term contract uh because it gives you bigger
access and better negotiation tactics. And then maybe the one last thing to kind of land and happy to take any questions. Um the reason for a five-year term paid annually with terms of convenience when we come into the negotiation phase, we're looking at all
the deal levers to try and drive value. In some situations, somebody says, "Hey, we have so much familiarity with so much comfort with this. We want a five-year deal. We'll wave terms of convenience. We'll wave uh subject to appropriation language." In which case, the price will go down, right? Because the vendor that
we're negotiating with has some level of assurance. The next step down is, hey, a five-year term that is cancelellable annually with terms of convenience and subject to appropriation subject to appropriation language and those things. However, what
that does is a couple things. It locks in um discounts uh and caps. So, vendor lock in is a major problem in this space around the country. We want to make sure that we protect our clients from vendor lock in and give freedom and flexibility and simultaneously protect from you got
pricing for one year and now in year two it goes through the roof and you're kind of stuck. So, a five-year term that is paid annually and has terms of convenience still gives the county a significant discount. It also gives the protection against a vendor showing up
the next year and saying, "Hey, we gave you an 88% discount in year one, but now you're going to pay a 300% increase in year two." So, obviously happy to take any questions. I know that's a lot. There's been a lot of work that's gone into this. Um, and like I said, happy to
to field any questions. Well, I do appreciate that. And commissioners, as you know, this was presented uh well, it was on our agenda November 24th of last year. And and um be quite frank with you, I had uh some reservations uh in concert with the
administrator. We did not hear this particular item on the 24th. uh fast forward uh you know with the particular um unknown economic climate in the state and uh the gentleman certainly knows I'm
surprised after 10 years in the in the legislature and three years as a consultant that he's got a full head of hair. >> It's changing rapidly, sir. >> So for that we we thank him. So, um,
commissioners, hopefully you've had an opportunity to speak with the administrator on this. One thing that we have to look at, uh, first, I I tasked the administrator yesterday with some of the compatible agencies that happen to use this particular uh, this particular
program. And one thing that I shared with him yesterday was my primary concern um is what we have going on in building and permitting. Let's resolve that before we dive into something else
related to all of the things that we need. Uh we as commissioners obviously are commissioned with respect to policy and budget and sometimes budget outweighs policy. Not always, but sometimes. So, with
that, we must be uh considerate of uh what we triage. Uh most recently, commissioners, I have been told that simply gov perhaps has uh an arm, if you will, that would help not only in our
permitting, but in our budgeting. As many of you know, we have had um our professional staff examining options to uh include MGO and others in the last six six or seven months and I feel
confident to say that each of us have had uh some amount of frustration with that particular endeavor. So I would like to ask the administrator a few questions. uh one being
if if we look commissioners at I mean let's let's call it what it is. This is uh $2.9 million over five years spread out. We understand that we already know uh that there's about 13 different platforms that are costing us uh
significant amount of money. This could be in fact an opportunity if the other component that is being investigated through the permitting and the and the planning area. I don't want
to say consolidate because I'm not a a tech guy, but this could be one of the items that were commissioned to examine, i.e. uh the budget and could make us more efficient and it could in the long run save us dollars.
Uh so Mr. Administrator, if you could kind of recap our conversation from this morning, sir. >> Yeah, you know, I had a conversation with uh Jamie and Jay with Red Leaf. Uh I was early on led to believe that uh
that this was not a potential solution for that, you know, issue. And we had a long conversation yesterday afternoon cuz I expressed well there's two there's two really three programs you know there's uh our Tyler which is our ERP
uh and then there's ArcGIS which is completely outside of this but it's they kind of corner the market. And then I brought up I said the other one that that we're having an issue with is an integrated development review process and I expressed I thought that this
program because it's a workflow it's a process you know it goes from here to here to here to here to here and if somebody was sitting in that chair then the application goes to that person and goes to the next person go to next person and and we as we discussed it
they're like we have the ability to do that and and so with that with that conversation. uh I I felt it you know appropriate to share that with you that it is this could be the solution you know and we
would be able to I go back to that four payment processors you know that we're paying you know different rates for each of those payment processing software you know uh or agreements that we have and so this the idea is to come up with a
unified you know system that will work across the entire organization And if this will help us with both planning, I mean take literally taking raw land all the way through the process of the, you know, the the future land
use, the zoning, uh the site plan, uh the building permit, and then getting to the code enforcement component. And you have all that and contractor licensing, having one program or one process that will do that. That's what we need. And
then you get the event and and there's a significant cost to that. We know that I mean I think Eric remind me I want to say was it 500,000 or $250,000 initially and $200,000 a year that wasn't even included in you know uh I mean the MGO
amount of $165,000 you know that we're paying right now was included in that amount for 732 but uh you're looking at about savings just from the 13 applications and we know there's more where you um you would save
as we sunset or phase out those applications and build that process and build to our needs. Not fitting that, you know, that that that round peg in the square hole because the offtheshelf box product we are, you know, making it
work for us. This now becomes we design, develop, create the system for us with the same platform that everybody would be using across the county. Right. And I appreciate that you're when you talk about the the sun setting. So,
commissioners have if uh the administrator mentioned something about the 700 that we're spending annually when those uh 13 platforms begin to sunset. Not until then would you would you reap the savings. simultaneously
um would this be consistent u with our goals and objectives and our strategic plan? >> Oh, this would definitely because under the governance component about trying to become more efficient, more effective,
you know, increase productivity. It also promotes a more safer environment from a cyber security standpoint. uh it just and then you have lesser costs when it comes to training because you have one platform. Uh there are
service hours that they will provide uh to help us get up and going and you know but then after that I mean our departments are now in control. So once you know like and we have we've already asked the departments identify one two pain points. Let's just take the travel.
I mean how many time I think you all have experienced the travel process and the very the forms that we have to fill out that could be automated and could be streamlined you know to reduce the all the paper and to reduce the signatures and to reduce so I mean so there's so
many opportunities there and I mean in human services you have you know the case management the applicant intake uh and and you can see how the these you just looking at that uh fleet they use faster. Uh we have I think a work order
system with a with our building and facility services. All these could come under the umbrella of simply gov and we would have one you know integrated system that would enable us to so and I think one of the things that you know
when we talked yesterday is one of the first steps we would do is create that for lack of a better a database that inventory and start tracking every one of these you know contracts we've already asked purchasing to pull them uh so we can identify when they're up
what's the provisions in each of them. Can we is there a term you know is there a term for convenience where we could cancel them and you know accelerate the development of uh maybe one or another you know sooner but that but ultimately yes down the line we would you know there's a couple that we're already
looking at doing. I mean there's some that we're right now we're looking at doing. I mean I can point to three or four that we're looking at doing. The ITSM that's something that it that's $200,000 right there. Okay, thank you.
Haven't seen you so excited in months. >> I mean, it's Well, you you you know, I came with that innovation productivity background and this is something that will really drive our organization. And I think what's important for the commission that's critical not just the
the the efficiencies that are gained but the ability to report back data and you all I mean Jamie mentioned having a dashboard the ability to create dashboards and do things so we can track you know our productivity track our performance I think that's critical
today in today's day and age and Jamie can comment on that a little bit further. >> Yeah Mr. Chair, if I may, uh, I love the question in the direction I you're really pointing at a I think a a paradigm shift that is really important for organizations
uh that want to mitigate uh I I think back to you mentioned the full head of hair and I appreciate that your vision's lacking. Uh, >> thank you. But uh uh but but uh you know the the old adage of insurance companies after Hurricane
Andrew that said we can insure against hail and storm and hurricanes but there's no way to ensure against the Florida legislature. >> And uh if you think about the economic foundation and your your critical rule role to shepherd this county, the
paradigm shift you're describing is is I believe critical in the today or the status quo. A lot of technology shops say, "Hey, I need service now. I need Salesforce." They they let the platform drive and that could be all the way down to a licensing platform.
What those typically state agencies are struggling with is finding talent to manage the Service Now environment or the Salesforce environment post go live. It's super expensive. Um they are very powerful platforms, but they are going to be people dependent to do that. Our
goal in going through this process and making this recommendation is that we instead of empowering the technology, we empower the business. Uh through our discovery with simply gov, there are numerous state agencies around the country that have non-technical in one case a lawyer um who's actually
deploying workflows that are really significant in that state. The dependency against needing the technical talent is critical. Secondly, the the ability for as the county administrator was laying out in your questions, how do we empower the use case rather than kind
of the engineering pride that happens a lot of times when software companies come in here and they say we'll sell you on a per license basis or a per transaction basis. They get you hooked and then you're stuck and then you've either got to hire the talent um or
you've got to spend a lot of money on implementation services to be an outsourced vendor. And then I think the second thing I would stress that I would look at holistically when we talk about kind of ensuring against Tallahassee is helping put the county in a position where new hires are not the need. New
hires are a lot more expensive than automated workflows. Where we have the power users and the champions and the groups that are being built to deploy automations. you put yourself in a situation where you're no longer dependent on if this one person leaves, we're up a creek and
we have to go find somebody else that can do this thing. Instead, we've documented the workflow. And to the county administrator's uh uh kind of comments, starting with new purchases, saying, "Wait a minute, we have a platform that can automate workflows. It can stand up a digital process to eliminate a paperbased process that is
costing us a lot of money and that is delaying services to the constituents. It can automate the routing to do these things to make us much more efficient so that we're spending less dollars per transaction. And that's one thing I would kind of scream about technology in
the public sector is that it has been driven by the large systems integrators that are billing you on time and materials. How many hours and how many licenses can they sell you rather than saying how many workflows can we complete for you? And that's what we're trying to help you drive.
>> I appreciate that. Mr. administrator, when we spoke a couple meetings ago about vision 2026, we talked about AI components. Uh I haven't read anything in the backup about Simply Gov's AI components.
>> Yes. So I mean I I think uh and I know Mr. Okonnell's here, he can discuss that, but there is a matter of fact, we had a conversation yesterday about constituent tracking. You know, right now everybody's can come in, they they go on the email and they just, you know, sometimes at all of you,
but they could just be one one box at it and AI can be integrated to determine, oh, this is public works, you know, and it goes to the appropriate part department and notification to other people. But now, you know, it's going
right immediately to the person or to the department that is doing it. And but there are other applications where AI can come into play. And um so u >> so the proposal with the
retention or replacement of MGO those dollars. Do we have an idea of uh what that work group was looking at with respect to those dollars? Because what I'm hearing today is, and correct me if I'm wrong,
simply gov can do that as well for equal price. >> Well, it's actually the what you have in front of you that five-year, you know, the five-year deal like for $2.9 million. If you adding the
whole workflow process for an integrated land development review system, there is no pro because it's built into this that we get unlimited workflow and automated processing through this contract. There's no limitation. So, we're not
going out and spending money on another system because we have the ability to do it within this existing contract. And just for clarification, simply gov was not included in that initial um exercise.
>> It's largely because they were not a permitting and development software, but it's all comes down to it's a process. It's a workflow. You chart the workflow goes here, goes here, goes here, and then you it's it's all automation.
>> And the discussion that we had, Mr. administrator yesterday about we're hypothetically if we're two years into this process with simply gov uh and the relationship uh sour or blossoms
who knows um how safe and comfortable are we with with uh that information that the county possesses >> we we are confident that it one it's a requirement But we we retain the data.
We retain the data. It's our data and we retain the data. And I think statutoily that's a requirement too, by the way. >> Okay. Members, any comments, Mr. Chairman? >> Yes, sir.
>> I'm sorry, John. Jamie, ever since 2020 when I started here, it's always been the issue of permitting, like you referenced in the building department, permitting, making more timely, making it more efficient,
user friendly on not just our side, but on the customer side. Can you enlighten me to say if we do this that this is going to be much better, more efficient for everybody?
>> Well, I could say yes because right now MGO only does building and permitting. >> It's on the front end where you have a raw piece of land that somebody comes in, they apply for, you know, well, I need to change the future land use and you change the zoning. you create that
case and you could have it where it follows it through. Then they do a site plan. Uh then land development has to review it in in public works, utilities has to review it. Uh planning and development has to review it. Natural resources has to review it. Sometimes
the department of health and what's happening now it's it's you know they're getting it they're not getting it through MGO because MGO is building and permitting only. We're trying to look at a holistic system or solution to that to even after the project's done, you've
got code enforcement or contractor licensing that has access to all the data and everything that happened preceding that and now it's it's all there because that was always the problem that was supposed to be instead of taking blueprints like it was and going from
department to department, MGO was supposed to everybody could see At the same time, I think it tried to get there. I don't know if it was successful, but we're still getting issues. People are getting used to it, but you know, I can get used
to using an old calculator, too, you know, with tape on it or a typewriter if I had. So, I just want to make sure that that we're being prudent in our spending, but we're yet we're being more efficient, making the
journey for the customer and our people in all our departments easier to travel. >> If I may, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Um, it's a fantastic question and it's part of maybe that paradigm shift I didn't do a great job explaining, but if I if I went
to kind of the beginning of my career in the software industry, we would develop a road map. We would guess with everything we knew in the market of what somebody would want to buy and then our engineers would go put that together in a sprint and we would confirm that it works and then we would go take it out.
When you have people coming to you, whether it's licensing or permitting or any other specified government software that is kind of in that software as a service or SAS world, they're effectively bringing you one solution for all jurisdictions. So the way they created that product is to say building
and permitting looks like this and we're going to have some flexibility in it, but now we're going to go to every county and we're going to say buy our permitting and licensing software and it's going to be very rigid. there's going to be rules around what can be done. But in that kind of status quo, um you are stuck to what the software
creator created. What we've been trying to drive at is we think this county should be empowered to say this is what we need the software to do. Mr. Chair, to your question about AI, there are significant AI implications
uh that are positive in this direction. Step one is we got to get our data together. So in the same way that there's not one single database to tell you all of the software spend across all the departments, there's not going to be one database to say this is where all
the information is around licensing and permitting. You would have two distinct paths to go down that are very different. One is we're going to go look for a licensing and permitting software that somebody created specifically for that use case and there's going to be lots of rules and limitations around it.
When we say a no code work a no code low code platform and when the county administrator defines kind of workflow automation, it truly is as simple as sitting down with the program owners to say meet my constituent Johnny. Johnny has raw land. Johnny needs to try and
turn that raw land into the thing he wants to build. And you come back to this user story as that's called Johnny and you say Johnny's going to submit this form. Okay, let's see that form. Let's digitize that form and make sure that there is an easy way for him to
submit that. The same way if he mailed it in, the person that receives it needs to have an easy way to turn that into digital. Whether that's uploading a PDF into this particular platform that then converts it to data, we're making the data useful no matter how it comes in. Then we're playing what I call the now
what then what game. It needs to go here based on conditional logic or there. If it's sufficient, uh you mentioned the blueprints kind of going around. If the blueprint is sufficient, then it moves to this person or department. I would argue that the executives need to have
uh insight into the performance at both a team and personal level to see where the blueprint's being stuck or that your office fielding a complaint from a constituent should be able to know this has been submitted. This is where it's been routed. This is where the holdup
and now my aid or assistant can go chase that down and give my constituent an answer. or in a better situation, which is what we're trying to drive for. Your constituent can actually see where it is and now we've offloaded a call to your office. That at scale is a plague on
public sector service. Just the call center volume and constituent issues that are so avoidable if we could just provide transparency and accountability around where that particular case is. Whether it's something like billing and permitting or utilities or any other
workflow. If we just take that user story of Johnny and say this is what a successful transaction looks like and here's the logic that's built into it and now deploy that in a week or two uh modify it as we learn more. You've developed a situation where you're
getting at exactly what you were asking. That's not going to happen if each department goes out and buys their special little thing that is this particular thing for that department. And then the last thing I did want to kind of close the loop on if I may, the county administrator mentioned cyber
security impacts here. And if you were to go do research on simply gov or IT service management, you're not going to see them typically advertise cyber security. Uh because there's a difference between a solution that is doing the detecting and response on cyber security versus your threat
landscape. And the example I always used uh especially in cyber security at the state level where we did a lot of work with law enforcement is if you think about securing physical premises. Every single application you have software application is a different door or
window into your home. And the more doors and windows we have the more vulnerabilities that the bad guys can come in. The goal here when we talk about the cyber security impact is to both shrink the landscape from time and money but also shrink the land the landscape when it comes to threat
actors. Um, and if I were to stress maybe the negative on the AI front in general, what AI has allowed the threat actors to do when I was the state CIO responsible for cyber security as part of my job, it was largely the Russians and the Chinese and cyber gangs that we had to deal with. Now we have to deal
with vulnerabilities that are drummed up in Gemini or Grock or Chatg GPT that makes an individual actor look like a nation state by sophistication. The more doors and the more windows we have out there, the more we're looking to be shut down on ransomware that renders the entire operation to paper. So the goal
here is to balance innovation and efficiency and the customer experience and empower the workforce while simultaneously significantly mitigating some of the cyber security vulnerabilities. when all of these different doors and windows are out there.
>> Mr. Commissioner Adams. >> Yeah. Was this one of the um was this one of the programs that the permitting group looked at? Is that >> we didn't know because they looked at uh
permitting programs. >> Okay. >> Versus an enterprise platform. Madam, if I may, uh, great example of where it gets stuck in a bubble. And one of the things we want to evangelize to IT leaders is you you've got to be sitting at the business table understanding the story of Johnny, the
constituent that's coming in, and Sally, the program owner that is responsible for that thing. You have to have the trust across the organization that instead of it showing up and say, "We want to buy this thing for this thing." Showing up and saying, "What do you need us to support?"
Um, I have been pretty vocal about this publicly, but if the CIO population around the country doesn't start changing the behavior to get away from technology and into the business, they're going to render themselves irrelevant. We didn't know that that was even a thing happening in another
department while we were trying to do kind of the vetting. It did come up. Um, Natalie Novak has led a lot around bringing groups together. uh and that's when it kind of came up and I think candidly why there was some confusion around there's a there's maybe a difference between have we explored
simply gov's ability to solve our licensing and permitting MGO challenge versus can it and I think the fact that it might not have been as part of the requirements documentation that Jay was leading for us and I was working in is maybe where some of that confusion came
up. I I think Commissioner Adams what you're saying is it appears that we have dedicated a lot of time and money and our personnel resources and looking at
different uh permitting and planning software and now all of a sudden Simply Gov arrives and what do we do? do we discount all of that work and all of the meetings that we've had with our with
our you know stakeholders and I think we we've had several of those meetings with our with our stakeholders. So, you know, one question would be I don't want to jump up and say, "Wow, we found the silver bullet here." But the fact is,
do we know uh that simply gov is something I mean, and by the way, where was it when we were doing all this other looking around? The question is, um, what do we do with that that those workg groups and all the other things that we've looked at to enhance and or
replace MGO? all of a sudden we're just gonna put all that stuff and say, "Hey, simply go the answer." And you're you're doing a a very convincing job. So, keep going. >> If I was your agent in that situation, uh I believe optionality is one of the
most valuable things for an operation. Um I'll take it to the state level to give you a parallel for a second. Uh but in a lot of situations, states have hired Accenture or Deote uh to run what probably should be a $5 million project turns into a $500 million project and
things never go live. But as part of that, the state has made a tremendous investment into platforms like Service Now or Salesforce that I mentioned. I would strongly encourage both for culture but also just solution design. These two things could run in parallel.
And when I say these two things, uh I think it would be uh less than ideal to show up and tell a working group that has been exploring things, by the way, that work was for nothing and then we're going here. what uh as we did kind of the
pressure testing on simply gov, there are a lot of scenarios at the at like a large state agency enterprise level where simply gov could replace the service now or Salesforce investment, but that would put that agency head or that governor's office in the position of saying, "Hey, we're going to rip this thing out and bring up some challenges."
In the alternative, simply gov can serve as the front door to stand on on top of that thing. So if I was looking at the kind of both economic and uh cultural or operational impact what I would encourage uh as part of that analysis on
the permitting side is to say hey I want to know if simply gov could do this end to end that's one option for you and I would encourage you to go down that path separate and apart from that and I don't want to get overly technical simply gov has about 800 APIs out of the box those
are tools that integrate different platforms and can send data different ways. And so where states have kind of that nasty challenge on the Salesforce or Service Now experience, sometimes simply gov is just coming in uh to stand as the data ingestion layer to then
route to make Service Now and Salesforce work a little bit better. Same kind of thing could happen here. And if we were to look at the economic impact, we would say, hey, we might need to spend less. Uh, so I I believe this one of the solutions being looked at, you're going to spend a couple hundred thousand dollars to implement that solution if
you moved away from MGO. Simply go economic impact there may just mitigate the amount of implementation that needs to be done because you could stack those two platforms together to run well if that department said, "Hey, at the end of the day, I really want to have this specific license and permitting
application, but I want it to work better and I want it to have more flexibility." Simply gov could be applied at no additional cost to you on that and you have that choice. But again, you could also pressure test down and say, do I need to have the duplicative spend? That's the kind of executive business decision that I would
hope this board is empowered with to say we have track A and track B. Here's the financial and operational impact of both and then allow you to do your job duly elected. >> Okay. Thank you. commissioners, if we could bring this in for a landing. What I would suggest is we've had a lot of
information given to us this morning uh rel some uh relatively new i.e. within the last two or three days when we think about spending these types of dollars. I have questions that uh perhaps could be answered in the next uh two weeks to
include when we phase out some of the 13 or so platforms, those dollar amounts, when they would sunset versus uh when our proposed Simply Gov would kick off uh and ultimately dumb it down, so to
speak, on what ultimately the savings would be and the efficiency would be. Uh that would be my suggestion. Commissioners, I don't think we're in a position uh to commit to a uh to a contract this morning. Uh if you may,
that's up to you. I don't personally feel committed to that. I think we should uh I think two to three weeks we should be able to have in black and white what in fact uh we would save and be in fact
more efficient at. your comments. >> F it's fine with me to get the additional information. >> I think so. >> Commissioner Flesher. >> Well put, Mr. Chair. Um I I do believe we need uh Well, you deserve it.
>> Thank you. >> Uh we do need additional information. We did hear a lot. Um I'd buy stock in your delivery, by the way. Uh but uh with that this excuse me >> he's from Tallahassee.
>> Tallahassee. Yeah. >> Respectfully sir I don't want to argue with the chair but I am not from Tallahassee. I traveled there. >> You spent enough time there apparently >> I survived and got out. >> Good job. >> Well good things happened from the north. I guess
>> all right. Well, 2,963,000 $275. That's locked in, right? No, it's not. >> It may be more
>> if No, if I may, Mr. Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you, but the that is the five-year amount if you renewed every single year. What we did in negotiating it was saying if you went to the company
and said, "We want a one-year agreement, it would be a lot more expensive on a one-year basis because they're looking at it going, we don't know if there's any potential other than going." So when the county administrator talks about terms of convenience or subject to appropriation, that is standard language
in most procurement departments and purchasing departments around the country, it is also included in the NASPO participating addendum that the Department of Management Services signed. So unless you negotiated differently and and we see that sometimes to get a much better price
where somebody says, "Hey, I need this and I know I'm committed to this." That would actually be locked in. This is not locked in. This is a five-year term, but each year is paid annually. The termination for convenience, the distinction there between for cause and
for convenience. For cause would be a legal term that says the contract will define what cause means. And if we, the county, wanted to terminate, we would have to show and prove cause to get out of the contract. Termination for convenience means you could wake up mad
one morning and just say, "Fire them." and you have no legal requirement beyond what you paid for that year. The reason we believe in and going through the process and working through to say how do we balance price and protection?
Protection looks like terms for convenience or subject to appropriation. Subject to appropriation means this board could say we're not going to fund it. And that's the way in year two that it does not get funded. So the only thing you would be locked in on, so to speak, is in your annual budgeting
process, are we going to pay for this next year of five? So year one, you would pay a reduced amount that fits inside existing budget needs. Working with the county administrator to figure out what that could look like across the entire five years. If this board
renewed, then the value would be 2.9, but you would have to actually issue a new renewal every year. And the reason for the five-year term, I'll go back to something I said earlier if I may, Mr. Mr. Commissioner. Um,
there are lots of uncertain costs in the marketplace with what's happening on the data center side, the AI side, and what software is going to cost. There are things that will drive software costs up. There are things like AI that should drive it down some. The five-year term
protects exactly what your renewal amount would be. So, if we had a one-year term in the alternative and just had protection and said that year one was $450,000 ballpark and then in year two, the vendor shows up and says year two is going to be $2 million.
Now, we as a county are in a very thick spot because we've been deploying workflows on this and we certainly have no expectation for a vendor that we pressure test to do that. But that's the protection of the 5-year term is to say this is what each annual year would
cost. And then the other thing we negotiated in there is a ceiling on what a renewal would cost beyond the five years. Zack Portwood in your IT office was very keen to go, "Hey guys, like what would happen on the renewal?" So those caps are negotiated in, but that's why I say it's not a fixed commitment of
$2.9 million. >> Mr. Chair, can I just comment? We did pull all that documentation and we confirmed that. We've looked at the contract language, >> right? I appreciate that. We do know that uh in the in the budget formulation
of last year, uh it does in fact have this included. Uh and we also understand that it is an internal service fund. Just keep that in mind. >> Yes. >> Well, thank you
>> once again. U I I appreciate uh the fact that we would not be taking action today. >> In other words, we're a few gigabytes short. >> Yeah. Yeah. And uh you know, maybe we need one of those bigger chips. uh you
know uh I I just $3 million. This comes at a time when we're looking at again uh one of my colleagues pointed out that uh we're still having some challenges with MGO.
uh I don't think they went away and that was a year after uh a solid year of massaging with a presence from the individual in the building. It just
you pointed out something. You said in a perfect world it would have been better if we had all met maybe had some I I don't I don't know a test driveation to make a decision for $3 million during
a year where we had to cut nearly a million dollars from our budget to satisfy the to come closer to satisfaction for the sheriff's budget. budget request.
It's been a challenge. $3 million is uh we're not shopping for a refrigerator. I think that we should have a little more time to understand to see more examples
to see how this is going to integrate totally to maybe to repair some of what has happened with MGO. I I I think that uh again uh nice presentation but I think we have still have some
unanswered questions. >> I appreciate that. Uh >> Mr. Chair, if I may real Thank you. Number one, uh what I would stress and I want to make sure and I um at the risk uh my job is not to convince you to say
yes, right? Um, wow. >> Well, my job is to make sure that I'm giving you the information of what our findings have been and the work we've done. >> One thing I do want to just kind of level set, uh, you know, my my first
session in Tallahassee was in the middle of the great financial crisis. Uh, I fortunately only lived through two or three budgets where we were cutting to the bone. I want to make clear uh and it's one of the challenges for me as the CEO of a company that plays in the public sector. Uh my my philosophy is
very public. There's a 10-year voting record. Uh I want to make sure that we acknowledge from our seat that when we serve as an agent, we see that as stewardship and we need to be able to make the case to you because on one side there is the dollar amount spent. the
other side of the equation. And this is where I think sometimes just getting the information and being able to communicate that information, the cost of not doing something will also have a significant economic cost. If I were to put myself in your shoes or
my old shoes as an appropriator, I wanted to know what the cost of the investment was going to be. I wanted to understand what the cost of doing nothing would be. In this case, there are going to be some of the FTE or employment dollars uh that are there and
simultaneously the existing spend and the future spends. Uh my job is not get you say yes. My job is to paint a picture for you that says this is why we've made the recommendation and both invite and expect you to pressure test that to go okay what's behind that. But
>> but again your job is to uh show us value. >> Yes. show us viability. >> Yes, sir. >> Sustainability. >> Yes, sir. >> Uh so I guess it is to >> sell it. Um yeah, let let's use it. >> Yeah, I mean you you're here today.
>> I guess when I say when we make a recommendation, our job is to stand behind it. So I totally agree. I just wanted to make sure I delineate between we want our job is to make you feel comfortable with your decision and if we make a recommendation we want to be able to >> and our job uh as representatives needs
to be u that we're good stewards of the taxpayer dollar to show efficiency effectiveness sustainability and to show that this is addressing a need not a want. This is addressing a
concern that will make us a better place operationally and provide better communication. Uh that's what we need to hear and know. Uh and again then we have to lay that in
the balance of the decision of the investment the dollars. We appreciate that. Commissioners, if we could uh agree to ask Eric and perhaps John to bring this back. February, is it the 8th?
>> Is that too soon? Is Is that the next meeting date? >> I think it is next. >> 10th maybe. >> 10th. >> Uh and and I and I think Eric, you have hopefully clear direction on what we expect to see so we can make a a decision.
>> Absolutely. Yes, sir. >> All right. Thank you, commissioners. Any other questions? >> Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you all. >> Hearing none, we'll be in recess until 11:05. It is 11:05 on January the 27th, 2026 board county
commission meeting will resume. Uh next is 13 I commissioners for departmental matters planning and development services. Uh specifically under 13 I1 consideration of the Indian River County Economic Development
Strategic Action Plan. I see Mr. Sweeney. Welcome. Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, Ryan Sweeney, assistant planning development services director. Uh today I'm going to introduce you to a couple folks. Um you all should already know Doug Dumbra, our economic development manager. Uh we also have
Jeff Marcel with TIP Strategies. He's going to be doing most of the presentation. Um, and then Deputy County Attorney Susan Praau does want to mention a few items right after Jeff's presentation. And last but not least, Lance Lunard, who is our newly elected
chairman of the Economic Development Council, may also say a few words. But with that, I'll turn it over to Jeff and uh, he's got a quick PowerPoint for you all. Thank you. >> Thank you. Welcome. >> Thank you, Ryan.
>> Well, good morning, Mr. Chair and commissioners, it's good to see you all again. I'm Jeff Marcell. I'm a senior partner with TIP Strategies. I apologize I have a little bit of a horse throat. I had a cold last week, but I'm going to try to do this without having a throat lodging um so I don't cough into the microphone. But thank you for the
opportunity to speak with you today. I've been very excited about this presentation. Um and I want to make sure that we have the presentation up. >> There we are. Um let me share with you what I'd like to cover today. First, I want to give you an overview of the planning process that's taken place over
this past year. A tremendous amount of work has been done by people from all across the county, and I want to make sure to acknowledge that and recognize that, make sure you have a sense about the work that has been put into this strategic plan. Um, I know you all have had the plan and had an opportunity to take a look at it, but I'm going to give
you a highle overview of what's included in the plan. Um, and then, uh, I certainly will be available for questions and and I know that we have some of the our EXE, uh, economic development council, uh, members here as well, and I'm sure that they can take questions as well, and as well as the
county staff. Um, but with that, let me dive in. I did want to just give you a quick reminder about who we are as as the consultant that has been tasked to help facilitate this plan. U, my company is a 30-year-old economic development and workforce development strategic
planning firm. Um, we've worked during that 30-year history. We've worked in over 425 communities all across the country, a lot of communities in the state of Florida. I will tell you, it has been an absolute pleasure to have a chance to work in Indian River County, to get a chance to know the people, the
leadership here, and get a get very familiar. All you had to do this morning was listen to some of the some of the items on your early agenda to appreciate just what an amazing community this is. And so, it's been a true pleasure. Um uh and I I will tell you as a company that
all we do is do economic analysis and help facilitate economic development strategic plans. This has been been a pleasure and a joy to work with with this community. Um so that's a little bit about us. Um I did want to give you a project overview right out of the gate
and just share with you the timeline. Um because enormous amount of work has been done. This has been a 12month project. Um we started back in January of 2025 and as you can see all of the tasks and and milestones that have been identified here. Um I won't go through all of them
but but as you can see this has been a very comprehensive strategic planning process. Um during this discovery phase, this is where we spent an enormous amount of time speaking with people in the community um listening and learning from uh residents in Indian River County to understand what they want to see and
and and what they care about related to the economy. Um we also pulled a lot of data during this this time period as well. That understanding the quantitative and qualitative took us to this opportunity phase of the project. This is where we in conjunction with the
economic development council and the staff at the county started to look at strategies and actions that would address the things that we learned, the opportunities that we learned about during that discovery phase. And then that took us to the implementation phase of the project where we worked to actually develop the plan, prioritize
the strategies and actions that were included, identify best case programs to case studies to to learn from. Um, and it was an iterative process working with the economic development council, going back and forth with them multiple times to to fine-tune the document to where it
is today. And I'm proud to tell you that in November the the Economic Development Council unanimously approved uh moving the document forward to all of you. And so um that's where we are today and that's what's taken place over this last 12 months.
the project goal. Um I I did want to make sure you all knew uh this is a 10-year plan which is a kind of a longer strategic planning effort. Um but it is it is a plan specific to economic development and what the county should do, what the county team should do
related to economic development activity specifically. This isn't a comprehensive plan. It's not a plan designed to touch every challenge that or every opportunity that exists in the county, but really think about the things that will um that will um energize the
economy and maintain a vibrant, healthy economy that benefits everyone in Indian River County. Um this these are our economic development um council members. Um we've referenced them as steering committee members as a part of the planning
process, but I I just want to take a moment. I know we have several members here. Um they they have been outstanding to work with. They have given us hours and hours and hours of their time pouring through data um helping us introducing us to people that we should be speaking with in the Indian River
community um and going through the as I said earlier going through this strategic plan document multiple times with us. Um they have just given an enormous amount of energy and time and I just can't thank them enough for their leadership. So I just wanted to acknowledge that.
So uh stakeholder engagement was really one of the lynchpins of this project. We did a tremendous amount of stakeholder engagement as a part of the process. We heard from and listened to over 150 people as a part of this effort. We had 11 different round uh roundt sessions um
focused on a whole host of different topic areas. Everything from talking with young professionals to real estate experts to folks who were care deeply about the environment. I want to thank Commissioner Moss for pulling those folks together and having a fantastic conversation that contributed greatly I
think to the plan itself. Um but uh speaking to people in the agricultural industry and and the healthcare industry and higher red so heard a whole host of different topic areas that affect the economy. Um in addition to that we had three site visits. So we made sure to be in every single part of the county
itself and then we had six town halls. Um I I have been doing this work for 12 years. My company's been in business for 30 years. This is the largest number of town halls that we have ever done for any single project. And that was because the economic development council and the
county staff said, "No, you have to be out in the community and you have to hear what people in Indian River County want to say about what's going to happen to this economy." Um, and I I really think that that that yielded a tremendous results and it really did change the spirit and the tenor of the
plan and I I think it it's been fantastic. We heard great we had great conversations. I know many of you attended some of those sessions and I want to thank you for that as well. Um in addition to that we compiled a whole host of data points. We did an extensive data analysis of of Indian
River County. These are just a few of the examples of data components that we pulled together but we it's we actually pulled over 40 different data sets touching economic and demographic data and industry data and occupational data and real estate data. So we tried to look at the economy from data points in
every way we could. Um as I said we matched those that up with stakeholder engagement work that we did to really the build the plan from um a foundation of understanding. So now let's talk about the action plan itself and what's in the action plan.
So we've titled the action plan uh treasured tomorrow and that was very intentional. Um, out of all of those stakeholder engagements that we had, it was loud and clear that people care tremendously about this community. They care about the character, about the quality of life that they have. And
frankly, they treasure Indian River County. And so for us, we wanted to to make sure to send the message that we understand that and this plan understands that. And in year three of the implementation of this plan, year five, year 10 in the implementation of this plan, the the character and the
quality of life that exists in Indian River County is absolutely essential to make sure it's maintained and strengthened through a vibrant economy, not damaged through economic growth. We also paid a lot of attention to making sure that we looked at the just
the size of the county geography. Um, when you think about this is a countywide plan and so when you think about different parts of the county, economic development needs are different in different parts of the county. And so we tried to make sure to think about that when we met with people and we tried to think when we thought about all
of the different strategic um strategies and actions in the plan. So this is the framework that we have for the plan. And before I dive into the three different goal areas, I did want to share with you that from the very beginning, this plan has been built to
to implement to put into action. And one of the things that we've already delivered on to the county team is we took all of the strategies and all of the actions uh and put them into something we called an implementation matrix. And that's where we um are able to then start to track priority areas
and when different strategies and actions should be put into uh implementation. Um we also identified categories where you can track metrics to evaluate the success of different strategies or actions taking place and you can monitor the activity that's
taking place really serving as a tool for the life of the 10-year plan. Um, and then in addition to that, we had we have a section about where where partners should be listed because there's going to be an important role of course that the city team plays or the county team plays. There's an important
role that the economic development council plays, but there's also an important role that other partners in the community are going to play in carrying out this work. For example, the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce is going to play a pivotal role in carrying out some of the work that's listed in the document.
So with that, let's dive into the the three different catalyst or the three different goal areas. The first is targeted industry development. Um and here we identified a handful of different industries. These are traded industries by and large. Industries that
bring money from outside of the Indian River County into the into the economy, expanding the tax base, diversifying the economy, diversifying the tax base also, but also adding jobs. Um but one of the reasons we focused on on the industries that we did as well is because these
could be brought in these could be recruited, retained, attracted um with a small footprint. So it it has as small an impact on this this quality of life as possible while providing all of the benefits I just referenced. And that's
that's a big priority for us as we were thinking about the industries that we identified as targets. Um these will be the guideposts for uh the business recruitment, retention, expansion activities that take place as a part of the plan. Um the aerospace and
manufacturing sector of course with Piper and building on Piper success. We want to make sure that Piper is successful for decades and decades and decades to come. Um and doing everything possible to help support that and think about other aerospace opportunities and uh that that might be available for the
county as well. and thinking about finance and insurance and professional services. Um, leveraging frankly the all of the high- netw worth individuals that you are are fortunate to have here in this county. Um, and thinking about how maybe potential satellite offices or um,
uh, corporate headquarters could be located here rather than other major markets around the state or around the country. um in thinking about agriculture, aquaculture and light industrial, you know, agriculture is such a rich history in this economy and
in this community. And so cherishing that, understanding and appreciating that the a industry is still really important to this community, um and making sure that we're we're thinking about things like agurism, farm-to-table promotion, um those types of activities
to make sure that the a industry stays vital and strong uh moving forward. And then healthcare um you know healthcare you is an industry in and of itself as well right but it also contributes to amazing quality of life. And so those are those are just some of the indust those are the industries that we feel
like um will yield the biggest uh uh impact the biggest results with the smallest footprint and the smallest impact on the quality of life in the community. for catalyst projects. Um what we identified here was just a handful of projects that were of
significance to the entire regional economy. Um when these come online and it will take many years for them to do that, they will benefit in tax revenue and job creation but also quality of life for the entire community. And so making sure that these are put front and center and stay on people's minds. I
know sometimes long range projects can kind of become an afterthought, but we feel like these are so important to keep them in the very front of people's minds is going to be critical. Um, but we also identified local catalyst projects as a part of this as well. Thinking about uh
we reached out to the municipal partners that we have across the county to asked them to share with us what they what their economic development priorities, what their economic development projects are. And so we've received some of those. I think over the 10-year horizon of the plan, we're going to see many uh
local uh catalyst projects from city partners that can be incorporated in the plan as they're presented. Um but this is a great opportunity to to have those municipalities come in and say, "These are the things that we want to do." And the county look at those those projects as well and say, "Hey, let's think about
how we can partner together to make sure that this is a big success." And then the third is really county resources and services. This is the day in dayout work done on a consistent basis by the county team and the EDC and other groups to to carry out all of the functions and the
actions of the plan. I'll mention just a couple that stand out to me. One is um of course having a robust and consistent business recruitment or business retention and expansion program. um being committed to going out on a consistent basis to talk to employers
here in Indian River County to understand exactly what they're dealing with, how they're doing, are they experiencing challenges, are they thinking about growing? Um so that you can capture all of that money that information and share it with with all of you so you have a sense about what's
actually happening in the Indian River economy. And then um another example I think that's that's exceptional into this category is thinking about the economic development count council differently than it has in years past. It's been a great organization in years past to provide counsel to this group to
provide policy recommendations, but we're also encouraging that group to think of themselves as a convenor of all things economic development across the county. So bringing in municipal partners, bringing in workforce development partners, other folks who are involved in things that touch the
economy and having it seem it uh having people come together and share information and talk about collaborative opportunities so that it's more than just of course they will continue to provide policy recommendations, but it also will be the clearing house of projects and information uh and uh
collaboration for economic development across the county. So, with that, um, I did want to point out a few metrics that have been identified as a part of this project that will be measured over that 10-year horizon. Some of them are the ones that you would obviously think of,
job creation as it relates to economic development activities, tax revenues generated from those activities, capital investment in the community. Um, but there are other things that we think about. Um, the permits reviewed, the number of permits reviewed or uh unemployment uh numbers. So there are a
whole host of different data points that we've identified in partnership with the county team to measure how these actions and initiatives are are judged and evaluated over the long term. So with that, um I know the county attorney
wanted to make a couple remarks. >> Good morning, Commissioner. Susan Pto, deputy county attorney. Um, just really quickly in reviewing this um, wonderful proposal we have here, I wanted to note that there were a couple items that we
would ask to be amended in this under the attachment that you have here too for initiatives policies. Um, that there's under figure 10, it says existing incentives toolbox. There's a couple in there that I think were thought that were actual current
existing incentives, but they are not in our code. Um and so from a legal standpoint, we would need to have an amendment to the code to have those sort of incentives um given. Uh one of them is the traffic impact fee financing. Um that currently is not in existence. Um
the financing for water and sewer impact fees. There is something but it's only for hardship. So that would need to be amended a little bit to look into for purposes of bringing business. Um and there's also one for utility deposit waiverss. Um it's not in the code. I
hear that it's in our policy manual. So, that would need to be updated um in the code and we really need to um just take into account and to be considerate of the fact that because they are impact fees, we need to make sure we are looking at the statutes that deal with those too and what we're allowed to do
and what we're allowed to, you know, kind of toy with, if you will, um to help bring some of these incentives. And I just I've spoken with staff about this and wanting to um look and see what we can and what we can't do moving forward. um to have these items brought to you at
a later date for any amendments that we would possibly need. I don't know if anyone has any questions about that. >> Thank you, commissioners. I have redirect that question to the administrator and his thoughts.
I I think these formulas have been recognized in other perhaps municipalities. >> Yes, there are other jurisdictions that use these and it's to Susan's point, it would just require a code amendment
reviewing our impact fee provisions. It does largely discuss hardship. um how you define hardship, you know, I mean it's but it but the point being is for a qualified targeted industry, you'd want to narrowly you want to so it's not
you're not opening the floodgates, but you'd focus on those QTI type uh businesses and just mending the code. >> Right? In other words, we're trying to reduce any red tape at all. That that I think commissioners that's that's the
goal we have here. >> Yes. And council brought up something about uh the impact fees. If if something is perceived as an impact fee, we can't wave it. We can grant it with taxpayer dollar, but there is
it's a little vague. >> It's not proposing to wave impact fees. It's proposing a financing >> because we currently do that for hardship. So, we would be expanding that for economic development. And I would
even caveat that and narrow it down to any qualifi any targeted industry that we identify. I don't want to use QTI because that's really the state has a large list of QTI businesses, but what it was identified as the ones that we
should be going, you know, directing our efforts on. So, but the verbiage has to be cleaned up so that this way it's in other words, we'd be also having to change our ordinance.
>> Yes, sir. So, it's it's not waving as um the county administrator. It would just be for financing, but we do have to have something in our ordinance. I just wanted to clarify there's something in here that says that it's a current um but we can't do that until we have our ordinances in place. So, I just wanted
to bring it to y'all's attention that the county attorney's office is willing to work with staff um to look to see what would need to be amended in the ordinance and what can be amended in the ordinance in looking with the um impact fee statutes because it is impact fees. So, I just want to make sure that I
brought that to your attention that there's a small thing in here that while um it's recommending adoption of this, we just want to note that slight thing in there that it's not necessarily that little provision is not necessarily accurate, but the rest of it is and we would gladly help to make any other
economic incentives um available that are legally allowable. So, we're here to work with staff. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. In other words, we we ask that these three items be removed from the existing toolbox um because they're not really in our existing toolbox, but they could be
added back in should the >> county choose to do that. >> Okay. Um, obviously we we have our rough draft of our economic development strategic plan
and keeping with our theme uh countywide in that we don't hope to succeed, we plan to succeed. Uh we we don't hope to win a ball game, we plan to win a ball game.
And by having our in-house law firm uh take a gander, so to speak, at our plan, it only enhances it and makes it a win to succeed. So, so noted and uh and that by no means was that to damper
the spirit of our plan. Please continue, sir. >> I appreciate that, Mr. Chair. Well, right now I'd like to ask Lance Lumpford to come up and share a little bit of his comments as the board chair for the EDC. >> Absolutely. Commissioners, it's a pleasure. Lance Lunsford. I I serve as the chairman of your economic
development council. Just a brief note. I do want to point out that the uh specific decision of our council was to recommend adoption of this plan subject to any additions you as the county commission make into it. But I just want to make that clear because um the the suggestions from m Miss Praau and from
County Attorney Scheler are not inconsistent with our recommendation. We understood there may be some provisions that need to be uh put in place. But really this has been a year-long effort. I know so many of us in this room want to bring good paying jobs to our citizens and really want to make sure that the type of businesses that come
into Indian River County fit within our way of doing things in our quality of life. Uh Commissioner Eman, you and I are both born and raised in Vero Beach. Commissioner Adams born and raised in Felmir and of course commissioners Flesher Lure and Adam and Mos excuse me have made Indian River County their home for decades. So all of us appreciate the
unique spirit and quality of life that we have here in our county. This plan is a testament to a collaborative effort not only of the economic development council which itself has so many representatives from our banking industry, our lo our different local industries, Indian River State College, all of the city councils in Indian River
County, but also the town halls, the roundt discussions that have been conducted across the prior year have really been a massive effort and a testament to our to our shared priority as your economic development council. Several people I really think deserve a shout out. First and foremost, our own liaison to the board of county
commissioners, uh, Commissioner Adams. We thank her for her leadership. I also want to recognize the prior chairman of the economic development council, Mr. Jordan Lulich, who was the real estate representative on the economic development council. He was the chair throughout a lot of the creation of this document. And finally, we we thank
Andrea Beam from the Indian River Chamber of Commerce uh for for the continuous collaboration and for the reports that are constantly provided to our economic development council. So, commission, I want to make clear that the recommendation of the EDC is to adopt this economic development strategic action plan subject to any
additions you deem appropriate. Thank you for your time and I know this is a great opportunity for all of us in this county to get the ball rolling on economic development. So, thank you. >> I'm happy to respond to any additional questions uh that any of the commissioners have.
>> Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Commissioner M. >> Thank you. Um, one of the things that I've discussed this with the county administrator is that uh, workforce housing is not mentioned u, in here. And I know in response to that question, u, Mr. Dumbrossski
said that while housing is a crucial component of a healthy economy, housing initiatives are not typically addressed within economic development and strategic plans. So accepting that um as it may be uh I discussed yesterday with the county administrator at least
acknowledging the issue and there was a suggestion made to well I'll let you speak to it. Uh I >> I spoke with Mr. Marcel. I mean it's it's it's just a matter of I mean in terms of strategies and actions some
language could be crafted that would you know incur encourage require the coordination of the economic development council with the efforts of the affordable housing and advisory committee and other you know related you
know housing services uh organizations because obviously you always want to have that strike that jobs balance and you've got to have you have to have in order to attract the jobs you have to have the uh the housing available for
the employees. We've seen that on our own end, the inability to maybe attract somebody because some of the cost of the housing at least depending on the position. >> And Commissioner Mos, I I would also mention, you know, of course, in in our
SWAT, we referenced that workforce housing and some of the data that we analyzed. Workforce housing is clearly a challenge. Um, and it's a challenge here and it's a challenge in almost every market that I have ever worked in. Um, certainly over the last six, seven, eight years. Um I will say um one of the
things that we thought about thought about was um you know a lot of the actions and and the work that we've identified was really has been under under the purview of the economic development council. We know that there's also a housing committee and we didn't want to overstep and start giving
saying okay that >> well I'm not suggesting that you should just that there should be some kind of cross reference that you know that's that's all >> and if I can just jump in. So, we've had numerous numerous discussions. I want to make this very very clear because the
email that we received I think does not take into consideration because Mr. Jacobs was not part of those conversations at EDC that we've had numerous numerous discussions about housing and limitations on workforce
housing in the relation to economic development and recruitment and retention of businesses. So it has been referenced as we've gone through this whole process many many times um and
working with AHAC and working with the chamber specifically um they have been very involved in the workforce housing conversation I know through their legislative committee and other committees so
it's not not been discussed or talked about it hasn't happened in a vacuum. But I would agree um that where we were coming at from the for the EDC plan was specific to
bringing businesses here and what kind of tools we could put in our toolbox to make this more attractive from a business location um recruitment and retention perspective. And then the AHACK affordable housing advisory committee and the affordable housing
plan and the LHAP that we pass every year that has affordable housing um tools in that toolbox is an o those two work handinand. So however you guys want to include it in there but I just wanted to be very clear that it's not as if we
have gone through this process without talking about housing the issues with housing. Everybody that sits around the table talks about that and there is overlap in EDC and Ahack, not only from a staff perspective and position, but
from a county liaison, I do sit on both of those boards and there are people on EDC that also sit on Ahack. So there is a lot of collaboration and overlap already occurring and will continue to occur.
>> I thank you and I appreciate that. I think our mission of our targeted industries is also a direct relationship to affordable housing. >> Okay. And then I'd like to ask about uh 1.3.3 and uh I'll read the section. I had a
question about assist property owners in need of land transition assistance for redevelopment or environmental remediation and provide available planning and economic development resources. um who exactly would be what party would be assisting these people?
Is that the county? Is it a third party? What organization >> is going to assist? >> Yeah, one of the greatest strengths I think that the county has right now is this new position of the economic development manager at the county that has a strong background in in economic development and land use, but working
with uh that role and conjunction with other key people with >> So, this is coordination. We're not talking about funding then. Well, well, if there can if if there are opportunities to help help provide some guidance to some of those land owners, that would be ideal.
>> Okay. Well, but it's advice. It's not we're not asking for funding. This is not a request for funding. >> I would not necessarily you see that >> because it mentioned assistance. So, I was curious. Um 2.1.2. My question on that is that it says uh leverage the recent approval of
expansion of the urban service boundary to build build momentum for future county economic development projects. Um we had decided as a board uh we're not expanding the urban service boundary and
that was in response to the community. We did workshops just on the urban service boundary and it came back that not only did the county uh residents not want to expand it but also we have room within the existing urban service
boundary to support a projected increase in population so there's not a need so I was just wondering why is this in here it seems to contradict what we discussed and also what came out of previous workshops >> I I think it's related to the subsequent
or the the below bullet that talks about the Oslo project corridor because that area if you recall was one of the strategic uh expansions it was the only one and then we did the Oslo corridor study and we're currently working there's a moratorum and we're currently
working on Oslo corridor plan so that does contemplate the that's the only area that was contemplated you know and that the board approved for the expansion of the USB >> well I'll just say even with that with the silver quarter
the first choice uh with regard to workshops and the responses that we received from the community was to preserve agricultural land and open space. So I'm not sure how that drives with this. U maybe you want to state you
know incorporate that here that that's uh that's the the direction that was received from workshops and we'll be doing additional workshops uh coming up next month. That's my understanding. >> Mr. Chair, if I could, Commissioner Moss, there is a small area
approximately 1500 acres between 66 and 82nd between Fifth Street Southwest and 13th Street Southwest that you all did direct staff to bring in. To be clear, that although everybody agreed in concept, the actual physical expansion
of the USB has not occurred. that's going to occur with the or assuming you all still feel that same direction that would occur with the Oslo adoption of the Oslo corridor changes. So there that's the only area that we're that this specific bullet point is speaking. >> I I think it's not clear here that
that's that's the case. >> Got it. >> Um uh 2.6.2 um schedule regular meetings of city and county elected officials to discuss current projects and share new opportunities. Um, I guess I would just say, are we
actually going to do that? If we're not actually going to do that, then uh I don't I don't think it should be in here. I'm in favor of of doing that. I'm not sure that everyone else on the board is. I mean, last time I brought it to the board, uh, we do not have consensus on that.
So, I'll just me I'll just mention that. If we're not going to do it, I wouldn't have it in there. Uh, 3.3.5 uh uh continue to evaluate potential USB
expansion options. And again, this goes back to, you know, we have the initial point I made, which is that we have the room within the current uh USB to accommodate any population projected uh
population increases. So, I don't know why this is in here repeatedly and the board has already said that we're not expanding the urban service boundary. Um, that's been stated publicly other than the Oslo Road uh corridor which was the only exception at this point. So, I'm I'm not clear. We seem to be
promoting something that neither the community nor the board um seem to be in favor of at least the last time we checked. So, I'll state that. uh figure number seven. I was just curious because education is is down the list quite a
bit and yet it's my understanding that the school district is one of the major employers. So I wasn't sure how it ended up that far down the list. It's just a question >> and I I'm I'm trying to follow along in in the document you're you're talking
about. >> Uh figure seven is employment industry industry sector 2024. Sorry. >> Yeah, education is quite a ways down the list. I was just curious because the school district is one of our major
employers. >> This is by sector, not just specific principal employers and this kind of shows about 3500 uh individuals that are employed in the education sector. So what we the the
that normally we list the top 10 employers. School district is one of those. So are we. But you can see we're down there as well. But so I would just say that it's this is the sector as a whole, not just the employer.
>> All right. And finally the uh let's see the SWAT which was uh it's uh figure 12 summary of SWAT analysis for Indian River County Florida
>> and under weaknesses it states floor area constraints height limitations and density restrictions um the residents don't view that as a weakness they view it as a strength um you know we we live even die by our height restrictions. It's it's not a
weakness and that's why people want to move here. I I would argue that it's a strength and that's what we see reflected when we have people come here uh you know to address us and that's that's the feeling of the community. So I don't think that's a weakness, it's a
strength and opportunities again we got that urban service boundary expansion. It's not an opportunity it's a threat. That's how it's viewed by the community. We've been told that repeatedly from all of the workshops. We know that we have
sufficient uh acreage within the existing urban service boundary to uh to support increases the projected increase in population. So I again I don't know why this keeps coming up you know urban service boundary expand expand expand
when it's quite the opposite what we've heard what what we have discussed as a board and also what we've heard from the community at uh at workshops. So um I don't know I'm listening but I I just I don't I don't really see it reflected here. I I would reconsider the con you
know that the uh repetitive urban service boundary expansion. >> I I appreciate your comments. >> Those are my comments. Thank you >> Mr. Moss. I think what when you're reflecting on the USB, I I think what staff was doing was uh including the
past uh decisions that this body has made to incorporate and to distinguish clearly what the new or whatever you want to call it existing USB is. In fact, if you recall, it was simply uh filling a void between
74th and 58th. Uh so some could call that an expansion, others could call that filling in that particular void because as we know the USB was already at 95 in Oslo. So I think that's how uh the clarification may be needed that in fact they included that in their
language not to construe uh an idea of us doing something globally within the county with the USB. So I think that might have been some word smithing going on there. So >> okay. >> All right. Any further questions? Yes,
sir. >> So I just want to uh there's two things. So the paragraphs below the incentive uh policies recommends additional opportunities. So I think maybe the traffic impact fee
financing utility deposit waiver financing for water and sewage impact fees. So those could be dropped down into those bullets rather than completely deleting them because those are >> you're recommending those. And then the other thing I and I've shared this with
members of the board you know the county has ED advorum tax abatement um exemption program and I think somewhere it should note that there should be partnership you know for projects that are not in the county but
with the municipalities as well. It's not actually it's normal. It's it's typical that if a project's located in a municipality, then the municipality has skin in the game as much as the the county has skin in the game or at least that they have skin in the game. Not not
just relying on the county abating its taxes and providing potentially job grants because we do we've done both of those and then there's no skin in the game on behalf of the municipality. I just think that's a policy that the board needs to think about as we move
forward municipalities to uh put it on the ballot for their economic development advorum tax abatement. But there's other places I've been where if if you don't you got to meet your m you got you got to meet or exceed the amount that the
county is doing unless there's some unique circumstances. >> Okay. Okay, Doug, you got all that? So, commissioners, this is simply a draft. I I suppose this will be brought
back to us uh at some point. >> Absolutely. We'll make those adjustments as quickly as possible uh and make sure you have a clean copy. >> Thank you. And uh thank you to everyone involved involved, particularly Commissioner Adams. >> Thank you. Just for clarification, what
adjustments are you making? there wasn't necessarily consensus on all of them. >> The the ones that John >> So So what I can do what I can do is convene with the county team and and capture the the comments that I've I've taken note of the and they'll share with
me the the comments that they have and then we'll get that to the entire group so that you understand kind of the the adjustments and changes that that we heard from all of you. Does that sound like an appropriate? >> So I could let me just I know Commissioner Bros brought up the 2.12
and we mentioned that that was really related to Oslo corridor expansion. I mean the Oslo corridor uh 2.62. Uh I I would just suggest then if if it's not elected officials just say meetings
you know of officials you know just get rid of elected so that the the counties and the cities are working together from >> I don't think it should be elected but >> I'm not I understand that I'm just saying but I wouldn't want to forego the whole policy to or the whole strategy of
us getting together and coordinating with our cohorts at uh at the municip municipalities. And then the other one was 3.35. I think that might be the one that the board needs to make consensus on. It says, "Continue to evaluate potential USB
expansion options. Ensure the public is heard early and often on all on all USB considerations." I think the request was to delete it. And then that's that's the ones related to the goals and objective actions and strategies.
>> Yeah. I just want to make sure that whatever changes you're making is changes that are consensus of the whole >> Yeah. >> of >> Yes. because this has already gone through EDC who
I see many members of EDC in the audience who thoroughly thoroughly vetted this to the point of I think we've had you guys have redone the draft a couple of times based on that input. >> It has been an iterative process.
Absolutely. >> It has. Commissioner Flip. >> Yeah. Uh I' I I've heard the objections and and I appreciate uh the pointing out of the word expand
urban service boundary. Uh there's no discussion of that and and and I get that, but it's it's not a camel's snoop under the tent.
It's it has to be there. If something overwhelming comes in our path, we need to have the tool to be able to address the need and concern. It's not to say that anybody's making
any changes now. And we're we're not enabling uh uh untethered growth. Uh we're not but I think we have a tremendous fear here of or we should have one of limiting every one of our options
because a word is in a document to say hark. This is we're going to lose civilization as we know it because the word
expansion is in there or the word uh regarding urban service plan. There are so many other concerns to address the expansion of the urban country and I think that this board has
clearly stated I I actually got a little offended when we said well that's what the people are saying and that's what we're saying and we did say I only heard one commissioner speak I don't want to see changes that will derail all of your
fine work, the the the six or seven workshops, the work with the economic development council, the work with the community, the work with this board, the individual staff
to be knocked out and say, "Well, bring this back, but get rid of all that stuff." Because that's not what this is about. There's a lot of work that has to be that had to be done to get us in this
position. By no means did I hear you say you got to move that urban service boundary or we anticipate that just being popped out. I I think we're being the element of of caution and I don't I
don't I don't know. It's uh it it's like the fear factor. It's like what what happened just this past week about some another topic that got blown out of proportion that blew up a community.
I don't think that it's right and fair and just to be able to say eliminate all these words. So, I don't want you to to to to leave knowing that or believing being led to believe that that's the the
consensus of this board to say eradicate all of those words because we can't have any of that in this town. >> I think they just need to clarify. >> So, >> well, that's not what you said. >> And it doesn't need to be repeated quite
that many times because it seems like you're pushing it, you know, repetition. pushing it. >> You keep No, no, no. I don't mean you. The document it seems like it's being pushed when it's repeated like that over and over and over again. >> So, if I can just offer maybe some middle ground, Commissioner Moss, I
understand what you're now that you've clarified, I understand what your concern is. And I think that this document is specifically related to economic development. It has nothing to do nor is it related to residential growth which is the um the concern in
the community which I don't disagree with. So is there a way in 3.35 to maybe include that any potent that what would be evaluated is related
to economic development and that might give some better clarification because >> I do think that the conversation um and the community is is always open to conversations not saying decisions
but conversations related to economic development, >> growth, good paying jobs and that type of thing. So maybe that would clarify that. >> I think that's a good suggestion. That way it's not misinterpreted. You know, right now the way it's written up, it could >> still have it in there because I think
it is something that may, you know, in 20 years from now come up. But >> well, and this is a 10-year plan, right? And so >> it's just economic development >> only. Yes. We have we have to look at beyond. But in in addition, uh I I I
agree the word weakness is not maybe uh fair and accurate term to place in there. It makes us sound like we're planning for not getting to the Super Bowl, >> not not getting to a perfect performance. I I I understand that the
word weakness should be stricken. That that's >> Would you agree? Oh. Oh, that's in that was in the SWAT. >> In the SWAT in the SWAT weakness height. No, the community does not view height limitations as a weakness. They just
don't. That's a huge strength. That's why people move here. That's the small town charm. People live and die by that. >> But I would just I and I agree with everybody on that comment. So, I don't want my next comment to be taken out of
context because I do agree that the height limitation is something that our residents appreciate and keeps us small town. >> It's in gravity. >> But yes, I mean there's that >> yes >> locked in. But I would also point out
that the CVS, which is an economic development project, it exceeds the normal height limitation in Indian River County solely because it was an economic development project at the time.
>> Yes. >> Um there was a carveout made for that project. So again getting back to talking about this from an economic development perspective as we start looking at
logistics, warehousing, manufacturing and the way manufacturing is done today with a lot of machinery and robotics. There are some height requirements for that to happen if that is something that we want to grow and attract as an
industry. So I think it is a benefit from a residential perspective but I don't necessarily disagree that it from an economic development perspective it could be a weakness. So again I think
that it's we need to def we need to be clear that this document relates to business recruitment and retention and not to anything related to residential or housing. um development. So, I just want to throw
that out there that we already have an economic development opportunity that has happened in the past that required what I guess a variance or a carveout or some I think there's actually a specific part of the code that deals just with that property and allows it to be
>> something greater. So, that is something that would come on a case-byase basis. But again, I totally agree with you guys that from a residential perspective, that is and and again, that's also west of I95
in the middle of what is currently a cow pasture and old citrus grove. And I think that we have demonstrated our passion for as a board on the height limitations
and uh many many aspects of protecting what we hold dear in in River County as a whole representing all of our citizens and hearing them and understanding. It's just I think stripping out all all of
that would eliminate something like CVS which uh I understand that uh well yeah we lived it. It was a very difficult time to push that window and as a matter
of fact it has provided a lot of jobs uh a lot of commerce ability here in Indian River County but by the same token they said they couldn't do it again. It would have to be different and I don't think that we could support
something like that in the future if it was to be built to what technology has brought forward because as with what was happening at the mall just to get into uh some of the discussion we might
recall how favorable that was about somebody wanting to put up like stories and extensions and all that. So maybe this is another place where we can include some language to make it very clear that this is an economic development. It is
>> report report and tool and it's not in any way shape or form to be >> changing >> cross cross you know whatever the word I'm looking for um discipline areas to be then applied or taken into consideration from a residential housing
growth perspective >> right so not not a uh a backdoor to any density changes uh location size scope height uh yes well agreed But I don't I don't think we're touching
that window by >> to that point. You might want to in that weakness area usually might be floor area constraints because F is commercial and industrial and height limitation restrictions and remove density.
M >> Mr. Mr. Chair, I also have a comment and I'm sorry and I'm not trying to muddy the waters and I understand what you're saying, but I will say this and I I want the and obviously if we had a project come before you, we would be looking at all the angles, but height limitation
even if you limit it to a commercial context now with live local can have uh re other impacts other in other words if you're granting a height um increase that's that would drive projects in in
the live local context and that's so I'm not trying to muddy the waters. I just and we would look at that. I just want the right that's part of that conversation and it is to do with housing >> and I think that the goal of this is just to kind of provide some direction
for future discussions on economic development to provide staff the opportunity to craft some additional tools that we might need in our toolbox or that we might not agree that we need but to at least have those conversations. And this is just kind of
a roadmap to the future work of economic development committee as well as um staff. So live local blew everything out of the water. So I completely understand that. Um and that's something that you know we're dealing with with A-hack. But
I I do think if we can just make it clear >> that this is an economic development study >> for economic development purposes, >> then it should clarify some of the concerns that I'm hearing from the fellow commissioners. >> So, and could I just add and Jeff, you
can validate this. Uh I think by saying floor area constraints and height limitation restrictions that's really a weakness in and it it limits or or it makes us be a little bit more judicious in what industries we and what you know
businesses we attract because of the fact there may be some it's it's not saying that it's a weakness of the community just like from an economic development standpoint site selectors are very specific criteria and site selectors I need this this this this or I need 75 ft of height. Oh, you can't do
that. And then they move on. If you can't do 75 ft, they'll move on. they just they're not going to they just want to. So, this is just noting that as we go forward that the the businesses that we've identified, the sectors that this
may potentially cause some of those not to be able to come to fruition, but there are others that are smaller scale that can be it just like that's I think that's all it's saying and but I think removing density clears up the whole residential component. I agree and and
that is exactly the the case. Um so >> well thank you commissioners. We have a decision to make. Um the recommendation is to approve uh this particular plan what is this board's fancy. >> I'd be happy to make a motion to approve
with the changes as discussed amongst the commissioners. >> We have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? And the motion carries. >> When when will we see that? When you
when will you be um bringing it back? I mean just distributing it >> um >> changes >> weeks. >> Yeah, I would imagine on our end we'll move as quickly as we possibly can, but but I know that it takes time to get things on the agenda, those kinds of
things. But I I'll turn to our county staff team to help with those things. >> Thank you, commissioners. This moves us on to the solid waste disposal district item 16B1 through 16B5. >> Mr. Chair, if it's okay, I would like to
make a motion um in bulk for approval of all the minutes as attached to the solid waste disposal district. >> Commissioners, we have a bulk motion to include all of the solid waste disposal
meeting minutes and I will second that. We have a motion. We have a second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Mers, finally, it's our opportunity for public comment on any non-aggenda related matters. Anyone from the public
wants to speak about anything that is uh anything that you'd like to speak about. We uh ask that you name yourself and your address. And we limit our comments to three minutes. and we do not uh
have dialogue. We'd like to hear your point. Thank you. Good morning, Clark. Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon, commissioners. Walter McNalty, 2129 Hardwork Circle, Southeast uh I mean Southwest Vero Beach, 32968.
I just wanted to ask you because um like it came up the other I think uh Commissioner Flesher brought up the other night's meeting and so forth. You know, I think that meeting did not have a whole lot to do with who owned it
or anything else. I think it really bo down to that is AG2 property out there. I personally in talking to many many people would like to see because the county likes to invest in property. We bought a lot of it just since the first
of the year um or the last month of last year also. Um, I'd like to see the county find a way to either incentivize that property for cattle ranchers, farmers, anybody like in the agricultural to come in and take that
property or to actually buy it and do some type of lease to an agricultural department somehow to find a way to incentivize people to go out and take that land. And the ones who currently own it, you know, I I believe it's a
house or a building and then the rest has to be egg, right? Is that correct on the property out there? >> Sir, this is not the portion where we exchange with you. We listen to your comments. >> Okay. >> If you'd like to meet with us individually, we'd be happy to. >> Okay.
>> Then I will do that also. But I would just like you to take under consideration coming up with a way to incentivize because we're talking about development and uh you know businesses seeing if we can get some of the cattle farmers I mean if anybody looked at the
report last week uh of course the cattle ranchers of America and the cattle farmers of Florida we were rated pretty high and that's a perfect opportunity to bring in a industry that we could certainly use right now because everybody knows how stake is. So, uh,
other than that, that's all I have and I appreciate your time. >> Thank you. And those are very good ideas, Mr. McNelte, that some of us perhaps have not thought of. >> Good afternoon. Name and address for the record. >> Good afternoon. My name is Karen
Osborne. I live at 2800 65th Drive, kind of behind the Indian River Mall. One of my comments that you were mentioning is if we are to bring some good businesses to town, the housing and for example, there's a new apartment building going
up across from us that the uh rent for three bedrooms is almost $3,000 a month. So, I would think somehow if y'all are looking for affordable housing by approving some of these apartment buildings, you're not doing anyone any
favors. Um just my comment on that and on the um hardship exemption thing that you briefly mentioned. I think if a company's coming into town, they need to be um what's the right word? Well financed enough that they don't need to
be starting to ask for favors like a hardship exemption right off the bat because new businesses should be a boon for us and not a drag. And I don't feel that that's like a great first impression. And um I had one other
comment but I forgot. So thank you >> Osborne. Good afternoon. Any further comment from the public? >> Good afternoon. Name and address for the record. just recovering from um oral surgery.
So, I'm talking a little funny, but um I just wanted to say, you know, especially Laura Moss, thank you for reminding the commissioners and the public that we do care about height restrictions. CVS may have been uh you know um got gotten an
ex exemption, but um as far as we the people, we don't want to raise the height restrictions in Indian River County. So, I just want to remind everybody of that. Um, and she's correct that most of the community um is in
support of keeping our height restrictions low. It is part of what makes Vero Vero. Um, I also spoke with an elected official this week who shall remain nameless that acknowledged that our infrastructure has not kept up with
our growth and that is a huge concern for all citizens and um I would like to see that addressed. Uh we have many many questions about the epic development and we would like to know when we can get
answers to our questions. Um, I know that you said, um, Commissioner Lure, uh, that we could meet with you privately, but we would like to see those questions answered in in writing because we do have a lot of valid legitimate questions. One of them might
be uh I've heard um numbers from one dwelling per 10 acres to one dwelling per 20 acres if it's zoned agriculture. Um so but we have a lot of questions uh especially about infrastructure. We have
heard adnauseium for years now uh about our poor water quality, saltwater intrusion and all this. So how are how are these issues going to be addressed and when might they be addressed? When is epic going to
be on the agenda again uh so we don't make the same mistake? Um, Commissioner Flesher said we that some people blew up the community. Could you please explain what blowing up the community is? That when people show up and express their
concerns, is that blowing up the community? I think not. I'm very proud that two or 300 people showed up to express their opinions to the county commissioners because you were elected to represent us, not to be treated like uh
kindergarteners. So, um, I think that your comment is is in poor taste. I think that when the community shows up to express their opinions, that's why you're here >> is to is to listen to people's opinions. >> We don't we don't have dialogue. >> Okay.
>> Um, so thank you. And I would like to see the answers to some of those questions in writing and the public deserves that. So, um I would like to know also um you know when the next uh when EPIC is going to be on the agenda next
>> we appreciate your concerns and if they ever get on our agenda it will be publicized and we do thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Any further questions or comments from the public hearing? None. The time now is 121. This meeting is adjourned.