##VIDEO ID:vdQSC85K13o## e e e e e e e e e yeah it really is all right good morning everyone we'll go ahead and call the Tuesday November 5th meeting to order we're going to start with a moment of Silent reflection for our First Responders and members of the Armed Forces which will be followed by an invocation and I do not see Reverend Rigby so I will ask commissioner lore if he would mind during the invocation than thank you and then that'll be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by our County attorney Miss Jennifer Schuler if everybody would please rise please pray with me our heavenly father we come to you today from as you know beautiful Indian River County father we come to you with somewhat anxiety and you know what big day this is today Father we ask that most importantly we celebrate our veterans not only this weekend but throughout the year and father we ask that you provide a hedge of protection for all of of our law enforcement all of our firefighters and all of our First Responders father wish us luck today allow us to do the job that we have been commissioned to do we all do this in your name amen please join me in the pledge of aliance pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice all right Commissioners um we do have an addition to the agenda of a 5B a presentation of proclamation recognizing November 11th as Veterans Day and that will be um presented by commissioner Moss to the veterans Council and um veteran services so I'd like to add that under 5B because it wasn't there before a move to approve as amended all right motion a second all in favor I opposed motion carries and with that we'll move on to proclamations and presentations our first is a presentation of proclamation dedicating November 17th through the 23rd is National apprenticeship week which will be presented by myself and I believe we have Career Source here to accept thank you all right this is a proclamation declaring November 17th through the 23rd as National apprenticeship week whereas National apprenticeship week raises awareness of the vital role registered apprenticeships provide in creating Pathways to Quality jobs and well-paying careers throughout Indian River County and Across the Nation while allowing apprentices to Lear to earn while they learn and whereas registered apprenticeships provideing inclusive opportunities for historically underserved individuals and those adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality providing a path for all qualified individuals including women youth people of color rural communities and individuals with disabilities to become apprentices and contribute to America's industries and whereas Indian River County recognizes the registered apprenticeships an industry-driven training model are key to improving qual job quality and creating sustainable careers while addressing some of our nation's pressing Workforce challenges such as rebuilding infrastructure addressing supply chain demands supporting clean energy modernizing our cyber security and responding to economic issues now therefore be it proclaimed by the board of County commissioners of inded miver County Florida that we declare November 17th through the 23rd as National apprenticeship week adopted this fif fifth day of November and Signs by all five Commissioners welcome you you want to tell us a little bit about what you guys have going on sure thank you so much for recognizing National apprenticeship week my name is Colleen gil on the apprenticeship navigator for Career Source research Coast this is Brian Bower the CEO of career source and we are your local Workforce Development board for Indian River St Lucy and Martin counties we connect employers and job Seekers we have job fairs we provide job listings and recruitment career exploration um a whole lot more and it's all free services for employers and job Seekers my role as apprenticeship Navigator is to promote registered apprenticeship as a Workforce talent development and retainment retention solution so registered apprenticeship combines on the job training and related instruction for full-time permanent employees at different businesses there not just for trades as it started in the past um with that apprenticeship model the registered apprenticeship model now extends through all different Industries some of the recent apprenticeships that we have had approved in the area are in the occupations of Early Childhood educator and that's through Indian River State College and we have a new airplane mechanic apprenticeship at TMX Arrow so this is a successful solution for a lot of different businesses Career Source actually offers grant funding to incentivize employers to utilize this training model and to make it more accessible for them and for employers who have participating employees they are eligible for a wage reimbursement of 50% of the employees wages for a portion of the apprenticeship as well as 100% of the education paid for so we encourage employers to look at and utilize this model and for anyone who's interested in more information about registered apprenticeship please reach out and contact me you can reach me through email at cgill CareerSource rc.com or you can look at our website careers sourc rc.com and go to the apprenticeship section and you'll be able to find me there thank you so much thank you thank you for what you guys are doing in the community with um educating an apprenticeship you know we have a a very good program in this County and throughout the Treasure Coast so we appreciate that yes thank you that's okay thank you Jimmy F thank you you doing that thank you very much okay our next item is going to be a presentation a proclamation recognizing November 11th 2024 as Veterans Day this is going to be presented to the veterans Council uh as well as um our veteran services so if you guys want to come on up and I think we have two proclamations one for each yes uh yeah yes we do Madam chair and thank you it's it's my pleasure and an honor to read the proclamation um and I'd invite the entire Community to participate in the Veterans Day events uh Veterans Day is next Monday will be celebrated on November 11th next Monday in Sebastian there is a Veterans Day ceremony at 11:00 a.m. in NY Park and that is hosted by the American Legion Post uh 189 and the City of Sebastian in Vero Beach the ceremon will be at 9:00 a.m. in Riverside Park and that's extra special uh by the way because with the tornadoes and the hurricane um the ceremony for the dedication of the World War II Memorial tribute was postponed until Veterans Day so this will be the Veterans Day ceremony as well as the dedication of that uh World War II tribute Memorial which was spearheaded by the Military Officers Association of America so I invite everyone to that and finally speaking about tornadoes uh for those who don't know Vero Beach Veterans uh building was demolished so the Vero Beach elks have offered them uh their building to not only to meet but to hold a Veterans Day event which includes a free dinner for any veteran and for those non veterans it's $8 and that will be a five o'clock that day that's Monday uh November 11th $8 and for reservations you call it's local 562 8450 so I invite everyone to participate there also are wonderful uh discounts available to Veterans not only that day but during the course of the month I know uh I saw a whole list of them on Sebastian daily and I'm sure that they appear other places as well Proclamation recognizing November 11th 2024 as Veterans Day whereas on May 13 1938 Congress approved an act establishing November 11th as Armistice Day commemorating the end of World War I and paying tribute to its Veterans of that war and whereas on June 1st 1954 Congress approved an act changing the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day in order to honor all of America's War veterans who have contributed so much to the preservation of our nation and whereas over 16,000 Veterans of all wars presently reside in in River County which is host to numerous veterans organizations and whereas Veterans Day is a day to recognize all of our veterans of all wars and to thank them for their services and their dedication as well as the sacrifices that they and their families paid and whereas Veterans Day is annually observed by holding ceremonies throughout the county and whereas Veterans Memorial Island Sanctuary is a place to pay tribute to All Veterans of all wars and where a Veterans Day service will be held Monday November 11th 2024 now therefore be it proclaimed by the board of County commissioners of any River County Florida that November 11th 2024 is recognized as Veterans Day and the board urges all residents and guests to remember the dedication and sacrifices of all those that have served in the military uniform to preserve our heritage of Freedom attend the ceremony on Veterans Memorial Island sanctuary and those throughout the county and proudly fly the stars and stripes in honor of all veterans adopted this fifth day of November 2024 Board of County Commissioners indan River County Florida and signed by all five commissioners and I invite the organizations to speak absolutely well first of all on behalf of all of us here at the veterans Council we want to thank the commission um for this Proclamation thank you to commissioner Moss for reading it and I particularly want to thank uh commissioner Adams and Kim Morano for their uh collaboration and getting this done we really appreciate it I'm joined by two of my colleagues from the veterans Council board board members Philip wolf and board members Tracy Zan so I'm going to turn over them for a a little bit more about what we're doing and we just want again thank the commission for their time and for their willingness to put this Proclamation um on on on the agenda and get it pasted thank you well my name is Captain Phil wolf retired obviously um I want to talk to uh talk to you guys about our mission a little bit um we are unique in the State of Florida with what we do and what we're capable of doing and um we're growing every day we're delivering direct Aid to veterans in need no matter if your water heater breaks if your brakes on your car don't work no matter what that is we're going to come here to help we also work with veterans and see why did they put themselves in this situation why are they in that situation so we provide that Aid and counseling and help with that we also um spearheading a program with um with the VA that uh provides Transportation back and forth from the VA to the VA B sure so as commissioner Moss knows um because she was our first civilian on the board of directors for the veterans Council um that opened the door for many of us like myself to be Board of Directors for the veterans Council so those of us who couldn't serve our country serve our community in different ways which I consider an honor but we can't do it alone those 177,000 veterans that we serve in our community also are served by amazing organizations like yourselves who offer funding but also by the vsso and we work very collaboratively with those organizations other organizations and we couldn't do what we do without them so it's an honor to work with them as well and with you all so thank you all very much thank you so much and again we want to thank you for the proclamation today we work hand inand with the veterans Council in fact um just this week we'll be at in River State College with our vso team along with our Human Services team and our ship team making sure that our veterans have everything that they need to be successful here we have some really great data to share that's hot off the press of the work that our heroes have been doing Serving the heroes right here in our community um we're up 40% with the number of forms we're preparing directly to the VA ensuring that our veterans are getting the services that they deserve and the entitlements that um they have earned we have increased the number of appeals that we've done with the VA by 10% just this last year and the number of clients we have been processing is up 17% from last year to this year and a lot of that is due to some reorganization and support that our vsos are doing with our walk-in Wednesdays and walk-in Thursdays ensuring that if our veterans have questions that they need answered that they're not waiting longer than 30 days for that in fact our wait time is down to 35 days overall with any of our vsos so we're really excited about that we'll see you at in River State College we hope all of our veterans make it out there to see all the resources that are available to them um and then just one other thing it is Operation Greenlight and this is part of a a nationwide um organization where we turn our lights green recognizing that we're here to support all of our veterans right here in our community so if you go by the fairgrounds or County businesses or our County Office you'll see them lit up green and we're asking all of our civilians to do the same to show support for our veterans this next week wonderful thank you guys very quiet Bunch today I apologize all right thank you guys both for everything you can [Applause] doy we have a copy for you want to do one and then we'll do with them so or together however you want to do it thank you you thank you [Applause] okay Commissioners next item is approval of the minutes of August 20th meeting Madam chair move approval I have a motion and a second all in favor opposed motion carries um just a couple things under informational there's a residential paper shredding event on November 16th and also the Thanksgiving closures for swid are attached so everybody take a look at that with that we'll move on to consent agenda anybody wishing to pull anything from consent no anybody from the public all right Madam chair move approval second we have a motion and a second all in favor I opposed motion carries all right with that we'll move on to constitutional officers 9A amended IRC DF award application thought they were attend Madam chair but uh I'll go ahead and take that agenda item so the request before you from the 19th Judicial Circuit is the the County Commission approved funds about 50 in the amount of $50,000 to assist the problem solving courts offset cost associated with participant Pro program requirements and one of the things that they didn't include in their list of activities that they'd like to provide because it's an impediment or a challenge for them to provide to get the those that need or in need of these Services is transportation services they're not asking for any additional services or additional funds they just want to include this as part of the wraparound Services Madam chair in uh absenta motion to approve all right we have a motion and multiple seconds is there any further discussion seeing none all in favor posos motion carries all right is Mr riby here are they out there okay he's up next what way tonight um 7 o' we'll give him I took me a second to catch what you're saying while we're waiting for Mr riby this is a good opportunity to remind everybody that today is election day so please come is he okay well I can along with that Madam chair I just on regarding election day later this afternoon before close of business there will be a link on the top of our website a banner for those that would like to access the scrolling you know live results I understand there was a hiccup last time so our it after this meeting is going to work to have it done prior to close the business today and so that'll be there for people that want to watch the election results just go to our homepage and click the link fabulous thank you so much all right Mr Rigby yeah my name is uh good morning Commissioners my name is Audrey rby I want to definitely apologize for being late today there was some death in the family yesterday so I had to do some traveling but it still I still should have been here but there was some uh difficulties with the family I uh was not prepared to speak today but I was prepared to pray and Bill had to go use the restroom so I didn't want to waste your time so we came here to talk about the uh the issues uh that we're having with the uh RFP uh that's out and our issues are that we have I just introduced myself my name is Bill Rick B 8465 59th a I apologize I was upstairs I didn't know you guys going to call me so early this morning anyway my topic today is protest presentation to the in rer County Commissioners on the previous RFP good morning Madam chairman Madam chairperson I'm sorry madam chairperson and members of the commission I come before you today to address a serious issue with IND River County's procurement process particular concerning the current RFP with regards to the RFP reward for recycling of the collection Services which was given a which was again awarded to waste management this company has held the contract for the past 20 years or more raising significant concerns about transparency fairness and compliance with federal and state laws I'm not here this morning to complaint but I'm here to give a formal protest the continuous awarding of this contract to was management without ensuring compliance with the inclusion requirements for minority owned and disabled veteran owned businesses violates federal and state procurement laws I'm going to go a little bit on the federal and state laws violation let me remind this Commission of key legal provision that the county has failed to uphold the Florida small Amor business assistant act which requires the county to actively promote the the uh participation of minority own and disabled veteran owned businesses and public contracts Mr Mr riby yes I just want to interject right there um this is kind of the same conversation we've had several times and I very much respect your position on the County's uh relationship with minority and and women and veteran-owned businesses but this is the this is the second meeting after you said you were going to go make a public records request for some specific documentation to answer some of these questions that I don't that has not been made so we cannot fulfill that um in fact I asked you at the last meeting about that and here we are again the other thing I would like to point out is that you were provided with um the County's process and checklist in which we ensure that for Grant funded programs that we are soliciting through the state certification minority women and Veteran owned businesses through the state's database as well as the federal Small Business Association and the minority business development agency at the federal procurement Center so a copy of that was sent to you all that information several months ago so I believe that instead of continuing to come every meeting with the same thing and saying that we are not providing information to you that if there are specific policies within our policy that does abide by state and federal guidelines and laws we meet all those requirements if there's something that you'd like to enhance or maybe people are falling through the crack I welcome you to bring solutions to that but I think that we have provided you with adequate adequate time to discuss this and it's the same it's the same we're not getting anywhere with that and I really wish that you would take staff's um time that they have offered to give you to go over this to make sure that your questions are answered but also to seek solutions from you on how to make what you might perceive as a bad process better Madam chairperson let me say this to you I appreciate everything that you have just said to me but I'm here today on the aspect of the recycling collection of the 1992 recycling program and you have this Council have not demonstrated to me or have you g given me any information on what I'm asking or talking about first of all there's no excuse me Mr no Mr R no there's no minutes Mr RI Mr riby go ahead I'm listening we have provided you with everything that you have asked for okay and we you are now up here wanting to talk about an agreement that was 30 years ago that has long expired so this isn't the forum for that and I'm not going to go back and forth but I think we've afforded you plenty of time on this subject and if there's something else that you would like to discuss I'm more than happy to listen to it m I'll be back again Madam chairman not we have not been provided and we're not aware that this interlocal agreement was extinguished or or whatever you want to call that in 1992 it's important to know that you have to have minutes to establish the interlocal agreement we've asked for that we don't have it so I have a question where is the interlocal agreement minutes that establishes the guidelines for the rest of whatever you're doing that's a question to the County Commissioners and legal or legal because you're saying that you have provided me with the information we don't have it I'm saying that you have not provided me as a matter of fact I know you haven't provided it to me but you what what what I see here is that you saying something that happened 30 years ago but you just signed in 2023 in inter local agreement with in River Shores so how is it that something happened 30 years ago and you just renewed the same interlocal agreement with inner Rivers Shores and I have that right here okay so I don't understand so you would like the minutes from the interlocal agreement from 1992 okay what else would you like we'll provide that to you okay and also I would like to see I said it before and they have not proved to me upstairs yet okay I also would like to see in the grant that you're using for the interlocal agreement I would like to see the Furbish or the language that's in it that pertains to recyclable that retains to is there they're pertaining to recyclable uh residential garbage commercial and gas okay Mr rig it's my understanding that we're not using a grant for recycling in that manner big a pardon that's my understanding no you are using when you established in 1992 you negotiated with two what Grant are you specifically talking when you negotiated the interal agreement interal agreement there was a recycle that you negotiated with two companies so you're talking about the interlocal agreement but you're also talking about a grant if you want me to provide you information I need like more specifics on what that Grant is well you you the the the recycling is a grant program they're all inter intertwined okay isir but are they not that's a question County Commissioners staff you don't use any grants for recycling do you have that in writing can we have in an effort to settle this even though we don't usually do all this in an effort because this can't continue this listen I'm going to op I'm going to give you I'm going to give hamu the opportunity to answer and then but we have one more question and then we're not but we're not doing this yesu because this is the same thing that keeps coming up and I would really like to provide the proper information so we can move on good morning Commissioners for the record himan Shuma managing director for the solid waste disposal District um back say 1992 the Florida d uh referenced the grant program and when we pursued our interlocal agreements with municipalities we had mentioned that there could be grant opportunities but in Yer County has not applied for or received any grants from d for recycling services that's paid by residents of IND County okay thank you so much you just said you bought a Pieceful a truck uh out of grant money that what they said at the last meeting no he said they bought some equipment okay okay that question's been answered so there's no grants Associated what is your next question the next question is this what interlocal agreement are you using that tells you or what law what statute of federal government that tells you to take that document to the courthouse with law that inter local agreement that has this stamp on it that says take that and file it in the courthouse I'd like to know the law that you're use for that there is one to file a an inter agreement what statute to record it with the court any statute that requires you to record it then why was it recorded it was recorded in the courthouse okay I don't know why that decision was made I don't know of any statute can you get the answer for us well we can get you the document and the minutes and then you can go from there I'm going I'm okay hold on no no no no I'm going to take my seat but what I see here today is that to me that every time we ask a question it's like with who it went with the CDD who went with the uh uh uh the lease agreement and and and then you want to come portray us that we don't know what we're talking about or is that the the what we're asking for you don't have it but you have an attorney there that's supposed to be in tune for what we're asking for even if you don't know it that's what you have legal for there when because hu got up here and said in 1992 that you don't receive no grant money or whatever that is not the case because in the research and over at the courthouse it says differently that you did sign the interlocal agreement and you did send over to the courthouse and got it stamp now if you want me to bring that in this that information into you I will but I'm not going to stop talking about this until something is technically done that you want to say that you don't do this you don't do that I'm not going to do that commissioner I'm sorry I'm not that's not me thank you so much I appreciate be entered into the record that we did ask for those questions Madam uh clerk yes they will be commission we asked the attorney about those documents and we don't know why it hasn't been signed and they entered into an agreement okay we understand and we've heard you and we appreciate that and attorney Schuler has been with us for almost a full month now she was not here in 1992 and she is doing a fantastic job of getting up to speed so I can't talk for the ones in the past but she's doing a great job so the fact that she didn't readily off the top of her head know that answer I just want to make it clear she's a wonderful attorney for us thank you for your questions we have written down the docu the minutes that you were requested and we will make sure those were forwarded to you okay thank you all right all right Commissioners the next item is County Administrator matters American Rescue plan Act of 2021 propos spending plan revisions yes Madam chair members of the board as you're aware the American Rescue plan Act of 2021 has some very specific timelines involved uh the first timeline that which the county must meet is all funds related that were provided but through arpa or the American Rescue plan must be obligated numbered by uh December of this year uh so we've had this grant since 2021 uh om has worked with the Departments and all the agencies that have received funding related to this Grant and we have evaluated what our ability to uh those remaining funds that may not be obligated and therefore we're asking for a spending revision plan uh what we are asking is to the remaining balance because we have some issues as it relates to the expenditure of funds for our house various housing down payment and Rehabilitation programs with ar dollars and so we are asking that staff is proposing the remaining balance from the 31 m631 168 uh of $2,387 71 be reallocated in the spending plan to fund other eligible expenses those expenses because anything that we do through the those dollars have to be Federal have to we have to follow the process set forth in the federal uh regulations as it relates to procurement and so we've already done that as it relates to repaving and restriping so we are recommending and proposing that we the the $2.4 million uh $2,424 47 $2,424 47 of unspent funding in the forementioned categories uh be reallocate towards repaving and restriping the recommendation is Staff recommends the board consider the proposed spending plan uh as further detailed to above totaling 31 m631 168 consider any changes and approve the attached plan with any amendments as needed staff further propos that any unencumbered funds in the proposed categories remaining as of December 1st 2024 be reallocated to reduction in Revenue Road resurfacing and restriping category in order to ensure all funds are encumbered by the December 34th December 31 2024 deadline with that I'll open up for any questions thank you Commissioners any questions on the allocation Madam chair we realize it's got to be incumbered by 12:31 do we have any drop dead date on when we have to accomplish so yes they have to be expended completely by December 30th of 2026 so we have two years remaining I have a motion in a second any further discussion all in favor opposed motion carries all right the next item is 11b proposed commission meeting dates for 2025 yes Madam chair members of the board uh contained in the agenda item are 22 dates for the uh calendar year 2025 uh there are three dates uh January 28 February 25th and March 25th that would fall on the last Tuesday of the month in order to schedule meetings on these dates uh the proposed schedule would require an amendment to the existing County ordinance more specifically section 102.1 subsection one which states there shall be no commission meetings on last Tuesday of each month this is a leftover from when the commission previously met uh three times a month and that was a requirement not a Prohibition to not meet on the last Tuesday again there'd be three dates affected uh We've looked at holidays uh We've looked at uh many events that are attended you know and we've tried to minimize conflicts you know as much as possible and I think these 22 days reflect you know U that and this does not obviously in call include any special call meetings that might be scheduled Andor the budget Workshop all right Commissioners any questions comments date substitute dates do we have this with the ordin not to get premature on what you're going to bring up in your matters but do these have to go together do we this is we're asking your approval of the proposed schedule subject to the approval of the necessary code Amendment move to approve second all right I have a motion in a second any further discussion seeing none all in favor favor opposed motion carries with that we will move on to you guys okay to keep moving on or you want to take a break 930 oh it's only 9:30 I was thinking it was 10 I can't get this whole time change thing all right I thank God it does it for me and even that I'm apparently giving me problems all right natural resources Coastal Construction access policies I'm so sorry welcome good just kidding I know how to use the mic you're having problems like me so Kylie YULA Natural Resources Director for the record and we're just gonna hold a moment while we pull up our presentation all right so Coastal Construction access policies trying to advance the slide hold please there we go all right so if you all recall back you know a little over a year ago in January 31st of 2023 the board approved emergency beach access agreements for Dune re nourishment projects due to hurricanes Ian and Nicole so I'm sure you all remember that we had significant erosion along the coastline associated with those storm events and there were several property owners that requested use of County property in order to do their particular um renourishment actions so 11 agreements were executed those projects were completed and then we had a late applicant so on March 5th of 2024 the board considered an additional request to close tracking station Beach for private construction use now you all ended up deciding to deny that request you did not have sufficient information to consider it it was very late relative to the storm events and during that meeting you directed staff to create a policy so that you could consider these requests in the future all right so why why create a policy for this so basically we are trying to balance two things so we're trying to balance public beach access so that the recreating public has access to these facilities and then also private Dune project access because in order to protect Upland infrastructure we need to have an intact Dune so we're balancing these two issues so basically that was the intent of developing these policies so basically the natural resources department worked very closely closely with the parks recreation and conservation lands Department as well as legal in order to draft these policies we presented the policies to Beach and Shore so that we could obtain input and then we went ahead and made some of the revisions to the policies that they identified during those discussions were applicable and then here we are we're presenting these policies to the board for consideration and then ultimately our goal is to implement the policies and we can oscillate between making revisions and representing depending upon your confidence with what staff have developed all right so while we were working through these different scenarios in terms of use of County property staff felt that the easiest way to accommodate this was to essentially draft two different policies so we have one that is specific for emergencies again that one will be facilitated by the natural resources department our Coastal Engineering division these ones we feel that they should be fast-tracked given their protecting Upland infrastructure their emergency protective measures and their affiliated with a storm event so we have those proposed to be approved by the County Administrator and they only apply during an emergency which is defined as significant Coastal erosion due to a weather event that puts Upland infrastructure at risk we did try to book on that so basically they would this policy would go into effect once once a declaration for a disaster was issued and then we wanted it to Sunset as soon as all of the county facilities are open or the DP emergency order uh sunsets whichever happens first um and then for non-emergency again this one would also be facilitated by the natural resources department this one would be um approved by the board given the impact to the public and then it applies during non-emergency conditions for initial construction projects and then maintenance activities would be ineligible so essentially this particular policy would apply for more major construction for example installing Dune cores or something like that where you need to get heavy equipment on the beach in order to essentially put in those protective measures for your property so we're proposing an application process where there is an application form a $100 application fee with a site visit where the Coastal Engineering division would fill out a coastal inspection report and then that would go through an internal review process we want we don't want to be making decisions in a vacuum of course we want to ensure that the other County departments are part of that decision-making process so obviously we don't want to impact any planned activities that parks recreation and conservation lands has planned we also don't want to create a traffic nightmare or um we don't want to use certain resources that are already compromised in the event of an emergency as an example so basically we feel that the internal review process will just make sure that we're minimizing public impact all right so during the site visit by Coastal staff essentially our purpose there is to identify the erosion conditions present on the site so we do have criteria that we follow for determining what that looks like and we want to ensure that the project meets this particular criteria that they do have dune erosion that they need to go ahead and take care of we also want to confirm that there's access hindrances so the preferred approach is that property owners use access across their own property however we do have scenarios that we have seen where the property owner just does not have sufficient space in order to move heavy equipment through their property and I I know a lot of you are very aware of how large an excavator is you need at least a 12T distance in order to get that through and the other side where the Dune is um and then also we'll be creating a document for additional review by the other departments as part of our process so these are the proposed um internal review divisions so risk management Emergency Services Public Works and then parks recreation and conservation lands all right so we created some eligibility criteria for both the emergency and the non-emergency policies so basically um this is kind of a checklist for staff to go through to ensure that the project is meeting the intent of these policies so some questions that we had are are the proposed dates outside of sea turtle nesting season or are sufficient permit conditions set forth to allow construction during sea turtle nesting season so for the County projects in order for us to do any construction during sea turtle nesting season which we're seeing um right now actually with our sector 4 project you may be in the situation where you have to move nests in order for contract for your construction to occur so that's an example of a permit condition where um it would be something that would allow construction to occur but it would meet the sufficiency requirements um is the county property available during the proposed dates do they have all of the required permits in order to to move forward with the project will the closure lead to more than one of eight County Beach Parks closing at one time or date for the sole purpose of private use so this eligibility criteria was specified so that we could ensure that the public has adequate access to our Parks facilities for recreating so we decided that maybe one was appropriate you may not be able to go to your preferred location however you will still have access to one of the other seven facilities that we have and then we did want to make it relatively strict in terms of the closure dates so we are proposing that Parcels with less than 150 linear foot Beach Frontage have a 5-day closure period and then those with greater than 150t Beach Frontage have a uh 15-day closure period so basically um it's incentive to get the project done quickly minimize the impacts to the public but also based upon our experience with these construction activities while aggressive these are accomplishable timelines and then is the project for initial construction again we don't want to be someone's maintenance plan and then does the contractor hold the insurance required for a license agreement so risk management sets those insurance requirements to ensure that we have a contractor that has what they need in order to protect the property in the event that damages were to occur and then does staff recommend bringing the project to the board based upon the submitt so in the event that we um that there was an issue with the submitt or some concern by staff that was one of the the last criteria that we wanted to look at all right now during an emergency you're going to see that there's fewer lines here so our questions during an emergency is is there a qualifying an emergency and does the applicant meet the conditions of the policy is the county property available for the proposed dates have all of the required permits been obtained so we do have emergency permits that fdp issues after an emergency that does allow for these activities to occur um is the project for initial construction Andor emergency protective measures does the contractor hold the insurance requirements and then does staff recommend bringing the project to the County Administrator based upon the submitt and in the event that we find the project to be ineligible then we we would of course come to the board and have an appeals process all right so the approval process so basically the application will be presented to the BCC for a non-emergency and then to the County Administrator for an emergency upon approval there is a license agreement required and that is standard that this is a a um a process that we've utilized in the past and our County attorney Miss Schuler has definitely strengthened that agreement to protect our assets we have a $10,000 construction bond in here so one of the comments that we received from Beach and shures was that the proposed original amount of $5,000 was insufficient so we increased it to $10,000 and then we do have some use fees that staff is proposing for use of our facility which would go back into the park for enhancements so for non emergency we're proposing $1,000 a day or $500 for a half a day and then for emergency we're proposing $500 a day or $250 for a half day there was a lot of discussion about the use fees at Beach and shores as well so something to consider so during the construction process prior to construction the policy specifically states that they need to have a permit in the job box they need to put up variable message boards to notify the public of the closure we want to ensure that this is being communicated effectively they need to secure the site to protect the public and start their site preparation activities and then they're going to assume liability for any issues that may occur on that particular property then during construction so complete the work in strict compliance with permit conditions so if there are any issues we do have the ability to stop the work this one is um a little different so utilize the county beach sand specifications so the D sand specifications are a little looser than our sand specifications so staff is recommending that for continuity of our projects and what we specifically put in these areas that we maintain the county sand specifications and then they uh the contractor shall minimize impacts to County property so of course it's important to protect our County infrastructure and our enhancements in our parks and then after they shall uh complete the site restoration to satisfaction of the county to an equal to or better than condition and then complete an inspection with the county to ensure sign off so um basically that is the policy in a nutshell so you'll see in your agenda item you'll have the draft policies and then within those policies there are appendices the appendices are intended to be staff's working documents with the policy as um kind of the the main guiding document to consider so I have a series of recommendations I'm going to read them from this is the summary so I'm going to read you the actual recommendations out of the agenda item so staff recommends that the Indian River County Board of County Commissioners adopt the attached policy titled private use of County property for non-emergency Coast poal construction access upon concurrence by the county attorney and establishes the BC as the authority to approve or deny requests under this policy staff recommends that the Indian River County Board of County Commissioners adopt the attached policy titled private use of County property for emergency Coastal Construction access and establishes the County Administrator as the authority to approve or deny requests under this policy and upon concurrence from the county attorney sign and execute license agreements pertaining to this policy and then we recommend that the Indian River Board of County Commissioners adopt the attached resolution setting the fees in exhibit a upon concurrence by the County Attorney alternatively we have reached the point in this policy development process where um we could really use your input in terms of you know where we're at if there's any changes and we can of course come back to the board based upon those suggestions questions Commissioners questions Madam chairman i' can Enlighten yall and some of this obviously went it didn't go in this detail to the to the beach and Shores like we've had here but it did go the discussion did come up in beach and Shores and was kind of mixed the majority of the beach and Shore folks were not real crazy about authorizing non-emergency use of County facilities for private construction on on a nonemergency and emergency side I think most of them were okay a couple of them were very adamant a couple of them were kind of you know would like to hear more or less um the fees I she has a better memory on M than I do I don't remember a whole lot of discussion on the fees I think I don't think anybody ever gave a specific amount or anything but they said you know the fees should be high because if it's we're going to use it for non-emergency we're going to use for non-emergency U thing non-emergency thing then we should be compensated for it if that's the case but the majority were kind of mixed there wasn't a lot of U really like favorable talk to talk about uh opening it for non-emergency use the emergency use seemed to be okay and I I tend to agree with that I like the pro I like the the plan that you gave I like the ideas but I still to save the length of the conversation I I still have an issue like we did in the last meeting in March of using County act County property County Parks mainly for private construction and the reason I say this is that if if if youall know people can get their own permit to do their own Beach renourishment they've done this for a while we had I think after Ean Nicole I don't know we had we had about 20 or something like that or there was quite a few that I remember Eric telling me about there was quite a few permits that were issued and they have to do it a specific time a year and all that sort of stuff that process has to go through the county we have to allow that permit but they can do it themselves I don't know and maybe this maybe I don't know if Beth can answer this question or whatever I don't know when have we given private access before have we given access to County Parks before when they had these their their own their own permit I don't remember for non-emergencies for non-emergencies yes uh good morning to my knowledge uh we have not uh issued any kind of authorization outside of Emergency Restoration um mainly because we did not have a process to do so uh whether or not uh those projects would have previously that we've previously issued um authorization for would have qualified under the parameters that that are now presented to you would be in question because there was no process at that point in time okay like I said I don't remember as allowing them to use County parks for non-emergency use if they wanted to beautify their Beach and I remember the discussion we had in March if I'm correct is you know we do beach renourishment every year if somebody I I I don't really understand why I can tell you probably why but I don't really understand why somebody would want to not get sand for free and they going to pay a lot of money to have sand on their Beach I think a lot of it has to do with the with the conspiracy theory that if you let the county on your property the county gets your property that's the problem we had with sector 7 if you remember getting easement signs they think that by signing this easement theyve signed their their their life away for them and their ancestor or descendants and U that that's not true so where I'm going with this is people have the opportunity to have sand put on their beach by the county for free if they want to put sand on their own Beach it I I feel they are responsible to find a mechanism to get the sand from point A to point B maybe it's take down some shrubs and you have to replant them or maybe you have to take down one of your fences to get there I I don't know I just think we're going to get a lot of grief with the idea that we're closing down a county park to allow a private Beach Tre nourishment done on private property just to beautify their property I I just have I just have some serious reservations about us doing that we we we've we've gotten a little bit of grief over a tracking station after the hurricane yes that that we've had we've had people complain about tracking station you know where the tornado went right across the track cracking station of why you know we haven't opened it a little bit um so we've got got some grief from that it just seems to me like they're when they build their house on the beach they had to find a way to build their house they want to beautify and renourish their Beach they need to find a way to do that on their own I don't think using a county park to go and then my next question is and you answered this what if they're using one of the county what if their house is mile away from the county park in they knew Beach M are we going to allow them to go through the county park then drive a mile down the beach to to redo their Beach I mean are we going to do that so the policy specifically states that this is permission to utilize the County facility should we Grant a license agreement however it does not provide permission to go through any private property between their house and the park so essentially in order for them to go through they would have to schedule it in such a way that they're traveling during um low tide and they're going um basically in the public part of the beach okay so let's say they're unless they received permission from the other property owners to go let say they want to use Golden Sands Park and there are five houses to the north of Golden Sands they five whatever number you want to pick they're going to use Golden Sands Park and those trucks and stuff have got to drive down the beach in front of those other four houses down the beach is there going to be a problem with with those folks seeing trucks go down the beach for private beach renourishment they know it when we're doing it they know because it's a big deal when we're doing it when we're doing Beach nourishment it's it's let out they know we're doing it I just I just have way too many questions to feel real good about approving County property for non-emergency be re nourishment just to beautify their health um there is permitting involved with the non-emergency situation okay so it's not that uh there are no no permits and um from your point of view is this likely to be beautification I'm thinking it's more of a um you know preventive measure you know like you don't you shouldn't be forced to wait until it's an emergency in in order to access this and I think if we really want to protect Public Access you allow this because um as commissioner man and I both know we both we each visited uh sector 7 separately and as you probably know there are a number of seaw Walls there and the seaw walls are the seaw walls eliminate Public Access because all of the sand is swept out and at high tide the the the ocean it comes up to the seaw walls I mean there is no place to walk there's no place to do anything so I would prefer to have people in those homes renourish the beach preferably in in not wait until it's an emergency and thereby preser you're preserving they are preserving the public access because if they take the opposite attack and install the seaw walls the Beach is gone I mean it it it was gone the times that I visited um the tide was up and there was no place to walk and there were dozens of residents that I met with that day that were complaining and they and because they they didn't live right on the ocean they live just back from it and they said you we we have no access you know we can't get to the beach because they've they've destroyed with these seaw walls so in my my mind um I do not have a problem with that at all um and I'm not sure with beach and Shores um you know what what's what were they thinking is the alternative like were there any suggestions made about alternatives for this I don't have a problem with it be Shore felt the same way like I said they were they were pretty reluctant to to give it their blessing on the on the non-emergency side you speak of sector 7 sector 7 doesn't have this issue because there's no Public Access in sector 7 sector 7 has to come from round island or has to come from from South Beach if the when we wanted to do Beach re nourishment or the plan was to dredge it offshore and pump it on the beach that was sector 7 so sector 7 doesn't have they have no Public Access so we don't have to worry about sector 7 want to want well I would say it's not it's not a park but they they used to be able to walk between the houses and there were steps there they have H the people in the neighborhood no there's no off there's no tracking station no golden stands there's no Public Access right there's no no official Park there's no there's no Public Access so to sum up my thoughts and I'd like to hear what y'all have to say is the fact that that U I just think we might I mean it would come back for the board I appreciate that but I I still think that you live on the beach you you you're there on the beach you want to do your own thing you have to find your own access to to um to do to do it it may be a vacant lot next door maybe you have to go through your side yard I I I don't know but I think for us to close County parks for non-emergency is uh is a is it's going to cause us a lot of grief in the future emergency situations I am okay with that because I think we have bigger problems than just maybe just one house and I think it will have to be down there and I think people understand that after a storm event of some kind be it an nor East or a hurricane that we have severe erosion I think they'll be acceptable to saying well the beach is closed for Logistics you know for the access of what we need to do so I'll stop there I'd like to hear what y'all have to say about it okay commissioner fleser thank you Madame chair um commissioner and I I hear you I spent a lot of time at Beach and Shores and you have now uh for many years um I have to tell you it's there's a lot of challenges to get our beaches renourished throughout the the years I want to thank missula for ensuring that uh this plan was well articulated it it sounds like we have a good tool in the toolbox for Beach for nourishment I understand about the the difference between emergency and a choice to renourish the beach but let's look at that for a minute is if the beaches are and the dunes are part of our infrastructure part of their infrastructure being homeowners on the beach sometimes the the point of it being a choice as opposed to a necessity is a very thin line so I I do have a challenge about differentiating and having a a different opinion on the necessity to do the job if we're going to allow it for emergencies if someone says hey you know it's kind of like looking at your house and saying my house needs painting and if you let it go a few more years is your house is going to need siding so when we look at that as it's a non-emergency it might be a very close prevention so if we're going to allow access for emergency I again I I do have a I don't have the same conation as as you have about a limitation on access as we've learned over the years access is with with a 12 to 14t wide piece of Machinery it's very difficult looking at the footprints of the homes I can understand having to tear down a fence te tear down some trees re replant those shrubs but sometimes the footprint is so prohibitive of access that we have to look at alternative means to get the job done again I'm not looking at something about you know I'd like to have a deeper Dune or i' I want to just throw more sand out there I if if we have that opinion then I can appreciate your concern but I I I don't think there's people or citizens willy-nilly deciding to throw some sand out there and going to inconvenience the public in in in any way because they' like a little deep at Sand it's it's about necessity it's just a different type of necessity I want to ask uh Beth over the past 10 years how many non-emergency R nourishments have we had to my knowledge there have been no non-emergency um they've all been conducted under some sort of storm event or post storm event uh where the beach park has been utilized so homeowners may have been able to do that on their private property but to my knowledge and that was one of the issues was that we didn't have a process by which the parks division could issue a permit because under our code we cannot interfere with the reasonable use and enjoyment of a park so we didn't have a mechanism by which we could even allow that um but we did do that during emergency measures and typically book ended those private projects with County Beach renourishment or restoration projects as we know in most SE in some sectors there are people that just don't want to have any renourishment done because of the other issue that we have discussed in infinitum and had to uh take the legal path uh to ensure that uh people have the ability or we have the ability and we have to get the numbers right in order to do renourishment so I again I I really don't have a difficulty with that knowing that there's a limitation on the access and it's going to be closely monitored we're charging a fee we're going to have staff oversee and ensure that they're within compliance and it's going to be for limit limited time with the proper signage Direction and uh communication to the public so that the inconvenience is limited to ensure that these jobs could be done again this it hasn't been too many uh in in the past 10 years none that have used our part I would tell you that we had people that did their did that did do their own this past year but they did it from their location they didn't need to use any County facilities or any anything else they they still have to get a permit and we approved it because I don't remember how many there was Eric knew that but we did have people that did it feat nourishment on their own but they did it through their yard they didn't do it using County facilities when they have that accessibility but I think that this ensures that people will be able to do their own after all the difficulty we had about uh having a uh a unclear path to beach for nourishment and having to go door to door to ask folks uh for the permission Authority I I I think there might be a little bit more we might have see more activity but I think this uh uh this planed Direction and if we were adopt this will ensure that there's a reasonable modality to get the job done within a reasonable amount of time and it we can not approve it at any time and we also can ensure that the proper time constraints are honored I understand things happen but uh and uh we we we can look at some of our roadway projects uh as an indication uh and some of our sand projects too uh there are there are some uh weather conditions and natural conditions that uh eliminate at the possibility for it to go but if we have reasonable constraints and they're tolerated within the the guidelines I don't think it's going to be tremendous um and we're not closing down the entire park and I don't think it's going to be a tremendous uh handicap to uh the accessibility to our resources so you brought up a good point commissioner flesher that actually um is a little bit of a concern of mine if we are having more people we're having projects that aren't happening because more people aren't signing easements right we just had that happen yes so is this something that people could refuse to sign an easement basically tank a project and now undertake to use County facilities to do their own private project and thus kind of mess up the County's program and ability to have a sustainable Shoreline that would be something that I might and we might see more of those is is that easement is required I'm not sure but that's something that I don't know from um trying to have a a beach master plan if that starts happening if that's going to be a problem um in other words in this Southern in the most southern area we did have a tremendous Challenge and we also had to scrub uh some restoration projects and renourishment projects uh based on uh lack of participation so then we would have had pocketed as was well demonstrated we would have had pocketed areas on the beach side but you're saying is that your concern is that uh then they'll come back behind that and say all right we're going to use County uh access to renourish our particular Beach yeah like okay sex or seven if we had moved forward and it was pocketed I wouldn't have a problem if people wanted to do their own Beach and fill in the pockets but what happened is we decided not to do the project at all so and I think there was on there there was a handful of proper owners that kind of held that up for the reasons and they are welcome to have those Reasons I'm not mentioning anything about that but could those particular ones that basically denied the project come back and then just do their section and now all the people that did want the project but maybe wanted to Avail themselves of the county funding of it they're kind of like out well it might it might let me make a point you sector just one second sector s again just a bad example because there's no Public Access down there and for us to do sector 7 it would have to we'd have to dredge and it would have to come that way because it's too far as we know and you've heard this before it's too far from South Beach it's too far round Island it's too far from South Beach so you might get some requests for it down there but there is no Public Access they have to use it my concern also is this is that probably a lot of these requests that we would see are going to be people that probably didn't sign their easements even unless you sector three that has more more Parks they probably didn't sign their easement to do this so they want to they want to do this herself for fear of government intrusion you know of us taking their land from them which they think that's going to happen I guess but I think you're going to see those I would almost say if you're going to do a private project and you feel to do it maybe you should sign the easement prior prior to it for future for future use but I don't have a problem I mean commissioner fleser you were defining the line of what's an emergency and what's not if they want to call our staff and have them come out and inspect it prior to their idea of pulling this it could be an emergency I'm okay with that maybe they do have of some severe wash out or something but just to I want to see my beach look pretty is not on our back no M it's not about making a pretty uh but you know Madam chair when you you brought that up you you're concerned again well agreed but I still look at this as a resolution to the challenges that we did have that the the nine locations that said no we don't want to give up our customary use we don't want to have any access we're not going to sign off on the easement we don't want to wave our rights I get that if that's the L the Line in the Sand they want to draw yet they'll be able to do it privately and it has to be done with in the consistent grain size and and all the other requirements that we have that we have to answer to they'll have to answer to but again they'll be able to do it without having to sign off the easement and that that's an important part to point out Comm lur hold on real quick because Miss scher's been trying to say something yeah I was just going to say that in the um in the policy itself in order to be eligible you have to show you have no practical access which we've defined find in this policy to say that you really can't um do your construction project without um and that Financial disadvantage or inconvenience to the owner does not qualify so meaning you'd have to make a showing in order to be eligible that you really can't get this project done without using our our Public Access but I think you could even if it if the board wanted to flesh that out to say also you're not eligible if you've created this situation for yourself by failing by choosing not to Grant an easement I mean I I'm not I'm offering that as something that the board could be a consideration in whether they're eligible or not to try to address that I think you could that part out if that helps I kind of like that idea personally I feel a little bit better about that commissioner Madam chair if I could kind of bring this back to we're here to discuss a policy um and all of the other uh conversation that I've heard uh respectfully probably should focus on the policy one is um who discerns an emergency versus a non-emergency so basically in terms of what the project or the eligibility for the policy both okay so in terms of the eligibility for the policy basically we are recommending that it is based upon a disaster declaration so um and that would occur based upon our definition um we have significant Coastal erosion due to a weather event that puts Upland infrastructure at risk so we do need to have Upland infrastructure at risk for that policy to be triggered under a disaster declaration and then um our imminent risk is defined here as a condition where infrastructure is damaged or is likely to be damaged due to that Coastal erosion so that's when the uh emergency Coastal Construction access policy would go into effect so upon that emergency de aration and then staff would be doing an analysis of our Coastline like we do after every event confirming that we have erosion associated with that particular storm right so now we've defined emergency versus non-emergency also we would only have uh one of our Public Access beaches closed at at a time for non-emergency correct for non-emergency that would be correct so Mr Man you would have uh only one of the of the seven we know it's not a frequent episode that occurs um one concern would be on the um sea turtle nesting it seems a little unusual that we would not allow Beach renourishment during nesting season however we would uh allow under current policy proposed policy uh an opportunity for the homeowners to actually do work during Turtle nesting season I think that could be an issue seems like a a double standard to some degree would we address that so in the event of an emergency there is an FD order that is issued and in that order they have specifications for the work that can occur so we pulled the language directly out of that order and under um eligibility we specifically state that the project shall not adversely affect hard bottom or Coral Reef communities seagrass communities are functional marine turtle nesting habitat that existed before the storm and shall not contribute to the erosion of adjacent properties so essentially the d emergency field permits that are issued acknowledge the fact that we do have that protected species but it puts in some conditions but typically what we see when we have a large erosion event is those nests get washed out understood so we still do have our sea turtle monitoring company who goes out and checks and marks nests and whatnot so also on the non-emergency would there be a and I it was remiss in reading everything but was is there a timeline and if so um what if the timeline is not met do we the fees increase um how does that go so as it currently exists there is not a mechanism to extend however we can add that language into the license agreement should there be some sort of Act of God or other issue that occurs that requires an extension so we can certainly look into addressing that adding it into the license agreement and then we could put we could redo the resolution and put a fine in place at the end for the fee schedule if that is the direction that the board would like right I think there should be some type of incentive to expedite the work to protect our beaches that would access beaches that would be closed um also what is the appeal process if uh if it we as a county deny the homeowner where do they go from there so in the emergency uh policy the appeals process would go to the board so you all would make that determination in terms of the non-emergency there we don't have an appeals process built into that so Jennifer I'm not sure if there's any opportunity there or if it's your decision is final normally the board would be the final say and they would have if they felt like they had other legal remedies that they wanted to pursue did you have an appeal process in mind or I think we should if we're creating a policy I think we should certainly Define an appeal process like Mo most policies have and if that's the board that's fine it could be that simple um um my final question is is for the administrator um in a catastrophic event uh and the and the governor declares an executive order and the like that in fact sir would would Trump this policy did you say trumps this policy I would think it would augment this policy because we're declare we generally do not declare a local state of emergency until we know that we're one of the counties that are going to be impacted and that were identified by the governor's you know uh state of Declaration and as she mentioned D would be involved in that declaration as well correct um I do want to mention that uh part of the reason that we are here today is because we had two people who were interested in utilizing County property so the one that you considered for tracking station which the board denied and then we do have another applicant who has been waiting for the county to develop a policy for consideration for construction um on their property their intent is to install Dune cores they do not have access due to a concrete structure on the property for the heavy equipment I will say that under the two existing policies that it would have started off in non-emergency however after mland they are in sector 3 so we do have erosion there which has worsened the condition of their Dune and also um basically they do have an easement so or they're one of the people who participated in the easement process so just wanted to bring is there anything in the policy that speaks to um I understand it's one park period but can it be the same park if there's multiple ones for different projects over and over for instance it seems like tracking station gets closed a lot and people complain about it could like three neighbors back to back so essentially you're closing it for months on end that could happen that's probably a worst case scenario that would not happen but so as WR it could definitely happen um we originally had put in a time limit in terms of X number of days a month five for 150 ler foot 15 for greater than that um however staff removed that requirement due to the very narrow window of time where we're not in sea turtle nesting season and we have been seeing a lot of late season nests so we all know that that kind of crunches the T the window down a little bit further and maybe it's something that un you know reasonably would not happen but it's just yeah since we're throwing out scenarios Madam chairman staff has put this in two different forms emergency non-emergency I'm okay with the emergency part of it it's the non-emergency part that that that gives me a little heartburn I understand all these stuff is the policiy written now it's one park and all that stuff but but youall know very well what's going to happen you're still we're still going to get complaints about it you know it's for private use it's not for it's not at the time after an event where Count's not building new Pavilion and all that sort of stuff you know we're still going to going to going to receive those complaints about that um I like what or counsel said about you know the easements and stuff like that I mean I'm just one vote but I just tell you I just I don't feel real real cozy about closing the county par or using the County facility for private use of long if it's just or if the applicant the applicant has exhausted any other way to repair his or her own residents I mean I think it's the county does have some type of responsibility I mean how else are they going to restore their if if it's if it's a legitimate if it's legitimate have staff go out there and look at it if it's a legitimate problem that could affect their house structurally I consider that almost an urgen Mery anything else beyond that is just emergenc defined by it's kind of on your own it's kind of on your own because we put sand on the beaches they had the option because I'm telling you you're going to get these request other than the on she had because they had sign e because they're under construction they're doing some stuff is these are people that are not signing the easement that will want this be able to do this and I'm telling you that's just just everything about that's wrong you're not going to sign the easement but you want to use County property maybe if they've already had an easement signed maybe I'm okay with that one but I just I see a lot of manipulation and a lot of complaints if staff can discern if there's manipulation that's why we have a policy in place the policy does state if if there's no other means correct I mean correct no practicable access have no other practical Avenue uh for re nourishment then we apply for this permit and a site visit is a requ you have that limitation already the site visit is key staff goes out you can you can fit your vehicles right through there we're neighbors we're not going to shut down a park no to the county County Administrator have you received any requests other than I'm only aware of the the one that we have that's pending correct I guess I'll ask the question are you comfortable with this are you comfortable with the nonemergency portion of it you you know what goes on at the the beaches and the complaints we get are you comfortable with it uh real quickly I'd like to make one clarification so under this policy and during the time period identified in the license agreement the county beach park would be completely closed to the public it's as if uh the the contractor would have site control um because of liability reasons um as well as just maintenance of traffic Etc uh so there's not a provision for under the current policy for whether you're closing tracking station Beach Park versus turtle Trail or seag grape however the mitigation contribution or what staff has worked together to develop was a mitigation contrib ution that offsets the impact to the general public through future beautification and or infrastructure projects so the the funding hasn't been identified uh based on the um the the daily fee uh I think based on the issues that we've had in the past no solution has not worked um staff regularly gets calls um from frustrated citizens who in some cases maybe don't have any other reasonable access and I would say that the benefit of doing a non-emergency policy allows time to be spread out um over the year over the course of the non uh nesting season for projects to occur and the last storms that we had where we had several restoration or recovery projects ongoing beaches and multiple beaches were closed over extended periods of time and so I think that you may have the problem one way or another it's just going to be whether you have that problem condensed um immediately after a disaster which is typically hitting um the the time frame frame that you can do the work starts um around November which is when our snowbirds are coming back and so the challenge there is you may have one or multiple beaches closed even for County projects where we're doing recovery efforts whether it's restoration um or renourishment projects so i' would say one of the benefits of doing a non-emergency policy would be you're able to control the volume and the closures over the course of a longer period of time um there are probably other options but based on staff's uh meeting and working workshopping really closely uh with each other and really troubleshooting and problem solving and what if scenarios I think that the policy that you have today um is very well thought out the natural resources team and Coastal team did an amazing job um the attorney's reviews um I think are very tight there might be some areas uh where you could require um if it's it's legal to do so um that a con that the easement be provided you know there is public exchange of benefit in that regard um so I see I don't think that there's one side fits all solution and at any point in time if staff or you find that the process is becoming burdensome or we're being overwhelmed with requests I think that would be an opportunity to look at the policy again and make any revisions that were necessary I would just like to add that in my professional opinion this is a stop Gap measure and from a long-term standpoint it may be beneficial for us to look at adding some construction access points along our Coastline because we are going to continue to see these extreme weather events with those erosion conditions and access can be difficult for our own projects as well so I think longterm um exploring that as an alternative could eventually lead to sunsetting of this specific policy and solve a lot of the concerns that we have today those are great answers you're you're going to have trouble in sector 7 uh for sure down there so I I I'd like the easement being attached to it um if we want to move forward on this if we're going to take these do you want to take these separately non-emergency and emergency that's fine we can do it that way I'll make a motion to approve the emergency uh plan with regards to this okay we have a motion in a second further discussion anybody from the public yes sir come on up stay please state name and address for the record my name is BR Wallenberg 13855 99 Street felmer and just so the public out there can will understand just how important public a comment is um Ronin Reagan said it um the closest thing to eternal life is a government funder project well this whole beach erosion is um is treating the symptoms and it's not Sol not going to solve the problem and it go on year after year just south of Sebastian Inlet they put uh White beach sand uh calcium carbonate head shells in it which is NE which is our beach just made of and uh they must have put a 100 dump trucks and I left all the way going home because the whole ocean was white it turned to liquid uh Cal calcium carbonate will turn to liquid when an acid it won't in water but uh it also created a cliff uh to where the sea turtles uh when the waves would come in it would wash their eggs up um but anyway it's just a lot of common sense uh my dad was a fish guide six years ago and uh the shores I remember vividly foam blowing across our roads on US1 and during storms well that foam is gone now and now it was a chemical reaction and now that foam is on the beach uh our Shores are acidic and you neutralize the acid well it stayed alive in the 60s because all our roads were calcium carbonate and the runoff was high pH well once they pave them roads uh automobile exhaust is carbon monoxide and uh when carbon monoxide hits water vapor which is all summer um it turns to carbonic acid and ton or if you solve the problem on our Shores uh there will be no beach erosion it will matter of fact I remember years back they predict they our s and our beaches were growing at one or two inches a year but thank you for your input okay well like I say it seems like on all our City Halls it seems like public comment is the most I don't care if you're working at McDonald's you're not going to know what's going on out there until you get average people in here thank you thank you so much we appreciate your comments Madam chair can you repeat the motion the motion was to approve the emergency Construction access policy if I can just add for the members of the board keep in mind that we have an extremely talented staff that has spent hours upon hours researching this probably two of the smartest people in the building excluding commissioner fleser and I I will go back and say that he's got promise um one of the cornerstones of of of government is having the confidence in being proud of the employees that uh work with us not for us uh and for that matter I I I think looking at these separately I can't I can't vote with that I think every now and then we have to remind ourselves of the staff that we have they are the experts we're not the experts Comm lur I would agree with you on that but these are two basically two separate policies that we need to look at it looks like we need further discussion on the non-emergency portion because they but they are two separate policies okay the motion on the floor right now is to approve the emergency construction access policy there is a motion by commissioner irman with a second by commissioner flesher all in favor I opposed motion carries 4 to one all right Commissioners we will need to do something with the non-emergency construction access policy I'm I'll move to approve the non-emergency okay we have a motion by commissioner moss on the non-emergency construction access policy I'll second that any discussion anybody from the public seeing none all in favor I opposed I motion carries 4 to one all right Commissioners with that we are going to take a five minute reset e e e e e e e e e e so order Miss Scher I under I'm sorry I understand that we need to take a motion on the draft resolu ution to that we missed that that's right there's a um resolution for fees that was attached to that item that didn't get approved okay um so for the last item Coastal Construction access policies we approve the emergency and Non-Emergency access but we need to approve the fee schedule which was attached that we talked about so second we have a motion and a second any further discussion all in favor opposed Mot Miss carries all the boxes have been checked we are good to go Parks and Recreation and conservation approval to record a restrictive covenant declaring Jones Pier Bungalow Federal Hazard mitigation assistance and Perpetual maintenance of flood insurance so move I have a quick H presentation for you Commissioners thank you so much for allowing us the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the historic Jones Pier Conservation Area once again it's important to rec recognize our staff and partners who've worked so hard over so many years to ensure that a piece of our County's precious history is preserved we aren't always successful in these Endeavors and it isn't lost on many of us that there are pieces of our history that we just didn't have enough time or resources to protect and the Archie Smith fish house is being one of those in some cases the best thing that we can do is ensure that the story is told through interpretive signage photographs and educational programs we will continue to tell those stories to the best of our ability we are successfully closing the chapter on the damage to the Jones Pier home which was built in the early 1900s by a pioneering family on the Barrier Island almost eight years ago to date of Hurricane Milton just a few weeks ago Hurricane Matthew brushed along Florida's East Coast causing widespread flooding and damage the Jones Pier House owned by the county was severely flooded and parts of historic jungle Trail were washed out it was during recovery that we learned about haer mitigation grant funding that would potentially provide a source of funds to protect the historic home from future flooding events the event is what set off a course to the project that's nearing completion today which will provide residents and visitors a place to learn about the gym we call Orchid Island its history the piring families who lived on the beer Island before there were Bridges or roads even today you will approve a restrictive covenant which is required by the county to provide Perpetual maintenance of flood insurance as part of receiving the federal dollars allocated through the FEMA fdm Hazard mitigation grant program the item itself doesn't necessarily warrant a departmental item however I wanted to spend a few minutes to celebrate the County's success with these efforts we often joked through the ongoing efforts at Jones Pier that Mr Jones was playing a trick on us from time to time and I'll have to tell you that he must be looking down on us all right now with a grin four weeks ago hurricane melon caused widespread damage throughout the State of Florida Indian River County was hit hard too by tornadoes and fles flooding I fully expected during our site assessments to find some sort of damage at the Jones Pier Conservation area which was um you know mostly worrying about flooding and we had just finished the renovations which will then turn turned the uh house into an interpretive Center and we hope to have that open to the public this winter now Richard Milton Jones must have been watching over his home that we had spent so much time and energy protecting lovingly restoring and creating place where future stories can be told because there wasn't even a scratch on the house there was no damage there was no debris there was no standing water it was if this storm like had never happened and you know I think to myself that's why we do what we do maybe we got lucky maybe it was a blessing for sure tornado activity was only a few miles away at the tracking station beach park and all along A1A South the elevation project has already proven to be a success with the historic heavy rainfall we experiened with hurricane Milton you know Mr Jones was a Storyteller and the process of protecting and restoring the early 19th century Bungalow Cottage will tell the story for many years to come about Orchid Island and this place that we call home the Pioneer pioneers and early families uh that landed on that Barrier Island persevered through freezes when their Citrus Groves were young they persevered when Transportation Avenues and even jungle Trail didn't exist and they persevered when mosquitoes were so thick that stories are told that people would bury themselves in the sand and all of these stories will now now have a home in this little Bungalow Cottage I would like to personally thank our team including Wendy Swindell and paig Lester who were critical in the development of our application period providing detailed information to FEMA and fdem I would like to thank our Parks maintenance team and our conservation staff for their work to ensure that grounds and public space are kept clean and safe for our visitors they are truly a shining example of service excellence and I would like to thank our budget office purchasing Division and finance department for their patience and assistance through tedious purchasing and budget processes to utilize These funds which require that we conform with federal guidelines and I would like to thank all of you and our County administrators for having the faith and confidence in our ability to complete this project had I known it would take this long and be this hard I don't think that we would have asked to do the project the result of these efforts to protect the home ultimately resulted in the county receiving just over three $42,000 as a reimbursement toward the total cost of the elevation project last week Wendy and I attended the state's first flooding adaptation Symposium for three days in Orlando I'm proud of the work that we've accomplished today but this is really only just the beginning as we experience increasing storms and rainfall patterns and the rainfall patterns challenge our Coastline it will be more important than ever to ensure that we are taking proactive approaches to these issues grant funding is available but as you can see the process can take many many years and sometimes it requires an enormous staff effort to navigate through the federal and state processes it's important that we are pursuing funds to for projects that benefit public spaces and places that make our County unique parks and conservation areas should be listed in our vulnerability assessments as critical infrastructure so that we can leverage future state and federal funds toward Improvement projects uh like the weasa Causeway Park Improvement approved earlier under consent which we hope to receive resiliency funding for we will continue to work with our public works department planning and development services department and our new natural resources department to ensure that we are maximizing opportunities to tap into funding using new technology and approaches to protecting our environmentally sensitive lands and Watershed and focus on Creative resilient and sustainable design approaches for our public parks and Recreation spaces thank you again for your support and I respectfully ask for your approval for the recommendation for a restrictive covenant for Perpetual maintenance of flood insurance for the Jones Pier Bungalow Cottage all right Commissioners to approve well I you had a motion I did make a motion oh um second it okay I I I have to say uh m pal You're On Target you're right I mean we some of us walked through those nearly three foot Waters when we almost lost the building and we can go back to when the original purchase of the property Jones had a plan and he lived out the plan and I have to tell you that looking at what is there now the gem that is there you made comment about we were blessed that we did not have damage I I think that uh is reflective of staff's hard work proper engineering proper use of resources materials and patience and I think it was done right and I think we have a gem that will be here for generations and I want to thank everyone involved that made it happen because it was a long trail many years all right yes commissioner Airman when I took this office four years ago this is one of the first places that I asked to take to when we did our tour stuff and it was pretty amazing what was going in them but it was a long way from what Wendy had envisioned and and and wanted to do and I I tell you it's just absolutely spectacular thank you great job all right we have a motion by commissioner flesher with a second by commissioner Moss any further discussion seeing none all in favor opposed motion carries thank you thank you all right we are on to County attorneys matters the first item is authorization to proceed with foreclosure on Code Enforcement cases and Madam chair Susan pra is not um she's out sick today so I'm going to be handling her items okay the first one is Direction the staff is seeking direction from the board on whether to proceed with foreclosure on a code enforcement case that's an old case it's from 2009 I know there's a um PowerPoint here to kind of go over it with you the history of it okay so go to the next slide so this is the property at um 2075 7th court in virau Beach which this was originally a code violation from 2009 for overgrown grass and weeds um the property was properly posted and um if you want to flip to the next Slide the um that's that's the condition of the house you can go ahead and flip to the next Slide the code board conducted um a hearing found the violation conducted a compliance hearing and determined that um it was not complied with they issued a $100 day fine and it never was remedied so um it's a crazy big fine it's like $524,000 yeah it's not a Homestead Property it's a remains out of compliance if if you wouldn't Kim Advance we went ahead and uh the code board code enforcement issued a um notice to the owner to appear for a foreclosure hearing to consider whether it should be foreclosed um it was properly served on the property owner and um this is the state of the property today the property owner did not um come to this hearing my understanding is that the code board is recommending which under 162 the code Board needs to be the one that um recommends foreclosure they're recommending that the board uh move forward with foreclosure I will say that um I've learned that this is a outof state property owner that um they're behind they have unpaid taxes I'm not sure whether foreclosing we'll actually get the property owner to move they may have just written off this property I don't know I wasn't able to get any information on whether they've had any luck contacting the property owner but it doesn't sound like it yeah it sounds like the property owner has washed its hands of the situation right and we may end up with the property I was just obviously with a lean that big but so I'm staff is requesting some guidance from the board on whether we should proceed with this foreclosure um well we have proceeded with foreclosures and cases similar to this in the past um it looks like you can't even see that there's a house on that property currently so it definitely looks like it's a um not just a blight on the community but a health and safety situation as well so Commissioners uh what is your pleasure so move for approval I'll be happy to second that we have a motion and a second all in favor opposed motion carries um I guess the next is the Collins case right this is an ongoing foreclosure case and there are several defendants in the case it I think these are The Heirs of the property owners who are deceased uh this is a proposed settlement agreement and with one of The Heirs he's not a title owner basically in this settlement agreement he consents to the foreclosure on the property as long as he's not held personally liable for any uh money judgment the Foreclosure involves a code enforcement lean and a water sewer lean so um we are recommending that um you approve the settlement agreement I think it'll just kind of take one more person out of the equation I'm not since he's not the title property owner I don't know that probate is taking place I I doubt whether we could get a money judgment anyway so it seems like this is a good okay good move um so there are other title hold holders but this will take one of the variables out of the equation other airs now uh I I did read through the settlement agreement it's not clear to me that this person do not have any title interest in the property okay um and go ahead I'm sorry so there still be a challenge but at least we're cleaning it up cleaning one by one this is the first one so this is just one defendant that we we're settling with move council's recommendation I'll second any further discussion all in favor opposed motion carries all right 13 C code for closures case clarification and update right so um and again I don't have the benefit of all the history with uh the board's Direction on pursuing foreclosures of to gain compliance but it sounds like from uh speaking with Susan and and reading this board item that they've it's been effective that you've authorized foreclosure in 30 cases um only really had to foreclose in a couple and it's been a good um way to get people to comply that I it is worth I think the what Susan wanted to bring up is though um that when there's a senior mortgage or a senior lean on the property that has priority that's large like a mortgage she wants to know if you want to continue to uh pursue foreclosure in those cases because the reality is is that um if we were to foreclose we may not get paid because the senior uh mortgage would have priority in payment out of the Foreclosure proceeds so in those cases not only we might not get our lean paid but we also the good thing about this these types of cases too we get our attorney's fees we can have our attorney's fees recouped out of these proceeds from a foreclosure sale so I think she just wanted to um get some thoughts from the board on whether it's worth pursuing foreclosure when there's a when there's this larger lean it you may want to do it simply to motivate Property Owners whether you want to proceed all the way through to the end if it starts to get expensive and you're not sure if you're going to recoup I would prefer to handle those maybe a bit on a case-by casee basis I think it's a really good tool and we've been successful um I'm sure at some point we're going to face a decision on if it's going to cost us more than we're going to get and we possibly won't even get the property is that worth getting it cleaned up though because otherwise they just linger for so long and it's you know out ofate owners or Bank owners and it's very hard to get the attention to even address it because the fines don't mean anything to some of those type of corporate ownership so I like having it as a tool um Place placeholder yeah so then just on a case if it if and when it starts coming up I think we'll just talk it through on makes sense yeah yeah right okay that sounds good thank you um so you just needed kind of some direction on that yeah I think there was Direction I think that makes sense at I think that approach makes sense I mean we when we come to you we can give you a little bit more background I I have in the past had clients reluctant to pursue when they're just a large lean and it I know sometimes it might not make Financial sense but it might make sense for that particular community so we'll have to weigh those and just to clarify a batement is really not a method that I'm getting the sense that the count County likes to take as a alternative foreclosures foreclosures is your preferred tool um I don't know if we've had that discussion but foreclosures are a good tool they are okay well we can when we come to you on a case-by casee basis if it looks like that's not the way that the board wants to go maybe we can present some Alternatives okay I think at the end of the day our we're just motivated to get the problem handled and most of these that come have been lingering for some time so if there's a better way that's more effective and quicker that's good but this carrot seems to work pretty well but that doesn't mean it's not the only or this Hammer but that's not the only one so yeah I would bring others too all right thank you all right and then the next item is permission to advertise public hearing amending Indian River County code sections 102.0 one one and 102.0 4 right Commissioners I bringing this is part of this ordinance is simply a a cleanup to your meeting procedures there's a couple things that need to be changed um one the County Administrator mentioned earlier that um we have this prohibition to holding commission meetings on the last Tuesday of the month which probably made sense when you were doing uh three meetings a month but maybe may make less sense now that you're down to two so the recommendation is that we delete that sentence from Indian River County code section 102.1 subsection 1 um and then I brought some proposed changes to uh 102.0 4 which is your order of business which lays out how you hear your uh board items at your regular meetings um and I'll I'll skip the public comment and and address that at the end my recommendations about that but um simply a recommendation that under departmental matters that you incl that you add the building of Facility Services which is your new department and also the Sand Ridge Golf Course and that would be under um subsection 13 uh just as a matter of updating that that section of the code I do have a question about that yeah just to that specific all these are departments but Sandridge isn't actually a department and we have other Recreation facilities Andor Enterprise fund so why this one versus the rest of them and I'm going to let the County Administrator made that request address it had a conversation with Mike zedo it's kind of a standalone Enterprise fund I mean not that they all aren't but there's no it doesn't fall well underneath a department so therefore I mean it reports directly to Mike and they have their own agenda items at times and there's really no place if they wanted to like we know one of the issues out there is uh is the potential expansion and uh redoing of the clubhouse so there's just different there's items specific to that and it would just it would either come under a County Administrator matters because it does report to specifically to the deputy County Administrator and that would be the reason why to have its own area apparently it used to be on the agenda at one point in time as its own okay I mean it's fine it just seems weird to me because they're all the rest of departments and it's not really a department but if it's not under a department I suppose all right okay um the next section that is simply a recommendation to the board is that you consider revising how you accept an public comment at meetings um the chair did bring this issue up to me in a conversation that we were having just maybe seeking my input on how to best handle public comment um and I will I do admit that I thought I think it's a strange when I read your uh website that it makes it look that you like you have to fill out a public comment card to come and address the board and then we put them on this public discussion section although your policies do allow for public comment on um matters being considered by the board um and that's consistent with Florida Statutes Florida statute 28611 14 requires the board to take public comment on matters that you're considering at some point before you take action and so uh I I simply recommend just I'm trying to make it consistent and uniform how you take public comment and maybe remove a perception whether fair or not that you actually have to sign up in advance to come and speak to the board I I have noticed um that not having so my recommendation is that you have public comment on agenda related related items at the beginning before you take any action on public business and that way you just get it out of the way people can have their three minutes they can they don't have to stick around for the rest of your meeting and they can just have an opportunity to have their comments heard um I have noticed when I've seeing how board items progress that the burden is on the chair then to always remember to ask for public comments but sometimes when the when the motion and second is made really quickly and it's passed that that gets overlooked this way you're not over ever overlooking it you're always providing the public their statutory right to comment on the items that you're going to be taking action on with the exception of public hearings which require ire you know which are required that you ask for public comment specifically in that item so I just thought that was a clean way to do it um and then I also notice that the board likes to hear from the public on non-agenda related items or does accept public comment and that that that might be appropriately placed at the end of the meeting when you've had the everybody's had the chance to get your business done so those are just uh that's just a re and then I recommend that you delete this public discussion item section because it's it seems a little bit odd and it almost is a sort of kind of treats speech a little bit not uniform we have these people that come and we call it a public discussion and they want to engage in a back and forth and uh I'm not trying to um stop speech but I'm not sure it's super productive so those are just my recommendations I thought I would bring it to you for discussion certainly it's your prerogative how you want to proceed so Commissioners I did have a discussion with Miss Schuler about this a couple weeks ago because we have had in the past and specifically a couple weeks ago a gentleman that came in and he wanted to speak about the Lagoon which wasn't on the agenda and he had not signed up ahead of time um because in order to get on the agenda under public discussion matters you have to fill out the form prior to the agenda closing date which is like I don't know what it is now but it it's like 10 days before the meeting or something like that um but we have forms in the back that people can fill out and he had filled out a form but we don't have any place to do that so we sent him upstairs to fill out a form with Tina and get on the next agenda he wasn't he did not come to the next meeting but he came to this meeting meeting he actually spoke under the beach item um but he was here again trying to get on the agenda so there is and I've heard from other people that they were here to talk they didn't know when they could talk or not talk and it's kind of confusing and it seems a little rigid and I'm not exactly sure that it's really the the look from a perception standpoint that we want um that being said I personally like when we have public comment under each item versus like at the beginning getting it all there because I can't vendors kind of thing having it at the beginning uh giving people an option to give their public comment and leave if they've got other business and then also making sure that you've always provided that opportunity no that's a good idea too because we do have people that they don't know when the item's going to come up but they don't want to stay for the whole thing so it provides that opportunity if they can can't and I do like anything that's not on the agenda being at the end because we need to do our business before all that stuff um and I know we have in the you know we we basically have kind of a three minute policy um which today I that was that was on me that we diverted from that but it was I think you guys understand the reasoning for that um that being said if this is something we pursue I do suggest that there is some visual cue for people to know that they have three minutes and that where they are in that three minutes I think um even if it's a little timer or something I know in the past we put something up on the screen but I I would just make that suggestion that there's some visual cue and it's not on you know the chair to hit start and stop on the stopwatch on their phone and so it it's all kind of uniform um and I think that's standard at other other councils that they have some timer or whatever well we've done that in the past Madam chair um when we've had uh issues of extreme significance or with an abundance of response from the public and participation we've had the shot clock off to the side and I think it's worked very well well but I don't know about uh a consistent diet of that some of the municipalities do that and it's almost like again there goes the shot clock all right and then when the timer goes off we haven't curtailed or or hit the subject matter that was necessary or the uh resident has not been able to express themselves uh maybe sometimes it takes four minutes and and I I think that if we leave it at the chair's discretion to do that on a regular diet again move it to where when we have 175 seats filled and people are using both podiums so I think the last time we had that was the mask discussion and we had lines to the back and wrapped around and there were people waiting outside to speak I think the shot clock was well appropriate for that matter and it was well explained prior to the meeting I I think there's room for that but not on a regular diet I think it makes it too sterile that's totally fine my only and I don't disagree with you um my only concern was would it create a perception that rules apply to some people and not to others I don't well I could see that becoming you know we make our announcement keep keep your comments Germain and consistent with the try not to be repetitive um especially when we have a large group but then again the shot clock would come into play as far as uh council's suggestion on uh a speaking time again some jurisdictions do that uh it might lead to two bites at the Apple One for the public comment and then when you have the agenda item uh you've invited me to speak again uh so there might be a little play with that if the public comment time is established where it's open an open forum and everyone has an opportunity if you do it at the beginning of the meeting it might might erode upon some of the agenda the items Foundation early on and also u i the idea where we've given people the opportunity to speak so they can continue on the rest of their day so The Voice Was Heard it may not be attached to the agenda item so I I I don't know it's all in the timing does it happen before the agenda or after the agenda some jurisdictions do it after the agenda some some do it right in the middle of the meeting I I don't know what what's your thought Council um it again I I just am concerned that we're not consistently providing an opportunity for comment on agenda items which is what we're legally required to do that um it again it falls the burden falls on the chair to remember to do it it's not always in my what I've seen always consistent because some things are moving quickly some things not moving quickly uh so I like the idea of having just that there at the beginning to give people the opportunity to comee leave and then you've clearly met your statutory requirement to do that with your agenda items whether during the course of the board item you want to have more discussion I think again is you can have a little more discretion like you're talking about to to gauge what what the level of public interest and the whether you want some more public dialogue it's a good idea yes commissioner Moss um you know at the current time you know we're the anomaly County Commission because the city councils uh they they all have public comment in fact I was surprised when I got here and I didn't realize until after I was elected because the day I was sworn in people asked me friends said well when will we be able to congratulate you and I said well you know do it during public comment and they said well there isn't any on the agenda and I looked and I I I I really was shocked because it's St that's a standard format for uh for City councils and in fact when I when I was the mayor one of the things the first thing I did as mayor of Vera Beach was I moved public comment forward because it's such an easy thing to do the FPL deal was a lot more complicated but I moved it Forward because before I was elected I was a chairwoman of the Utilities Commission and attended a six-hour meeting public this is one public comment was at the end of the meeting and there was a woman God bless her who sat there for six hours to speak for three minutes about a matter of public safety it had to do with the beaches where people could get hurt and I I so admired her resolve that I thought if I ever had the opportunity I I would move it forward it's kind of if if you take a step back for a minute because earlier today we were all talking about beach access and it's so important we have to you know people have to have access to the beach well we're a beach in effect I mean they should have at public always should have access to us they should always be able to speak to us they should always be welcome here um we should never be a seaw wall and I I think that's what it's become and I don't I you know I don't I don't know the origin of this but people have the sense of and I've heard this a number of times out in the community people have the sense that they are not really welcome here and I think this would go a long way and I thank the chair for uh for bringing calling it to uh the attention of our our new attorney I think I think this will go a long way toward um correcting that uh you know that perception because I mean personally I feel that everyone uh is welcome here and uh you know I would hope that all of my colleagues do and I I support this 100% uh whatever form it takes if you want to have it at the beginning you want to have it at the end you want to take it separately and do both um and I understand your concern that In the Heat of the Moment you might forget to take it so on an agenda item so have that up front um I think I think it's terrific and after everyone else has commented I'd be happy to move to approve but uh for discussion yes commissioner Airman okay I want to get this straight in my mind because I I agree with commissioner fleser about the time clock and all that sort of stuff there's certain times that probably makes sense and certain and most of the time it doesn't what we do currently is not broken I think of out of all the the governments meetings that I've witnessed whether it's on the state level or the local level over the many years is that that's this is still the way we do it's pretty good it's still friendly it's still up to the chairman as to how long they're going to allow somebody to talk such as was done today and you did it very gracefully Madam chairman I thought I I I think some some tweaking is is fine so I guess I just want to make sure that I'm following this right is that we go through the call to order pled of Allegiance additions allees proclamations approval of minutes information from staff and this is where we do public comment on anything they want to talk about or is just on the agenda items what's proposed here would be public comments specific to anything that's on our agenda okay that's what I thought but let me make sure okay we get to an item on the agenda can they still comment that would be at the chair's discretion but it has been the practice of all the chairs since I've been here to allow that so I would assume it would continue so what would be the purpose of this to allow somebody maybe comment on them because they have to go they need to leave yeah think about um there's a lot of people that come for what may or may not be a controversial item but it's towards the end of the meeting right and they can't stay because they have other obligations so you see people start trickling out after the meeting begins this would give them the opportunity to at least put their comment on the record and then leave if they wanted to or they it would also give people the opportunity because counselor is correct there's a lot of times and we just had a couple of items where I didn't call for public comment I mean there's nobody in the audience which was half of the reason why but there might be somebody outside that wanted to talk and I didn't know that so it would kind of cover that as well so we still have public discussion on item when we're discussing the particular item I would Envision so okay so that as long as we don't change that and at the end we have public comment on non- agender related matters but I want to come in and talk about that would be where the rig's and recreation day but nothing's on the agenda I can talk about that then at the end right or RFP processes or legon health or any number of things that may not be on our specifically on our agenda okay is that normally at the end I thought that was like kind of normally at the beginning put put it at the end I mean you could move it all to the beginning where you just took public maybe it should be should it be tied in at the beginning with the agenda not I think the thought I think the thought is um I will use the school board as an example they have a they have all their comment at one place at the beginning of the meeting and what you find is they were having a problem being able to even conduct their meeting meeting before midnight because of all the public comment and most of it was not things related to agenda items right so if we move that we are still able I don't Envision any of this being some kind of major problem to start with but I think what the attorney's trying to do is at least establish some policies that we could tweak if we needed to but it it provides a clearly defined place for public comment and I would prefer having non business items at the end so we can get through and staff can get through the business at hand be before because I mean once you open stuff like this up it's like once you start televising your meetings more people come for comment then and that is fine that is what we're here for but it's just something I think we need to keep in mind we remind ourselves that this is their government absolutely their platform so if that's the case and we were able to do that we historically do not take action on public speaking items so this eliminates the necessity for request to speak directing them to the county administrator's office so they can fill out a form so that one person can speak which historically brings two or three others or interested parties and then we say well you can't speak you know you didn't fill out the form I get it um I it's going to be a little bit of a learning curve on our part and the Public's part and I think if we travel it in an appropriate fashion it could work well to serve for public information public input and at the end if there's stuff to do which we historically do not take action on kind of gives us indic ation to know what we need to do for future agendas as well if there's something that's brought up that you know we can comment then to them to say you know what we'll have to revisit that we'll research a little bit and then uh maybe we'll work together and get it on the agenda and I think that's about where we can go I I think it's going to take a little bit of a curve though I I think it would help to have the website U kind of give I think explain it I yeah I can work with staff to make the website more understandable public we can always change it if we don't like it yep we can change it we can go back we can tweak it I just want to be clear on how we were I just had a question do you do you want to specify uh I'm just thinking now what we did uh on ver Beach city council for open open public comment we had a a three minute limit and it was stated you know on the uh on the agenda agenda so yes what what would your we we can do that I mean currently the rest of your policy deals with um public comment you're allowed to come and speak on agenda items it's limited to three minutes and we kind of have that language we could we could put I mean you can I would agree with what commissioner flash said I think it makes it kind of sterile I think we're we've done a pretty good job as chairman chairman chairman commissioner Moss I I think with the gentlemen are saying is that we have the policy but by not kind of spelling it out on the agenda if we wanted to to give somebody the opportunity to speak longer it kind of reverts to chair's rules and if we call it out that's always the case yeah then I think the concern is then we have to evenly apply it and there's some situations we've seen many of the people need more than the three minutes but if it's abused then maybe that's something to say at the beginning of the meeting or it's a very there's a lot of people to talk about it you know hey you've as a reminder there's three minutes and today we're gonna you know this difference between great information in a filibus and I think that strong leadership will be able to keep that in in check commissioner lur you've been very quiet no no com no public comment so far far from you I think it's fine I think he didn't fill out a form yeah I didn't fill out a form uh and I I did speak briefly with the Miss Schuler about it and I I think you're fine either way and and it all comes back to the authority of the chair he or she can move agenda items uh they can shut people down they can allow them to go on this chair privilege that simple okay um if we were to do this does that mean we'll get rid of the fors up front that are confusing everybody yes okay awesome all right Commissioners to approve all right I that's right I had a motion from commissioner Moss I'll be happy to or go ahead commissioner fleser no that's all right I like because you're getting ready to leave I want you to do it and just to clarify this is this will be advertised and brought back to ordinance form yeah okay it sounds like there's General consensus so we shouldn't have to okay rehash it all right perfect um there is a motion in a second any public comment none got it in there all in favor I opposed motion carries thank you thank you thank you for bringing that I appreciate that have the public for comment I know I know all right next item um guest commissioner what do we got one more um approval of the swid meeting minutes of August 20th Madam chair move approval second I have a motion and a second all in favor opposed motion carries agreement for landfill gas wellfield Expansion Project I think you're going to have to come down for this one I'll leave still good morning good morning Commissioners Zan you met the managing director for solid waste disposal District um all of you had the pleasure of coming out for our uh you know groundbreaking ceremony for the no Petro project and um you know since then and they've been doing a great job on their site uh things are things are progressing well over there uh similarly on our end we am happy to report uh we had delivery of our High Press gasket that showed up uh last week uh no Petra also uh brought over the uh hydrogen uh uh H2S vessels hydrogen sulfide vessels um so the project is moving forward both on our side and their side uh what's happened recently uh is that um as our new cell a 10 Acre cell that's during completion uh I was I had to make made I had to make a decision about uh landfill capacity and making sure I had enough capacity for Waste uh daily waste coming into the landfill and there was an area of the landfill that I had to basically abandon about eight gas wells in order for us to go in and start putting waste in there and so what what that did is it reduced our gas flows temporarily um we're going to be putting about another 20 to 30 feet of waste in that area and and so uh Although our end goal is this RNG project to produce high quality gas to send to the to to no Petro um our our gas flows I think um say back in March we're as high as you know 12 1300 scfm we're around 600 right now almost half that um and and it's it's literally when it comes to landfill gas is sort of the more straws you can put in the in the landfill the more more sort of gas and the straws in the right place uh more more gas you can get out so this project with SCS the uh proposal in front of you is basically um and we're expecting later this month uh to have them back out there but the SCS to go in and install 10 additional gas Wells um and and a lot of them will be in this fresh waste that that we putting in and and what that's going to do is allow us to get our flows back up um and and um you know I know no Petra's expressed some concerns because they've got you know 20 plus million dollars in the project that they're building next door um you know wanting to commission their project uh we've been re we've reached out to George arera County Administrator asked me to reach out to George Herrera uh with no Petro uh we're trying to get him to come and uh give the board an update on their project on their side as well hope hopefully next meeting or the meeting after that we'll try to do that but but um so again both projects are going well um we we we need to go back in and install some additional gas Wells to get our gas flows back up I'm very confident that that by putting these gas Wells back in that we'll we'll we'll meet uh the requirements of our our contract with no Petro to be able to have enough gas flow to to send next door um the my latest projection with construction right now we're we're saying first quarter of 25 is when we expect that you know the high pressure gasket is on our site we need to connect all the piping no P's been doing great work in bringing their gas lines over to our our skid uh but all of that needs to be connected a lot of electrical work needs to be done um our contractors has reached out to our building department they've been great and working with us and sort of Expediting permits and things like that so uh everything's going going well uh but again in order to make sure I had capacity for community to make sure I maximized a space I I had to uh you know and some of these Wells were not not producing high high gas yields um you know they were they were pretty deep so so you know the call was made if you will by my myself to abandon those Wells so we can maximize airspace uh but I'm confident that we go back in add these additional 10 walls in we'll we'll meet the minimum requirement uh I think it was 900 to 1,000 scfm that that no P need needs uh we'll certainly be able to do that uh I I think by the end of this year uh so they're quite not ready to commission we're quite not ready to to send them to gas but we will have gas uh when the project is ready to go online and I'll be happy to answer any other questions you have Commissioners any questions you feel confident you feel good about it I do sir all right it's good enough for me all right is that a motion that's motion okay I'll be happy to second that any further discussion all in favor opposed motion carries and with that we'll move on to final pay to Geo syntech for work order number 19 permit compliance monitoring reporting Indi River County landfill facility M chair move approval thank you I'll be happy to second that we have a motion and a second all in favor opposed motion carries and with that commissioner thank you um happy election day to those that are running and good luck and commissioner flesher you're going to have a long night of canvasing the vote but we appreciate you you doing that and um with that we stand adjourned