good morning the Tuesday April 22nd 2025 regular Border County Commissioners meeting will now be called to order we'll begin with a moment of silent reflection for the first responders and members of our armed forces we're followed by an invocation by none other
than Chaplan Louis Trout from the Indian River County Jail not from the jail sheriff's department we're police i just want to clarify that chaplain you can say sheriff's department sounds a little yes noncriminal or whatever and then we'll continue with the pledge of
allegiance by Commissioner Susan Adams please rise father word says in Luke 14 "For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost whether he has enough to complete it?" Lord this is our prayer for the county
commissioners today and each day going forward in their hearts they plan a course but we pray that you establish their steps let them not make decisions based solely upon their wisdom but with your wisdom
as we look at this agenda today Lord it's filled with many important topics and we pray your guidance for them as they go through the agenda today and through every agenda in the future we place this meeting in your hands we place their hearts and their minds in
your hands so that you may continue to direct them as they guide the future of our county lord as we recognize our 100year centennial we thank you for having your hand upon Vero Beach these past 100 years it's been a haven and a paradise
for many people and we pray for the next 100 years you will continue to have your hand upon this beautiful city and we ask it in your son's name amen please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all moving on uh talking about the addition deletions to the agenda items uh we do
have the county attorney uh has requested the close session uh regarding the sole case uh be removed from the agenda at this time there will also be that uh an executive
session two executive sessions at the end of this meeting but we will have two separate executive sessions upstairs in the conference room i will announce it and then at that
point we will return back here to close the meeting it's not anticipated that any business will be conducted when we return back to the chambers it's just a matter of uh official documentation that the executive session has ended the it's
anticipated that these executive sessions may take an hour at each point so uh they will be lengthy but you're welcome to say to see us come back and close the meeting thank you is there anything else Mr chair
i'd like to uh delete item 14B1 with respect to uh Kolkata docs i believe each commissioner has received a correspondence from a concerned group in that area and if we could uh toll that
and reschedule that for another date Mr chair got a second here and second and uh most certainly supportable uh any further comments on that deletion not in favor of it you're not in favor of
Kolkata doc deletion okay commission Adams okay thank you council anything
further with that we'll accept a motion for approval of the agenda as adjusted so moved we have a motion by Commissioner Adams seconded by Vice Chairman Law any further
discussion all in favor opposed nay motion carries 4 to one with Commissioner Moss dissenting we'll move right along to uh the proclamations we have a presentation
proclamation dedicating May 6th through the 12th as nurse week in Indian River County and that will be presented by Vice Chairman Law vice Chairman Law thank you Mr chair and uh if our nurses that are present could please come
forward and Mr chair as as uh as we greet the nurses we thank them uh and I was thinking earlier that not only is it a very defined profession but in fact it's a lifestyle in fact I was with my daughter-in-law
over Easter and she's a she's a nurse and we've had a lot of conversation about modern-day nursing so thank you it's my pleasure to read this proclamation it's proclamation dedicating May 6 through the 12th as nurse week 2025
whereas registered nurses are the largest health care profession in the United States providing essential highquality care in hospitals clinics long-term care facilities and community settings whereas nurses play a cru crucial role in promoting health
preventing illness and ensuring the wellness of individuals and families across stages of life whereas professional nursing is crucial component of the safe effective and acceptable health care meeting the
increasing complex health care needs of our growing and aging population now therefore be it proclaimed by the board of county commissioners on this date recognizing May 6 through the 12th as nurse week encouraging all residents to recognize
this clant approved by I all five county commissioners thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you so much if I may allow to speak very quickly my name is Thank you Commissioner my name is Meritus Quinto
i'm an advanced practice nurse and a doctor of nursing practice and I am here on behalf of the 440,000 nurses in Florida most especially here in Indian River County this morning I had a pleasure to meet three nurses from
Indian River County and Miss Wendy Harper is right here with me today i also met uh Peggy and Pat Draper this morning and I wanted to share how wonderful your nurses are here in Indian
River County i've only been a nurse for 20 years 21 years to be exact but I met these three lovely women who've been nurses for more than 40 50 years and I encourage everyone to always thank a
nurse and be grateful for the nurses that you have in our county nurses are your true advocates we care for our patients and even though this our nursing profession has been this long the core of nursing stays the same we
serve our community and we care for you so thank you so much for sponsoring and supporting our nurses and we are so grateful that we are here again and you're uh sponsoring the proclamation for uh nurses week thank you so much
thank you and again chair it's uh it's more it's more than a profession it's a lifestyle most certainly uh no please stay um I I have to say that uh some of us have had some hospital stays
and some attendance in the medical facility and often times the docs get the Rockstar award but I have to say that without the nurses is when you're staying at a
hospital not by choice the nurses make the difference as far as the administration administering uh and the care and comfort that are provided it all happens from the nurses
and we appreciate that we also appreciate the amount of education that you have to go through in order to deliver the type of service that's necessary when we're at our worst to make us our best thank you so much for acknowledging
thank you for everything that you do come on up come on up thank you so much thank you so much thank you [Applause] so you're you're you're a nurse i am a
nurse how long have you been doing this well I am 80 years old this year and I am still actively licensed in Florida and Pennsylvania i went through a diploma program which was a three-year program but I was back in
the age where they didn't have a college degree program went to a college for two years in liberal arts I went to a little place called Leon Valley College outside of Pennsylvania so I graduated in 68
with my BSN in nursing and then I went to Temple University get a master's degree certification in terology ology and uh I would have been a nurse practitioner or PhD if times had been different back then but I've been a
nurse for basically years to the fact that yes we all think of our professional nurses especially within the hospital but in today's situation especially in Florida where we have an aging population uh we do a lot
more than just hospital work we're advocates for patients we do home health care we do a lot of other community things and I'm very actively involved in what's called faith community nursing in
Florida through tying the spiritual as well as the physical and the mental and uh they're they're uh for all of the faith we do training courses for uh the dascese as well as for an organization
called uh faith community nurses of southeastern Florida and we try to get nurses involved even when they're retired in helping and continuing to advocate for their community so it's not
just the hospitals where we think of nurses but it is it is also throughout an individual's lifespan and we're glad to serve thank you thank you again [Applause]
i don't know next item is reflection of UFAS extension in Indian River County volunteers we have some volunteers today crowd around wherever you like wonderful good morning commissioners
thank you so much for the opportunity today to recognize our amazing volunteers that we have in UFAS Extension in Indian River County um during National Volunteer Appreciation Week so here with Indian River County Extension we rely on the dedication and
contributions of our volunteers they play a crucial role in delivering educational programs supporting community projects and enhancing the overall effectiveness of our services we have 4 volunteers and master gardener volunteers who bring invaluable
expertise enthusiasm passion and commitment to our mission of extending knowledge and improving lives our 4 volunteers like club leaders co-leaders and other dedicated adults lead and support our 4 community clubs our
inschool and afterchool programs and state 4 events they work tirelessly mentoring and guiding young people in various educational endeavors competitive events and community service activities their involvement helps foster leadership skills community
awareness and personal growth among our county's youth our master gardener volunteers provide crucial support in horicultural education they assist with public workshops community gardens outreach events and they also serve in our office plant clinic where they do
individual consultations to help people identify pests and diseases in their lawn identify plants and come up with landscape plans their expertise in Florida friendly gardening practices helps enhance the environmental stewardship and horicultural knowledge of all of our residents
in 2024 our volunteers made an incredible impact through their dedicated service the combined efforts of our 75 volunteers amounted to 5,658 hours of volunteer time given to our community this equates to 2.7
additional positions in addition to our small but mighty team of four staff which helps to increase our offic's workforce um and is just an impressive contribution to our office and our community and we couldn't do our work without them the monetary value of those
volunteer hours is estimated at an extraordinary $178,849 which is an incredible cost savings that our volunteers contribute in addition to their extensive expertise and efforts to our programs this enabled us to offer nearly 1,000
educational programs in 2024 and reach over 11,600 county residents with our programs so we could not be prouder and more grateful for our volunteers here in Indian River County Extension they truly make an amazing impact to our community and we couldn't do the great work that
we do without them so thank you for helping us to recognize their efforts and achievements and dedication to this county and Indian River County Extension today thank you [Applause]
they're shy and humble sure absolutely retiring i've been often looking for other things to Sorry to fulfill my life and it was uh very surprising
to find volunteering is very self-rewarding not only can you feel productive but you're giving something back to the community that you love and live in and you get a chance to make new friends new people and so much better so
thank you for your support thank you can we get a picture i know that the uh the organization has tentacles in many areas many other areas in development for our youth as well
and without the volunteers it just can't happen no organization can have the effectiveness that 4 has with the paid individuals to execute some of the
finest work it takes all of you and we truly appreciate the fact that you commit your time to the development of our our youth and agricultural endeavors in our community because it does take a
village and you are part of that voluntary village thank you thank you thank you thank you okay thank you you're welcome
you got a shoulder patch usually customarily we're taking that check and uh seeing the clerk uh and getting it into the bank but you've deposited it to the the larger bank and
that's our community thank you next item is a proclamation uh recognizing April as child abuse prevention month and I'll accept the honor to present this proclamation this proclamation is
recognizing April as child abuse prevention month whereas children are vital to our future success and every child has the right to grow up safe healthy happy and free from abuse and
whereas all children deserve to receive love nurturing and care and live in communities that foster their healthy growth and development and whereas child abuse neglect abandonment is a community
responsibility affecting both the current and future quality of life of any community and whereas Hibiscus Children's Family Center has been saving children's lives for 40 years hibiscus
upholds the legacy of transforming the lives of children and families and embraces opportunities that can potentially change the way society cares for children whereas Hibiscus Children's Center provides a safe haven mental
health counseling educational services and career training for vulnerable youth the generous community has supported Hibiscus for over four decades and helps to provide youth with the strong
foundation for the future and give them every opportunity to thrive and reach their full potential now therefore be it proclaimed by the board of county commissioners of Indie River County Florida that in recognition
of Child Abuse Prevention Month we honor the unwavering commitment of the individuals dedicated to protecting children and providing safe environments for children on the Treasure Coast since its founding in 1985
duly adopted this 22nd day of April 2025 and it is signed by all five county commissioners our commitment to you thank you sir good morning commissioners good morning everyone i'm Matt Markley i'm CEO of Hibiscus Children's Center and it is a pleasure
and an honor to be here today i know that you commissioners uh have a lot of work to do and you take the time to issue these proclamations which raises awareness of everything that all this we do in this community it's hard to it's hard to top the nurses and the
volunteers um but if you look at the proclamations you're raising awareness it is child abuse prevention month but I would be remiss if I didn't just talk a little bit about Hibiscus Children's Center i think it said three did there was there a zero behind that three
minutes to talk or No no no not 30 okay you can speak as old as you wish i'm kidding um but honestly uh 40 years think about that i'm not sure i was not here i'm not originally from Indian River County but I wonder where kids
were placed before Hibiscus Children's Center on the Treasure Coast Noachchobee uh I'm sure they were placed somewhere maybe in an office maybe in a home hibiscus is not a children's home uh but it is a home for children and so if a child is removed from his or her home because of abuse or neglect and the
state of the state of Florida cannot find family or friends to care for that child they call an organization like Hibiscus and Hibiscus responds hibiscus operates 365 days a year 24 hours 7 days a week we don't close for holidays
weekends or even hurricanes uh since 1985 our 40th year Hibiscus has provided 475,000 safe nights for kids think let that number sink in a little bit 475,000 safe nights for kids we operate
a campus here in Vero Beach uh for older kids 12 to basically 18 kids age out of the system at 18 so it's 12 years and 17 17 in in 364 days uh we had in since I've been with hibiscus the last seven
years we probably had 20 kids live with hibiscus and actually age out of the child welfare system our average length of stay is six to nine months but kids have been with us three and four years so we are responsible at the facility here in bureau what we call a village to
make help kids get ready to be to face adulthood and they may be facing adulthood alone and again I wonder where they'd be without h a hibiscus not me a hibiscus children's center We also operate a campus in Jensen Beach um an emergency shelter for uh younger kids uh
birth to age 12 now when I say emergency shelter by law the kids are supposed to be there 10 days but in reality they end up being there 10 weeks 10 months again or even years again we have had kids stay with us three and four years so
that's partly the the um the foster care system uh has done a great job recruiting foster parents but when they can't find foster parents they call Hibiscus and and we answer we provide me we have master level therapists on staff so a kid can see a therapist at 3:00 in
the afternoon or 3:00 in the morning we have medical staff we have educational coordinators sometimes kids come to us three and four grade levels behind we catch them up we're not sp we're not required to do that but we do it because it's right for the kid okay many kids
have gotten their GED or their high school diploma while living at Hibiscus Children's Center so I think I've talked my three minutes now maybe past my not 30 but maybe past my three but anyway thank you for your support i appreciate I know how hard you folks work um uh I
would not want your job i can barely do my job u but Commissioner Moss thank you for your o support i'm not stalking you it may seem that way but uh I see you at events and I appreciate that and I appreciate all of your support of Hibiscus thank you
thank you you know we really appreciate what you do several of us have had the opportunity to have to interreact with Hibiscus Direct we truly appreciate that Hibiscus House
the Hibiscus organization is in operation but I have to tell you that with that claim I also say I hope one day that you're out of business yeah we
do too and that's meant in a very very We do too we do too i wish there was not a reason why we had to have this mechanism i wish there was no abandonment and neglect cases that we've had to work that we were fortunate
enough to know that there is a safe haven and there is an educational and sustainable endeavor for the challenged individuals to become unchallenged so I want to thank you directly thank
you i appreciate that appreciate your comments very much can I get a Come on up let's hear more ads no no every everybody's got to come up
should we speak about the exchange float oh most certainly okay what no no want to speak about let's have him speak about the exchange club first okay and then we'll come for the picture
thank you okay so I'm Jose apologies that's okay uh I'm Joseph Walsh and I'm with the Exchange Club of Vero Beach and uh I have members from Vero Beach and also the Indian River Club and uh Exchange
Club's core value is uh family community and country and when we define family we define that as not only our own family but the community family and so I have good news this morning if all of y'all remember we used to have a child
prevention uh center in uh Fort Pierce uh over the last three years we've worked to establish a new center and it's now established and certified through the National Exchange at Youth Guidance and so we're delivering the uh
parenting matters program and the whole objective of that program is to go into the family and break the uh abuse cycle and keep the family together so that the family is not separated we have uh now
have two counselors that are actually doing uh programs through uh the new prevention center and so that's our greatest accomplishment over the last three years and I wanted to share that the other thing I wanted to point out I
don't know if you noticed the flags at St helens this year uh and they're now up at the park in Sebastian so when I first came here we used to put out 175 flags and working against child abuse
prevention the good news is we only put out 90 this year and the better news would be if we didn't put out any it would if we didn't put out any so as the different organizations work
across the state of Florida uh it would be tremendous if we could reduce that more and we'll continue to focus on that we thank you for recognizing us and for the proclamation today thank you thank you
do you have anything now we'll come for the photo thank you thank you all moving on we'd uh go forward to the approval of minutes for the regular meeting minutes of
January 28 2025 which I know you all reviewed everybody's got their own microphone to make a motion second we have a motion by Commissioner Adams seconded by myself any further discussion all in favor
opposed motion carries unanimously move on to item 6B which is the regular meeting minutes from February 11th 2025 motion to accept we have a motion by Commissioner Airman seconded by Vice Chairman Law any further discussion
all in favor opposed motion carries unanimously we'll move on to the uh consent agenda does anybody wish to have anything hold for discussion um yes Mr
chair uh 9K and 9 L k and L 9k and 9 L yes sir okay anything further it would be appropriate to have a motion to
ask no I'll be happy to move consent as amended it's a motion by Commissioner Adams seconded by Vice Chairman Law all in favor opposed motion carries unanimously
mr chairman did you skip number eight yes I did and I give that opportunity uh right after we finish the consent agenda so we have uh item 9K kilo was pulled by
Commissioner Moss yes thank thank you Mr chair uh 9K has to do with uh what is called VB40 Development Group LLC's request for final plat approval for a subdivision called Riviera Lake
um this was originally approved on January 30th 2017 by the planning and zoning commission and that's again preliminary plat approval um at the current time most but not all of the required project
improvements have been completed project improvements for the community can include drainage landscaping roadways and utilities uh so my question is um have the required actually two have the required project
improvements changed since 2017 and which of them are not completed at this time good morning Mr chair commissioners for the record Ryan Sweeney assistant planning and development services director um Commissioner Moss to answer
your question no the requirements have not changed uh the preliminary plat approval was good for 5 years they did start construction sort of right at the end of that 5-year window and if you've driven by the site you they did take quite a while to build the improvements
um as for what remains primarily um landscaping still needs to be finished up and then uh you know cleanup items all the hard infrastructure roadway utilities lift station is all in place okay all right well thank you for that information um I'll move to approve this
item then thank you we have a motion by Commissioner Moss and seconded by Commissioner Adams any further discussion all in favor i opposed motion carries unanimously item 9 L lima yes
thank you sir uh this item has to do with the uh Pulki Home Company LLC's request for final plot approval for Harbor Isle uh phase two and this uh most but not all of the required project improvements
have been completed and again uh remaining project improvements can include drainage landscaping roadways and utilities uh the developer submitted a request for temporary suspension of compliance for certificate of completion and that was
on March 21st uh 2025 and I know that there's a a bonded amount um my question is what is uh remaining to be done what are the required uh project improvements that
are not completed uh because this area is um is very sub is subject to to traffic and also to flooding and there already are a number of concerns in this area this is 510
uh east of US1 and I'm sure you're already aware of it as am I you know received a number of complaints and questions in fact we had some just uh last Thursday evening it was actually not a a seminar on traffic and it was
the uh septic to sewer uh seminar conducted by Mr which was very nicely done i'll comp take this opportunity to compliment him on that but there is as you may know there is a concern in this area regarding traffic thank you again for the record ryan
Sweeney assistant plan development service director uh Commissioner Moss the the items that are remaining for this one specifically are enumerated in item one on the staff report and it's um essentially all the off-site improvements on 510 all the on-site improvements are done so this is
slightly different than the one that with Riviera Lake where there's still some on-site improvements that need to be completed um so final lift of asphalt and striping and signage for the turn lanes that are at the intersection of the new driveway connection and State
Road 510 yeah well that's why it sounded to me that some of them uh could affect traffic in that area some of what is not complete and these are primarily under DOT's jurisdiction um there was a little bit of a delay with FPL moving some
remaining uh power poles um so that's essentially what's left i will I will maybe anticipate your next question um those those intersection improvements uh both the right turn lane and left turn lane are a requirement for this project
that intersection will not be signalized unless and until the public's shopping center comes in and that's their responsibility to signalize that intersection so it will remain unsalized but with the turn lanes is there is there a timeline for these remaining improvements uh yeah less than 90 days i
mean they're they're they're very close the the temp suspension is uh capped at 90 days okay so any inconveniences caused by these uh improvements that remain undone would be less than very short yeah they just need to do the final lift in the striping all right all right u move to
approve second thank you thank you for clarification anything further all in favor opposed motion carried unanimously now we'll move back to uh uh public
opportunity to speak on any agenda item that you may not be present towards the end of the agenda item and this your opportunity that's with the exception of any of the public hearings good morning
i never know what I'm going to say when I come here um my name is Brent Wahberg but uh yeah uh when the world chews you up and spits you out
uh the only thing that keeps you going is someone loves and cares about you and I can say that for the nurses because I've been there done that and uh the child care and
uh and I'm as far as the volunteers I myself have been a volunteer you know I I was hoping to get help but it is what it is and I've actually learned a lot more that probably hadn't been told but I got I sat in on a meeting
it's kind of important for everybody u guy a dog had torn him a guy up it was a UPS went from door to door and you got you use your arm and your leg to try to keep the dog off of you and I know it's kind of a problem for
I'm sure that Joe has some witnesses like this but uh uh I'm a pipe welder by trade and this leather is um I work with someone that had dog torn him up and he
put wrapped his shirt around his arm and beat him with a crowbar so but this here uh you could put one on your leg it's a a leather welding sleeve is stitched so the sparks won't or a dog or nothing's going to undo the stitching and it's
really durable and if it doesn't work you could put two on there but I'd say it would stop a dog bite and you carry your pepper spray on your belt and uh when he grabs your arm uh you can blast him with pepper spray and be over but
just the very fact that you're not afraid of the dog uh dog's teeth are designed to cut when he when you pull away and the fact that you're not afraid thousands of years of evolution have made him to where he senses that
you're not you're you're not a prey you're a predator uh but anyway I could see where maybe Vero can you could say made in Vero because it's obvious UPS nationwide don't have such a thing uh and you all know my passion is uh
septic tanks with a good calcium carbonate drain field do not hurt the environment they speed up the chemistry between two toxic chemicals ammonia and hydrochloric acid make harmless calcium chloride so it's the same reaction that was on 157 miles of our shore pee and
poop would come in and I can show you right now well I was there yesterday uh the water's sparkling clear after after the reaction all the pee and poop comes in and that chemical reaction happens and that can imply to spring
water has the same chemical reaction once you get away from the having to cover up for septic tanks and you'll realize that uh the same crystal clear spring water under goes the same chemical reaction well I guess I've said a mouthful in
three minutes i appreciate all listening thank you thank you next item on my agenda is a public hearing and that's regarding the the agenda item is a request
to by 7750 Oslo Road LLC to reszone approximately 3.73 acres from A1 Agricultural District to CH heavy commercial district this is a quasi judicial
hearing and proceeding and the parties of the proceeding are any river county and 7750 Oslo Road LLC also known as the applicant at this time I need to ask all
commissioners to disclose any exparte communication site visits independent investigations and I'll start with the left none none that I'm aware of no sir none that I'm aware of
i will then uh move forward to confirm that the commissioners can have an open mind and can base their decision on the evidence presented and applicable law can and will can and will can and will can and
will can and will thank you at this time we'll open the public hearing i need to ask the clerk to ask anyone to that wishes to speak uh and during the
process or bear witness to be sworn in at this time so if you anticipate speaking or being involved with the case please rise madame clerk do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth thank you we'll now move forward with uh a presentation by staff mr chair if I could just take a moment to uh celebrate one of our employees Cindy Thurman uh she will be retiring this will be her last plan uh BCC
meeting she has been a public servant for over 35 years with 31 years in the Florida government system so I'd like to thank her for all of her knowledge that she's imparted in all of the communities that she's been at and all of the hard work that she's dedicated to Indian River County so Cindy thank you very
much thank you Cindy congratulations try to make this pain make this painless good morning board as Chris said I'm seen Cindy Thurman senior planner for long range planning today we
have a resoning from A1 to agricultural to CH heavy commercial the area to be reszoned is 3.73 acres of the overall 17.31 acre parcel the parcel is located on the north side of Oslo Road just east of the
new I95 Oslo Road interchange and approximately 2,000 ft west of the 74th Avenue Southwest intersection this area of the county is characterized by a sparse mixture of agricultural commercial and industrial uses with the
Indian River County landfill to the south across Oslo Road look at the zoning map we'll demonstrate that the parcel contains split zoning of A1 and IL which is light industrial the 3.73 acres identified for reszoning to
CH is where the IL zoning boundary district ends and the A1 district boundary begins the remaining northern A1 property will not be reszoned and will remain agricultural to serve as a holding zone a look at the future land use map shows
that the property is located pretty much in the middle of a commercial industrial feature land use node and a future land use amendment is not necessary as the request for commercial heavy is is consistent with the future land use
map the existing zoning A1 agricultural is intended to provide for areas suitable for agricultural tree farming and the conservation and management of open space intend to provide for opportunities for residential uses at very low densities to promote
alternative housing opportunities in the county intended to prevent activities which do not detrimentally impact lands devoted to rural agricultural activities a look here at the development performance standard shows the distinctions between the different um
categories the A1 and the CH we'll look at the proposed zoning commercial heavy is a heavy commercial zoning district provide for establishments engaged in wholesale trade major repair services and restricted light manufacturing activities provides for
support services necessary for development of commercial industrial uses allowed within other non-residential zoning districts as I said earlier the reszoning request is consistent with the commercial industrial feature land use node right i showed that they were in
the beginning in the middle of that red part the commercial industrial feature land use designation is intended to provide for the areas for the dele of industrial and commercial uses located in areas with suitable levels of service and infrastructure for urban scale development located along major
transportation routes and separated from residential areas and again no future lane use changes proposed as part of this request and again we have to analyze every reasoning request against chapter 902.12 subsection 3 with the re review
criteria and whether or not the proposed amendment is a in conflict with any applicable portion of land development regulations no the conflicts with the applicable there are no conflicts with the applicable land development regulations for the requested commercial heavy
zoning designation and we believe that there will be potential buffering benefits from the uses will be aided by this request we do find that it is not consistent with all the elements of the conference of plan in particular it fails to meet the locationational
criteria of policy 1.43 as it is not located along uh railroad tracks we do want to point out however that it is located along your industrial uses as it is the um the landfill along the south uh side of Oza
Road c consistent with existing proposed land uses it does meet this criteria proposed um CH is not there is no uh proposed future land use amendment as part of this request d is it in compliance with adopted county thorough
plan it is between 74th and the new Oslo I95 interchange will it generate traffic which would decrease levels of service as adopted we believe that all roadway segments within the area of influence would operate at acceptable levels of service under the proposed CH
zoning item F is subject to change conditions warranted the existed amendment the acreage has been limited for the request to the north middle portion that's why this is an awkward um request is just the section where the uses will be allowed within the CH
district to allow for a natural transition and item G with the decrease levels of service establish sanitary sewable water solid waste drain and recreation we believe it meets this criteria although the applicant may be required to pay connection or customary
fees when a more detailed concurrency will be conducted if there's any more future development during this review process and we do review everything based on the most intense uh for concurrency and under this concurrency you can see here that the most intense
for single family would be zero which is what it is now and under the most intense for general manufacturing will be 74 to 7600 square ft item H would this result in a significant adverse impacts on the natural environment it is mostly
undeveloped however it was previously pasture but a more detailed environmental analysis would be required when the site specific development proposal is determined i results in early logical development pattern we believe that it meets this criteria as it aligns the conference of plan the
surrounding land uses j in conflict with the public interest and is in harmony with the purpose and interest of land development regulation we believe it meets this criteria as we have found that no adverse impacts to public welfare and finds that the request in lines with the purpose and intent of
land development regulations and item K any other matters that may be deemed appropriate in review in consideration proposed amendments such as police protection fire protection emergency medical services we believe that all concurrency mandate facilities have adequate capacity to accommodate the
most intense use under proposed zoning district and I just wanted to mention that the property is uh currently developed at this time in conclusion the requested stage zoning district is compatible with surrounded area consistent with the goals objectives and policies of the county's adopted
commerce plan is consistent with the county's adop adopted landfill regulations the subject probably is deemed suitable for CH zoning can be supported by staff and on March 27th of this year the plane zoning commission unanimously voted to recommend approval
of the request to reszone the subject property from A1 to CH and the staff and the planning zoning commission recommends that the board of county commissioners approve this request to reszone the subject property from A1 to CH and if you have any questions we're
available thank you commissioner does you have any questions of staff on the presentation or information does the applicant have any questions of staff at this time seeing a wave and
declination I move forward to a presentation if we have any by the applicant if you so wish good morning my name is Blaine Burkser with KMA Engineering and Surveying representing the applicant um we've been working with staff on this
project um and the required reasonzoning and I'm just here to answer any questions that uh the board might have for us what have any questions of the applicant at this point the staff have any questions of the
applicant at this point thank you thank you sir at this time looking for any input from anyone in the public regarding this
application any questions uh by commissioners or county staff or the applicant to wrap it up seeing none any final presentation or argument if any by staff
no sir staff press at this point um the applicant anything further uh at this time I'd like to ensure that uh all the documents tangible evidence if any have been
admitted into evidence and are in the hands of the clerk madame clerk thank you county staff agenda materials and all documentation are automatically admitted to into evidence unless there is any
objections if not that action has been done as confirmed by the clerk public hearing is now closed commissioners Mr chair I'll recognize that I watched the PNZ
meeting and a lot of the questions were answered by our staff they did a fantastic job please note that this is a relocation from a manufacturer small manufacturer in the city limits of Vero Beach that will be moving uh west and I
think it's a win-win for all parties involved and with that I move approval second that's a motion by Vice Chairman Law seconded by myself any further discussion all in favor
opposed motion carried unanimously thank you congratulations again thank you very much enjoy it thank you for all you do 31 years good for you it could be you
i try next item is the interlocal agreement with the city of Sebastian Community Development Agency concerning Sebastian CRA septic to sewer project yes Mr chairman members of the board uh
please recall at our joint city county meeting with the city of Sebastian one of the key issues discussed was septic to sewer and wherein the city expressed in addition to planning for septic to sewer for the entire community uh they
were very interested and identified it as a high priority the Sebastian CRA septic to sewer uh project uh county and city staff have met over a period of probably about 15 months uh the city
provided us their January 22 uh septic to sewer conversion evaluation report that identified 188 parcels or sites of which 96 are developed but not connected and utilizing uh not not
connected to SER but utilizing septic tanks and then the remainder 92 are vacant so Indian River County staff the utilities department evaluated that report and internally designed a concept project plan based on that report and
plus uh what they were limiting in terms of public infrastructure uh to develop a plan to install 13 sewer mains within the CRA seven of those mains would would lie within existing right ofway and six
would be required to have additional or require easements from property owners uh what you have before you is the ILA the interlocal agreement and uh it's essentially a partnership between the county the city
and the Sebastian CRA and it focuses on the public infrastructure specifically installing the sanitary seamanes uh the city is going to cover costs of materials and parts up to $100,000 and the county will manage and
program the project with our existing staff not hiring a firm or contractor to construct the sewer mains and that will help minimize costs uh this the county will wave uh connection fees and extension fees and a rough estimate
depending on how many erus or equipment residential units are are required could be somewhere between waving about 200 to $250,000 totally rough estimate at this point in time uh so with that uh the property owners
would still be required to pay the the the requisite sewer impact fee and the agreement does provide that the the project would begin uh within 60 days of the agreement becoming effective and we have committed to both parties working together they the the city has
identified some priority areas and some areas I'd like to see in progression and how we go through we want to work collaboratively with that to get this done in an expeditious manner lastly I will say that the ILA does contemplate the proportionate sharing if you will of
BMAP credits based on a final accounting of all direct and in indirect project expenses incurred by both parties uh the ILA has been developed and reviewed by staff both jurisdictions i would like to
thank both the chair uh meeting with uh Mayor McPartland and city manager Benton as well as also thank you know prior to that back in I think it was December uh commissioner Moss and Mayor Dodd city manager and I also met um so uh I think
this project uh it's pro it's a good project I mean it it's going to take I think the estimate was you know uh and not all directly related to the Indian River Lagoon But they at least they contribute to uh the the lagoon in some
form or fashion about 10,570 lbs uh a year of nitrogen pollutant loaded that's generated by the use of existing septic systems so with that um again I want to thank the city of Sebastian see Benton uh I want to
thank uh I see our council members here uh Mayor McPartland former mayor Dodd and then I also like to thank Sean Lisky and his utilities team that worked to develop this project and staff recommends that the board approve the interlocal agreement between Indian
River County Board of County Commissioners the city of Sebastian and the Sebastian Community Redevelopment Agency for the Sebastian CRA subject to ser project return to the chair thank you John i appreciate that and I I
do have to say uh that the the meetings that we had uh were probably the most uh pleasurable meetings uh in intergovernmental experience that I have had uh I I have to say that the the the
mayor uh and of course the city manager I mean and yourself the interreaction was nothing but complimentary and I think you mentioned this is a good project this is a great
project this project is going to make a difference and both the municipality and the county have significant skin in the game in order to achieve that goal and I I was again uh very complimented by the
amount of support and the civility of a decision that again well it's it's I think it's got to go to the city of Sebastian uh meeting uh that's coming up um so I I'm sure that Fred Jones will
have the opportunity to speak uh upon that i know that this was a big item uh with him uh for some time as well and I just want to thank everyone involved the both staffs to get us to where we are
where it was just such an easy agreement to conclude to and I guess that's going to conclude uh on Wednesday correct is that on the agenda so with that uh do we
have uh any Any comments uh regarding it i see uh utilities director Sean Liski oops good morning Commissioner sean Leki utilities director um you know I we have really committed to doing what we can to
help help with this project um you know I I know that the negotiations um that you all had with their their mayor and and city manager have been going well and and we look forward to to kicking this off and working with them closely to get these projects it is going to
involve some close coordination we have some easements that we're going to have to obtain um in certain areas uh to ensure that we can get the lines installed and maintained um but we're going to be working with them closely to make sure that we we get those done and moving forward so we're we're excited about the project we think it will be a
big help for the area and really help the lagoon as we get some of these parcels off of septic so so and based on uh today's support of the ILA and the city
of Sebastian support of the ILA um does it look like sometime around the 4th of July we could be seeing some action well I we have to start within 60 days so I would assume that you know once we
get this once they have their meeting they approve it and and it's you know everything's signed and and moving forward we'll get going within those 60 days it may be earlier um it's just you know as we can kind of get staff and their time you know they have they have their do daily routine and so we're
going to kind of be intermixing this with with our routine work um so as we can get out there and do the work we fully intend to get started on it as quickly as we can and but minimum within 60 days so it just depends on when we sign it and um you know timing of that
so we hope so yes Mr chair move approval of Sebastian Interlocal second Mr chair I just would be remiss not to thank the county attorney's office both Chris Hicks and Jennifer for their assistance in the drafting of the ILA
absolutely yes the entire staff well we have a motion and a second to go forward is there any further discussion all in favor i opposed motion carries unanimously thank you it's on to Sebastian thank you
Commissioner Jones and city manager Benton and I'm going to forget your name no I said Oh Commissioner vice Mayor yeah no won't forget his name know yours so once again item B1 and uh C1 of 12
will be discussed later on at this point I'm being urged to um entertain a break before you get set up so if you want to set up your presentation thank you we'll take a brief recess yes sir
now call the meeting back to order and we have a presentation to be looking forward to and that's going to be item number 13 I A1 which is approval of a resolution adopting a fee for reviewing
and approving developers agreement h A1 HH H A1 First we're going to move move to H A1 which is Indie River County Parks and Recreation Master Plan 2025 2035 10 years 10 years good morning 10
years good morning good morning commissioners pal parks recreation conservation director I also have Wendy Swendell and Gustavo Varara with us uh the assistant directors of the department and Today we are very excited to be bringing you uh the parks and
recreation master plan for the next 10 years for Indian River County the first that's ever been done for our county and we're very excited because um as you know our county is growing and changing and meeting the needs of our residents has never been more important
understanding what people want what they need how to improve the quality of life that we hold so so dear in our county is extremely important and that's something that we found uh throughout this study so over the last uh 18 to 19 months we have been working with our consultants
uh pros consulting Brian Trustee is joining us today Carlos Perez uh CMA and ETC all of which were working together to formulate the master plan that you have uh before you today this master plan is a culmination of uh meetings uh
working with staff working with our uh city and town partners and I just like to first thank everyone who participated over the last 18 months whether you were filling out a paper survey or doing a survey monkey online uh the city of Ver Beach the city of Felsmere the city of
Sebastian all of our partners uh on the barrier island or the uh uh Orchid Island uh you know the towns uh all contributing uh through phone interviews and I would like to also thank all of you for supporting us all uh throughout the last 18 months with your time your
energy uh providing input and feedback to us uh we had county departments that were involved with the planning and development of this plan uh planning development services GIS and so many different departments and we just would like to thank everyone um the main
takeaway for me is that there's no surprises in this plan and I think that that comes from great planners that we've had over the last 20 to 30 years in our county it comes from great leadership like yourselves and the
previous commissioners and you know I think back to the time when we were building Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge and the tower and the parking lot and working with Commissioner R stanbridge on those projects there was so much vision for our county and though it may not have
been formalized in a parks and recreation master plan per se you've all held that vision for us and I'm deeply grateful for your contributions and your support over the last for me 25 years for conservation and for parks so
without further ado I'm going to turn it over to Brian he's going to give you some highlights from the master plan we're happy to answer any questions uh we also have the draft posted on the county's website and there's still some uh room for a little bit of tweaking here and there as needed and then we'll
also uh put his presentation online for uh the general public to review as needed and we remain open for any questions this is a living document we've been working with management plans uh since the conservation lands program got started and one of the most critical elements of a a management plan is the
adaptability over time we're not robots we're not fixed our community is not fixed so I see this plan uh growing with us growing with our community and in 10 years we'll be ready to write the next one so Brian take it away thank you
Beth um chairman members of the commission it's great to be with you today and sharing with you as Beth mentioned the highlights of the of Indian River County's first ever parks and recreation master plan a couple I'd like to reiterate a couple of things that Beth also commented on one is first
and foremost this was a plan that was deeply grounded in robust public engagement and so you'll hear a lot about that today and I appreciate the opportunity i've spoken with each of you early in the process and throughout the process as we had the opportunity to to make sure that this plan reflected your
insights and your guidance i also want to reiterate what a team sport this was uh so not only did we have a lot of great citizen involvement and engagement throughout the process but as Beth mentioned this the cities of Sebastian Fels Mir Vero Beach all really
contributing to the thoughts behind this because this was a countywide plan so first of all this is also something that well over the course of this project um it was at a time when parks and recreation was being integrated with conservation and so we
wanted to really make sure also that we were reflecting that uh that com combination of the of the department as it was evolving that this is a 10-year master plan that links our programs and services to capital investments that are grounded in community needs that
conservation and all the great work that you're doing in open space preservation is also uh included in a lot of our analysis that it coordinates and aligns very well with the comprehensive plan of the county and it accounts for all the other partners and providers that are within the county that you're not the
only game in town when it comes to parks and recreation although you're a pretty big game um the the other communities and what they are offering is something that's relevant and important to take into consideration so our desired outcomes in this whole process is creating a plan again that's had was
grounded in inclusive and accessible community engagement we had so many different forms of community engagement from three different public forums that were all well attended and that were also um in provided virtual opportunity to participate virtually we had um we
had actually also a a community meeting in Sebastian early on in the process numerous stakeholder interviews and focus groups throughout the process uh as well as an online survey and a statistically valid survey we wanted to make sure that we created a strategy for
you for that was equitable to the entire county community that utilized a variety of data sources and best practices not only that are reflective of best practices here in in in Florida but also nationwide that it uh you know the open
space parks and open space network that you have really is some of your largest uh green infrastructure within the community county so we wanted to make sure that we were also um enhancing your environmental resiliency through uh through leveraging those parks and green spaces addressing the financial
sustainability and organizational excellence of the department itself and developing an action plan that was reflective of both the right level of ambition while also being grounded in realism so it was a process that took us through three different phases one was a
deep study of where you are today doing a parkby park assessment we spent and we actually went because over the course of 18 months the conditions in your parks changed none none the least of which you had two hurricanes that came through here in October and so actually that was actually a process that we got updated
as uh in the in the draft as we were moving through uh through the process we also move took a a a lot of analyses and where you are from a level of service perspective we'll share some highlights on that and all that that was to inform
us as we moved into the second phase which was the ideation phase of where we're going tomorrow and then the third phase being the implementation of how we get there so here's some highlights from the community and stakeholder engagement process as I mentioned we had a variety of ways in which we wanted to hear from
the community throughout the process public meetings interviews focus groups statistically valid survey of which results um should be good for the next five to eight years and that in itself is a 200page report with incredible uh
detail around uh what folks feel like are their greatest priorities and needs in parks and recreation an online survey and then of course the expertise of our consultant team which included pros consulting Carlos Perez and planning Chin Moore and ETC
Institute this what you see before you are some of the important priorities that we learned from the very first public meeting we had this great little exercise in the first public meeting in which we engaged folks in the room with what were the most important priorities they wanted to see reflected in this
master plan and as as they responded on their smartphones or smart devices the words populated on the screen the large the more people said certain things the larger those words appeared but you can tell folks really care about beach access accessibility overall the
maintenance of our park systems having great programs playgrounds are very important what's really unique and came out in this process is we do a lot of plans across the country with municipalities with counties park districts even state park systems and Indian River County as a park system
functions very uniquely because of the large amounts of unincorporated areas within the county in which you have a lot of residents as a result Indian River County parks actually serve as more of a neighborhood park service than traditionally how county park systems work and you'll kind of see a lot of
that as we move through this process and some of the recommendations uh that we've we definitely lean on that reality so we learned from a lot of the leadership and stakeholder interviews and focus groups for one everybody has a very strong feeling that parks are extremely well-maintained however
there's a lot of amenities that are getting becoming a little tired uh they're ve heavily used they're impacted just by climate and weather uh and so there a a thoughtful approach a phased approach to uh upgrading and enhancing amenities in our existing parks is
something that's going to be important as we move through the next 10 years also connectivity is so important here not just trails within parks but trails that connect parks trails that connect communities this is not something that is completely carried as as a obligation
of the parks and recreation department this is also an area that's uh covered by the no but it is something that came out of the process that is really really important to residents um there's been a long conversation you all have been involved with this for many years about
developing a regional park asset out in the western part of the of the county and that continued to be a conversation that came out of this process uh managing that either that real or perceived inequity between north and south county uh you know North County um
wants would love to have an indoor facility akin to the IG facility down in the south south County would love to have an aquatic facility akin to what's in the north and so there's parsing through some of that um inequity was also something we worked with and also
about more potentially more county-driven water-based recreational opportunities so the statistically valid survey I'm not going to go through that in in in great detail i'm going to give you a very uh very high level highlights in order to hit our statistical validity
window we needed to have a total of 400 responses we got a total of 402 so we hit that uh this was a hard mailed survey so several thousand surveys were mailed out to residents of Indian River County and they were given the option of being able to uh fill that out um and
mail it back in on a on a a pre-postage paid envelope or they could also fill it out on a special website that they've been set up or they were even given the opportunity to complete it by phone so here are some of the headlinings so you your parks are very heavily used with the most heavily used being the
fairgrounds Round Island Riverside Park and Golden Sands Beach Park the parks with the highest condition ratings so the percentages here were the number of the percentage of respondents that indicated these facilities were in good condition was the IG center Lone Pine
Park and North County Aquatic Center 38% of the respondents reported to have participated in county programs and events this last year for a county program system that's pretty that's very strong uh and the three top uh facility or amenities that were desired most with the ind unind indicated unmet needs were
trails small neighborhood parks and open space and conservation areas knowing the commitment that this county has made over the years to the acquisition of open spaces this is continues to be something that's very important to to the county residents this particular slide indicates the facilities or amenities uh
that were most important to households so we gave respondents the opportunity to respond top choice second choice third choice or fourth choice amongst about 35 different types of park amenities number one and number two are trails that was not surprising with open space being number three and
environmental and nature education center being number four and and number five was a dog park but we also saw you know shaded picnic areas large regional parks small neighborhood parks community centers and playgrounds rounding out the top 10 same kind of question but focused on
programs instead of facilities number one was adult fitness and wellness programs followed by outdoor environmental and nature camps county special events senior programs and cultural enrichment programs rounded out the top five we asked folks to indicate the
three single or multi-day event concepts in which their households would be most interested in they were responded with food events being number one uh followed by entertainment holiday celebrations environmental events and cultural celebrations this is one of my favorite questions as the county board of
commissioners you also probably appreciate hearing this from the residents we asked them on based on their perception of value how would they support funding parks and recreation in the future 87% of the respondents indicated they would support either existing or increased funding levels for
parks and recreation what was really astounding is 60% of the respondents indicated they would support increasing funding for parks and recreation so what that tells us is that the your county residents are seeing a perceived ROI that they're getting on the investments
that you're making and we asked them of the four particular actions that they would be most willing to fund developing new walking trails was number one improving existing park infrastructure was another way of saying taking care of what we already have was number two
followed by improving the existing trail system improving either adding new or improving existing restrooms i will tell you as as doing this these plans all across the country trails and restrooms are always number one and number two in our parks there's some of the things
people appreciate the most followed by improving existing playgrounds rounding out the top five so what are some of our key learnings from all of this your parks and recreation facilities are highly valued they're highly used your users do represent broad segments of the
community i mean we were we talked to everyone from pickle ballers to folks playing youth athletics to um uh homeschoolers that were using parks as part of their uh curriculum so it is a very broad segment of the community that uses your park assets your recently
developed facilities are really best-in-class you do a great job of developing very high quality parks and recreation facilities so continuing that tradition is something that we're very confident you'll do but you do need to have a focus on revitalizing your
existing parks because they are getting a a bit tired trails and connectivity are a priority there can be more awareness around the county's parks and programs that that we know Beth and her team are working on the various ways in which they communicate and engage the community uh and inform folks of what
what's out there to participate in as I mentioned before you have a very unique role as a county park system on being a neighborhood park provider and so in some of the capital improvement project recommendations looking at expanding your neighborhood park system is
something that was included uh as well as growing interests that need to be addressed such as expanding programming and areas of adult fitness outdoor programs special events continued improved access to natural areas and trails and open space and conservation as a part of the process we
did do uh very thorough site assessments on each of the 32 parks we also met with staff to make sure that this was uh aligned with what their familiarity because they are out there in the parks every day and as I mentioned because of the unique process that uh we went
through and the timeline this assessment was initially done literally a year ago and then we updated it again in January because of the two hurricanes that came through in October but we evaluated every single park based on those five different criteria proximity access
linkages comfort image use activi activity and social ability buildings and infrastructure and then the the NRPA which is National Recreation Park Association's three pillars of health wellness conservation and social equity so as an appendix in this plan is a very
thorough detailed park by park assessment of where you are today we did that same assessment on the conservation areas but looking at conservation areas as opposed to developed parklands is a little bit different we wanted to basically just to be able to identify uh the general description
and size the different ecosystems or eco zones that were contained within each one of those conservation areas and a lot of the other types of uh natural uh attributes that were associated with them including predominant usage user groups critical issues or priorities
that were identified and management opportunities and priorities so when we look at level of service and what we needed to do here was also as I mentioned before you weren't the only game in town so we wanted to take into account the inventory of other communities other providers like
Sebastian and Vero Beach in particular we wanted to look at things like park acres per thousand indoor facility square footage per thousand uh level as as well as access to various park types and parks amenities so I'm not going to read this whole slide to you but you can
see we looked at an with the plan itself includes looking at level of service across a number of different amenities including both the county's inventories the the municipal inventories to so that the recommendations on growth in your own system takes all that into
account we also besides facilities look deeply at your individual programs you have over 45 different programs and service offerings offered across eight different core program areas that are organized as you can see here on the slide from adult activities and enrichment all the way down to youth
sports we also took into account the community survey results around this as we've already given you kind of a highlights around the top priorities and programming but the highest priorities being outdoor fitness and wellness outdoor environmental education and nature camps county special events
exercise classes senior programs culture programs and adult arts and crafts so what does this mean for a game plan for the future one we had the opportunity because this was your first ever parks and recreation master plan to work with Beth and her team and really
tighten up the vision and mission and core values of the department this is something they had already done a lot of work on so it wasn't really about changing the vision or changing the mission it was about being able to talk about it in modern ways so the really this details exactly what the the vision
of the department is which is what you want to be known for and the mission which is how you're going to accomplish it this plan also provided some detailed design standards around different types of parks from pocket parks to parks that are located on school properties to
community parks regional parks so that as you move forward either in developing new parks yourself or in partnership with the development community who may be developing parks in partnership with you you have some very clear design standards around what constitutes
various different types of parks we also provided a level of service visioning tools that are included in there around uh where there could be best uh new locations for neighborhood parks or regional community parks indoor facilities dog parks playgrounds tennis
courts all of that and then finally we developed uh capital improvement strategies we've like Beth said this this is a living document so there's got a lot it's intentionally built with a lot of flexibility and latitude as you move through the next 10 years and things
change but we did looked at priorities in the next first one to five years around improving our existing parks focusing on updating and upgrading existing amenities such as pavilions playgrounds and restrooms updating other infrastructure such as parking lighting
and signage adding new amenities to improve the experiences of users and improving connectivity our second area of C of priority was around expansion of the system we recommend to be focused in the next three to seven years that first
includes building out the uh fairgrounds to be a more robust regional park looking at a splash pad or aquatic facility in the southern region of the county and developing new neighborhood parks to better serve great growing residential areas that are in underserved and unincorporated areas of
the county and finally our visionary bucket which is certainly your more long-term approach to larger uh projects that we identified was the development of an indoor recreation or multi-purpose space in the northern region of the county and
there's much more detail in the draft itself around what that could look like and the development of a regional park in the western sector of the county that could in the end also be a great tourism and economic imp uh development opportunity well with all those
recommendations we also didn't want to leave you hanging so we provided some uh great content around different funding and revenue strategies that we felt like were relevant and appropriate given who you are as a county your culture your your values uh and that are proven uh
proven parks successful funding and revenue strategies for parks and recreation across the country and the action plan is organized into six strategic initiatives so this is basically an a flexible work plan for Beth and her team as she moves through
the next 10 years focused around amenity updates and replacement updating our community and regional parks expanding trails and natural areas expanding neighborhood parks looking at our visionary projects and then of course organizational excellence there's some
recommendations around the department itself and with that I will be happy to take any questions or comments that you may have thank you thank you Commissioners what What did you The fairgrounds
you know building it out maybe making it a regional park give me your thoughts as you breathe i mean what what is the Sure so one of the things about the fairgrounds is uh one of the highest as qualities of the fairgrounds is its central location in
the county it's already something that is you know you've got the you've got the land uh and you've got a lot of the already existing amenities that are there that some of them many of which can be updated and upgraded uh that are already activating that space in a really meaningful way so the thoughts
there is just to continue to build out uh some additional amenities that can really expand the user experience there and activate and energize that site even more than it already is but the most important aspects around thinking about the fairgrounds as a more robust
regional park is its central location and the fact that you already own that land i remember when um we were developing the fairgrounds i remember it was just a blank piece of property and finally we developed you know it developed and got some leveling
done and all this sort of stuff and we had a recreational architect that came in and he advised not to at the time not to put fairgrounds as per se as we knew it back
in the 80s and and add athletics at the at the same spot but they say that the soccer folks needed a spot it was the right spot at the right time for the right place but is there any u you have any any any thoughts on that i mean I'm I'm thinking of the fairgrounds as as
like said a regional catchall for a lot of a lot of events and a lot of things not necessarily sports but things of that nature that's a great question and I don't mean any disservice to the opinion of that particular architect but I think differently
actually i think uh there's a lot of synergy that comes with you know obviously there's some types of amenities that may not be good fits being in the same space but I don't think it's bad at all that you have synergy with a a location like the fairgrounds that's that may be able to
do double duty it's not the only I I just participated in a master planning process of the state fairgrounds for Idaho uh last year and one of the things that they were doing was ex taking that space and repurposing areas of it uh that are was adjacent to where the fair
is being state fair was held and adding more athletic and more traditional recreation amenities because it was such a popular location and it had such broad usage from different uh segments of the of the state's population so taking advantage of the opportunity to activate
that space in multiple ways uh is really efficient uh in many ways from a development perspective i I know the the fair had a good run this year had good weather had spring break and it's totally dependent on that i know the the the the livestock areas
getting larger i I see demands on just the fair itself needing more space in the next five to 10 years they had a really good turnout this year i mean again everything was perfect but still we're having more
events out there more car shows art shows concerts all that sort of stuff so you know throughout the year so I I see I see i'm glad that came up so thank you Mr chair and I appreciate uh all of the
hard work and I think uh board we should recognize that uh this particular department uh we can talk about pickle ball and we can talk about all the other things a lot of moving parts uh this is a tribute to their leadership moving
parts personnel issues budget issues and the like we have a successful product here um our parks are rated A there's no doubt about it i see uh fellow department heads in the audience and being somewhat competitive I would
challenge the other department heads to perform like this particular department big test very responsive uh any questions or emails or concerns goes to Beth and her staff are immediately answered my goal is for that to be
contagious agencywide and I do thank you for that Beth yes i see a young man in a blue blazer there uh he's rather ubiquitous in just about every event and I think he's the largest band
leader uh for the recreation endeavors that's why you have him in the position you have him getting back to the um assessment uh again I I hear uh the the fairgrounds you know the the last time
we did an assessment of needs was many years ago it was done internally uh with some outside support uh it was determined that soccer was growing and that's where that should be and that
whole section got dedicated and we improved the area um during the journey uh we uh improved the uh the David Fleetwood Pavilion we improved the uh
the fairgrounds the a area uh to a great extent with uh new soil new access the the building fans and you know I've seen every one of these enhancements receive dividends again I
mentioned the band leader but uh in essence we are growing and we saw the impact uh when I believe it was 2012 when I center was dedicated
uh a project that started out at somewhere an estimated $4 million and uh wound up ultimately being about $10 million in excess uh and several years later because of the economic
conditions but the vision was there and the vision was discussed about the uh fairgrounds then as well but due to economic concerns pull back but I see
the the fairgrounds as one of the next oysters as well as the the Hobart Park area that pond is absolutely breathtaking and well
utilized there's a group that goes there every day and the facilities now we didn't get the You mentioned something about facilities uh I don't know if we got the CEO on the the comfort stations
yet but that enhancement now we have uh disc golf and so many activities that exist on a daily basis i believe if we we go forward with anything in this
community it would be a north county enhancement it would be uh a a drive for uh a a diverse environment in the fairgrounds because yes it it's a great
facility to have the fair there there's an event if you look at the list there's an event there consistently now it used to be occasionally used to be at four or five events maybe a show here or there it's constantly busy again the band
leader so let's look forward to an enhancement at the fairgrounds because it's a worthwhile investment oh pickle ball we have covered down south quite quite a bit there we have brand new courts we have exterior courts
we have interior courts and uh climate controlled as well as plenty they can utilize on the outside pickle ball is fast growing sebastian has theirs as well and uh and Vero and I I believe
that across the board they you never have enough pickle ball courts but we have to focus in on certainly according to the pickle ballers many other endeavors but uh yes bring that up commissioner Adams okay we certainly are
a county that appreciates our open spaces and our parks so when you mentioned um adding neighborhood parks that that got my attention to your knowledge is there um a successful strategy or or strategies or methods of doing that that
have been used by other counties sure and you are already actually engaging in some of that and that's in partnership with development communities that are growing residential areas and it's part of that process uh either through impact fees or land dedication are helping you
develop new neighborhood parks that will serve those new residential areas so I know that in the comp plan process they're looking at u continuing to update the developer impact fees and that's something that's I'm sure you'll hear more about so do you work with the
planning department then to to do that to come about we do and their support is instrumental to being able to uh obtain funding and really harness uh those development um projects to our benefit
meaning if there's a development project going into an area we need to ensure that that impact for the local community has been offset by something and so for instance we have projects in the north part of the county the south part of the county uh where planning and development
is advocating for uh the for the residents of the community to ensure that uh those impacts are offset and then we can take those funds and we can either expand services in certain areas or even potentially uh build new neighborhood parks and the nice thing
about the parks and rec master plan uh that uh Carlos and and Brian and their team have put together for us is we now have identifiable areas where there are gaps so um Brian kind of flipped quickly through that but some of the most
important data that we will be using to make certain decisions comes from those analyses that show where the parks are in relation to other parks so that we can identify gaps so that we reduce the driving time or the walking time or the biking time to those neighborhood parks
and uh Commissioner Man I know that's something you had mentioned early on in the process was that you didn't feel like there were a lot of parks in your district like neighborhood parks so that'll be one of uh the things that we're using and now we actually have real data to make those important
decisions uh so that the most people can benefit from that investment so I'm really looking forward to that and we did not have that data before so that sounds wonderful thank you very much really unique opportunity is with during this project within there was a park
that was actually being proposed as a part of a a residential development and because we had a landscape architect and park planner on contract we were actually able to help Beth and her team by providing some schematic design ideas to direct that developers what would be the more optimal design approach to a
park like that uh so and then of course we have the design standards now that we've provided in this master plan to inform such a process like that or even you developing parks directly in the future yeah and I just want to point out that it's really important for us to be agile
because things are happening and changing so quickly right now so for instance when we started this project the Jackie Robinson uh training complex uh park or whatever it ends up being called was fairly new and hadn't the the thought process hadn't been developed
out completely yet and so as we're moving through I can see the benefit of maintaining that adaptability and the agility to respond to what is important and the community says that area is important you are telling us that that area is important and in that process
what we did is we slid the fairgrounds to a back to sort of a back burner again not completely forgetting about it but turning our focus to that also understanding moving the Hobart ballfield project forward because we had been sitting on that for a long time and that was something that we were
repeatedly hearing was important for us to move forward so I just think that it's important for us to be a little malleable so that we can be responsive um and the things will get done that need to get done but how they're shaped we need to be really listening to the
community and really listening to the guidance of our other departmental uh leaders and as well as being uh you know uh responsive to your concerns and the things that you're bringing up we have capacity issues and we can only do so much in a given period of time and so
just understanding that we may shift things forward we may shift things backward uh all the while we're listening so that we can incorporate that information and u not to take too much time but I did want to address the fairgrounds issue i think what's happening at Hobart complex which was
originally purchased in the 60s as a larger park complex i believe what we're seeing is that the development around that area when I moved here that was Orange Groves it's no longer Orange Groves and it's not going to be Orange Groves anymore so when I moved here all
of that has changed fairly rapidly within the last 20 years we have more uh residential neighborhoods being built and that you know 400 acre complex in total which includes Sandri golf course etc is now starting to move into my
opinion and Brian could give me some lessons here but what I'm seeing as a resident as a user as a professional is that is really turning into our regional park a true regional park if that happens there's opportunity to discuss
and think about moving the fairground grounds to a more appropriate location if you're thinking about the South Florida Fairgrounds or you're thinking about St lucy County Fairgrounds large fairgrounds build that close to the interstate build it where people travel
to the area bring in tourism and other economic development opportunities and really build it for that purpose because the land at Hobart is really critical now because it serves so many people it is really the central most location to our northern residents and our southern
residents it's about 15 minutes and I know 15 minutes in Indian River County is a long drive but it's really central it's the most central location and we already own the land and it's already purpose for parks and recreation so that's one of the takeaways and that was not something that before this study was
even a a seed in my mind you know it's been uh the causes and conditions coming from the community from the survey from the consultants and working with our partners in planning and development services and our other departments all of that starts to come together uh into a really beautiful opportunity I think
for the county to that when when you say to relocate the fairgrounds what do I mean elaborate build a new fairgrounds in a more appropriate location and utilize the existing fairgrounds as a more expansive regional
park system we already have the book of business so we just build it and they will come i will I'll put in my shameless plug if we're just going to talk about the fairgrounds um I would like a new a pavilion that has built-in wash racks so you don't have to
wash your cows for the show in the mud um and you know added added room i see several people nodding because they know what I'm talking about we have like 27 steers this year we had 60 some odd pigs we have um chickens
and rabbits that pavilion or that tent that they use they're fastly growing out of it in fact we had to borrow um resources from Ocola County just to house all the chickens this year um which is great it's a great problem to have that we have so much interest in a
but if we're talking about things that we want I would like a new a pavilion that can grow so that's my Christmas list um because that's important to me nonetheless but I'm other than that though I'm good i think you guys are
doing a good job commissioner brought up boats a couple of weeks ago and I I don't own a boat i support If I can bring the conversation to cows and chickens it makes me happy so I'm glad I got to wiggle that in there um but are you just looking for input do you need a
motion to approve this or what's the goal with the item a motion to accept or be accepting the master plan in its current form yeah I'll be happy to make that motion second thank you Brian you're welcome thank you thank you couple of placeholders Mr
chairman if I may just topics that came up through the presentation or comments from commissioners one is our partnerships so we have these long-standing fantastically successful partnerships with several private recreational organizations the most notable is the Indie Soccer Association
lacrosse association archery it goes on on all the way up to Major League Baseball um we have been getting sporadic requests for funding um Commissioner Laura brought up some great points that during the last one that was approved on consent agenda um these are becoming
more frequent and persistent and so we'll be discussing in our budget preparations just how to bring that to the forefront and potentially uh look at our historical funding of these agencies and partnerships and seeing if it's appropriate uh to actually budget them
so we know exactly what we have uh going into the fiscal year as opposed to we need a fence or we need lights county's done that in the past but it was so many years ago that and these initial investments in these agencies were were so robust that uh they they
kind of self um funded for a long time but now things are turning over so we're getting these types of requests so just a placeholder for discussion on our partnerships um the other one that was mentioned was dog parks so it's getting increasingly difficult for our staff to
remind folks that we have a county ordinance against dogs in parks now that those interests are now competing with the evolution of dog parks and dogs becoming more um present in many public spaces so
that's something that's ongoing the other one was to Commissioner Adams point was the five-year CIE doesn't always necessarily um is a good indicator of what we need now um it's it's not far off and there's many things in it that are consistent
with what we discussed today but when we talk about being malleable and nimble it's you know unbudgeted anything is a problem for local governments but there are needs that we need to be responsive that may not fit into a budget or a fiveyear CIE
and we have to be able to recognize that and adjust and adapt and shift and rep prioritize on the fly um I my famous saying is county is like life it's managed it's never cured so you're going to come up things are going to come up and you have to be ready for them and lastly I heard some about
naming rights so I think maybe it's time that we thought about naming the North County Aquatic Center to something that's more conducive to uh what actually happens there and what happens there is Olympic training and a lot of
fun and a lot of splashing so maybe we take six months and do a campaign i'll throw out Olympic Splash Park and let's see who can beat that name and what the benefits are explorer to explore in um corporate naming right partnership for
that facility that's all I got thank you thank you anything further Mr chair just to clarify the the staff recommendation was to approve the Indian River County Parks
Recreation Plan and authorize Parks and Wreck and the Conservation Director to approve any minor modifications necessary to finalize the plan for publication which would address discovered errors or omissions that do not significantly alter the intent of
the plan it's more than just accept yes that was my motion thank you for stating that so succinctly yes and again and the second still stands um some items that were discussed
were discussed as uh wants and wishes and uh thoughts as we're getting closer and closer to budget season and as we are making those determinations they will be discussed at a later time of all
the envisionments that we have for this great county but uh again the presentation thank you very thorough and I think that we have a great canvas to work with anything further all right a motion in a
second all in favor opposed you're going to get a 5 Brian thank you now the next item is item I A1 which is approval of resolution adopting a fee
for review and approving developers agreements and we have council coming to the podium morning development so I love a good full circle moment so we heard with the parks master plan one
of the biggest things that we enter in in that master plan is also developer agreement so I know we had Meritage Homes that did our last we had our last uh developers agreement that came before this board and that you voted on one of the things that happened that was a
20-year project to get off the ground but also funded and finally get a developers agree out of that developers agreement was something very important um for that parks master plan as well was $90,000 for contribution for the south county initiative parks so there
is a few neighborhoods that will be coming forward uh during the boom that we had built into this south county initiative one of those mechanisms that helps us do that is through developers agreements we've known through the past couple meetings we've had we've seen
four this year uh previously there was a lot more prior to everybody being on this board we have about four more on the pipeline uh our department planning and development services working along with all of the rest of the departments throughout the county have uh got a
process in place to start moving those forward um as looking at developers agreements and state statutes there are some uh legal costs that arise whether it be through just reviews uh outside legal council reviews or internal legal
council reviews as well as advertising uh we were one of the few counties that do not charge for developers agreements when we review these they do go through multiple different departments they have a lot of extensive review to make sure that we're getting exactly what we need as a community since it is a legal
binding contract that's something that we want to make sure is completed so that the developer and the county have all of their physically and financial responsibilities uh so this fee I did an analysis uh with Miss Prada through all
of the communities uh on the east coast north and south of us uh the fee ranges anywhere between $1,800 to $5,000 uh $2,500 with all of our costs that I've looked at puts us right in the middle uh it's not too large and it's
not too small so at the request I would request it be approved and I know Susan can speak as well on some of the reviews that go into it i just want to say that um when looking at this with Chris I did look at to the different numbers between the 1,800 and
the 5,000 and I will tell you that usually myself alone I put in 20 sometimes 20 plus hours per developer agreement um so the 2500 is a generous number um to give to be able to do this for them
[Music] that's your estimate yes does that interfere with your salary no sir however it the charging of a developer's agreement um fee is in align
with uh the regular Florida statute that says that any new development shall pay for any and all costs that they bring forward to that community and not have the other taxpaying citizens be burdened by it i understand I mention that because any
added cost to the endeavor of development is going to be offset to the ultimate homeowner it It's just I because I I know that they're not in the developers are not in the business to lose money
and this is an additional cost factor i I guess that will be offset to the homeowner as we're driving to get
to an affordable level of housing attainable housing and it's just another cost to just put on and then be redistributed to all of the applicants the people that
are paying the freight the homeowners uh eventually so I I wonder if we can if we did so to carve out an afford affordability laws uh and
central sensibilization to encourage affordability to encourage attainability to not have that application course
uh applied if the application meets certain criteria i would not disagree with that Commissioner i would just ask that it be actual statutory affordability and not um just a willy-nilly definition of what affordability is pursuant to each
developer could you enumerate these statutoily acceptable verbiage for affordability i do not have it off the top of my head but I think I recall it being around chapter 400 of the Florida statutes and I'm sure that any developer and their attorney are more than capable of
looking that up before they apply just an approach to perhaps maybe encourage some thought process i I know it's not large but if it's a thousand or two uh it's something to say you know what
maybe I'm incentivized to create something a little where we can get some workforce underneath moves commissioner Flesher if I may uh when Andy worked on this last it was May of
last year he actually built in some language that allows the uh public works director and the actual planning and development services director to wave those application fees for affordable housing projects and in our definitions the affordable housing projects have to
meet the state standard so it that is already actually in the language on the notes section subsection um three so you're saying that our definition and
council is saying that so long as it fits the statutoily acceptable terminology for affordability so yes sir how's it going to work just what it as
Mr belter just said for the other fees it does say that that they're able to weigh so wave them if it meets the statutory definition so I would just ask that this be applied in the same way that if this fee gets adopted that if it would be something that dealing with affordability it could also be waved by
the public works director or planning and services director if it deals with affordability pursuant to the statute just as all the other fees do thank you any questions of staff on this application
no I'd be happy to move approval second like to uh you have a motion in a second and is there anybody from the audience that wishes to uh talk on this seeing
none motion and second all in favor i opposed merry motion passes unanimously thank you now move on to public works
we have uh item J A1 which is a followup uh the options for paving of 32nd Avenue in Gford neighborhood and there's attachments there's a survey and we and there's a Dr
good morning honorable chair and commissioners ai Javeed your public works director here to give you an update on uh Gford neighborhood plan as it relates to 32nd Avenue and 43rd place uh at the last meeting in March you had
directed the staff to come back with some additional information so today I'm here to present some of that additional information including the survey that we had done of those two streets and then also give you a recap and then provide some engineering and some cost and
scheduling information for you to perhaps you know provide us some more guidance in terms of where you want us to move forward you know when it comes to paving 32nd Avenue all right okay so I quickly wanted to recap the three options that were discussed at the
last commission meeting i do want to point out as uh part of the the first option last time you know when I presented this information staff was under the impression that uh 43rd place is actually an existing county right away but further research by our county
survey team and by legal uh team we actually discovered that it's actually a 30-foot ingress and egress easement versus a dedicated rideway so as it stands right now both 43rd place and 32nd Avenue both are private
streets second option that we talked about last time was doing some paving on 43rd place and 32nd Avenue and the last option was basically the third option which included not only just paving but also included drainage and the ultimate
solution which would take care of all the flooding issues in the Griffin neighborhood if you recall the price tax for all these three options range between 300,000 to about $2.5 million we have also looked at some options to see how we can bring the prices
down i do want to also mention uh did some more research one of the things that sometimes gets confusing is because of the street signage that we have out there you know it gives the perception that these are public streets so something that the staff research is
that maybe identifying these streets as private streets so if you look at the the slide that I have on the screen right now it shows a best practice by Hillsboro County where what they're doing is they are using blue street signs to dedicate the or to identify the
the private uh streets as private streets so with your permission and consensus one of the things what public works would like to do is anytime we have any private streets we would like to go ahead and change those green street signs to those blue street signs
with with the fact so it helps identify everybody that these are private streets and not public streets so just a recommendation for your consideration is there an abundance of of subject streets similar to There seems to be
quite a few since I've been here it looks like you know we get a lot of questions about whether this is a public street or a private street when it comes to maintenance of our you know paved and unpaved streets so this would definitely help so you know it's out there everybody can look at it i think if you
want to bring that back as a separate agenda item that would be more appropriate we'll do yes ma'am with costs and all that kind of stuff yes we'll do and I mean this would be more on you know as needed basis but at least wanted to bring this to your attention that seems like this comes up over and over again where there's a question
whether this is a public and private street and something like this would help alleviate some of those questions and that's why I brought up the amount because I realize that this could be a significant impact and what we can do is we can roll it out slowly especially
like hotspots and areas of concerns that you know keeps coming up repeatedly and then roll it out from there so it doesn't have to be a countywide initiative you know right off the bat but something we can work on slowly but surely but at least wanted to bring this this to your attention that this would
be something that we will be bringing back to you just a little bit more information just like I said option one was paving off 43rd place just these are just the recap of the option that we discussed at the last meeting obviously this is going
to be within the existing ingress and egress easement uh there could be additional cost for either trying to get some kind of a perpetual easement or rightway dedication from the owners the cost for this was about
312K per our discussion at the last commission meeting option two included 43rd place and uh paving of 32nd Avenue with some minor drainage improvements the cost was if you recall was about a million dollar
and the third option included again just like I mentioned before the complete drainage improvements and the cost for this was about 2.5 million this gives you an idea of the the topography and and the survey just
that we just recently did for the neighborhood one of the things I also wanted to point out u was the concern about flooding the the homeowners in terms of like if you were to pave the street so there's about a 3-fft diff difference between the elevation on the
ground on the street versus the finished floor elevations so as it stands right now the finished floor elevations of most of the homes in this neighborhood are range between 21 ft to 21 ft whereas the ground elevation for the dirt street
ranges between 18 foot to about 18 1/2 ft so just like I said there's about a 3ft difference between the the finished floor elevations and the ground elevation of the the dirt street so that gives us a little bit comfort that if we were to pave and do stuff we would not
basically be you know directing all the runoff into the private homes also something I wanted to point out uh by doing the survey that the dirt strip that is out there you know the width of that ranges anywhere between 5t
to about 15t as you can probably look at the survey information it's not consistent throughout that street so in some cases it's as narrow as 5 foot in other cases it's as wide as like you know almost 15 to 20 foot wide strip
we also did some more research and found out that you know we have going to have about impact to 10 residents and there are at least 10 vacant parcels out there and there's a potential let's say if we were to move forward with getting uh the
ultimate uh drainage solution in addition to your paving option you know those one of those vacant parcels can be recommended to be used as a pond just again just an option and an idea out there just for the ultimate built out if that's something that the commission
would like to consider we were also asked to see if we can go out there and stake the proposed rideway as we were had proposed at the last uh commission meeting that uh you know we are looking at about a 30ft wide rightway so as you look on your screen
right now this identifies some of the stakes that were put out there surprisingly I don't know if this is by design or something maybe somebody had looked at in the past but some of those stakes were right on the edge of where the existing fences are again I don't know if it's a coincidence but it just
seems like in some ways those stakes or that proposed 30 foot wide right away you know when we put the stakes out there they were right on the edge of those fences i do want to point out that if we were to move forward with some of the proposed improvements this could in
include uh relocation about 18 mailboxes that we counted along the 43rd place and 32nd Avenue this next screen shows you some of the proposed typical sections so if you look at the one at the bottom it
shows the existing uh topography in the area which includes the the dirt street uh the one in the middle is the one that we're recommending as a preferred option which includes about a 14 ft wide paved street and two 5-ft wide swailes on
either sides to help alleviate some of the drainage concerns the the typical section on the top is the one that is the ultimate buildout and if you can look at it you know it also shows that it will include some drainage pipes to basically bring all the runoff from 32nd
a uh avenue and 43rd place all the way along to 33rd and then take it all the way to 45th Street i also wanted to present some of the paving options that that were discussed at the last commission meeting obviously if you look at the the picture
on the left hand side it shows the existing uh dirt street in the middle you know if you were to move forward with milling of the streets this what it would look like i mean obviously much better than a dirt street and something else that was brought up at the last meeting was the chip seal option i
actually even identified a location down in Fort Pierce so if you look at the the right hand corner the the top photo it shows where the chief seal has been applied in our neighborhood or you know close to Indian River County the name of the street is Seol Road south of uh
State Road 614 and this street was paved about 3 years ago would be happy to take you or if you would like you know give you the information anybody who would like to see what chips looks like what it feels like and if you want to drive on it you certainly can do it then if there's any additional questions we
would be happy to answer about that and obviously also for comparison purposes also wanted to include uh pave street so if you look at the the bot bottom right hand corner you will see 43rd place or 43rd street which is the existing pave street that's what it would look like so
if you compare chip seal to the paved 43rd Street they're pretty comparable maybe a little bit rougher ride when it comes to the chip seal but it's a little bit more economical and can still serve the purpose as what the commission is trying to do uh for your benefit I also
included an infographic about what chip seal means so what it typically does is that you grade the the dirt road you put some asphalt emulsion or binder on it and then you put uh basically the aggregate chips and you roll a grater out there and you flatten it and what it
does is that with the emulsion it basically fills in on the all the gaps and stuff and helps keep the chips and the gravel together for the long haul something else that was asked at the last commission meeting was to include some scheduling and cost information so
after talking to some of the contractors and consultants and getting their feedback in terms of what it would look like you know if we were to move forward with engineering and design so if you look at it you know the information that was provided by some of our consultants they are thinking that this the
engineering and design for a project like this can take anywhere from 4 to 9 months and the cost of the engineering fee for that can range anywhere between 40,000 to about 200k permitting based on our some conversations with the permitting jurisdictions and again experience uh
working with other consultants it's expected that permitting can take about 3 to 4 months and the average cost for that came about uh around 15k for rightway dedication or perpetual easement you know again that depends
whether the homeowners or the affected residents are willing to donate the rightway or the easement to us or do we have to go through the negotiation process and that can range anywhere from 3 to 12 months obviously the price for that can again vary based on the assess
value of those homes or the market value last thing is the construction so again depending on the technique or the preferred option the range for the the construction schedule can vary between 2 to 6 months and and the cost based on
the direction we got from the commission at the last meeting can range anywhere between 350K to about a million dollar so that's a quick overview of the additional information along with the recap from the last commission meeting and I stand here for any questions that
you may have doc that's uh that information as far as the uh chip ceiling uh again it's closer to an asphalt application than
millings uh would the cost savings be uh ample enough to offset some of the drainage application it it certainly can help with offsetting the cost for drainage application yes sir mr the the
community spoke uh and representatives from the community uh also fully supported the uh the middle line if it had the enhanced drainage uh the drainage is a tremendous concern has
always been a tremendous concern in that area and it was uh one of the uh the main thoughts when the Gford neighborhood project was revisited and reestablished and we were moving forward with some drainage applications
so if I I just wanted that thought process if the chip ceiling would offset enough and you said it would do significantly it will it will i mean obviously the the cost can be shifted to address some of the drainage concerns
versus you know spending more money on on on the paving itself yes sir biggest obstacle moving forward uh permitting could be could be one of the things and then right away that could be tough for you and right away you know negotiations
could be another thing those two thing in terms of the engineering and construction those are more simple straightforward but typically the permitting again we're looking at different options it could be an exemption or it could be a full-blown permit again depending on the option we will pick and then the second thing
would be the right of way impacts or you know the dedication by the residents whether they would be willing to donate this to us or would we need to go back and negotiate you know any kind of rightway taking with the homeowners because again both of these streets right now as it stands are private
streets you have all the properties identified yes sir and in having all those properties identified uh you will begin the process of dealing with them we will so the way typically the process works
is you know you do some engineering in design you identify some of those impacts then the surveyors go back and they will prepare with the help from the county attorney's office all the legal sketches and that that's when you go back to the residents and you start the negotiation process or at least begin
the conversation with them well it's been a project that's been long envisioned and even longer time in coming so uh with that in mind how much how much addition do you anticipate
with the understanding that we need additional right of way so again if all the homeowners are amenable and agreeable to you know working with the county and giving us the right away that we need it can take
few months but again you know I don't know if all the residents live in the community or you know if some of them are renting so again those are some of the questions we would have to to to reach out to the residents and see and again you know it could be few months and sometimes something like this can
take anywhere from 6 to 12 months again just depending on I wish I had a crystal ball where I can tell you exactly how long it will take but certainly the the initiative from the county staff's perspective would be to you know expedite this thing and get it done in next few months and I'm sure with the
help from the county attorney's office and our county survey team you know we will jump on it we haven't seen it on on the actual diagramming but we or plan but we have
seen it uh as far or heard about um roadway to mailbox or roadway to front threshold to the home uh is there much concern with that complications not at this time if and one of the things what
we can do is that we will work closely with the with the engineer and the contractor and one of the recommendations that I would make is maybe we make it more like a design build approach where the contractor and the consultant work together with the neighborhood so we can kind of help alleviate some of those concerns
otherwise it becomes a longdrawn process again just some of the things for you to consider thank you yes sir Mr chairman yes I may to follow up on some of those are good questions is this how how under the the
main plan how how wide would the road be is it we talking a two-lane road we're looking at almost like a one lane road so it would be like 14 to 15 foot wide yes sir okay and there's no doubt whether we were talking Gford neighborhood plan or anything else this
road needs this area needs to be improved for the road so that that was my thoughts was you know a onelane road maybe on the 32nd Avenue lot you know wider road on 40 you know maybe if
there's room 42nd place and then you know for the whole thing but yeah yeah commissioner Flesher chairman has some good questions and those were what I was going to ask so but this would be more of a one lane road yes sir okay it would
be right because if we went 30 is this the 30 feet that it would take it will take about 30 feet so just like I said about a 14 to 15 foot wide paved section and then you would have about 5 foot uh strips of swailes on either side so 10
plus you know 14 or 15 you're looking about 25 foot wide improvements within the 30ft right away well I like the idea of working with the homeowner see what would make them happy i mean some of them may want to sell their right away
and make money some of them I wouldn't think that that that you're going to get many takers if it's going to come up because they're like you said their threshold of their door that's just that's just a big issue with me so no I'm just curious to see what everybody else says but I'm Yeah
kind of with you hey yes ma'am i I wasn't here for the original uh compilation of the Gford neighborhood plan um if you know is this the worst street in the area is that is that why we're looking at this i believe
there are other streets in the area that has come up i wasn't here myself either so I don't know some of the reasons but I believe it was part of the initial Gford neighborhood plan maybe Chris Baldr might have more information on the back background and
and I'm sorry did you say was is this public or private road these are both private streets right now ma'am so this is this is a private 43rd road 43rd place and 32nd Avenue as it stands right now are both private okay thank you give you a little history uh it was part
of the initial Git neighborhood plan for drainage and for paving and again as Dr that he indicates uh it was unknown that it was private
and I think we talked about that with the county administrator uh some year ago about private versus uh public and when there was a the initial
inquiry but reflecting back to the given neighborhood plan it was in there for the drainage we applied the the the handhole person hole okay
uh that cap is higher than the roadway grading and as the the dirt road deteriorates uh through wear tear and um movement of
water uh or lack of drainage uh it's then deteriorating to a point where uh the that cast iron cap is higher and at times scrapes the bottom of the vehicles and that was the nexus
into moving forward and doing something i think we proposed to do a flaring out and that was debuffed because it that will eventually erode and collapse anyway that's just adding a temporary
band-aid to a major cast problem and I believe then that's when we went revisited back into this was a commitment by the Gford neighborhood before the Gford neighborhood plan and we went halfway through it uh I believe
the previous uh public works director uh said that uh it would not be done u and uh there was too many issues and that it was choked off as such uh and I want to thank you uh yes
you were greatly urged to revisit this and I I'd just like to see it happen again had we known this was all private that there was no right of
way perhaps maybe that should have been known when we committed to the community on the drainage and to the paving uh in the plan and as a a commitment uh to improve the drainage
we perhaps maybe it would have been a little easier to digest now that this is a private road versus a public road or local street uh and I do you agree yes
sir dr i I think there was some complications but nonetheless we have to get through all the complications and get to the original commitment to a dedication to better infrastructure and safer infrastructure yes sir and that's
why we presented all the pros and cons and our findings to you so you have a complete picture of where we are and what we have found thank you i just want to address that what would be your recommendation you
have a re staff recommendation so staff recommendation is kind of the the middle of the road based on the feedback that we had received from the commission at the last meeting about a you know 14t or a 15t wide paved section and preferably if everybody agrees or you know if you
get the consensus from the commission and if the community is okay with it to go with the chip seal versus the actual pave street but that's just a recommendation you know it's it is completely up to you whether you want to pave it based on the initial commitment as it was I guess identified in the
Gford neighborhood plan again not not being an engineer I take the opportunity to take you up on the offer and visit the Gypsy location and it's a road it It's a road uh I think
it's again personally uh not having your expertise I feel that the chip seal is far closer to a paved environment that lasts 15 20 years and
as opposed to the millings which you estimate is 5 to eight years and it's it's far closer to a paved environment so I think uh If if if the cost factor
offsets the amount that has to enhance the drainage I I believe it's a great benefit also wanted to point out since Norway wasn't that rough yes and the other thing I want to point out is it's not a heavily traveled street section so you
know basically that street section is used by the residents themselves so chip seal would still work like you know if it was like heavy traffic area then probably paving would make more sense again just just a recommendation totally up to the commission
thank you yes sir well um that was that that that was my whole thing from the beginning with this to spend like $2.5 million on a road that's not heavily traveled but yet it needs improved what's the what's the best way to do it
i like where we're going with this give you the opportunity to work with your residents work with the civic association and others to to do this um we need to start moving forward on this plan as a whole and this if we can
do it at a at a do the get the same results at a lower cost maybe we can spend the money elsewhere on other drainage through the Gford community or other other places but we need to keep talking about this and move on with it so I'll make move staff recommendation
to use the middle of the road working with the residents and and in and evaluating and preferably using the the chip seal process to move this project forward second
um I I I think we're on a good course but we have a law enforcement officer i'd like to have a a speeding ticket issued sometime during the process well hopefully you won't have that issue on this on this street sir no no i No we
won't have the an actual speed issue i virtually I'd like to see a speeding ticket on the progress of this particular project it's been a long time coming it's many years and thank you for
revitalizing the ball i I do have uh I see a few folks in attendance that uh have been very much part of this journey uh if anyone would like to speak in in behalf of the the the project or what
the discussion was good morning commissioners uh Tony Brown uh I kind of had a drop in my stomach sitting there for a moment when it went private that this was a private street uh I'm not necessarily a conspiracy theorist but my mind went there
momentarily uh because all through the history Joe and I were talking I've never known it to be a private road i grew up thinking it was a county road but that being said I I like what AIA is
saying i thought it was off but uh I like the the the idea uh that the chip road one you know access road uh moving forward and I also concur with commissioner Fletcher let's get a
speeding ticket in the process of moving this forward we've been waiting over 20 years and it's it's just over and over uh and as you I saw the stakes you virtually have the area that you need
but I also like the idea of conferring with the residents uh if if some even a walk through to say this is what we're planning some of them are aware of it some of them are not uh but just to let the community know we're moving uh we
want your input this is what we're planning to do and that middle of the road I concur with uh but I just want to see this done and done happen uh soon as possible and I thank everybody for for doing what they're doing
thank you Mr brown i am Myra Ferguson and I grew up on 32nd Avenue and we all knew that that was a private road that the people that lived on 32nd Avenue they gave up property so that that road could come through there because there was no access it has
always been private we still have property on that street i went through and did a drive-thru as well as myself and I saw that our property unlike some of the other properties it's right at the property line but it comes up onto our property um I don't have a problem
with you putting the pavement through there at all i just want you to make sure that you speak with those people that live on that street that and I saw that at the first house coming in that the stake was right at the fence on both sides of the street coming in and in
some areas it's up further in the property so I understand that when they paid 43rd and 66 and 27 there was compensation given to those individuals that lived there that gave up portion of their property so the world could come
through there and I want the same consensus for those people that live on 32nd Avenue thank you anything further uh I don't want to just Good morning i don't want to just basically repeat what
Tony said but the chips here I like that as well so that that middle of the road I'm all for that middle of the road as well thank you seeing no further we have uh motion by commissioner seconded by myself no further
discussion all in favor opposed motion carried unanimously thank you commissioners all right take the deputy with you at this time we urge to take a break and a break we will
you know I know but The meeting will now be called back to order and uh next item is uh from utility services uh Mr sean Leski is going to give us a review of America's water
infrastructure act and the risk and resilience assessment updates good morning commissioners it's still morning hard to believe just under just under noon um Sean Le again utilities director we just have a brief update so
over about the last six months a little bit longer and we started this in September we have been working with a partner Arcadus uh to go through um some requirements that were required actually and and they'll kind of get into this a little bit more as a result of America's
Water Infrastructure Act that was a national or national legislation that was enacted by Congress um in 2018 and it had some requirements that we had to do um and we had to initially do these back um several years ago and every five years we have to do an update um we
brought this to you I think um last year in 2024 to start this process and um we have since completed the risk and resiliency portion of this we are going to continue actually working with them um to update our emergency response plan as well um but we've had a great
partnership with with Arcadus over the last six months there's a couple of individuals here today um from Arcadus representing there um Corey Sap and Ryan Blada are here from Arcadius um Corey's going to actually be part of the presentation this morning along with
Howard Richards our capital projects manager um I'd also wanted to kind of take a minute to recognize a couple of key players from Arcadus that were involved with this zahhira Tieso Tasada who was the project manager for Arcadus and actually is going to continue being the project manager on the risk and
resiliency and Giovana Batista um who was played an integral part of of the project as well um just we're here to give you kind of an update on the process and what we went through um but but as we get through this please keep in mind that the results of this are
really um confidential and proprietary we're looking at kind of risks to our system and how we kind of address those risks and so the plan itself is not open to to public record it is a protected document um so really what we're going to be talking about today is general
what we went through what we evaluated how we evaluated it um and the importance of of kind of taking that next step of can we mitigate some of those risks that were evaluated as part of the study so with that I'm going to turn it over to Howard i don't want to steal their thunder there's a there's a
lot of information here to provide but I'm going to turn it over to Howard and he's going to kind of give an introduction and we'll kind of move forward from there thank you good morning commissioners uh Howard Richards manager of capital projects department of
utilities it thank you Sean uh for that introduction so to give you a quick background in 1984 we had the Rajni um by a terror terror attack in the Dah's
Oregon uh with a salmonella contamination of uh the city water supply tank and there was an outburst of about 750 cases in 2001 we had the World Trade Center attack that led to the
passing of the Bioteterrorism Act in 2002 requiring utilities to conduct vulnerability assessments of their physical assets against terrorism or intentional acts then shortly after in
2005 we had Katrina where hundreds of drinking water utilities and wastewater utilities were impacted costing over $2 billion in infrastructure damages according to AWA American Waterworks Association assessment
um then in 2014 we had chemical spill at Elk River in Charleston Virginia where hundreds receive hospital care and that cost over $72 million uh in recovery then in 2014 we had the
Flint River uh cris flint uh Flint water crisis where thousands of children were exposed to lead poisoning that is estimated at in the millions to billions for years to come and in 2018 there was
ransomware attack at the in the city of Atlanta that was estimated at the time to be $9.5 million in recovery efforts but it turns out to be much more than that so these are just some events that
have taken place over the years that led to the passing of America's Water Infrastructure Act on October 23rd uh 2018 uh we call that AEA a WEIA seeks to address threats
to safe adequate and reliable drinking water a WEA also mandates that community water systems serving greater than 3,300 people to conduct risk and resilience assessments of their water
system against malevolent acts and natural hazards and to update their emergency response plan awa also uh highly recommends doing it for wastewater as well but the law does not cover wastewater just for water systems
the law requires um also requires updates every five years and um IRC's Department of Utilities certified its first risk and resilience assessment in
March of 2020 which sets the first five-year renewal at March 31st of this year which we had uh completed that and the emergency response plan is due 6 months after so that's going to be due
in September of this year so last year October 10th uh 2024 the board approved work order number one to Arcadus to assist with completing updates to the risk and resilience assessment we've as Sean mentioned we've completed the risk
and resilience assessment and we're in the process of completing the the emergency response plan now so at this time I will turn it over to Corey Sap who will go through the process for the risk and resilience assessment first I'd like to thank the
utilities department their staff and you know all of the effort they put in with us this is a very collaborative effort between the consultant and the utility wherever we do this and we went through workshops we you know went site visits
they really went out of their way to help us and were very responsive so and that we really appreciate that it helps facilitate the whole thing and make it much more meaningful to to this water system
so under AEIA they have you look at what we call all hazards and all aspects of the water system so everything from the pipe system the transmission mains the infrastructure above ground below ground
the monitoring of the water and the financial infrastructure of the utility as far as you know being able to respond and you know having what they need and the disinfection chemicals and other chemicals used in treatment processes or
elsewhere the operation and maintenance aspects that might be affected what the capital needs are for improving and the things that you're doing now versus in the future and in what you've done in the past they really like to see that improvement
timeline um cyber is one of the big components we do an entire cyber security assessment or cyber assessment uh and again we look at natural hazards malevolent acts and and other risks as
well so EPA has approved the use of an industry standard under American waters work association called J 100 and this has been updated several times over the years and it is for the risk and resilience management of water and
wastewater systems so we use the standard routinely and so the assessment follows the basic seven steps so just to kind of walk you through where we start and where we end we start with looking at
the assets and characterizing their criticality and you know how they function in the system we call them mission critical some of them are single points of failure some of them are necessary for firefighting pressure you know treatment of the water so that it
is safe and then we characterize all the threats that could impact that mission and it's an allhazards approach um we also look at dependency threats you know supply and demand especially since after
COVID we found that was a big deal and we're constantly learning about new and different threats also accidental threats things that might be near you that might happen and affect your accessibility to that asset
and then we move to the next stage where we have paired all of the critical assets and all of the threats that are applicable to those and we look at what the consequence would be and that is you know the impacts to the utility and as
well to the community so it looks at both a community regional level economically as well as the utility itself um then we look at the vulnerability of those assets to that threat for example
are they designed to withstand the hurricane that type of thing um how well the redundant the system is you can work around these things or not and then threat likelihood each of the threats
has either an assigned likelihood that the EPA recommends or we look at research data for natural hazards we look at future conditions that might affect these assets and we look at what
they use what they depend on the supply and manufacturing of things and the proximity of other potential things that could happen and we put a likelihood to that value it's generally on a per year
basis so say once every 10 years or you know how often do the hurricanes come at what strength and the impact that they would have and then um after that we do the risk assessment which is basically just
identifying your highest risk um to your lowest and your resiliency um in each of those cases and then the last step is managing that risk looking at initiatives projects things that you
can do to lower the risk and increase the resiliency of your system to withstand these threats any questions i know it's kind of a it's just a step-wise process that has a lot of intric intricacies in
between so to give a little bit more detail about what we did look at um we looked at the critical assets we took all of the utility assets and divided them as tier one tier one two or tier
three the tier one were identified as this must be operating in order to meet your mission criteria meet health and safety standards and firefighting pressure throughout the event or the impact and also single points of failure
which obviously would cause part of the system to go down tier 2 are important facilities they support these assets they keep them running optimally but we are looking at when they're under threat or an emergency so you can pull back a little
bit in some cases so they're important facilities to keep in mind and we did look at them not necessarily run them through the whole process but make sure they were accounted for and tier three are redundant assets that provide that
res resiliency or they're not critical you know or they're shuttered at the time so we pick the highest ones to take a look at because that's really we want to focus our time and effort and then we go through and we've had workshops to
identify what are the natural hazards of concern in your area now and in the future that may get worse um accidental hazards you know things like accidentally you know dosing a chemical or you know really looking at that O
andM process or if someone is constructing something how often do pipes get broken you know how does that system work within the county is it working well or not um construction things like that um malevolent threats it can be anything
from terrorism to you know theft or vandalism um dependency hazards we look at chemicals the disinfection chemicals that you need and you know the supply and demand of that we look at power and diesel fuel to
run generators things that you need in emergency and depend on to continue your operations and then the two proximity hazards in the area are basically the airport and railroads because a lot of rail loan
rail lines run by some critical facilities and if there were to be an accident as we know that happens what would happen you know how would that impact the utility's ability to continue to operate as well as if there were an aircraft accident even if it just means
coordinating off the area for a long time and you can't get there or if it hits it directly so then when we get to the risk step the actual analysis we're looking at what are the expected losses if that occurrence happened you
know and we're talking about the worst reasonable case scenario we're looking at things you know like a hurricane Katrina or things that really could bring that system down for a long time because we don't want that to happen and resilience is your ability to adapt
or withstand those effects so if it does hit you know how well is that structure going to stand up or how well is that process going to continue um without interruption and if it is interrupted how long would it be down
and what are your abilities to recover rapidly and then the equation is you multiply that consequence that vulnerability and the threat likelihood and that becomes your risk number and risk is calculated in dollars
just to have a comparison to go by it's not the amount of money you'd be putting out it's the economic impacts it's things beyond your control it's also you know some of the burdens that you might face
so the resilience portion of the assessment which is a different indicator it's a composite indicator that comes under this um standard from AWA and it looks at your community that
you're within as well as your you know bond rating your and your resources and how you have progressed through various programs that are meant to keep those assets running and renewed and you know
maintained and also your ability to respond and continue operations and your planning around those types of things so it takes it's a scaled indicator and it comes up with a percent and I will say
that the county is above the median so there's room for improvement but you are doing better than the average bear so that is good news um and the department did certify to the EPA and
it's just a check we did this as we said it's confidential they do not give it to anyone and it's held under tight control and needs permission it's not under FOYA it's not under Florida sunshine state laws to disclose any of it and they did
this on March 28th in 2025 so it was an honor to help them to get to that step any questions about the process we went through the standards that we used or the things that we looked at
no what was make us better than the average bear well the average bear is about 50% so we were above 50% above 60% but there there is room for improvement and
that's what we're here to bring out and target and say what's your highest priorities you know what are your riskiest things what are your lowhanging fruits you can do easily you can do quickly versus longer term planning and there's a lot of things i mean we work
with utilities nationwide and in the territories and there are a lot of things it doesn't always have to be millions and millions of dollars worth of improvements and Howard will shall share
some of the good news oh one more slide mitigation strategies this is where we work on improvement so there's we categorize them in different ways so redundancy that lowers consequences if you have two of something instead of one
of something you have a way around time to repair and don't lose your service um hardening in technology this is mainly security and cyber assets and that reduces your vulnerability to a lot
of the malevolent acts um asset improving that's asset management improving the reliability and the functioning of what you're working with it could be policies and procedures making sure the staff are aware know
what they're doing know you know what to do what not to making sure the training is there the operations and maintenance are running smoothly and recognizing when there is an event um people resources this is often
a big one a lot of utilities struggle with you know people retiring and being able to transfer that tremendous institutional knowledge over time it's making sure you have positions filled and that you you know have the resources
you need to do it and run in an efficient and effective manner spare parts and being able to do the repairs yourself quickly reducing that downtime of an asset emergency preparedness which
is the section we're working on now and how to respond and have training and do exercises so that this is not you know an out ofthe- blue thing that you've never you've at least virtually experienced or thought about and
planning looking for the best solutions for tomorrow which a lot has a lot to do with you know source water or drought or what would you do in the event of so with that Howard will talk about things you're doing now yeah I'll just finish
up with some of the key projects that um we have been working on or plan to do in the near term um we just completed a compliance variance evaluation at Hobart water treatment plant uh uh dig the departmental records digital conversion
uh allows to retain records um the industrial control system upgrade is a key project that um that is a collaboration between the department of utilities and IT department as well working on that project together um
we're doing some PLC upgrades uh PLC is part of our operational technology that we use in the utilities uh at both Oslo and Hobart water treatment plant we just completed Oslo and we're in the process of wrapping up Hobart and uh we're in
phase two now of the upper Florida and aquifer S1R replacement uh we just finished up S1 uh in the near term we have some uh quick hit projects is what we call them uh they can reduce our risk
in terms of exposure dollars at minimal costs things like employee parking segregation at Hobart Water Treatment Plant ensuring that we always have uh adequate uh personal uh protective equipment on hand uh we want to continue
to make sure we have adequate portable generators for whenever we have hurricane and and power outages at our lift stations for example um and we want to make sure that where we have sensitive projects going on on
site they're being managed by um utility staff and uh we want to have telemetry monitoring of our wells as well for for blending and then delegation of admin rights as needed limiting assignment of domain admin groups members again these
projects on the right are fairly low cost but high you know risk reduction or improving our resiliency as well so with that I think we'll thank you very much for your time today and um we'll take any questions that you may have
i appreciate the the overview uh again talking about threats and risks and what we're exposed to i I remember speaking with uh the founder of Arcadus back in
2006 wow and we were talking about again this was still fresh with some of the the larger national threats that had taken place
and we talked about water security it was at the same time as uh there was a few individuals talking about reservoirs out west of town and uh collectors and that topic came up very quickly that uh
again uh we might be a little concerned if we wanted to do an open reservoir out west or several open reservoirs out west but water concerns were uh clearly uh a big factor
subsequently a few years later um we had an individual open up again not enumerated here but open up a large percentage of our fire hydrants depleting the water to our
system below acceptable minimal standards and causing emergency response to all fire hydrant locations as they were discovering that someone which later was identified but
had opened up a huge amount of our fire hydrants they produce a lot of they deliver a lot of water and it was done in the middle of the night and by morning time we had grave concerns
that was not a contaminant that was a a a system concern though that that could be done uh since then there were some changes but uh I was impressed i mentioned back in 2006 and either you're
not uh related to the founder are you no I am not oh it was uh an absolute pleasure to hear the some of the the concerns that were even then and now
even more so so I've been working with utilities since 1997 and it's always a concern it is a big factor i I I think that everybody focuses in on possibility of contamination chemical threat uh and
I think that was a big factor back then uh but uh there are more concerns oh yeah and uh they've grown as we've grown and the uh dependency be dependency on
the availability for use and what we have to provide with the system uh even as we expand and we have more growing concerns and it's not just about changing out filters and cartridges and
making sure things are pure or acceptable levels uh it's gone well beyond that it has very much so thank you for the presentation very welcome does anybody have any questions of our consultant
fascinating information yes chairman i I just had one thing I wanted to add too at the conclusion of this we did come up with some mitigation as as Howard mentioned and Corey mentioned mitigation strategies those mitigation strategies kind of run the gamut of these kind of
quick wins versus some more long-term you know hardening projects that might have to take place as we get into that that's also going to be something that we consider and we're going to be working with HDR a contractor on the integrated water master plan to incorporate some of the mitigation strategies from this into that plan as
well so we're going to continue working on those sorts of things um and will obviously play into our capital projects program as we move forward but just wanted to make sure that we were aware that some of what comes out of this will be additional perhaps projects um that will include some some more large term
large scale capital projects as well so thank you anything further it's refreshing to know that we are uh ahead of the curve so to speak ahead of the curve you are in many ways like to
think that way thank you we can so we anticipate in in just a few months up the road revisiting with further plans and action or approval for
action i'm sure you get it thank you thank you thank you mr sullivan would like to speak regarding this i have curiosity this is for you um I have a curiosity uh Tom
Sullivan 4187 West 16 Square when you talked about the redundancy should we be considering in our future urban service boundary any type of design metric uh is there uh something that
creates a better Yes thank you and and I know Sean and had this discussion before as we uh as we get a little closer to the red as we're go as we're going through the master plan of obviously and we're looking at u building out our
distribution system we're going to be looking at uh ways to uh prevent you know u single point failures within our system uh so there's going to be some redundancy within the system or different path you know for for water
distribution flow would would that then affect how you would look to build out your urban boundary system yeah because we have to build it for reliability right and so we have to look at that we look we have to look at where we could have single point failures and try to
prevent those um uh from from being in our system and and just to build on that yes I think your question has more to do with growth and where growth happens i mean certainly part of what the evaluation entails is also evaluating and understanding where growth is happening and making sure that we have
adequate supply to that to those areas considerably good question as it will un certainly uh add to the cost factor of uh supply line and the ability to deliver clear water thank
you anything further well we look forward to the uh the next level thank you thank you thank you all right now the uh next two items uh we have uh on the uh county attorney
matters uh we're going to be uh I mean the uh county administrative matters we're going to be doing them at the end of this next discussion and then we'll give further instruction so at this point we have uh
under commissioner matters we have uh commissioner Daryl Law vice chairman has uh requested the quarterly updates from the county administrator and the county attorney the report card thank you Mr chair um in the summer of
24 um I recognize that uh deeply that this body uh acts like the board of directors whether we're board of directors of a bank orders or board of directors for a
nonprofit and the like and I felt it fitting to um have the two uh folks that respond that report directly to the board being the county attorney and the county administrator uh give the board a a
public overview and I think it's healthy for the community and certainly healthy for the board at the time uh general counsel Scheler was not on board for the wasn't hired yet for the September 10th meeting uh but she did in fact join us
on de in the December meeting uh so with that said Mr chair uh if we could uh if I could discuss those uh in order beginning with the uh general counsel um floor is yours thank you
so um as mentioned she obviously reports to the board uh and this is really her her full uh quarterly evaluation which I believe now she is over six months uh my observations and I would encourage the
other commissioners to include theirs and some of the questions that of course that I've asked are uh for them to explain or describe their achievements and their obstacles obstacles and the future vision uh just my observation of
general counsel Schuler um she certainly uh is a good communicator with this board uh I think most of us have had experience with other general counsel uh she certainly I believe uh for my matters keeps me uh informed on a
regular basis if not a daily basis uh I think we have fulfilled a few of her uh requests and needs uh Mr chair by way of either reclassification uh or perhaps some uh some salary
adjustments to her team to her work group uh mindful it's only a small work group and very little turnover in fact I believe uh she's only had one addition to her staff it's her her tenure
um she as mentioned continues to brief uh the commissioners as needed and anticipation of a lot of the issues that come before this body uh to allow us to make better decisions she does this in concert of course with uh attorney Prada
and attorney Hicks um one thing that I have also observed uh is sometimes um our attorney's office can be uh a little granular a little indepth of uh certain topics and I understand
the the the cautious of of exposure to liability and the like uh but overall I um am satisfied with uh General Council Scheler and Mr chair if she could have
the opportunity to explain some of her uh three items that we've me mentioned and then hopefully uh my fellow board members can comment as well thank you Mr chair i appreciate that Vice Chairman
Loun thank you um thank you for this opportunity and um I'm going to start with achievements and and I've got because I've got one that's hot off the presses which is that uh Judge Cox uh granted our order to um enforce our
settlement agreement in the Ganben Jackson case and this is our last eminent domain case on the 66 Avenue project she issued her final judgment uh last Thursday and I have to uh give a
lot of kudos to attorney Susan Praau on that she's really uh steered those cases through we have associated outside counsel um but uh Susan was of c she was council of record on that case she did
the lion share of the research to um get that motion to enforce the settlement agreement because we were just tired of this woman changing her tune every every so often and she also participated in those arguments so I I um really happy
to call that a achievement and we're done with those yay um a couple other things is um we've completed uh closings for two of your new fire stations fire stations 15
and 16 um again I want to give a shout out to Naja Wester and Chris Hicks from my staff who really were on top of making sure those closings got done and timely and we look forward to those facilities um we have finalized um the
development agreement template that we promised and we've been working with planning and development to try to better um shepherd those and we continue to bring you uh needed ordinances including the recently uh needed public
camping ordinance and um successfully fulfill hundreds of public records requests and we try to keep you apprised of those numbers um they're double what you were seeing last year they just keep going up and up um as far as obstacles
um well you know this is not news to you that I think it's that the challenge is the evershifting legislative landscape um every time we are trying to make progress on an issue the legislature change keeps changing and moving the goal line um an example would would be
of our live local that was one of our goals was to try to get ahead of the curve on live lo live live local and here we are again um trying to play defense on these bills that are steamrolling through the legislature on taking away our planning um um
authorities so I I will say and I could go on and on i mean impact fees special funding sources those are continued to be a challenge for us but we've really just in our office tried to really stay on top of those legislative issues to
participate with your legislative team and give our analysis and feedback as needed so we're trying to be part of that uh solution as far as challenging you know the workload continues to be a challenge but we're I think we're
staying on top of it um and you know Indian River County is ambitious and and we're we're trying to keep up and be part of uh a good product and and solutions i'm proud of the the team that I lead if you come in my office and I invite you to walk in unannounced you'll
see people that are working hard uh so I um continue to be very happy with them and I've tried to be very sensitive uh to the economy and the economic uncertainty and as I make my budget you won't see new new staffing requests uh I
think we could grow but um one thing that I appreciate is that the county administrator has reached out to me to offer and this we are proposing this in the budget year to move an existing position of of of acquisition person out
of one department and into ours i can tell you we can keep that person busy all the time because the area of that continues to keep us really busy is is planning and acquisitions and we're super excited about the um environmental
lands acquisitions that we're going to be doing and we're we're pumped and ready to go for it so I'm hoping that I appreciate that opportunity and we're hoping that that's going to work out um as far as my vision I'm I can we're
going to keep pressing forward to bring you um some substantial rewrites of your code i've been I currently uh drafted a rewrite of your purchasing code trying to work with your procurement director to update our processes i'm going to be
bringing you a major rewrite of your uh special assessment code you know just in short it's our uh office's goal to be responsive and effective and I you know I look forward to hearing from you on how we can better serve your needs
thank you councel anybody have any input uh I have to say again you you've you've come into an environment that is
evolving and uh I I think as far as the operations of the office something was just commented on um yeah I I do those casual visits and I have to say you're one of the very few
areas that is fully attended in the afternoon fully attended the weekend before a holiday
i want you to know that I think you instill a commitment to service uh within your division our general counsel our our legal arena the people that we depend
upon you have been approachable uh in person and by phone at any time uh as early as 7 a.m and
responsive and and I say thank you for that uh did we have a couple of missteps sure uh there's learning uh uh or adaptation to a new environment that is
evolving and uh again we are we might hit a cleric era we might hit uh something that was short of what we were doing but I have to tell you when you have the courage to say let's drop
back and regroup and make it happen And you have new information that uh upon advisement was uh accurate at first and you have been very open-minded to um
pause and reassess to make it right to keep us legally sufficient legally sound and uh well counsledled it's not an easy task you have uh five individuals that are trying to listening
to the community uh responsive to the community responsive to needs looking at uh avenues rules and regulations that have to be adjusted changed modified and then having the constraints of the time
in which they can be done uh the allowances by legislature or uh some uh courtroom constraints as well and uh I have been uh very uh pleased at our decision to
bring you aboard and even further pleased as to your responsiveness with your staff uh your staff members have been uh always uh available uh for information i understand one of
them is has illness and but knew that there was a possibility of a case uh going forward today and that council is here today um I you know there are certain sacrifices that we all have to
make and and I I appreciate the fact that you do as well and the notification if where you're not going to be or where you are going to be and with the weekly meetings in addition uh the the roll call of what's happening
in the office the the letter the email of the in theformational i think that is uh wellreceived i I think that uh I don't
know if my my fellow colleagues uh have have to say but I actually look forward to it because it it does prevent us having to have uh subsequent meetings con uh consistently and and I I do
appreciate your open dooress because I know I don't uh me personally I don't set many appointments other than our our weekly uh for the chair and to make sure that we're set forward in motion in
anything that happens on the agenda but uh your door is open and if it's closed a wave and then we talk and always followed up thank you Mr chairman thank you Madam Counel appreciate all you're
doing and I appreciate you uh letting us have access to Susan and Chris when you're not available and we can you know just maybe something quick you and I know always hey Chris can you answer this for me kind of thing and he answers it right away and he's always very uh
very helpful and Susan obviously the same way so I think you're doing a great job carry on that's all I got to say um I just want to thank you specifically for all the work on the Kolkata docks
and I hope someday when it's on the agenda again we actually get to talk about it thank you great we're not giving out letter grades today but uh sounds like you got a good one thank you
okay so thank you Mr chair um obviously the the second part is the review of our county administrator and I and I kind of want to paint a picture i think that um four of the five of us have haven't been
through a change of a county administrator and in the uh winter of 22 of course there was a change and we had uh Deputy Director Mike Zitto become our assistant county administrator and then
we had a a search a very wide search uh and we narrowed that down to a few uh contestants or administrators I should say uh and the one we selected Mr tatanic from uh St lucy County and we
all had his bio and his accomplishments notably from Coco as the city manager but then most recently from St lucy County as the number three in charge in charge of innovation and economic
developments and other things uh to include I think an interim uh human resource director for some time while he was there so I believe the the uh the five of us were were excited we knew that
um our past administrators had budget director backgrounds and for that we thank Mr brown and we thank Mr baird for putting us in a position financially uh some of us were here through the 08 9 10
11 and 12 areas and that certainly uh I applaud the commission at that time and the administrators uh for getting us through that so then in April of of 23 we selected Mr tatanic and he'll he will rightfully tell you
that when he came on board it was budget preparation time um it was something different for the the the four of the five of us to adjust a change in a new administrator uh knowing that the five of us are tasked with primarily policy
and and budgetary issues but as important uh the board of directors for the county attorney and the county administrator so through that summer of 23 uh we got through the budget cycle uh and we
adjusted and then we began to explore uh things that we would expect uh a new administrator uh to look into whether that be strategic plans or mission statements and again it was something new and it was a change for all of us and as we
continue through that particular uh fall that along those lines uh Mr tatanic uh in the in the spring brought on board uh county administrator
assistant uh Nancy but who does a fantastic job and we can talk about her uh in a few moments throughout that first year uh board members we looked at position allocations uh we looked at um what we
needed to make our team better all mind you we're looking at this from a little different lens as the prior budget directors perhaps did and we were looking more into uh having the dollars Mr chair to to fund additional positions to make
this machine a better machine and I think uh this this body agreed and in fact uh approved and allocated and funding uh not only for additional positions but for
reorganization of this agency in an effort I believe uh to make it one of the premier agencies in the state of Florida if not the nation after all we had the background from Mr to tan uh to fall on
not only Koko but innovative leadership in St lucy County as that continued through the summer of be the spring and summer of 2024 with the assistant uh the second assistant administrator on board and uh
with a reorganization that took place um Mr to tanch has reached his his year uh and then I uh certainly had interaction with our administrator and then the budget era
came in in 24 of May and then of course we approved that in July um in August uh personally August of of 24 I went to Mr tatanic and I said you know I think we can do better i think uh the community
the citizens taxpayers and the board of directors also known as the board of county commissioners would like to hear uh your productivity your vision and your accomplishments uh so friends then
in uh September 9th was our first review of the county administrator which I think certainly was warranted i think we had uh an undercurrent of department heads that uh may have uh made some
choices and decisions that uh perhaps were impeding our administrator's success so I felt in August I I met with him and said uh September 10th of 2024 I in fact would would ask for a review of
your performance and anything that this body could help and need simultaneously uh the board probably remembers that we were implementing a vision statement and a and a strategic plan to some
degree so as September rolled around the administrator mentioned to us something ironically we've heard today uh a single point of failure uh and single point of failure uh by definition is
essentially the system stops if there's one single point of failure um I think Mr chanich mentioned one time single points of failure meaning plural um which at this point he had had over over
a year of leadership and we as a body were becoming more and more familiar at least I was with the agency as well as uh the flow and simultaneously the um
the complaints and concerns that we were heading uh from the community in some instances from even employees uh of bottlenecks of uh some communication issues that they had perceived as well
as uh the the community uh contacting uh the county commissioners which they certainly do and we appreciate that so as we move forward past that month of September October 9th Hurricane Milton
arrived and Mr tannich was about a month into his uh most recent evaluation and I will tell you that um everyone on this dis has been through
a storm and a hurricane and and we know uh the staff that we have and our peripheral county partners uh that this community is going to get through a going to get through a storm uh we're very resilient uh from the captain to my
right uh to deputy Joe to my left we have that institutional knowledge and the resident should know that this particular board uh is experienced and prepared in that and that is paramount to us well we got through that and of
course we had a a significant issue with not only debris pickup debris removal uh but a situation on 512 involving a complicated uh road failure uh which ironically
um our recently hired at the time uh public works director Audi Havad uh hadn't been on board two months I suppose and and handled that along with public works Uh that was all during that September
through December if you will evaluation period uh may have been some distractions there um with respect to uh keeping your foot on the gas so to speak or discovering single points of failure if
you will so December came and we uh it was uh general counsel was her first evaluation which I believe again wholeheartedly that it is healthy
for this community to hear from uh the two people singularly that we uh guide and direct as a body of county commissioners uh December came and Mr tatanic talked about uh the debris
removal and uh how we were able to get through that with a slight modification to a a contractor that had agreed to do it for a set price uh but ultimately that was picked up some would say in in record time uh some would say in average
time simultaneously we uh had the 512 road uh being fixed at the time in fact fixed in early January and that was that was pretty much a lively discussion of the
December review of Mr tatanic so then we move along and prior to that I should say let me qualify that then chair Adams had uh our county administrator in the month of late month of August 24 and
September uh do ride alongs and visits with different department heads uh prior to I'm regressing prior to the September 10th meeting and I think there was some positivity that came out of that there were some uh there were some surveys and
some customer service questions and the like uh I have not been privileged to read any of those and then after the hurricane Milton of October 9th um it was no longer and that was no longer apparently a practice of the
administrator and of course we had a change in in our our leadership as well um most recently in November with um with Chairman Flesher so as we continued through December essentially what I took
out of that uh was a victory lap of the 512 and the debris pickup i did not hear substance of of things that are pertinent to the mission of this agency to include our
building department our public works department our planning department albeit our parks and recreation as mentioned earlier I I believe is a is a fine sign of of leadership uh let's not forget as I repeat that parks and recreation also has uh the second amount
of employees in totality they have personnel issues they have budget issues and they have like sometimes it's nice to talk about parks and pickle ball uh and it's not nice to talk about plan developments and inspections uh and
delays and inspections and the like so as we move forward today friends we are here in the month of April and there's been a lot of discussion on the direction that this particular conversation was and is going to take um
inevitably uh someone from the media reaches out and I believe spoke to all five of us i will tell you that not everything that you read is what uh probably the five of us have mentioned and I also believe that I don't believe
in running an agency by uh by public opinion and the amount of ink that somebody has i've always lived by that uh for over 35 years as a public servant uh sometimes it's backfired and sometimes it it hasn't so moving forward
Mr chair uh one thing that did occur and if you want to call it a change the commissioners uh after the second U report card if that's what we
want to call it uh the administrator began sending us uh essentially his senior leadership minutes from his staff meetings um which are helpful to some degree uh essentially it's an overview of what occurred at the executive staff
meeting uh today uh I believe what we will hear the administrator say are some things to include um he recently had a a roundt
with some of our community leaders uh it was a singular meeting uh with some of our builders and planners on the on the public side uh it was a workshop which I think was productive uh you're probably going to hear uh about the huddle meetings that occur and a huddle meeting
is certain specific executive staff members on Monday afternoons that I believe is helpful that I believe uh will keep and hopefully has begun to keep our administrator on track with
certain ideas i think that's a sounding board that some of us will will consistently talk about uh whether it be communications or gaps in uh certain processes uh it seems like uh in some
sequence uh we get hung up or bottlenecked in certain areas which creates uh a bit of frustration you also hear uh some conversation about meeting with the city of Sebastian not only the
septic to sewer uh which I understand was uh was productive by the administrator's admission as well as uh meetings that he's a singular meeting that he's had with the other city managers of this county uh which I think
is healthy as well conversely uh some meetings that I think are are somewhat important um not to mention uh the series of meetings that we had on Oslo and I 95 there's a total of six meetings believe our
administrator made one of those uh six meetings that was that was actually held here other meetings that have been publicly noticed uh that I think are of importance uh I have not seen the administrator at those meetings i think
by attending those that would certainly help his mission and perhaps uh his understanding and maybe even some frustration that we as commissioners feel um with respect to our urban service boundary exercises yes that has
consumed his time has he attended a majority of those meetings that answer would be no friends I I'm asking that what do we expect out of our county administrator we see signs and symptoms throughout our county and our country of
leaders that stand out uh right here in our own backyard we have a school board superintendent of the year this is a great county and we can become even better sometimes we confuse our frustration
with our passion uh and I can see that from this body sometimes we confuse frustration with passion our job and the county administrators staff's job is to support
him to get to this mission um we do that at a different angle than his support staff oftent times his support staff will mention that they have mentioned things to him and they uh haven't heard back i
have personally experienced uh delays in email responses and phone calls returned from the administrator uh it does seem to get better in certain times particularly uh instances where we have
uh meetings like this that come up uh a month ago I asked for a particular uh project and just for our community to know we get concerns from the citizens come in uh personally I would forward those to the administrator or recently to department heads to expedite the
situation uh and I don't know how the other commissioners handle issues and concerns one that stuck out most recently was a month ago when I inquired about a particular neighborhood uh that needed some concern and then just this
week almost a month later uh I'm copied uh from an assistant department head and part of the body we're talking about a drainage issue and this person uh is a subordinate of the administrator uh this person says quote "I've said on many
occasions that we are not proactive by any means we are reactive to the service requests that we receive to keep up with our daily services uh as a leader and as an administrator I would have there
wouldn't have been an email response to that there would have been a more of a discussion if that is the temperature that we are is persuasive then we have genuine concerns so in summary Mr chair I I
think that um this journey of of two years the administrator's been here two years now as of last week uh the expectations that we have as a as a board needs to be considered um are we
looking for a charismatic person in our administrator that the community knows and recognizes and says that's our county administrator perhaps we do is that what
this agency needs to get over the hurdle albeit there has been a lot of progress there's been progress in policy change adaptation we've gone through two restructuring of our command staff so to speak uh are
there things in place that take time is it me that expects more out of a leader uh personally could be don't know is two years a barometer for
any elected body is two years the is that the patient patients wear line at what point do we decide to take the agency in another direction uh that is the question uh that I have today for the for the
board um and I will yield my time Mr chair thank you does the county administrator want
to address any of that or comment so in preparation I went back and I looked at the you know what we've been doing over the last quarter and uh yes I understand that probably going through the month of December we still were
doing some her you know supporting hurricane recovery i know the DRC closed on uh January 7th uh we did we were successful in meeting the deadline that we announced to the public and debris collection
uh and then uh in large measure due to our staff and as you mentioned working with FDM St john's um a host of agencies were able to get County Road 512 open uh during that same time frame you know after that
you know as the new year rolled around uh we staff has been successful in reviewing and approving and presenting and the board approving the capital improvement plan the element uh holding the economic development uh strategic
action plan kickoff to include additional stakeholder meetings that were held um you noted that the first ever meet and greet development with the development community was held uh it was well attended wellreceived uh and staff continues to
monitor our performing our permitting review times and customer service uh and matter of fact in December we actually provided an overview if you will of actual you know permitting data in terms
of looking at aging reports and looking at the time timeliness and review and and and demonstrated a reduction in the amount of time for review uh I'll discuss some of that in a minute there but uh we we had that vacancy in
OMBbudsman that vacancy has been filled recently and they will allow us to resume evaluating and implementing recommended improvements and also our budsman going to be taking the lead for our integrated development review and permitting software systems because we don't have
one we have multiple systems uh in addition to the CIP uh the administration is working with O OM developed operating budgets for all of the uh targets for all of our uh divisions and
departments um the we've reviewed let's see I think we received maybe it's about 89 different requests for staff or either new staff or reclassification uh state agency budgets you know have been coming in and then I think in the
upcoming quarter that's going to dominate the the majority of the activity in addition to some other things I'll share what I will say is public engagement does continue to be a cornerstone and I know the county has been lauded
for its efforts of regardless of what from you dwell it's utilities rate workshop whether it's the USB whether it's the ear whatever the whatever the project is we have stepped up our game in public engagement workshops
uh parks and recreation master plan is another example uh we even just had septic to sewer meetings so um there there was the Oslo quarter study meetings uh at following the USB that were held in Mar in May uh yes I did
attend one the one here in person and I attended one on virtually in terms of other commitments into the community um in December attending the Sebastian River Area Chamber of Commerce you know as a guest uh the town hall meeting from
FDM and FD in in uh in mid December uh guest speaker at the Indian River Estates you know presenting on the county participating and helped fund raise for the community in the kids tag art event uh attending the park
presentation regarding VLE at the Verilleak's Vera Lake Estates community meeting uh obviously we all attended the Golden Impact Awards um arranging and attending for the the Gford community meeting as well as having a subsequent
you know Gford leadership team meeting and then the uh the children's services week couple of the things that I think that are important as it relates to public participation and projects out there we mentioned septic to sewer
workshops but we've also had workshops on the vulnerability assessment um we didn't so much on humist boardwalk or the septic to sewer project with Sebastian uh but we did you know there was a very robust uh public
engagement component as it related to the uh environmental land acquisition program and the board approved the first round of the property nominations for negotiation and acquisition uh recently the board approved the RFP for the San Ridge golf
clubhouse and event venue uh the board's also and which staff is working collectively you know to for the purposes of coming up with the financing for that project uh the board recently approved the Hobart ball uh ball field improvements and there's other notable
initiatives outside of you know just various water and wastewater initiatives is we have got the two septic to sewer projects that we received grants on and we just received notice not too long ago about a $6 million grant for North Sebastian septic to sewer project
um uh which would be in addition to the Hbert Landing and the Wabaso and a couple things that you know that I'd highlight that we we've kind of been busy during you know I mean there was a lot of time spent with you know as the board knows I've kind of copied you
on all the emails on you you know facilitating and being the interface between the the Bright Line and FPNL and their contractor trying to facilitate and get those uh 41st 41st 45th and 49th streets at Old
Dixie Highway intersections operational took several months uh we did present previously the pavement condition index map and the schedule uh I do have an updated schedule that I'll provide to you with this uh written report uh as
well as the additional code enforcement activity report for the upcoming month uh we did initiate in January a long range agenda for the purposes of managing commission agenda items and in an effort to keep the board of what's on the horizon uh I've mentioned already we
revised the capital improvement plan and it's been adopted uh in terms of staffing I mean we have focused on staffing and continue to focus on staffing uh we were successful we hired a professional development manager for human resources uh chief
plans examiner that was an internal position promotion uh infrastructure project manager our capital projects manager uh new position facilities manager uh chief building inspector new position our new uh plant supervisor for
the water plant starts on May 2nd uh we have really put an effort on focusing on our positions and filling out our staff um as of November 20th um there were 72 vacancies when I reported in advance of the uh December meeting at the beginning
of November if you go back I think there's about 140 uh as of March 26 we have 48 vacancies we've really put an effort on putting and talking to the directors and talking to the staff and making sure that we're emphasizing on getting those positions filled from
December 2024 to March 25th uh the county has hired 85 employees 53 full-time seven part-time and 16 temps we've had 32 employees promoted and there were 45 employees that were terminated which is the same number that
was terminated during the last period uh since December 2024 we have had 28 employees voluntarily resign uh 14 of them less than two years seven of them of that of those seven were less than a
year we had seven employees retire we've had some four dismissed at the end of probation and 11 are employees that came out of fire that was the most and the second most was public works with eight and the most tenured employee that resigned was worked for the county for
23 years as a staff assistant three in county engineering so we've been monitoring our staffing uh in terms of employee turnover rate year-to- date you know if you were to extrapolate or do the annual projection based on the first six months of data we're looking at about 7.8%
uh employee turnover rate which would be less than last year's 8% 8.7% and the year before 8.5 i'll provide you a table with all five five fiscal years and then this year uh we do have some key positions that we're still recruiting uh if if you look at the web
page you'll see that there you know all the positions are being recruited for the most part I mean we do are working with departments um in terms of uh employee engagement and development um we all participate in the annual holiday lunchon we did have
the annual service awards ceremony celebrating um employees of 35 30 25 years we held the second annual employee appreciation day uh we've had four employees graduate from our the the National Association of
Counties and the Professional Development Academy High Performance Leadership Program to date the county has 15 employees that have completed the program uh last year we held initial with the county administrator and the department director one-on-one initial
start stop continue meetings and as soon as the we get through the budget as in terms of uh between the the department budget meetings and before the budget workshops we'll have I'll have another round of those um I'll provide you all
with the capital projects list of all the capital projects and update i think some of the positions I mentioned because this first year this last six months literally has been getting the positions filled i mean in terms of key positions I mean Audi just you know
completed his probation we've had Anthony Warren come on building facility services and I think you've seen an increase in service as it relates to you know of those projects in those areas we actually have a capital project list that we're that they're tracking as much
as we're tracking the building permitting i can provide you summaries it's in the the chart the table of how many permits were issued or received permit applications how many were issued how many are outstanding or how many are
open by by days uh and like for instance for March there is 1,529 permits,512 permits were issued and there was 280 open and 217 of them are within 131 to 30 days so we've been
tracking the timeliness of our permits uh one of the other things that I would say that we've done and it's you know we also have some KPIs that we uh I'll provide you the a snapshot of performance by department as well as overall time time frames uh in terms of
customer service on December 2nd we did implement and launch the customer service satisfaction survey i've provided the board's updates as those surveys have been done monthly uh as of uh just I think it was last
week I mean 68.6% of our respondents are somewhat or very satisfied which is 56.7% when providing service uh to you know overall rating of service with that that's that's up uh we also have what's
62% you know strongly agree or someone agree that staff informs them about the process that's those that's up 61.1% that's unchanged agree or strongly agree staff complete and consistent so we are reviewing these and continue and I'll
provide you the full update in the in a written report uh other things I would add that as we already mentioned the vulnerability assessment was recently adopted by the board in March of 19 uh mentioned the capital uh improvement plan that that'll be implemented with
the FY26 uh budget uh the parks and recreation master plan you did today uh May maybe June meeting you'll see the stormwater master plan update uh we have followed up and brought back the Gford
neighborhood plan uh as on two occasions and then as well as this most recent on the 32nd Avenue twice uh and you will see on the next meeting and an an update on the uh integrated utilities master plan which is in addition to the update
from the water infrastructure plan act today uh you placed the deadline in May for the Oslo corridor study uh staff planning development myself we met we met with yourself about the the planned approach and then we carried it out and
they had the meetings and we will be receiving that back to you uh in the future uh you'll see the impact fee study uh that was you know that that's tenative is for June of 2025 uh the economic development
strategy action plan we were going to have some town hall meetings May 12th to the 14th on top of the stakeholder meetings and on top of the kickoff meetings that were held with the committee uh the strategic plan the goal is try to get that done by complete these was the objectives we have the
core from the goals all the way back and we actually have the body of the document uh so bringing that to you in September uh or sooner uh the development review and permitting integrated permitting system now that we have the um budsman uh prior to you know
Amber leaving we did work and she worked with all of our departments that have a say so in that process because we have a very fragmented system if you recall the county spent five years trying to develop MGO it was supposed to go live I
think the work the the month I started and it ended up going live I think three two months later three months later and it's not proven to be what the county needs it works for one division department but it doesn't work for the whole system in terms of anybody that
has the development review there's a single point of failure right there it's like it's good for one but it doesn't work for others and uh so we are a timeline's being developed as we speak they've been working on it and uh once we have that we'll be we we anticipate a
kickoff in May of June 2025 with a committee that's going to drive that project to get us to where we need to be in terms of updating because we have CD plus in you know planning development services and then we have MGO in
building and permitting but public works doesn't really have their own system or utilities and some of the delays you'll see as you as those reports reports I have provided you in the past it'll show you environmental health or utilities or whoever is waiting for that that that that
that response uh it was mentioned earlier by the county attorney but we have um we have we have staff has completed the review after you know I think a couple months of painstakingly going
through the procurement policy it wasn't a simple policy uh we completed the review for that the travel policy with uh updates from the city uh the clerk of courts in terms of their suggestions and a new food policy uh all of those are
done now we've got to you know work continue working with our attorney's office to bring that to the board but first we obviously want to meet with y'all oneonone get your feedback make any changes that may be necessary to bring it back as an ordinance to make those changes uh we do believe May June
you know would be the time frame that you'll be seeing that come forward uh we have a draft employee handbook that the departments have reviewed and then we're going to be reviewing you know collectively as a team to where we extract the HR policies out of this
archaic and antiquated administrative policy manual that has documents or policies go back to the 80s or the late 80s uh we also have a a an employee onboarding and orientation forthcoming of which we're going to be meeting with
each of the commissioners one-on-one we have that presentation as well as the the material draft materials ready to meet with each of you um and then I mean I I think with that the other thing I would just for the future um to your
point commissioner I mentioned already is start stop continue meetings with our department heads uh more time walking around with our you know and getting out there with our employees in the field as well as in the our work spaces uh I do think that
um one of the biggest things is going to be is continued recruitment public works you know currently has you know well utility says 18 vacancies public works has 15 vacancies uh that's some of those are half of what would existed months
ago so there's been a very judicious and uh aggressive effort but there's still some positions that are difficult to hire and they're working i mean Audi's been trying to hire an assistant public works director for a year so as you saw the email recently they came up with an
alternate staffing you know uh plan in terms of in the interim so he can get the support that he needs uh I do think that um the big again the big focus is really going to be the upcoming quarter will be
the budget the obstacles will be staffing and public works in particular continuing to hire those those individuals i think there's going to be a balancing of needs versus resources um I know you and I speak on a frequent
basis about the various indicators out there um very tuned to watching those indicators whether it be the CPI the the the GDP consumer spending unemployment looking at our our optional sales tax revenues all our revenue sources ones in
particular like this new proposed committee bill everybody received a bit an email on you know what's the impact of tourist development taxes the sales sir tax you know decrease so I think that is going to be that upcoming budget environment largely due to external
factors being the national economy you know obviously there's a pause a little bit on the tariffs but not for all if not for China so I think there's still some issues out there we see the volatility in the market uh the local real estate market if you recall it was about a month and a half ago that our in
Indian River County was had the fifth steepest decline in real estate values in the nation uh 3.2 2% so I think that uh we also look at the trends on impact fees and building permit fees and the
workloads um and then just the you know in terms of the development market and then those issues as as Jennifer mentioned you know the legislative issues i mean specifically related to the various property tax assessments and sales all those items are going to be
very dominant in the upcoming quarter as we have to implement those and develop a budget thank you Mr chair um with respect to the strategic plan you mentioned perhaps finished in
September uh that strategic plan just by virtue of its name um could be outdated in September with the economic climate changing so that strategic plan has taken an awful long time uh for whatever reason uh with
respect to a 60% I guess approval rate for uh customer service would would you agree that 60% is not where the agency should be no it's it's
not where the agency should be but you have to start somewhere and then you have to work to make improvements um in many of the instances people that want to provide specific comments do so and now with Ashley on board the we'll go back to we're following up with those
individuals uh so yes no I I agree that 60% uh 61% or is not the where we want to be i I don't think just want to verify that I mean the the overall satisfaction was 68.6%
still not you know obviously room for improvement but I can tell you each successive month there has been with the exception of a couple areas incremental change in to the positive so I mean as we identify items and then the
department directors and those appropriate I mean you know Nancy runs these now at this point in time actually will be taking them over and disseminating them to the departments and you know so we can work on them we actually look at the like the permit data we look and we now have expanded
the report to identify where a permit might be hung up so we can ident you know uh triage that and figure out and sometimes it's it's hung up because we're waiting on we've done our review we've provided it but we're waiting on the actual
response a after two years uh do you think you would be further along or right about where you're at with the progress of the agency i mean I think staffingwise and organizationally I think we're moving in the right direction what I like to see
us been be farther in terms of the organizational change i mean I think we I think we know that you know in any effort like that trying to change you know adopt a mission and trying to drive that mission and customer service
service excellence um it's you have a a good portion of arguably maybe half that are waiting and seeing what's happening you have early adopters that move in maybe about a third then you have two you know I've come to find that we have some idealists and then we also have re
uh resistors and so you have to work with them through the system i mean one of the things that helped us if you recall back in June prior to June of last year the county had conferred property rights and um 14 amendment due
process protections to all the employees and we brought we designated all the employees that manage people or programs at will so that's that that was the beginning of making those changes to to build an environment to where we can
hold you know we can be accountable and transparent to to you and to the to our customers do do you wish that that will policy would have been probably the your first year that way you may have been able to
uh have a little more um I don't want to say credence or or a little more um perceived authority yeah I personally think I mean that that was a big swing and big it was a big
challenge and it was very emotional for some people for the 90 the 10% plus and if you recall I think each of you received feedback and comments many people concerned that by changing that policy there was a policy there was a
hit list if you will so I think it needed to be done at the appropriate manner uh maybe a little sooner but I think it was done in time you know as we moved into you know preceding the budget proc the budget adoption or a budget
workshop and then going into the uh into the fiscal year well ideally yes right off the gate but the the the ability for the organization to absorb that change I think would have been a real shock to the system right i think when you when
you interviewed there was discussion about 12 months 18 months perhaps you know on the outside two years to change the organization uh you you've heard of that term organizational terrorist and and I think
you call them realist or idealist and and obviously you knew before you got here that they existed they exist in every organization is that right they they they do and I will say it's a minimum of 18 months to two months to change the organization of a cult the
culture of an organization right especially when you were very set in your way and it's like well that's the way we've always done it and everything I mean I'll just take the first budget process it was did difficult getting some people to articulate what their
needs were because they were used to the way it was being done don't ask for anything and so I mean that first budget process was was certainly a challenge right and primarily because they were led before for decades by budget directors um so at the two month at the
two-year mark uh your your forecast of of getting that 60% up to 80% uh decreasing um permit times uh
decreasing things that seem to bottleneck that I I presume all five of us come to your office with some of these these things so looking forward do you you expect all of those to those timelines to decrease performance
increase uh and finally it it's easier to lead an agency when when we're not in a financial crisis isn't it uh it is but I mean you still have to make difficult decisions i mean you can't be full hearty even though you
have you know an appropriate level of reserves i mean you could could be challenging money willy-nilly if you will but what what I would say is you know I mean we have already seen from when we started tracking you know when
we implemented this and it took some time it wasn't it wasn't overnight myself Amber Nancy we worked on this you know we had to work with MGO we had to do a roundabout on MGO extracting data and coming up with the ability to be to
ascertain the total number permits and the the timeline reviews and and then identifying where the the hang-ups were uh th this was not an easy process by any stretch of the means i I don't know how many iterations we went through before we got it correct uh to where we
felt comfortable to presenting it to you that like so if you said all right well give me the backup document I say here you go I mean I I wouldn't just give it to you without feeling that it was accurate uh so I mean we have had issues with MGO there's no doubt about that i
mean I've had individual meetings with MGO about their ability to produce KPIs and what we have is what they can do and we have a little bit more assurance of it but what we need is not what they're providing is MGO the only single point
of failure in the agency no I I think there were some I mean I mean I could pick out a couple I mean you know where we have and then you one person doing two maybe three jobs that's a problem or we had like you know cyber security is a big issue last year we addressed that we
you know we hired an additional cyber security technician we had one person so I mean we're we're trying to root those out and we've one of the things that as I looked at the the 89 requests this year um just in this last couple weeks
months was you know how was this going to address because they had to provide us their organizational chart and a memo justifying and looking at that in comparison to what their needs were and uh so yeah trying to find them find them is critical i mean and we we still
continue to look for them because they exist i mean we today you adopted acceptable use policy you know that point just that simple USB drive going in could be a point of failure you know and and I guess the other thing I really
feel I probably should should note because I know it was an issue that was raised and you know recently as well as previously is you know and it goes to the topic of consultants and uh and and I'll provide you the the similar list I
did last time with the updated numbers that that relate to the county administrator initiated and uh so I mean in the end $650,000 has been expended in my two years um when services were initiated by
the county administrator but of that six six were approved by the board totaling $448,000 and four of which were by request for proposal so of the $34.79 million in consulting costs less
than 2% were initiated by the county administration and four or six 1,000 of a percent or consulting services were approved by me and that were within my spending authority not presented to the
board beforehand but ultimately were presented to the board um so I mean and I I'll provide you all that information uh as I mentioned as earlier so so how much tolerance should the board have for things that come up uh for example
the recent confusion with the medical examiner's office uh maybe last year some confusion with uh some of the utility rates that came before the board and then came back before the board uh h how much tolerance should do you
feel a board should have well I I I certainly you know uh my philosophy is you know I mean we I work hard and I try to get it right uh I don't think anybody's perfect uh just like I talk to our employees if we fail
we try to fail forward and try to minimize those mistakes uh the medical examiner I understand there's a communication issue there and a letter that was you know not received but the information was conveyed it just initially was conveyed as a budget amendment I understand and that was not
preferred it was uncharted territory for the county and so then we came back with subsequent information based on comments made at that initial so and I've taken full responsibility for the the miscommunication and the presentation of the medical examiner uh the utility
rates I mean I I give the the the staff credit the fact that they identified it and they didn't just sit on it because you know you don't want that so it was right to bring it back uh because I mean one was an error a calculation error on
our part and one was a calculation error on the consultant's part you know it's a very intricate model and detail uh if we were to bring it in and show it to you i mean there's so many moving parts and complexities complexities and so many inputs and numbers it it it's I mean I
think when I first got here I mean Kesler presented you know on the SWID if you recall in SWID and they got the number wrong and they we had to go back and redo that i mean unfortunately it happens and the goal is that it happens
less i mean nobody I don't I don't want to sit in mediocrity you know the goal is to service excellence all right thank you Mr sure i'd like love to hear the other
commissioner's feedback any comments comments i do well I have um should I speak or go ahead okay however you want to do it um I think
it's good to do the quarterly updates um I'm very concerned though about the way in which this is happening and I'd like to preface my remarks by reminding everyone of Florida's sunshine law which
is public bodies must meet in public and cannot engage in private discussions regarding public business this includes discussions about how they would vote on specific matters it's generally not permissible to publicly declare how one
would vote in advance of a formal meeting as this would be considered a private discussion in violation of the Sunshine law sunshine also prohibits board members from using third-party liaones such as
the media as conduits to glean information about their colleagues positions or plans in uh the article that was written and this is in the April 17th uh
2025 edition of Vero Beach 32963 my vero by Ray McNelte i'm going to quote a number of uh my concerns about this um you know I think you know we're flirting with a
sunshine violation here and these are exact quotes he and this is referring to Commissioner Man he does not expect anyone on the dis including Lore or Flesher to call for a confidence or no confidence vote this is about Commissioner Adams
she knows she's likely to be the swing vote on Canish's fate and she welcomes the opportunity to discuss the matter third quote unless Adams or Man hear something disturbing Flesher and Lord
don't have the votes to remove to Canichage if that's their desire fourth quote we'll have the conver we'll have the conversation and get it on the record Lore added but I don't think we can wait a
year for what for a vote and frankly I was shocked uh to be contacted way in advance of this meeting i didn't know what the agenda was when Mr mcnelte called me to ask me my opinion and I was very careful not to
say how I would vote uh as were some of you but what I was told was that Commissioner Flesher had called him contacted him about the agenda that's incorrect all right well that's what I
was told and that and that's correct that's I'm just saying me me I have the floor if you don't mind i have the floor and so of course that makes one wonder well this is Commissioner Lur's matter
so why would someone other than Commissioner Lore be contacting the press and should any of us be contacting the press about matters that will be on the agenda in advance of the others not knowing i I think it's it's entirely
inappropriate i'm I'm as I said I'm totally supportive of doing this on a regular quarterly basis i really really I don't care who it came from i don't want to see this in the press again i don't want this ever to happen you're
flirting with a sunshine violation they went to jail in Sebastian no no be careful what you say just be careful what you say be careful what you say i have the floor sir i have the Be careful what you say i have the floor sir i don't want to see this in the media again he's not psychic so someone called
him you can speak with him thank you for the allegation you can straighten that out but at any rate I'm fine with this discussion on a quarterly basis why don't we just make it a routine uh
update and that either if Commissioner Laura wants to put it on the agenda that's fine if the county administrator wants to put it on the agenda however you want to handle it let's just make it routine so that it doesn't become high drama and something that's in the media
um however it got there and yet okay we don't know how it got there so thank you appreciate this sarcastic ending um counselor before we go any further with the
conversation is again and I'll put on record I got called by Ray McNelte i got called by a member of the press is there
any anything that you're aware of on the the Sunshine agenda the statute that indicates that you can't talk to the media no I I I do think uh it's it's good to
be mindful of public perception and I understand that um you know we're all striving to ensure that the sunshine law is being abided by people don't
always people make uh they will make things what they want it to be even if they're not so I mean I do think it's good to be mindful of how what how the press you can't control the message that they send but obviously I'm
glad that the board is having this full discussion because that's really this is where it needs to happen and I don't think u merely answering a reporter's question violates the sunshine if that's your if that's your question that's my answer i I just want it on the record
because I I understand that all of us were called so Apparently the there could be an avenue of the inquiring mind or the investigative reporter that might be compelled to call each and every one of
us is is that fair it it is i I understand that i mean um sunshine violations are when you all are having a discussion outside the sunshine about public business and it I
do think it's a word it's good caution to consider how that could play out in a reporter's article and how it could be perceived so I don't think the media should know
our agenda before we do number one and number two what I said was sunshine as related to saying how you're going to vote when you are not in the context of voting so it was not a general statement
about talking to the media it had to do with voting and all four quotes that I read had to do with voting let's stick to that please may May I ask if where you read that how somebody was going to vote
all of those quotes had to do with voting you wanted to know and we should not Why are we even being called about an agenda that we don't even have yet um
that's something you'd have to ask the reporter u you spoke to the reporter did you not i was called yes okay were you called by the reporter yes i was called by the reporter were you called by the reporter no
no yes and I think it's noticed that we're going to have quarterly reports after the September meeting i think it was established as well i don't think it was a surprise that it was coming on the agenda i I think I think this is a conspiracy theory
uh allegation Commissioner Moss and I I don't think that it's appropriate and fair it's actually distraction of why we're here today and it's not very appropriate um and you you may say what you wish
about what you wish to read the paper but uh we have no control over what's in the paper and if we have a chance to speak and if we're asked uh I for one have been open-minded
candid and uh I I I think the county administrator will verify that do I speak my mind sir well u Thank you um I I hope I put we put that one to rest because uh it was a
distracting b inappropriate uh inaccurate and uh again just another conspiracy to throw up on the wall well I just hope it doesn't happen again that's all I have to say thank you you could hope you hope as you wish there if
a reporter calls I speak with them okay right now we're being videotaped other than what was being televised i'm sorry if you don't understand and if that's uncomfortable then you're in the wrong business okay because what we do is a
public service who we serve is the public and if the media asks a question uh I I I think it's very inappropriate not to answer them or not to say uh well uh I'm not liy to say or I can't really
talk about that right now i I I think that you both have spoken your piece on this and we all understand where everybody is i think I would love to get back to to this if that needed to be addressed because it's a very serious
statement however it was feckless thank you would you like to say anything i thought Commissioner Erman had something to say no I don't no go right ahead i don't have anything to say right now go ahead commissioner Adams evaluation yeah some We were talking about an
evaluation of some sorts well if you want me to I will i will okay okay yes i was called by Mr mcnelte week ago and I didn't know it was going to be an agenda on the agenda actually I knew
that Commissioner Lur was maybe going to ask about quarter reports it was that time but I didn't know that i thought that's all it was supposed to be was just quarterly reports that he's done you know what's happened where have we done where we're going i didn't know it was kind of being an inquiry on his
job performance per se other than what I was told by the reporter and that's how some of the questions that I answered according to the article because he asked me those specific questions about performance of our county administrator and I've always been upfront and clear
it was no secret I'm sure to the county administrator what I said because I've told the county administrator that so leaving that alone I just I thought this was I mean you know he ended up giving a quarter report big
in his defense um me personally I think more of this should be taken care of behind the I'm glad we are having this discussion but I think it should be taken one-on-one with the county administrator i'm hoping that you I'm hoping that you've done that
because I do that with him you know I do that is what what we've done um I don't know if this is healthy or not to be honest with you i'm kind of in a position where
where there were some things that I I have told the county administrator and I said in the article I would like to move faster on some projects don't don't think about some stuff too much move ahead i will go back up and say I was
chairman when we hired him we knew right then and there i knew then and there after being a commissioner for already two years that we were way behind in our organization as to where we needed to be culture-wise management wise i mean
basically we had when I got hired and Jason who I think the world of it was him and one other person running the county and that was about it and that was not acceptable we we saw that the need Jason finally decided to get out because of some pressure and and we
hired John mike did a great job in the interim and and John we hired John and um I can't say I would want his job i can't say I would want his where he started what he had what he was handed with it wasn't a great thing and I can
tell you for years even working at the county the county wasn't employee friendly at least from the from the side of uh the the agency that I worked with um you know we didn't get a whole lot we didn't get the some of the perks that
they they get nowadays um you know we never saw our county administrator uh so on and so the list could go on and on so I know what he was he was handed he was handed to a a place that was financially
sound but customer service and culture-wise was in a bad was in a bad way i think he's worked try worked hard to try that i think we made that clear when we hired him that we want the culture changed and with and where we're going as for certain issues I think you
you know if there if we're not showing progress then we need to bring those issues to his detention we need to tell him what we see what we hear because this county is run from this dis it's not run from the employees up we we are the ones that get the message we are the ones that set the policy we are the ones
that do things we have to be clear and concise on what we want and what we see sure they have day-to-day duties they have to know but that's still all bestowed by the board of county commissioners where it was started a 100 years ago when the county commission was
formed so we have to make it clear as to what we want what our expectations are and where we're going yeah we're two years into this but there's been a lot happened in the two years this John this John been here in his personal life and his and his and with the county and
everything that we've going in and I can't say it was an easy job i've seen him struggle i've struggled with it sometimes as to what we're doing and how we're where we're going and and where we're what our employers are doing i agree Commissioner Ro we should be proactive and not reactive i agree 100%
with that that's that's that's where we should be we should be thinking outside of the box moving ahead and pushing forward is to as to how we're going to serve serve this community so I don't I don't know if
I like where the where this is going today i would have rather heard a quarterly update and and maybe asked that i think more of this should be done one- on-one with the county administrator if we see that he is failing terribly i think it's up for us
as a commissioner to bring it to the dice to say "Well I talked with the county administrator and he he didn't do what I asked and I want y'all's opinion on this." I you know or is he spending money or is he spending money recklessly is he's is or what do we got going on as
for the employees the employees are number one in my heart in my mind but you know what i worked for a fire department here run by the county for 35 and a half years and I can tell you we had a lot of turnover in that time with some senior people come and go most people stayed the majority of us were
hometown boys that's not the case anymore it's the same way with some of the managers and stuff here these are these are people that that are that are still young in their life they're not old like like we are you know they're uh they're people that are maybe in their
30s and 40s and doing real well and a better opportunity comes along or maybe they're not satisfied government as we know is not an easy place to work in and sometimes because you can't make everybody happy because you're stuck with rules and regulations and all that stuff
so I I think I think I'll stand by what I said in the paper i think John's doing a good job i wouldn't give him an A+ i've given him in the B range the B minus range right now only because of what I he and I have talked to about
numerous times let's move ahead for instance many times have you heard me say "Sir if the MGO is not working let's get rid of it let's go to somewhere else let's quit trying to fix it trying to patch and fix it let's let's move ahead." Issues like that so that's
really where I'm at and I'm I'm going to shut up now because I could I could go on and on but I don't think we're broken commissioners I think we're on a road to a path i think we just need to fine-tune the the engine and get it ping a little bit better but I think our engine is
solid i think we need just need to move forward and and and present our expectations so I'm done mr chair since he mentioned me I I disagree with you i think it is healthy and important to bring this in front of the public
otherwise they don't know what's going on behind the door this is the only opportunity we have to share how we feel about somebody's performance thank you chair thank you yeah I see your eyes yours next up
wish so I was raised that you keep your dirty laundry in the backyard but it seems like we continue to want to put it out in the front yard and that is fine if that's what y'all want to do let's do it but I do find
this process distasteful and unprofessional i think this always devolves into what we just saw and it makes us look bad personally it is embarrassing to me every time we have
this conversation um if we want to have an update from the attorney and the administrator on what they've been doing it should be under their matters as their item to provide an update and then
we can ask questions i feel like this the way we're going about it it sets up this black cloud for a whole month pretty much about what's going to happen i guarantee you every employee that
works for the county is listening to this or watching this and not doing any work because they are not going to make the changes that we want to see made if they feel that their leadership is not on solid
ground period you're not going to have the change that you want if people feel like they can undermine the change that you're asking to occur and I feel like the way that we're going about that is allowing that to continue to
happen i think there's been a lot of good progress made personally I don't get the phone calls anymore about the development review process or the permit review process like I used to um I think the building and facilities management
department is doing a great job um taking that on and and trying to work through some of those things um even in planning and development services I don't get the concerns that I
get that I used to get what I get now is how can I be involved in this study how can I give my input on that study and for the residents to feel like their voice matters I think is a huge huge turn of events for Indian
River County now we've talked about three different administrators today we talked about Joe Bear Joe Baird and I would say that um the residents community leaders and employees all complained because he was
mean and the commissioners then we had Jason Brown and I just want to preface I loved all these com I loved all these administrators so this is not a swipe at any of them and then we had Jason Brown who the community leaders staff
commissioners and residents all wished would spend a little bit more money than he did and now we have John and there's people that like him and don't like him i have spent a lot of time recently listening and
asking questions of our constitutional officers of our employees of my community association groups um Bureau Lake Estates Rosland Community Association um the feeling that I get is again you
have people that want to see things change and they want stability and they like what John is doing and where he's going road and Bridge is ecstatic that they have new equipment that they're people are being a that they are filling positions i would venture to guess that
one of the reasons why somebody said that we are reactive and not proactive is because we've never given them the ability and the resources to be able to get ahead of the curve and then be proactive and we're doing that i mean quite frankly um there was I guess at
our next meeting um we'll get to see some of the equipment that is is going over to Road and Bridge i know you guys laugh at me but I get excited when we buy pieces of equipment because it means we can do more service delivery more efficiently and that's what we should be doing and that's the
tools that we're giving Road and Bridge as an example and that comes under John's leadership it would not have happened before um is there issues with communication yes there's issues with communication in any organization but what doesn't help
the communication is is this stuff and all the commissioners being on different pages i mean quite frankly I'm pretty amazed and I think I said this last time at how much does get done and how far we have moved
forward considering each one of us has a whole different idea of what we should be doing i don't know how you take five people's different ideas and then try to work an organization forward are there people that are still upset yes there are people that are still upset there's going to be people that
are still upset we have people in departments that are actively working against us we have people that used to be here that are still calling people that are currently here and working against us and they're not even with the
agency anymore mhm so you know until we all get on the same page it's not we're going to continue to do this and quite frankly I just think it needs to be done in a different way
because every time it comes up there's all the I mean it's like a high school cafeteria the gossip you can watch it go around oh what's going to happen who's going to do this and who's going to do that and who's going to yell at who and you John's going to get a tongue lashing
and I mean come on this is juvenile and childish and personally I'm tired of it so that has nothing to do with whatever we're here for I'm sure but we need to be professional and set
the example thank you well we've heard some lively discussion about our organization not necessarily about you as an
individual so I don't agree that some of the the theories that have just been portrayed i don't think you heard anything today that you haven't heard oh I'll speak for
myself i got to I speak for myself do Do I speak with you on a weekly basis right am I open and candid do I say what's on my mind
direct points of failure successes and how do we close it i want this place to be a better place no I even I explain why I get so direct at
times to ensure that this is a better place that's what the public deserves you know um just a couple years ago you said that um even more than a couple years ago when we were interviewing
uh we had talked about um change assessment what you have to do to an environment what do you anticipate are you bringing people in do you want to be bring others in and you
said there's a pause and that we will assess see efficiency effectiveness and then start the process sometime during that process the word uh blowing up the place got thrown
out there and it did it did have a ripple effect uh I will agree with that that that term was like a shock wave um I I did hear that
um I will say that there was a little movement shaking up reorganizing we reorganized once we reorganized twice i think there's rumor of a third reorganization um we've had
consultants uh we've had a lot of consulting in January I think I and I said it on the radio i said this has been the year of consulting and now we are looking forward to the year of
resulting correct you heard it we talked about it and I in in all fairness um we spent a lot of funds the taxpayers
spent a lot of funds uh a few of them we directed or approved and a few of them you did as previously discussed um some necessary um some we really haven't seen
any outcome on or what they are um um they didn't come back the the same way um again uh I I think we called it the satellite
report that got sent back the arms budsman had to retune it a little bit if I know anything about consulting you take what's on the on being delivered and there was a hold back when we were going to get it not get it what
it was about um and it started with the strategic planning um we also had challenges with MGO uh we were flying in the representative right to our very office
he was working the computers he was working a workstation trying to make it happen and during that time we said "It's failing it's failing." Um complaints were pouring in i know one of the commissioners said "There's no
complaints." But there were plenty of complaints and we do have complaints and I I just want to say that you know in in a position of administration the attendees at a
meeting uh get together the community immersion with the shakers and movers and the builders and the developers and the architects um that was get acquainted to
staff and there was a comments and then there was input and you shared that it was wow it was about 60% it was pretty good some rough spots but you know people seem to be over overly
satisfied well same way as when the media calls and we talk with them it's the same way with the public this is not a large overwhelmingly large community i think we're a large small
county we see people what was delivered to you was not said to me personally and it reminds me of well you
know don't close off the will that you're going to need or uh as far as maybe submission to authority or kind of like when you get stopped for a ticket or something okay just let me
just sign it okay we get out of here i think people said things with a positive thought but in reality the complaints are still here that's my
point um I gave you one right as the meeting was starting and it was our commitment it had nothing to do with John had to do with someone i I heard them being told that
they were going to call somebody at a certain time and they didn't and my my way in I get the phone call what happened it was yesterday apparently things like that still
happen and that was just the most recent example that I can give you it happens every other day there are a lot more complaints than we're sharing but it's not about
you it's about the system what we're doing we have to get we have to get better we have to take the planning and make it a purpose we have to make this a better
place people need direction guidance and then they got to take action and I think there's a lot of people here a lot of great people in the building that want to do that they just need the direction um you
mentioned about removing the old culture i think he did but there's still some of it in remnants there's resistance resentment and you know couple of days with a food truck
ain't going to cut it i know uh Commissioner uh Law had mentioned uh that uh their previous chair had taken you around and well that was good i thought that now that's your springboard
you'd be doing that be fair uh familiarity kind of like a formal introduction informal introduction hey this is your boss so I don't feel awkward talking about it because I don't think there's anything
mean or vindictive or arrogant being said i think it's just we've got to tune it up we've got to tune it up i I anticipated the changes to be more inrooted i really
did okay you said two to three years it's two years and so you know what it's not mean to expect to have the efficiency
effectiveness um I think there was some resistance with the MGO thing i think we were prayerfully in in hopes that it was going to turn around it does work in some municipalities nearby i'll bait
they have this much volume their restraints and then maybe the model they have is a little different than the model we have we might have got the entry level model that had to be tweaked up there was some
changes that were being made uh by the representative but it never took root was CD plus the way to go there are some there's constraints with that but
the public had the right to be able to get in and out and to see where they stood which is building a lot of tension and stress on the applicants and that could be resolved real quick and I
think you agree that we we need to fix that so that this way staff is not burdened with the back and forth the back and forth that you're you're saying has happened here i I just don't don't
think it's appropriate we we call we talk we have the conversation i agree we don't need to be doing this in the public eye but how do we get it done if you have a recommendation like
when we're having a meeting or when we're getting the agenda that is an issue the agenda that we get has been closer and closer to the point of I think that is a single point of
failure we get the agendas on Friday Thursday night late we'll work on an agenda two weeks prior we cut the meetings in half so we should be able to get the agendas earlier on a
vacation day a holiday we've always had them cut off the day before and then available the next day apparently there's some challenges we've openly discussed this i think that we can make this better
um information going out how many PIOs do we have in the building we have quite a few i remember we're talking about media i remember the media chastising us for wanting to have one
PIO okay goes back to about 2008 they said "Why would you need a PIO you have the staff that's able to communicate." Oh they're busy okay well we did without it and then we had a
PIO from the attorney's office and it worked well and we got a PIO in the interim right prior to your arrival and then uh we have that PIO now there's
two in that room as I understand and there's PIO's down here not the right information's going out and I know that it could be done because I heard Sean Liskkey this morning on the radio he sounded great he
was given accurate information not misinformation because um some misinformation went out on certain things and then it makes more work for us we get the calls you get the
calls and then we say "All right yeah everything else has been discussed i don't think it's a horrible day i don't think that it's inappropriate i think that we should be
further along i think we could be further along and I believe that we need to fill those positions when he said something about recruitment putting it on the internet is not
recruitment we we got to be more active than this we've got to we've got to get some of those positions filled i know that uh certain positions you mentioned 13 vacancies 15 vacancies that's an
awful lot to tolerate for any organization and expect the others to pick up half the freight or a quarter of the freight or a third of the freight or three different jobs and and expect the serving public the public that we serve
to be able to have the deliverables the service that they pay taxes for and the timeliness we need to ensure that people are delivered
to because they pay the freight no sir was that what was that yeah was there a question there no i mean do you agree with what I say about the system
i mean I I I certainly would like to have conversation with you outside of here i mean especially about the agendas uh I mean I do agree the MGO uh the county was working on it for 5 years even before I got here i mean it's listen I mean each of you know that I
spoke to you that I had concerns about MGO you know after I got here and the plan was after the building permitting module was up and running the uh they're going to do planning and code enforcement because they were going to try to do a full integrated system and
the former director you know and I agreed with them you know they said I don't think we're ready to do this and I like I told 100% agree So we pulled back on that and we have been working you know to make it work you know I mean obviously the building
permitting division they like they like it it works well for them i'm not sure it works as well for some of the customers if you're an if you're the applicant it does but notwithstanding there there are better systems out there but you know it the reality is in this
case is you get what you pay for and if we look up the total capital investment compared to what some other systems may cost we got what we paid for and and it's not a good product my opinion we got to go for something better and
that so to your so to your point prior to Amber leaving met with all the directors I or all the the the departments and division the people that touch the the the products and stuff like that we have a exhaustive needs list already and we have that they're
working on an RFI right now for the purposes that Ashley's going to come in you know and she's going to pick up like I guess I mentioned earlier uh I'm expecting a timeline this week to move that project forward you without having the unbudsman i didn't to be honest I
didn't have anybody I could have could lead that project i mean I put it on NY's shoulders but then NY's working to help Audi she's working with Shawn she's working I mean there's only so much so having the OMBbudsman back on board is will enable
us to move that project forward you know and is a it is a priority project for us not just for you all but it's a priority project for all of our employees have to deal with the frustration of an inefficient disconnected fragmented system and then they get the phone calls
because well I turned this document in i gave it to Cindy Cindy Lou and like well Cindy Lou didn't upload it and send it over to you know somebody else and that's the problem so we are working we understand
what the needs are and we are working on that related to that yes thank you sir did you want This is going really long it's what going really long this meeting
tom Sullivan a little more to go 4187 West 16th Square um could you help me with this ma'am so it goes up on the screen okay i I would just like to speak in support of John uh I met John when he
was first hired uh I I don't know if you remember that John i came to your office we met in the conference room and I told you uh I had talked to Jason i encouraged Jason to go get a life because I said "What you're going to be doing is hurting mice." And I think I've
come to see that come to fruition all of these guys up here they have wonderful opinions different backgrounds fire department police department police department restaurant business uh outside business so we all bring but the only thing I'm saying Joe is we all
bring our own perceptions to what we do sure okay and and many times I try to bring here the people I talk to in the street i know Joe we had a conversation recently where we wanted to move a project forward and you said we have to move it forward because there's a lot of
money involved so it led me to believe you associate with some of those people i have no problem i mean Bill Bill from GHO is a friend i associate with them too but there's different ways of looking at the world what I see John doing is coming here and fulfilling
these obligations i mean years ago when I first came here it was 10 years ago uh I still remember uh Joe speaking one time saying "I can't believe the budget this big we handle everything you've grown into your position." But I remember that statement this is a big
job it it requires a lot of things to do that job is incredible i mean I can't believe the amount of work he's a very organized he's brought us to a level where we now have organization where we
now have goals and objectives where people now understand where they stare stand in in the department you know and and I worked at universities okay i worked with board of regents i worked with all these people okay when you come to an administrator okay and I agree what you said we should be giving
guidance i thought you guys would come in and say "Joe I always love you want the most beneficial and beautiful things for the community you want this to be the way you grew up in it you want to leave that for future generations." Other people they want to build it up
okay they want to see that there's no more grass they don't understand when you put all these roofs around you create heat all right but that's different opinion somebody somewhere that comes out and all as I do is I stand and I watch and you know I'm just a little part of it just like we all
realize eventually we're all a little part of it but what I must say is someone has to oil the wheels and when I see a guy like this get I I I guess I've spoke with you on four occasions one time I called you called me right back
another time I dropped in his office he he was going to a meeting he chatted with me for 15 minutes you know I was just very impressed with where we are now and where we were two years ago and I I I understand Darl you and I are going to disagree okay but
I understand that okay and but what I what from my perception I think this community this this building is running a lot better as a result of this gentleman i just wanted to say that piece but I came back and I was I was starting to wonder
like is he in charge of moving the trees from Riverside Park after we have the first tornado that we've ever had in Viro Beach and like all of a sudden they came back and they said "Well it's not being done." Well he's got to do something
he's got to I go back to Do you remember when we gave out the contract to have uh $22 million worth of sand put on the beach i don't know who was on the board then okay okay but what happened was that guy went bankrupt okay and there was a $32
million and a 28 in between and when we came back we wound up at 34 so like let he who has not erred throw the first stone okay we all make mistakes i don't know if there are mistakes made or not made i'm just saying I don't expect him to be dealing
with tasks i expect him to be dealing with organizational uh enhancement i expect him to be looking at goals and objectives i expect him to be telling me that in 10 years when I flush the toilet it works that when I drink my water it's good that's
what I expect of him you know and and I just wanted to get up and say that because everybody else was saying other things all right thanks and I will say this as a basketball coach okay and I I coach throughout the country when you make a quote to the
paper it is the sports writer that controls the narrative the quote never controls the narrative it's the sports writer so when you make a quote and always just be conscious of this that's all I say i learned this when I was a young man okay
if you say something and you you get quoted that quote can be totally controlled in his narrative okay thank you sorry taking so long i think we we we picked up from that from Bill Parcel who said you are what your record says you
are it's not what you say your record is right okay or what what somebody from the media says that your record is so but thank you for that um anybody
else okay we're going to move right along um the meeting is not over however we have uh two more items to go through and uh the next one is um item
12B1 and staff has scheduled an executive session as allowed under Florida State Statute 447.605 65 with the board to discuss negotiations with the IAFF for battalion chief
unit the meeting will be held today immediately following this regular session and the meeting uh of the board of county commissioners this meeting is exempt from Florida state statute
286.011 discussions are limited to the matter related to the negotiation members of the bargaining committee will be present at the executive session and will include the record does say Suzanne Bole she is not here today
um however excuse me okay human okay uh director of human resources however uh Michael Zto will be present in lie and it is on record the deputy county
administrator David Johnson director of emergency services Kristen Daniels budget director labor attorney Benton Wood the county administrator John Kitkanich as well as all five of the
county commissioners that item should take uh it is anticipated that will take about an hour uh at the end of that we will have a staff scheduled executive session
as allowed under Florida state statute 447.605 with the board to discuss the IAFF for the rank and file unit the meeting will be held today immediately following that executive session uh with
the board of county commissioners regarding uh the concerns the meeting is exempt from Florida state statute 286.011 discussions are limited related to matters of the
negotiation and uh members of the bargaining committee will be present uh at the executive session and will include yes the record says Suzanne Bole director of human resources she is not here today however it will include Mike
Zto in Lu and he is the deputy county administrator uh David Johnson director of emergency services Kristen Daniels budget director labor attorney Benton Wood and county administrator John Tid
Canich we will now be proceeding up to the second floor and have that executive session at the conclusion we will return here to gavl the meeting thank you all for your participation and understanding executive session has now been concluded
on both the cords we are all back returned into the chambers and at this time seeing no further work for the greater good meeting adjourned