[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] test. Just test. Testing. Testing. 1 2 3. Test. Test. [Music] Yeah, too much. Once again, John
Yes. Yeah, it's very reason So Awesome. very much. years. So Good morning. Good morning. How are you? I don't know. This is
message. Yeah. As far US. This is the Lake County Board of County Commissioners regular meeting on May 20th, 2025 in board chambers Taris, Florida. Just a
minute. All right. Good morning everyone. and um welcome to the May 20th, 2025 meeting of the board of county commissioners. This meeting is being livereamed on the county's website. We're also broadcasting via Zoom for those members of the public who wish to provide input during the meeting
but are unable to attend the meeting. We're going to open our meeting today with an invocation. It will be given by Pastor John Kerry of the First Baptist Church of Umatillaa. And then we'll remain standing and we will have um we will all participate in the pledge of allegiance.
Thank you. It's a great honor to be here today. Um I know it's EMS week and the proclamations today. So after 14 years serving in Lake County, I'm I'm grateful to get to be here to lead the prayers. Thank you. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for a day like today where we can join together to do the work of government. I pray over the commissioners and the staff here that as
they are making decisions that as they are um you know determining what's good for the county that they would just work with your wisdom, Father, that the decisions they make would be honoring to you and to and the the great populace here in Lake County. Thank you for this day and the love of Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.
Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Thank you. Thank you. I just want to welcome everyone uh who's joined us today. We look forward to um the rest of our agenda and those of you that are here to be recognized, we're excited that we have you here in our
audience. So, we'll move on first with some things that we have to take care of before we move on to that part of the agenda. And I'll call on the county manager, Jennifer Barker, to let us know if we have any changes or updates to our agenda today. I do. Good morning, Madame Chair, commissioners. First, we have an
updated proclamation that was attached to tab 2 for EMS week. An updated resolution was attached to tab 13. Tab 38 was added as an addendum after the agenda was first published. Also, I am requesting before we start the business
of today uh we that we add an emergency agenda item to fill a recently vacated seat on the value adjustment board. Former commissioner Jennifer Hill has agreed to be appointed if the board so chooses. So, I would need two actions
from this board. one to vote to add this as an emergency agenda item and then second to consider the appointment of former commissioner Jennifer Hill. And then finally, we I'm requesting that since we have a large crowd here today
receive proclamations that we move the ARPA update to immediately follow the presentation of the proclamations. Okay, great. And then on that emergency item, would we go ahead and make a motion and vote on that now to add it? Okay. So, could we have a motion? Everybody understands that's for the value adjustment board and in order to certify
the tax role, we have to have that meeting prior to the end of this month. And so, with the resignation of the citizen um that had been on that board, um we really need to get this filled or we're going to have uh an issue with adhering to our Florida statutory
requirements. Move to approve, Adam. Second. All right. Now, that's on our agenda. Would we go ahead and vote on that matter now? Vote on adding it. You have to first, right? He added it, but now we're we got a vote on that. Got a vote on adding it. You have a first and a second. Right. We just did that. All
in favor? All in favor? I. That's unanimous. Make a motion to appoint Jennifer Hill as a temporary for the um board value adjustment board. Adjustment board. Second. All right. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any
opposed? All right. that has been approved and we appreciate um Jennifer for her willingness to serve and to um step up and help us in this u situation. And can I say something about um Miss Hill is she has always been there to
help out the the citizens of Lake County and has always stepped forward to do a lot of things for us. So, it's greatly appreciated. She has and she's served on the canvasing board for years. Yes. And that is that is somewhat of a thankless job and it takes up a lot a lot of time.
So um yes, thank you Jennifer. You're much appreciated. Um all right, moving along then to our minutes approval. Um our clerk of courts, Gary Cooney is here with us. Good morning, Madam Chairwoman, members of the commission. I have one set of minutes for your approval this morning. All right, do we have a motion
to approve those minutes or any changes? Approval. All right, second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Moving then um to our citizen question and comment period. Um I have one card that's for a vacation
that will be later in the meeting, a road u vacation. And then um or yeah, I think that's Yeah, that's a public hearing. Um we have a comment card from Ray Powers with the Lake County
Historical Museum. Mr. hours. And remember, you just have three minutes and the buzzer might go off um if you get to the end of your three minutes. I don't want to give you the pleasure of that either. So, thank you. Um good morning, commissioners. Um quick update. We had a lot of exciting things
recently happen. Um we'll give um the good one first. Uh we had Judge Wilky uh in the museum doing a signing ceremony for his book and Mr. Parks has a copy of the book. Um it was really special and
uh with him he had a World War II vet and the guy the man gentleman's name was John Beville and it still amazes me the people we have in Lake County. Uh real quickly he was u born in 1924 in Waldo which everybody should know where that is and he was captured at the Battle of
the Bulge served in a P camp. Um went in at 154 pounds came out 84. He's 100 years old and he just as spry as could be. So, we were really blessed to have him and maybe down the road we can recognize him a little bit more. Um, the
other one on March 15th we had the Florida Highwayman in the museum and also I want to thank Commissioner Smith was at the book signing. So, thank you. Um, so at the the Florida Highwayman, we
had Al Black there and he actually painted a painting while we were he was there and I'm blessed to have it with me. Um, unfortunately we lost Al Black two weeks ago and um, we're down to maybe two of
the original Florida Highwaymen. So this when he was painting it kept telling me it's special. I didn't realize at the time how um so you guys and I was spinning around. His um signature on his paintings were birds, believe it or not.
And the three at the top were father, son, and holy ghost. Due to his life, the one that's down low, he said he was the fallen one. And that represented Al. And this is one of the last ones that
Mr. black painted. And if anybody here doesn't know the history of the Florida Highwayman, dig it up. I mean, it's really they're iconic for Florida and he's going to be missed. Um, last well on one next to last May 27th,
I'm going to steal probably a little thunder is the birthday of Lake County. She's 138 years old and uh you guys won't be meeting, but happy birthday Lake County. And then on Memorial Day, we have a tradition of having a sunrise
service. Um your flag at code is lower the flag at sunrise. So we do this at um AW Peterson Gun Shop and that'll be at 6:31 this Memorial Day. We'd love to have
everybody there. We're planning on having a really cool speaker unless something messes it up, which will be a really good thing if it does. But anyway, our chair, Commissioner Campion, will be speaking for us at that ceremony. So, we're thrilled about it.
All right. I did it. You have more time if you want to talk about that speaker anymore. No, I'm just kidding. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Ray. Appreciate it. All right. Um, do we have anyone online? Yes, Eric. Yes, we do have one online, Barbara Morris. You
should be able to unmute. Please state your name and then give your comments to the board. Good morning. My name is Barbara Morris. I'm in district 4. I wanted to um address this now so I didn't eat up my time later on when I
speak. Um I really appreciate this Zoom because it allows people like myself who is totally disabled to to participate in all these government issues. Um, I cannot see or hear the timer or the
buzzer from from my position here. So, I just wanted to let you know that I'm not being disrespectful if I go over my time when I speak. And um, I wanted to everybody to to know this for those of
us on this side of Zoom that might have hearing or or vision disabilities. Um, and I thank you very much. All right, Barbara, and you're going to, I think, join us later for a particular item. Or did you have more to comment
on? There's going to be a couple of things I'm going to be commenting on probably in this hearing and then again in the following CRA. Okay. Okay. Appreciate it and appreciate you being with us today. All right. Anyone else online?
Okay, then we'll move ahead at this point uh to our presentation of proclamations. And we're going to start um with tab two first. We have to um have a vote. Okay, we can go through we can actually approve all of these at one time if someone would make a motion to
that effect. Make a motion to approve all proclamations. Second. All right, all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right, those are passed. Now we'll call in Commissioner Parks and he will make our presentation um for National
Emergency Medical Services Week. Join me, Chief. Thank you. Um good morning, commissioners and residents. Um great to see a wonderful turnout this morning. I have the privilege and honor blessing to be able to recognize a very special group of people uh that serve all of us.
Uh service in our darkest hour, service in the time of need. They are always there whatever time of day. Uh they care deeply about our well-being and that is our emergency medical services team. So this proclamation will honor them and
I'm going to go ahead and read it into record. We obviously just approved this unanimously and we'll give them I hope a standing ovation round of applause for everything they do for us. There's a lot of I see a lot of them in the audience here with us. So um I'm going to go ahead and read this proclamation.
Whereas emergency medical services are vital a vital public service. And whereas members of the emergency medical services teams are ready to provide life-saving care to those in need 24 hours a day, 7 days a week throughout
the year. And whereas access to quality emergency care dramatically improved the survival and recovery rate of those who experience sudden illness or injury. And whereas the emergency medical services system consists of emergency physicians,
emergency nurses, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, telecommunicators, firefighters, the educators, administrators, and others. The members of the emergency medical services teams, whether uh career or
volunteer, engage in thousands of hours of specialized training and continue education to enhance their life-saving skills. And whereas it is appropriate to recognize the value and the accomplishment of emergency medical service providers by designating
National Emergency Medical Services Week. Now therefore, it be it proclaimed by the Lake County Board of County Commissioners that the week of May 18th through 20 May 18th through the 24th of 2025 shall be known, designated, and set
aside as National Emergency Medical Services Week in Lake County, Florida. It is encouraged that people express their appreciation as they come across the these dedicated first responders who have made countless personal sacrifices to ensure the safety of both citizens
and the visitors to our beautiful county, Lake County, Florida. Let's give them a round of applause. All [Applause] right. Thank you, Commissioner. My name is David Kilbury. I'm the public safety director of Lake County Fire Rescue. And
at sometimes I feel I am a Marvel comics because I truly work with superheroes. And some of those are here today. So, uh, we actually, uh, bring the emergency room to those that are suffering traumatic injuries as well as medical
emergencies. And so, we truly want to recognize those. Whether you're on a firet truck, an ambulance, or in the ER, this is the network of the chain of survival. And one of the things that's really unique today, I had spoken to you previously about it, but the individuals that wear the uniform in the audience
today are a unique group of individuals that no one else in the state of Florida is doing. Lake County is in innovative in the sense that we have pulled 17 EMTs off the street and Monday through Friday they are attending a paramedic state
certified course. And so what typically takes more than a year for an EMT to reach the status of paramedic, we're doing in just under eight months. And so a testament of what's against them, but
truly the honor is for them because they will be the future paramedics that have the lead care of patient care in the field. And so for that, it's unique. They've been training at the old welcome center that has been turned into the classroom, but because we have our
medical director required training. Uh they are currently down on the first floor this week. And so it's a unique opportunity. And uh I am just want to say thank you for them for stepping up. They were apprehensive, but uh the instructor has said it is absolutely the
best paramedic class he's ever had the opportunity to teach. And that's a testament uh to the men and women behind me. And so I wasn't aware of it, but our communications team put a short one minute video uh together for uh commemorating this event. And so if Eric can roll that and then we'll do a
picture with him up front. Thank you.
[Music]
Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. All [Music] right. So, if I could have those in uniform, please come up front. We'll
take a picture with the commissioners. Should we Do you want to stand back here? Okay. [Music] So guys, we're leave the center open if you don't mind. We're going to be shoulder to shoulder as tight as you can be. We may need to do two rows here.
Good. Good. Let's get our chiefs in the middle. Can we turn even more? Uh, yep. No. Other. There you go. And then come on in. Let's see what we're looking at with the chiefs. Yeah, right there. Exactly. You need these guys moved. Come on in, Chief. Um, Chief Kilbury, you're going to be
straight on. And Yep. Come on in, Chief. Chief Simpson, if I can turn you. Yep. Come on in, gentlemen. Let's shift this way a little bit so we can get more in. And Chief Se, I'll put you on this side. If these guys can shift just a
touch sign off, are these guys okay? You need two rows. Yep. Yeah. There you go. Good. Thank you. Appreciate it. And we're going to turn your shoulders that way. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. So he can see your faces. Yeah. Can you turn even more for me? There you go. Thank you. And on
this side, these four, can you turn this way? Yep. Just make sure you can see his face with the camera out there. So slide just a little bit. Good. Good. Okay. That means you have to buy lunch. Everybody
happens every time. Just make sure it's right side up. [Laughter] All right. Thank you all. Thank you all for being here today. We appreciate you. Thank you. We truly appreciate you. If I
may say one thing, uh a shameless plug, there are young adults in the audience that would make great firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics. If you're not sure what you want to do when you grow up, come out and see me. I'd love to talk to you. And before we go to the next
proclamation, I just want to make a note of something. I think those that are here today will appreciate this. The Eustace High School girls softball team made it to state. So, they are in state tournament today. So, we are blessed in Lake County with some tremendous athletic um athletes and
um and parents and support teams and coaches and we really appreciate that from the our perspective as board of county commissioners because you all are ambassadors of Lake County and um we appreciate uh your hard work and your dedication and your personal
achievement, but you also um make us look good as far as Lake County because you're out there um representing uh your community and that's that's really awesome. So, at this time we want to recognize um some champions um and Commissioner
Morris is going to go down to um the platform there and uh Coach Josh um Ber is Coach Josh here. Here we go. And we are recognizing the Leburg High
School girls weightlifting team and we have adopted a proclamation and Commissioner Morris, you're going to get to read that proclamation. What a handshake. Well, you know how proud I am of Leburg High School as an alumnist. You know, I mean, we're just continuing to get get
all these state awards. So, I have this proclamation for your weightlifting team, your young ladies. Whereas the Lake County Board of County Commissioners wishes to recognize the Leburg High School girls weightlifting team on an extraordinary 24-25 season.
And whereas under the exceptional leadership and guidance of head coach Josh Ber and assistant coach Taylor Woods, the 2425 Leer High School's weightlifting team was named district runnerup in Olympic, regional runnerup
in traditional, regional championship in Olympic, class 2A state runnerup in traditional, and class 2A state championship in Olympic. their third FHSAA team state championship, including
back-to-back titles in the Olympic category. And whereas in addition at the 2425 FHSAA class 2A state championship meet, the following lifters received medals in
their respective classes. Kayla Nord, state runner up in traditional and third place in Olympic. Nava Wells, state champion in traditional with 500 pounds total. And Melissa Lebron
Escaro, state champion in both Olympic and traditional, setting state records in snatch with 125 pounds and Olympic total with 280 lbs. And whereas team spirit and support are an essential part of each lifter success. And the members
of the 24-25 Leburg High School girls weightlifting team are Melissa Leberon Escardo, Kayla Nord, Josandis Sanchez, Hannah Stubs, Nea Wells, that is your
state championship team. Adrina Alexander, Alexis R. Vel, Liz Beltran, Jasmine Benton, Cameron Boyer, Zia Connley, Connley, Arena Desel, Brooke
Falcon, Yadar Lang, Brianna Johnson, Savannah Johnson, Isaiah Lockheart, Danny McCormack, McKenzie Mosner, Gracil Pedin, Genesis Romero,
Alandre Cerna, Payton Sykes, Lila Van Beek, Lacy Whitman, and Zara Wright. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the board of county commissioners of Lake County, Florida, that Lake County does hereby proclaim and celebrate the remarkable
achievements of the 2425 Leburg High School girls weightlifting team. Lake County calls upon all its citizens to join in applauding and celebrating this team's outstanding success. A copy of this proclamation shall be spread upon the minutes of this meeting. This pro
proclamation shall become effective upon adoption. Done and proclaimed by the board of county commissioners of Lake County, Florida in regular session the 20th day of May, 2025. Ladies, would you like to come forward, please?
[Applause] Spencer, would you like to come up too? Spencer and assistant coach. I don't know. We're going to be in it if
we [Laughter] apparently easy to do here. Just there. There you go. two. Congratulations. Congrats. Congratulations. Congratulations. The next proclamation,
of course, Leburg High School boys weightlifting team. Whereas the Lake County Board of County Commissioners wishes to recognize Leburg High School boys weightlifting team on an extraordinary 2024-25 season. hand. Whereas the exceptional leadership and direction of head coach Josh Buer and
assistant coach Kevin Pier, the 24-25 Leburg High School boys weightlifting team was named district champions in Olympic class 2A region two champions in Olympic and
FHSAA class 2A Olympic weightlifting champions and became the first ever Lake County public school sport to ever repeat in any sport in Lake County history. Unbelievable. Whereas, in addition, at the 2024 FHSAA Class 2A
state lifting weightlifting championship meet, the following lifters received medals in their respective weight classes. Jamar Williams placed fourth in Olympic. Savon Latimore placed fifth in traditional as well as third in Olympic. Ryan Thompson was state runner up in
Olympic. Gage Anderson was state runner up in Olympic and Jerem Lacy was state runner up in Olympic as well as state champion in traditional. And whereas team spirit and support are an essential part of each lifter success. And the
members of the 2425 Leburg High School boys weightlifting team are Kaden Adams, Gage Anderson, Jeremy Lacy, Savon Latimore, Theo Prader, Alexander Santamera, Ryan Thompson. Those are and
Jamar Williams. Those are the state championship team. McCall Agler, Legend Anderson, David Brown, William Campbell, Ian Carlos, Vincent Chin, Roberto Claudio, Brandern Coffee, Dari
Connor, Colin Coules, Tyler Davis, Terrell Davis, Kobe Elen, Alexander Ford, Elijah Fraser, Josh Given, Troy Goodwin, Terron Hanberry, Gustavo
Hernandez, Tyler Cost, Donovan, McMillan, Jeremiah Neely, Brian Porter, Wade Brector, Jonathan Rivera, Brody White, Theus Williams, Anthony Vine. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the board of county commissioners of Lake County,
Florida that Lake County does here by proclaim and celebrate the remarkable achievements of the 2425 Leburg High School boys weightlifting team. Lake County calls on all its citizens to join in in applauding and celebrating this team's outstanding success. A copy of
this proclamation will be spread upon the minutes of this meeting. This proclamation will become effective upon adoption. Done and proclaimed by the board of county commissioners of Lake County, Florida in regular session this 20th day of May, 2025. Congratulations,
men. Would you come forward, please? Let's put coach and commissioner right in the middle if you don't mind. Congratulations. Serious hardware there. Yes. There we go. Can I Can I get Yeah, there you go. Thank you, sir.
Does he wear it all the time? You got to get one with them. Show them their hardware. Okay. Show your hard work, gentlemen. Nice. Thank you. All right. Will you gohead? This one holds a uh this proclamation
holds a special place in my heart because u my my three of my girls are volleyball players and uh we got to know Corey and his wife real well and and what they've done in Lake County is just absolutely ph phenomenal. what they've done nationally is
unbelievable. Whereas the American Athletic Club girls 18 national team from Taris, Florida won the 2025 USA volleyball girls 18's junior national championship in the 18 Freedom Division
on Sunday, April 27th, 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah. And whereas the AAC girls 18 national team plays top three and three national qualifiers, the 2025 Florida regional 18 qualifier, 2025 Northeast National
Qualifier, and the 2025 Florida FEST junior national qualifier. And whereas the AAC girls 18 national team consisting of Samantha Sammy, Betty, Emily Codwell,
Leila I'm I apologize. Oh, excuse me. Leilon Leilon. There you go. Uh, Brooke Fintac, Abigail Jackson, Isabelle Perah, Elena Rogan, Christina
Seducas, Addison Sabb, Joshyn Wayber brought home first place medal at the 2025 USA volleyball girls 18 junior national championship in the 18 Freedom Division. And whereas Samantha Betty was selected as MVP for the tournament and
Joshua Landberg was Brooke and Brooke Fintech were selected for all tournament team. And whereas under the direction of coaches Fernando Bario, Alisa Winterdorf, and Katie Centron, and club owners Cororey, and Lette Warner, and a
hard work and the hard work of this team, the AAC girls 18 national champion team brought home Lake County's first ever USA volleyball junior national championship title. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the board of county commissioners of Lake County, Florida,
that Lake County does hereby congratulate the AAC girls 18 national team on earning their championship title at the 2025 USA volleyball girls 18's junior national championship and in the 18 freedom
division. A copy of this proclamation shall be spread upon the minutes of this meeting. This proclamation shall become effective upon adoption done and procraining by the board of county commissioners of Lake County, Florida in regular session this 20th day of May, 2025.
Ladies, would you like to come forward? On a on another note, I understand that they went through 48 teams to get where they are now. So, it is just absolutely amazing. Thank you. Come on. Can you turn for me just a little bit? Yep.
We've got more room on this side. Put commissioner right in the middle. Actually, can I send you to the other side? [Music] Sorry. Good [Applause] job. All right, you're up.
Yeah, Cory, I'd like to say one thing. Thank you very much. It's an honor for you guys to have us here. We want to thank you guys for all you do for our citizens of Lake County. Um, one of the most enjoyable things about the weekend is when we first got there, they kept
asking us, "Where are we from?" We kept saying Lake County. Where's Lake County? Well, guess what? They know where Lake County is now. [Applause] I'm have to do hooked on phonics.
Telling the commissioner you had the tough job of getting all those names, all your all your names right. Uh these beautiful kids here. So, um so I u a little more of a serious subject. Uh our last uh proclamation of the day. Uh this is for mental mental
health awareness month. So if Rick Haney can please come forward. I'm going to make this proclamation. This is obviously something that uh the county commission uh takes very serious. Um it's a it's a serious issue. Uh really we should be talking about it more. Feel free to talk about mental health
awareness and uh really for an issue that affects every one of us one way or another. It affects every one of us. So, we're here to uh proclaim that and u and uh promote awareness for mental health. So, Rick, thank you for being here. I'm going to go ahead and just read this proclamation and present it to you.
Whereas, mental health awareness month was uh founded by Mental Health America in 1949 and has been observed every May to promote mental wellness nationwide. Whereas, mental health is essential to everyone's overall health and
well-being. And whereas all Americans experience times of difficulty and stress in their lives, and whereas prevention is an effective way to reduce the burden of mental illness, and whereas there is a strong body of research that supports specific tools
that all Americans can use to better handle challenges to protect their health and well-being. And whereas mental health illnesses are real and prevalent in our nation. And whereas with early and effective treatment, those individuals with mental illnesses
can recover. They can recover and lead a full life, a productive life. And whereas each business, school, government agency, health care provider, organization, and citizen shares the burden of mental ill mental illnesses and has a responsibility to promote
mental wellness and to support prevention efforts. Now, therefore, it be a proclaimed by the Lake County Board of County Commissioners that May 2025 is mental health awareness month in Lake County. Thank you. Thank you.
[Applause] Thank you, commissioners. I just want to say it's an honor and a privilege to be here. your support and and just being behind us every step of the way has allowed Liveream to have one of the most
comprehensive systems of care in the state of Florida. And unfortunately, um the stigma associated with mental health doesn't seem to want to go away. And it's things like mental health awareness if we can just let our citizens know it's okay to get help.
It's okay to reach out when you need help because treatment works. So, thank you again very much for allowing me to be here today. Thank you. Go back up. Yeah. They're just finishing right this week. School.
think they'd want to stay. Yeah. All right. Those were great, great proclamations. And we will now move on. Um, go back to our ARPA report.
Sean will give us an update. We're getting near the end, aren't we? We are. We are. that is hard to follow all those great presentations and what great accomplishments from our young folks. Uh Sean Bodde uh grants program manager parks and water resources here
to provide an American rescue plan update. Uh I will be providing some background information, a few updates and we'll conclude with requested action. Uh since our last update in December, we have now surpassed the first major milestone which is to have all funds obligated and we are able to
accomplish this at the end of last calendar year. Uh the next and final m uh major milestone is to have all the funds expended and all work completed by December 31st, 2026. Uh now that we have surpassed the obligation deadline, the funds are governed by some additional rules and we wanted to highlight some of these for
you um as we move forward in next year and a half. Uh the first uh deals with contract amendments. Essentially, we can amend contracts to cover increased cost so long as admitted contracts are substantially the same scope and purpose. Uh this will come into play with one of the project updates you will
see shortly. The next is handling of excess funds. If we have a project or projects that do come in under budget, we can reclassify or repurpose those funds to another project so long as the new project would be eligible under the same program rules. Uh again, this will be
the case with one of the other project updates today. And finally uh with federal awards or grants uh generally the um provision follows that supplement not supplant uh which is funds are not meant to substitute replace or divert local funds. Uh rather the funds are intended
to enhance local programs or activities. Uh interestingly enough the supplement not supplant provision does not apply to most ARPA expenditure categories. Uh as you re will recall, many contracts and agreements were executed as we approached the obligation
deadline and nearly encumbered all the remaining funds. However, there were approximately 19,000 remaining and these funds were used to reimburse the county attorney's office for extraordinary cost uh incurred during the last quarter. Uh these funds were placed under the existing grants administration project
line. And then also prior to the obligation deadline, there was an unannounced policy change uh that we discovered late in the process that affected the premium pay category. Uh as a result, we needed to recategorize 163,000 from the premium pay expenditure
category to revenue replacement. Uh this was for the EMS portion uh from April 2023 to December 2024. Uh the fire rescue premium pay, however, had been fully spent and did not impact that that project. Uh moving on to the new project
updates. Uh the first is for fire station 109. The roof repairs came in under budget and fire rescue is requesting to utilize the existing balance for other mechanical, electrical, plumbing and structural repairs at the same same station. The current contract will be amended and
ARPA funds will be used to replace or supplant the infrastructure sales tax portion as permitted under the guidelines. Uh the final update is for the town of Montb. The board originally granted 4 million and an additional 1 million for the town's town's planned
centralized wastewater treatment plant or septic to sewer project. This project was terminated last fall and the agreement was revised to allow for the payment of pre-development costs only and also for um the installation of decentralized wastewater treatment systems. The town also returned 2.2
million uh this previous January uh per the revised agreement. And then the DWTS project has since been terminated as well. And the balance of $1,557,38 will be also returned to the county. Uh here's the most up-to-date
project list. The balance from fire station 109 roof repairs will remain under that project line. And the balance from the town of Montbird is being proposed for new water mainline along county road 561 into varies to serve the county landfill road operations building
and the new affordable housing project. Uh as such the funds would also remain under the utilities line. So no proposed changes in that column there. Uh to conclude, here is a requested action to reflect these two suggestion changes from staff and we're happy to
answer any questions that you may have. Any questions? I'm supportive of the changes. All right. Um do we need to Let's see. We got to authorize. Okay. So, we would need a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the requested action
items one and two. Authorize remaining funds from the roof repairs for fire station 109 be used for additional repairs at that same station and re reallocate the balance from town of Mont Verde projects to the new mainline along County Road 561 um which will support uh
as noting our um new affordable housing project. Second. All right. Any discussion? All right. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. That passes. Thank you. May I say something? Um Sean was at a meeting yesterday that I was at and you did a fantastic job. I didn't get a
chance to tell you that, but I thought you did a fantastic job there. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. All right. Um moving along now to clerk of court's agenda. Good morning again. I have three items for your approval this morning.
Do we have a motion? Move for approval. Second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right, that passes. Then moving along to the BCC consent agenda, tabs 8 through
27. And we have tab 38 that was added as an addendum. That's for the regular. Oh, gotcha. Um, any other I'm just checking to make sure we didn't have any other modifications. I'd like to pull tab 26. 26. All right,
we'll pull 26. Any others? All right. So, tabs 8 through 27 minus 26. Do we have a motion? Move approval. Second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right.
Those pass. Now back to tab 26. Tab 26 is just mainly just for a clarification on this tab. Uh, as far a grant, the the only thing that I'm want to make sure of is if we do not get the this grant, we will not provide the
service. That is correct, sir. So, this is a grant to enhance our transit service to include Saturdays for the northern routes, which are the busiest routes. However, if we are not awarded this grant, which we don't anticipate, then we would wait until we identified
other funding sources to begin the service. Okay. All right. So the service is contingent on this coming through. With that, I'd like to make a motion to approve tab 26. Second. All right. All in favor say I. I. That passes
unanimously. Then moving on to our regular agenda. Um we have a presentation and I'm going to call on uh Tony Deon. Where's Tony? Is he over there?
Good morning, commissioners and elected officials. Uh Tony Deon, County Probation. We're here today to do a presentation of the Lake County Opioid Task Force. So, I'll introduce uh Liverif CEO Rick Hanky and uh also Michael Graves, public defender for the
fifth judicial circuit. Good morning again. Um, I'm wearing a different hat this morning as the chair of the Lake County Opioid Task Force, and we are very excited to be here today, not only to provide you with what we've been up to and what we've been
working on, but also to um um share with you an exciting uh project that we would like for you to consider. Slide. Next slide. So, our agenda today is um I'm going to
talk a little bit about the Florida opioid settlement. Um talk a little bit about the core funding and differentiate between the two because there's a little bit of confusion there. Talk about the um opioid task force and present to you a recommendation from the the um task
force on the drug court and then um some other recommendations. We are actually um very excited, like I said before, to be here today. The um several members of the task force are here and present to show their their support. So, I want to say
that a lot of times you come to these things and everyone says, "Yeah, we're going to show up." Don't show up. But our task force showed up in full force today. So, I just want to say thank you to the task force members. So, a little bit about the the opioid settlement. You're all aware of of the fact that the
um state of Florida will be will receive over three billion dollars over the course of 18 years starting at a certain amount and then deescalating as each year goes on. The dollars are set aside to support prevention and treatment activities reducing the risk and threats
to health really related to opioid usage. Um there are opportunities to create and expand treatment services as well as um residential treatments, programs for mothers and babies, MAT or medication assisted treatment, case
management, outpatient treatment, supportive housing and and employment in other areas as well. The um another piece of the the settlement is that it allows us to expand the number of certified recovery peer specialists and the number of
community recovery community organizations throughout the state. And finally, it also creates a statewide database tracking services and outcomes. So really the opioid dollars are trying to um eradicate the opioid issue that
the state has uh been facing for the last several years. Next slide. The core funding, again, I'm just trying to give a a real brief understanding of of the differences between the two. The core funding is our are dollars that
have been set aside that allow uh partners in the community to come together to meet people where they are at their they're hitting rock bottom. And here in Lake County, we have had a core program. It's one of 20 designated counties to receive state funds. And
what we have been able to do here in Lake County is in a partnership with the hospital systems as well as EMS and ourselves, Lifstream Behavioral Center, is that when people are brought in for an overdose in the emergency room, we're meeting them exactly where they are.
Once they're treated, uh, we're giving them the option of continuing treatment. We have peers that are actually going into the hospital 24 hours, seven days a week that are meeting individuals and convincing them that they've hit rock bottom and now it's time to get help.
Now, you can imagine that, you know, someone has just got into the hospital, they're not thinking about um getting treatment, but we don't give up and we allow the the individual to actually get medicationass assisted treatment in the the um emergency room. So, that was a
big, you know, big applause to the hospital system because the doctors were at first very hesitant, but they're actually giving them their first dose of medication assisted treatment and then our peers are are making sure that they get um connected to treatment as soon as
possible. And in most cases, we're getting them either same day treatment or the next day treatment so they can continue the medication assisted treatment. While they're in the program, we're convincing them that they need to continue to get other treatment services. And I'm very proud to say that
the program has been very very successful. While individuals may in the emergency room say that they're not really interested at the time, our peers don't give up and we actually show up at their house to just again convince them that you really need help and we're here to help you.
the the core dollars are really um set aside to create a network of of addiction providers that are coming together and it's not just treatment providers but it's other providers in the community that can help these individuals. It's designed to provide
access um to education, treatment and prevention and that's what we do with our peers and it's also um creates a comprehensive approach to expand at to expand treatment creating long-term recovery options. We give this individual once they come in through the
emergency room door, we then expose them to the other treatment options that we have for them. And it isn't just a short term, but it's a long term. So, we want to make sure that they continue to have success. If they do relapse, we still continue to work with them in the community to get them back into
treatment services. Next slide. core funding is designated by the Department of Children and Families to the managing entity in this area, Lutheran Services of Florida. And there are um specific expenditures that we
can't use. It's not just here's the money, go for it. There are identified um uh expenses and programs centered around the access and availability. And really, the funding is focused on getting people services as quick as possible. And previous to this funding
coming in, sometimes people would reach out to get services and it would take a lot longer, but we have all made a commitment. As soon as they get to the emergency room, our peers show up and then we get them to um our services. If it's a weekend, we continue to um get
them their medication so they don't they don't go into um any kind of relapse or anything like that. And then the very first Monday appointment is is is theirs. So, these dollars um are not we can't the board of county commission and the
task force can't recommend how these dollars are used, but we certainly can recommend to the county commission how the opioid settlement dollars are utilized. So, these dollars, they're they're kind of already set. We can't do much with them, but the opioid settlement dollars are what we're here
today to make some recommendations. So, tell you a little bit about um where we are and how we got here. The opioid task force isn't brand new. Um in it was approved and recognized by the board of county commissioners in 2021 and um kind
of went on a little vacation and we brought it back about six months ago and it's comprised of medical, legal, and community leaders in Lake County. We meet each month and we go through data with regard to opioid um use in the county. We also have um discussed
different opportunities and what we would like to make recommendations to the board of county commissioners. The recommendations that we're are making are based by are based on data. We have spent a lot of time looking at the data and these are some of the things that we really feel that the county needs to
move forward in order to um um address the opioid crisis. So the um you know the the what we're here to talk about today is something that has been talked about here in Lake County for quite a while. Um Mike Graves is
here today to present that piece of it. So I'll let him I don't want to take away any bit of his um thunder because we're really excited about the fact that we can um hopefully with your approval move forward with bringing a drug court here into Lake County. We've already
talked about how that would look, the implementation. I mean, to the point that we're we're ready to go. So, we're pretty excited about that piece of it. So, the um the well, I'm not going to go into I'm not going to go into a whole lot about the drug court because I don't want to take away from Mike. I know he's
very excited about this piece of it. And I said to him, I'll just go up and do the introduction and you come in and wow them with the actual um information about the drug court. So, with that, I will turn this over to Mike Graves. Morning, commissioners. And I know many
of you, and you know me well enough to know my wowing days are over. Um, we're ready to move forward with drug court. Um, all the stakeholders are prepared. They are committed. And I
think it's demonstrated today. I'd like to introduce Judge Heidi Davis, our circuit court judge, who has volunteered to be the drug court judge. Uh, in addition to all of her other responsibilities, Walter Forgi, the
chief assistant state attorney for the fifth judicial circuit, is here as well as his Lake County Supervisor, Gabe Lozano. And also a real integral part to this puzzle is Alena Stuthoff who for court administration manages the service
courts such as uh uh drug courts throughout the fifth judicial circuit and is recognized and Alena is the only one who will tell you she is not is the most knowledgeable individual in this area in central Florida and she has been
the guiding force in showing us where to go so that we have a best practice practices model drug court in Lake County. If we can go, where are you? There we go. Um, fifth judicial circuit in our five counties has four counties
with drug courts. The one that doesn't is Lake County. Lake County, though, there are a number of counties in the state of Florida that don't have drug court. There are counties like Union County, Baker County, uh Washington County, with the exception
of two counties, uh they're all counties with less than 75,000 people in population and really don't have the numbers that come through the system to support a drug court. But what's different there is within their circuit, they can also use drug court services in other counties, the larger counties
within their circuit. We don't have that. We are by far and away the largest county in the state of Florida by population without a drug court. I think Santa Rosa is next and they have about 200,000 people.
the opioid abatement plan when signed directly addressed that drug courts can be a fundamental piece of of of what could this money could be used as part of the plan to attack those that suffer
from opioid addiction. uh we first addressed this back in 2021 before the county commission and its iteration at that time and meant support things happened amongst with uh you know we don't need to get into Mark Johnson
was the head of the opioid task force at that time his responsibilities in Minnola kind of took him away from that and we just had to dig out of the the hole that the uh COVID and shutdown had the criminal justice system in we're now
at a point that we've reached uh that we're all prepared to go forward and excited about it. We can have next slide. What makes a drug treatment court? And I'll run through this. This is not something we make up as we go along. It's national best practices.
There's over 3,500 drug courts within the uh operating at this time within the United States. Uh is it a silver bullet? No. Will it cure everybody? know, I wish we had that pixie dust, but we don't.
What we do know, as I'll address in another slide, is that our citizens, our our sons, our daughters, our sisters and brothers, they're dying. Um, the program is somewhat a misnomer.
It's a part of a court. It's run by a judge. It has consequences. the way we run our drug courts in the fifth judicial circuit. You're you enter a plea, you're placed on probation, you're given the opportunity, and you're agreeing to go through this rigorous
drug court program, which will last 18 months. If you fail, you face consequences. Those consequences are jail or state prison. So, it's not something for the lighthearted and it's those that are committed towards
recovery that are entered into drug court. Drug court is always looking at not compromising public safety. It operates under a uh administrative order from our
administrative judge and limits with agreement between Mr. Gladson, the estate attorney, and myself. Uh, who is eligible for drug court? No violent offenders, no drug selling offenders, no
people with violence in their history or drug selling in their history. We're talking about the individuals who lessen the likelihood of of compromising the type of safety and the of the individuals.
Um, if we can go to the next frame. Uh, and as I left, these are all therapeutic and evidence-based. We aren't reinventing the wheel. And I think what's important is I've now been practicing law in Lake County since
1984. This is the first opportunity we will have to bring all providers under one tent and present them uh together so that we can have
therapeutic treatment plans using everything that we have in Lake County together. Uh drug courts are designed for people with opioid issues also co-occurring mental health issues which we see almost
across the board in individuals that have uh uh these type of drug dependences depend they're drug dependent. Um, it's important that we see and it's evidence-based that for some reason
having this type of program supervised by the judge and with court authority makes a huge difference. I could say I don't understand why, but the court's there. Drug treatment
court meets every two weeks. You're making a commitment every day. you can be called in for a urine screen every two weeks. You have your to uh your progress measured by the drug treatment
court and all the stakeholders. Uh and again, if you can't meet your responsibilities or you stumble, you have the authority. The judge could send you to jail for a little bit and then continue the program. Increase your treatment plan. These are things that
are tried and true and proven. I mean, one of the, if not the only good thing about being one of the last ones to move forward is that with this is we see what works and we've seen what doesn't work and we know we have the ability to carry
forward. Um, if we go to the next when the benefits to the community, it's not just to the individual, it saves lives. Sadly, in in my years of this practice, I've been through the cocaine epidemic. I've been through the
crack cocaine epidemic. When I first started my practice in the early 1980s, it was the resurgence of heroin. We've returned again to opiates now. It touches everybody, every socioeconomic group within our county. It has touched
my family. My brother-in-law sits in Lake County jail right now waiting to go to prison. And it's all based upon his opioid abuse. But I've also seen what it does to his sister and his family as they
wait for the phone call that you believe is inevitable. And that's that he's been found dead. I see the MS here. They've narcanned him three different times. This program is there to help those in
the future with that issue. So, it's not just the offender, but it's their families that we're working with and working for. And they're our neighbors right here in Lake
County. It decreases arrest. It decreases recidivism. And we have those statistics. every year will be here to present to you why these public dollars are well spent and what the results are because they're evidence-based. It's hard for me to sit
here and tell you exactly how much money we're going to save. There are national estimates that say for every dollar that's spent, we're saving $6. That for every individual through drug court, it saves you $6,500. I'll just say this. If we can
stop this one person this time, because these are the high repeat reaffender individuals that we see that are in our county jail that come in with health difficulties that we address and we pay for that if they're there for 10 months at a cost of about $1,800 to $2,000 per
month and we can stop them from coming back. We've made that economic savings over and over again. um social impacts. It's just good for our community. I'd rather have, as I've always said, good law-abiding individuals out there with the job,
paying taxes, raising their families, meeting their responsibilities. When we can def individually defeat the issues and the demons that these people face, we put them on that path. Uh as well as public safety. It's
not a secret that my clients, drugaddicted individuals, steal. They steal to support their habit. If we can break that cycle of addiction, we're making Lake County a safer place. as Miss Stuoff has taught me
because I have to make an admission as I'm ready to get here to close. Uh when I first took office 12 years ago, huge fan of veterans courts, not so much with drug treatment court, but then I became educated.
Then I've seen the results. And she taught me the goal here is not just sobriety or stability, but longterm recovery and resilience, actual rehabilitation with a
measurable outcome. We're not talking about somebody that can sneak through six months of probation. We're talking about somebody that we're trying to give the skills for life to address an addiction. Uh we used to say people were ready for
uh treatment when they bottomed out. Problem is with opioid addiction, you bottom out is death. Now we have previously submitted as part of our recommendations a proposed
budget. This is a budget that Miss Duth actually put together. It's based upon uh a common type of program we have in Ocala. So we have that to build on uh and what we see. There is only one issue
and I it it's been submitted to the county for review. So unless there are questions I won't go over it. One of the things that's in this budget is both Mr. Gladson, state attorney's office and myself are asking for $20,000 a piece to help offset costs. That's cost of
training. It's also right now with all of our treatment courts, my assistants, the assistant state attorneys take that on as a second job. They volunteer for it because they see the results and they're not renumerated for it. In other words, my my person that might be
covering drug court also has a full case load. They might have 120 other felony cases that a drug case that they could get done with in 90 days or 120 days. They're now committing themselves and we're committing ourselves to having an
18-month every two weeks association with that client and this helps offset so we can renumerate them. Now, it was the opinion of some of the individuals that that we've collaborated with that that that money could not be paid out of the
opioid settlement money. I disagree. Uh, this budget has a request for that $20,000 a piece to come from from the county as we look at the opioid settlement agreement
because as an old lawyer, when all else fails, do some research. Uh, and and Mark Johnson helped me with this. If we look at the exhibit for the listed uh opioid recommendations and
uh appropriate uses and I can provide this to to Miss Marsh. Uh it says one of the approved uses is to provide community support services including social and legal services to assist in
demon uh into deinstitutionalizing per persons with this addiction. And I think that is clear enough that it would authorize the use of those funds uh for this type of of use. We're
ready. We're behind the times. We can catch up. And I just end with this. In my time as an elected official, I've learned a couple of things. We do things for a couple of reasons. A number of reasons. One of which it's fiscally responsible. and
fiscally responsible do our job to guard the taxpayer dollar. We also have to do some things just because they're morally right and we owe that to our
constituents. Drug court serves both of those responsibilities. If there are no questions, thank you all very much for your patience. Thank you. I we might have some questions if you'll stay up at the podium and you can also call on your
This is why I was afraid. Um my first question is how soon um if we can authorize this today? How quickly can you um get things running? We've discussed it. We think we can be up and
running by October. Uh and that's with our first class. My office will begin identifying individuals so that we're ready to go. We'll be meeting with providers and other stakeholders so we can get them committed. I think
uh that October latest November uh Judge Davis will be convening her first drug court. And then how frequently would we get updates? You mentioned, you know, we talked about accountability and benchmarks and so forth. When would we
be getting updates on how things are going? Many times as you want. I mean, we can do it quarterly. I'll do it every six months. I'll take on that responsibility of gathering the information and doing it. Miss Duth thought, Ken, we need a little bit of time to gather representative data when
we start because we're going to have to start small and then work into bigger numbers. Uh, but that's really up to you. Um, any anybody else have questions? Because I have a couple more, but I'll see whether we cover. I have a comment,
but okay. You want that now? Well, and I do want to say thank you to Judge Davis for stepping up and being willing to take this on because I know that you're already so so busy. Um, and that this is a big commitment. Um, but this is such such a need and like was mentioned
before, um, we're behind and I I do like the statement about the fact that being one of the last to do this, you get to see what's worked, what hasn't worked, and learn from others experiences. So, um, but I but I know
it's a lot to take on, and I appreciate the fact that Judge Davis is willing to do that. Um, I appreciate the um the suggestion that we should be able to use the dollars for the um state attorney and for the public defender to supplement um those lawyers that are
actually um going beyond what they would typically do and be involved in this in this program representing clients. So, I think that I'm hoping that that will all um work out as far as being able to use those dollars for that purpose. So, um, and want to say thank you for those that
have been on the task force. I know it's been a long road. A lot of ideas have been kicked around. Um, but we're here. We're finally at a point where, um, all your hard work will, um, you know, will show as a result of getting this in place and moving forward. So, let me
turn it over to commissioners for comments or questions. I just want to Yeah, thank you, chair. I just want to say thank thank you very much. Um, this is very much needed. Uh, and Mr. Graves, thank you for all your hard work and for getting up here and sharing a a personal experience. Um, so, you
know, I'll share a personal experience. Um, I have a family member that I think this could have benefited that family member and often remember times expecting the call of is that family member dead u because of the because of
these issues. And um so I I I can relate to that and I appreciate you sharing it and it it it's an issue that I think affects us all. I know that you mentioned that um in one way or the other. It affects many of our families. It destroys families at least brings them to their knees at the very best
maybe. And and uh uh this is great that we're finally doing this and if just a few people are saved and kind of pulled from that addiction and I like the quote that you put on the the screen here um that that it's lifelong. it's not just um you know for a month or two months
but it's it's uh for the rest of their life then then we will have totally succeed and and just being a very very very very very tiny part of that sitting up here uh would make me happy and I really appreciate all of you out there that are doing the hard work on it. So thank you
commissioner Smith. Uh yes and um please don't take my questions as me not liking this program as um me and the honorable Mike Graves have had many conversation he knows I'm in a lot of support of this program. I just have a couple of
questions so we can have the public understand what's going on here. Um the first question is uh the 415,000 a year paid through the opioid fund. Is that a startup year or is that
what we're thinking it's going to cost uh year after year? It'll it'll be about that much every year and I'm Thank you very much for the question, Commissioner. As the opioid money
subsides, it's incumbent upon us to talk to our legislative delegations, do what so many other counties have done, is search for grants, but also for state funding. Uh, every year there's a number of counties that get state funding for
their drug court program is a special uh legislative budget request. We would be moving forward with that. Uh some of these costs we'll have to measure whether it might be a little more, a little bit less because this covers not just have a drug
test and go to counseling. This covers uh sober living uh all of the steps of a program uh that are required to lead to long-term sobriety. Uh but we don't expect it to be a burden upon the taxpayers of Lake County as part of
this. we move forward, we're going to seek other alternative funding. Well, it would never have been a burden anyway because all it is doing is helping the citizens of Lake County as a whole. Thank you. Um, so this task force, would they be willing to um, and I think I know this answer, but I want to ask it
anyway. uh once we get to the point of of coming to where we have to start funding more and more with the task force, be willing to take on the um obligation of trying to go out and find the grants and talking to the state legislators and helping us with this
drug court? Absolutely. Okay. So, uh of the $40,000 that has been requested, uh you said that you disagreed that it should not come out of the task force money. Um, is that a recommendation that you want it to come out of the task force money or did Yes. Okay. If
authorized, this was based upon what I believe was advice that I disagree with. Okay. They all agreed in the task force if it can, it should come out of that money. And I want to point out that's not just all, oh, this lawyer gets 20,000 extra.
No, I understand that. This is for training as well as the other things because we're going to train our lawyers to recognize, identify early on because we know the younger we can catch someone with an addiction issue, the more likely
we are to have long-term success. And that's your recommendation is is that included in the 415,000 or do we need to raise it to 455? I believe it would be to raise it to 455. We we had in the budget we presented that money pulled out of the
opioid money and in the special request and I will say that um this has been a conversation a lot of our meetings um y'all have done a fantastic job on getting this task force back up. You
have spearheaded this. Um, I was sitting there when you politely asked for volunteers and uh, they were graciously accepted and I can't thank you enough for everything you do for uh, Lake County. It's an honor for me to call you
Honorable Mike Graves. Thank you very much. And I've just been advised that $40,000 is in fact included in the number that we have presented. It is. I'd like to make a motion that we approve first. Any other any other
comments? You made a motion. Do we have a second? Any any other comments? Yeah, respectfully. This pretty pretty significant change. So, I I wouldn't feel comfortable voting it before a workshop. Obviously, I think you guys are just going to defer them, which is not a bad idea. Obviously, they know what they're doing, but I would I wouldn't feel comfortable voting for it
until I knew what it I mean, if you don't mind, I would like to make a few questions. Yeah. No, ask away because I mean, there are some detail. What is it the drug court can do that currently under our judicial system with PTI contracts, pre-intervention, etc., assigning people to counseling,
they can't do. Like I'm curious what they're limited from doing right now. And some of this will be antidotal because I deal with these cases. Uh having all of the services brought together is not currently what happens.
An example would be an individual is placed on drug offender probation. They know they're going to meet their probation officer once a month. They know they will be urine tested once a month. They know what date it will be. They continue to use and they are proud
of the fact that they can continue to use up until a few days prior to they go to probation. We're going to get clean. I go in, I pass my year analysis, then I'm immediately going to get high.
Uh, probation currently doesn't address the issues such as sober living. Uh, it doesn't connect individuals with u other funding such as social security disability that they may have lost while they're in jail this time or the last
time. All of that is presented uh within the u within the framework of the drug court. I think the numbers will be better, but we know we're running recidivist rates of 20% better than we
have right now. So, I can't tell you commissioner exactly why it works. I'm just sharing that it does. So you referenced a study about recidivism and the 20% difference. What what geographical area would study is
that? These are national. I don't have locally what they'll be. We'll have to find that. That'll be part of the measurables that we have on rearrests. Uh some of them, and I learned this when I was a criminal justice major at the University of South Florida, how you
measure recidivism can always be tricky. Recidivism looks low while you're in your first year. Why? because the person's in jail and it's difficult to to become rearrested while we're there. Uh I think that's one of the things that
we're proud to come back and address with the commission where where we are in our program because we can address those numbers of how many applicants, how many acceptance, where they stand, whether they have moved from uh it's a four-step
process. How many are at, you know, how many failures do we have? And we have failures. Uh, and certainly if the commission decides we need to workshop it, we'll be there. You tell me when, you tell me what information to get, I'll make sure
that we have it. If I could, I want to make a comment just before I go back to questions. Just, you know, understand where I'm coming from this from, right? Obviously, I'm extremely empathetic. You guys are professionals. You know, you've seen what works. You believe this, right? You're not saying this because you don't believe it. But every single
major social program in this country which claims to work and is become increasingly popular doesn't actually work. Every program to combat homelessness doesn't work. Epic failures. Every single program to combat poverty since the 1960s. It's been a
disaster. It's ex exacerbated poverty. I have no doubt in my mind that programs that are meant to help people who are addicted to drugs in many cases have an adverse effect of labeling them feel very comfortable putting anybody in a
court that's called the drug court something very dehumanizing about it just like a lot of other sort of humanitarian programs and if the logic of the commission is going to be well everybody else is doing it I would just suggest to the commission as a whole to look at every single mass government
program for the last 40, 50 years that's been an epic failure. And I think sometimes you need a radically different approach. And I hate to offer this because it's a bit cynical, but sometimes you can't fix things. There's other people that can, but sometimes
government can, sometimes we can't. I just think it's appropriate for a workshop. I'm not I'm not a hard no, by the way. Not a hard no. But I come into this very skeptical, especially the fact that everybody's doing it. And when people talk about recidivism rates and you look at studies, I want to see the
studies. I want to look at them. I want to look at each county in the circuit or the region etc. Look at what is actually happening and then look at the price point that we're spending because for what I took away in the first question is that the only significant singular
difference between what the judiciary has right now as a tool set and the state attorney's office etc. uh versus this court is that they can consolidate everything together which for me is sort of a key word of well we're just going to sort of you know bring all the government together and somehow that's
going to make it different. For me it's more government more spending. I don't think any of the approaches worked. I'm in fact I'm convinced most most government approaches to social distress and and and um issues just generally don't work. Sounds like a radical
position. It's the truth. So, I' I'd love a workshop. Again, you know, these guys a lot of respect for the professionals in the criminal justice uh area, and I want to hear what they have to say. I'd like to just learn a little bit more, talk to some other people in other areas, and just see if we can
learn a little bit more before we quite literally start an entirely another level of court, which is something that uh generally we don't always do in America. In fact, you know, other veterans court, there really hasn't been any new courts been created recently. And so I just think we should be a little hesitant before we take that next
step and just workshop personally. And I these guys have a lot of tools already to help people with substance abuse issues. It's not like we're slowing down progress. It's not like they weren't do they were doing a bad job. I don't think they're doing a bad job. So just waiting a little bit longer, doing a workshop, learning a little bit more before
casting a final vote, I think is obviously best for the county personally. If I may respond to that briefly. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've got some expert folks here today. Instead of reconvening and workshopping at some other time, let's workshop it now if we need to. May I May I say
something? Sure. Um, I'm part of the public safety I'm part of the public safety coordinating council. Uh, we have gone through this during that council. You have every opportunity to talk to any one of these professionally
professionals on your own. We don't need a workshop. Um, in my opinion, because I've done my due dilig due diligence and talk to these people to say, "Hey, what's this program about, uh, you can certainly do that as an elected official or as any member of the public says,
hey, what's what's this workshop about?" And they can explain to you in depth what all is um created, how it got created, and what is expected. I would like to see quarterly updates uh so we can see the trend. Uh, and that was
brought up during one of our meetings and I'm sure that um, Mike, honorable Graves would be more than happy to extend that. But having a workshop, just have a workshop when you can do your own investigation and come up with your own mind. Um, I've done mine. I've done my
due diligence. I've read this um, presentation. I've talked to the people and I'm ready to go. So, um, Mr. Grace, if you could um respond. I would respond very briefly. Uh Commissioner, I appreciate your
concerns. I know it's a lot of money. That's why it took me a long time. Took me 12 years as the elected public defender to come to this position. Uh, number one, with regard to labeling individuals, they're agreeing to go into drug
court as an alternative to incarceration because that's not as labeling as Department of Correction, inmate number, fill in the blank. Um, but mostly because these individuals
are have recognized I need help and this is not offered in the criminal justice system. Florida statute say the purpose of sentencing in Florida is punishment. Period. Basically, re rehabilitation though a desirable goal must take a secondary role. This is the first time
one of the few times where is a collaborative effort we are working to re rehabilitate and get individuals out of the revolving door of the criminal justice system. I haven't kept track over my years in this, almost all of which are in Lake
County, but I can guarantee you this, the tools that have been presented within the criminal justice system are not working. This is intensive collaborative treatment. The wise, I don't know. I went to law school because
I ran out of school to go to just being honest. uh uh this gives us the tools because we are not even treading water in this battle for this community. We are losing
it and we are losing it without the effort and the capabilities and the tools for our citizenry to fight back. If we workshop it, I'll be there. If you say come every month, Mr. Graves, and I know you don't want to hear from me,
I'll be here. I'm hopeful that it works. It's our last best chance because we're not winning this battle. And just a couple just a couple comments because I I think there might be a misunderstanding and everybody has their own opinions about things and um if
you've got your opinion and you're locked in, I'm not going to change it. Um but I but I think what I what I found and what I've seen in in um delving into this a little bit is that um our judicial or our our um our jail
is essentially being used as a as what was mentioned a deacto behavioral health center and it's not set up to be that. Um it costs more when you go that route. um case managers and case management is
is a key to helping anyone who's having a hard time staying on track. And that's something that's very different in a program like this than you have in the scenario where somebody's on probation, they're going to stay clean until they
don't need to, you know, be clean anymore. um this is more about that lifestyle change because the folks in on the judicial side are basically tired of seeing the same people over and over and over again come through the system. So, I don't think what we're creating like a
new social program. And while a lot of programs that have been created through the years in our country um probably are in some respects um failures, um this this is a court inside of our court system and it it's an alternative um
that um is being used to try to um correct the deficiencies that that these folks see every day. We're it's not working. what's happening now is not working in my district. Um, probably a lot of the
folks that you see come from district 4 there. I I know it's countywide. Um, but I hear from people in the communities that are so distraught by what's happening to their family members and they have essentially lost hope that
there could potentially be a solution. And to me, working within the court system we already have, we're not creating an entirely new social program, we're attempting to um collaborate and and come up with a system that might
actually help people make a lifestyle change and not keep coming back through the court system. So, um, Judge Davis, if you want, Davis, who promises she never wants to say anything, is moved to stand up and has to be heard. Um,
Commissioner Sabatini, I I echo some of the concerns that you have. Um, I think typically in Lake County, having been a judge here practicing in the court since 98, there has been a reluctance to make
our courts uh, social welfare programs. And I would agree there are a number of uh divisions that are actually governed by statute that show social welfare and the justice system don't always mix.
However, drug court is a little bit particular in that you've got not just everybody coming together. It is a commitment for an extended period of time which I think has shown you know six months on probation, 12
months on probation or even three years in DOC is not curing the problem. The drugs are still available. This is a program that is really attuned to those people that want the help but don't know how to get it.
Um how successful it will be, I think you should hold our feet to the fire. and and and demand that we have the numbers to support the funding that's going into it. Um, and I can I can tell you, although he probably won't like
this, but um, our administrative judge is also a little bit on the fence about this for that particular reason. It is not the judiciary's um, want that this becomes a burden on the taxpayers for
Lake County. we want break even or better. Um that this is going to be something that's fiscally responsible and is also meeting those um needs for the community that are that are certainly
out there. We've got people dying and and orphans and family members raising these kids and you know it impacts a lot more than just six months in the Lake County jail. I don't know how you put a
number on all of that. Um, but I know we would be more than welcome to get you whatever numbers, whatever figures you want. And I I think it would be incumbent upon the commission to make sure that the task force or um the drug
court, the drug court itself is providing that information. And if it's not working, we pull the plug. Those opioid funds are there. Where can we spend them best? A whole task force has been put
together. They have looked at everything. This is the recommendation from the opioid opioid task force. If it doesn't bear out, then we go back to the drawing board. That's all I wanted to say. I'm available to answer any questions if if
you have any. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else from the task force that might want to address just the from the standpoint of M do I've talked about this is probably the best answer to the problems or the questions.
I just want to say that you're not that far behind the the eightball. You have a veterans treatment court that's very successful right here in Lake County. we will be matching and doing very similar work to that veterans treatment court that is very s one of the one actually
one of the most successful in our circuit. So um it is it is it is here and it is being addressed and it is I don't really see it as a social program because the judiciary is involved is actually tapping into the community and allowing the stick of the judiciary to
say please make sure you are holding what you're supposed and doing what you're supposed to be doing as part of this community. And when you have the judiciary involved it kind of makes everybody step up and say oh yes I'm going to do this and I'm going to take care of this. It's just making but everybody accountable including the
participants. We do incentivize our participants for doing a good job. We sanction them for doing not so good and when their disease gets in the way we make sure that they have a therapeutic response to that. And so we are making sure that everyone including the
community including the judiciary and most of all including the participants are accountable to their behavior as well as to their disease. So that's all I have to say, but you have something happening here that's really great already and that's your veterans court.
So it's not really starting from scratch here. Thank you. I I would just end I think our esteemed clerk, Mr. Cooney, who's been around even longer than I have, can agree that maybe the judicial
system in Lake County is a little slow to change. I practiced in front of Ernest Sealls. Uh but when we make that commitment, we do it well. We do it openly and we have
nothing to hide. Our success will be our success and the community's success. Our failure will belong to us and to the community. I want to delve in just a little bit into veterans court and why it works.
And I think it goes back to and I'd like to hear if anybody wants to comment on that, but um I think it goes back to this idea of um the um participant being willing to go this route
volunteer. Um the fact that the services are all there together. So you're helping them actually kind of put their life back together and not send them out on a wild goose chase trying to figure out how they're going to make their life work. you're you're helping them in that respect and then in return they're
agreeing to honor these certain rules and if they honor them then that's success. If they don't then there's repercussions. Correct. And so when veterans courts first started in the US nationally as well as in Florida the VA
was not fully on board. Not at all. And and people were very very apprehensive. Veterans were very apprehensive of approaching or going to the VA. They didn't like the stigma. They didn't like anything that they were getting. The services were not great. Uh veterans
court forces them, they even have VJO's who are actually part of the treatment court team of the of the veterans court team. And it forces again part of your community to step up and assure that evidence-based practices are occurring. And so it was making sure that there was
a coordinator that was gathering all the information which is this will have as well. You have a coordinator in veterans court that assures that all the things that are supposed to happen for any person. If it could happen naturally it would be great. We wouldn't need these programs but to make sure that all of these things are happening and that
everyone including the participant like I said is accountable. And so and it also increases the the trust and the faith in the judiciary. It makes people realize I'm not afraid to approach a law enforcement officer. I'm not afraid to approach a to approach an attorney or a
judge. I now realize that they are on my side and they're here to help me even if the outcome is not great, but they trust the system a little bit more because we have a lot of people who do not trust our system right now. So, I think that that is one of the biggest things that
helps assure that these programs work out and the fact that it is voluntary. A person doesn't want to be in. We still have somebody who comes in and say, "I I really don't have a problem. I just wanted to do this to avoid going to jail. If you don't have a problem, you don't belong in this court. And so we make sure that everyone is accountable.
Did that answer that question? You actually had all the answers. No, I think that I mean I think that it makes the point that this isn't really about being this isn't a social program. This is working within the judiciary, but actually helping bring the services together for that um um individual so
they they can try to make the change themselves. And if they don't, well then they're subject to the um you know criminal justice system. The other requirements in addition to treatment, it's it's a very hard program because you have to attend sometimes approximately nine hours of treatment a
week including AA and NA and peer support type meetings which are sometimes three or four a week. You have to come in three to four times a week for a drug screen. And you must be employed. We assist you in getting health insurance. you have to have or if
you're not employed, you have to be working on a career of some sort, going to school, doing something. You can't just sit back and I I honestly couldn't do the program. I couldn't do 12 hours of treatment and meetings as well as a full-time job. And and we it is a requirement of the program and if you
don't, we assist you in connecting with career resources and the programs that are already available in our community. So all of those things have to happen while you're in the program. So, it is very it I I say it's supervision on steroids. It's it's much harder to be in
the program than to sit in jail or prison for 6 months. Thank you. Appreciate that information. Why we love her? Any other any other questions? Yeah, just final comments. I just want to react to the one or respond to the one uh comment which is that yeah, the
money's there. We got to spend it. If we want to spend it, I think in the in the most effective way, and obviously the commission is kind of made their mind up on this. Um, but I'm a no because for me, the most successful social programs without any doubt, in fact, the only
ones that work. Government doesn't work. Destroys everything. Wastes all our money 99% of times. Does a good job building roads for sure. Other than the roads, generally doesn't work at all, especially on social change and and that sort of thing. But if you do want to see
communities that turn lives around, it's generally either the faith community or some other community entity which embeds somebody in a sense of community gives them a sense of purpose. People go to drugs and and violence and sex crimes etc.
Especially drugs uh because generally they're alienated from society. They're they're completely alienated. They have no idea what's going on. Government can't fix that. It's too deep of a problem. It's too deep psychologically, spiritually. And so I would just rather block grant all that money to well put
together churches and faith communities and let them put them through a six-month program outside the opaces of government because then they they can become part of the church, part of the community, part of actual people, not a bureaucrat, actual people sitting down in a church, in the community who can
give meaning to their lives and be part of a community. All of the all of this violence, all of this stems from the alienation. Government cannot stem the alien. It cannot stop the alienation. Cannot unalienate them. It can't. It
can't. They will relapse because they have to be embedded back into a community where they have a sense of purpose, identity, and value and pride. And only either the faith community and several other small unique types of entities can do that. Sorry, but it's true. That's why everything has failed
in this country for 60 years of just throwing money at every single social problem. Every single one we can and it's just gone. And things are worse. More drugs, more more everything being bad. So, long story short, it doesn't doesn't work. It won't work. But so before we take the vote though, I just
want to make the point that um I think it was said already that a big part of this is um actually attending AA meetings, things of that nature. As a general rule, folks that are involved in AA, they will find a faith-based organization. It's part of
the program. As a as a general rule, they will find something that will make them feel like they belong. It will get rid of the alienation that you speak about. That's why programs like AA do work because people do become part of a community. Um, doesn't mean people don't
relapse. Doesn't mean that you know it doesn't happen again, but they have a community to go back to. So, it is embedded in this. It It's not, you know, this is this is not what you would call, in my opinion, a typical
government program. Um, we already have a structure, criminal justice system, somebody that gets in trouble is going to be going through that system. If they're involved in drugs and they've they they're addicted to drugs, chances are they're just going to keep coming through the system. We, the taxpayers, are going to keep paying for that. That
money is just going to keep going down the drain. we have an opportunity to attempt to do some intervention if the participant is willing to be involved. And and I I just disagree that that that you're not opp you're not offering them
an opportunity to um uh address being alienated because you're actually opening the door and helping them get to those resources that help them feel like they do belong and um help them feel that they they do have someone that's helping them plug into the the needs
that they have. So I'm hopeful. I think it's worth a try. Um, I don't think we can. Block granting the money to a church or something like that isn't even an option. Sounds nice, but it's not an option. It's not. Well, why is it not an option? This is, by the way, we're having a workshop. Well, there's no way.
You wouldn't you wouldn't be allowed to do that. I mean, I can tell you right now, I attempted to get ARPA funding so that we could help a local uh organization that was faith-based, right? You can't. It It's because of the faith-based aspect of it. You can't.
It's it's not it's it wouldn't it it would run into constitutional problems and you just so it's but if you do if if if you're using uh an organization for example like an AA program a person will find either a
faith-based organization or they will find a group that gives them that life purpose. Um, and so, um, I think you get there this way. Um, but you wouldn't, you know, that's just my opinion. I don't think you could just block granite
to a church. And even then, how is that accountable? How could you possibly say just by giving the money to church somehow, they're going to be accountable? Sure. Yeah. I certainly think my words are mis mispersceived. It's not like here's money, here's cash,
like go go do something at this church. know like churches that have structured programs or we could incentivize to have programs that help people with substance abuse. Many churches do and I disagree. I think I think ARPA money does allow for that sort of funding and and I know
the commission's take because I know we're trying to fly through this meeting but thank you for allowing us to workshop this in the middle of the meeting because that's what we're doing right now and I think it's very important at a workshop you know we would be able to research like what entities exist in the community that these same amount of dollars these very
limited dollars seems like a lot of money on paper it's not these is this the best use obviously I'm not saying it's a bad like terribly bad use but I think there are better uses. Why? Because again, I'm going to be just very fundamental about this. If you don't take somebody who's alienated and their
life is meaningless, they don't care about anything, they have no sense of pride, anything else, and you don't permanently imsh them, in mesh them back into a real community with people, dozens of people who care about them, love them, want to spend time with them, want to employ them, want to hang out
with them to the point where they're quite literally inserted back into society in a healthy, meaningful way. Then the moment the sort of escalator ends like okay they're off the drug court but this and that they are going to go right back to their old ways they have to be inserted back into the
community in a in a in a loving meaningful fashion. It's extremely hard to do. It's the only chance of success and and they can show they can point to studies every one of these sociological studies will tell you that you know we've reduced poverty in America. we've reduced this, this, and that because
they use their own rubric that generally doesn't make sense and it's extremely de deceptive when they when they try to quantify things. Uh but the truth of the matter is those faith communities and if even if they're not faith-based things that sort of are communitarian in nature
in my opinion based on what I've seen for studying this issue for years since George Bush pushed you know compassionate communities and these sorts of things where we opened up federal laws to give more money towards community based faith-based organizations. Those are only the ones
that work and that's why I'm a no. It's not because this is the worst program. I do believe that there's better ways to spend the money without permanently changing, by the way, the face of the courts. And this is far more secondary. This is not equivalent or as important to me as the first long point I made.
But I will say having a uniform court structure where you can walk into that courtroom and be treated just in the normal court, not segmented or lessened or put into a a pigeon hole category, I think is just very important and dignified the sense of American
identity. Donald Trump and person Lake County are going to walk into the same court, right? That's to me very dignified. I'm very very hesitant to modify the types of courts. Okay, this court, that court completely changes the face of the judiciary. Even though it's popular obviously with some people, I
I'm very skeptical of it based on my views of of the dignity of the court uh itself and and how it gives the average citizen a sense of identity too. So anyways, long story short, I have I'd rather workshop it, look at it, but I generally am against it because I think there are other entities that do a better job in meshing people into
society. I was just going to I was just going to say, let me make I mean, Commissioner Sabatini, you you had asked them for statistics on on the success rates. You stated that there was a 99% failure
rate in social programs. Is that statistics? There's lies, damn lies, and statistics as Mark Twain said. But uh the Well, I mean I mean if we're gonna if we're going to hold them accountable, we need to hold ourselves. That's metaphoric speech though, obviously. Okay. Well, I'm just asking if it is or it isn't. I I would say
absolutely. Look, do you think the war on drugs worked in the United States? Obviously, I would say that's a 99enter right there. But we're talking about a series of different social problems. War on drugs did not work. Still doesn't work. It's worse now than it was 10, 20 years ago.
Commissioner Parks, I I I just want to say um I mean I certainly appreciate we we should be skeptical of any government expenditure of money. Um and they're willing to be fully accountable. So I I get it. I totally get that. There are a lot of stuff that fails fails. There's a
lot of stuff that we don't hear about that works. The individual cases of programs that that do work. And I know that's a debate that we're going through nationally and state is how we expend our money on that. So, I appreciate it, but I think there's there is accountability here. I will say that I
agree also u there we're we are always going to have an addiction drug problem. We're always going to have a homeless problem in this country, a free society until the end of time. I mean, it's going to but but we continue to try to work to obviously improve that. I think
most of it does come through faith and a person finding their faith and being able to have people, especially those that are prone to addiction, come around them and fight that off. Uh it is a darkness uh battle, a spiritual battle if you will, that we face every every
day. Um but so I know there is that part of it, but in this particular case, again, I think it's an option. You mentioned the label. Well, yeah. I I know again from some experience, you know, personal experience of the beauty of this might have been an option before
being labeled and being put into the jail, which is just most times not a good place for addicts. And uh I think that's the that's the that's to me that's kind of what's key to this is this is an option for somebody to not
right not go into jail get get the the suit the the numbers and everything which is going to further I mean you have to think that that might be an impediment to them trying to recover. Um and so it's an option for them. It's optional and again we'll know the
numbers but I'm I'm I think that it'll work for enough people to say it's worth it. Um just again Yeah. All right. We Yeah. Oh, I just want to apologize to the task force.
Um we we tked you to come up with a plan for us to help resolve this problem. Uh we we tked a a group of people who was highly educated and highly motivated
to give us what they think as professionals is the best solution to move forward with this and a path to get out if it doesn't work. Um Commissioner Sabatini, if you want to uh learn more about this program, I would suggest I
know a lot about the program. Commissioner Smith go to them individually. I know a lot about it to what they have done. I don't think there needs to be a workshop. This has been a workshop. We have tasked the task force um to bring back a recommendation. This is a recommendation they um
wholeheartedly came up with. So, thank you very much. And before we take the vote, I want to just um mention one more time the veterans court because I don't think we fundamentally change the court system by having veterans court. We're working inside of the court system. Same thing with this proposal. We're not fundamentally changing the court system.
We're working inside of the court system and it's a volunteer program. So, as far as being stigmatized by being sent through this court, you're making the choice to go through this court. So, um I just I appreciate all the time that's been spent on this. I appreciate the expertise. I mean, we have the subject
matter experts here with us today and you all have put a lot of time in. Um I I don't want this although it it has kind of devolved into you know a controversy over whether this is a social program or not a social program and whether this is going to fit into
the category of failed social programs for the last 50 years or not. I mean that's that's I I hate that this is kind of going down that road in the discussion because I think that this does have the potential of being extremely positive and it's going to be a lot of hard work. It's going to take a lot of hard work, not just on the part
of those that decide they want to go through the program, but everybody around them that's trying to help them get on that path to change their lives and not perpetuate this revolving door in our jail system and our judicial system. So, um, with that, um, we'll
take a vote, um, of moving forward with this proposal that was presented today by the task force. And you have one more comment before your honor. We did not bring before you today an itemized budget. Today wasformational purposes only. The task force has an itemized
budget. We seek direction from the board to bring that budget back next month. I like that. I like that because I like the fact that that gives us a month between now and then and all of us can look at the itemized um budget and it also gives us more time. Um, and I know
that that Commissioner Sabatini feels like he knows enough about it already, but it is possible that you might actually have more time at this point to, you know, ask additional questions um or you come back with a better
argument um that you don't like it even more than you didn't like it today. So, however it turns out, I think that that time period between this presentation today and then coming back with itemized budget for us to vote on um would is is
beneficial all the way around. So, with that in mind, then we wouldn't we would you withdraw your motion to move forward? Can I withdraw or do we have to fail it and then bring back a budget request? I'll withdraw. All right. Do we have a And I'll withdraw. So, there was no
action needed today. That's right. Essentially presentation. We'll come back with an itemized budget and at that point we'll take a formal vote on it. Okay. Okay. Great debate. Great opportunity to hash it out and um I appreciate everybody being here. Yeah.
Okay. Moving on to public hearings. Let's take a 10-minut break and then we'll move into um our our two public hearings. my whole life. I've been I'm a minimalist, but I have stacks of crap from meetings because I leave a meeting and I just stack it and I leave a meeting and I stack it. I usually have
one job. Fridays I try to clean it out. Nice. Well, I bring everything home. I don't leave anything at the office. So, at my house, I do accounting stuff. I got law firm stuff. I just can't have stuff with the office. We're going back in session now. Um on tab 29, um I'll call upon the county attorney. Um this
is regarding an an ordinance um related to human trafficking. Okay. This is an ordinance amending section 3.66 of the Lake County Code entitled general requirements. Hey, this will be an ordinance the board of county commissioners of Lake County
amending section 3-66 Lake County code entitled general requirements, amending the contact information for the Florida human trafficking hotline, providing for severability, providing for inclusion and code, providing for filing with department of state, and providing for an effective date. If you choose to approve this today, it will become ordinance 2025-20.
All right, this is a public hearing and we're going to open this up. Does anyone um wish to comment on this ordinance? All right, we're going to bring it back to the board. Do we have any questions, discussion, or do we have a motion? Move to approve. Second. All right. All in
favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. That passes unanimously. Moving on then to tap 30. We'll call on Fred Schneider. This is regarding a resolution to vacate, discontinue, close, and declare specific county-owned rideway a surplus and cease maintenance. Good morning,
commissioners. Fred Schneider, assistant county manager. as mentioned is vacation petition number 1288 public hearing. Uh the applicant uh I'm going to have a change on that today. With us today is Chuck Bell,
director of land development and Laura Kelly is attorney for them representing Shutz and Bowen. They're sitting behind me. Uh the location of this requested uh vacation of rideway is in the Claremont
area south of State Road 50 near Ray Good Game Parkway Commissioner District 2. This is a close-up map showing uh Claremont City limits in the gray area and unincorporated uh remainder and the
red shows the existing road where it was to um and removed. Um this is the Waterbrook PUD. Uh it used to be called Jana PUD approved in 2006 by the board of county
commissioners. In that ordinance, it allowed for the road to be relocated. And then again, BCC ordinance 2014 amendment. And then Claremont ordinance 2016, he annexed and uh and kept the
uh ability for the developer to relocate the road. So, it's been almost 20 years since they first received a approval and they've just now got the new road built and the existing road has been has been removed.
And you can see on the map the area I've highlighted in yellow. It's the area of the realignment of the road that sort of kind of went through their property and now it's moved moved to the north and along the edge. And here's an aerial map showing
that location. Uh the new segment has a roundabout at the intersection of Hardle Road and Island Boulevard and everything's been built completed. Um there was a wall, a
privacy wall built along the homes on the north side uh that they constructed and uh worked we worked with them a lot to get it in the right location to provide the maximum amount of
uh less visibility. I guess that's a word is privacy to the to the folks on north of the uh property because originally the plans show the the wall down the slope and property owners contacted us and it's like well that wall is not going to do any good. We
agreed so we worked with matadom to get it up as high as we could next to the road provide as maximum privacy as possible. Um and then to the end there's a the Magnolia subdivision is served on the
far east end of it. Uh this here shows the original location in blue of the deed rideway and then proposed vacation in the hatched red over that
blue and and then in the yellow the new alignment and the road. They've dated the ride of way. Everything's been built and completed. Um and they've put a a maintenance bond in place. So, um,
everything's been completed up until the the final would be to for, uh, vacate existing rightway where they want to plat homes. And so, uh, we don't have any known issues. So, with that, staff
recommends approval of their vacation requests. All right. Any questions for Fred at this point? All right. This is public hearing. I do have card. Um, Robert, um, Traver, if you'll come to the podium. Good morning, commissioners. I'm
a resident of Magnolia Island, Robert Traver. Um, I have some concerns with this with the relocation of the Allen Boulevard. Uh the scope conveyed back in uh 2015 was approximately for 38 homes. Um we've since come to learn they've
bought 20 more 28 more acres and there's a crash gate between their development to boulevard. Um we questioned Madame Elms about the crash gate and security wise. Well, it's going to be taken care of by um landscaping and trees. There'll be no walls, no fences. Um, it's turned
into already it's turned into a a problem for them and us. They've put piles of dirt. People are driving over the dirt. They put a tanker truck there. People drive around the tanker truck. They actually had a low boy unload yesterday on, excuse me, on Island Boulevard and drove over all their brand new stuff right up into there. It It
just seems like there's something not happening there. It should be happening. Um Um, excuse me. This is a I don't do public hearings. It's okay. um as built, Island Boulevard does not have any
pedestrian um setups for it. It's basically now with all these new homes coming into there, this crash gate is probably about a quarter mile down the road, I guess. And we're going to have kids and pedestrians are going to want to go to
Publix and while or Publix and and and the Rebel gas station. and they're going to take the shortest path possible and there's nowhere for them to go other than down the road because there is no access there for them to walk to be walking in the road. Um I just don't understand why um as they're coming back
for a second bite of the apple to make their development bigger um this crash gaze would become an issue like they don't want to deal with it. I have concern that it's going to be a problem going forward. Um, I brought pictures of the area, how it was developed before Hardle Road, the developer, he put walls
on both sides of the road, put trees, put a sidewalk in. It's a barren wasteland out there right now. They built this supposedly private wall, privacy wall. It's It's a joke. It It's 25 ft off the other houses that are already there. There's a great big pathway you can see with trash already
growing. You know, it's it's a accumulating stuff because it's not closed off. I have no idea what their plan is for this. I've asked for a landscape plan at crickets. They put a sewage a lift station there that we can see visibly off boulevard. There's no
landscaping there. There's no irrigation for landscaping there. So, we get to look at a transfer station forever. Um, and as far as the road being removed, the road has not been removed. They had to put a a pasture road in for us to when they when they do the transfer of
the road. And there's about 100 square feet of asphalt that they kind of just threw some grass around it that should have been cut and removed. That's my comments. So, oh yeah, real quick. Um, so Fred, could you put the map back up um just and and just briefly
point out a couple of the things that were mentioned here and I know that a lot of the work isn't or there's work that's not done yet. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Sorry. I'd suggest that the representative of
the developer come because I'm not aware of what was being. Yeah, I mean that's that's what I wanted to uh I don't I don't know what they're because today we're we're dealing simply with the vacation vacation of that road but if there's other issues of course the other issues are within the city of Claremont and whatever the city of Claremont's
approving for this development but I don't know I don't have details on that. So you're speaking you're speaking for this I know we have the Madame is it Madame that's okay. Um so you're speaking just for this segment here that's that's cleared to vacate where the road is being moved the realigned
road. Correct. This is the public hearing for that. Yeah. And and then you did take care of some of the the landscape I know that the couple of these lots up there in John's Lake Estates that had issues that but that's already been addressed with the with the wall and the landscape. Although it
might not. Is it all installed yet? I haven't been out there in a little while. Okay. All right. I'm told. I'm told it is. Yeah. But you have a performance bond still. Performance I don't know if we released that yet. And then we have maintenance bond. Okay. So I just just a question
then. So as it relates to what we see on the screen if we have the if we still have the performance bond if there's an outstanding issue and that's that we're responsible for. I I'm I'm told that everything was completed. So Okay. But just you could double check it. Yeah. We'll do is that that correct? Mr.
Attorney, our performance bond and maintenance bond is only for the realigned road. It would not have anything to do with landscaping or walls or anything of the for the subdivision because that subdivision is in the city of Claremont. We have no control over what they should or should not be doing. Like the gentleman referenced, he didn't
he was looking for a landscape plan. Those aren't records Lake County would have. They'd have to get those from the city of Claremont. Okay. All right. So, the even the performance bond that we have is sort of limited to just that alignment there. Okay. All right. Um, then I think just because we have somebody that came from
Claremont, maybe if Madame could speak. Uh, I just want to make sure that we are only discussing the vacation of this rideway. Correct. Yeah, we are. Um, we are. I think we're just taking it he's just taking the opportunity to address some of those
questions that he had. Good morning, Chuck Bell, development director. Madam Holmes. Um, the road is complete. However, on the south side within the city of Claremont, that's where we're finishing up some of the site
development for the lots. There will be um landscape along I it would be the southerntherly edge or outside the southernly right away on the city of Claremont parcel that is contiguous with
the new alignment of Magnolia Island Boulevard. Um that along with the cash uh crash gate, excuse me, that'll be constructed. That will kind of frame up that concern that the gentleman had regard that. Um gentlemen discussed
about sidewalks and all. Previous road did not have any sidewalks at all and we just relocated what was there at the existing road. So um I'll be happy to ask answer any questions that you may have. appreciate your time and and I
know we're just dealing with this vacation question, but your testimony to us is that when you you're going to be addressing the crash gate, you're going to be addressing the area that he was concerned about as far as the um lift station, maybe having a buffer. Yes,
ma'am. All that area is within our within the Waterbrook development. So we have, you know, we're finishing up the site development at this time and we'll come back and we'll do the landscaping right afterwards. So So those concerns with buffering the lift station and
buffering th those homes and the cash uh crash gate will be will be addressed at that time because that's what you do last. We'll do we'll do that last. Okay. And just so I just don't I'm appreciate Mr. Traver being here and you've been here a long time and you had to sit
through our whole meeting. Um, but it's probably a good idea to reach out to Claremont and just let him know. It sounds like the developer understands that this is something that he's going to be finishing as part of finishing up his project. Um, but uh, as far as
inspections go, our bond that we have, we we have no authority over those additional improvements. Um, we certainly can, you know, pass it on to Claremont that we want to make sure it's done correctly and that we heard from a constituent about it. Um but on on this
this was part of this um pud right that this this transfer would happen that road would be rebuilt. What about how deep it is in the dirt going over the old road? Is is there any requirement that that asphalt be cut and that um it be removed or will just putting dirt
over it be sufficient for grass to grow there or how's that going to work? with respect to the old road that the entire road, the asphalt and the base material was demolished, removed, and clean fill put on top of that. Yeah. It's already out of there. It's already done. It's
out of there. It's okay. All right. Well, that's that's good to know. That's um And that's I mean, you're you're telling us that that got done. That's that got done. Believe me, that got done. Um Mr. Traver's holding up a
picture that looks like asphalt. Maybe that was before it was done. I mean, I'll be happy where where the asphalt is, but I can tell you within, you know, the old alignment on what would be, you know, where homes or lots are going to be, all of that
asphalt and base material was removed. Okay. So, everything out that do outside of that dotted yellow line has been Yes, ma'am. There may be some transition areas. Now, if he gentleman had if there's a transition area that we'll be happy to meet with them in the field and
look if there's an area that Okay. Could you do us that? Yes. Yes, ma'am. And and talk to Mr. Traver and go look on the property and make sure that anywhere where there's asphalt, it's it's there for a reason. And if it but this area
that's shown outside the yellow is going to be has been all removed and if not that it would be removed. Yes ma'am. We'll do that. We'll get with that gentleman. Okay. All right. We'll bring it back to the board. All right. Well, um I
appreciate the both both parties coming forward and talking about it here publicly. Um, so I I um I'll make a motion for um for approval. Second. All right, we have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? Um, just
been understanding the developer has represented that they'll meet with the um property owner and make sure that that asphalt's been removed. Um, all right. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. That passes um
for the road vacation. Um moving then to our regular agenda. Um we have um Commissioner Smith. Um this is a discussion regarding the Minola Athletic Complex interlocal agreement. I'm going to turn it over to
you. Let me get my book. Okay. My page here. So, um, as most of y'all know, we have a a county park within the city limits of Miniola.
And I just wanted to bring attention to the cost of what's going on uh with this park and and what my idea is. So before I get started, um Jennifer, can you go over the numbers
for us? Okay, sure. So the Minnola Athletic Con complex is actually owned by the city of Minnola. We entered into an agreement with them in 2011 to manage the property, the day-to-day operations, as well as work on the capital
improvements. Since 2011, we have spent approximately $2.1 million on capital improvements for the property. And then the operations, which includes staff cost, is have uh totals about $6.5 million. So, it's a total of about $8.6
million since 2011 spent at that complex. So this is wholeheartedly uh city of Minnola land uh within the city of Minnola, right? So my only thing is I want to be consistent
with our other cities. We have the same situation going on in Groveland. We have the same situation going on in Claremont and we have the same situation going on in Tvaris to where they own the land. But the difference is each one of those
cities, Taris, Groveland, and Claremont take care of the operation and maintenance and the county assist with capital improvement funds. My request is we do the same with Minola
is we give the operation and maintenance over to Minnola and then we continue on with our capital improvement funds as they requested just like we're consistent with every other city including Futland Park that we uh
provide capital funds to. That's my only ask is so in order to do that, I know we're under a contract. We have to get out of that contract or amend that contract in some way. Um but I I just
think it um to be fair to the citizens of all of Lake County, uh we need to be consistent on how we work things. Commissioner Parks. Yeah. Um I I appreciate you bringing up. Um, always these kinds of things are always good to to discuss. Um, just a little bit of
history. You and I were around when this happened. Um, so that that field that park was uh growing up weeds like literally and and it it um was really there was no plan for anything to, you know, to open it back up. uh at the
time, you know, the analyzing and going through the level of service that we, you know, dictate in our own comprehensive plan for the county. Um we were particularly in that part of the county. Um it wasn't the only part too. There's the Northwest I think um up near Finland Park was also very deficient in
level of service. So what we did at that time just so everybody you know just a little bit of history is um in a in a sort of a uh I don't call it a costefficiency move but it it is kind of like that. We said okay why don't we uh
pick this park up we'll get it back on its feet. Um we'll manage it and run it. It'll help us meet our level of service in that area. even combined with the the planned regional park that's in Grovein based off of population numbers all that space was going to be needed to meet our
level of service. So that's why we did it. We went into it um you know trying to do that uh as a you know a sharing um of a good opportunity I guess to to be costefficient and effective. Um so Bobby's team has done an incredible job
over the years there. Um it's it's insanely busy u if you've not been out there. I I think most of our parks are, of course, but that one's just insanely busy. Uh there's been talk about trying to get it expanded and, you know, have more parking areas and things like that.
So, I think the discussion's appropriate because I do think um Minola uh I think there's an opportunity I'll I'll be um nice in the way I say that uh for, you know, helping us uh the county achieve the the goal of providing good service
there. Um, and I don't know what that is. I don't know if, you know, not necessarily ready to talk about that today, but I think it's a good topic to talk about um with them about starting to pick up the cost. You know, I I'm sure if you just sort of handed over the keys to them right now, so to speak, um
the issue might be, well, are you prepared to are is Minola prepared to operate and run that? You're proposing operational cost, right? Yes, I'm proposing operational maintenance costs and I'm sure there's going to be a transition period for them to get their workforce up enough. Um,
and I do realize that when this agreement happened, Minola then is not the Minola today. Yeah. Well, populationwise, growthwise. So, um I just think it's time for we helped them out
tremendously and now it's time to um be more consistent with the other parks and there's got to be a transition period. I completely get the transition period. Uh but it's time to move in that direction or or uh you know it could be
that um the the our team that's provided service there so effectively and efficiently for all the years. Maybe there's a contribution to um to that providing that service as well because I think there's an economy of scale with having these regional larger parks
that is achieved with with the staff that we have so that they so Minnola and I just know this because you know just some convers they may be interested in that too where they would pay the county to continue to do the operations but contribute to the cost of doing it just
so you'd have the continuity of the right same type of maintenance. So, as long as Yeah, I don't know how that would work out being a county employee. Um, if you want if you wanted to go that route, then we'd have to be consistent with the
other cities and hadn't hire county employees for Claremont, county employees for Groland and county employees for Chavaris to run those as well and have them distributed us. It's their land. I think he's talking about like a It's just a contract. It's just
like a you're just like um assisting with the operational cost basically. As long as it's net neutral, I'm okay with it. Um I'm fine as long as as long as our parks and recreation team says that they can handle it and
it's net neutral and is consistent with what we're doing across the board, then I'm okay with that. But I truly think it should be Minola's personnel, Minnola's equipment running that
operation and then us just providing the capital funds that they need to help enhance the park. Agreed. How and do you you know like composition of who goes to this park? I mean is it 50/50 uninccorporated and city? we can
have the our our team come up, but um I mean I think people come from all over the county to use it. You know, it's it it's it's insanely busy. I'll just I'll I'll say that it's like but they're from all over the county. Sometimes they come from outside of the county even. Well,
like the North Lake Park is is huge park, right? But it's in the unincorporated area, but it's used by city and unincorporated. They're all used by city and unincorporated residents. We represent all of the residents of Lake County, whether they're in a city or not in the city. I think the deal here is you're trying to find uh consistency with how the other
parks that are um that that have been assisted with funding from the county that are wholly inside city limits. Um you're you're trying to find consistency there and my I think we should have discussion with Minola about it. I want to make sure that they're not going to treat unincorporated residents any
differently. That everything will stay the same. Um if they if they can keep that level of service, I think that's the key. you don't want to have put this investment in this park and then have the park just, you know, like become degraded. It's not like at the level it
needs to be or they start charging like some sort of fee or you've got to show your, you know, your driver's license. And if not, I mean, we I think we got to uh go ahead and open the door and have the discussion and see if we can come up with something that works for both
sides. I agree. Yes. And to your point, there are there are cities in the past that have said if you're from the county, unincorporated county, we're charging you more now. Um, we're trying to get away with all that and all aspects of provision of government because the county and the cities are
supposed to work together on all this. Um, so, you know, there's that to talk about. That's a that's a good point, too. Uh I I agree and I and I would be extremely disappointed if Minnola went down the road of charging county or
outside city. Let's take Golden Triangle Regional Park. It's in the city of Terraris, but you got city of Eustace, city of Mount Dora, city of Umatillaa, Astatoula, Leburg, and county residences all using that park every day
and there's not an upcharge for any of them for that because the county is providing capital funds to help to help with their but we have an interlocal agreement with them. You do and that's what I'm for here and and again I just look at um and we have an interlocal
agreement with Claremont and we have an interlocal agreement with Groveland and we just need to work forward the conversations abs is always good to have uh you know again one of one some a benefit that the county has is we're large enough where there's an an economy of scale. So just from a business
standpoint, kind of think about that as well and but it may be that that's the they may want to do it and Mola may want to do it and that could be a route that they go but I I certainly appreciate the discussion. Yeah. I mean I think where we're going is like let's negotiate an
interlocal agreement that addresses the concerns that we talked about today and that Commissioner Smith brought up. I think they're totally legitimate concerns. It's just that it's an agreement that means that in order I mean, if we if we want to get out, we got to look at what the terms are to get out. But would we really put all that
money and investment and actually use this park as a way to meet our master park needs, our own level of service that we need to make sure is available under our comp plan? Would we just like give up the park? I don't think anybody wants to just give it up and see a
situation happen where we don't have county residents able to to use it or that it doesn't is not kept to the level it needs to be kept. So we just need to like have that negotiation. So how do we go? What's our first step towards that?
Well, right now if you look at um uh 6E, county's unilateral right to terminate, county shall have the right to unil terminate this agreement without cause by providing five years written notice to the city.
So, we could we could give five years notice, but no, I think um I and and and I'll follow up. I spoke to one of the uh city commissioners and they basically said, "I'd like you to table because we're talking with somebody right now that might come in." Uh I mean, there's a lot of dynamics that are working on,
but I they do need to understand that we don't want to continue paying money. I I see that. And and I will say dividing cost. I will say that this is not the first conversation I've had about this. I've talked to the city of Mino asking them to move forward and helping us with
this um about eight months ago and there's been no movement. Yeah. So this is um the movement that was forced upon my hand to make. Well, so what are the next steps? I mean uh you know we got a lot of workshops but maybe it's an item for further
discussion at one of our regular meetings where we ask Mola to come and talk about it more. Why don't we make a proposal? Let's like I think we should codify right now proposals. Yeah. So that we're not just kind of turning our wheels. Let's just say, you know, let's let's throw some proposed terms out
there and have our manager talk to their manager and and say, you know, otherwise we're moving towards, you know, a termination under the termination clause, understanding that, you know, that's five years away essentially. Um but um the only thing I'm Yeah, I mean I
understand that want to do something today, but um I don't know if maybe they they have a little bit of time to make a prop. I'm pointing to our staff on what our terms might be. I don't know what they are. I mean, you know, I I I want to talk with them more.
I mean, I I talked with them about it and they know it's it is conceptual. Yes, we know we need to do more and I understand the need to try to get to some amount. I don't know if that's going to happen. If we start throwing that out today, though. Now, how about we do this? How about um if if we ask
the county attorney um to look at the other three existing contracts, mold them in to be consistent and come up with a contract that kind of mimics what we already have going on that sits Miniola and see if we can either do an
amendment. If Manola doesn't want to do any amendment, then we'll then of course there's option B uh which was mentioned earlier but I think if we can bring back maybe next meeting or two meetings from now an
interpretation of what it may look like then then it would be a good starting point for us to have a discussion as a whole instead of just in this brain. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. and and Jennifer and I do meet with Mark
Johnson, although we haven't haven't done the last two months, but we meet with them on a monthly basis, too. So, there'll be some discussion, I'm sure, on that. Yeah. And I would encourage every um county commissioner to talk to both Melanie and
Jennifer and Minola um about this and what what they want and what and what we're doing. Yeah. So we're essentially looking at the history of this and looking at we've what we've done with other situations which have a little bit different history but you
know each one we got to where we are through a different path. Um, so this might look like a hybrid, I think, compared to maybe what some of our other agreements are. But that's what you're asking for staff to take a look at and in the meantime, talk with Mark, get some feedback. So maybe what comes back
will actually be something that we get a feel for that they would be in agreement with. And and I have heard the same thing too, that they have a potential for a new park in association with a developer, right? um that would provide an opportunity for a much larger
regional type park on property that they would be um developing. That's how I understand it. The developer would be giving and maybe working to develop. Yeah. Okay. All right. Sounds like a plan. You think by next meeting or a
month away time certain like a month away? I would say your second meeting in June. Okay. All right. Then moving along to um tab 32. Um
Maria Abdul Karem is here to talk about applications for affordable housing multifamily impact fee waiverss. Good morning commissioners. Maria Abdul Kareem, director of housing and community services. On April 17th, the affordable housing
advisory committee met to review presentations from developers requesting impact fee waivers to support the development of affordable housing units in Lake County. These projects were scored based on predetermined criteria such as project readiness, financial
feasibil feasibility, population served, developer experience, as well as the community impact and design. The top scoring projects are as follows. In district five, Jük Street Apartment submitted by ECG Florida, a multif family development project located in
Futland Park consisting of 150 units. This development project received the highest score in the amount of 727 points. The request for impact fees totals 1,591,32. Additionally, district five in district
five, South Winds Reserve Senior Living submitted by Atlantic Housing Partners, also a multif family development project located in the city of Leburg consisting of 44 units. And this project received a score of 670 points. The impact fee
total is $478,764. In district five, again another project, Waterview at Lake Geneva was also submitted by Atlantic Housing Partners. This is also a multif family development project located in the city of Mount Dora consisting of 64 units and this project received a score
of 631 points. The impact fee uh amount is 1,33,84. The affordable housing advisory committee would like to recommend to the board full approval of the impact fee waivers for the Uric street project should any impact fee waivers remain.
They also recommended approval of the south south winds project. No recommendations were made for the waterview project. And in the audience today we do have a representative from the Uric street department should you have any questions. Do they have Do they have their zoning
now in Fre Park? I'm gonna ask them to come in. I cheated on you. The site was already zoned for the intended use. I I'm sorry I didn't hear you. The site was already zoned for the intended use. So, we've got zoning and we I just got our final site plan
approval at planning and zoning last week. Okay. And so, you given them the site plans. Can can you can you restate that because you kind of mumbled and I'm hard of hearing so I didn't quite understand what you said. I think the question was do we have our zoning uh the site was already zoned for the
intended use. Um and then I I mentioned that we got our final site plan approval uh last week. Perfect. Can we have your name for the record? Read Ellis. I have a question though. You said you got your approval from Fruitland Park
and they understand all the aspects of the project and could you describe to us like how you meet affordable housing thresholds like or is it rent controlled? Does it um is it you
you've got to qualify in order to be um you know a resident or how how does this work? Yeah. So all of our rents will be restricted at different AMI levels. So they'll be restricted at the 30 50 and 80% area median income. Um as far as
getting uh certified for those units, we you know have strict stringent compliance. Uh you've got to run background checks, uh check your income, credit history, um similar to, you know, a market rate development, but you've got to uh meet
the certain income limits for for the units themselves. Okay. Yeah. just to be clear because sometimes people miss they mix up the terms like section 8 versus you know affordable housing or workforce housing and this isn't section 8 this is you have to have an income and it's just
a question of what your income level is but you have requirements that have to be met in order to then live in this complex yes so roughly 15% of the units are at the 30% AMI level about half are at 50% AMI the remainder are at 80% AMI
so the income range ranges for those units are about $25,000 a year um up to roughly $85,000 a year. How many units are there? 150 units. 150. Okay. I got a question, but I think Commissioner Morris says me to it. You
have a question? Um, are we able to negotiate what we want to provide to them moneywise or is it all or none? Uh, so this program is a discretionary
program. You can decide to fund all of them, none of them, partial payments. Um, you should have in your backup a chart that shows the breakdown per impact fee. You could choose to wave only school impact fees or transportation. So, it's completely within your discretion how you would
like to award or not award the funds. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Sabatini, just a comment actually for the board and not my permanent position, but it's my position right now. Like why are we waving any impact fees when we know for
a fact that obviously with roads and millions of other things we have shortfalls all over the place and we don't want to raise taxes? I mean, can we can we do it? I mean, affordably that is it affordable? I don't I don't know. I'm I'm against all impact fee wavers for these kind of projects. Personally,
it's discretionary. is discretionary and I just don't know. Yeah, it's one of the things that we have a a affordable housing policy that we're required to adhere to and a plan and it's one of the tools in our toolbox to help assist um
with having affordable housing in our county. Um the these kind of projects um I'm assuming that you're getting are you getting um sale money? We are. Yep. Okay, we've already been awarded sale funds. Okay, so their financing for the
project, they're able to do it with um like tax exempt bonds which then bring down their interest rates which then assist in making affordable. So yeah, this is one more way to make it affordable. Um another thing that we do um with these impact fee waivers in some
instances like we have our infill waivers where we'll do them on individual lots that are just infill that are already existing. Um, that has been a really successful program because it helps rejuvenate neighborhoods because new homes or duplexes will be built in places where there's just lots
that are just sitting there that are infill. So, I've always been a big proponent of that type of impact fee waiver. Um, but yeah, I mean, I think the big concern is that the impacts don't go away, like you know, and that's the trade-off on this. Like, yes, we
want things to be affordable and we know that we have a need. On the other hand, um you're basically cost shifting um all of the the impacts to the roads or the schools to the rest of the folks that are paying the impact fees. And that's that's a kind of tough pill to swallow. This is also a lot of money. Three
million, right? It's a lot of money. Yeah. I mean, this is not modest. This is not like a slight tax decrease or increase for someone. This is millions. What about whether they're Lake County resident limited? are are they limited to Lake County
residents that have already living in Lake County or No, that's problematic for me. So, for this project, the impact fee waiver uh amount is 1.5 million 1.591. So, got it.
and the income levels. For example, if you have a oneperson bedroom or uh household, uh the higher range or the 80% would meet someone who is making an income of about $59,000 per year. On the lower end of a one-bedroom, you'd be
making in salary about 22,000. So that would serve the need of uh for example someone who is receiving social security. Some of our elderly uh citizens who receive about $1,200 per month which make about uh annually about
$14,400. So that would fill the need of that specific uh household size and income. Yeah. Um and two questions. one. So, how would how is this additional inventory going to affect the available housing inventory
requirements for the live local act for you know us to wave out of the ex the exemptions um on that and then um if if I'm miss if I'm understanding this right or if I had it wrong tell me of course Melanie especially but um they could
come back and I' I've seen this in certain cir cases in in Lake County where they can come back and justify that they're not having the impact impact on traffic based off of uh their own numbers and apply for some form of a waiver or get some reduction in impact
fees. There's one spec specific case I'm thinking of in Claremont uh near the hospital for some affordable housing that was done supposedly for nurses and and uh you know technicians. So they could go back you you almost be making
them go back and show that they have a reduction. they could justify not paying the whatever it is uh impact fees in transportation. Have have you guys talked about any of that or is am I correct on that assumption first
of all? So yes, so under the transportation impact fee code, somebody can come in and do sort of a sight specific assessment. They would work out the criteria for that with the school board. Um the project you're talking about was um I believe the entire
complex was a one-bedroom complex. um to primarily deal with the the hospital workers. They did submit a their own study to the school board which the school board accepted. So, they did end up with a lower transportation impact fee. Um I don't think we have that
available for school, although we might. It's been a while since I've looked at that code, but Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just saying I know not to complicate things, but there's the question about as Commissioner Sabisini has said, uh, which I really appreciate, we might be
there's a lot of potential money off the table for transportation. At the same time, there's that tool that they may have, but these locations are pretty in pretty pretty urbanized, right, in a sense. So, their their trips are going to be shorter and the schools, let me
correct what I just said. It's it is the school impact that Jimmy adjusted. I I'd have to go back and look at transportation to see if we had I thought he did transportation too. I think it was schools and I think they were showing that because they were onebedroom, these were not going to be families. These were going to be people that were working at the hospital and that's how they were able to correct.
And I I think we have that same provision in our other impact fees. I I just have to go back. You know, you you could they could still try it through transportation. Okay. All right. I So, I have a question. Um you said you're getting sale money
for this That's correct. Where is the money going uh into the development? Pay for development hard call. Why wouldn't it pay for the impact fees? Because what people don't realize, if I'm understanding right, every time we
sell a piece of property, some of that tax money goes to Tallahassee. Marie, you can help me out here. Some of that money goes to Tallahassee. They redistribute it and send the money back. Right. Is that right? So tell tell me a little bit about how
that works. So a portion of the funding that we receive um that we get through the state housing initiative program uh is usually based on the population size and uh the additional funding that we would apply for uh is similar to what you described.
So there's some funding that would then go back to the state. So we do send money up up and then they send money back proportionate to what our population is. I think you're thinking of ship, right? You're thinking about ship money. Yeah, I'm thinking about
ship. Not necessary. Yeah. Okay. This is sale, not ship. Well, ships have sales. So I know nice, but but either way, you're getting money from the government to build these projects, right? Capital. That's
correct. Well, why wouldn't we just use that money to do the impact fees? Uh, so this is a 4% tax credit uh deal. Um, so we face probably harder financial criteria than say like your 9% low-inccome housing tax credit or your
market rate development. So, uh, we're obviously rent restricted. uh for us to provide lower affordability units um and then maintain the the quality of housing that we want to deliver um we obviously
can't leverage enough funds to to pay for a quality development. So we rely on things such as other subordinate debt through ship programs or CDBG funds. Uh and the impact fee waver is another tool that we use to maintain the quality of the development that we're intending to
build. Well, well, I got a couple of problems with this. Uh, first off, you have 150 home development, right? 150 units. Yes, sir. And then you're not going to restrict it just as Lake County people, but Lake County people are going to have to wave their impact fees. And
then Lake County people are going to have to feel the impact of these extra 150 homes. Just saying. I think we all want to help make housing affordable. I think this is a really touchy subject for us though because we're super far behind on our
infrastructure needs and we have very limited ways to fund our infrastructure and impact fees are one of the ways that we're able to match in order to get state funds in order to build improvements that we need. Um, and I think that's where the rub is here. It's
it's not against your project. It's not against the idea of making sure housing is affordable. Um because I'm sure it's you've got a really nice project planned. I know there's one over in the Eustace area that was funded with sale money and it's in outstanding shape. I
mean they they keep the property um because of the way that you're required to keep money in reserves and take care of the property and all that. The the property is pristine and it's a real asset to the community because it does provide affordable housing. Um so yeah, I think the rub here is that we're we
need the impact fees understood. Um, it's probably worth noting. So, we we've entered into a concurrency agreement with Lake County Schools. So, of the I believe 1 point close to $1.6 million in in impact fees that we're requesting be waved, uh, we've agreed to pay $430,000
to Lake County schools. So, that number uh, theoretically would be about 1.1 million. And then to address the, you know, obviously the road concern, this is a a transit oriented development. We're uh within less than half a mile to two bus stops. Affordable housing
projects generally um the residents typically have between half a car and a car a unit. Whereas your market rate develop developments, those tenants have like a car and a half to two cars a unit. So I think the impact on on the roads would be less, but we totally understand the concern. I just wanted to
point that out that uh we have entered into a concurrency agreement with Lake County Schools. Yeah, I'm interested in the details of that. So you're actually you're providing money directly to them. Are are the schools at capacity? Is that what it is? Or you is a proportionate
share or none of the schools that we're zoned for are over capacity. The elementary school currently is, but we're across the street from the brand new uh Futland Park Elementary School. Uh in Lake County, I believe the high school is over capacity. Um this project
will generate, I believe, 38 additional seats. Uh, so we've agreed to pay for um workstations for those additional students that would be created up to uh I believe the amount was $429,000. Okay. So it does it sounds like
proportionate share. So So am I understanding that you that your company's going to give the school board 4 430 roughly,000, but you're asking for an impact waiver fee of 1.25 million. So, you're actually
going to you're only really asking for a reduction of 600,000. You're not giving the school anything. You're just asking for an impact fee waiver of less than $1.25 million.
Uh theoretically, that's right. Okay. So, Madam Chair, and just to clarify on those school concurrency proportionate share agreements, what typically happens is they will the developer will pay that money upfront for the deficiency in school stations, which I believe you said was 36 or 38. So, they would pay
that $430,000 upfront. It's a three-party agreement between the developer, the school board, and the county because then the school board asks the county to give them impact fee credits. So, they would get impact fee credits for that
$430,000 and then it would be up to you whether you wanted to wave the remainder. Uh rent restriction is forever or 30. The the sale funds come with a 50-year affordability period. Yeah. So, you can't get rid of that
and and change it within 50 years. It has to meet that criteria. Yeah. A and they do make them they have sub um substantial reserves so that they keep the property maintained so that that during the life of the 50 years the property is in very good condition. And
and just to add to that if the board does choose to approve an impact fee waiver they will also have to do an agreement with Lake County which will include restrictive covenants and will require them to have produce proof that those residents are income qualified every year for so long as that agreement
remains in effect. And and again, I just think we've been we've had this infill program and we've been talking about um affordable housing for a long long time. And you know, trying to encourage it in the right place. And this is um you know, I mean,
it's definitely in an urban area. It's not out in the hinterlands where we're what we're trying to protect right now. And so we've had this you know, we've been encouraging this for many years to try to take advantage of this program. And Right. Yeah. Uh and again I the the question I
don't know about how much inventory we need but obviously this is if it was approved they're going to add to our inventory for this availability which would able enable us to um go ahead and wave keep waving every year the property tax um benefit that we can that you could
get through live local. I'm sorry. So for live local, we're in the Orlando CMI MSA. Um that number year before last was just slightly over that allowed us to wave it. This last year that number did increase. So we have waved or removed
ourselves from that exemption is a better way to say that. So yes, so the more inventory that you add when um that report comes out, the Schindberg report comes out in December, we look at that and then we can see if we can continue exempting out of that that which which I would definitely be in favor of. Yeah.
So I I don't know if Commissioner Sabatini is familiar with this or not, but with live local. Okay. So, um I know. So, what ends up happening is like we're either we're trying to decide, you know, do we um we approve doing something like this, um to get more
inventory and then on the flip side, we're able to not lose our property taxes from I'm voting no until we're kicked out of the bracket that allows us to be exempt. So, that's just where I am. I'd rather I I'd like to skirt the line, but obviously I don't think this
brings us over the line. So, too much money. Crazy amount of money. It's like the biggest $3 million. It's 1.5. Oh, okay. Well, I'm sorry. I'm looking at them combined. Sorry. Still. Yeah. My I'm This is tough. I mean, my
big hangup is the Lake County resident side. If we were providing affordable housing for residents of Lake County who are already looking for affordable housing and they can't find it, that could change the equation for me. And I don't know that you're allowed to do that or if you do I I always I thought
you could I thought you could put a limitation like that. You could have a um first come, you know, preference for Lake County residents. Um I think they did that on Valencia.
So what are what are options there? Maybe what are options there? I'd have to defer to Maria and I don't know if the sale program allows them to do that. So, Maria, do you have any insight on that? Yes. At some affordable housing
projects, you can have a preference for Lake County residents. Um, but it would be up to the developer. um if they finalized any of their uh documentation for any of the funding that they're receiving and they haven't added that uh they may be at a point where they can't
add that. But we can ask that. Yeah, we're certainly open to adding in in you know preference for uh for locals. That's helpful. Yeah, that's um to the extent that the state allows it and it
can be you know included in through some agreement, we are fully open to that. So it says direction and and discussion and direction and that's where we're at. We need to give we've had a lot of discussion. We need to give some direction. I think it was a very good
discussion but I'm a hard no on any of it. So, I'm I'm um I would move forward just, you know, with some history, understand the concerns about it and the the we're trying to fund roads and we're not we're going to talk about that the
rest of the year practically. Um but so I understand that side of it and the funding, but at the same time, you know, it's it's like anything. We're trying to balance all trying to balance it out and make it work with affordable housing that the range that you mentioned is of
great need for our community. Um we've been encouraging this impact fee waiver program to get it in the right place, not out and making it rural sprawl so to speak. So I think that's questions been answered. It's near it's near transit. So it's supportive of that of that. Um,
I would would want to move forward though if there's a way to uh memorialize or document that you're what you just said that it would be preference to Klay County residents if you can do that and I would be supportive of moving forward and
um I'm still on the fence but I may be supportive if we do not include the road impact fee and if we only approve um $800,000 of school impact fees.
Can I Can I just say one thing that I left out, too? Um, are you finished with your thoughts on that? Sure. No. And I just I I meant to say that, you know, this is again about to to get to where you're you need to go on the business side, you know, being being in that
world, and I'm not in your world. I don't do that stuff, but understanding a little bit of it. I mean, this is you're so narrow on what it costs to to build these in in terms of margin and cost and everything that that's why they need these numbers, you know, to obviously
make it affordable. So, um I know may maybe you can build stuff more affordable uh and you have a way to do it and I wouldn't doubt that, but I'm just saying this is this is part of the the argument that we've for years of trying to make affordable housing is
reducing that cost to get down into that range. So, Commissioner Morris comments. Well, I was sitting in all the meetings or the meeting that we went through and negotiated all this and um I I think it's fine with me to do it the way it is
now. We need we need the infill. Uh York Street is exactly in the right right across from the the U elementary school and it would it would fit right in. So, and I know it's total of $3 million, but
uh we have to invest also in the working class that we have here in Lake County. I I would agree and there's a reason why I would say not to include the road impact fee waiver and only include up to
$851,000 of the schoolboard um because there is right across the street from school and they do have three bedroomedroom two-bedroom onebedroom apartments there. Um if I could add just for the um chair just for the flow of the meeting um you
you do say discussion and direction so there's we could give you direction doesn't necessarily mean a final do you want a final decision today because right so ultimately if you give us direction to award to one two or three
projects we will have to bring those contracts back to you um for final approval. So, it it sounds like right now there may be a consensus to work with um the York Street apartments. Um what I'm hearing is that Commissioner
Smith would like a limit of 800,000 on school impact fees exclude road impact fees. Um and it sounds like fire, library, and parks you might be okay with waving. Commissioner Campion is looking for local preference. Um Commissioner Morris, I think, is fine
with it. Commissioner Parks, I don't I haven't heard any I'm fine with it with the local preference which I think could be worked out but and put that in the agreement and then Commissioner Sabatini um would not vote for it at this point. So we would bring those agreements back to you and you would make a final vote at that time.
Okay. If we were to bring it back though, we're not locked in until something comes back to us. That's correct. because I think ultimately we still have to get the answer from the state as to whether or not they would be able to. Yeah, they may be too far down the line to put that limitation in there. And then I also want to know for certain what the school board number is
going to be. Um but um but I'm having a hard time with um yeah, anything related to infrastructure um and in roads waving. But um and before while we're in the subject, can we get the total amount that this
company's receiving from the state their whole c their their projects being paid for by bonds issued through sale program. So to build this whole thing. Yeah. Did and did we put up any money on matching for that? No.
Okay. Okay. All right. So you kind of hear where we're at. Um the attorney is going to look at putting something together to come back and then but we wouldn't make a final decision until that came back. Is that for all three of them? Just I think one. Can I just add
one comment on the local preference which generally I'm receptive to but I'm skeptical. Why? Because once this is sealed and done there's no legal remedy that you can insert into the agreement that later if they say you know what these people are kind of from Lake County or whatever and we're going to take them in. we if we're displeased
with the application process, I don't think there's a way that you can penalize them or change force them into we can send them a bill for the impact fees uncollectible bill. I agree. You can send it, but I just don't think you could work it legally. That's why I'm
generally but maybe maybe our grade county attorney can explore a possible option of what that would look like. What what's the total value of the I mean what's your investment? Uh $57 million. Okay. uh 10
10,750,000 in sale and the rest is uh tax exent bonds and low-inccome housing tax credits and those low interest bonds 30 million in in tax exempt bonds. Yeah. So, um as far as live local goes, I
mean, would this be one that you could apply to try to get a tax exemption on? what we're exempted out of. I know. And let but if we're not if the numbers get run next round or a year from now, would is that something you'd be looking to
do? Uh we're currently not considering that. The way that the the personal recourse is currently written um comes with huge financial pen penalties for non-compliance. So, it's not something we're we're currently considering. Okay. Meaning the new legislation's is
changing some of that. Yeah. With more of the compliance side of it. But some could still do it. Yeah. Because I I'm I'm thinking back to the couple that actually got credit or they
got exempted and like in South Lake. There was one up in Maldora, I think, and then there were one or two in South Lake. And I think they got some waiverss and different things in order to get their projects in place. and then they
submitted for the tax exemption. So, um I'm kind of getting into that land of having a hard time with it from a principal standpoint because it's just feeling like a lot of cost shifting and we're
already in the whole on a lot of things locally. Yeah, it it's it's a tough subject. I mean, you al but you also need workers and you know it's like what do you do? I guess that's why we're we're all up here, right? Just to
struggle and make those decisions but and explain them. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All righty. So, we'll we'll be bringing back something and we'll see if we can where where it where it lands. Thank you for being here. Thank you for answering
questions. Absolutely. Thank you all for the consideration. Okay. All right. Development Services Tab 33. Mike Fitzgerald on the JPA with City of Groveland. Wait a minute. Um, chairman, that was only on We didn't We
didn't consider two or three. Okay. Thank you. Uhhuh. Um, JPA. Thank you, chairman. Uh, good afternoon, commissioners. Uh
for the record, Mike Fitzgerald, Office of Planning and Zoning Director. I'll be presenting a report on the uh JPA between Lake County and the city of Groveland. Uh just some background, on September 6th, 2022, Lake County entered into an interlocal agreement with the
Central Florida Regional Planning Council for services related to uh joint area visioning. Uh the services related to joint area visioning and implementation framework services uh included project coordination steering committee
conservation strategy and a pilot program uh of a model joint planning agreement with Groveland uh and then some further engagement with the county and municipalities on participation in the JPA initiative. On May 5th, 2025, the city of Groveland
adopted resolution 2025-20, adopting the joint planning agreement between the city of Groveland and Lake County. JPA creates a joint planning area, a joint vision map, uh establishes procedures for reviewing and
commenting on development orders. It utilizes standardized comment questionnaires uh goes over conservation and preservation where appropriate and provides a pathway for transportation planning to be completed within six months of adoption of the
JPA. That the uh agreement for road transfer will be for infrastructure transfers. Uh that will come back to the board for review. JPA also covers affordable housing. Uh the completion of the JPA with Groveland provides the county with a
model JPA uh as a starting point with other municipalities and staff wants to extend a special thanks to Tim Maslo, TJ Fish, and Groveland city manager Mike Hine uh for their collaboration with the
county. And at this point, I'm I'm I will answer any questions, but staff recommends approval of this JPA. So, the questions I had before though were about um the transportation improvements and transferring of roads and responsibilities. And I guess that's
what's being worked on next. But there's a there's a list um a conceptual agreement in place it looks like. Yes, ma'am. There's an exhibit to the JPA that prioritizes some roads for joint planning and it also illustrates uh where we will move
forward with the road transfer agreement. And I guess my biggest question is um as far as uh uninccorporated residents that would be subject to the JPA um will
they enjoy the all of the rights they have under our existing comp plan and zoning? Like does this in any way take away what they would be allowed to do? I mean, do they have to
um I'm just trying to picture a scenario, you know, or see if there would be a scenario where somebody would have say urban expansion and they've got R six zoning, but they're not allowed to um you know, develop that. I mean,
they're I guess they're going to have to annex in order to develop or I just I'm just trying to look out for the people that this would be imposed upon to make sure that they're not somehow losing rights that they otherwise have. Like if the city wants to lower density, but they've already got a higher density in
the county, will the city be able to impose that lower density on them? That's a great question. I I I would take the position that I don't foresee a city proposing a lower density uh too often. Although the next agenda item is
an annexation report and we do have cases where they're annexing property and uh proposing a lower density than what they have in Lake County. It would be annexations are generally voluntary and they would work with the
city on what was appropriate for what their proposal would be. I don't think there would be any imposition involuntary imposition of reducing property rights. That would that would be in violation of the property rights element of a comprehensive plan which is
in per the state statute in everybody's comprehensive plan city and county. So Madam Chairman, so this agreement does include the language that we had previously included with the city of Mount Dora. Um and I'll just read it quickly into the record. So it says,
"Not with notwithstanding the foregoing representations or any other language within this document to the contrary, the parties hereby agree and acknowledge that the state of Florida is a property rights state pursuant to section 70.02 Florida statutes. To the extent practicable, the parties will seek to abide by the density and intensity
requirements set forth under this agreement, provided, however, that nothing herein shall restrict either the county or the city from exercising its authority to amend its respective comp plan, official zoning maps, or apply land development regulations consistent with the provisions contained therein,
or otherwise to make land use decisions for areas within their respective jurisdictions within the JPA. So, no, they can't require um we can't require a resident to abide by a city zoning. They can't do the same for us. Okay. And I
and I was, you know, thinking back to a case that we had where we had a land owner who wanted to develop. They went to a city and a city said, "No, we don't want to approve what you're allowed to do in the county. We want you to do something less." And that put the
landowner in a bad position. So that's why I just wanted to make sure and and we had that provision as I recall in that case that I just described. Yes. So that's what we had worked out with Mount Dora when we were looking to
um terminate their JPA and this will be carried over into all future JPAs um that we have with additional cities. Again, this document is more about sharing information um and coming up with a joint plan less so to bind any particular jurisdiction to follow a
particular density or intensity standard. Okay. And then what about utilities and forced annexations? Essentially, um if you need the utilities, then you have to annex into the city essentially. Is that how it's set up?
the city has a covenant of annexation that they sign with with the developer and it's based on when that property becomes contiguous. Is that um I don't think that Yeah, we would we would call it legally annexable, right? Based on
what's in their ISBA. Okay. Based on Okay. Yeah. I I was just obviously I'm you know very supportive of it. Um and I'm I certainly appreciate the questions. uh you know a lot of lot of great discussion today. This is I think important to addressing growth
management concerns and um you know so I you hear me talk about it all the time so I'll I'll keep my conversation short on that other than I'm very supportive of it. Um and I think in the the non sort of attorney terms no this isn't adding a new uh land use category or
some kind of you know change in in zoning designations. But I those are good questions to ask. um everybody will still go through the same process that they would. It's just that the now the city and the county are going to be we're requiring ourselves to coordinate
and communicate um on this intentionally and purposeful to address these issues before they get to us and to quite frankly to keep developers from not all do not all of them but a lot more than enough uh do this where they play the
county and the city together. So, this is a step to prevent that from happening in the future. And I really appreciate your work on this, Mike. And Kathleen, who's not here, and uh Groven, I know, is here as well. So, thank you to them for uh
being a leader in this as well. Yeah. Thank you. A lot of calls, a lot of Zoom meetings with Mike and and Kathleen and Melanie, uh going through all the minutia on this. So, thank you. Kathleen and the county attorney did a lot of the the heavy lifting on this. Yes. Yeah.
Thank you. Would you like to do the honors? Yes, sir. I'll make a motion for approval. Second. Thank you. All right. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay. All right. Good job.
Um there's a lot of time spent on making that happen. So, moving ahead then to planning and zoning annexation report. and I'm going to call on Mike on behalf of Kathleen. Thank you, chairman. Uh just some background on this. Uh the
board of county commissioners requested that staff begin making presentations on annexation notices that we receive. This is an extension of the joint planning that initiative that we have. We have three notices that we'll
be going over today. Leburg, Umatillaa, and Claremont. These notices come in very quickly. Uh, I apologize. The only notice that went into the published agenda was for Leburg. They come in very quickly and if the agenda item closes, I I don't get the opportunity to publish
it. But I will go over these items. Beginning with Leburg, they're proposing to annex 37.48 acres east of Radio Road north of US 441. The current zoning is agriculture in R six. The proposed zoning is planned
unit development. current county flu is urban medium density and their proposed city flu is a state residential and the differences between that lake county density is uh seven dwelling units per acre. The city density is four units per
acre. I'm happy to answer any questions on that. I I have uh the location map east of Radio Road and then a comparison of what the uh current zoning and land use is. And
the city is contiguous uh to the south. That strip of land that comes up touches it to the south and makes that property contiguous and annexable. Where's the access? I'm just trying to make sure I access the access is on
radio. The access goes out to radio. All of those pieces together and then out to radio. I've I've had calls on this project. Um it is right they'll go right behind Iron Gate and some of those
um houses will have a road that will be higher than their um abutment their their u their concrete barrier. So there's there's a lot of concern on this. Um I spoke with Leburg mayor. He
is concerned um he told me. So, I don't know where it's going to go, but uh they have access. They could get access uh through the mall. Uh that is one one point of access, but there's a a lot of wetlands that are in here that they're
going to have to do some infill on to make it fly. So, okay, Commissioner, I do want to add for the board uh that the city commission date is June 9th where they will take this under consideration. This isn't the environmentally sensitive
piece that we were going to buy several years ago that Commissioner Parks was working so hard to get a grant for. We tried. Yes, we did try it. So, yes, we did try it. Uh, thanks, chair. Um, you remember that, too. Uh we this this was um yeah it was we were trying to get
this for for a preservation potential preservation parcel cuz that the parcels that you have highlighted two three and then the one below it have like some rare plants on it like very rare. Um they're listed as threatened or
endangered basically. not just one, but there are a bunch of them there and they all have uh you know there's four or five of them that are threatened or endangered. So, I know we were trying to pursue that uh to acquire it and we just never could. Um but I don't know what
I'm just putting that in there for history and knowledge and um I don't know if that's out of our hands now, but there you go. At least you know we tried. And this is a parcel that the um wasn't a professor at Lake Sumpter. He
would bring his biology students over and they would actually go on this property because it had such interesting Exactly. Like clasping my area, Benamia. Yeah. But there was scrub men, a bunch of stuff. And there's there was I I think there was at one
time possibly scrub jays, although I don't I don't believe that now. It's too isolated. But um but yeah, Sansks for another one. So there was a number of species that they were uh listed and protected. They were trying to we were trying to get that property in preservation and just couldn't. Maybe
somebody should submit to the um plaque public land acquisition group. Well, yeah, it had some value to it, especially with that number one parcel to the right. Is there anything though in that file like historically that we could pass on
to the city of Leburg to let them know that it was a property that was under consideration at one point and it was due to its environmentally sensitive? Yeah, I I think we probably have some environmental reports so we can certainly pass that on. And just for you know Jeopardy trivia information, Lake
County owns the parcel to the south which is 131238. We actually own that property. I believe it's um we purchased it to be used for storm water for radio road expansion at some point in the future. And do we maintain radio road?
Yes, I believe yes. That is a county road. So are most of the developments on radio inside the city of Leburg? And is there any kind of agreement that we have with Leburg about Radio Road going under city maintenance or anything like that? Um we don't have any agreements with
Leburg that I'm aware of. So that could be another comment that this is another opportunity where we've got a road that's primarily inside the city limits. And so just looking at the city limit
map, other than the mall, it does not appear that the surrounding neighborhoods are in the city limits. They are when you go over to Silver Lake, but not going up Radio Road. Okay. Well, that's important to consider.
I think we should register our concerns about the environmentally the environmental sensitivity of it and then the concerns that you raised about adjoining property owners. These are unincorporated residents then that are telling you that this this road is going to be potentially impacting them above.
Yeah, it be that's what they'll that's what they'll look out at. It has to be above backyards. Wow. Yeah. In fact, yeah, because I that was one issue when we were looking at the purchase of the land was the the work it was going to take to build that up. Correct. So, the fill and everything. Yeah.
And I I don't mind going to the meeting. Okay. City council meeting if you want me to. Would you also like us to draft a letter just so you have something to put on the record? Absolutely. and Radio Road as far as
deficiencies issues there. Anything that needs to be raised? Fred, I think that was one of the questions when this came up at PNZ board at Leburg is how they were going to get in and out of the development, what it would need.
Fairart engineering director. Um I'm not specifically aware of any major traffic one. We would have look at how their entrance would interface with Radio Road. We do have plans to four-lane Radio Road at some point in time. So there is some there's some projects that
have been identified um a long time ago and we also have some sidewalk plans along Radio Road, both of which are unfunded and cost a lot of money, very expensive. So these are the the these are the issues that we can raise in our in our
letter right now. What is this in go back to our zoning map? What what is this in the county? Uh current county zoning is agriculture and R six and they are proposing a planned
unit development. Okay. R six is that light green. Is that the green is agriculture. The R six is the orange. Oh, it's the orange. Right. Okay. What's the What's the density comparison? I mean number of units. Yeah, that's number of units comparison.
Good question. So, they're actually going down. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm thinking number of units could be 237 under county and the municipality is proposing it's all wetlands and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. That's what to your to your point. I think this
what commissioner Smith is going to say though. But is it really usable though at our density? Our higher density. I mean could our our density is net acre their density is gross acre. Yeah. But uh if you can see that on the screen, it's uh approximately a difference of
100 units. Yeah. I just don't think we would even if they were in the county, I don't think we they would get 237 units. Well, they're over 50, so have to come in for a PUD. Yeah. So, at that point, we would have the opportunity to look at
environmental issues, road issues. Yeah. Either either way, it's up to the city of Leburg, right? Because this is in the city of Leburg. So, I would suggest that we just write a letter with all of our stuff and have Commissioner Morris hand present the They're annexing it, right?
Hand present it to the council members of of Leburg. That way, it's more of a, you know, it's not just a letter. It's, hey, we got we're actually invested in this. So, okay. And on the road improvements and the issues, the problems with radio and improvements
that we need, um I think the ask should be that um prior to annexation that we sit down with the city of Leburg and look at a road maintenance agreement um a road improvement plan for Radio Road
and the intersections impacted. So that we're actually saying that we're asking them to hold off until we can get those things in place so that maybe there are things that they could request from the developer in order to help with what needs to be done out there. Would this be one of them opportunities? I think you came up with it that we don't allow
them a driveway permit, a permit to connect to our road. So right now that's an administrative function so long as they meet the requirements of the code. We are working on revamping that driveway ordinance based on comments that the board has
given us before, but it hasn't been changed yet. Is that going to mean mean it's going to we're going to have to make a code change so that we decide on it? Correct. How soon can we get that code change? Exactly. Well, it sounds like it just moved up on my list.
Good. That'll be great. Yeah, that'll be good. Okay. All right. Next. Do we have another one? Oh boy. The next notice that we received is for the city of Umatillaa and those
city commission meetings are June 3rd and June 17th. They're proposing to annex 24 and a half acres north of Kulie Road west of Maxwell Road. Uh current lake county zoning is agriculture. Proposed city zoning is agriculture
residential AR1. County flu is urban low density. Proposed city flu is agriculture with four dwelling units per acre in the county and this being reduced to one dwelling unit per acre in the city.
uh their proposal is 20 would be 24 units, 25% open space as opposed to 98 units and 35% open space in the county. This is the general location and this is the comparison of the zoning versus the future land use.
And you can see that the city of Umatillaa is abuing it directly to the east. Right. So, they're downzoning significantly. Anybody have comments? Want to raise concerns? Hard to raise concerns when they're down zoning significantly. Next one.
The next two are in the city of Claremont. This first one, uh, the meeting is scheduled June 10th for city commission. They're proposing to annex 60.51 acres southeast of Lake Louisa Road and Hammock Ridge Road intersection. Uh, this is actually a
project called Ivy Ridge, which was approved and and is in under development right now under Lake County. Current county zoning is planned unit development. County flu is urban low density, four dwelling units per net acre. When I contacted the city, they
were undetermined as far as what zoning and land use they were going to apply, but it will be a city and zoning and land use that will accommodate what we have already approved. And here's a quick comparison. It's 2.84 dwelling units per acre and
they are proposing 145 units. They're already into subdivision construction and final plat stage. This is a just a matter of course for them to annex the final product. It sounds like there wouldn't be any comments on this. Yeah, no comments, just a little bit of
history on this, too. Um I'm getting a lot of questions about this. It's the usual not approving new development, but they're seeing all this go up underneath under construction, and it is quite under construction right now. If you drive down more shame road more of just
saying this on the record and so you know some history that was originally if you want to put it maybe put it back up on the screen you that was originally approved in 2004 2004 maybe five um the landowner a landowner bought all that property and had his house on it. You
can still see it in the aerial there and was going to keep it all in preservation his own preservation. I guess the plat and the entitlements were never really uh extinguished on that and then property was sold and they came along and used the old basically the old plat
and it it was approved back in 2004 2005 and that's basically how they proceeded to get to this point that I don't know the whole history on the approval. Yeah. No. Yeah. I I wouldn't look that because I definitely got a lot of questions on it and I just
this is for us to know that there's a lot of development that's occurring from the 2002 to 2006 time frame that's on the books, right? And this is this is front and center for me in my district as a case where they already had they used the old zoning had property rights
on it and they had urban low land use. Yep. So, exactly. Yeah. Good information though. Yeah. Okay, I think we move on to the next one. The next one is a similar
case. This is also in Claremont. The meeting date is June 10th. They're proposing to annex 357 acres south of Hartwood Marsh west of the Lake Orange County line and this is a project known as McKinnon Groves. It's was approved as
a planned unit development. The county land use is Wellness Way North and this is 3.08 dwelling units per acre. and it will be the 332 units that are approved. And this is the location down
in the wellness way area. All right. So, this is McKinnon where we did the big buffers. We had all of the open space. Yeah. Yeah. The Mhm. Yeah. Just again history on this. Um they were entitled
for not only slightly less unit number of units than what was actually permitted. So want to make that clear. Uh we went through Commissioner Smith, were you on the board at that time? Yeah. So we had uh a couple actual special hearings on this whole thing. It was such a big deal. Uh and the buffers
on this are uh required are very extensive and they did provide a lot um uh to beyond what was even required u and their sensitivity to wellness way. And so I I certainly give them give them
credit on that. Um this is a case where perhaps it being in the county first um in light of uh one other development that was in the city wasn't necessarily as wellness way was implemented um wasn't up to the wellness
way standard. Um this this certainly uh went above that in the case. So maybe maybe this was good that it was actually painstakingly approved at the county commission level at that period of time. And it was painstaking. It was Yeah. We had that whole social media campaign
that happened on the Orange County side. Remember that? And they were like doxing us and Yeah. That was really bad. Yeah. Yeah. Um but he's got like these huge like pine tree buffers or he plant he's planting all of these new pine trees and Yeah. Yeah. It's really oneacre wide buffer around the whole thing. Yeah.
Literally one acre wide. So yeah. Okay. I mean no comments on that. So that's it. Does it uh concludes the presentation? Okay. All right. All right. Well, I'm anxious to see that letter and see public works staff um comments on the improvements on radio
and intersections that we need assistance with. All right, then moving along to other business. Um we've got Children's Services Council appointments. Um and that would be Commissioner Sabatini as liaison.
Uh yeah, they both look good. You know, of course, uh, Lieutenant, I think now, Captain Charles at the sheriff's department. He's replacing Major Minger, who was on that board for a very long time. I'm on the board, obviously, now. I was on the board actually a long time ago also. It's a good board. And then,
um, Evise is on there already and does a good job. So, I'd recommend approval for both. I would make a motion for uh, approving both. Second. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? That passes. Moving on then to um planning and zoning board at
large an expired term through January 31st, 2027 with one two three four five um people applying. Um do we have any recommendations or proposed chair? Yes, Commissioner Parks. Um I will um speak
in support of Sean Ley from District 4 as a this is an atlarge. Mhm. Um I think he's brought his I think he's in the audience. And is your whole family stay they did this whole thing? They I hope you're going to give a test
later. You owe them like a serious lunch or something like big time. Um but I do know I do know um uh you know willingness willingness to be involved and wanting to know this process. So I will speak positively uh in favor of
Sean Lehey. Is that a motion? That's a motion. Second. All right. And I I I've actually been around Mr. Ley quite a bit and he is extremely involved in in things and very um seems very interested in planning and
zoning issues and has worked hard in a lot of other capacities. So I think it's a great idea. All right. All right. Lunch. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Moving then to tab 37. This is Commissioner Sabatini again on the board
of adjustment. We're looking for an appointment for district 1. I think they're both I think they both look good. Um I think uh Mr. Gra Gavit's uh veteran background was very impressive and his he's got a high level job with Advent very professional job. So I think
he's going to be good. So I'd make a motion to approve him. Okay. Second. All right. We have a motion and a second. We're in discussion. We have a motion and a second. We're in discussion. All right. So, I'm just
wondering if we even need this board. Oh, here we go. Yeah, I'm happy to have that conversation, too, by the way. Yeah, let me let me There have been 11 cases in the year lasting 10 to 20 minutes. So, you're
bringing these people up for 10 to 20 minutes. So, I believe that Melanie has some some counties and done some digging. This is all gone over to the planning and zoning board and the planning and zoning board um has this
and they can make recommendations and go ahead Melanie. So yeah, some of you will recall um prior to some of you being on the board, we had this discussion maybe two or three years ago about whether or not it was efficient to have two separate boards um just based on the number of cases that they have. So I had
done a lot of research. I think Valuchia County is probably the model that looks like it would fit your needs if you choose to combine these functions. Um Valuchia County does have a planning and zoning board that does exactly what ours does. that makes recommendations on conditional use reszoning and comp plan
amendments to their board of county commissioners. But that same board also is a final decision maker for the variances. Um I have had some discussion with the county attorney in Valuchia and he says it works well for them. Um several other counties will do sort of a
a variety of of mix. We've got um Orange County actually has its own separate board of adjustment. Hernando Flaggler, Pasco, Simol, and Citrus do use a planning and zoning board. Some of them make recommendations on variances to
their um commissioners. Some of them are final decision-m. So, um it would not be out of the realm of normal if you decided to combine those functions and have one board do both. I should know this, but I forgot. Our adjustment board currently doesn't have final authority.
Correct. Actually, they do. They do. They do. So, we did two conversations. one, should they? And then number two, consolidating. I I'm totally all about consolidating. I think if somebody's making a density, you know, um analysis, very serious analysis, they should obviously handle variations, too. And
plus, sometimes they're packaged and whatnot. But, um, long story short, I'm okay. I think consolidation is good, but I I'm not super passionate about it, but uh I think we should have the final authority on the variances, but if you guys want to go with the board having
that, I guess that's fine, too. it. Um, yeah. All right. So, the reason why um well, what let's take the the the board having the final decision. I think the reason why we didn't want to do that was uh because you wanted them to just go
ahead and have one hearing instead of making them have two hearings. That's so the history because we've discussed this, you know, over the last couple years a couple times actually. Um the consolidation as far as I as I understand we did put them together. So, so if somebody comes the when I say
them, I mean the board of adjustments and the planning and zoning on the same day. So, if they if they somebody did have to get a variance request, they're still going to have regardless they still have an application to fill out and they have to go in front of a board. The consolidation part was having them do it at the same day as planning and
zoning is what that that's correct. So when we discussed this previously, what the board opted to do is rather than combine their functions into a single board, they moved the board of adjustment from a Thursday meeting date to a Wednesday afternoon meeting date.
Um that has posed some problems with getting people to serve on board of adjustment because their meeting time originally was 1:00 on Thursday. Some members did drop off because they weren't able to come at 3:00 in the afternoon on a Wednesday. Um, so far we've been fortunate in that the
planning board has not run over into the BOA time. Um, but by putting them on the same day, it did help streamline some issues for the staff so they weren't having to run different meeting dates and have different staff, you know, out of the office on different days. So now they have both meetings on the same day.
So it it's just a matter again of whether you would like to keep them separate or you would like to combine them into just one sitting board um to hear to do both functions. I I'm all about one board that way. You're never gonna have a problem with
quorum. I mean Yeah. You're always going to have a quorum mirror. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and it's not that not that many cases. Yeah. Not that I mean, but I think it's cyclical though. I mean, sometimes I mean, how many when All right. So, I was on a board of adjustments a long time
ago and I mean, we had 12 to 16 cases. It was different then, though, I think. Yeah. I mean, I know the codes changed and it's become more efficient, but I mean, I think you're always going to still have them, right? So, in February, you had one case. In March, you had three cases. In April, you had four
cases. In May, you had three cases. Um, but May was special because you only had two members present. So, they had to do and these cases last, it's a it's a roof pitcher. It's um so
it can last for a while because they are and whoever's making the application cares passionately about it. They wouldn't be there like it's it's really No, what I'm saying is is it there are quick cases and a lot of them are on consent. So, so a couple of things have
happened over the last few years. Um the board of adjustment also used to hear all types of variances and then when we had a tower case where the board of adjustment had given a variance I believe it was for centering on the
property but then that same tower case had to come to you for a reasonzoning. It kind of put you in the predicament of if you didn't particularly think that that was appropriate you now had a separate board that had already rendered an order. So, we had made changes to the code that if it was a conditional use
permit or a conditional zoning that the board of county commissioner could grant what we deemed a waiver to code provisions so that that way applicants were not going to two different boards, especially if they had an associated reasoning. So, what you're seeing right now with your board of adjustment, I would say, and Mike can correct me if
I'm wrong, um, if he's still here, but, um, majority of what you're seeing at board of adjustment is a variance to wetland setbacks or setbacks of another sort. Typically, majority of your cases are coming after the fact, folks that
have already put in improvements and have now either had a code enforcement case against them and they're asking basically for forgiveness. Um, so that's really what you're seeing, which is part of the reason why your case load has dropped off with the board of adjustment. Um, for 2023, they they had
a total of 29 cases throughout the entire year. 2024, they only had 32 cases. This year, between January and May, they're tracking at about 18 cases. They are typically consent. Um, they typically almost always get approved,
although um, there have been some that have been denied lately. It just kind of depends on, you know, who you sit on that board. You only have three sitting members at the moment. So, yes, your last meeting, one of those individuals could not be there. So, it was um quite interesting to have two members. Of course, the chairman can't make a
motion. So, the other one's making the motion and they're seconding, but we had a limited number of cases that were not controversial. All right. Just real quick, chair. Um I'm I know that part of the quorum issue or not having enough has been my spot from district 2 has been open for a long
time, but I do have somebody that I would be prepared to put on there actually from district one, which I'm allowed to do, but they could serve that. So you would have I know somebody that would be there, you know, right? They would be there. He would be at every meeting. So
So it is a seven member board. You have three sitting members. Um today's agenda item would be to to appoint somebody for district one and an atlarge. So there's two openings. You have two applicants. Of course you can choose to appoint them or not or or go back out. Um but
typically it would be a seven member board and we have struggled to keep members. Yeah. Plus I have a one that district two spots open though as well, right? Um yes. Right now district four, district five and one atlarge member are appointed. Okay. Yeah. So, I have one
that I would I would put on there. Okay. So, we do have a motion and a second on the table right now. No, we don't have anything yet. So, I'm fixing to make a motion. But again, we do. We did and that we were in discussion and it was for Hugh Grabbit. I made a motion and then second or Sean did too. I think I
second. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's because we got to do it right now because there's not they have no quorum. Correct. So they have no quorum if we don't do this and then we can they have they have a quorum so long as all three show up. Um they had a quorum the last meeting but only two
people were there because it's the quorum is the majority of the appointed members and they only have three appointed and if we were to do a new ordinance um it's going to take a reading to advertise and then correct we would still need appointments um because it'll
take a month or two to get okay so with this motion and second on the table we can move forward with this appointee and then if somebody thereafter wants to direct if we have a consensus to to look merging this into planning and zoning. Yeah, I would I would stand by my motion
approve him or appoint him, but also just move right now for an ordinance for the next meeting or two meetings, whatever. We you know, I'm sure she's got a lot on our plate right now, but to consolidate. Okay. All right. So, let's take the one that's on the table right now. And all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay. So, we've got an
appointee now, um Hugh Gravit on District One to board of adjustment. Now, back to the question. Do we have a consensus on moving forward with a advertising and ordinance to merge the role of the BOA into the planning and zoning board? Uh yes. See, we have
one. We have uh two. Um I'm feeling the same way. Commissioner Sabatini. I know Commissioner Parks isn't that, but I think you're outnumbered. I'm I'm outnumbered, but I and I I You're an alumni. I understand. Well, of the board. Yeah. I was also alumni of the pollution control board and that's gone,
too. But um you remember that one? Yeah, I remember when I get rid of all your old committees. Is that what it is? No, I mean, you know, whatever it change uh and I understand both sides of it. There are different models all around. Melanie and I were discussing this. I mean, it's interesting. All the counties and cities have or the counties have different
models all over the place. Um so there's no, you know, wrong answer, I guess. But yeah, I think at this point I'm still from the people I talked to, you know, they want to keep that board and they're involved with it. And I know part of that's been on me to not have an opening
there for almost a year. Um but uh so I would yeah I would I would rather just keep it the same, but sounds like I'm outnumbered. Okay. Well, yeah, I know Ray Powers likes the board and I want him to be in a good spot and I think he's obviously on the short list for one of us put on
the P&Z. I think he'd do a great job there, too. So, okay, then we're going to move ahead on tab 38. Commissioner Parks is a discussion and direction on road funding strategies. Yeah. So, I I think um I I know as we get to one o'clock here, I
can keep this fairly short. Um this is something I wanted to just formally put on the schedule uh on the agenda for discussion. I don't know what there's much discussion today, but as you know, there's a $710 million gap. Those numbers are uh approximated and verified
with Mike Woods at NO and and Fred and our staff. and uh you know the the issues uh that we face on a regular basis of why aren't road projects being done. A lot of frustration out there. We see this at the recent the most recent NO and other NO meetings where every
projects get put on the list and they're just always on a list and they seem like they never get done. Um this is a a a problem that from what I this is just my own statement in my study of what's going on here. I don't think there's I think it's mathematically impossible to
try to do everything that we want to get on that list, our list of priority projects, try to keep up with the road reservicing, which uh we have talked about recently and we'll talk about in great detail in August. Um so I am u just sort of putting myself out there in
a sense putting these options on the table. I think what the vehicle to do it, no pun intended, is through the long range transportation process that you I think you know that we're going through right now in the no to change to go to 2050. The 2050 year plan. We do that
every 5 years. Now is the timing is absolutely perfect. We don't have to do anything new. We don't have to create some special board. We don't have to do anything like that. Uh all we need to do is all we need to do is just get with
the cities and the county commission um come up with some of these options, make some tough decisions on how we're going to put um put more funding into the system for the roads. Uh there's a number that's been tossed around. Mike and I have talked about this, Mike
Woods. Uh what if it's a what if number. What if the county committed 40 the county and the cities county and the cities committed $40 million per year to have the skin in the game to be able to the the cooperative funding to work with
the state. Well, from my discussions with them and from with DOT and discussions with our consultants is if we're able to do something like that, 40 or 50 million per year, then we are uh going to be a have a a really good chance of knocking off all those
projects within the next decade. And and I mean it's literally that's how long it will take. We're we're that far behind. So, it's going to require some tough decisions. You know, do we use general fund? Do we restructure penny sales tax? Um, by the way, it's not all about uh
taxing. It's it's about asking more from developers. That's part of it as well. Um, coordination through the JPA on that. That's, as you will see in the paper, that is a a key point. That's something that we have to do. Those funding agreements um not proceeding with projects um until, you know,
certain roads are are fixed, having those roads done before infrastruct before the uh development's in place. But we have to do that with agreements. we have to uh resolve so to speak um so that we have something material something definitive and concrete to put
in the long range transportation plan actually has to be in that plan for it to be considered cost feasible otherwise it's not cost feasible because you can put stuff on the list and plan for it long range but you never have the funding for it and thus the fr and thus the the the frustration of beating our
heads against the wall at no meetings and to constituents about why road projects aren't getting done in time Um great uh discussion. I would, you know, could talk about it all day, but um I'm just sort of introducing this as um something to start thinking about. We're
going to hopefully talk about it as the through the NPO process um or NPO meetings. Um perhaps maybe the one ask uh today would be um would you be interested in this being something to discuss at that June 30th meeting when
we're meeting face to face with all the cities discussing our possibility of doing JPA you know um we're going to have discussion on this at the NPOS's but it all it all figures in I mean at the NBO all figures in all the
municipalities have been invited to our meeting Mhm. So, but I think going into it with an actual like ask, not just conceptually, oh, we want JPA. So, you know, it's like, okay, we actually we need numbers. We need some numbers and we need to actually figure out how would you
calculate it per city? Would it be per capita and or is it going to be I mean, how and I I don't know if you just kind of pulled that number out of the air whether you had put some thought into 40 million. Is it just that could maybe
make enough of a dent? Um, you know, yes, that and that's uh in discussions with with DOT and our consultant with the at the NPO, Mike Woods at the NO. Um, you know, that that could go more or less. And you know, I don't know how I don't know how far that would extend it
out until all the the projects are done. If we went less or if we did more, how much it would shorten the time frame, but we can we can certainly get that that data. And I I know what you're saying is if we're going to go into the meeting on June 30th, I mean, I think we could have some specifics about this is
how much money we need and it's backed by the data. And if you're able to get that from your general fund and from re reallocating your own your own penny sales tax because the cities get penny sales tax money if you're able to recommit on that um and then work with
us on the funding agreements for the roads with the developers uh then they would they would do this through resolution at their councils um which we would in turn put into the we would put in as a as a way to fund these
um these it does need to be joint. It I mean I'm think they're going to look at it that they're funding the county now you're asking for more funding of the county when they are doing their road structures also. So I think we all need to get on the same page to say your
roads leading into our road and this road needs to be done and you know to work together that way instead of just saying you're going to give us more money. No, I I couldn't agree with you more. No, I don't want to I don't want to come across that way. It's based on that. I mean, we've already got our
list. Yeah. I mean, it's it's based on a master plan that goes out 20, 30, 40 years. It's right that's your starting point. But, but what I've seen so far on the three NO meetings I've been on that everything gets moved around. The number one priority isn't the one. It doesn't
get funded. Okay. So the reason that happens is that you get x amount of money per year and you don't know for sure you're going to get the money that the state is supposed to be giving you that year. And so then you've got x amount of dollars to work with. And so you're trying and everybody's jocking
for well, you know, you got $20 million and you could do these four projects or you could do $20 million isn't going to get you the one that's your top priority project. So you just keep putting the top priority project. I mean, you saw how it works. And and it also depends
upon whether a city steps up to the plate. Like Wildwood stepped up and $5 million or their own money. You know, Grovein, I know the bypass is, you know, it's it's we talked about that all the time, but they, you know, they they risked it themselves and took out a bond. Well, okay. So, that's a really
big point because I'm just trying to understand how logistically this would work because if I was a city in the city shoes and I could get X dollars out of a developer who wants to annex into my city really badly. Um, I can I take that X number of dollars and put that towards
my share or use that in a case of trying to get a project fully funded. I'm gonna put $3 million in and I want to get 10 million from the NO, you know. So, I'm not quite sure how all the the logistics would would would work, but you would
think you would want to be able to get credit for I would developer contributions because then that could be a way where the cities could actually start putting more skin in the game as far as getting major projects done that really need to be done. I agree. Yeah.
Yeah. And so we have to do all this by the end of the year because that's when the long range transportation plan's done. So a little bit of a tap, but I think we can get this data. When you say all of this, so you're talking about an actual agreement between the county and the cities on a or all of this as in you've got to have your list in place and you've got I think you have to have
the list in place and a plan to I don't know that I'll get you the specifics on what is the minimum requirement has to be in the long range transportation plan for it to be cost feasible and for it to mean something. um using that term, but but I I think there has to be some kind
of formal agreement. Yeah. To Okay. So, cost feasible is is key because you got to show that you've got some way to get it done. Yeah. It's not cost feasible. If you're just if it if we're just talking about it, it's a great project to have and to do and we'll agree to cooperate on it. That's not going to cut
it. It has to be like this is how we're going to we're going to contribute. the city's going to contribute X dollars, the county is going to contribute X dollars or the development, you know, is going to fund this part of it. Then we're able to we we are able to get more
grant money that way if we're bringing more to the plate. Yeah. More out of that uh what was it like 17.5 billion dollar budget that the state has from$4.5 million which just went to one I4 project that now 67 counties have to split the rest.
Yeah. So, um this is just so this so you know at the end of the day this is what can we do to um put more money into the and more and I hate to use the phrase skin in the game but commit more commitment so that
we're able to get that state funding more of the state funding to us quicker. Yeah, that's what this is about, right? Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. It's just where does it come from? Yeah. No, and and it's it I know it's going to be, you know, those are going
to be the tough decisions. Um, you know, we could we could talk about all those. We have we've talked about them for years. Is it uh out of general funds funds? I would say with an S, not just the county, but other cities, general funds, penny sales tax, gas tax, all of
it. So, okay. So, this was just a there's no action. Yeah, just discussion. You said it says direction, but can we hold off on the direction? so we all can think about it a little bit and Yeah. No, I I didn't I didn't intend for it to be um
any action on it today. Uh I I didn't if you're hearing me talk about it, I just thought it was important that I share it with you. So that that especially now as the chair of the NO um working with Mike and Fred on this as we go through the long range transportation project, that's the key
part of this. It's not a separate effort or something we're doing separate. We're we're we're trying to make it cost feasible into the um by coming up with a way to fund these projects cooperatively into the long range transportation plan.
Um and I guess the there was one the one ask was do we talk about it at uh on June 30th? I mean I I certainly would, but I think that transportation is the elephant in the room and if you're not having that discussion then why are we all getting together? So what is you know we've got to figure out what it is
that we're asking for. Should it be like with every city we sit down with each city and we go over the needs that are directly within their city limits or adjacent to their city limits and give an example like with Leburg we have 44 and that impacts us as well and do we
hone in on certain projects that really need to be addressed? Um, I'm a little worried about just kind of getting into like a theoretical sort of here's how we could do the funding. I'm more interested in focusing on actual projects that I know have been
sitting out there that haven't been done and maybe focusing on those projects and what dollars we would need in order to get those projects done. And then it might become more like real to everybody like if okay, if we put this much up then we can start working on 44. we can
get some of these intersections done, you know, and actually focus on projects. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe. But um I I think uh chairman has a good point is we all know what road like in my district. Uh one of
the major one is Woodley Road. It needs to be widened because they got a new subdivision going down there is between Tavaras has a lot of property down there. So does county. So what is a split? I may maybe come up with some solid evidence and some
solid ideas to to have them look at that as well. I mean, we all have it. We have I mean, I got Druid Place, Woodley Road, Dead River Road. I mean, there's a bunch of them that we can come up with with how many city residents live within on
the road compared to how many county residents. Then you take that percent it do a percentage and the estimated cost of the road and you just split it up by percentage is my idea and then present that to the city and see if they're willing to go with it. Okay. So can I let me let me suggest this then. So
maybe what I could do is is work with uh with staff and Mike Woods in particular and Fred um and maybe that the next meeting um as we're trying to shape the agenda for the 30th uh come up with like some specific questions that way it's very specific uh how to address it to
add to the agenda with your input on that. Um so it' be like specific projects and then what we could do if if there was funding amount if if it was able to be cost feasible. Only thing I would recommend is if we we are going to have those questions that we allow the municipalities to have those too so they
can help with the answer. Yeah, absolutely. Sure. Beforehand before the meeting, right? Yeah. Okay. So, I'll I'll do that. I'll just bring it back and and and if you're everybody's good with that. Just some things that we should be that are concrete and specific for that meeting.
Excellent. Okay. Sounds good. All right. Then moving to reports. Do we have um report from the county attorney? Report from the county manager. Uh just a reminder for everyone that the county offices will be closed uh next Monday in observance of Memorial Day. Okay. All
right. Commissioner Sabatini, for the sake of time, I'll give a better report next week. Okay, we'll take that. Commissioner Parks. Um because I'm ready for lunch, I'll defer. All right, Commissioner Smith, we're on a roll here. Um, I'm going to save mine to the
last bit, but I do want to give the flag etiquette for Memorial Day. So, a Memorial Day, you you raise a flag all the way to the top of staff, bring back half staff until noon that respects all the fallen soldiers. At noon, you raise
a full staff and respects all the current soldiers. Okay. And that we've got a couple flags that we'll need. And you'll talk to City of Daries. Well, they'll do that. They do that. Okay. All right. Um, Commissioner Morris, nothing. All
right. I'm gonna go with trend here and I'll save my report other than just to tell everybody that the light at County Road 439 and 42 is operational. So, everybody in that area is very excited about that and thanks to public works
for getting that done and making that happen. Yeah. So, it's been a long process getting there and then we had to take the next step to get over the finish line because the um the grant that we received didn't get us the active light. It only got us a flashing light. So, everybody's really happy to
see that happen. All right, Fred. And the Wallace, too. Okay. All right. So then we have to we have to have our CRA meeting need to adjourn. We're going to adjourn and
then reopen right away. All right. So at this point the board of county commissioner meeting um stands adjourned and now we're reopening as the um Mount Plymouth Sarrento Community Redevelopment Agency. We need about five minutes. Oh five minutes to get set up.
So, while y'all are waiting, While y'all are waiting, I know you're kind of really worried about this. Tell us what day it is. Today is National Rescue Dog Day. All right. That's a good one. When is it? Where's Whit? I was looking for
Whitney and I couldn't see her. So recording Stop. Well, first All right, we're going to open our meeting this May 20th, 2025 as a Mount Plymouth Sarrento Community Redvel development agency and we're going to open up the meeting first with public
comment and I will see if we have I don't see any comment cards at this point. Um do we have anyone online who wishes to comment during the public comment period? Uh yes we have one. Barbara Morris, you should be able to
unmute your line now. All right, Barbara. Um we'll let you know when you get to the three minutes. Thank you. Um, Barbara Morris, District 4. I live in the Mount Plymouth, Sarrento area. Uh, public
comment. This CRA plan that you're about to be hearing, it was rushed through the committee. The committee was presented this plan and none of the members had had a chance to even read it and they wanted to
postpone it so that they had a chance to read it so that they could have present their questions and have discussions. and county staff instructed them that regardless this was going to be proceeded to planning and zoning for comp
plan compatibility and then then to you regardless of whether they made a recommendation or not. So they just arbitrarily recommended it. Um this presents a problem because if the advisory committee does not
receive this plan in time to read it before the here their meeting the public certainly couldn't and I understand inspire had public meetings where they brought
input but the public wasn't aware of what the final plan was and there's been a scramble to try to make changes to it. There is still things in it that is incorrect. There are still problems that
I'm I'm sure a lot of people would like to address. But unfortunately, because you put this at the end of your regular commission meeting, it discourages participation because somebody like me, I've had to sit here all day because I didn't know
if you would finalize your commission meeting or not, when it would be. So, I have to be here in case the CRA came up. And I I'd like to suggest that maybe we put a time curtain for these CRA meetings at 1:00.
so that people like myself don't sit here through your board of county commission meeting not knowing exactly when the CRA will come up. uh it it it discourages
participation and I wanted to address that with with you guys so that maybe we can set this up to where there is more participation and more transparency especially when the advisory board didn't even get a chance
to go over this before they approved it. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other hands raised? Okay. And we don't have any um cards at this point. So, we're going to
move to our consent, which is the CRA board meetings, which were back in February 11th, 2025. Um do we have a motion to approve our minutes from the last time we met? Some moved.
So moved. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. Um we have a first, we have a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Moving then to our regular
agenda. Um this is tab two and me brew is going to present. All right. Good afternoon, commissioners. For the record, Meg Brew, director of economic development in Lake County. So, this plan update does represent the culmination of over nine
months of work on the part of Inspire Placemaking Collective, our consultant. A draft of the plan was given to the CRA advisory committee members a week in advance as soon as the draft was finished and then was presented to the Mount Plymouth Sarrento CRA Advisory
Committee meeting on March 18, 2025. The Lake County Planning and Zoning Board, sitting as a local planning agency, considered the plan at their May 7th, 2025 meeting. Sorry, I'm forgetting to click. Um, and found it to be in alignment with the Lake County Comprehensive Plan. So, the CRA board is
now asked to consider the content of the plan. In your meeting packet, you'll find communications that were received by the Lake County Office of Economic Development regarding the plan. So, we did post the um draft at the East Lake Community Mini Library for review by rec by citizens. I believe we started that
on uh midappril and we've received some ongoing communications from the community. So, some of those um the majority of those errors have already been corrected, but they may not be reflected in the current draft. So, those changes that have been made, but
are not reflected on the version that you have today are detailed in an NATA memo. And of course, the board is also um welcome to request any additional changes prior to making a recommendation to the BCC. Once the plan is finalized and all of these corrections and additions are are figured out, um our
hope is to have it ready for the July 1st BCC meeting for a final public hearing. So, with that, it's my pleasure to introduce Mr. George Kramer. He's the president of Inspire Placemaking, and he'll present an overview of the plan, their process, and address any questions
that you might have. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. Uh again, my name is George Kramer, president of Inspire and also a planner and involved in our redevelopment practice. Um appreciate the opportunity to present the plan here
today. uh wanted to start by thanking staff as well as members of the community participating in in this process. Uh I'll quickly go through this presentation. I know you you all have received a draft copy of the report. Um so I'll go quickly through the
presentation and and defer most of the discussion to specific questions you might have. Um the scope here, you know, five tasks uh as Meg mentioned uh over nine months. It's actually closer to a year that that
we're getting in. We kicked off the project uh in June uh and went through a uh a thorough process, inclusive process and and I'll walk through those steps now. Uh our approach to planning and we
could probably use this for other projects than than redevelopment plans, but it it starts with uh you know thorough collection and analysis of data both quantitative and qualitative. Uh, one thing I I do want to focus on as it
relates to to the CRA plan, as I think everyone's aware, uh, you know, having comprehensive and broad language is important because it provides you with flexibility to address things that may not be anticipated today that occur in
the future. It has to be in the plan in order to expend those funds to it. So we we incorporate that strategy, but we also complement that with with a strategy because in this CRA, in virtually every CRA we work in, the list of needs far exceed the resources to
address those. So there there's some strategy and what projects to to put forth and and so we include include that as as part of the process. So again some of that quantitative data uh looking at demographic and socioeconomic trends uh
looking at you know the existing land uses uh within the area as well as that regulatory context both at a future land use perspective and zoning uh you know this area in particular as you're aware you know has has the TDR uh that sending
those sending and receiving areas in so so another layer as well uh we looked at infrastructure had a lot of really important conversations. We, you know, understand the historic rural character of the area. Uh, in keeping with that, uh, there are a lot of private wells and
septic tanks, uh, within the area. Uh, so good discussion is as we look towards the future, you know, what are some of the opportunities to retain character but also connect to central water and sewer in a thoughtful way.
uh you know I appreciate uh the the comments uh during the public comment period about public input. I would just say you know that having a an inclusive process is really important to us. It certainly wasn't our intent to to rush through anything uh through the our
public engagement process was twofold. We did have a project website uh we can track those unique visitors. So so over 341 I guess uh unique visitors in there. Uh we also had an in-person openhouse uh in the middle of November at the Grace
City Church. Uh so and in addition to some uh individual stakeholder and small group meetings uh you know based on that uh collection and assessment of the data you know we did uh identify some some priorities and
put those in the different categories there you know highlighting some transportation environmental priorities which were really important for the area. Um again we used a SWAT analysis looking at at those both internal and
external uh forces at play to develop uh that priority and overall strategy. Uh there were five uh goals covering uh a variety of topics there that were included in that in that vision and
goals section of the strategy formation. Uh again, we're looking at at the plan development, but also looking at we didn't have budget to do detailed cost estimates, but we did want to look at order of magnitude uh as it relates to to funding uh to to relate the plan
development and strategies uh with those with those funding goals where we did have more specificity. So I you know I mentioned the broad language that provides some specificity when we did have potential programs. Uh as you can see there, we did do an order of
magnitude cost estimate as well as identifying uh potential funding sources. Puts it a little closer there. Uh the other thing we wanted to look at uh within here is just some big picture uh opportunities. And so the three
things you see here looking at uh the adaptive reuse on the industrial site there that has some acreage uh you know that that provides some unique opportunities. We're also aware of of some of the challenges there as well. Uh, you know, looking at 46 Sarrento
Avenue being the, you know, really important uh character, the backbone of the region, if you will, connecting the historic towns of Plymouth and and Mount Plymouth and Sarrento. Uh, the opportunity to have that that main street that that may have a mix of uses, but again, keep in
keeping with the rural character. Uh, as well as the uh Mount Plymouth Sarrento, that internal loop. So, so providing that uh passive trail uh within the community. Uh lastly, and and this was
uh you know discussed at length uh through the planning and zoning uh board is the consistency with the comprehensive plan. uh you know I'm happy to go through in more detail but uh you know it is it is important to
note that uh in addition to uh meeting a lot of the elements of innovative planning that you have there in the future land use there's actually a specific uh policy related to uh this CRA within your comprehensive plan currently and and we went to great
lengths to to make sure that consistency uh is maintained. So, uh, again, happy to to answer any questions you have. I know we've got the specific report, uh, together and and, you know, this will come back in front of this, you know, same group as as the BCC in July. Uh,
but happy to answer any questions you have. Thank you. So, I know I there were a couple um additional corrections that didn't make it into the um the draft itself, but they're in process. Okay. I just wanted to confirm
that. And um yeah, it's hard to believe that we've actually been at this since like November of last year when we had that first dayong open house. Um, and I appreciate Barbara's comments.
I just feel like you got to keep these things going and you got to get your comments in and you know, we try to get them incorporated. We found some mistakes, got those fixed. Um, there's still opportunity for additional items if they need to be modified. Um, but
we've we essentially we've got to get to an end point and we could just leave this out there forever and you can go back and make amendments as well. We can open re you can change it, you can reopen it. It's just to give that framework of and do you mind going back and just like I just want to look at
those goals the so five goals um and and the vision statement um that the CRA envisions a vibrant sustainable community that preserves its natural features while promoting growth through strong infrastructure. CRA aims to
enhance activity hubs, connect destinations, and diversify housing to meet residents needs while celebrating community identity and inclusivity. Um, so we're trying to preserve our natural features. Um, promote um infrastructure for uh to accommodate
growth, enhance activity hubs and connect destinations, improve and diversify housing stock, and celebrate community identity. I'm I'm happy with those goals. I think that they're broad enough um that it gives you, you know, that
broad framework. As we work on specific, for example, infrastructure projects, we work on the trail. Um we've got great land development um um design criteria already in place for the commercial district. So, we've
already got great um planning tools in place to promote that Main Street um district. Um, and again, I think some of the things that were errors, they were picked up, and I want to say thank you to those of you who work so hard to pick
up on those errors and point them out. Um and um and and I and I want to go back too to that first meeting where we had a lot of writing on you know um I don't know what like the white you know the boards and things and the we there
were a lot of p there were a lot of comments to go through and so I think that um all of that was taken in into account and then I think the outreach then was to some of the stakeholders that might not have actually weighed in on some of the things at that meeting.
So, we tried to round that out by making sure we had um comment from other folks that uh and I think Hillrest was consulted with considering that it is in a key location in relation to the CRA.
So, um yeah, I mean I think we're at a point, you know, where we can move forward to the next steps and then come back um in in July. So, um, anybody have any any questions or or
comments? Um, with Miss Morris's concern, possibly there's a she could uh put in writing what her concerns are and they could be addressed before the July meeting. She felt it was done too quick.
Yeah. bank, do you want to address the process for any additional comments? Um, so we do have some comments from her that were very appreciated. She was good at picking up on some stuff. Um, so as comments have come in, we have made sure to communicate them to inspire. I think
they're probably regretting not charging us by the hour at this point instead of by the project. Um, but yes, I have been sending comments as they come along and they've been very responsive. So, we'll be following up on all of that, making sure that everything that was provided is um has been responded to
appropriately. Um and then we'll have the finalized version available for the BCC in advance of the meeting. Any questions? I was inspired. It's a I mean, it's a it's a it's a great report. Very very well put together. You know, I've seen these in the business. very well done
and um respect the process and again to emphasize you know what commissioner Campion has said uh there there you can make changes to this it's a working document so to speak in that sense you can update it and make changes but you got to have a starting point and the the plan's important here so yeah and we we
envision it to be a living document and the implementation will be the most important piece of it which will also involve hopefully a lot of community input yeah and you have to have it I mean if you're going to try to match funding who knows with grants in the future and state funds and things, you have to have this done. So to to keep
dragging it out, you know, you want to make sure it's right. So I understand not to minimize Miss Morris's comments, but but you you know, to be eligible, too, for potential funding as well, you need to Yeah. Yes, sir. have it done. I also wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to our new CRA
coordinator. So we just brought Carolyn Marquee on the team. Um you can you don't have to come up, but yeah. Uh Carolyn does come with a very extensive grant background, though. So, we're really excited to see how we can leverage that to kind of extend some of the um tiff funds that we have available
to us for redevelopment work. Excellent. Thank you. Okay. Okay. So, um let's look at these goals here real quick. Preserve unique uh natural features. We currently do that through
all of Lake County, right? Yeah. But we've got some neat ones here, too. Yeah. Uh infrastructure for go uh for growth. That's what we currently do. That's what we think about all the time and we're trying to fund enhance activity hub to connect destinations. We
we're continually doing that. Improve and diversify housing stock. We certainly try to do that all the time. and then um celebrate uh community identity. I think that we
try to do that through some of our grant fundings that we do. Um the reason why I'm bringing these up and I don't know if if y'all know this or not.
Um Melanie, can you explain what this CRA has to do? So the CRA um community redevelopment agency is a special district under Florida law. So there are very specific things that they have to follow under
the special district statutes and the CRA statute. One of which is we just hit the monetary threshold for um auditing. So we now have to have a separate audit of their funds every year. um their funding source comes from the
tax increment over when you set the base um millillage and whatever those incremental revenues are is where they get their funding from. They have they also received funding from the EMS fund. Jennifer, correct me if I'm wrong. And they up until this year they've been
receiving f funds from the Lake County Water Authority. Um the water authority, you may have seen some emails come in today. the water authority has gone back and re-evaluated and they're actually not required to submit funds to the CRA because it's out of their mission. So they're notifying all the CRA agencies
of that that they'll no longer be contributing funding to that. So basically your funding source for the CRA is essentially the incremental revenue from the general fund and the EMS fund and I don't believe they get funding from any other source. So with
the way that this is structured, you have a very defined boundary and you now have a defined revenue source that can only be used within that boundary for the the items that you put in this plan. Um, as you see, we've got staff that's specifically dedicated to the CRA. Um, and then
again, they have to comply with all of the special district requirements, which does require staff time. Um there's, you know, they have to have a website. They have to post their minutes. Um their budget, there's reporting to the state and those types of things. Again, you as the CRA board are sitting in that
capacity and as the BCC. So there are items that will come to you as a CRA board that will also have to go to to you as the BCC. We've seen some of those double items coming through. So essentially it's a special district that does operate somewhat independently um but still under the opices of the board
of county commissioners. But can I jump on that though? Just I wasn't finished. Okay. I just want to make sure that you know though because I kind of I wasn't finished. Let me Okay. Allow me to finish and then we'll go from Yeah. No, I just So um and and I know there's
going to be some But this is actually I think going to help this area what what I'm proposing currently. We pay our CRA coordinator a loaded labor rate of $104,000 that is taken out of the
CRA. Uh it's a loaded labor rate. I've already checked it. Um we we have our we have our um we have to pay an auditor, we have advertising, we have staff over time
um to run these meetings. My suggestion is instead and we we are currently we provide general fund money to the CRA above the C what the CRA does. So why wouldn't we just
consolidate all that money that we're spending out of the CRA and just and keep it there and not have to go through all these governmental regulations, not have to pay to staff overtime, not have to pay for any advertising.
wonderful, wonderful um presentation you gave, but it wasn't for free, was it? Yeah. Okay. So, I just making sure. I mean, you might have been I I don't know. So, so we could have
saved all that money and then pushed it right back in here. We I can only assume that this CRA came about because they were getting forgotten and they were afraid to lose their identity. However,
this has become a major corridor u for us here and especially for Lake County. So, I think there's going to be more emphasis in this area to make sure it's right. So, I'm just trying to gain an extra
$150,000 that is being taken away from this area and putting right back in to continue to do same things we're doing. That's all that's all I'm saying. Okay. So, I'm going to fight hard. I mean, say we don't want to get rid of
this CRA because we did fight hard to get the CRA in the first place. It's the only CRA we have in the county. Sarrento, Mount Plymouth, the two communities years ago kind of forced to join into one identity.
Um it is a unique and um special place and um it's like a municipality, but it's not a municipality. It doesn't have municipal service and yet we have a lot of services there that make it like a
municipality. And so if you just roll it all into the county general fund, number one, they lose the tax increment, which the whole idea was this was a way as this community grew and it um improved
and some of the conditions became better um that they would actually be able to keep their money there in their community and take care of some of the things that they really needed like the the road improvements and so forth. Um, if you go back, you know, and I and I'm
honestly if if I knew that we were going to actually have this discussion, I I would have been a little bit more prepared from a chronological standpoint to kind of take us back to what was going on with the Wakiva um Parkway. Um the road was being um essentially people
were concerned about what would happen with 46, whether the area would kind of be bypassed and people would be on the Parkway and the downtown would sort of be forgotten and then that would make it fall even further into sort of a a situation. I don't don't want to use the
word blight, but if you drive down 46, you're going to see some things that look very blighted. Um so the idea was let's let's put some focus on this community. lets the let let the folks that are in this community work together to try to create a vision
and then we work towards that vision. And so the idea that we would just sort of roll it back into the general fund and take away that opportunity for the community to sort of control and and and further its vision and and and to
protect its identity um I think is is going in the wrong direction. we were finally hitting a point where we're starting to have some things happen out there that do contribute to the increment that then allow them to put money back into the community. I'll give you one example and it's a very small
example but it's really important to the community and that is um they decided, you know, to ask the board to support enhanced litter um pickup along 46 and in the CRA. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but that's a very heavily traveled corridor. So,
they're getting enhanced um you know, litter pickup. Could you do that anyway? Well, I'm not sure that you know I mean maybe we do community cleanups and things like that, but to have a systematic we're going to be in there
more often and and clean up more often and we're going to use CRA money for that. um that that's just an example of the community wanting enhanced service and getting enhanced service as a result of of the CRA itself. Um the the
um design criteria that was formulated by this community for this community so that they would have enhanced design uh um criteria that goes beyond what you see in other places in Lake County. You couldn't really do that if you didn't have a district. I mean, you could do a
zoning overlay, but again, this was the community coming together, designing what they wanted for the community. Um, I feel like if you if you I mean, I would just urge the board, don't take away their CRA identity because it gives them a framework to work together a as a
community and to um sort of promote their identity without becoming a municipality. And that's been my argument all along is you don't need another layer of taxation. Sure, this does create, you know, you do have this layer of CRA taxation and maybe there is a way to do it where we have some sort
of a agreement in place where we're not a CRA but we dedicate the increment back into a defined area and if we could legally do that then then I would support something like that. I just hate the idea. We have worked so hard to get to the point we're finally starting to
see things happen and um and then to and then to lose that. Well, just just so you know, the the only reason why I'm bringing this up is we're not going to forget them. We we currently do it today. I'm just seeing opportunity of
another $150,000 being able to be put in that place to help enhance it. That's all. So, and I I was just going to say you I think you both make good points. I was just hoping maybe we could have a
consensus on like having that conversation on other days because I feel like it's a deeper conversation, philosophical conversation at this point in the day. I' I'd be okay to to just forget this conversation right here, vote on what we got here and then um
I'll ask the chairman to put it on the agenda uh later and then we could open we can have public comment. Absolutely. Folks tell you how they feel about it and maybe you know you'd feel differently and maybe
you wouldn't. But um I mean granted it's a great idea if you could take $150,000 and put it back in the community. It's just I don't think you get there by dissolving a CRA and having come this far and worked so hard and then to take it away from the community. I think that
would be horrible. But um but yeah, let's have that discussion on on another day and let's um this was supposed to be a positive um um exercise of actually updating a CRA plan. So,
um, with that in mind, is there a motion to, um, motion to accept the plan? It's not an official second with discussion. Okay. All right. Yeah. I I'll, um, so if we're going to have the discussion on CRA, there's a whole history,
legislative intent, how it's a tool, and a plan is the center of that tool, and it's a reg, it's a framework that's set up to um, you know, to Are you Is that your taser or something? No, it's my for my ears. Oh, okay. Sorry. I thought maybe you were like getting ready to
like proud me along. Yeah. Um so, uh we'll have that discussion later, but I would just I'm supportive of it. I think it's a good plan and and um I think uh those five goals, we've actually talked about all five of those on a countywide basis today, but interesting. Yeah. And
there of course there's going to be overlap. You would hope that those would be your goals in general, right? But we're applying them with specificity to an area. We'll do it on another on another meeting. I think you're misinterpreting what I'm trying to do. I think I
probably am because it feels like we're going in the wrong direction, not the right direction, but um Okay. So, we have a motion. We have a second. All in favor say I. I. I. Okay. Um and did we have any other items on the agenda?
Okay. All right. Well, we stand adjourned. Did you get my email? I figured everybody