##VIDEO ID:US772-lMGHw## e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e for e all right didn't now we had a gavl for uh The Retreat so thank you all for being here we a little running behind but you know we got some construction projects on Centerville Road uh that we are very proud of that are unfortunately maybe contributing to uh some late arrivals but that's okay um I want to say first and foremost thank you everybody for being here I know there's a whole crew of people behind me I'm sorry the back of my head is probably better looking than the front of my head so uh you know it's probably a better look anyway so um thank you all for uh being here good morning uh Commissioners thank you for making the Trek out here to what is uh one of the most prideful parts of northeast Tallahassee and District 4 out here at uh really one of the landmarks of Leon County uh the Bradley's Country Store and then uh right here at the Bradley's Retreat so um this is It's kind of neat the staff wanted me to point out to you all that we are having our retreat at the Bradley's Retreat so you it's it's hard to miss once you get up Centerville Road and it says Retreat okay you've made it to the retreat um as you guys know Bradley's has been out here for a long long time uh I know it feels like a long way to get out here if you're coming from in town but uh you know it is a beautiful beautiful area I would encourage you to get out here uh you know every so often if you get the chance uh and if you get the chance after the retreat today slide over to the Country Store if you've never been in there walk in it's really a throwback to a century that is bygone uh get yourself a sausage dog because uh I would contend they're the best in the world um and I think on that note the staff has prepared little goodie bags for uh each of us up here with some swag from The Country Store uh if you don't know they don't they do more than just sell sausage they've got uh all kinds of homemade sauces and and uh they grind their own stone ground grits so uh thank you to our staff for putting together these little gift bags for us I really appreciate it and uh and hope you guys enjoy and and rep your uh your Bradley's swag you guys know what Dwight from the office said SWAG stands for stuff we all get I got one and those of us who've been to a fat conference or a no conference you know what the swag means um Okay so uh let's see I think we're just waiting on commissioner Maddox so I think we're all fairly well here um as you see in front of you oh we have some goodies uh if you've never done so okay I already got that uh let's get our let's get going uh the county administrators put together a great agenda for us today um as we all know the County's 5-year strategic plan is at the heart of everything we've done and planed to do and at every commission meeting our agenda items show how all of the various AC we take as a body Advance our strategic priorities and initiatives and each year The Retreat then serves as a time to review our progress and update the plan I look forward to taking this time with you all to uh uh look at the priorities address new priorities uh take an assessment of the current priorities and how they're going um to build Upon Our hard work and developing and advancing our current fiveyear strategic plan and to make the most of the great agenda we have for us today with that being said to achieve the work ahead of us today we need everyone's participation as we do so often on the Das we need to work together and build consensus at this year's Retreat uh now I could read the ground rules for all of us but uh I think that would probably mess up the whole point here which is to honor time constraints so we're running a little behind already but I do want us to get out of here by noon so you can go grab your sausage dog across the street so like in years past um we will I'm sure we'll all be courteous and Expedition ious so that we can get the most out of the day and I do look forward to hearing from each individual commissioner later on uh during our strategic Plan update for the upcoming year but before we hand it off to the County Administrator I just want to again say thank you all I've I haven't seen you in a little bit so it's great to see everybody uh as we roll close into February and get going on our uh in this new year uh I would like to take this opportunity to let everybody kind of say a few words I want to before I pass it off to you guys just take this opportunity to once again thank the staff that's sitting behind us sitting behind me um we know that they're really the heartbeat of this organization they get all the work done and and uh they are the ones who execute the plan that we put together and so they're all out here the parking lot's full and uh we appreciate everything that they do so uh if you guys wouldn't mind let's give him a little round of applause for this great Leon County staff appreciate you guys thank you for being here hope you enjoyed breakfast also want to say give a shout out to Canopy Road Cafe Who provided the breakfast today uh a a very prolific business in Leon County located headquarter right here in District 4 um so uh at that juncture we're going to pass it off to Commissioners to say a few words and uh and before we get it to the County Administrator and get into business uh uh immediate past chair commissioner Cummings would you like to start us off absolutely thank you uh Mr chair good morning everyone what a great day we're looking forward to 2025 um but to my fellow Commissioners Mr County Administrator County attorney and all of you all that are here this morning I look forward every year to this Retreat because it sort of shows us you know where we are it sort of like when we were in school or in college you know we got our grades we we received our report card and I'm excited about uh the report card that has been prepared for us because it shows in most of our areas that we at uh close to or above 75% of achieving the goals that have been uh that have been outlined by the commission and the County Administrator so I'm just excited about today looking forward to hearing from all of you all that are various heads of your various departments uh but I'm also especially excited because for the first time we will also hear from our executive director of the children's Services Council and so she will be here if she's not already here to give us an update on what the Children's Services council is doing and has done to move the needle in a positive direction uh for our children so I think we're going to enjoy her presentation uh that'll be a treat for us and so I'm going to just sit back and relax and just look forward Mr County Administrator to the various individuals that are going to make the presentation for us this morning uh thank you Mr chair thank you commissioner Cummings uh commissioner O'Keefe thank you Mr chair um I look forward to this Retreat much like um a personal Retreat that many people take each year and in that case we're looking at for me for example you know I look back at what has happened in the last year separate from the day-to-day and stop uh sort of separate from the noise and say okay what happened this last year what worked what worked well um what didn't work what changed in a way that uh we want it to be different that I want it to be different and I feel strongly that when we do that here as a county it is often and I think this year will be the case one where there is much more acknowledging how much we improved and how well we did in so many aspects um and there will also be and part of how you get excellent part of how you become a leader is by pushing yourself and pushing yourself and so um I also think about just like in a personal Retreat acknowledging that there are things we want to do different next year does not mean that what we did this year before was not our best um and was not what was necessary and so I'm looking forward to this uh reflective time as a body to think about what we can do better um what we have done uh excellent and a lot of places even where we lead where we want to do more to continue to lead um thank you very much Mr chairman thank you commissioner O'Keefe uh commissioner caban Vice chair caban good morning everyone I uh want give a quick shout out to staff Thank You For Preparing this uh this year's Retreat uh binder an agenda it was very detailed and um I actually enjoyed reading reading about seeing all the stuff that we've accomplished in years past and things that we're looking forward to tackle in the next year or two um I also would like to compliment the chair I love the location we picked um Centerville Road is a is a gem in Leon County and I enjoy the drive here this morning and I'm looking forward to a great conversation with our colleagues thanks everybody thank you Mr Vice chair commissioner Miner thank you Mr chairman um you know I I haven't been to as many of these Retreats as uh commissioner Proctor or commissioner madx but I'll tell you that the more of these that I go to the the deeper appreciation I have for what the work um is done on this day um you know it I think many people have already talked about it Ian it's a way to kind of stop catch a breath take a look at where we're going at a strategic planning level and then figure out where we need to go next and it's just a great way for us to do it outside the office um and and this this this day is very valuable for for me and I know it is for us for all of us um also I just want to say driving up here reminded me of how incredibly beautiful our county is you know I was I coming up this far to to within District 4 but then also over the weekend I was driving around through other parts of the county and it's just it's great to be reminded about how amazing this county is uh very diverse but that you know this just incredible with uh what we have in this County and if you don't travel around thoroughly on a regular basis you kind of forget it and so uh I I want to appreciate uh uh the Chairman's location here because uh I don't get a chance to come up to the The Retreat the Bradley's Retreat very often but when I do uh it's a it's really a beautiful place to be so Kudos thank you Mr chair thank you commissioner Miner commissioner Proctor thank you Mr chairman good morning Commissioners good morning staff good morning everybody um I'm never come to a retreat uh more fulfilled and satisfied by the report uh that we have before so I have never felt as good walking in for uh the speculative thoughts of where we're going for the next year um certainly I said to the County Administrator this morning Mr chairman that you can't look at the size of the book to determine the uh liity and the value of its content and um never uh never um commissioner caban look at the size of the book to know the size of its value I just thought I'd wink at you on that one um this is um huge where we going is huge but my concerns this morning um is not checking the block of where we you know timeline timetables I'm specifically happy about the uh Southern report Southside report in this book but I'm more concerned this morning about philosophically where do we draw lines uh my concerns is a legal understanding of who are we if there is no 14th Amendment uh Birthright who who who are the citizens of Leon County I'm concerned that if the uh executive orders for ice to arrest people and throw them in Leon County's jail and leave them there add in item do we have to pay those costs I'm concerned with State jurisdiction Federal jurisdiction uh we cite in our report um Dei as a core value um since we've last met it's no longer National value uh these conflicts and I I feel more so um much of what we have set out as goals over years uh have been executive order um uh into Oblivion uh where do we stand legally what are we willing to fight for uh or do we just submit so so drawing those lines and understanding our values in the context of a new orbit of national and state Direction uh is very Central uh for me as a board what are we going to fight for and some of my questions will be directed to um I guess our County's attorney with respect to these Dynamics thank you Mr chairman thank you commissioner Pro and and you know commissioner Miner's comments kind of resonated with me I think that you know we are really here to to celebrate the achievements of our staff um and it's and it's like this whole Community our structure as a County Commission I really like right because we we all represent like you know Fort Braden Woodville um chairs uh you know Bradfordville um you know we all represent little corners of this big beautiful County and um and we live in those communities for the you know uh and we travel to them every day so commissioner Miner's comment struck me as you know I take might take it for granted sometimes I travel out here all the time but um same thing as when I go to Fort Braden or Woodville or chair's Community or all around the county um I recognize how beautiful and diverse and awesome our county is and and that is a reflection also of this staff behind us so commissioner kean's comments I also felt like you know I think of it as like kind of building a house right you don't necessarily see the day-to-day work that goes into putting the plugs in the wall and and hang in the ceiling fan you show up every couple days and you look and you go wow that looks really great you know and so again a testament to the staff behind us looking forward to a great Retreat looking forward to learning as much as we possibly can and on that note uh we'll hand it over to the County Administrator uh to get go and also wanted to say hello to the county attorney thank you for being here hope you're doing good and uh Mr County M you ready to go thank you thank you Mr chairman good morning Commissioners again welcome to your annual Retreat uh we're so happy to be back out here at Bradley's Pond I say back out here because uh we had uh the County Commission Retreat out here years ago this was one of the first events held at this space uh it was so long ago that only commissioner Proctor could can remember uh it but well maybe uh maybe maybe a few of the the staff that have been around a while as well and and with that thanks for the for the kind words uh from our team behind me I think it just takes a glance back there to to uh really recognize and appreciate the team that we have here uh at the county and again I want to acknowledge them upfront uh much of our executive team is in the room today who provide the day-to-day leadership and execution of our strategic plan uh Commissioners as you all know this is the opportunity we take each year at this time again just to take a quick pause from all the Urgent and competing issues of the day and to take a step back and evaluate our progress and executing the larger strategic priorities of the board this is a process that also ensures that we continue to be the in the best position to adapt to New Opportunities and new challenges that we face and even things that we can't fully plan for and we certainly faced our fair share of challenges over this past year since we've met since our last retreat uh Commissioners and those things demanded considerable time and resources of the county organization as as you all know but even in the face of 200-year flooding events and tornado outbreaks and the worst projected hurricane season we've ever faced with landfalls that hit way too close uh to Leon County and even an ice storm most recently talk about things you can't fully plan for uh we still stayed focused and made tremendous progress on advancing the larger goals and priorities of our strategic plan and that's what it's all about uh and that's why this retreat in our strategic planning process uh is so important any number of those things again because they consume such considerable time and effort uh you could very quickly uh you know lose uh months if not years off of your your projects and your planning but thanks to to our to our alignment that I'll talk about a little bit today and our very very thorough process we're able to stay focused and again make uh great progress um sort of whatever comes our way so with that Commissioners here's uh uh uh this is the the update year uh and this is a a look at your retreat agenda for the today um just this is an abbreviated process in the updated Year we're on year three heading into year four of our five-year strategic plan and again it's an abbreviated process so half a day will be uh plenty of time for us don't worry commissioner Miner there's no trust Falls planned for today's Retreat it's all business and again I think we got plenty of plenty of time uh you're going to get a quick overview uh from me followed by high Lev review of our progress uh three years into the execution of our Five-Year Plan to bring this uh all the data that you've been presented to life we have sort of a speed round of Staff presentation on selected uh projects uh that'll be in full swing in year four so coming up in this next year we wanted to give you a snapshot of that for for 2020 and staff was a little reluctant I have to tell you to have this a speed round of presentations they they didn't want you to know that they were capable of fast presentation so there was a lot of there was a lot of push back on that but you'll you'll be able to see this uh uh very soon here as commissioner Cummings mentioned this will be followed by an opportunity for the board to hear from and engage with Seeker Rose green our executive director of the CSC in past Retreats Commissioners we've had sort of a Spotlight issue where we've had a partner uh that was engaging in in an initiative or a project that the board might not have had the opportunity to fully engage and be updated on so this is a great opportunity I think it's the first time that the board will really be engaged with the CSC since uh their Inception uh and again we look forward to that and a lot of possibilities and partnership uh uh ongoing that we have there with the CSC and finally Commissioners we're going to close out the morning uh with the board updating the Strategic plan with any proposed new initiatives to further effectuate the plan's priorities into 25 uh and Beyond so with that I hope you're all fully caffeinated uh I'll get us started with just a quick overview and again you'll hear me say that a lot this morning in terms of the quick we can certainly stop and and go into more detail on everything but Commissioners on the screen you'll see the Leon leads uh cycle it's it's should be something that's very familiar uh to you and nothing sums up a very comprehensive process um like a simple uh graphic in in this case Leon leads reflects our continuous process that provides Clarity and focus and alignment and continuity uh that guides our Collective efforts the collective efforts of all Leon County employees in our strategic planning and execution process our strategic plan Commissioners um uh our strategic plan is is included in each and every one of our strategic processes and so how we develop the county budget write down to how we evaluate each County employee um including references in every one of your agenda items right how the these actions align with our strategic plans so ours is certainly not a strategic plan that sits on a shelf and and collects uh dust you all know that and and not every organization uh does this but it's been Key to Our Success again in optimizing our resources and and delivering results um starting at the top of the circle Commissioners uh where we find ourselves uh at this time each year this is our opportunity to review our our progress and explore new opportunities uh and to set the direction for our yearr round uh alignment of frankly countless efforts performed by hundreds of employees across dozens of Divisions engaging thousands of citizens uh so that we can stay focused again and deliver meaningful results to the community and all the things that we do that of course Commissioners is the quickest way to illustrate this strategic alignment and the emphasis that we put on strategic planning here at the county um again we could certainly spend I'm sure an entire day talking about uh again the comprehensive approach that we take to strategic planning I'll just uh say uh too it's it's worth noting that we've become kind of known for this at the county not not something that we intended to do uh but we hear from counties and cities and school boards literally from all around the country all the time on on how we do this strategic planning I have to tell you it's a little bit uh funny that um we spend time with them and when they hear about our process uh most of them then chicken out and say well that that sounds like uh it may be too much of an undertaking but again it's something we take so seriously because it does uh pay off for us so with that Commissioners uh let me just quickly uh walk through some of the key elements of our strategic Plan before providing a snapshot of the progress we've made on initiatives and our five-year targets and our bold goals and again this is just a quick overview so up on the screen Commissioners you'll see the County's uh vision and miss statements uh our vision statement simply reads a community that is safe healthy and vibrant the mission statement reads to efficiently provide Public Services which serve and strengthen our community very simply stated because these have been adopted into the five-year strategic plan they're not intended to change in update years like this year up next on the screen um as well uh as well as the boards around the room here you'll see our strategic priority areas uh these areas include the economy the environment quality of life and governance Commissioners these priority areas are high level categories that clearly articulate what the county wishes to achieve in these areas uh but they're not simply aspirational statements uh they're written to reflect our role and what we can do uh directly in working with our partners uh to specifically Advance these priorities and they're critical to the to the success uh of the community uh like I won't read these um directional statements Commissioners like me I'm sure you you have them tattooed somewhere in your body uh next on the screen Commissioners is a summary of the progress uh to date on our strategic initiatives these are the key action items as the commission knows very well that we use to carry out these strategic priorities as reflected on the screen uh the 5-year strategic plan currently has 85 strategic initiatives uh with uh 72 out of the 85 um initiatives complete that's 85% uh and the remaining 13 initiatives in progress of course we're going into the fourth year of our plan so the number of initiatives will continue to grow because our strategic plan is a living document uh including new initiatives that you may add today but uh to be sure Commissioners many of the initiatives under the category that's marked complete of course do not stop but rather are ongoing and require resources additional resources and support a great example of that would be uh our initiative to secure state and federal funding to build affordable housing uh for very low and low-income families while we've made significant progress in this area that's an initiative that we'll continue to work on throughout our Five-Year Plan and so it's included in the complete ongoing subcategory so uh on the other hand you'll see a number of strategic initiatives that have uh been completed in their entirety these are sort of the the one and done a great example of this would be the year-long celebration of the bicentennial um which the board is knows very well and which we've just wrapped up in fact right up to the very last minute of 2024 at the New Year's Eve uh event and uh finally the table also reflects the balance of the Strategic initiatives which are still in progress a great example of this would be uh our initiative to plan and host the 2026 uh World cross country cross country championships at appalache Regional Park which will be taking place next year uh your retreat uh materials Commissioners beginning on page 28 contain a detailed analysis of the status of each strategic initiative uh to date uh so to round this out Commissioners in the next in the slide that you have here and again we've got the the boards around the room uh which also reflect this um uh the last part of the overview I I want to briefly highlight the Bold goals and targets these targets and bold goals were established in January of 2022 as part of our new 5-year plan uh which means that the data presented today uh repres presents our progress made across the the first three years of the plan and as you may recall Commissioners the goals and targets are aligned with each strategic priority area uh our five-year targets are important because they communicate to the public and staff the specific results we expect to achieve by collectively executing initiatives and committing to these aggressive targets over five years the Bold goals Commissioners um that we have aligned with each of the Strategic priority areas our stretch goals uh unlike our targets a little bit different than our targets a little more aggressive uh if you will in our targets they're big and difficult to achieve by definition they require us to stretch to provide New Opportunities and new ideas to accomplish we might not achieve uh all of these but they communicate aggressive goals that we believe are possible with focus and commitment again over five years these targets and bold goals are really important they're very important element of our strategic plan and they demonstrate the ambitious efforts we take at the county to continue to move the community forward and we're committed to accomplishing all of them uh and I've seen in your retreat materials Commissioners and on the boards around the room we've continued to make great progress on these uh targets and bold goals and we're on track for the most part uh with each one of them and beginning on age page 81 of your retreat materials is the detailed analysis of each fiveyear Target uh and each bold goal uh Commissioners I told you I'd be quick with an overview and and that was certainly quick I'm going to Pivot here uh unless the chairman stops me and go right into um uh some presentations by staff that I noted earli now that you've heard a little bit about our strategic process and the progress that we've made to date we're going to hand it over to County departments to touch on again just select major projects and Milestones that will be achieved in the upcoming year through the remainder of the current 5-year plan uh Commissioners again you're going to hear directly from the people in the organization responsible for carrying out a number of these initiatives in our strategic plan we'll cover just a handful uh of them uh it's important to take the opportunity to get a glimpse again Commissioners and you'll certainly see this in the presentation of the level of coordination and Collective uh work taking place uh in the coming year to make these happen and you'll see in these presentations that they're organized by strategic priority area starting off with the area of the economy and following the presentation Commission of course we have time and we'll accept any questions or or comments um from the board or any conversation about any of these from the board uh as I've said these are quick but again they bring the statistics that you've heard here to life and showcase some exciting initiatives that we'll be working on and devoting again considerable time and effort and resources in the coming year to achieve so with that I'd like to hand it off to Ken Morris who's going to get us Started Mr chair Mr Norris comes forward on the information we just pres for for be reconcile yeah briefly the Bold gold bold gold at 74% in the Bold gold on on back slide is uh uh that 74% uh Vince at some point later if staff can reconcile uh is reported to us at 48% uh 2.4 billion in our our notes uh I think it's page 13 I was just wondering this 25% differential AB we can move on it's great timing because following Ken we're GNA have Carrie do a a brief feed out on that and we'll be able to provide some clarification on that very good thank you now are you guys going to go as the Fantastic Four The Four Tops The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse I don't know caption contest here we go I'm hoping Fantastic Four all right superheroes Thank You Vince good morning Commissioners first strategic priority area that we'd like to present this morning is the economy as an organization we use this strategic priority to guide our continuous efforts to make Leon County a place which attracts and retains Talent seeks to grow and diversify our local economy and realize our full economic Vitality this is achieved through the board's programs and policies that support business expansion new business ventures attracts established companies to come to our community Comm and initiatives that Foster economic Mobility it's also achieved with well-designed public infrastructure that attracts private investment and has long-term economic benefits for our community we've also made great strives by growing our tourism economy and its overall impact to everyone in our community the next few presenters will discuss specific projects and programs which demonstrate our progress in the current 5-year plan and they'll provide a look ahead at upcoming uh initiatives that keep us moving forward in the area of the economy under this broad category as Vince covered we're currently leading 19 strategic initiatives a bold goal and four strategic targets but as Vince just mentioned rolling in a cover just a few of the Strategic initiatives that we're leading uh staff presentations are designed to be quick moving highlight updates uh of the progress being made uh some of the initiatives updates will be very timely other are part of multi-year and multiphase projects which is Central to the board's theme today and why you have a retreat and you take the time and effort uh to engage in strategic planning so to get us started I'd like to bring up be bow our director of oev I'm going to hand it off to him and he's going to share uh some of the progress we've made in growing the private sector and provide a little insight on what's ahead thanks again I'm excited to share some of the incredible progress we've made in supporting growing and diversifying our local economy since the start of the of the fiveyear Strategic plan in 2022 and give you a glimpse of what's on the horizon for leyon County through 202 since 2022 we've added over 19,000 jobs to our local economy an achievement that's 194% of our 5year strategic Target at the the same time 288 new businesses have been created bringing us to 58% of our entrepreneurial Target these numbers show just how much momentum we have in advancing our strategic plan in the area of the economy to realize our full economic Vitality Amazon continues to play a major role in the in that success as of December 2024 the company employs 1,921 full-time employees here in Leon County with an average salary of $41,500 that adds up to approximately $80 million in annual wages a significant boost to our local economy what's even more significant is that over 42% of these employees live in the 32304 32303 and 3231 zip codes demonstrating one of the many ways we're continuing to drive economic equity and Financial Security in areas that have historically experienced poverty and higher unemployment rates than our in our community in May of 2024 Amazon also launched a free shuttle service for its employees with two shuttles covering five stops across two shifts seven days a week the service has already attracted 126 unique riters making it easier for workers to get to and from their jobs we should also be proud of the strides we've made in supporting minority and women-owned businesses from 2022 to 2024 the county has expended over $10.7 million with mwbe ensuring that we advance our strategic focus on promoting economic growth among minority and women-owned businesses and there's so much more to be done the remainder of the Strategic plan looking ahead 2025 is shaping up to be an exciting Year we're hosting the motor Drive systems and magnetics conference for the first time ever this event which is typically held in Orlando will bring more than 400 industry leaders scientists researchers and researchers in high growth industries to Leon County this a tremendous opportunity for us to highlight all that our community has to offer including our world-renowned academic institutions and their cuttingedge research centers a highly skilled Workforce and an exceptional quality of life this event allows us to Showcase while Leon County is an outstanding place to live work and invest another big milestone is ignite Tallahassee our new high-tech incubator that opened in October 2024 this space formerly known as the north fla Innovation lab is projected to create 600 jobs support 100 entrepreneurs and have an economic imp impact of $66 million major Investments like this demonstrate the importance of O's efforts to support growing a cluster of research businesses in the magnetic and Technology Industries another way that we continue to do this is through our strategic sites inventory program which takes a focused approach to attract new businesses to Leon County this program is all about identifying and promoting the County's most desirable Industrial and Commercial Real Estate sites but with specific with a specific audience in mind SE Suite Executives and site selectors who make key decisions about where businesses grow and relocate by directly engaging with these decision makers we're making sure that they have information and the confidence that they need to see why our community is the right fit for their next big move this this initiative is more about is more about than just marketing properties it's about putting Leon County on the radar of businesses ready to invest in their future and Leon County is definitely on the radar on the radar for businesses with more than one dozen active projects leads currently in development for 2025 again demonstrating our success in making our community a prime destination for business expansion it's been an incredible Journey so far and there's so much more to look forward to we see the evidence of a stronger more inclusive and more Innovative future for everyone in our community each and every day at the heart of this success is infrastructure that supports businesses connects people and drives growth to provide more details on this critical topic is AR by the director Place Mr chair Keef um I was thinking can we wait till like we're done with the economy section and then we can add some commentary so if you wouldn't mind take a few notes uh and then we Circle back to it as opposed to each speaker because we do have four three more uh you know big areas to get through is that cool sounds good with everybody thank you thank you Kei uh Commissioners as Ken noted a few moments ago uh the area of economy has a lot under your strategic plan and so I'm excited to build off of Keith's presentation to really talk about how infrastructure and planning and economic development go hand inhand in the department of place jump the gun a little bit um through the blueprint program uh Leon County is making strategic investments in generational projects are transforming our community and I'll highlight a couple of these projects we're on the third iteration of the sales service ta sales Ser tax program and uh the the results are clear uh if you look around our community you can see completed projects uh now the slide slide slide first project I'll highlight is the uh widening of Orange Avenue from benro Street to Blairstone which was part of the original sales sear tax program uh which began in 1989 so going back many many years and that project actually ties into future improvements on Orange Avenue that we are currently coordinating with the Florida Department of Transportation on now Cascades Park Carrie post is next so I won't seal her Thunder uh but Cascades Park is a huge amenity to this community and the adly aderly amphitheater hosts so many wonderful concerts and community events Franklin Boulevard which is a project that alleviated massive flooding in this area but did so in a way that improved safety for people who are walking and riding bikes and generally trying to have connectivity to the um Smoky holoc commemoration and Cascades Park since the begin of Since since the start of the current strategic plan uh that you have now uh we've seen the grand opening of the debb light Nature Park which is 113 acre Natural Area uh where people can go ride their bikes and go for a hike and go bird watching on the south side of Leon County the completion of C Capital Cascade segment three which brings the skateable art project uh which is a place where people of all ages can come together around skateboarding and skating it also includes other amenities such as playgrounds and flood reduction and a lot of other activities along family away and the new Buck Lake Trail Head an expansion of the St Marks Headwaters Greenway exemplifying the County's commitment to preserving natural areas while creating opportunities for recreation and Community connections with 25 of the 27 blueprint 2020 projects currently underway there's a lot more coming in the remainder of your current strategic plan we just work round on the northeast par back in December and in 2026 we'll have kids playing baseball at the field at this park and if the kids parents are running late to their game they can't blame traffic because we're widening Bannerman Road and constructing w l Boulevard so traffic won't be the issue and these are the types of projects we're seeing all over the community everything from Magnolia Trail which is currently under construction and is adding to liveability by adding bicycle and pedestrian facilities along Magnolia Drive Tharp Street which is currently in a planning and Engineering study right now uh that will improve mobility and safety for people walking or people riding their bikes as well as people driving and Capital Circle Southwest a project that was just awarded $90 million in moving Florida forward fund Florida forward funds and will complete the widening of Capital Circle project that's been ongoing for a number of years this project will alleviate traffic and reduce idling and congestion which will help uh reduce greenhouse gas emissions and I'll also include Mobility options for people who walk or ride their bike in fact today we see people using the trail along Capo Circle to connect to the St March Trail which provides more connectivity to Woodville and an entire Regional network of trails on the southern side of Leon County the widening of Capital Circle is just one of the projects on Tallahassee souths side in fact there are 18 projects representing over $660 million on Tallahasse Southside and these projects are the only projects you see uh Leon County investing in through the the blueprint program if you look at all the investments from Leon County and the investments from the city of tasse and other Community Partners we see $1.13 billion dollar being invested on the south side of Tallahassee in Leon County these projects add capacity to Major roadways they add an extend Sewer Service and other infrastructure that will support more housing and more job opportunities in southern Leon County looking beyond the Strategic plan Horizon and over the next five years we anticipate that an estimate that the blueprint projects will add uh 20 million to minority and women owned businesses and create over 6,000 jobs these types of projects meet your strategic priority of the economy headon by enhancing L County through attract and retain talot in worldclass infrastructure projects these types of projects are not only beneficial to the residents of Leon County but also provide visitors to Tallahassee and Leon County with the best possible first impression with that Carrie post will talk more about those visitors and all that she doing she is doing to Leverage The Unique projects underway in Leon County thank you Ry and and I'm excited to share just a few highlights this morning on some of tourism's major projects after all it is often said that tourism is the first date of Economic Development because people will visit an area first perhaps several times um before they start or expand a business here before they make any real estate Investments um before they choose to go to college or relocate tourism development really is a critical factor in expand in the diversity competitiveness and growth of our local economy last year was another record-breaking year for tourism with nearly 2.5 million visitors having an economic impact of more than $1.3 billion continuing our trajectory to exceed the $5 billion strategic plan fold goal over five years and the board's leadership and participation in the bicentennial in 2024 has certainly contributed to that success commissioner Proctor you were ask about the the um amount so we are at currently the number I think you cited was our twoyear goal that was reported in February of last year because as of this year as of 2024 three years in we have had a tourism has had a 3.6 billion doll economic impact which put us 74% towards our goal so I and I'm so proud to say that the year-long bicentennial celebration and commemoration led by tourism was fully inclusive of our community unlike celebrations in the past and clearly it expanded Leon County's visibility viability and visitation it also increased our Partnerships and impact in the community over the span of two years and that includes 2023 because that was the plan year there were more than 150 individuals actively involved in charting the course for the bicentennial that includes the bicentennial steering committee several very productive Bicentennial task forces that were directly involved in the planning and implementation of programming the history task force and the marketing task force were real rock stars so in 2024 there were more than 200 Bicentennial events I'm so excited to share that that I think the total number was like 214 um but there were more than 150 local organizations engaged in producing those Bicentennial activities and notably of those 150 organizations 65 more than 65 were new Partnerships or expanded Partnerships in the community as you all know there were numerous high-profile and high impact Bicentennial events throughout the whole year I mean started with the historic state government event at the capital by Centennial Springtime Tallahassee the Jubilee Gospel Music Festival there were Bicentennial themed cocktails and craft beers and numerous arts and culture and history um all and the building of the first Florida capital log cabin in Cascades Park and culminating with the Epic P pay coming home concert to name only a few highlights and to put a bow on the spectacular B Centennial year I'm also very proud to say that two years or two weeks ago two years two weeks ago the State of Florida archives received hundreds of B Centennial materials and pictures and items to have in the official Florida State archives documenting Tallahassee and Leon County by Centennial in 2024 for all to see for generations to come and certainly hosting the T pay concert last year was an exclamation point on another exciting year of major concerts at the aderly amphitheater and we're beginning 2025 with an outstanding spring lineup including aliceon Krauss and there's more to come and at the board's Direction we've already begun reaching out to explore opportunities to partner with the larger venues such as Tucker Center do Campbell Stadium um to be able to host larger and more frequent concerts other than at the at the outdoor Amphitheater um so we've been exploring that and what exactly it would tail to rent either of those venues or to partner with these organizations for a county to host a concert there so we're really exciting about excited about continuing to explore that looking ahead um there's a couple of big projects that are to come in the area of Tourism as you will recall as we've shared certainly 2024 was a year of some weather um anomalies I I'll leave it at that and certainly tourism staff has not been able to work in or operate the visitor information center in that beautiful 165 year old but it was brand new brand new 165 year old building since the extensive damage from the May 10th tornadoes which of course hit one year to the date of our grand opening so with that but thankfully um then repairs are anticipated to begin later this year year with the goal of reopening early next year for that um so last and then that now would be the time um lastly and I saved the best for last we are so excited and proud to be less than one year away from hosting the 2026 World cross country championships um and which are essentially the Olympics of the sport of cross country and it's going to be held right here in Tallahassee at Leon County at appachi Regional Park since 2013 tourism has hosted more than 75 local state and national cross country championships at the awardwinning nationally renowned appalache Regional Park as par as we like to call it um and soon to be world renown the 2026 World CrossCountry championships are expected to draw teams from more than 6 countries attract more than 10,000 Spectators from Florida the US and the world and it is estimated to generate $4.3 million in economic impact in addition to being televised World why so about two weeks ago we uh hosted the one-year countdown community and fundr run event out at ARK um and I want to thank you to those Brave folks who came out in that wet and very cold morning including chairman Welsh and commissioner o thank you and then a couple of days later we turned around and hosted the first world athletic site visit to Tallahassee in Leon County so with more than 10 world Athletics officials here to see appalache Regional Park in person for the very first time they were blown away they also met with the championship co-chairs which is Taylor weaton tourism and Amanda hidecker with parks and while they were here we convened the local organizing group comprised of numerous County departments and local sports leaders to review the Myriad truly Myriad of goals details and deliverables required for hosting a global sports event we were seeking 500 volunteers for the world championship event and we began putting the word out at the the one-year countdown event about a year about two weeks ago and I'm thrilled to say we now have 509 volunteers already registered and so we are well on our way to hosting the best world Athletics cross country championships has ever seen so much has gone into preparing appalache Regional Park to host the most prestigious cross country event in the world and you'll hear more from Maggie here in just a couple moments about the County's advancement of appalachi regional park and the investment of millions of dollars to transform an active solid waste facility into a prominent Regional and soon to be International asset all of which builds upon the County's commitment to our economy and the environment so thank you Commissioners I'd now like to turn it over to Neal as a gagi to introduce the Strategic priority area of the environment thank you Carrie um I think before we get into Neal's group we're going to uh this is the way I'd like to do it in each area guys um if you want to offer some commentary uh please try to keep it brief we got three more areas to go through those are great presentations I just want to underscore the Synergy between those areas you notice that that um economic development is closely tied to planning which is closely tied to tourism and and uh and and activities and events so I I believe commissioner Kee had a few statements and again I would encourage everybody to try and be as brief as you can we have three more areas to go through and also commissioner Maddox arrived somewhere I was going to give him an opportunity to make some comments but whenever he gets back commissioner Kei go right ahead thank you Mr chairman and thank you so much it's fantastic like the chairman said to see um all the Synergy and the success uh but we all know that I'm G skip over it to be brief um my question is primarily on the oev section um one thing I'm always keeping an eye on and I want to try to get into our next uh study and strategic plan for oev on what our Industries are is what I would describe as Community needs gaps and using Economic Development to create the jobs we do in other Industries but get the double benefit of creating more specifically what comes to mind is uh medical practices and offices uh particularly mental health and other Specialties um Early Learning uh not supporting uh grants or anything but recruiting more child care facilities to open and expand um and then also uh for where there are food deserts um expanding and promoting uh economic development of those and I know they're not in our Target Industries now based on our last study and so I was wondering when is our the start of our next study coming up for those so the metrics so they can be graded supporting that and if there are policies we need to change ahead of time and if we want to to direct oev to include the community uh needs impact of those new businesses and jobs when would that start well well thank you for that U that question our next um targeted industry study U we're in the process right now of developing the RFP uh we anticipate that it will be published probably um in mid February to late February but um we've already begun developing that the previous one was done in 2017 so we are ready to move forward with the with a new iteration of that targeted industry study thank you and then is that this be the first time I'm participating is that something since this oev that we discuss at blueprint meetings or in the respective city and county meetings well it would definitely be a topic that we would discuss at a blly go thank you all right uh commissioner Proctor um Carrie she's right behind you oh I'm sorry Carrie um I was I found it interesting that um the world cross country officials came to Tallahassee last week and they were blown away by the course and all I'm wondering uh first uh what what is it about the course that blows the the world away and we are not blown away locally and um to that in that regard uh there are two points first um if the world officials are blown away and come and seen this Jewel that we possess uh I'm interested in seeing the uh television rights reserved uh in part to our own station 16 that it becomes a part U you know as a member of the TDC myself representing our board that we're able to use it and to promote it and as commissioner Maddox in years pass has suggested that we get serious about um Sports um and being a world center for amateur uh Sports and sports tourism and I think that us retaining the footage of anybody that's going to report on a world event we ought to we our lawyer ought to be able to salvage for us secondly um um uh I'm concerned with preferential tickets for local citizens I don't want the world and somebody from I can't think of another word but Indonesia whever that is uh they come here and get front row seat and uh folk from Leon County are standing in the back uh I want us to have preferential uh seating thank you those are my points um commissioner Proctor to answer your first question on why the world athletic officials were blown away um two main reason one is they've never seen a year round 365 days a year some Cross Country course for one and the whole campus if you will that we have it all we have parking we have you know the infrastructure that the board has approved over the years we are just completely already set up whereas every other country has to build it and then it's there and then it's gone whereas for years years I mean we're already seeing people coming to train on the course now and then we will continue to see not just more events coming already but people training because it's now will be a world championship course so the fact we have everything here already built that we're just going to enhance they were blown away the second part to that is the experience of the staff as I referenced earlier tourism has hosted more than 75 local state and national cross country championships so they're not used to a team that has done this so much so the challenge really is is you know we've already got an excellent product but with worlds to elevate it even more obviously so they were they could not have been more pleased by not just the course but the team the community everything that they saw here the local organizing group so again we're so far advanced than where they they thought or you know you would normally be like a year out um as as far as using the footage um of the the race and the the whole event I would say absolutely obviously there are media rights so we'll have to figure out what we can air but I would say it's in our backyard it's our product so we would have some rights I'll go back and look further as what those are but I would certainly have to believe we could showcase that on our champel absolutely um lastly is preferred ticketing for locals absolutely I mean you've been out to Art you can view it from anywhere I mean whether you want to be at the starting line the Finish Line it's truly is our austa of cross country that you can be there and if you you know they run by the front there's jumbotrons and there's a leaderboard but you can also then go to the backside and watch them go back there so we there will most likely be and again we haven't got the exact layout event yet but there would be spectate like events I mean um what am I thinking of uh bleachers and stuff like that so again we'll make sure and we with that to make sure we have some reserve seating or whatever but there's plenty of outstanding viewing on the course that nobody's going to be stuck thank you Carrie um commissioner Maddox I want to give you an opportunity to say uh good morning everybody and glider here and if you have any comments on the economic development uh or economy stuff go right ahead thank you thank you Mr chair uh good morning everyone Mr chair Retreat first one thank you yeah yeah um Carrie first let me let let me Bill you may remember this aach Regional Park in this cross country field was a result of a partnership between the county and FSU FSU came to I know they came to me and it probably came to others and asked that we consider uh investing out there and creating a world class Park and look look where we are and I don't think that we had any idea that we would that it would be what it is right now and that it would be as big as it is but uh we are a crown jewel when it comes to cross country in tracks and Fields so um want to thank FSU for that partnership and and the vision they had to come to us and even ask us to consider I think that was back when coach long was the coach brayman it was yeah yeah right and G wi and G WIS as well so um that's that's a lot about how we got here but it got me to thinking um you know we talk a lot about the sports and sports facility uh and uh where it might be and how it might be you know I was thinking more so this was a this was just a piece of land that we had that someone else saw and had a vision for and we were able to invest and I I believe that at this point Carri if you you correct me if I'm wrong I'm sure we've got our return on investment from that the property and Investments that we made 10 times over um I I I even venture to say I don't know how much we invested but it's probably minimal compared to the the what it's going to give us back over time we when I think about Leon County C of Tallahassee what what comes to mind is is our uh I I won't say rurual nature but uh we we love our Trails we love our trees we love uh we love the the natural features of our community and so this was a piece of land that we invested in became a worldclass track it made me think yes we're talking about you know building facilities and all that kind of stuff but is there more immediate uh opportunity for us let's say biking trails or or something like that where where we we could where we could start to invest in in some part of our community that could create another Jewel like we have at app appach Regional part where we become well renowned and a place to come to uh for National tournaments and stuff like that I remember one time we was talking about uh was it Frisby Golf out there or something like that golf right right right it was something they were talking about but I'm interested in if we can't be traditional when it comes to um you know basketball football soccer all the tournaments come here for that is some kind of way we can we can build out our natural features in a way it lends itself to to different kinds of sports coming here because people can say all day that we don't have the hotels we don't have the you know we don't have all that kind of stuff but we got the World Championships coming here it's obvious that we have enough we have enough to get them here it's just investing investing in the right thing for us to get to to to attract um the facilities that would attract the right kind of thing k Carrie if I could just real quick because I Carrie's got the the good answer on this but let me just tell you that when Maggie goes she's going to be talking about phase two of the master plan of AR which contemplates exactly the type of things that you're talking about and again it's going to be a really exciting thing to get into this year consistent with with our uh strategic initiatives on that but you you uh hit the nail on the head when you talked about biking because there's a very similar opportunity out there to what we did with the cross country facility uh uh with with with um with biking courses great real quickly Carrie that exactly that this board approved the our master plan appach region Park master plan and which Maggie's gonna touch on exactly that it's already a multi-use park right now but exactly what is coming in phase two is Will exactly give us the the new resources to Market to bring events here so it's a perfect segue and so you're going to hear more from Maggie but that is exactly what was planned and is about to happen out at appalache Region Park and we're well poised to take advantage of it thank you Carrie uh commission Parker real quickly real real quick the financials uh what comes into the County's coffers uh what are the rights what are they paying uh can you share at some point uh Financial projections of the finan cial benefits which uh is it the World Council of cross country that pays us uh I like to know those things at some point I can either address this now or we can come back and provide more deta if it's information you're asking for commissioner proc it do have to ur today but I deserves to know the financial benefits of them coming here yeah absolutely thank you car and then just real quickly to wrap this up I just want commissioner madx your spot on I think you're absolutely right we've got proof of concept now you could see the world mountain biking championships coming here or you know whatever the the Warrior Dash championships I mean whatever we've got we've got the infrastructure and the proof of concept and I just want to say on and from my perspective I want to also mention the the importance of that mdsm conference that Keith has got coming where you at Keith behind me somewhere um I would like us as a board or whoever as a blueprint board or whatever to direct Keith we need that every year that there's no reason that conference shouldn't just occur here every year we have the largest magnet in the world every magnet person in the world is going to come here for this conference that's something we really need to just get every year um okay so on that we'll wrap it up thank you guys so much and we'll move oh I'm sorry commissioner Miner had a comment I'm so sorry did thank you sorry sorry sorry appr sorry I did not see you guys my apologies all right right problem at don't go anywhere um Comm Miner go ahead I'll be very quick first I want to thank uh Keith Kevin Ry Ken and their teams for all the great work on E economic work really terrific um want to talk I had a question for uh Mr Bowers about the mdsm conference what the what what what the the magnetics conference magnet okay so uh outstanding get on that it's a huge victory for us to host that here we should be doing everything we can to roll out the red carpet for that event uh in my mind it's it's almost Rises to level of the cross country championships because for years we've been talking about trying to cultivate a magnetics industry called cluster here in leyon County this is the best opportunity we've had since forever on on trying to to speak directly to those companies and entice them to come here so we need to do everything we can in the short window that we have to make sure that anyone that comes to this conference sees that Leon County Tallahassee this entire Community is 110% interested in bringing them here to Tallahassee so uh Keith I want to ask you about that because I know it it's coming up February 18th to the 20th so we don't have much time at all right but what are we doing right now to um make sure that anyone who comes to the conference knows that this community is is Full Throttle in support of of them being here and and possibly even forming tighter connections we should be having marketing materials all throughout the airport we should have welcome signage all throughout the city and county um and our business Community leaders some of them have talked to me about wanting to be very involved with the preparation for that conference so that attendees see the business Community here as well as just um uh the conference itself thank you for that that and that question commissioner Miner we have um first of all we've been planning for this since June of of 2024 U we've involved a visit Tallahasse Florida State bamu Tallahassee State College as well as um CMR and uh the county I mean and the city Communications um one of the major things that we're doing is hosting a u happy hour reception on the first day of the of the U conference on the 19th we're inviting um Community leaders Business Leaders all of you will receive an invitation to participate um we are um actually hosting co-hosting a reception Lounge um uh at the exhibit hall with State um all of the components for their research facilities will be there and um and then going back to what you're saying in terms of rolling out the red carpet we met with the folks at the airport will have special signage at the airport so as people arrive at Tallahassee welcoming them to Tallahassee specifically for the U for the conference um the mayor's office in conjunction with Florida state has U commissioned a levitating magnetic um sculpture that we hope to have um here in time and that will be also on display at the um at the at the Civic Center in the exhibit hall um as as it relates to the programming itself we have reached out to um I know I mentioned to um commissioner Welch that we're uh wanting to find an opportunity for him to bring greetings on behalf of the county um um mayor d is actually bringing greetings on behalf of the city we have lined up um Florida A&M Marching 100 to kick off the the um event that morning um the band will come in and U perform for about 7 minutes and then they'll be followed by the mayor um president Mulla is on um on the program to provide um Keynotes and then we'll also be hearing from um president Bearden as well from you so we are we are in fact um coordinating uh CommunityWide efforts to make sure that the red carpet is is out and uh and prominently displayed as these as these uh companies come into our community thank you Keith um hold on commissioner Proctor guys we are running way behind so we've got to pick up the pace commissioner commands before you commissioner Proctor and then I'll let you close it out commissioner Proctor Keith I do would like I would like to see that conference here every year I don't know if that's possible but man let's do something to make that happen commissioner command thank you Mr chair um I do have some questions for Arty um Ry white all right Arty you want to come back up here oh and while I wait for him to come up here I do want to just Echo um a couple of the sentiments from our colleagues commissioner Maddox I have fully agree with your sentiment on tourism in regards to using our natural features uh to bring in more tourism events it's actually um I plan on bring that up a little bit later in the meeting specifically for my district and regards to enhancing our natural features to bring more tourism events so I love where your heads at with that uh sentiment and then commissioner minor I wholeheartedly agree you know Marian County is known uh for the world equestrian center and what they've done over the last and you know I'm I was raised in Ocala so I'm very familiar with the territory what what they've done by utilizing their culture of being horse capital of the world to bring in private investment along with with government dollars to create the world equestrian center and it's one of right now one of the it's becoming one of the top economic drivers for Florida um bringing folks in from all over the world um you know when I was in Ireland early this year to watch FSU play um in in the Dublin game out there I met folks who were from Dublin who have a connection now to Maran County because they trade horses um through the w equestrian center and so I I think if we you know put our heads together and really look at finding more private Partners um in conjunction with the mag lab I think that we could be known by being you know magnet capital of the world and really bring in some serious investment behind that um so I love where head that commissioner Min with that um director why I I have a qu uh a few questions I know you brought up the airport Gateway and it's been a while since our last blueprint meeting because I know the last mon got cancelled um a a few questions I have is one where are we on theou with Florida State have we taken that to the next step and and gotten assigned mou or are we still in the LOI phase where is that we've been working very closely commissioner with Florida State University and uh are just about to finalize uh the the the jpa with FSU so um there kind of reviewing it we've gone back and forth a few times and we're pretty much right at the end of getting that finalized are there any further steps after that or would that be the last step to transfer the land um there'll be a couple of steps they'll have to go to the state have some of those approvals done but uh the jpa is kind of the big step yeah specifically where in the state um it's the the property is kind of leased by floor State University from the trust for the the ti F uh I forget what that stands for trust for internal uh I forget what it's called but um Florida State doesn't own the property the State of Florida owns the property and Florida State leases it so it'll have to go to the the property owner for final approval okay thank you and I noticed that you have have we been has staff had any conversations with fot in regards to you know I know in some previous BL blueprint material material we've talked about their their partnership and and funding certain phases of the airport Gateway have we had any further conversation with them uh I mean we're coordinating with Florida State University on an ongoing basis or the Florida Department of Transportation on a ongoing basis uh I mentioned the uh Orange Avenue widening um that's one that we're actively kind of working with them on and then of course anytime any other segments intersect we have to look at those intersections with them and uh also the some of the bridge bridges that are being built um are working with uh do on those as well so just so your just so uh commissioner so everyone's on the same page um we had some conversations with fot our office did in regards to funding on the airport Gateway and they informed us that there's no uh there's no funding currently allocated in the five-year budget for any segments of the airport Gateway so I just want to be clear you know as we kind of go through this process throughout the next few years that I don't think there's a there's not a plan in the next five years for any participation from the state in that regard um last point is Tharp Street I I saw that there was an update in Tharp Street in this material are we still on on Pace for that project we are uh we expect the uh the planning and Engineering study I mentioned PDN study project development environment we anticipate that being completed uh a little bit later this year uh we're hoping for the second quarter of this year could be the third quarter but we're aiming for the second quarter and then we would start moving into the design but the PDN will really help uh kind of lay the path for implementation okay thank you so much and I appreciate all y'all's efforts and work on these projects thank you commissioner Proctor chairman um on that last point I I I um noted on page 44 on that blup street I was very disappointed uh with the finding that uh some study uh did not think it NE necessary uh to widen four lanes of Thorp Street I thought that was crazy and I understand why it's four lane in front of raw School Thorp Street but it's not forlane west of Godby school it makes no sense and it's is we need to revisit that this is um lame lazy thinking thought uh it needs to be aggressive Progressive and uh in Stu with what we see do you know how many neighborhoods are contiguous feed off of Thor and this report tells us that there's no need to widen it's crazy um this may not be the meeting but put an ASC there uh this is horrible uh whatever came out Mr chairman just quickly uh some report said some some planets whatever a planet is I don't know what it is I supposed to align um sometime but before those planets align this is a rare moment you minor and Proctor aligned on something this is rare look to the Western sky this magnetic idea is a breakthrough moment uh that there's probably consensus all around this table I would um like to make a motion uh M chairman uh that we ask staff to exhaustively look at the idea that you put forward what do we do to um induce uh the continuation of the meeting for the next 3 4 years and come up with a packet if it includes um cheap to no cost on hotels if it includes Transportation undering if it includes whatever inducements incentives I'd like to see us package uh a proposal that extends a three-year invite that tallah has is an Open Door uh with steep and deep discounts for their coming here uh and what can we do to exhaustively present as uh the strong reasons for you're coming and to make that available we we got to pitch them it's just like you know real you know just like somebody you saw on campus and you really needed to pitch strong that's right right trying to get a date yeah so I'm like to make a motion that staff bring us back a um a comprehensive report March meeting I guess on what we can do to pitch and make our community the the uh magnetic I mean China I've read that China is interested in magnets uh if they can see it Leon County we can see it and we got a big old we need to partner blow it up make it big I make that motion that we bring something back special um than you commissioner Proctor Mr chair I second a motion if it'ss is it appr we do here Mr chair can we just hold it till tomorrow night and do it in commissioner time at our meeting actually I think that sounds like more in line I'm looking to the Mr administrator and attorney for this of a strategic initiative certainly could yeah yeah yeah so maybe later in when we get to our strategic initiative we'll do that I mean because there's a lot of verbish there is there some kind of way staff go ahead and take it right now so okay thank you commissioner Cummings I don't want leave you out well may I just add to this too I like commissioner Proctor's motion whether it's appropriate or not but I think the first step would probably also be I know for staff to bring something back but apparently um Mr Bowers and his staff have done a y job uh and I think we can start with with their blueprint for what what they have done and we just multiply that and advance that year after year so I think certainly it's a it's a great step and if we can make sure we have this this amazing conference year after year I agree with commissioner Proctor and if if it's appropriate tomorrow when we have our meeting then I'm certainly on board thank you commissioner cumings I think what we we could ask staff to work on it now after our uh CSC um presentation we can you can make traps address it as a strategic initiative staff can then take that direction and we can ask for it to come back at the March meeting which is after the conference um because the conference is next month in February but but we still need a proposal before they come we need fast quick well I they work I think they coming this time so we got them this time we just want to work on something to get them the next time and the next time and the next time so um we can work on that package we can talk about tomorrow night yes sir to expedite something I think we should ask I think commissioner Maddox is right we can ask staff to work on some kind of language for a strategic initiative at the end of the day and then we can also talk about it tomorrow in commissioner time if you want to make a motion then but I think adding it to strategic initiative we can ask staff to bring us a report in March with a package okay I withdraw a motion Mr chair thank you Mr commissioner Proctor okay uh we're going to move on to our second area which is environment I would remind you guys it's 10:45 we were supposed to get to miss green at 10:40 so um you guys I know have five minutes a piece is there any way you could bring that down to two and a half minutes a piece and then Commissioners please limit our questions to be as efficient as we can we' got three more strategic areas to get through before we break and then we'll get to miss green after the break so go ahead nef fall thank you commissioner good morning Commissioners and thank you for the opportunity to cover one of my favorite topics the environment and the County's continuous efforts to ensure we are responsible stewards of our pres of Natural Resources which constitute a vital component of our community's health economic strength and social offerings I'm going as fast as I can in that I want to note that Leon County's strategic priority resides in protecting the quality and supply of our water promoting orderly growth and sustainable practices reducing our carbon footprint serving and protecting environmentally sensitive lands and our natural ecosystem by being the responsible Steward of our PR natural resources which includes our flamed Canopy Roads and trees in general and Commissioners as previously requested by the board you'll find the status report on Leon County three management policies and procedures which the board requested at its October 8th meeting this report captures the Count's World in working with our Community Partners from the permitting of development and Associated tream mitigation to coordinating with our utility providers to ensure their General utility permits cover the necessary Dee management around power lines to provide reliable service report also highlights the County's role in preserving our trees and captures the County's responsibilities for the management and maintenance of trees within County owned properties and along Long County maintained roadways circling back to the County's strategic priority and to highlight advancements Leon County achieved in reducing our car footprint promoting Environmental Protection and preservation and protecting our water quality magaria our office of resource stewardship director and Grant pale our Public Works director covered a couple of our initiative that are being effectuated that direct beneficial impact direct beneficial impact to the environment and provide an overview of past and future projects at the appas regional park and one quality achievements through our septic sewer project and at this time I will i y Podium to Maggie so she may tell us the about the appal park thank you all right all right good morning I'm going to keep the show moving so bringing the uh County's first Regional Park to fruition is a massive undertaking no doubt it is requiring all Hands-On decks from Public Works Parks solid waste and tourism in addition to many thirdparty Engineers experts and stakeholders um together we have made significant progress which I'll give a brief highlight but before I do so I do want to provide a little bit of context for the site that we keep proudly referencing as out of the 600 acres of this parcel we have 45% is um either former landfill as you see in those red zones or lowline areas so we are limited on that traditional development of a traditional Park when we think of those terms we are limited to the zones in yellow for that high dry and stable land um that we have already significantly invested in keeping it brief I'll just hit on a couple notable highlights um your uh past efforts have seen strategic initiatives both on the closure of the landfill and also uh creation of the regional park for the last 15 years uh or no excuse me since 2015 uh in 2017 this body moved forward with creating a master plan that sets a vision for all 600 acres um of the property most notable to date is the creation as uh highlighted by Carrie of the cross country venue this includes the uh primary facilities and the permanent infrastructure that she noted is catching so many people's attention around the world in this time since the 2017 master plan much of the plan has gone from Vision to reality uh we have a um radio uh control field we have six miles of existing trails in P Dramatics I'm going to get to adding additional uh exciting Trails here briefly and uh host many and National events all right so as we look ahead you can tell it's my fast forward version as we look ahead um in Spring we are going to be opening the Region's largest dog park two acres of open free play for those big and little dogs but in addition what is going to make us really unique is there is a agility course both for big dogs and a separate agility course for those Littles I can tell you it's not just us that are excited we've even had interest from lcso K unit reach out to see how they could maybe uh gain access to this Unique Park uh coming up all right um let me see in the Highlight Reel of course we have world's cross country coming uh in January of next year as Carrie highlighted and then some very significant steps that you can look forward to in the calendar year ahead which we will be coming back with a feasibility study on the related um cost and opportunities with a thirdparty vendor or fa two of the master plan this is the second and Final Phase of developing these 600 acres but as noted the this land is very unique in that we have landfill and low-line areas so we are looking to maximize the closure of the landfill cell which you actually will have an agenda tomorrow night that covers the closure of the landfill as led by public works and so we're not waiting until that project is complete in December of 2026 we're beginning now looking at the to Max that cell and I think you'll be of particular interest here from the earlier conversation the word of the day cyclocross um if you're like me I had to do a deep dive and really learn we are envisioning that the closure of the landfill which think of it is a pretty steep hill uh that otherwise is just kind of barren we are hoping to activate a very unique feature that will bring many state and Regional and National events here if I could highlight even the Paris Olympics 2024 featured a cycling event on a closed plan fill so not only will these be that leveraging of the event infrastructure that this board has invested so heavily in the last few years in building the momentum and all of the publicized uh efforts of Tourism but we are bringing new we look to bring new audiences new interests and new Revenue opportunity for this somewhat limited site uh that we have in front of us we're very excited about that and that feasibility study by a third party will help uh ensure that we're on the right path when it comes to the uh bright ideas all right um I am coming in for the home Landing uh while office of resource stewardship is busy working on the landfill in the proper closeout of solid waste grent and the Public Works team are busy working on a not so Solid Waste project uh bringing change Mak I had to Bringing change making infrastructure to the sensitive uh primary Springs protection Zone Brett will tell us more about the subject to sewer uh efforts thank you thank you Maggie thank you Maggie in addition to efforts like ensuring that we close our landfill in environmentally responsible Manner and preparing the site to be world class facility the County's commitment to protecting the environment also includes not so sexy infrastructure projects like accept to Seward conversion and the primary Springs protection the county has made tremendous progress since the start of the 5year Strategic plan in advancing our environment strategic priorities to protect our water supply and ecosystem through hundreds of conversions of setic to sewer and septic system upgrades before I dive into that I'd like to provide a little more detail why these efforts are so critical for the protection of our environment through these projects we continue to protect water quality by preventing raw seage contamination from reaching into the groundwater treating waste water prior to being released back into the environment this in turn reduces bacteria nutrient loads from compromising the purity of our lakes rivers and streams and all imately are drinking water with this in mind we've working hard to preserve the water quality for Citizens through our advancement of the County's bold goal to upgrade and eliminate 500 septic tanks in the primary spring protection Zone by 2026 these projects were undertaken with the first of its kind partnership with for Department of Environmental Protection providing multi-year matching funds to beew the Spring's Improvement plan the dedication of County's local sales tax funds for water quality projects and substantial success in pursuing state grants proven the county and FTP have invested over 42 million for a series of Southside sewer projects Over The Last 5 Years these projects include Woodside hikes B anwood Northeast like mson and woodo to date the Woodside hikes and B air andwood projects have been completed demonstrating investment of 99.6 million to provide sewer to 319 properties looking ahead the completion of Northeast Lake M and Woodville sewer phase one projects are on their Horizon with over $325 million invested to provide sewer to 389 products the remaining three phases of Woodville sewer project require an additional 82.8 million to construct will allow additional 864 properties to connect to sewer in addition to sewer conversions the county has also completed hundreds of septic system upgrades through the County's Advanced treatment pilot program and septic upgrade and setting program through these programs the county will upgrade nearly 400 additional septic systems to advance treatment by leveraging over 2 million in grant funding through the remainder of our 5-year plan our efforts don't stop there the county continues to apply for additional grants to further leverage our dollars and to continue to upgrade and replace septic systems these sewer conversion of septic up projects protect water quality and also protects environmently sensitive lands and our natural ecosystems these projects were designed and implemented to improve the quality of life for the citizens in these underserved areas of Leon C speaking of quality of life this is the perfect segue to now introduce my friend and colleague shankton lamby who's here to roduce Quality of Life initiatives that the county has undertaken thank you Brent um that that closes out the environment sector do any Commissioners have a quick comment question seeing none that's great thank you Brent and Maggie and uh and the fall all right shington carry on man all right thank you thank you Brent thank you um good morning Commissioners so I'm going to really talk take a moment where we're going to talk about some of the Fantastic happenings infrastructure happening through quality of life through the lens of quality of life um the next few presentations will highlight specific projects that provide examples of the strides that we're making to advance our strategic plan Abby Thomas will touch on the County's recent success in commitment to increase the infrastructure of affordable housing uh pamel Monro will provide an update on the implementation of our essential Library initiative or Eli including updates on Renovations at our main library that are advancing our social infrastructure and Amanda haer will present on improvements to our community center where we're investing in infrastructure that is revitalizing neighborhoods and will improve the lives of our residents and enhance our Ral communities for generations to come all these projects Commissioners are critical in align with our strategic plan commitment of making neon County a place where our people are healthy safe and connected to their community and that connection all starts with the home so I will turn it now over to Abby talk more about every the great stuff we're doing with hous thank you shington I'm excited to highlight a few of our projects and Investments that are direct result of the County's commitment to increasing the stock affordable housing part Liv income families since the start of the current strategic plan the Count's invested 5.8 million in direct funding and authorized 183 million in bond financing um for the development and Redevelopment of affordable housing including Columbia Gardens and rid road on the South Side the County's investment has helped secure more than 125 million and additional federal state and private financing which will lead to 1,200 new units in the next 18 months with more than 100 units for our highest Seas households or those with very low and extremely low income looking ahead the county is implementing policies such as the live local act adopted by the Florida legislature as an opportunity to leverage our momentum and support even more new units the live local act provides up to 100% Pro property tax exemption and permits the highest allowable use on density parking and height for multif family and mixed use of projects that dedicate units for low-income housing Additionally the county continues to use key Partnerships such as that with the local HFA to bring instrumental housing projects such as the Lake Bradford apartment star Community construction at Lake Bradford is imminent and we are current Curr working with a developer to schedule a groundbreaking event and as soon as we know that we will share it with the commission um this project is really important because it addresses our highest need households and sets aside 158 units exclusively for very low and extremely low income households with 25% or 39 of those units um to extremely low households and this wouldn't have been possible without the $35 million Bond authorized by the board in October as well as our strategic Partners such as the Housing Authority in the city while these Partnerships are critical to meeting our local needs the county also regularly applies for additional funding to expand our housing programs and hot off the press is this morning we are notified that we are awarded the $750,000 from the state um which we will use to rehab 13 homes for lowincome families in unincorporated Leon County cons constructing and investing in affordable housing is one of the many ways the count is improving the lives of our citizens and by the end of our strategic our current strategic plan 1,200 new units will have been created for low-income households however just as construction is ongoing so is the conversation tomorrow you'll see another item discussing opportunities to enhance affordable rental units um including potential changes to ship through State legislation that will allow for even greater investment in affordable rental units the board's ongoing actions around housing help ensure that all citizens have a safe and afford place to live and Thrive however we know Leon County is not only a special place to live and work but it's also a great place for our families to Play and Learn which brings us to our next speaker P Monroe who'll discuss the innovative ways the library is enhancing the quality of life of our citizens every single day thank you thank you Abby as envisioned with the county strategic plan the essential libraries initiative or Eli is leading to amazing Transformations at our libraries programs and infrastructure as you remember the Eli was adopted to ensure that the Leon County Public Library System remains a relevant and essential resource to our residents now and into the future by addressing changing needs and usage the goal is to demonstrate that our libraries continue to be more than just a book Warehouse they are our community's epicenter of learning engagement and Innovation over the past year this was accomplished through over 2,500 programs including story times lectures book clubs and special events resulting in an 11% increase in library attendance bringing a total to nearly 50,000 participants as the needs of the community evolve so is the way our citizens access information with this in mind one of our major efforts LED through the Eli has been the redesign of the libraryies website to improve navigation and since it's launch last year we have seen a 24% increase in digital checkouts of ebooks audiobooks and so much more our community resource specialist a professional social worker connected nearly 700 Library pages to essential services such as housing food and employment as we continue to move forward we are expanding programs to include reading for all ages as we launch adult summer reading program in June in July Our Lake Jackson Branch will offer maker lab programming designed for Creative patrons and those of you who would like to explore creativity we are also celebrating our 10th anniversary of the seed Library program which plays a vital role in combating food insecurity we're working very closely with CMR to refine our library signage and marketing program systemwide and I would be remiss Commissioners if I did not mention the phase one second floor Renovations at the main library which covers approximately 8,000 square fet which is expected to be completed by the end of the summer and phase two of the first floor of the main library renovation which is in the design phase and will include the library of things storefront PA maker space and so much more in this project which is slated to begin in fiscal year 26 all of these improvements through the essential libraries initiative we'll ensure that our libraries continue to serve as critical social infrastructure which will advance our community's quality of life and next we will hear from Amanda hicker from Parks and Recreation on other efforts we're leading to advance our strategic priority of providing relevant and essential offerings through our libraries and community centers which promote lifelong learning and social fact thank you Pamela thanks M Pamela in advancing our quality of life of strategic priority area we're doing so much to enhance and expand our County Parks and Recreation offerings through our County Park I could spend the entire Retreats talking about all the exciting work taking place across all 60 of our Parks but we're limited on time so I'm going to be highlighting on two of our community center just as a quick reminder Leon County has six community centers which collectively hosts events like baby showers family reunions weddings and other memorable moments for over 2500 events each year uniquely today we'll be talking about mikasuki and the four pring community centers previously served as schools for their respective communities as Leon County recently acquired these buildings from Leon County School Board the sites continue to evolve as a critical Community Hub I'm first going to focus on the transformation of as all you know the Concord School into the new mikasuki uh Community Center and the steps that L us there um as you'll see on the screen in 2016 the county led a spearhead sense of place plan which included key objectives to theiling the community center within the amenities of the Concord School site as the existing Center had reached its end of life being a natural Community Hub the property surrounding the Concord school already has County ball fields a playground basketball courts making the investment in the Concord School a worthy Venture as steps towards executing the Sens of PL plan the Concord school property and building were successfully transferred from the school board to Leon County government in 2018 throughout the sense of place plan in the years to follow the county organized indepth Community engagement seeking diverse perspectives to ensure the building and surrounding features reflected the needs and interests of mikasuki presidents even the architect that is leading this construction project took place in those sens of place meetings looking ahead the county is a recipient of significant Federal grant um and is investing over $5 million to transform this age School building into Community Jem for generations to come the building has been renovated both inside and out as you can see up on the screen anticipated open this April the building features a transformed community room a programming room a history picture wall walking trails a new playground and renovated basketball court but something that really excites me about this space is that the boys and girls club children who want to occupy the building will be able to engage in activities in one week well there will be a community celebration be able to take place in the main Gathering Room all well baseball or softball practice can be happening outside the County's investment has result resulted in a truly Dynamic space for this rural community to gather shifting now over to for Bren another special Ro Community much like in Nuki Center for braen building once served as a school and has recently been acquired from the school board to the county making a notable investment in this space it is hard to believe but this building will turn 100 years old next year all things considered the building is in great shape um but it is time for us to invest in the structural integrity and Shine the space up a it ensuring the building remains a community gem for generations to come these updates are actually underway now with exterior reservations taking place next week but I got a little ahead of myself uh excited about some Renovations that have already taken place and occurred to bring new life into the corporating community space since we taking ownership of the foror community center and 2022 Leon County has since installed a new flagrant as you can see here many be were involved in that ribbon cutting uh we created a new lighted half mile concrete walking path that Fe Fe an exercise station a wonder and wonder story walk in collaboration with the library and KCCI along with unique history of corporated but we're not done as with mikasuki this rural community has very limited space to gather or rent um making investment in the community center and the surrounding Park even more vital moving forward as I mentioned the center will be refreshed inside M and we receive a new basketball court and enhanced parking but all this is just infrastructure um with no Community um after school programing in the four graded area the county has partnered with the boys and girls club with 60 more than 60 children now benefiting from after school programming and summer programming bringing even more value to Leon County um we have been partnering we partnered with Children's Service Council to bring a Family Resource Center you'll be hearing much more about this as mentioned before from sea green um she'll be joining you for shortly for that discussion again investing in the community infrastructure for the generations to come as I mentioned um everyone in the commission will be invited we'll be opening the new mikasuki community center this April the Family Resource activation at the four braen Center coming this spring uh the boys and girls activation will take place this upcoming summer 2025 and the 100y Year celebration of a forra community building in the winter of 2026 with that Commissioners I'd like to hand it over to Matt setting the highest standard for government thank you thank you thank you Amanda um before we move on to our last section of governance are there any comments or questions Miss commissioner Cummings oh yeah Mr chair um I just want to thank um Mr lambi and his staff for the quality of life presentation but I want to ask specifically about about the housing project affordable housing project on uh lake Lake Bradford Road uhhuh ab and I know the county was involved 58 new unit 158 units that's totally devoted to uh low income and a certain amount of those uh Apartments is devoted to very low income uh I I guess my question is the process uh this was a situation apparently where the developer already owned the land uh it looks like there's a partnership with the Tallahassee Housing Authority as well and they came to to the county we were involved with the bond financing and what have you is that generally the the state uh when they come to the county and ask for bonding uh security that the developer already owns the property and not the county is the owner of the property yeah it happens all sorts of ways this one was unique in that it received financing from the state through sale loan um of $7 million from Bo to Housing Finance they receive funding from the city and then like you mentioned the housing Authority was able to come in and offer um housing vouchers so they could provide more units to low income but yeah it just sometimes they own it outright sometimes they have an idea of a piece of land that they're working to acquire um and then we also always look at our different land that we have with real estate to see if unit if um land that we own would be suitable for affordable housing if it is we see what we can do there it's not we sell it off and then we use that funding through the HFA to support more housing and then just one more question uh Mr chair do do you know was there any specific incentive for this particular complex to be totally devoted to a low income and have a certain amount of the units set aside but very low was there some incen ification for the developer to to do that or was it the location part of it was the ability to get that um partnership with the Housing Authority as well as the sale funding the state the state Housing Authority as well as so it really a lot of these deals are just who can help Finance them and what does that lead to and in this case it led to a really great result of 158 units for exclusively low income very low income awesome awesome thank you thank you commissioner Cummings commissioner Proctor real briefly thank you chairman uh I like to suggest and even promote the idea consistent with what Miss um uh Pamela Monroe said to us uh that we changed the name of the live Library uh it's such a stagnant concept uh to uh the Leon County Library citizen Resource Center uh what she's been saying over the last three years uh is a continuing expansion of what they do what they Encompass what you can come to the library space to uh achieve it seems that and and and I say that my mother is a liver in 40 years uh but still the expanding services and role deserves us to take a look at uh the name adapting to the services so i' love to see us do that secondly um on the mikasuki community center that we put millions of dollars in and I'm excited but uh Mr chairman your District uh I'm not talking about the bricks and mortar but the flesh and blood the governance and governing structure over the center uh have the Kinks been worked out there uh is black people and white people people out there still grappling over who's larg and in charge uh I think that that we are we would feel better uh that prior to April to have a sit down uh with stakeholders that that's no longer continuing uh problem and then finally um as this vast information has come it occurs to me uh are we interested and can we explore um the Leon County uh um home Initiative for our employees of five years or greater uh who've put U equity in the county um some communities actually Assist U be it down payment there a number of Arrangements but uh I've thought this idea for years and even if desired areas be in the county space or an affordable living areas uh some governing structures in particular when they're trying to put a certain type of citizen and in areas uh they underscore it by financing uh I would be curious to know what are the range of possibilities that we could do to assist our Leon County employees in the area of Home initiative thank you very much Mr ER thank you commissioner Proctor I think we'll ask staff to um uh bring back an item on the library renaming uh and look into the community center issue out in mikasuki make sure everything is copae and uh we can ask staff to bring back an item at a regular meeting in regards to your ideas or perhaps tomorrow night during commissioner time you could give us a little more finer point on those ideas for down payment assistance or whatever for County employees that we were talking about and maybe they can bring back an item yes sir all right uhing okay Matt is going to give our last presentation on governance go right ahead Commissioners I know better than to stand between the break that is on the side real quick so allow me to be brief but I give you a bit of a lightning round for governance you saw an incredible amount of material already and that was just the ti ofy Iceberg an incredible amount of day-to-day commitment from the county goes into the implementation of your strategic Plan and there's a lot to be proud of so when we talk about that I could talk about in the area of governance the commitment to our exceptional Bond raing I could talk about the hundreds of awards from national state to local I could talk about the ongoing commitment from uh Recruitment and Retention of some of the most Stellar County Employees but I'm really just going to hit a few areas very very briefly for you it'll be our success in the digital space our commitment to resilience then then finally our public and face-to-face engagement again all driven by the day-to-day commitment of the County's commitment to the Strategic plan so to start off I want to talk about the digital space again an incredible amount of Engagement with citizens happens within the digital space when we had relaunched the website just earlier we look back to just some of the most recent successes as driven by the Strategic plan if I was to say to you that I could quadruple your engagement in the online space just by doing one thing one thing you'd be blown away by and the update to the libraries main site connected folks to all of the resources and programming and digital checkouts all of the things that we do day-to-day at the county level a refresh of the digital space uh has led to significant doubled and quadrupled engagement across all of the website and then therefore the commitment and engagement to essential County Services we don't just do it to make it look good that's part of the puzzle but we do it because we make it easier and more intuitive so the next component is that commitment in the area of governance to learning from disaster and setting a higher bar every time now we didn't think that 2024 was going to fill up the bingo card and allow us to to make another one but it's been one year after another one historic event after another through 2024 whether it's a Once in a generation flood whether it's a Once in a 70-year snow event that had just happened that commitment of our community our citizens to also eaing the direction of the County government is a significant part of what we do but our integral response and Recovery efforts are key to everything that we do across the organization that also highlights our commitment to providing recovery to Citizens through team Leon as one of our most uh present examples more than 450 folks and businesses receiving more than a million dollars of assistance but this baso Bas engagement too during times of non- disaster we're continuing to raise the bar each year by following the Strategic plan and increasing the initiatives and engagement you've seen more face-to-face engagement and create equal we've do more uh larger and even better citizen engagement series events and we've really raised the bar when it comes to Neighborhood engagement so getting down into the Grassroots section attending neighbor Hood meetings through Community media relations that involves resilience training that resolves connecting folks to resources that resolves also adding to people's information about what the county has to offer day-to-day now look that commitment as we look ahead real briefly to public art and partner engagement you can take just one really brief example and say KCCI the public art that we've done along DC Mayo we bringing that to the courthouse area we're going to be able to again invest in that public art and infrastructure to increased safety and increased visibility and then in addition to that Partnerships through Village Square and so many more again if we have time we put a list up the other bit is we're going to be moving into the space of Next Generation 911 that's a part of your strategic plan and it's next Generation 911 is about building resilience and infrastructure and also making that call for emergency response when people need it most to have the most information possible to have all of the details necessary to make sure that that response is targeted immediate and as responsive as we can be the last component that I want to touch on second last component I want to touch on is the update of the citizens Connect Mobile app again part of your strategic plan which we're going to be making significant progress in time for the 2025 hurricane season where who knows what might end up happening we're going to make significant progress on launching that updated citizens Connect app which provides 30,000 more downloads already and we're counting to be able to get folks connected to disaster resources and resilience as well as critical messaging such as mandatory evacuations from areas and homes lastly very brief to touch on is we will be doing the charter review every eight years that's going to be coming back before the ward for appointments of Citizen committees appointments to the Charter review and some of those significant um ballot measures had been the County's commitment to ethics and brought forward in the last eight-year Charter Review Committee that more information for that will be following uh and again brought to the board in the months ahead so we're teeing ourselves up for that next eight-year process so again all of the work that you've seen today is made possible because of the long-term commitment to the Strategic plan and that was really just again the briefest of highlights that we have done and some of the efforts that we'll be doing to the future but again it's a day-to-day Daily Commitment to Excellence being the model local County government so with that I'll wrap it up and uh not Advance um and then I'll pass the event uh thank you Matt I think Vince has a few words real quick just just a quick wrap Commissioners uh I promise you those presentations were 5 minutes when we practice them uh again and again I just want to reemphasize what you heard here today we took you know we talked about 85 strategic initiatives in the plan what you heard today was just one or two in each section so again 85 and and just to underscore what we wanted to show you today what were projects again looking into next year that we're going to uh take a considerable amount of effort and resources and energy um and but just to highight highlight again just a couple of those again I just wanted to mention I think it's really obvious um but the Stellar leadership that we have here at the county and the the amount of work we've got some of the most talented individuals in the industry working for us we're very very lucky about that we talk a lot in our strategic plan about being really ambitious and and bold I wanted I couldn't let the moment go by uh you heard about so much but you know Keith Bowers really exemplified this he he told me last year he was going to go get that magnet the magnetic conference here I want to tell you folks they were really entrenched where they were and uh that was just pure will and drive and and and getting after it on on Keith's part uh ARP when we talk about ARP again what you saw there that is a huge Pro one of the problem when we close ARP in terms of the landfill closure uh the environmental closure that's one of the most ambitious projects we've probably taken on in the last 10 years it doesn't seem like it may not sound like the most exciting project but again looking at the next year when you talk about the septic tanks and the hundreds and hundreds of septic tanks and I look at commissioner Proctor the reason that's so in the tens of millions of dollars it was just a couple of years ago Commissioners when we had done exactly zero septic tank conversions again looking back at the at the beginning of last um uh uh strategic plan again you heard about the Eli you're going to see transformational change at the libraries um you know Pamela talks very quickly about a social worker in the library system full-time you know seeing 700 people in cases so and then generational projects again like the mikasuki community center and so much more but Commissioners again just wanted to kind of wrap that up you can very quickly see that we could have taken at least you know a day to do all that but we tried to put it on uh a hyperdrive as as much as we could Mr chairman I'll hand it back to you as you know we've got uh the CSC presentation and then we'll be right into the board's U uh session on updating the Strategic plan thank you Mr County Administrator I just want to say one more time thank you and on behalf of the board Matt a short of a a volcanic eruption or a tsunami I don't know what else we can prepare for in terms of uh of natural events um yeah yeah Mr chairman I'm not wishing a tsunami on us by the way uh yes commiss Mr chairman could we pull up the uh created equal um I would be remissed if I failed and I'm glad that that Carrie post is here we've been using this uh with the B Centennial uh all year uh but on the Creed equal slide um down in the lower corner uh is Mr Matt Gardner and I have failed to make public ownership of my great uncle uh that is my great-grandmother's brother uh Adeline Landers I'm sorry Adeline Gardner Landers uh her brother brother and he's sitting on that porch at the old Gardner store on the Meridian right that dakona Meridian in Gard the road I've seen this over and over and I was looking at the materials uh over the weekend uh it had occurred to me that I failed to make public ownership of my kin folk thank you very much yes commissioner Proctor that's pretty cool Your Roots Run real deep man um okay so what I'm going to do at this point I ask for a five minute bathroom break and we're goingon to come back and get into Mr green thing um and and try to be as keep in mind we got to still go through the Strategic initiative so I doubt we're going to make noon uh but let's try to you know we be as quick as we can okay five minute break e e e e for e e e e e e e e WR on the show all right all right let's uh get it back moving down the road here we've got a uh an update from the Children's Services Council uh Commissioners please uh help me well before we move on to miss green I want to to give one round of applause one more round of applause to our staff I meant to do that earlier uh our leadership and our staff at the county are just the best and they're the ones that make us look so good and and put all that stuff out there and uh with that segue we'll go to someone else who makes us look good Miss sear Rose green the director of The Children's Services Council you have the floor thank you thank you so much chair Walt um I also would like to acknowledge your designate to the Children's Services Council oh yes Carolyn Cummings who is is a just fabulous U mentor on top of being one of our very dedicated uh council members also want to acknowledge your your the internationally awarded uh County Administrator Vince long um his team just so helpful all the time and quite frankly the whole County um staff um specifically shingon Abby Matt um Nikki U Miranda have really um worked to help our job be much easier so um just want to do those acknowledgements so as required by Statute we have to turn in an annual report to Leon County government which we do every year by December 31st and that annual report answers specific questions which I won't go into here but it does also provide a summary of what we've done in that previous fiscal year um as you know the Children's Services Council was um approved by the voters in November 2020 the First Council was set in May of 21 I came on board that December and started in January of 22 and we really hit the ground running before I get into what we did last fiscal year I do want to invite everyone to the summit on children it will be the 10th anniversary Summit Children's Services Council of Leon County is partnering with hch child Leon to host that it is February 18th and each of the Commissioners uh received a copy of our annual report in the back of that report there should be a QR code that you can scan and register for that sum so the council operates under three priorities those priorities are success in school in life healthy children youth and families and stable and nurturing families and communities and we operate with with core values in mind of collaboration being dat driven being Equitable being inclusive and being Innovative and so while doing that we look to fund programs that really specifically feed into your strategic initiative of quality of life so our work continued building on the foundations of our priorities and we achiev the following accomplishments which originally I was going to summarize um before going into the specifics but I think I'll just jump straight to this specific so during last fiscal year we funded summer enrichment programs which were one-time short-term Investments for summer learning all the programs were a minimum of six weeks four days per week at least six hours per day and served at least two meals on each program day so the council approved 1.7 million for 11 programs with the final contracted amount being 1.6 million in total we dispersed 1.5 million and served 93 unduplicated kids we also had summer needs scholarship funding by which we provided scholarship to Summer needs programs for parents with sum uh special needs um children so that funding could fund up to a week or in some cases two weeks of Camp as a resfit for those parents and as a way for those children to connect with other children and young people so the council approved $417,000 for six program the final contracted amount was 342,000 we dispersed 324 ,000 funding five programs so through those scholarships we served 150 unduplicated special needs children and youth we also did the summer youth internship program which is onetime short-term investment for up to 60 students age 15 to 19 and these were to be interns with local businesses here in Leon County so you're familiar with the city program whereby they have high school students come in and work in City employment you all have the county program that does the same thing what was missing was a program for local businesses so we partnered with North Florida worlds of work and the following entities 850 media Aspire Leon County Schools Mobi Lively Technical College C3 for me Tallahassee State College the more agency Echo the Tallahassee Leon County Office of economic Vitality ke Bowers loyalty credits Union the greater chamber the DJ dip Foundation Florida ready to work and Career Source Capital Region so the council approved $250,000 for this the Total distribution was $13,000 we serve 41 unduplicated Youth and I'll go further to say that of those 41 nine have been hired part-time by their placement so it accomplished exactly what we wanted it to do we also had Family Support Services funding which is an investment in a variety of programs that reach children youth and families in their neighborhoods to promote connectivity facilitate access to resources and increase family functioning additionally for the mentoring programs there was a focus on anti-violence and gun um violence reduction so for family strengthening and parent education the total award was $2.2 Million awarded to six programs for two years the information that I'll provide today is for the first year of that program from August 23 to September 24 so 883 th000 was dispersed and it served about 400 plus families today under you mentoring the total award was 979 th000 awarded to five programs for the same amount of time and uh for year one four programs actually continued the program and served more than 350 you so in total 1 . 5 almost $1.6 million has been dispersed of the total award for years one with year two coming we also launched the perinatal Navigator Services Program which expands the Healthy Start connect program by integrating non-clinical community health workers known as perinatal Navigators into pratal and obstetrician offices in leyon County this is to help improve birth out comes reduce maternal and infant mortality improve perceptions of Health Equity as well as increase home visiting utilization rates and regular use of Pediatricians and obstetrician so the county approved 2.8 million over a two-year period to serve 900 unduplicated fam the initial contract distribution is 215,000 and that program is currently underway to Dell on that program is the Family Medical Transportation assistance program which is an expanded partnership with 211 Big Ben and the lift program to provide perinatal and pediatric Transportation assistance to eligible families so these are in the form of right sharing vouchers which I'm sure the commission is familiar with the concept um for veterans and then some from um food delivery as well as transportation to food pantries and medical assistance so this is in place up until the infant's first birthday and the council approved $28,000 through September of this year to serve approximately 410 pwns that program is currently underway and has encumbered about 75,000 to this point for small in Investments for program success is a capacity building program while there are more than a thousand Human Services nonprofits here in Leon County that serve children youth and families whether it's one family or a gazillion families you would be surprised at the lack of capacity and that does not mean being able to serve families what it means is understanding the business behind operating a nonprofit so that you are maximizing your outcome so we created the small investment for program success and it allows eligible Community organizations with an operating budget of $100,000 or less to receive up to $15,000 outside of our established procurement processes so they were accepted the applications were accepted for quarters 1 through three in quarter 1 10 programs were funded at 128,000 quarter two five programs at 45,000 and quarter three two programs at 30,000 the six programs have up to six months from the quarter awarded to use that funding and quarter three which were're currently uh finishing had until December 2024 they also must report outcome under School Readiness we funded a couple of programs so the first one was the on-ramp program in Partnership with the ELC of the Big Ben so that was $250,000 used to help rooll families who are in that Alice population which means that they just missed the eligibility for School Readiness if a third party comes in and pays for anywhere from one to three months then the ELC team can roll them into School Readiness the beauty of this is the state matched dollar for dollar so whereas we put in 250,000 the state matched dollar for dollar to cover the other six counties that our ELC serve so it ends up being an almost $4 million um investment with a small investment in $250,000 so right now it looks as though with that initial investment in Leon County we leveraged about $22.8 million and serve about 338 children the total funding dispersed was 225,000 and we are looking to even continue something like this into this fiscal year the next program under School Readiness was rebound and Recovery with FSU St Center for communities families and children and this is a resiliency curriculum that was developed out of hurricane Michel so rebound and Recovery um we spent $445,000 to implement 61 programs 1,00 students 172 staff that includes teachers and Par professionals and so we ended up being in 56 classrooms prek 3 prek4 behavioral classrooms served 862 students and 21 Educators this is resiliency children children that learn how to self-regulate so that they can be in the class and learn and then lastly the Family Resource set so this had been an idea that the council approved back in 2023 we had to do the invitation to negotiate twice but with that we are now with the implementing partner Children's Home Society of Florida and we have the First Family Resource Center that was stood up at Cross Creek which was in tandem with our administrative office so that was $69,000 of a $4 million investment that was approved for that pilot from April uh through December 2024 so in all for fiscal year 2024 CSC Leon served 5,427 participants and provided more than 57,000 meals we've done a lot um in a very short period of time and we haven't finished yet so in this current year many of those programs we are going to continue and in the annual report that you received you'll see the budget you'll see the programs that we're continuing we just finished um the application deadline for the out of school time Youth Development procurement which is a year round program and can fund up to $3.2 million in summer and after school programming and our Council voted to expand Family Resource Centers as I think it was Amanda that touched on this um to expand Family Resource Centers at Fort braon Community Center with a wonderful partnership with the county uh I believe will'll be in the schoolhouse in the back and of course it escapes me what the name of the school house isout say it again Scout house Scout house yes so we are looking to get that up and running here in the spring and fully implement the Family Resource Center there at um Cross Creek I think I covered everything um did I say within 10 minutes because I know we're kind of crunched but each of you got the annual report so you haven't it and if you have any questions you can feel free to contact me or any member of my team so I think now probably is best for me to be quiet because you may have some questions and I will do my best to answer them thank you Miss green uh Commissioners would go around and if you have just some brief question or comment for uh Miss green that'd be great commissioner Proctor go ahead M chairman thank you I have a question then a comment um M green mental health of uh our children um are you doing mental health assessments and if so how are they being addressed are they being pushed to another corner of our community for assessment and addressing so part of our family support funding is mental health services for youth um and so that's a part of those four or five entities that are doing um Family Support specifically SG mental health is one of our partners they actually go to the children to do that as well as OAS Center for Women and girls specifically OAS Center is doing um emergency mental health for moms and after hour mental health as well as girl cirle um which is a wonderful program that allows world to come together and get that mental health assessments that is done through the provider not um through CSC Leon and we are also looking at ways to expand that type of mental health counseling because we know that that is um a needed area very good uh I just make a comment now to say that um it is my my um observation that U MSA green is doing an outstanding job uh I was not a supporter of the Children's Services Council uh his initiative in fact I publicly opposed it and uh in part uh one of the dominant reasons being that the governor appointed the majority of y'all's board and um and didn't Pro provide any money whatsoever the state didn't but they have control and Commissioners um don't be persuaded Always by the hype it's amazing to me that consistent with my initial perceptions that our local appointments tend to be supportive of the work of sea green the gorial appointees are often very obstinate and difficult to work Beyond uh it seems that they don't see the value they don't see the good and it's almost as if this infant in embryonic uh agency of the county for which voters voted for uh is held to a almost a 15-year operating standard and it's really an embryonic organization uh but the Matrix of measure is so very precise and exacting as if it's much older than what it is but not withstanding um the very matur uh lication of expectations placed upon CSC uh Seeker um green is an outstanding job and you know it's it's it's amazing as a quarterback uh as a as as a as a quarterback nick uh it's it's a bad thing that when the line determines that they ain't going to block for you um you know as a running back you know it's a bad thing when the lineman turn against you and ain't gonna block for you and I am saying that though I oppose this organization I've come to appreciate its value but I have not been disappointed in the expectation and the suspicion that the governor's appointees would come there and raise hell and not get behind this local initiative thank you thank you commiss Proctor commissioner command would you like to yeah thank you Mr chair I'll be very brief I just wanted to also um give uh dror green a a big um you know round of Applause for all the work that that you guys have been doing over there uh in years past I had the privilege of working um with seea on the um on the board of the Children's Home Society and so I can attest firsthand to uh your 247 commitment to what you do and we really appreciate it um in regards to the the Family Resource Center we are very excited for this location at the Fort Braden Community Center uh to go large to go live next spring we announced it earlier this month and the feedback we got from the community has been great and really what it boils down boils down to is this that Community Center in Fort Bron is cherished by um and been cherished for Generations as we heard earlier we're going to celebrate the 100th anniversary next year but um for young children currently in Fort bradden you know there's not much there's not as much tie to it as um folks from previous generations and so what we're excited about is this is going to create an opportunity for the Next Generation to be able to have an emotional attachment to it you know 50 years from now 60 years from now um we'll have another generation of uh Fort Braden residents that cherish and want to preserve the Fort Braden Community Center like folks that currently live out there do so once again thank you and uh thank you um commissioner Cummings for also uh your time on the board and supporting this initiative as well it really means a lot to our constituent so thank you thank you commissioner command uh commissioner Miner thank you very much Mr chairman I'll be very quick uh Miss green thanks you very much for all the work you're doing I I I um I should have just called you ahead of time and asked you about this but now is a good time as any do does the CSC or any of the providers currently have any Focus yet on um the effects of social media on children and this is springboarding off of what commissioner Proctor said regarding mental health are there any programs in place or or planned in the near future to address that point because uh Nationwide we're seeing a lot of concerned about the effect that social media has on our children so thank you for that question commissioner Miner so as you can imagine when you think about all of the different things that affect our children us and families it would be great if we had money and we could just address all of um unfortunately we cannot however with that being said we um have that pinned as one of the areas that we will review additionally we have a partnership with the crisis text line which is a national text line that's been in existence for about 10 years now and you can actually get Mental Health Services via Tex so either text WhatsApp all of those all of those things um I also have been in Communications with um a gentleman who I will not name who I think is specifically focused on this um to see if there are any partnership opportunities uh for for us to look into that but I will tell you that um we have a strategic framework and and those three areas are Youth Development uh kindergarten Readiness and family support so I would imagine it to fall under one of those what I would ask is that the community give us an opportunity to really do some indepth strategic planning we've done all of this and without knowing it it's all fallen into this strategic framework but it is going to be vitally important that we figure out and focus and then bring things along as we go so the simple answer is yes it is something we're thinking about no it's not something that we've specifically funded at that makes sense and I think I know the gentleman that you're referring to I've spoken to him as well thank you Mr chair thank you ma'am thank you commissioner Miner commissioner O'Keefe thank you so much um to Echo some of the sentiments um the position that you and your Council AR in is very very difficult not only facing the challenge of quickly addressing a need that has long since been needed to be filled to keep the trust of the citizens who want to see results we've seen those results um and I just want to thank you so much for that um I could go on forever but uh you have work to do thank you thank you commissioner o'keef uh commissioner Cummings thank you thank you Mr here if you can hear me um I just want to commend our executive director for all the work hard work that she has done for the last couple of years and as you know I was there from the Inception um first meeting of the Children's Services Council and we certainly under her great leadership and compassion for our children we have made great strides and I'm glad that she mentioned the fact that we have some focused areas specifically kindergarten Readiness and I I think it's safe to say that since the Inception of the Children's Services Council here in Leon County the percentage for kindergarten Readiness for our children in here in Leon County has escalated by several points so we are certainly we're certainly proud of that and we're proud of of that particular Focus but but I'd also uh ask you uh Miss green if you can just touch very briefly on the um relationship that we have with the asq uh school at FSU and how they're coming in to measure the outcome so that the citizens can see that the outpouring of funding in certain areas does result in positive outcomes and the other thing is that we need to recognize that the state where our children are or were during the Inception of children's services Council didn't happen overnight and so we know we are trying to move the needle but it's not something that's going to happen overnight so we certainly appreciate the patience and the understanding from the taxpayers to know that we are certainly you know trying to be under the leadership of of Miss green we're trying to be good Protectors of the public trust and the public fist as well but if you will just address how the ASU school at you will be playing a major role in measuring our outcomes sure so um first let me give a quick shout out to our team we're a small but really Mighty team and so while I definitely appreciate the accolades it is not possible without our team back at the office so if they're listening love you guys um so yes we have a relationship with the as you School particularly um Dr Van landingham where they have come in to help you some evaluation with our family supports program specifically if you saw um there was an oped that that I authored in the paper maybe it was a couple Sundays ago and the title of it was moving from outputs to outcome in our Inception what we had were outputs that's what we were doing we were trying to get kids back into school back into summer programs after covid try to meet immediate gaps a matter as a matter of fact that was commissioner cumming's um main driver um was to try to get some funding out there right away and those are outputs that's just getting kids out of the house getting them into Camp every year it's become more stringent the metrics get higher and higher and the uh bar is raised higher and higher for the expectation of the programs so part of what Dr Van landingham is doing is walking alongside those Family Support programs to help better understand not only what they're doing but how what they're doing is working or in some cases not working real evaluation will begin to take place with our latest RFP out of school time because it's going to walk alongside with it from the very beginning but with only three years May will be four years for us we're yeah three and a half it'll be four years these are baselines that we're establishing and so so yes we have the baselines from the needs assessment but that needs assessment was back in June 22 and we all know what assessments are they're old by the time they get published that's just the reality of the situation so um using asq school and Dr Van landingham to walk alongside our family supports programs first and then figure out how we expand that for all of the other programs that will come it's important for you all and the public to know that each of our RPS have metrics and those metrics are um scored to determine whether the programs that are awarded can meet those metrics uh and our team small as they are do the monitoring we walk alongside them they are Investment Partners not just funded entities that get the money and then we look at punitive ways to manage them that's not going to work we know that in the past that doesn't work so we walk alongside all of the programs that we fund whether it's sips all the way up to the Family Resource Center did I answer your question thank you Miss green and uh before I go to commissioner Maddox and then we'll come to you commissioner Pro just want to thank you once again commissioner Cummings for your dedication to the Children's Services Council since we were elected in 2020 uh I know you have a deep well for love of our children in this community and and we are certainly proud to have you representing our board on Miss Green's board so thank you once again uh commissioner Maddox go right ahead Mr chair thank I don't have a question but just like everybody else have a comment I think uh one thing that that hasn't been brought up is the fact that um the board along with Miss green created this program from scratch I mean is one thing to be able to manage day-to-day operations that's been built but if you think about uh this program how was bought into existence and what we had to do in the Partnerships that we've had a lot of that has come out of the mind of sea Rose green and her building out the infrastructure and the team that she has uh for us to be able to sit where we are today so I want to thank you not just for what you're doing here today uh but for the time and effort and the thought uh processes and that you put into creating what is now our CSC uh Madam Madam immediate past chair I want to thank you for the uh leadership that you've shown on that board um but also wanted to just have us think about as and and as as Miss see Rose green said um the community as well as us being patient as they continue to build out I think sometimes we forget the fact that this is a brand new organization in our community uh when you put it next to other organizations that are doing work uh what three years four years not quite four not even quite four yet um that's that's how new it is and when you think about the the impact we're expecting it to have in the amount of money that's that's being brought into it and the planning that it takes to get all of that on the on the right on the right and the the right place on the right Road it's a lot I remember when I first got on the commission and um she be she'd be proud of all the process that we're talking about but uh commissioner doer and I how how far chsp and Vince could probably speak to this has come from when we first got on pent commission to where it is now and it was it was how was the program at that point Vince how was chsp in 10 pushing 20 it was 20 years old then and and look how it's evolved in these past 15 years you're three years old and the evolution is going to be powerful and impactful to our community but again I just want us to understand this is a new organization that we're expecting big things out of but we have to be good partners in helping the organ organization develop and not placing pressure on it that causes it to to sputter in this in this development we also have to be um patient so thank you Mr chair thank um commissioner Proctor before I get to you I just want to give a few comments real quick Miss green and just say along the lines of what commissioner Maddox just said people come to me fairly often and with criticisms about the CSC and I explained to them the I use the analogy that like it's a toddler we can't expect it to be winning you know Olympic gold medal 100 yard dashes it's just learning to toddle and at some point you know we expect gold medals and then we're prly confident in your leadership that you'll provide those but uh I do want to say thank you for your dedication and getting this thing up and running and and uh and carrying it forward for us commiss Brer close this out thank you m chairman um um Vince you you recall our the uh Consultant Group from uh Austin Texas that came down here and we did a study on um the need health needs of uninsured um like in 1990s or something I believe in 2006 we proposed a half cent U that we put on referendum for uninsured lean County Citizens um if I remember correctly it would have generated between 18 and 22 million per um in 2006 we had commissioner welchin I'm sorry commissioner Welch's predecessor running and um another candidate they spent over $600,000 campaigning against that half cent to address the needs of the uninsured we um did a study the study out of Texas came back and blew everybody's mind because as we were looking in general at uninsured uh Health needs it discovered so rawly that the women and the children uh was the Unseen um poverty and and and and need was so concentrated out of that study the bond Community Health Center um created its um women and children's health initiative and it serves right now uh the women and children's uh Center in bond Community Health it comes from that data it's not that this community has not known the data uh and the poverty and um before we did and Revisited 32304 uh in 2019 this has been well known to us uh yours however is the First Institutional effort to uh move forward to address and like each commissioner said the infancy of agency uh y'all have stood up there like full grown adults fighting a good fight and I'm encouraging you to continue uh to do to do just that now one final Point here is that um I was disappointed with your board last year as you all had that opportunity but you went with the rad back and you wanted to you know be all tight and right uh we took we took the uh excess from the county the school board took the excess um Everybody did but your board uh forced you all to not receive the windfall from property values um going very high from that I believe and I feel and that's why I came in front of y'all's board to say they need more Personnel they need more folk uh from this money there was an opportunity to expand more Personnel to do some things but again when when your offensive line won't block for you and fight you internally against receiving whatever governmental entity received we took the windfall and the Children's Services Council work against the wind or rather the wind worked against them and we have to be sensitive uh Commissioners to um our placing uh our support behind and the data that we begin to to um pay Outsiders to come assess um a lot of time has passed but very little has changed but I think you sea for all that you're doing in regard of uh our community thank you I can do one more thing sure I sit down I neglected to talk about our partnership with you all on emergency housing for homeless um our board approved half a million dollar $500,000 uh to go to four of the five homeless shelter for emergency uh housing and uh we're very proud of that it fits in with our kindergarten Readiness and stable housing so I wanted to be sure to mention that uh we worked for two years to get that and so um we hope that that will continue and then lastly I just want to thank this Council this board for being supportive um whenever we call and need advice we give it to us from Candace Wilson and HR Matt to everyone and so I did want to say thank you we look forward to even more um accomplishments and um lastly we will do an impact report in February that goes from our Inception to the end of fiscal year 24 so look out for that thank you all so much and I'll be hanging around hold on one second M green I think uh commissioner Cummings wanted to close this out is that thank you Mr chair I just wanted to uh respond and just uh address commissioner Proctor's comment and I just wanted to thank him and some other public individuals for coming to our meeting and they did impress upon us about uh not rolling back the militate however I wish he had come at the meeting when we rolled back the militate because you came at the meeting um our subsequent meeting and I believe statutorily uh at that meeting we couldn't uh increase it we could only roll it back more so if you had been in the meeting where we made the decision to roll it back I think it would have been a great impact on the council members but unfortunately you missed that meeting but thank you we appreciate you coming we appreciate you and others and your input because of course we're all concerned about the welfare of our children what want thank you very much Mr chairman just the final final honest God uh reading r e a d i n g uh see is there any possibility um and I know you you only get about what 24 hours in a day um is there any possibility that you and um our librarian um I'm willing myself for reading and as an emphasis to all the children from four years old reading and making sure that we implant our you know it used to be a time that children uh it was illegal for some children to read um to know how to right to be taught it was illegal uh I believe that it could easily by executive order could potentially become something like that I think reading ought to be stressed and I would like to see it as a permanent um undering theme theme theme throughout uh children's services and encouraging them to read and US rewarding their efforts so there are two things with that um the campaign for grade level coming February 11th Commission meeting with that Mr chairman take it away thank you Mr County Administrator so if I'm looking at the current initiatives it looks like the one that commissioner Proctor asked for earlier is at the top there about the mdsm conference that's exactly right yes we were okay contemplating that one perfect so um uh Commissioners I'll remind you that a super majority vote is required for a proposed initiative to be added or for an existing initiative to be amended um staff have got a starting list up there for us uh Mr County Administrator is Staff going to add these as we request them to this list yes is it a living document we can see they will come up on the screen as you add it commissioner at them um so Commissioners uh the way I would like to handle it is we'll go around and everybody can add their suggested initiatives um but remembering that it requires five out of seven of us to support it if you think it's going to be controversial then we will have to set it aside and handle it separately so if there's if there non-controversial that would be the most expeditious way to do it we'll get them on there and then we will vote on them at the end collectively if you have one that is controversial we will have to pull it and vote on it separately because we need a super majority so um is there any particular order that you'd like to go commissioner Maddox we will start with you thank you Mr chair uh first uh in the way of Tourism spoke a couple meetings ago about us looking to get in World Class Acts here so uh explore opportunities to attract Top 100 Billboard artists for concerts performances at um various local venues throughout the next year there be tourism and in um AC uh in our home and quality of light continue to support the Big Ben continum care and the coordination and implementation of the annual point in time account to collect homeless data uh critical to securing state and federal funding Mr chair all right Commissioners you see up there on the board um if no issue uh commissioner madx you got anything else no sir all right awesome uh commissioner Cummings are you ready okay go ahead yes Mr chair I'd like to add um an initiative strategic Initiative for the board to support hosting the Children's Home Society Family Resource Center in partnership with the Children's Services Council of Leon okay Commissioners there you see it any uh see any major concerns there commissioner Cummings you got any more oh that's all I have okay anything else at this point you good okay commissioner O'Keefe thank you Mr chair um first one I'd like to add is that we explore Innovative strategies to enhance pedestrian safety uh including doing a traffic safety study uh that also studies utilizing automated speed detection Tech in school zones okay and then the the second one is that uh I'd like to add that we initiate a feasibility study um to be part of the component of phase two implementation at the Appalachia Regional Park or Ark uh master plan um that uh we'll leave it there okay Commissioners uh any questions or comments about those y that would include uh state-of-the-art um studying a state-of-the-art mountain bike uh facility yep yeah that phase two master plan yeah uh um Maggie didn't get quite get to explain us what CYO what you call cyc cross yeah that sounds pretty awesome uh commissioner command you ready thank you Mr chair thank you Mr chair I have three um as the board knows I've been talking about Woodville and infrastructure and projects and just paying you know more attention on infrastructure projects in Woodville so my first initiative is to develop a Woodville rural community sense of place plan to evaluate land uses and guide future improvements in the Woodville area and coordinate with County Public Works and developing a five-year Improvement plan to include vehic vehicle and pedestrian safety all right uh go ahead if I may um my next one is as I promised earlier in the meeting evaluate recreational amenities in Southwest leyon County including Lake Talquin Jay Lewis Hall senior Park and the St Mark's Trail for opportunities to host annual tourism events and competitions and my last one is I want to coordinate with the our board to coordinate with the local technology planning teams to evaluate areas lacking reliable broadband and cellular services and additional opportunities to work with industry stakeholders to direct investments in those areas and that's it thank you Mr chair all right Commissioners any questions or comments on those three all right uh commissioner Miner you're up thank you Mr chairman um I've got two uh the first one would be to expand efforts to reduce graffiti and roadside littering by coordinating with the leyon county sheriff's office and the state attorney's office to explore the development of a new anti-graffiti anti- littering program that would install Capital Region realtime Prime Center cameras and selected areas on a rotating basis where graffiti and roadside littering are severe and then the other one the second one is expand efforts to build public awareness of the County's Code Compliance program uh through ongoing neighborhood engagement and public information efforts thank you commissioner Miner and there you see those two if you guys have any questions or comments for commissioner Miner all right uh commissioner Proctor thank chman thank you sir um commissioners I know we've talked about mental health I have um um is there any um that I missed that mental health that we're able to lift it up as more of a universal uh um embracement and if so in what categories are we existing Le addressing it besides uh the detention center of Leon County Jail is that a question for County Administrator yes we're finding the Strategic initiatives now I think Nikki's better hands on it I I'll move under the quality of life we have an initiative to expand the number of mental health beds um available locally in partnership with the appalache center okay okay I I didn't find it so okay I trust was all there um second Miss chairman members um you all know that the 32304 um initiative uh I think that we've gone through the co period we've gone through uh the momentum has been I like to see us uh Embrace uh a revisit of 32304 uh the first time that we brought this forward um my board was um was Zero did not even give um a cup of coffee for the events but nevertheless huh no I said we didn't give any money to hosting or doing anything uh and the board allowed this commission to do it you know single-handedly but I like to see our board go back to um the 32304 to revisit uh in in particular in the aftermath of covid um and where are we with that uh there where was some who stepped up and blah blah blah but but it's just been kind of and I'd like to see us revisit 32304 I know that this was not the County's project but it was more a district one commissioner's project but I'd like to see the county uh embrace it Comm Pro do you have any suggested language for that or for as a strategic initiative or do you want to bring that up as an item at 32304 revisit and continuation thank and and it was just it was just such a um that it was our states uh identified as the state's number one most uh impoverish area uh that's what made it most alarming does that language look good to you sure we'll continue to massage yeah yeah yeah so we get the question proor go ahead um I was I was very concerned with uh what we identified uh back on page 29 uh about the workforce issues and when we at a meeting or so ago uh I can't think his name the the the workforce guy M said that we were having we're looking at difficulties and I really believe that with respect to the TCC talk the Lively talk um vocational issues um that are part of when we use the word um uh business development that we really need to go deeper than business startup and I think that we ought refocus it to expand to um include um a talent pool development the development of the pool and that that ties right back into 32304 and the kind of lives uh that were not being U cultivated to make contribution uh this this this this this worker issue is becoming Universal and I believe that aside from startup businesses and how many new businesses but we we've got to reach deeper and go into the talent development component and I like to see under the workforce uh we need some new words to include um Talent Development you know talent talent talent talent commissioner Pro chairman if I could just for a minute as I mentioned to earlier the ratification of these items will come back um on the February 11th commission meeting so again I think we got the intent if it's okay with the board it would give us the opportunity to kind of massage some language and bring something back for you to approve at that time okay and then my final thing um M chairman um um and and I'm not sure if it goes here because you said don't bring anything up that was controversial and I'm is not controversial to me but um the national farce um are continuing to stroken effort uh in particular a window uh with a national government that's very transactional and I think that we've never seen a finer moment in history to um put forth an idea and in particular with uh thoughts and plans for mental health campuses um affordable housing um new uh options for Jail uh all of those things but uh the Forester area uh called appalachicola fars ought to be under the ter torial domain of Leon County and this is not difficult to to um to um put forward now and if we could think of of Panama uh Greenland or Canada's being uh a 51st state then certainly here in Leon County we can think of the forest as belonging to Leon Leon's County and um i' like to throw that up there okay uh commissioner Proctor I'm being told by staff that there's already an existing strategic initiative to ask the staff to work with the state and the national government on that one so um all right so uh I've got a couple here just at the end um I'd like to sorry Mr chairman I forgot one okay go ahead um my last one was to um to um create uh Leon County as the global headquarter for all things magnet okay um KY can you draft something like that up up uh just like designate us as the magnet capital of the world we are we can designate the Gulf of America we designate ourselves magn not the Gulf of Florida um all right uh I've got one that's uh to exempt Land Conservancy groups such as Tall Timbers from environmental permitting requirements for activities that support and further their mission of fostering uh land stewardship through research conservation and education this would include things like vegetation and tree removal things like that that are in the in the daily Wick of land conservation groups um that one should come up here in a moment I would think um and then uh the last one which is important for all of us is the establishment of a citizen Charter Review Committee to review the County's home Rule Charter uh and propose any amendments or revisions ahead of the 2026 general election as Vince mentioned earlier we're on the 10year is it 10year um 8ye I'm sorry 8-year Charter review process so we have to uh lay the groundwork for creating a Citizens Review Committee to look at our Charter so that one you see up there as well um okay uh anything else if not yeah commissioner o'keef go ahead real quick um on one of these the exempting land conserv groups um it's one I'm concerned about but given this is a strategic item uh I'm assuming any changes would come back for votes and I can bring it up then yeah I think this is an item that uh groups like Tall Timbers who do Land Management have asked for in the past uh yeah obviously there are other conservation groups that um you know we would we have relationships with but essentially we're it's exempting professional land managers that are involved in a conserv a group that's based on does Conservancy work from the permitting process to do that work uh really which is just red tape for those folks um okay if there's no other conversation we need a motion and a second so moved by commissioner Maddox seconded by commissioner Miner on the Strategic initiative all all of those in favor signify by saying I I I and all opposed none so it passes unanimously and again it'll be coming back for ratification at our February meeting um so we are we've done it you guys we're 30 minutes over budget but that's pretty good um I think what we're going to do now is uh go around let you guys say some closing comments um and then let Vince and Chassis say some closing comment or we can do that vice versa if you want to sure you want to do it first just just a quick thank you Commissioners thank you for your your again your your leadership and clear direction that you provide to us I want to thank County staff again in the room I want to in particular to thank uh Nikki and the team that kind of does this year around and everybody who sort of feeds in all the data here and for the folks who who just put put it all together today um uh again so special thanks to them she's been quiet today but needless to say we couldn't do any of it without our County attorney and the all the support that that her team provides to us on any of what we talked about today my final thing is before commissioner Maddox leaves no my final thing is that uh we we want to gather for a uh this is a the rare event where we have us all here together so right after this we wanted to gather for a quick team picture out uh madx can't leave that's right we we'll Photoshop him in all right Madam Kenny attorney anything thank you for being here no chair uh just wanted to say hello to everybody uh look forward to working with everyone in 2025 uh and I've always appreciated the efforts of Staff uh both uh under Vince's leadership uh and in the county attorney's office and I look forward to working with all of you in the upcoming year on the on the existing initiatives and the ones that are proposed thank you thank you uh commissioner Cummings any closing remarks uh thank you uh Mr chair for this shairing a fantastic uh Retreat uh you say your first Retreat it was awesome you did an awesome job and of course I want to thank the Commissioners and our County Administrator and his just his fabulous uh staff for all the work that they doing for all their presentations today in addition to our executive director of The Children Services Council I mean everybody did a fantastic job brought us up to date and we see where we are and I'm just proud of all the work that we do for the county and and it shows in our report card we're are 75% and above in every area so thank you all so much for your hard work thank you commissioner Cummings commissioner O'Keefe thank you I just want to say the idea about the magnet uh is very attractive um and then also I think everyone's done a great job Commissioners I think you should have the rest of the afternoon off thank you thank you commissioner oef commissioner command thank you I I have a question uh I have a question real briefly uh for the county attorney just regards to um one of the Strategic initiatives in regards um the citizens of uh Council for the charter review does our Charter currently State um is there a procedure for if every eight years we have a charter review correct like that's in the charter there is a time frame for that committee uh but I'll be honest this will be my first go round with this sort of Review Committee so I will be going to the office this afternoon and and looking up what that process looks like okay so we're not sure off the top of your head if we have like how many people are going to be like what the process is for a Citizens committee what that looks like I haven't looked at that but Vince might know already yeah having written the charter yeah I um I I can tell you that again and and commissioner command was testing me on this in terms of the uh what it specifically says relative to the citizens committee it does clearly articulate that it is that the board is required to do a once every eight-year review I believe the citizens part is in there but again I commissioner Comm F keeping me on my toes so we're going to have to when we bring you back an agenda item we'll provide all the options for the board like if there are options for you to structure it different ways and we'll also let you know how we've done it in the past two reviews uh and that sort of thing but again anytime the board has discretion on that we'll make sure to present all that to you and you can just give us the Direction with how you want to do that but I know it's every eight years and with respect to the how I have to go back and and clarify that okay awesome everyone was it was a great Retreat staff thank you so much hope you all have a great day thank you thank you commissioner commissioner Miner Mr chairman you're on a good uh Retreat nice job sir um you know I'm not going to make a motion for this or anything I just want to get the sense for the will of the board um this was a really great Retreat we covered an incredible amount of material in a short amount of time um I'm of the opinion maybe for next year we we budget a couple more hours just to kind of keep things you know just kind of go through the other strategic priority areas uh a little bit more thoroughly I mean listen we've got tickets in our hand let's go see the full show right um so that that's just my my thought about I don't know if if everyone here would agree with that but there's so few times when when the seven of us get a chance to sit down and just talk about the future uh talk about where we've been and where we are right now and where we're going and and I think maybe a couple more hours I think could be really well spent so just uh maybe commissioner Vice chair will be chair next year maybe just you guys pegging your brain to remember maybe next year just ask kind administrator if you can add some time yeah I don't think you need a motion oh there you go need more time but all all in all this is a great Retreat we covered a lot of stuff congratulations to staff for all the hard work I mean we say that every meeting it's because we we need to you guys are doing a tremendous job we can't be more proud to be associated with everyone here thank you thank you commissioner Miner commissioner Proctor thank you Mr chairman um Commissioners I fa to when Carrie post was was standing uh to lift up the need for Conference Center and um uh it's with um with um kind and warm enthusiasm that uh Carrie post has indicated to uh me as a member of the tourism board that a de a demand a pent up demand does exist if Tallahassee had a conference center and uh in terms of more heads and beds year round uh that potential was great I thought we would have gotten a chance to gnaw a little bit on that bone and um the southern uh report here today was um spectacular uh thank staff for that uh I'm a little bit little emotionally crushed that we don't get the know on that bone and we didn't play with that a little bit um nevertheless that's right I think um the other point that we we we we we may not have covered uh we have one of our bold goals here um to retain a highly skilled diverse and Innovative County Workforce uh which exemplifies the County's core uh practices and as a priority that we're committed to promoting integrity and diversity I think that we're going to run into something related to diversity I'm not sure if it comes from the legislature um and to whether or not our goals for Workforce uh will any longer be legal legally uh um plausible um will we file a lawsuit to defend our core values um or will these be our values I'm really concerned with whether or not um by executive decree um we have to receive uh persons arrested by ICE federal authorities in place in our our our jails uh I'm I'm concerned about what is a citizen uh 14th Amendment U I just see with some of our core values uh that we're not in step with um you know uh I think that with respect to uh if there was another covid outbreak uh it's it's potentially perceivable to me that uh you know Robert Kennedy uh the lapio Secretary of Health in Florida and Kennedy uh they may not believe in science uh what happens if we believe in science and they don't uh legally will we go to jail uh as Commissioners if we wanted to support uh the dictates of science versus um the uh propaganda of Kennedy or the Leo uh Secretary of Health I'm I'm I'm concerned we didn't get a chance to gnaw on that bone and then of course Commissioners um hurricane preparedness we do a lot in that area and uh Matt and uh preparedness we spend a lot of time but what I have observed this past year uh it's the it's the disaster after math that I believe our followup with um um since we may not have a thema I am concerned with who steps up uh what resources uh you know and that's a real conversation over the past week will we have FEMA uh to help our community in the future if not what are our plans to wing it along uh how do we connect people to Insurance uh their policies their uh that kind of thing and I I I think that we would make a more comprehensive uh storm hurricane snow um prepared for these events as we're also able to walk people to the um recovery lanes for their respective um um encumbrances of U disaster I wish we could have talked about it but those were my thoughts thank you very County you had a wonderful job great job thank you commissioner Proctor and I'll I'll close this out by echoing everybody's sentiments thank you all for for making the Trek to deep Northeast District 4 we appreciate you and certainly glad you're here and want to say thank you again to our staff sorry we had to Short change some of you guys um like I said I don't think that's a terrible idea stretching this out a little bit uh mostly because I want to I want our staff at the of the day to feel feel valued I want you guys to really know how much we appreciate you and how much we support you and all the work you do and um and a thank you to our our our leadership team but also please extend our thank yous to your staffs uh who are outd doing the work right now so uh we want to make sure that they feel appreciated as well and on that note I I think we're all done here thank you guys so much apologize hold on Mr chairman um I wanted to bring to our awareness Regina uh Vince's uh Aid Regina Glee lost her husband last week uh Regina our our condolences to you uh those funeral services will be this Saturday uh 11 o'clock uh in Greenville and uh I thought we would be remiss not to uh recognize uh extreme loss for Regina and uh our prayer is Regina to you and our love thank you thank you commissioner profor okay yes and well before we go everybody Matt Cavell I assume is going to coordinate a photograph with the team so follow Matt thank you guys have a great afternoon