like section now reporting and we'll see you again tomorrow. >> I don't know. I only look one day ahead. Gary says here's going tomorrow and that's as far as I think. And >> just so you know, good pictures of him going out there. Uh
yeah, >> putting on >> you got a Do you get you get Tim gifts every Boxing Day or Christmas? >> Uhhuh. >> If you gave me presents, I'll make you look >> I think
remembering. Absolutely. box cuz all the Christmas is done. Everything's cooked. Have a cold eat all the cold meats. Mash all the vegetables. Maybe we get cook
like a hash. >> Oh yeah. >> You have turkey and pickles. >> Absolutely. Done. >> Thanks. All right. >> All right. Commissioners, we will call this meeting into session at 10:03 a.m.
Uh, commissioners, county staff, welcome back. Hope everyone had a happy new year. It feels really good to be back at it with you all. You know, I had a um a little bit of uh nostalgia pulling in that parking garage. I felt like I was, you know, a couple minutes late for class trying to trying to rush to get
here and couldn't find parking. So, it felt good to be back on on Florida State's campus. Uh, President McCulla, thank you for having us. Um, we we are very thankful to have the opportunity to be here. Um, commissioners, at the center of everything we do as a board is
our 5-year strategic plan. So, for most of us, I think this is, you know, our third or fourth, if not longer for everyone that that's um been here. Um, it's how we set our priorities. It's how we measure progress. It's how we hold ourselves accountable to the people that we serve across Leon County. Every
commission meeting reflects that. Every agenda item shows how the work we do, big and small, moves our strategic priorities forward. And once a year, we get this moment, a nice chance to step back and, you know, take a look of of where we are and have an honest
conversation about where we are headed next. And so, really, that's what today's about. I'm looking forward to having a good conversation with each and every single one of you. It's an opportunity to build on the momentum that we've created. And more more importantly, it's an opportunity to be intentional about what comes next. But
to do that, we need everyone at the table. And so, I'm just going to ask that everyone, you know, when a commissioner has a floor, we be respectful, give them the opportunity to kind of talk through their points. Not not saying we've ever had an issue there. Um, you know, I'm I don't know if we have a set time limit of when we got to be out of here, but commissioners,
you know, this is important work. And so, we'll be here as long as we need to until every commissioner is at is at a good a good place. And before we go any further, I do want to take a moment to recognize a place where we're gathered today, a place that's near and dear to my heart. I think a few
of us are PLA alumnists. Um, we're here at Florida State University for our 2026 retreat. Um, it's going to be a very special year for, you know, Florida State and our surrounding community. Just two days ago, on January 24th, Florida State University marked its
175th anniversary. That's 175 years of education, research, leadership, and impact, not just on this campus, but across Leon County, across Florida, across the United States, and
across our entirety of Florida State alumni. And because of that milestone, later this morning here, I think in a few short moments, we'll be presenting a proclamation on celebrating Florida State University's 175th anniversary. I can't think of a better place to do that
than right here. Which brings me to our next honorable host and I would like to invite President McCulla. Um I want to extend a sincere thank you um to you and entire Florida State University team for hosting us today. FSU has been a long cornerstone of this community. We truly
appreciate you, the collaboration and your entirety team that it brings to Leyon County. >> Well, thank you uh chairman command. I appreciate uh everything the commissioners do uh for the Lyon County and appreciate your friendship and uh
many of you that are on that are commissioners here are really close friends uh to to the university and appreciate everything that you all do. Welcome. I'm glad that you're here at Florida State University. Uh we hope you have a great retreat and we appreciate
you choosing Florida State University to be here. You're in the Student Government Chambers. uh student uh student government chambers of the senate as I recall and uh much is done here. Uh we have our our senators, our
student governors government has uh a lot of autonomy and uh spending a lot of money to support the students uh of the great uh university that we have here. So we really appreciate that. In a minute I'll introduce our student government um president. Carson Dale is
a presidential scholar. He's also um the representative on the Florida Board of Governors and uh so he is really a spectacular uh student here and a great leader and a great partners on the board of trustees as well and uh very
thoughtful and a very impressive uh very impressive person. So this is our 175th anniversary of Florida State University. So for a long time, Florida State University has been training students, uh, educating them, many of which stay
here in Lyon County. And, uh, we play an important role in the city and county, uh, as Florida State. Uh, we bring, uh, we spend a lot of money, we hire a lot of people, they spend a lot of money, we attract a lot of people to the county, and they spend a lot of money. And all
that's good. That's all good for us and for the economic growth of of the area. So, and we know that Lyon County has been a tremendous partner for us and will continue to be a tremendous partner for us as we look to continue to do
everything we can to make Tallahassee, Leyon County, and surrounding areas the best that it possibly can be. And we're dedicated to that for sure. Florida State University over the last four years has undergoing uh a tremendous momentum and that momentum I would say
we're one of the uh most improveiversities uh maybe in the country. Uh we continue to do uh a lot of things and continue to rise graduation rates have been a record every year that I've been here. Uh our
freshman retention rates are 97% which is you know on line with um the top IV league schools in the country. Um we were ranked 51 this year among all university United States. That's the highest ranking that Florida State has
ever had. That was up three places uh from last year. ranked 11 among publics by niche. Uh which is one of the most important ranking uh systems in the country especially used by um uh
students between um 15 and 22. And uh we are very proud of everything that we're doing. Research this year was a record. Every year that I've been here has been a record. We we have $488 million last year in research totals as
we go to our first goal of 500 million. We've had some great things happen over the last uh several weeks. Uh we uh got a $65 million gift to name our amazing business schools. Now the Herbert Wortheheim College of Business. Uh so
we're very very proud of all of that. Um the women's soccer team won a national championship. It's their third since the first lady and I have been here. We take full credit for putting the roster together and Brian Pinsky has done an amazing job and you know it's just a dynasty here. We're
very very proud of all of that. Commissioners, thank you very much for all you do. Uh it's public service at its best. Uh I know that uh you work on behalf of the citizens of Lyon County. Uh and you know I know that you spend
countless hours doing that. And no matter what, no matter where you come from, we know that the hard work that you do uh makes a tremendous difference uh not only for Leyon County and for the city, but also for Florida State University, and we just thank you so much for that. So, Mr. Chairman, thank
you for the opportunity to speak to the commission. Uh really appreciate it. >> Thank you, Mr. President. And and before I uh before I invite our student body president to say a few words, I would like to also acknowledge your better half, Dr. Jay Vardikar, who's also here with you. Thank you for being here, Madam First Lady. It's very a pleasure
for having us in the chambers. And so, um, >> yeah, if I don't, if you take a a point of order, I would also like to point out that the first lady is heading up our 175th anniversary celebration, which has been a huge task, and she's done a fantastic job.
>> And so, next, I would like to invite our student body president, Carson Dale, for if you'd like to give us some welcome remarks for being in your chambers. Thank you. Well, good morning, commissioners. Thank you so much for having me. Um, thank you, Chairman Caban. We are really
grateful that you all chose the student senate chambers as location for today's retreat. Uh, the work that the commission does is not lost on student government leaders and really means a lot that you chose this as the location for this morning. Uh, we have a couple other student government officers back here behind me. We have our speaker for
our Congress and graduate students and then also our student senate president. and we're really just excited to have you all here and thankful for all the work that you do. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right, commissioners. Next, I would like to formally present the proclamation celebrating Florida State's
University 175th anniversary. Uh Mr. Mr. President, Mr. Student Vice President, and our first lady, if you will join us at the podium. Whereas Florida State University traces its origins to 1851, making it one of the oldest institutions of higher
education in the state of Florida and the oldest continuous location of higher learning in the state. Whereas the West Florida Seminary began offering instruction near the site of the present-day WCOT building in Tallahassee
in 1857, became co-educational in 1858, and continued to evolve over the decades, becoming Florida State College, then Florida State College for Women, and on May 15th, 1947, Florida State University. You can applaud for that.
Whereas Florida State University has grown into a leading national research university comprised of 17 colleges serving more than 46,000 students employing approximately 18,000 full and part-time faculty and staff maintaining
a global footprint and achieving record research activity including 487 million in research expenditures in 2025. Whereas Florida State University has achieved national recognition for excellence in academics and student
success, ranking number 11 among public universities according to niche and ranking 21 among public universities and 51 overall according to US News and World Report and demonstrating outstanding outcomes including a 97%
freshman retention rate and a 78% four-year gradu graduation rate and an 80% % transfer student graduation rate, the highest in the history of the state university system. Whereas, Florida State University generates an estimated
15 billion in annual statewide economic impact and plays a vital role in Lyon County's economy through student spending, employment, research, and strong community partnerships, including collaboration with local governments, the Seminal Tribe of Florida, and
community organizations. Whereas, Florida State University will celebrate its 175th anniversary in 2026 with a year-long commemoration honoring its heritage and vision for the future. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the board
of county commissioners of Lyon County, Florida, that January 24th, 2026 is hereby recognized as Florida State University 175th anniversary day in Lyon County. And that the board commence Florida State University for its enduring contributions to Lyon County, the state
of Florida, and the nation dated this 26th day of January, 2026, signed by the board of Lyon County Commissioners and attested by the county administrator. President Mcola, thank you guys again for letting us um host our retreat here. All right, commissioners, now we get to
business. We have a strong agenda ahead of us today and I think the county administrator will walk us through that in in a few few moments. Um before we before we move on, I think uh Mr. County administrator, I I will actually pass it to you. Good morning, commissioners, and welcome
to your annual retreat. Uh, as as the chairman mentioned, we're going to start off this morning with a brief recap of the 2026 World Cross Country Championships. I'm going to go really quick. I had a joke here about that I was going to target Nick Maddox at the beginning that he was
all stretched out so he didn't pull a hammy because he's he's he's missing a step from his glory days. But, I'll just have to do that to him when I see him. Thank goodness he didn't walk in behind me. Uh but but but commissioners, I am going to go quick on this. Um and it's been just a couple of weeks. It's hard
to imagine. I know it's been a blur for folks, but just a couple of weeks since we hosted the World Cross Country Championships here, and it's our first time uh since we've been together uh since then. And speaking of firsts, commissioners, the 2026 World Cross
Country Championships was the first major international championship ever held in Lyon County. And uh boy, uh did our team set the bar very very high. So um and to say it was
a big success uh to say that that we are enormously proud uh of our team but to put the global significance of this event in in some perspective commissioners just look at the graphic on the screen there. I mean this is the
over 50 countries and federations that were represented uh here in Lyon County. And I think uh again just an amazing graphic to behold there. um commissioners. In addition to the athletes, of course, um the event brought thousands of spectators, 10,000
spectators from across the world to Lyon County, generating more than $4 million in direct uh economic impact for our community. That's based on our preliminary analysis. We'll have um a final analysis to share with the board in February. Uh suffice to say, we
expect that number to grow. Um uh but like all big accomplishments uh uh commissioners uh this was years in the making. So again it's more than appropriate to to bring it up here at your retreat. And again it involved years of planning and investment a very
high level very high level of cross departmental coordination and logistics fundraising with global partners. Uh significant engagement with local partners and massive outreach to the community. And of course, none of this happens without uh the leadership of
members of our team like Amanda Hyde Decker and Taylor Weaton who are our co-chairs and Carrie Post, our tourism director. So, why don't we give them a big round of applause? How about that? They they truly truly made this a worldass uh event. commissioners. Now,
commissioners, I know you saw the event in person, uh, but we had a worldwide audience tuning in live uh, on NBC and streaming on Peacock. There were 250 organic articles generated from the
event. That's a lot of articles. Uh, commissioners, that translated all the media across all media platforms. Commissioners, if you'd look at this statistic right there, 3 billion impressions across all platforms of media. And if you translate that into
economic media value, commissioners, I was going to say wait for it, but it's right there on your screen. $16 million in earned uh media value. So again, very impressive. Uh so it's safe to say commissioners that um the event captured the attention of the running world. And
here are just a few quotes from major running outlets uh lauding the event. the event and the course. Uh the quotes uh uh reflect the absolute flawless execution of the event. Um and and all of the the the the quotes were were
affusive. Um except maybe one of them. I'm looking at the one that says the 2026 World Cross Country event could only be held in Florida. I think that could cut both ways. You got to be very careful about that one. That one that one might cut both ways. But again across the board the response to the
event uh was was just enormous. Uh but I think the most important quote uh commissioners comes from the president of the World Athletic Association um Sebastian Co who said that our facility and I quote is the best cross country
course in the world. Uh yeah there you go. He later added that uh Leyon County is the crosscountry capital of the United States if not the world. Um commissioners coming from the president
of the world a of world athletics um is one thing but but Sebastian Co is also a three-time gold medalist. I told him when he was here that between the two of us there are three gold medals. uh and and uh but but again the uh but but hearing that from him of course the
credibility that brought and and way back when I can remember telling commissioners that if we do this course it's going to be the greatest course in the world and they said at the landfill and we said yeah don't worry about that part of it yeah this this is going to be the greatest course in the world and again commissioners um uh Leyon County
really really came through uh looking ahead commissioners uh we're working to build on this success we're already uh in conversations with world athletics to make Lyon County the permanent home of world athletics. And I think the chairman uh intends to to offer uh more
on that in the strategic initiatives. But for now, um I want to give a big thanks again to all Lyon County um uh work areas that were involved in in in welcoming uh the world to Lyon County. Let me just I'm going to read this, but tourism, parks and recreation, community
and media relations, emergency management, the office of innovation and technology, EMS, public works, facilities management, risk management, sustainability, and last but certainly not least, our county attorney attorney's office who uh
handled uh not only a record number of contracts, but also um she's got the scars to prove the uh international complexity of some of those uh contracts. and you'll probably only get her to talk about it over a glass of wine or something. But again, the whole team, I just can't say enough about it.
Commissioners, thank you all uh for your consistent leadership uh and following this goal through the way you've had and making the investments and supporting the organization and all the resources that were committed that needed to be committed to make this event happen. Again, can't thank you enough, Mr.
Chairman. Special thanks to you for all your support uh throughout the event. Mr. Mr. Chairman, I don't know if you know this, some commissioners get hurricanes during their their chairmanship. I mean, you get world athletics. So, we'll we'll we'll we'll take credit for that. So, anyway, at this point, commissioners, I I want to
keep uh we want to keep the the agenda rolling, but Mr. Chairman, I do want to pause after that presentation and hand it back to you just in case the board has any discussion on world athletics and the cross country general. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. County Administrator. Commissioners, I do have a strategic initiative related to that I'll bring up
at the end of the meeting. Do any other commissioners would like to comment on the topic right now? Commissioner Miner. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Appreciate it. Um, listen, I just going to that event was just absolutely incredible. Uh, and I I really want to thank again um Carrie
Post and and Amanda for their work. This was years in the making and it just it it could not have gone better. Uh I I uh met some of the folks that were helping organize the event and and and some of them have actually um organized the
Olympic events in prior years. And so it's that level of of involvement from the international community. Um and then um my my own family, we we participated in the fun run uh right after. and to see the community get involved and run on the same exact course as these people
from across the world, these world-class athletes just minutes before on the same course that my family was on. I mean, the dichotomy of that could not be greater. Um, but and we actually had real medals to win at the end. So, it was really something. My my daughters and everyone else that went through the
the fun run just to get that kind of medal and to participate in that type of event was something that we'll never forget. So, thanks to everyone uh you know, Carrie, Amanda, the Mr. Chairman, the the county commission uh and everyone that helped out with this. It was the community saw what happened and
they saw what Lyon County did and universally I heard just incredible praise for the hard work that this team did to to to bring it here and then to execute it. So, thanks to everybody involved. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> Thank you, Commissioner Mer. Mr. Vice Chair.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can't echo enough all the words that have been said. What I will highlight that really stands out to me is this is what community economic development investment looks
like. Economic investment and development doesn't just have to be new buildings and factories. When we invested in turning an old dump site into a park and then into a cross-country championship field for regionals, then states and then nationals and then the best in the
world. And then we brought back in one week alone over $4 million of local impact. That is a financial return on top of the community benefit and return we get for our wellness every day when kids go play in that park. and the dump
the drop off site for unincorporated residents was closed for a day. I was made very aware of that by some constituents. So, we even get value out of that every day. Um, and so it really is to pinpoint this isn't just a community pride uh success. This is an
economic success and to remember that when we're looking at how we invest in our parks that they are not just pretty playgrounds for our community. They're so much more. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. Commissioner Welch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and uh
good to see everybody. Glad to be back around the table with uh everyone. I just want to echo staff. You guys did a great job all the way from, you know, I mean, the security was incredible, and I know that that involved a lot of uh >> Maggie, thank you. Uh yeah. Uh all the way down to the catering, you know,
that's about the only thing I'll run for is a buffet. I'm a world athletics uh buffet eating champion. So, uh I had the press from all over the world asking me how how was the shrimp and grits? Um, uh, no, seriously, great, incredible, uh, event. Um, I know we're all super
proud, uh, of everything that went down on, uh, leading up to that and certainly on that day, the execution was impeccable. So, uh, never been prouder to be, uh, a part of Leyon County government. Uh, obviously you guys and all of our staff do the heavy lifting. Um, and so I I know I speak for all of
us when I say we just beamed with pride on that day. Uh, you know, never been so happy to not understand so many languages in one tent. So, uh, congratulations every brand and great to be here. Great to see everyone. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Welch. Commissioners, I I intend to bring up a
an update to a strategic initiative later in the meeting relative to the World Cross Country Championship, but um, a few things. One, you know, Commissioner O'Keefe, this event, I believe, was a staple event for your district and the east part of Lyon County. I saw I mean every business,
every restaurant on the east side of town was just packed. Whether it was a a breakfast location, a lunch location, I mean it was it was packed with people. One thing I like to tell I like to say particularly you see this more with football games was that when when
there's an influx of people in Lyon County or Tallahassee cell cell phone service slows down a little bit and all weekend my cell phone service was was slow and lagging that weekend which was a big testament to show how many people
were really in town and you know most importantly I think that this is an example of how we should be focusing our tourism dollars. You know, I think an event like this is a is a true testament to putting
heads in beds. You have folks coming from all over the world as we saw, getting hotel rooms, eating in a restaurants, retail, you know, staying here, being a part of our community for a long weekend. And I mean, as our vice chairman said, you know, that is a huge
testament to what economic development can look like. And I think we should continue to push for through tourism more largecale events like that across our community. And and lastly before we go on to the next topic is that you know I saw firsthand you know Amanda your
team Carrie your team working around the clock. I mean from November pretty much to the day of the event and then after the event preparing for this and I know that took a lot of sacrifice through the holidays and so we really do appreciate it. And admittedly commissioners we
talked about this for how long since I've been elected. I've heard about this and then all the last year, but up until the event, I didn't really I didn't really comprehend how big of an event worldwide that this was. And so I think seeing it firsthand, seeing people come
from all over the world, the different cultures, you know, that the ticket sales, I truly believe that this is event in the future, we could sell 20,000 tickets, you know, I I really do I really do believe that. And if you look at what we do around, you know, Florida State athletics year round, we
have the infrastructure to do so. I mean, we host 90,000 people here seven times a year for large scale football games. And so, this is a a good example. I think we could build off this and continue to drive economic uh tourism dollars with this. So, thank you again
to the staff. You guys are incredible. I've, you know, I've always respected, you know, our tourism team, our parks and recck team, but this has just given a whole mountain a whole new mindset of respect seeing the work that you guys put in out there. So, thank you all. Um, Mr. County Administrator, next item.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioners, I'm going to do my best to keep us on track today. So, if I talk a little fast, uh, again, we've got a full agenda. Uh as you know commissioners again the retreats are our opportunity to take a quick pause back from all the urgent and competing issues uh that you
deal with uh on a continuous basis again to evaluate our progress uh and of course to uh ensure that we remain positioned to adapt to emerging opportunities and new challenges and and and foreseeable issues and certainly we we we're going to have no shortage of of
of all of those. But even in uniquely challenging and everchanging environments, commissioners, our strategic plan uh is essential to helping keeping us as an organization focused on our highest priorities. Um and and while uh providing a level of stewardship and services that our
citizens uh deserve and and come to expect in Lyon County. So throughout the day today, commissioners, you're going to see uh projects highlighted that are certainly uh benefiting from that strategic approach that we take under our five-year plan. And I'd first like to start off with just a very quick overview of our strategic planning
process. Uh we call it our leads process. It's more than strategic planning once a year. Uh nothing uh sums up a very comprehensive process like a very simple graphic. Again, this this is familiar to you, but it's always important just to walk through to put that emphasis on it because commissioners where we are right now is
at the top of that graphic in in in direct. Um but again this reflects our our continuous process that provides for clarity and focus and alignment and uh uh uh everything from strategic planning to to execution commissioners. Our
strategic plan uh uh is included in each and every one of our strategic processes from the county's budget to how we evaluate every employee so that everybody knows where they fit in to the big picture down to every agenda item. every agenda item you see, you see that
strategic planning alignment and and those statements about how this issue fits into our strategic plan. In other words, it's not a document that sits on a shelf and collect d and collects dust. But again, uh here in our organization, it's something we put a very high priority on because it is key to our
suess success and to optimizing our resources and delivering results. I will tell you commissioners just to to brag a little bit on our strategic planning process. We have uh several times a year a minimum we have organizations local organizations to statewide to uh to to
nationally uh private and public that come to us to talk about our strategic planning process because not everybody does this level of strategic planning. But again, it's been so key to to us being able to do what we do. So uh this time each year commissioners again starting at the top is where we identify
new opportunities and set direction for the coming year. Uh this direction drives yearround alignment across frankly uh countless efforts performed by hundreds of employees across dozens of divisions engaging thousands of of
citizens again so that we can stay focused uh and delivering results. Uh that of course, commissioners, you'll be so happy to know concludes my overview of strategic planning. You're welcome. That could have easily been a three-hour presentation on strategic planning, but that's not what we do. I want to go right into the agenda for today,
commissioners. Uh you'll see we've got a couple of very important issues that the board has uh expressed an interest uh in for today. Um and of course two that we expect to be very critical issues uh not only in the coming year but but for the next uh few years uh and into the
foreseeable future. Uh both of these updates on property tax reform and on artificial intelligence will feature a brief staff presentation uh followed by plenty of time dedicated for for board uh discussion. the second part of the day, commissioners, where we'll transition into the strategic plan and
uh into the fifth and final year of the strategic plan where we begin to recap our progress on strategic initiatives uh and our targets and bold goals. And uh then to close out the morning session, commissioners, uh the board will consider adding any new strategic
initiatives to the plan again in this uh the uh final of the 5-year uh uh uh year um plan window. Uh so with that, commissioners, again, I hope you're very caffeinated uh uh as I am. Uh I I want to uh commissioners hand it off now to
to Nikki uh Hatch and Ken Morris. Let me just give them a little bit of an introduction. Um, as we've shared with the board previously, commissioners, property tax reform is uh not only a very hot topic, but it and it has been
for a few years as we all know, uh, but it is one that is, uh, uh, shared now in terms of a priority by legislative leadership uh, and the governor's office. There were and you're going to hear Nikki talk a little bit more about this. There were of the uh seven
constitutional amendment bills filed in the House uh have been uh flying out of legislative committees. Um they propose significant reductions uh in non-school homestead property taxes or the outright
elimination of property taxes. I'm going to hand it off off to Keniki in a minute to cover more details, but up front, let me just say this and let me be very very clear about this. commissioners th this is a fiscal crisis by design uh what what we're experiencing here and again
uh there is no state plan very important to know no state plan to to deal with the implications of this and there is no state uh plan uh on replacement revenues of any kind so let me just get that out there and there's still a lot of uncertainty here and we acknowledge that
that upfront one of the things you've heard me say commissioners in our briefings is Um it uh it it it may be too soon to panic, but it's certainly not too soon to plan for for for what's uh potentially coming down the pike. And again, this may be kicked to a special session. We don't know exactly the path
it's going to take. Uh but it's all going to converge uh for you commissioners um this summer uh during your uh uh budget workshops. Uh we'll we'll have uh the outcome of the uh legislative session and any special sessions. And of course, the board uh
thinking with a lot of foresight authorized me to conduct an alternative revenue study that'll be coming back to you all during the budget process. So again, all these issues will converge. Something that Ken's going to talk about a little bit is is what a a public outreach communication uh campaign could
look like. I say could because again, we don't know what we're shooting at yet. Uh so what what a what a campaign could look at you uh uh could could look like. Um, and again, we're going to preview uh some of that for you. But again, all that will come back to the board. The board will be able to bless all of that before it goes. But again, this gives
you a flavor for that because again, that's something else that the board expressed an interest in seeing and seeing soon. With all that, Nikki, please take it away. >> Mr. K, Mr. Wick, yes. Mers, any any questions for the county administrator before we move forward? >> Good. Cool. >> Thank you, Vince. And good morning,
commissioners. As you know, we've been keeping you updated on the property tax reform proposals that have been filed for this legislative session that seek to reduce or outright eliminate county homestead property taxes. As we've previously reported, these proposals at a minimum will hinder the county budget
in the services we provide. The most severe proposals, however, threaten the functionality of county government as we know it. As you see up on the on the screen, seven proposed constitutional amendments have been filed in the House which have been advancing very quickly through the
legislative process. The majority of these proposals have just one committee stop remaining in the House. Two proposals, however, House Bill 203 and 209 have advanced through committee and are ready for a house floor vote. Notably, each of these proposals would
result in millions in lost property tax revenues for Lyon County beginning in fiscal year 28. In fact, House Bill 2011, first up on the screen, which seeks to eliminate all non-school homestead property taxes, would effectively eliminate 40% of the
county's property tax revenue base. Making matters worse, each of the houses's proposal proposals would hold law enforcement funding harmless and in some cases funding for all first responder services, too. Further restricting revenues available for other
critical functions that do not otherwise have a dedicated revenue source to offset these impacts. So, what does this mean for Leyon County? The destabilization of our primary and most reliable funding source will will require tough decisions to be made should such an amendment pass during the
2026 general election. The combination of reduced revenues plus mandated service levels isn't just the worst unfunded mandate to uh to ever face Florida counties, but as noted by Vince, this is a fiscal crisis by design. As these measures continue to advance to
the legislature, we'll continue to keep the board updated. But for now, I'd like to hand it over to Ken to talk more about these impacts and how we're preparing to keep county residents informed and engaged on what property tax reform would mean for them. Good morning, commissioners. As Nikki
and the legislative team work with FAC to focus on the day-to-day tracking and monitoring of of all these property tax bills, keep in mind they've got their plate full. Um the seven you see here are the constitutional amendments moving in the house, but you've got over 50 property tax bills filed between the two
chambers. So um a lot to talk about and why this year's a little bit different. Uh I'm going to talk about what the board can expect over the next few months, why property tax reform is different this year, and when the time comes, the importance of educating
residents on the financial impact to county services. Today marks the third week of the legislative session, first day of the third week. Uh House is already postured to start hearing bills on the House floor and get them over to the Senate to put something on the ballot for 2026.
We anticipated this fast start when we talked to the board last year about the creation and the appointment of the House Select Committee on Property Taxes. We knew that rolling into the beginning of session, this was going to be an early priority for the House. And again, third week in, they're on the floor. they're ready to push out these
property tax amendments. But in conversations with FAC and other local governments, we're seeing a lack of awareness uh the real threat that some of these proposals have to local governments and the services provided.
Um perhaps it's overexposure to hearing about property tax reform year in and year out from the legislature. It's a little bit like the hurricane effect. I went through the last two hurricanes. they were fine. So, the next one, I'm not worried about it. It's no big deal.
>> You can't really blame voters for feeling this way. Um, property tax initiatives have become the norm when we step into a ballot box. In the last 20 years, nine of the last 10 general elections have included a property tax reform initiative. Since 2006, the
legislator's placed 17 amendments on the ballot. 13 have passed. So, why is this year any different? Why should people care? Again, as Nikki covered, the legislaturator is no longer looking at increasing the homestead
exemption by $25,000. They're no longer looking at adjusting the year-to-year increase in taxable value. They're no longer looking at a targeted approach maybe for low-income seniors like they've done in the past. They're swinging for the fences. They're trying to eliminate homestead property
taxes altogether for local governments with the exception being schools. That's 40% of our tax base. And the percentages don't tell the full story either, which is why we want to focus in for a minute on the the dollar impacts in this slide and and the need
to educate residents. Um once we know which and how many amendments may be on the ballot in 26, if voters approve these amendments, local governments would be prohibited from reducing funding for law enforcement, which is the largest expenditure in county
budgets. law enforcement in the jail. Some of these proposed amendments also include provisions that would have this same hold harmless uh provision for uh firefighters and other first responders. This is a new tactic on the part of the legislature. And it's important to
understand again because half the county's property tax revenue supports LCSO and the detention center. It's about 112 million just to give you an idea. The rest of the county's property tax revenue is 105 million. So when you see impacts of 40, 50, $90 million
coming out of $ 105 million, you start to get an appreciation for what the real impacts of this can be. And even though law enforcement is protected and in some cases fire and other first responders, the county still has other mandated responsibilities. You still have to fund
the other constitutional offices. You still have to fund the judiciary and the courts. You still have statemandated payments. So where do the cuts come from? And obviously this is going to be uh the the burden of reducing funding is going to be on the non-mandatory
services we provide from parks and libraries, community human services. Um with this in mind, you can appreciate that the numbers don't tell the full story. And so in later in the spring and the summer months, we want to bring back to you additional information once we
know what's on the ballot on how these impacts will affect the county services we provide. So commissioners, this is an example just of some materials we can produce later this spring or the summer to demonstrate how property taxes are utilized locally and how services would
be critically impacted by the reduction or elimination of property taxes. We're not seeking any board action today. the property tax reform or any public information campaign. But with session scheduled to end in mid-March, it'll position the board to have a more informed discussion at its budget
workshop in April. We'll know which amendments are on the ballot. We'll be able to focus in more on the specific impacts to Lyon County. And at your budget workshop in April, uh we'll also have the findings and recommendations from the alternative revenue study uh approved by the board for this budget
year. As you'll recall, uh, the board sought this alternative revenue study to assess the county's revenue structure, examine the reliability of alternative revenue sources, identify trends among other local governments, and provide strategies to best position you all, the
board, uh, with all the financial options and flexibilities to address these challenges. The alternative revenue study won't be a panacea. Uh we don't anticipate it being able to offset 40 50 $90 million in impacts, but it will get the board one year ahead of
property tax reform. The amendments, if approved, they'll impact your FY28 budget next month or April. We go into the the budget cycle for FY27. So you'll have one year to get ahead of future impacts. Commissioners, in addition to any
efforts that you all approve later this spring or summer, uh, FACK has already developed a keep Florida thriving social media campaign which is ongoing at this time. The campaign tells a story of what we do and why it matters. And we wanted to share just a short video with you by
fact. This will conclude my presentation and then I'll turn it back to the chairman. Magic tricks are fine for parties, not for politicians rewriting Florida's property tax system. They say we can eliminate all homesteaded property taxes
without cutting cops or firefighters or hurricane preparedness or public safety or anything else important. Sounds great. Here's the problem. They're not using math. They're using magic. In Florida, about 40% of all property tax
revenue comes from homesteaded properties. Eliminate those taxes and about 60% remains and the rest of it flows to public safety. Set that aside as untouchable. And hey, presto. But now
there's nothing left for roads, bridges, sidewalks, or street lights or clean water or trash collection. and the toilet doesn't flush, which I think we can safely call our critical service. All of which means one thing. If property taxes are eliminated, other
taxes will rise. The Conservative Tax Foundation says sales taxes would have to top 15% to fill the gap. In some areas, more than 30%. So, next time a politician promises to make property taxes disappear, follow the math, not
the magic trick. Ken, does that conclude your presentation? >> Yes, sir. >> Cool. Commissioners, discussion, open the floor for any questions for staff. Mr. Media, past chairman. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, staff. I know you guys are in a um, you
know, over there sort of fighting the uphill battle when it comes to this conversation and and I know FAC has leaned in on this stuff pretty heavily. Um, and I know I'm probably going to echo the sentiments of everybody around this table and everybody in this room is that we are very concerned about this.
Um, you know, I understand the legislaturator's desire to to modify uh tax burdens on our citizens, but as I've said before, and you ultimately whatever the legislature decides to do is what the legislature decides to do.
But from my perspective, I think that it's very important for us as as local elected officials and even, you know, as staff of a local government, I think it's important that when we have conversations in the grocery store and on the ball fields, we we let people
know and not in a um alarmist way or an exaggerated way or a somehow falsely provocative way of the real impacts of what we're talking about. And so you saw on the graphic there just a little I think just
touching the surface of what those impacts look like. And I think a lot of people when you tell them that are going to say, "Oh, you guys are just being alarmist. You know, you'll make it work. You'll figure it out." And and yeah, we probably will make it work and figure it out. But I think it it's important that
people understand in a real way the impacts of these proposals at the legislature. So, um I know that will be my goal as uh the district 4 commissioner is to make sure that my constituents are aware of these impacts and so they can be as fully informed as they want when they go to the ballot box
in 2026 to make a decision on how they want their tax burden structured. Uh, I think it also lends itself to conversations that we can have around this table outside of that issue at the legislature, which we really don't have a lot of control over in terms of how we as local elected officials can do what
we can to lessen the cost of living to lower the tax burden on our constituents because that's really the genesis of this conversation. And as we t as we learned, it's been going on for a long time. These kind of proposals have been on the ballot for a long time. And I think that's incumbent on us as local
governments to take a hard look at what we can do to lower the cost. Now, I know Leyon County runs a very lean operation and we've got all kinds of statistics to back that up, but it's a it's a it's a drip drip effect on people's life and their cost of living, whether you're talking about healthcare, you federal
income taxes or or um you know, the the cost of of uh our tax revenue has gone up or you know, waste management fees have gone up or you know, every little MSTU, every little thing that we do adds to people's lives. And that's where
we've gotten to this point. So, um, I think it's a double-edged sword. We need to make sure we let people know what's going on with this tax reform stuff. And at the same time, let's probably not a bad idea for us to workshop some ways that we can find some reductions and make people's cost of living lower. So,
uh, that's my comments on it, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity to speak and again, thank you guys and and thank our colleagues at FACK. Uh, I think the county administrator who I know is heavily involved in these conversations at the capital with FAC in coalition with them. And so, uh, uh, I know that this is a nonpartisan issue,
okay? There are Republican counties that are going to get hard hit hard by this. There are Democrat counties going to get hard by this. And at the end of the day, I would tell my my um contemporaries in in the state capital, in the state senate and the state house of representatives, our job first and foremost is almost like a a medical
professional. Do no harm. Okay? We are here to provide services to people in the most efficient and effective way possible. And we need those revenues to be able to do that. Nobody wants to charge anybody more than is necessary. But one way or the other, we have to provide a lot of these services. And and
if we can just look through that lens, I think we'll be all right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> Thank you, Commissioner Welch. Um, Commissioners, I I apologize. Commissioner Cummings has been on on uh this meet in this meeting remote. I have not called on her. Uh, Commissioner Cummings, are you with us?
>> Good morning, Mr. Chair. Yes, I've been here. I apologize. >> No, I apologize for not >> Yes, ma'am. I apologize for not recognizing you. You have the floor if you would like to be recognized for anything. >> Oh, well, thank you so much. Uh, I didn't have a mechanism to raise my
hand, but I just I've enjoyed the the sentiments from my fellow commissioners. And first of all, thank you, Commissioner Cabin. Good morning, everyone. Um, again I apologize for not being there in person, but upon advice of my doctor, I think you all will
appreciate me uh not being there. I just um thank the county administrator and Ken and those for the analysis so far as it related to cross country. I did have a couple of comments, but I'm not going to
to go back to that. But I think we've all just been relishing in the progress and the success of the cross country uh meet and I I certainly want to thank our county administrator Carrie Amanda Hidecker as well as Taylor Weaton for
all the work that they put into that. But right now I think we are looking at some possibilities of some legislative action that's not going to be very well taken with with our county. And I I believe we need to
continue to be proactive. I think under the leadership of our county administrator, we have taken that we've we have uh a company looking at some other ways where we can bring in revenue so that services to our constituents
will not be drastically cut. So I think under the leadership of of Ken, we've got our our legislative delegation working with the legislature and I just think we're in a good posture and we
just have to continue to to uh be vigilant and make sure that major services to our our constituents here in the county are not cut. So I think from a county standpoint,
from commissioner standpoint, I believe we're doing all that we can do now and we just have to wait and see what happens. the fallout with the legislature. I know many of us have have vowed to meet with with the lead leadership at the capital during this
legislative session and I believe that coupled with our our delegation with with our lobbyists uh I just feel that we are going to come out in a good position and if not like uh Commissioner Welch said we're going to face the task
and we're going to do what we have to do to make sure the services to our citizens the essential services to our citizens are not drastically cut. So, thank you, Mr. U Mr. Chair, Chair Caban, for the opportunity to say a few words. I appreciate
>> Thank you, Commissioner Cummings. Your your presence is dearly missed. And if I forget to call on you, just don't don't be shy to just jump in and interrupt me because it's you know, I'm it's I I may forget that you're you're on the on the phone. So, don't hesitate to jump in if needed.
Commissioner Miner, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I I think Commissioner Welch uh said it well and that, you know, our job as county commissioners is to make sure that the people we serve are fully aware of the implications potential implications of uh some of these ballot initiatives
should they should they pass. Um one thing that we've talked about that that Ken and Nikki brought up is that um all the proposals, the seven um protect first responders budgets, right? In other words, there it protects them from any future cuts to their budgets. But
what that means though, that also affects the ability of first responders over time to provide services to every county in the state of Florida. Because if if there are no cuts projected, if there if cuts are prevented, that doesn't prevent a future increase.
I mean, increases are also prevented, which means that over time as as costs increase for first responders, their budgets aren't increased either. So, we're also seeing a um a decline in the quality of services that they would be able to provide over time should some of these ballot initiatives pass. Is that
correct? >> Uh close. Um rather each of the proposals would prohibit local governments from reducing any funding levels specifically for law enforcement uh beginning in fiscal year 28. There's
two bills, House Bill 203 and 209 that have since broadened the definition of law enforcement to also include other first responder services. But to uh answer your question directly, we would be able to increase those funding levels, we would just be prohibited from
decreasing them. >> But the the pressure upon us though, if if if we reduce if we see our revenue decreased by 40%. It's going to be extremely hard for us to increase uh first responders budgets in light of the other services that we are um trying to
find any solution to to provide funding for. So what that means is that the financial pressure upon us and Lyon County as well as every single county in the state of Florida to increase first responder bud first responders budgets even though they might desperately need them is going to be even harder because of these initiatives should any of them
pass. That's my point. >> Yep. Exactly. >> Yep. >> Okay. Well, I also um I think the chairman said this as well and and and Vince, but uh the Florida Association of Counties has done a tremendous amount of work and research on this statewide,
seeing how the effects would uh um uh be uh applied to every single county and they've done a lot of work for Lyon County as well, too. Just want to thank all of their their folks for uh the work that they've done and and we'll see how this goes over the next several weeks. But um as Commissioner Welch said, I
think the job for us is to make sure that um the citizens that we represent are fully aware of what the implications are and and um how we would deal with them should some of these ballot initiatives end up passing. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> Thank you, Commissioner Minor. Commissioner, Mr. Vice Chairman, you're recognized.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I have a couple questions for if we saw something like the 40% cut. We You mentioned cutting essential services or removing what we consider essential services and we're still obligated to keep fully funded and not decrease law enforcement
and court administration. With a 40% cut, would we even have the funds to perform the obligated services of law enforcement, detention, and court administration? or would we actually be unable to just perform the statutory
obligated functions? >> The first bill on that sheet, which was the 40% cut, about a $93 million cash impact, um the property tax revenue that does not go to the sheriff's office, is about $105 million. So, you'd be making
a $93 million cut to $105 million uh expenditures in property tax revenue. So, it's just not even close. It's again, it's a new day with the legislature swinging for the fences. Um, the other one is is basically a 10-year
phase in of eliminating homestead property taxes in the the first year is about a um 18% or $43 million impact. >> And roughly how much do we support for court administration?
Court administration would be in your mandatory uh responsibilities. And there's two different types of mandatory responsibilities. Kind of think of this as a red light, yellow light, green light. Red light, you can't touch law enforcement. Yellow light, you have
mandatory expenses, some of which you may be able to play around with how how much staff or how how often you're replacing fleet vehicles and equipment in supporting the judiciary or constitutional officers. But then there's other things, statemandated payments. You get a bill, you have to
pay it. There's there's no leeway. >> What you're talking about in the 40% example, taking roughly 105 million of of the amount that currently only that left over after the sheriff's office budget, >> you take away 93 million and you leave roughly 10 million. And
>> that doesn't sound like it even covers statemandated payments and required administration. So we're not just talking about having a limited amount to do other things. We're talking about having to find a way to even do what we're required to before. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. And then what would the impact be
on us being able to pay our debt service? We have long-term debt service based on the historic operations, budget, revenue, and expenses that our citizens have asked of us over decades. What does that look like for us? >> We've paid the countyy's paid down a lot of debt in the last few years, and that
would be part of our analysis in the spring once we know what what's finally going to be on the ballot. And that could be multiple amendments. >> And then um do we know if any of these pass, which I think we need to plan for, we are going to have
to make drastic decisions. And now I know we as district commissioners and at large commissioners and local officials, part of uh why it's so important that we keep this home rule is we are often the closest to our constituents and we probably have our finger on the pulse best about what they care about most
about what we do. But we're going to have to make extreme decisions. Do we know do we have some real upto-date input from our constituents uh and citizens ahead of having to make decisions like this of what they value most? If we know
we're going to have to wipe all this stuff out, you know, we ought to really be well aware of what people will be most upset about. >> Commissioner, that was part of the discussion in the materials that once we know what's on the ballot and we come back to you in April, we would give you
those options in terms of a public outreach campaign, whether that includes any sort of formal survey. Uh, but again, you're going to be a year ahead of the impacts of the amendment. Um, so you would have that advantage to position yourself for FY28. >> Okay. And and I would I would think
actually it it'd be good to do a survey like that anyways whether or not this ballot because this is going to continue and we ought to be aware as uh uh commissioners have also said about doing what we can ahead of time um on efficiencies beyond
what we currently do as this comes up. This is not going away anytime soon. Um, and then, uh, I also want to thank FAC and I also want to thank, um, Vince and everyone who's been representing us and other local counties on this matter over the
years and especially this year. Because we often are asked by constituents, why do we have to do this? Why can't we do that? It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't match with what we want. And we have to give the frustrating answer of, the state has recently preempted it. The state has recently preempted it. and
it's hard to get people to be able in their day-to-day busy lives to get ahead of it and know it's going on now. I think that's our job um over the course of this year. And the main thing I think that I want people to be aware of is doing something like this at a state
level takes away your control of how you want your county to be. There are uh counties in Florida where their local citizens have decided they don't want to pay much in property taxes and they don't want libraries and parks and community health services like we do and they get to
choose that. And there are counties like ours where citizens have decided and voted in people who support uh paying more in property taxes to be able to have full library, full community services, full uh um support and full uh health and wellness impacts and a really
robust structure for our community. Um and this takes away that opportunity. You know, even without an overreaching, uh fiscal crisis by design from the state, if our citizens wanted us to make
drastic cuts, they could ask us to do it directly, and that's not what they've done here. And so, um I think that's important for us to consider. As with everyone, I'm not looking forward to having to deal with the what we do with this and and face our constituents who rely on us for a lot of what we do. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Vice Chairman. Commissioner Proctor. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, everyone. Um, Ken, I wanted to ask um in our notes, we were uh told that the board had authorized funding to hire a consultant
to assess the county's revenue structure and uh streams of uh of revenue. Where are we on that? Commissioner, you'll be getting an update on that at your April budget workshop with findings and recommendations and strategies to look
at. >> Commissioners, I may um differ a little bit from most of you. Uh I believe that either of the measures that were placed before us and given to us um in our notebooks uh is going to pass. Uh, I
don't think that the fat um nice little um commercial is going to be helpful. Wasting money. And if you put property tax relief on the ballot, um I'm going guesstimate that it's going to do better than uh recreational marijuana. I really
believe that. Um well, our fight is a legal one. And uh I would say to our county attorney that uh even if we had to fight like hell uh to keep this thing off the ballot, uh I think the issue of
home rule uh what does it mean? I think that the uh false classifications of protected classes um firemen, police, uh the other protected classes uh why they protected
and the masses are neglected and left to uh be injured from um draconian cuts uh that they have placed uh in front of the voters to do to themselves. Secondly, these are not legislative. This is not legislative reform. This is legislative
deform. And um why does the legislature, they're not cutting anything? It's the counties that are cutting. So for the legislators to take any bowels of what we've done, they who they need
to if they want to get serious about something, what they ought to be sharing with us is access to the gas tax. uh we don't have access to utility taxes. Uh there are other protected measures that
they refuse to utilize which we cannot preempt or usurp. I think there's a constitutional imbalance uh in their dictates to home rule. What does home rule mean? We need to litigate and fight like cats fight dogs. I also
believe commissioners that um president of Florida State walked in and said if we needed anything and blah blah blah. Um and I talked to the president um uh before I came in um he and his wife and um I believe that the president can be
helpful and he has a uh law firm over there on Pensacola Street across the street from the civic center and we need to engage FSU law students as a special project. Uh what is the fight back Florida? Uh what does home rule mean in
Florida? And why can't we utilize all of those legal minds? If this president wants to be helpful, he certainly has intellectual capital to lend to the struggle. Commissioners, I'm not expecting much from uh I talked to Davin last week over at the capital. A whole
different kind of struggle. um this whole anti-dei um and the attorney general opining that there are 80 laws that in his personal opinion uh no one ask his opinion uh he
offers his opinion to himself and says that there are 80 laws that will impact and need to unconstitutional he says what's unconstitutional is the fact that um we don't get to uh tax the alcohol and gas and get some of
that money. And what's unconstitutional is the state refuses to close uh loopholes that the bigs, the corporates might pay. Can we level uh a corporate tax um as some communities have um the
billionaire companies, the Walmarts, the We're not going to sue BISE out yet. We're going to let them get here first and get the pumps rolling. Uh, Mr. Sherman, but um the Amazon and the Walmarts sitting up here, can we do a
local tax there? Uh, we need to go and fight uh the fight which is required that we see is coming our way. And uh I'm certain that when that consultant makes recommendations, then all uh five
of us district commissioners going to have to fight each other and uh me and Caban is going to have to tighten up and fight Welch and all his greedy district and uh are going to say he has a needy district and it's going to be a fight
for limited resources that we've not seen. But I don't think that we should react to that without first. Then finally, m Mr. Chairman, we have capital which we never capitalize on and we need to file
lawsuits like like you know fighting for Greenland or something uh like fighting for Venezuela. We're fighting really for not just the soul of America but for all of Florida. And our advantage is the
second uh judicial circuit. Uh we hold offices just above their heads. And I think that if there's any government of the 67 county governments in Florida uh that would have a sensitive ear, Leyon
County filing lawsuit in the Augustus Akens courthouse will have um an open uh a sensitive ear to the Gregious posture. And the good thing about the track record of the second judicial circuit is
that they have not rolled over and been no judicial chumps and wimps. So, we're fortunate that we have a battery of judges uh who remain committed to their oaths and possibly have an interest in
understanding how you create classes of citizens who get to be protected and held harmless and everybody else goes to hell in first class section. um this is wrong and I believe that the
um I believe strongly that the um uh compartmentalizing of special classes of citizens who can be held harmless. And there is absolutely no crisis that Florida can articulate
that justifies the rest of us who are not in the special class being harmed because how does it advantage the state of Florida that our trash get picked up once a month? How does it advantage the state of Florida that we don't fix
potholes in Lyon County? What is the advantage for the state of Florida that we don't have libraries for our children to go to? I don't understand the public purpose, the public use. What elevates the state of Florida because we
don't have sidewalks. This is the ignorance. Um, and this is why the cacophony of ignorance combined as potential uh measures to put in front of the people to shoot themselves with.
And you really can't let people shoot themselves fight this at the courthouse. All out war. And um I believe that the rest of the state depends on us. We is the Capitol County Commission located
across the street. We have something nobody else has and we got the circuit the second that will listen to our pleas if we articulate them. So, Mr. Chairman, thank you for the time. Um, I'm not even looking at
this in terms of a campaign. If you ain't fighting this, you're just wasting time. we have to fight and it should be a legal war and it ought be with Florida State's uh law school students doing a hell of a lot of research uh on this issue. Thank you very kindly.
>> Thank you, Commissioner Proctor. Any other commissioners? Commissioner Maddox. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I think in times like this, we have to remember our tagline in being people focused and performance driven. Um, I have a question
for those who may you may be able to answer or Vince one or you two. Has a property tax initiative ever failed? >> I'm sorry, what's that? >> Has any of the property tax initiatives that initiatives that have come from the state have been put on the ballot ever failed or as of recent?
>> Since 2006, four of the 17 have failed. Uh, it was after the 60% threshold was put in. So they just failed to make 60%. >> Right. Right. And not that it matters, but were they far from that 60%.
>> They were not far. >> Yeah. >> I think I was watching a movie this weekend. Little trash TV for me, but um at one scene uh the guy says, "Sell me a pen.
Sell me a pen." And he said, "Write your name." All of a sudden, the guy needed a pen. He was able to sell him the pen. I think this comes down to value. I don't think it's it comes down to us fighting against the state on whether they should
do this or not or the idea of home rule. All that stuff is relevant, but when it comes down to it, this is on the ballot. How do we show value enough to our constituents that they see and not robbery to for us to continue to operate
with property taxes the way we've operated in the past? I don't think we're we're we're doing enough. I think in Leon County, I think we do a decent job, but I will say statewide, um, there's not enough of a premium on marketing, how great our
services are, what we actually provide. We don't have a budget for that. Most people will see that as as waste. But when it comes to moments like this where the state's trying to take 93 million of 105 that you got, I think these are the times that we start to sell the pen and show how relevant how needed that we are
uh not just in Lyon County but but across the state. I have another question because I think we have to be fair in this. Mr. Administrator, um what has been our property tax growth say year by year over year?
>> It's fluctuated very little. our our value increases again and and to your point, Commission Commissioner Maddox, I think you have a lot of South Florida representatives who who uh or in particular very engaged on this issue who have seen in their counties um 19%
20% 22% 25% growth year in year out. I tell legislators a good year for Lyon County is 9%, a bad year is 7%. I mean we're very steady. We're very I mean and so again I think that's part of the issue that's driving a lot of this.
>> And so with that being said, if you think about let's think about those South Florida um representatives and commissioners and counties and residents that we're talking about, can you imagine can you imagine if one year we had 25% increase in revenues in Lyon
County? Can you imagine that? Can you imagine what that looks like for us? I'm not even sure this board uh would accept that kind of increase uh without cringing a bit. So, can can we can we say that the state is wrong for those representatives that are coming from
those those counties and and cities are wrong for wanting to look at something like this? I don't I don't think that we can. Is it is it a problem if you're taking in 25% year after year after year, 19% year after year after year of property tax increases and you're not
increasing the millage, the property the property rate or the the property prices are just going up so rapidly so quickly that you're picking up these kind of revenues. I I mean I I I get it. I mean I'm I'm sure if we had a problem like that, we'd probably try to do something
about it. But there's other ways to do something about it. I think going nuclear on counties like Lyon County that that does not experience that 25 uh percent 19% 18% growth is is not the way to go about it. I think we do a good job
of managing our revenues. I think we do a great job of making sure that we're fair to our citizens and the property taxes that we bring in and our services are second to none. That's why we get every year we get award after award after award after award and I'm I'm proud of what county administrator and you all the staff has done to show
value. I just think when it comes down to it, Commissioner Park may have a point in that this will be on the ballot, but does it sound good to a resident to say that 60% or whatever the number is going to be of your property taxes uh could be saved in a year or
over 10 year phase in. Yeah. I mean, who who wouldn't everybody loves to sell, right? But when you juxtapose that with the fact of what is the value proposition, what is the value that you lose by by foregoing giving that 60%.
Everybody will pay for something that's worth it. Everybody will pay for something that's worth it. Nobody's going to complain about it when it's worth it. Nobody's Everybody will pay for something that they absolutely know that they need. Everybody will pay for something that they absolutely know that
they need. How do we become that relevant in our constituents lives? How we become that relevant statewide? How do counties become that relevant uh in in in Florida citizens lives? Um and so I think we got to think about that as far as I think last year, what was the
what was the the cut this the state did last year to their revenues if there was any >> the communication services tax revenue? >> How much was it? It's a >> few hundred thousand >> percentage. few hundred thousands. >> I mean, have they ever even contemplated
cutting this type of percentages out of their revenues? >> I'll give you just a good example. I don't want to prolong the debate, but the it really sort of puts the issue uh really in focus when you consider and
Ken and I have talked about this a lot. The Florida legislature is responsible for one property tax. It's called the RLE >> for schools. >> For schools, >> right? If you look at the trend lines of what counties have done and what the legislature has done and the one property tax that they control, it's the same. Right. So, right. So, I'll uh I'll
end on that though. I just I just think right now Commissioner P makes a good point. I don't I don't think this I think this gets put on the ballot, but I think our our our our focus uh facts focus, other counties focus focuses that that believe in home rule and what we're trying to do needs to be around showing
the value that we are to our citizens such as that. uh that they'll fight for us while we're fighting for ourselves. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. >> Yes, you recognize >> directly on point to what Commissioner Maddox uh raised and his question was, has the state ever uh done inflicted
upon themselves uh this kind of u uh loss of revenue. And I would say that uh to that question, what the state has done religiously um in particular beginning with uh Governor uh Jeb Bush
is to create um loopholes and um for corporate um uh corporate uh entities in the state to not pay taxes. So the state has denied itself income. Uh and to the
extent that they defer uh and disallow corporations to pay taxes in the state is to the extent that they've been willing to um deny themselves income. But offsetting what they refuse to uh
assess to the bigs should not be offset uh upon uh others who are not qualified as the bigs are in those selective class. And I I could just say that, you know, to make sure everybody understands when you select a class of who benefits
and who it's like saying you black and you can't live in this neighborhood, this is off or you this stand down. Uh this is exactly what occurs when we do the citizens of our state that they're protected, they're protected. Uh the bigs don't pay
corporate taxes and da da da da. So I was just want to be on point to reflect on Commissioner Maddox's uh Commissioner Proctor. Um, Commissioners, you know, I this issue of property tax is something I'm a little, you know, kind of torn
about because one, I I do believe that the affordability crisis is real. I do believe property taxes have I mean, it's I don't believe this is factual. Property taxes have outpaced growth
relative to population in most counties across the state of Florida, Leyon County included. Um, so there's a reason why it's so popular amongst voters, and that's because
voters feel that their property taxes that they are paying more in property taxes than the service that they are receiving, right? And so I think we as local elected officials should look at that a little bit as a reflection point, right? One, are we educating our
constituents well enough to know that this is what they're getting with their property taxes and this is the service we're providing? Two, I think that they need to be confident in what they're paying in property taxes.
And three, I ultimately think that, you know, we need to make sure that we are holding our ground when necessary before whether or not we roll the military up or back or even if we don't roll it back. Right? Every year that I've been
elected on this board, our our budget has increased, surpassing population growth relative to property taxes. And every single year, I voted against the the mill rate because I think we should look at rolling it back. However, again, why I'm torn on this is I'm not naive to
the fact that we provide great services with those property taxes and many, many essential services. However, I will go back to my original point. The affordable crisis is real. And so when you look at what's going on with property values
that have gone up significantly since 2019 and 2020 um and you look at the services that we are providing. Well, I believe the sheriff's budget was roughly $80 million in 2019. And what is the what is the proposed budget of the
sheriff's respond? What's the proposed sheriff's budget this year in 2026? 125. So it went from roughly 80 to 125. That's what percent increase 50% plus from that point what's the what's the
change from that point to now 2019 to now so I think it's if we let's call it 80 million if they're proposed 125 50% would be 120 so it's over 50% it's over 50% increase and what's our population change from 2019. Does anyone know?
>> I could tell you, but I could also tell you, and again, all all good points, but our cost increases are not tied to population growth. >> So that's so that's what I'm that's actually that's actually that is actually Thank you, Mr. Cra, because
that actually I believe proves my point, right? Is that we're ser we're serving the roughly the same amount of people with a with a significantly higher budget. And granted, you know, we are providing great services, right? But I think that
the for us as local government, Commissioner Proctor, you know, I'm down to fight always, right? Especially for our people. But I think what's very, very important for us right now as a board is to be prepared for change, be prepared to adapt. You know, we have an
incredible staff. We have an incredible county administrator. And I think that we should look at leading the way and be prepared for change. And you know, this budget cycle, constitutional officers are going to come to us and they're going to ask us for an increase, right?
Just like they do every single year. I think it's important that we start relaying to them, hey, we got to pump the brakes here until we we see what change is coming, not only this year, but in future years. You know, also I think that we need to
look at big picture when I talk about adapt and changing. You know, I've talked about, you know, blueprint in our sales tax for years. And listen, we have a billion dollars plus and projects over the next 20
years. And if there's going to be significant impacts to our budget like like it's being proposed in front of us, we might have to go back to voters and ask them are these some of these projects more important than providing
essential services because we may need some of that sales tax revenue. That's a conversation I think we as a board should look at having. And two is, you know, I we've already had this discussion, but consolidation, um, I know it's a it's something we're going to talk about with voters this in
a straw poll this spring. I mean, this fall. However, we need to look at all options on the table if we're looking at a 20 to 30% budget impact. But one thing I will say is
I believe this board can roll with the punches. I believe our staff can roll with the punches. I believe that no matter what happens that we we will be creative. We will adop we will, you know, adapt and we will figure out a way to provide good essential services. But
I'll close with this. I do think that Mr. county administer. We should look at um you know through our community community media and relations making sure that we are educating our constituents about the true and the services that we provide with
property with our you know with our property taxes. I mean a good one is look at Oakidge Road. We just repaved Oakidge Road. We have speed feedback signs. Great work to our public works crew. But like, hey, those road improvements, sidewalks, road improvements, those aren't happening.
And so, I think letting folks know the the the correlation between the two is equally important in the conversation that we're having today. So, commissioners, I'm going to move on to our next um our next topic, which is uh artificial intelligence. Mr. County, I'll pass back to you. >> Thank Mr. Chairman, commissioners.
Again, we can't talk about the future and kind of preparing for the future without talking about this next subject. And I just wanted to let the board know we're seeking no action from you on this, but we do have a a presentation on this and Matt's going to help us uh make up time. No pressure there, Matt. And on
on this AI, I convened a cross departmental workg group uh recently, commissioners, where uh to develop an AI policy along with practical guidance and resources to support responsible uh long-term AI integration into county operations. And so that policy will be
coming back to the board later this year. I've asked Matt just to provide a a brief presentation on this. I promise you Matt's presentation was only uh done uh 95% by AI, but uh but Matt's Matt's ready to roll. >> Well, the real challenge, Mr. Administrator, is to find out which 5%
was made by a human. So, I'll I'll let you guys figure that out as we go. Um to the administrator's point though about making up some time, there is one thing that artificial intelligence does particularly well, and that's summarization. So, let me move very very quickly by pushing the pedal to the metal. the few things to walk away from
this brief update and again as the administrator had said this will be coming back to the board later in this year as a fleshed out policy with further analysis. So stay tuned but this opportunity is really to gesture to the fact that this is the right time and inflection point for effective
innovative organizations to be considering artificial intelligence policies and in the realms of procurement legal complications and training and compliance and all the other good things. This is that moment. We are in that right time right now. In addition to that, we have the foundation
in place to not only move forward with the policy but to pilot projects as we develop the policy, which is a very significant opportunity to make it real world practicable. The last bit is this is going to take an organizationwide effort. Absolutely. We'll talk about the workg groupoup composition at the end
and then I'll turn it back over. But hey, real quick, AI or artificial intelligence is a leadership priority, not a technology project. Let me be very clear about that with the folks in the room. That is why this is part of the strategic retreat today is to talk about
how it aligns with the five-year strategic plan and goals of the county. AI is a leadership priority, not a technology project. So again, all communitywide effort in addition to the organization. Here is why now is the right time. Look, there is guidance at
the national level. There is guidance at state association levels. We're talking about national association of county. We're talking about other large organizations and counties that have made these policies. Now, this is that right time again for the most effective and professional organizations to be picking up this policy and in the future
implementing it organizationwide. I want to say just why is this the right time also? Because just 4 days ago at the college of law just nearby was the AI day in the capital bringing together some of the smartest minds both legal and in artificial intelligence and technologists and all the other good
stuff. And that was part of um Sergio Ortega was there from Amazon uh having the opportunity to explain how artificial intelligence works on global scales and how it can work for you locally. That is part of why that's time. In addition, Taly State College in
partnership with UF is having an AI in the classroom or in the education space just this week. Again, all the right resources and minds are levied and specific on this topic. In the interest of time, we're not going to get our hands too dirty right now, but I can't really talk too much with you commissioners if I don't explain a
little bit about, well, what is artificial intelligence? Hey, if you pin me down in an elevator and you ask what is that and what does it mean to me? It is the autocorrect of complex work. What I mean that is if you're texting on your phone and things like that, there's that
spell check that's catching you maybe even right now changing those words to what they really should be rather than what you tried to put into your phone. That is the opportunity that we have in artificial intelligence across all of the complex essential services that we do at the county to be able to levy that
technology and apply it to the space to do better work to find errors and to also be very cognizant of the risk associated with applying artificial intelligence to the workplace because not only is it a formative technology that can really move you forward, but it
does have the opportunity to amplify issues within the data that it uses. Um, so again, the quick hands-on project today would have been pulling up the chat GPT or another large language model and we'd say, "Hey, write a poem about Leyon County's natural beauty in the
voice of Wuang Clan or something." I would I would appeal to you. Artificial intelligence can easily creatively make that poem for us. That would not be the issue. When I tell you that, hey, I'm going to use artificial intelligence to apply it to building permits to make sure that your roof doesn't collapse or
that your bathroom is done to code or that your insurance can, then you're like, wait, hold on. That's a little bit different than cute. We're getting a little away from creative. I would also say artificial intelligence can be applied to things like, I don't know, your healthcare information. It can diagnose. It can do these things. At that moment, everyone in this room would
say, well, hold on. That's not that poem from Wuang Clan that we were talking about. That's something that is genuinely important. and essential and must absolutely be right. So that's that's where we are at that inflection point right now where we can levy these
resources to help us do that essential work but there is an expectation not only I would assume of this board our administrator and our public to do it right transparently and to build trust. So that when we talk about applying it to these spaces, we follow foundational
use. This is all established at the national and highest level about these are the basic foundations that you need to process when you talk about artificial intelligence. Your materials talk more. There's more specifics in there, but please know informed by the National Institute of Technologies. It's informed not only by the National
Association of Counties, but other areas is the work that we do in our work group and in addition bringing our um expertise to bear. Speaking of that, what you see up on the table or screen right now is the folks that are in the room as part of this workg group that
meets monthly. It is chaired by me because I didn't run away fast enough when Vince was looking for someone. Uh, no, seriously, it's chaired by me because of the role that we have spanning across all the work areas and the familiarity we have not only in emergency management, but convening
people together to do good focused work from a lot of different disciplines. So you got IT and cyber security. Obviously when I say it's not a technology project, it doesn't mean that there's not technology involved. Legal and compliance and budget and chassity sits with us and human resources and workforce development because whatever
policy you implement, if people don't know that it exists, it really doesn't much matter that you got a policy. So it's about staff training and personnel and most especially in the same in the realm of public safety and emergency management. There are initial pilots done in other communities about applying
artificial intelligence to 911 call taking, triaging, curating. Obviously, those are high stakes elements and those need to have a policy that undergurs them to make sure that they're effective, that they're considered and assessed and maybe even by policy, not
implemented. We're not saying that every instance of artificial intelligence in the work area for the county makes a bunch of sense. Many do not at this time and may do so in the future. And again, data governance, privacy and ethics. And then the public information component,
the public trust. If we are not implementing artificial intelligence in the interest of transparency and public trust, well, we shouldn't implement it at all. And fundamentally, that is also about data security and privacy and where does your data go when you give it to someone? Does it train a model? All
of these are big considerations of the work group that chew on it day in and day out to bring back to this board later in this year with that fleshed out policy and analysis. So again, I do want to gesture to the fact that we do have guardrails in place right now for the tight focused implementation of
artificial intelligence in some use cases within the county because that just helps us make a better policy. We can't write from an ivory tower that says thou shalt do a thing if we don't have the ability to use it while implementing this policy. Again, all in the most controlled and specific
environments. I bring this up too because as Dr. Angela Long from the Talis State College has said, we had the opportunity to work with her over the past several weeks um to vet our policy, talk more about what it does in large strokes. She says very clearly to us,
artificial intelligence can be likened to that of fire, where fire brings to you the ability to cook food, warm homes, and have a better house and safety, but it can also burn that same house down. That's a dramatic analogy, but it's something that we need to
really hold close through the work of this work group that will deliver on all of these key areas you see up. We'll establish that purpose and scope. will bring back most importantly and I'm just going to highlight one of these bullets again all that is in your materials the human in the loop standard. What that
means is a human initiates a request or receives that information back and then disseminates that information or takes that action with artificial intelligence. No artificial intelligence right now contemplated in the policy acts independently with the public or
staff. It always needs to have a staff member who has been trained and is ready to engage with that data, check that data. This is a de distrust and verify model when it comes to providing artificial intelligence and making sure that it is improving the work area and
promoting public trust. So again, in the very very quick AI summarization point, that's where we are at right now having met many different times since convened by the administrator and this will come back to the board later in the year with more detail. So there you go. There was 5% in there that was human made. I
swear. >> Commission Moner to recognize. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it. Matt, thank you for the presentation and uh I fully uh agree with the the county's position on this and and being very uh cautious and deliberative about the steps we take. The opportunities are
incredible. Um but uh I I used to be an IT guy. you know, when I when I graduated from college, I got my um my my first job was as a consultant and spent nine years working with um Accenture, uh developing enterprise systems, uh and did a lot of work
overseas as well as the United States. So, I I have that tech background. Um and so I I feel like I've got to be the person in the room just to kind of talk about some of the the concerns that are out there. Um the this doesn't apply to what the county's work is doing. You know, I think the county is doing exactly the the the thing it has to do,
taking the right steps right now to be very thoughtful about how to proceed. But I just want to bring up a couple things really quickly. You know, the the godfather of of AI, Jeffrey Hinton, he won the uh Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel Prize in Physics in 2024. And he talks a lot about artificial intelligence having
tremendous potential benefits for health care, for um uh education, medicine, etc. But he also says that we've got to be very concerned about it. He has a great metaphor that I'm going to read real quickly. The best way to understand I AI is to picture a a metaphor of
somebody who has this really cute tiger cub. Unless you can unless you can be very sure that it's not going to want to kill you when it grows up, you should worry. Um, now he's talking about the potential control of AI of of society, but but I also I bring that up because I
really want to talk more about the potential benefit, the potential concerns we have here in Lyon County with regard to the workforce. Uh, Lyon County has 160,000 jobs in the coming year or two or whatever. I mean, we may
see AI eliminate those jobs. Um, conservatively, let's just say 10%. Now, a lot of experts say the elimination of jobs because of AI could be much greater than that, but let's just say 10%. That means we have 16,000 people in Lyon County who may be uh who whose jobs may
be eliminated in the near future. What that means for us is we just need to as a community, not just Leyon County, but as a community, we need to really think that carefully through um and make sure that that this community is prepared as best it can be with that tremendous shift in our labor force. Um the Talis
State College is doing some really good work now um in in in in planning the classroom of f of the future for AI as well as the job market. But we've as a community we've got to be very cognizant of that and make sure that we do everything we can to be prepared for
what could be um a tremendous tectonic shift in in in the job market here and how that might affect the community, how that would affect county government. Um, I just feel like I I need to bring that up um uh because it's something that we will
be dealing with in the near future. Uh, but all that being said, what the county is doing here, uh, the the working group it's set up, the expertise within that working group is just the right level of expertise we need to do to take a look at how we can play apply AI here in the
county. uh we just need to be careful about um how incredible change of technology is going to affect our lives and how we can prepare for it so we can maximize the benefit and uh minimize the uh downsides. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> Thank you, Commissioner Miner.
>> Uh yes, sir. >> Hey, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Real quick, I just wanted to add um I used an AI generator that's approved by Lyon County Schools recently to have my students do a scavenger hunt of Lyon County's 2025 annual report. and no amount of generative AI could help
students pronounce Asagi or Lamey. Um, and so and both of their kids go to my school. So, I just wanted to say that it does still require some authentic intelligence in the world to pronounce their names. All right. Thank you guys very much. >> Thank you for that important information. Commissioner W, Mr. Vice
Chair, >> thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to everyone for putting thought into this. Um, I see there's benefits to it and I appreciate that we make sure we categorize the risk here because uh I don't know about y'all commissioners, but sometimes I go to
these conferences and they get my number and they call me and say we can do these great AI customer services stuff and I want to tell them is it the same AI bot that my bank uses or that uh any other company uses and it's complete trash. So, I just appreciate that we need to make sure that we focus on quality and
not just sales pitches um so that we continue to be the most responsive local government here. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. Uh commissioners, my my comment on this very brief. I mean, listen, I think um anyone can see where the future's headed
relative to AI. Um that doesn't mean that it doesn't have certain downfalls. However, one thing that I think is important and Commissioner Miner, you you you pointed this out, but you know, Tali State College has an AI uh program for students. I think it's a part of
their AS program and any way, shape or form that we could, you know, collaborate with Talis State College through Leyon County just to provide, you know, continued education with for for students or just as a community, I think will be very beneficial as we all
just work together. So, um, any other comments relative to this topic, commissioners? All right. Well, listen, commissioners, it is 11:44. Um, we will do a brief break till noon. Um, and then we, uh, we we'll 30 minutes
behind schedule. And so, we'll then we'll come back and we'll talk about our strategic uh, plan updates and and then we'll be out of here. All right. young lady. Is 3 3:00 going to work for you? Okay. All right. I'll see you out there
at 3 o'clock. All right. about you I will call this this meeting back into session at 12:01 p.m. Um, commissioners, before we get started on the next item, I would like to take
um a quick moment and privilege to recognize our FSU student senate president, Alexia Holidayiday, that's here. Alexia, will you stand up? Additionally, we have the student senate pro temporal fry. Thank you for thank you for allowing us to use your
chambers. We are in this the student SGA the senate SGAA chamber. So appreciate you guys taking the time to say hello and be here and thank you for allowing us to use your chambers today. All right, commissioners. We will now pick up where we left off. We're on section three strategic plan update for
fiscal year 2026. And to start, we will have a status report on the strategic plan progress uh presented by our county administrator and team Michiger. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman, commissioners. I'm going to jump right back in. First, we're going to just quickly walk through some of the key elements of the strategic plan before providing a
snapshot on our progress uh and our initiatives uh on and our five-year targets and bold goals. And again, just a quick overview, but as you see here, these elements are not intended to change, as you know, because they're uh adopted as a part of the five-year plan. We've got our vision statement, our
mission statement, again, not intended to change. If you go to our four priority areas, our strategic priority areas of the economy, the environment, quality of life, and governance, and along with those directional statements, again, those are not intended uh uh to
change, but but critical elements. And uh next year, uh we'll be back working on uh those as we go through our our plan year. That gets us, commissioners, to our uh summary on the screen of our progress to date on our strategic
initiatives. We have 102 strategic initiatives in the pipeline in this 5-year plan. You know, those are the actionable items that affectuate those directional statements uh in those four priority areas. Uh there are currently uh 96 of theund uh two strategic
initiatives or 94% that are complete with the remaining six initiatives in project uh process and progress and on track to be completed by the end of the plan year. Uh and to be sure, commissioners, many of the initiatives under the complete uh category do not stop uh but rather reflect programs and
policies that once in place obviously remain in place and require continued resources uh to support. Uh and so um it's been uh we we've also included a complete ongoing subcategory so you can contemplate between those that are complete and ongoing versus those that
are complete in their entirety. Those are the one and done and again uh those are are are are characterized as such in the summary. Um again commissioners your retreat materials beginning on page 51 contain a
detailed analysis of each of the current 12 102 rather strategic initiatives. Uh they're in the plan again and that number uh will grow today uh with the board's addition of new strategic initiatives. So, to round this out, uh,
commissioners, again, the last part of my overview, I want to briefly, uh, touch on our bold goals and targets. As you may recall, uh, the county's goals and targets are aligned with each of our strategic priority areas. Again, our five-year targets, they're important because they communicate to the public
and to staff the result we were aggregate level results. We expect to to accomplish over a 5-year period of time. And of course our bold goals uh which were adopted into the strategic plan back in 22 um uh because we felt it was important to really push ourselves or
have stretch goals, goals that we didn't know whether we'd be able to achieve or not. And they were by definition very ambitious. And so each of our strategic priority areas also has a bold goal which you see uh before you. Again, all of which we continue to make very good progress on and we believe we're going
to hit um uh in our plan uh horizon. So again, commissioners, um we continue to make great progress on that. Beginning on page uh 114 in your materials is a detailed analysis for every target and each bold goal. And um again uh these
five years uh bold goals and and and five-year targets again are uh adopted as part of the five-year plan and not uh intended to change. But that brings us to uh commissioners our final section of the day which will provide the board the opportunity to discuss amending or
adding strategic initiatives to the current plan. As you may know, the county's plan is a uh living document. So it's intended to be updating to reflect changing needs and conditions and opportunities uh of the organization and the community. And so with that in mind, the board may wish to add new or
amend existing strategic initiatives. Um, again, I should probably tell the board, I probably don't have to even mention this. Probably a good idea to keep uh some of the earlier conversations we've had in mind about property taxes and some of the uncertainties in mind as you're developing uh those um include in your
um retreat materials and as shown on the screen. Uh staff has included as we do each year a list of proposed strategic initiatives just to sort of start the list. Um many of the ones that we put up there are just those that we amend from year to year to reflect uh the change or
an evolution in in that particular uh initiative. So in one year it may be uh consider a program, the next year it may be adopted, next year may be implement. So it just it just considers that next step to an existing initiative. So that again kind of gets the ball rolling. Uh
uh at this point I'm going to turn the meeting back to the chairman to facilitate the board's identification of new strategic initiatives and as part of uh uh tomorrow's agenda of course um there will be a ratification item which will reflect uh all of which the board
um uh uh adopts today. So with that, Mr. Chairman, I'll hand it off to you. >> Thank you, Mr. County Administrator. Commissioners, before we get started on this, um, a couple quick things. One, um, Madam Attorney, does it take, um, just I have this in my notes, so I want to
clarify. Any new strategic initiative or any amendment to an existing one, does that require supermajority vote or simple majority? >> Simple majority. >> Simple. >> Yes. >> Okay, great. So, um, commissioners, what I what I intend to do is just go around the room. Everyone will have the floor. Um, I just
ask, you know, there's no I'm not going to be on a time crunch with everyone. Just just be respectful so everyone has adequate time and if we need to have a conversation on a one on an item, we will. Um, what I intend to do is is go around the room, everyone provide their strategic initiative and we do one uh
formal motion to adopt at the end. So, it'll be all under one motion. If I do feel like something happens to be, you know, controversial by any by any means, I will just uh use my uh chairman discretion to pull that one and we vote on it uh separate at the end of after
every commissioner has had the opportunity to speak. Um so with that being said uh we will we will go ladies first and uh Commissioner Cummings you are recognized for any strategic um init proposed initiatives or changes.
>> Thank thank you Mr. Chair. Can you hear me? >> Yes ma'am. We hear you. Wonderful. >> Can you guys hear me? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for for the opportunity. And I I want to thank the uh county administrator for the overview and for the summary. And I'm just so
proud of all of the the goals that have been reached and several have have been achieved. And I think we we owe that to our great staff and employees uh throughout the county.
Excuse me. Sorry about that. I'm very proud though when I look at the goals and targets that we have achieved and in the area of permanent supportive
housing. I see that we almost all have almost completed our goal and we still have what a year left on this particular five-year plan. I'm also just real proud
of our human services initiatives. I' I'd like to uh and as you guys know, I have special affinity for our our women and our children. I'm I'm proud of the
bold goal that we have uh to place um individuals who are homeless in uh supportive housing. And when I look at our goal and the fact that we have completed over 80% of our projection,
I'm just very very proud proud of that, Mr. Chair. But I I've got I've I've got a primary concern in the human services area with um homelessness as it relates specifically to our women and our
children. And as many of you know, uh I sit on the children's services council and we have established several um um family resource centers or in our communities in Woodville and in um I'm
sorry, Fort Braden and in our Cross Creek area. We've been holding weekly meetings in the Frenchtown uh area, Springfield area, and it's just the anecdotal
um testimony from many of those individuals that have uh attended those weekly meetings that has really uh touched my heartstrings. And when I hear anecdotals of of women coming out of the
woods on a daily basis to receive food and other accommodations, uh taken back into the woods for family and children. Uh it it makes me question
our society and how a civilized society here in the in the 20 21st century. It just bothers me that we have children living in the woods. I'm not sure uh and the anecdotal individuals
weren't sure if they were in school, how they take baths, their hygiene. And one thing we do know that our children um aren't cared for properly. even if they go to school, they're not in a
great posture to learn or to survive or to thrive. So, one of the things that I'm concerned with is sheltering our homeless women and children. And so one of the
initiatives uh strategic initiative that I'd like to add is to explore opportunities for additional collaboration with the children's services council of Leyon County
and community partners to further support women and children experiencing uh homelessness. And that's just sort of uh in my opinion being a little bit more specific
um with our bold goals to place um homeless individuals in permanent supportive housing. I I I would just like as commissioners to be more
specific as we look at homeless women and homeless children. And I certainly hope uh Mr. Chair, I I plan to raise something similar at our commission
meeting. And I certainly uh hoped and asked for the support of the commissioners when I asked for uh an item, an agenda item to to come back to look more specifically at how we can be a lot more proactive and intentional and
deliberate into alleviating homelessness as it relates to our women and our children. They should not be living in the woods. And I don't know how we can be a society that advocates
no child left behind if we have children that are living in the woods. Now, Madame County Attorney, I know that there's a concern from from parents about children and families and the fact
that if they have the children living in the woods that the children could be taken away. there's a concern that perhaps they're not they're neglecting their children and under child neglect they could fall
uh within the dependency court for shelter uh sheltered children. So, I know that's a concern that I'm hoping with an agenda item uh that I plan to raise at our commission meeting that we can explore that and perhaps look at maybe some
alternatives uh or some um not just alternatives but there there might be some items in the law where we can address this homeless segment of the population without
triggering um dependency. the independency actions. So, um that's the initiative that I'd like to add. Uh Mr. Chair, I'm not sure if it should be as form of a motion or if so I move that particular initiative
and I can repeat it if necessary. >> Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Cummings. What I'll do, we'll put them all up on the board and then we'll we'll ratify them with one motion at the end of at the end. So, yours is up on the board. >> Okay. Do you need us Do you need me to repeat it?
>> No, ma'am. We have it on the board right now. >> Okay. It's one other thing I'd like to raise as well. >> Yes, ma'am. Um, again, again, uh, I'd like to uh add uh the
county to support um the children's services council in establishing a family resource center uh to serve residents in the Frenchtown and Griffin Heights uh communities. Now,
I do know, you know, we already have a goal in general with supporting the children's services council as it relates to, I think, Fort Braen. Uh but I'd just like to add that as an initiative as well for support uh for
Frenchtown, Griffin Heights communities and if there are county facilities uh available in those areas to explore uh housing of a family resource center in those facilities as well.
>> Okay, county administrator is nodding his head and he says he got it. I think they're right working on the right. >> Oh, awesome. Is there anything else? Um, Madame Commissioner, >> yeah, uh, that's all I have. U, Mr. County, uh,
um, Mr. Chair, as it relates to adding uh, strategic initiatives, I might I have a comment or two later, but thank you for the opportunity. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you for your input on those two items. Uh I'm commissioners, I'm just going to go around the room. Commissioner M. I'm going to start with you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um a few months ago, the board approved uh county support for the development of a digital literacy program. Uh this program would uh be directed toward the public to help the public uh avoid uh scams like you
know fishing, identity theft, etc. as well as um helping to help uh help them build productivity with with AI. Um development in that program is ongoing. Uh it's going really well and we think that the first course will be conducted for the public in March. Um speaking
with the county administrator the other day, we wanted to go ahead and and and and basically make this uh a strategic initiative level effort uh because of the the comments I made before. the more resilient we can help our public become with uh technology uh and AI the better.
So this uh this strategic initiative would read as the following. Launch a digital initiative in partnership with local stakeholders for residents to strengthen online safety, scam awareness and practical AI skills through accessible workshops, clear branding and
coordinated outreach. And I think staff already has that um text that they can put on the board. Would that be the strateg strategic initiative that I would add? And that's it. That's what I have today, Mr. Chairman. >> Thank you, Commissioner M. Anything else? >> No, sir. Thank you.
>> Okay, great. >> Mr. O'Keefe, you rec Mr. Vice Chairman, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I have two. Um, we had a a a thorough community health needs assessment done by TH and I'd like to add that we identify
opportunities to support the findings of that community health needs assessment to improve overall health outcomes by addressing our community's most significant health related needs. And I believe the already has that. >> Does that look good? >> Looks good.
>> Cool. Um and the other is as it relates to what we see more and more are vacant or abandoned big box uh commercial properties. So, um, you know, in particular, I think about Appalachia Parkway and the old Toys R Us building,
the, uh, the strip mall there at the next intersection. We start to see more vacancies and, um, you know, the risks that things like major malls, um, become more and more vacant and it uh, really has a detrimental effect to the community. And so I'd like to add a
strategic initiative to evaluate the comprehensive plan and land development codes to identify and implement regulatory incentives to support reuse of vacant big box commercial sites that are near jobs and transit along major
corridors for affordable housing andor mixeduse development. And those are the two that I have. >> Awesome. Love that idea. Comm uh Commissioner O'Keefe. I think there's a ton of opportunity for us to provide incentives for those locations, too. Uh, Commissioner Proctor. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman. Um, you commissioners have established two. I'll linger with two. Um, I was impressed by the conversation at the charter review. Um, uh, chaired by Miss Johnson Haynes last week and, uh, they came to, uh, unanimous vote,
uh, dealing with poverty, uh, as a matter of concern, focus for our community. uh if it comes to us from a charter review, I like to um beat them there to say that we adopt it um as a measure that poverty um and I'm not sure
I'd have to massage the language between now and tomorrow um or this afternoon. Um but poverty um that we care, we focus, we um um strive to eliminate it or whatever. But I think that that
language that was captured uh last week I support. Secondly, um chairman uh Florida&M is uh desiring to to establish a food council and um I believe that all things food uh
similar to those that um Shington uh Lambie has um crafted for uh us tomorrow. uh the I think it's agenda item um 10 I believe u in our agreement with uh Carter to do food distribution
excellent stuff and I believe that FAMU's effort to um take the A in FAMU and and and and and make it a capitalize a um agriculture to benefit our community is worthy of our support. That's my second one.
>> Awesome. Thank you, Mr. Alex. Well, Mr. Chairman, may I have please one more, please? >> Yes, sir. >> Excuse me, Commissioner M. Um, under under um quality of life um Q4
um which support and promotes access to health care and mental health, affordable housing and homeless prevention service. Da da da. Um wanted to add in that in that um the acquisition of um National Forest Property which again uh is before us as
an opportunity. Uh I think it it it goes directly to Q4 and fits in neatly uh as an opportunity to facilitate uh mental health campus, affordable housing and all that right there uh needs occur.
Commissioner Proctor, I'm going to um I'm going to have that be a separate one at the end. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. >> Yes, sir. Um Commissioner Maddox, you're recognized. >> Hey, Mr. Chair. Um so, I have one evaluate the feasibility of Leyon County uh having a film incentive program.
>> I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? >> Evaluate the feasibility of Leon County having a film incentive program. Um I think we maybe tangled with this a little in the past but I would like for staff to look at it by analyzing models project uh projected e economic impact
um admin requirements funding options and performance matrices. So I think as we go down this road I think we need to really think about how we again begin to to think about how we become push our name out there and I think this film incentive model can can bring things
here that we didn't have before. So, I like for us to look at that. >> Love that idea. Commissioner Maddox, I think also we should I mean we're at we're at Florida State University. I think they have a great film program. I think there's ton of opportunities to look how we can even, you know, get our students and partner with with them. I think there's a new film school coming,
right? >> Is that believe so? Love that initiative. Anything else? >> Um, I got a question about a second one. I just want to know if if the county administrator can help me. Do we have a like a digital performance dashboard for the county? something that looks like kind of real-time matrices on a budget,
performance, public safety, permit times and stuff like that. >> We we generally do it it tends to be um on a um uh sort of decentralized basis. So it depends on which place, but but you know to to aggregate them all. We generally do that in within the budget
process and in the budget brief process, but it's something we could look at to do maybe sort of elevate it and have it all centralized in one place. And um um >> as I was thinking about what I was talking about earlier about letting people know who we are and what we do that came to mind. Um so if I could if I
could add that >> we can work out the details between now and uh tomorrow's ratification. We can work out some some wording and that sort of thing. But >> so implementation of a county digital performance dashboard that looks at real time performance of matrices on the budget performance, public safety permit
times, uh service require request, etc. Stuff like that. uh maybe even train staff in performance management and continuous improvement practices that we may look at. Um I I'm still kind of letting staff build around it, but maybe even having a quarterly um update to the
to the to the board about what it looks like, what that performance matrices looks like, the real time look like looks like for us. Um so if we can add that, we talk about some more. Thank you. >> Fantastic. Thank you, Commissioner Maddox. Uh Mr. Media, past chairman. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um this one's
relevant given our uh current setting. Uh and you were involved in this as well, Mr. Chairman. Um FSU's applied politics and policy learning experience for our undergraduate students uh involve them partnering with Matt Cavell and our disaster preparedness folks to
come up with some practical ideas for application in sort of helping us uh continue to be, you know, the most well-prepared county in the state of Florida when it comes to natural disasters and stuff like that. So my initiative would be to ask the county to partner with FSU's Apple program to
actually uh implement those ideas from those undergraduate students to the extent possible. And furthermore, Mr. County administrator, I think this is going to be a project that they continue to do in the future. Um because there's a local government component of their programming. um to the extent possible,
can we continue to partner with them to, you know, basically give these students an opportunity to actually come up with some real critical looks at our programming and find ways that we can improve it or make it better. And uh that's my initiative.
Does that make sense to the scriber? Awesome. That's it, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. >> Awesome. Commissioners, anything else? Anyone else? Awesome. Well, commissioners, my um my strategic priority um as you know, previously
discussed will be to utilize uh county and tourism resources to solidify the um the reoccurrence of our world ethics cost cross country championship here in
Tallahassee and Lyon County. Mr. Chairman, I think that's controversial. We might need to >> um awesome commissioners. That's that's all I have. You know, um I know we've uh previous years we've we put a lot on this board and if if you've read the material, you see that we've we've
knocked a lot out and I think um you know, next year will be the first, you know, the new five years. And so um commissioners, what I'm going to do is >> Mr. Chairman, can I if I will real quick just have a question on your last one. Um, Mr. Administrator, is my understanding that uh the World Cross
Country Championships, it's held every other year, right? So like 28 would be the next one, but they're not doing one in 28 because of the Olympics. So 27 could be potentially the next World Cross Country Championships, which is happening sooner rather than later.
Right. So um, is that correct? >> That's correct. They just decided to do it every They do it every two years. So it corresponds with when I would actually finish the first race, but uh but yeah, but but that's right. So and we're we're we're engaged with them on on what that
schedule looks like going forward. >> Awesome. Perfect. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um can uh will someone move make a motion to to adopt. So move. We have so the these 11 priorities moved by Commissioner Maddox, seconded by uh Commissioner Welch. Um any discussion?
All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I any oppose? No opposed. Um, Commissioner Proctor, you are recognized for your other um strategic priority you wanted to just bring up. >> Mr. uh chairman in wonderful times like these we have the option of um if we
would fill out a few sheets of paper of quarantine national forest uh I encourage while the getting is good uh that we make it uh an option that we pursue uh and answer the offer made by our federal government to their desire
to relinquish uh federal lands and um certainly we could meet uh goals for affordable housing uh mental help campuses, um, jail expansion, you name it. Um, and I'd like to make that, uh, as our 12th, uh,
priority. We have >> Yes, he's making a motion. So, let's see if there's a second first. I'll move. Is there a second? All right. So, Commissioner Proctor uh has a motion on the floor to utilize uh Can you the motion?
Motion is to um exceed to the offer of the US federal government that federal lands uh the offer for the purposes of affordable housing that we step to the plate and uh receive that pursue it uh to help facilitate the dreams of our uh
Q4 section. >> So that's moved by Commissioner Proctor, second by Commissioner Maddox. Commissioner Proctor to specify are you talking about the the national forest or any federal land outside of the national forest? um those lands which qualify for which the federal government continues to
offer uh if if it's a federal uh I don't think that it's the um but if it's a national forest or whatever lands they are but they they they're tired of the 500 billion acres of property that they have and they want um they say they want affordable housing.
>> Okay, Mr. Commissioner, did you want to speak? >> Yes. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. commissioners, just to uh provide uh additional information that you you have an existing strategic initiative as approved by the board, which is to, and I'll quote here, evaluate future
opportunities to acquire eligible non-conservation federal lands for the provision of affordable housing and public services. That's the way your current um adopted strategic initiative uh currently reads. Of course, the board has the ability to change or amend that, but I just wanted
to let you know what how your existing strategic initiative. >> Mr. Chairman, I I resend my um motion. Didn't know I had already achieved it. Thank you. >> I think it was I think it I think it was the 2024 retreat. >> I can't remember that part. That's
>> sound like something I would say. >> All right. Well, commissioners, um listen, does anyone have any closing remarks? I I I I >> Mr. Chairman, I think Commissioner Cummings had mentioned she had one more thing. >> Thank Thank you. Uh uh for for the
friendly reminder. Commissioner Cummings, you are recognized for any closing remarks. >> Uh thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Caban. Uh again, I appreciate the opportunity to appear uh telephonically
for this retreat. And just a heads up, I'm pretty sure I will uh not be able to be in person for our meeting tomorrow uh tomorrow as well. But I just wanted to just give a overall shout out to our
county administrator and to the staff for all the great work and all the achievements that we have recognized this this last year and I know last year um this time we
entertained what the mag lab conference I understand that is scheduled that national conference headed by OEV uh Keith Bowers and and his uh his staff. So I believe Mr.
County administrator that's coming up this year as well. So we have uh two accomplishments in that area in a row and I'm looking forward to cross country being in in that same vein. Um but just
thanks again for all the the hard work of everyone, all the presentations uh by Matt and everyone else. M Mr. Chair, I think you chaired a great uh retreat. Appreciate Florida State for the hospitality. Thank you. Thank you
again. That's all I have. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Commissioner Cummings. We hope you feel better. Um, Commissioner Miner, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just real quick, I I just wanted to thank you for running a great retreat. Thank the uh our other commissioners. Um, and thank our staff for being here. Uh, I know you
got busy jobs, but it it matters to have you all here. Thank you very much. And then finally to FSU and the FSU Senate. >> Yeah. Hey commissioners, real quick, let's give uh Commissioner Miner a round of applause. He had a huge win over the holidays with North Monroe Corridor. So >> I know Commissioner Min has been working
really hard on that project and really is nice to see some some large attention and funding coming to that corridor. I I truly do believe is is a heart of our community. So congratulations. Um all right, commissioners, I don't see any other um any plaques up. Commissioner Welch. Yeah, just wanted to echo those
statements, guys. It's great to be back around the table with everybody. Awesome to see all our staff again. Looking forward to the best potentially bad year we can possibly have, but we'll just uh you know, we'll do the best we can. And I know that we have the best staff in the world. And I I always like this
retreat as an opportunity to celebrate our staff as we start a new uh calendar year. And uh and and absolutely looking forward to the great leadership of our chairman getting us through these meetings like lickety split, which I am here for. Let's go. All right. Great. Thanks everybody. Bye. >> Thanks guys. Listen, it's going to be a
great year. No matter what happens, it's going to be a great year. We're going to work together. We're going to get a lot of stuff done. All right guys, meeting