We will um get started with our school capital outlay sales sir tax oversight committee. Uh can I get a roll call please? >> Christopher Ludgart >> here. Len Rosop Rosopi I still think
>> Wally Wagner >> here. >> Brandon Owen >> here. >> Howard Gun >> present. >> Jack Ory. >> Tom. >> I do not know how to say his last name.
Anyone can help with that one. >> Matt Fabian >> here. >> Jim Walkup >> here. >> Kyle Yansy >> here. and then myself, Jamie Zublick. >> All right. Thank you. Next item of business is the approval of the minutes
from last meeting. And if you recall, we accepted the May 6th meeting minutes last time, but did not approve those, asking for additional items to be added as everybody had a chance to review those. Okay. So, with that, if everybody's had
a chance to review, we will entertain a motion. Um, we can do these together if everybody wants to do the May 6th and July 9th together. >> I'll motion to approve. >> Right. Motion by Brandon. Do I have a second? >> Second.
>> Second by Kyle. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Awesome. Uh, first item up after that is a presentation by Attorney Powers. >> Thank you. I've been asked to advise um
the committee on a few matters that um the committee had some questions on. So I'm going to start with the sunshine law and how it applies to proceedings of a committee of the school board and then I will also move into the scope of the uh
directions that are uh within the bylaws of the committee. So first starting with sunshine law want to let you all know there is a government in the sunshine manual. the government in the sunshine manual is um available online. If you
just look up sunshine manual Florida, you'll see that right there. Um and the sunshine manual dictates what any board um in the state of Florida is required to do or not do as it may pertain to public records law and specifically also
sunshine law. There's a difference between the two. Public records law governs access to the actual records of a school district, which are largely open unless they're specifically exempted. The Sunshine Law speaks to meetings of
the board or any subdivision of the board. So the sunshine law restricts board members from being able to meet with each other or communicate with each other about factors that may come up uh
in a vote later. So for example, uh board members of the school board would not be able to communicate among themselves regarding an issue which could come before them for a vote. They would also not be able to call one another, send
emails to that effect, anything about things that could come forward in part of their ordinary business. Now, in the case of some constitutional officers, like for example, the sheriff, um that's a one-person job. So, that person can
communicate with their staff. Um that's easy enough. When it comes to boards though, it's a little bit different. So, our board is bound by Florida's Sunshine Law and the Florida Sunshine Law is equally applicable to elected and
appointed boards or commissions. Um, that includes special district boards and boards created by agreement. Um, and there's attorney general's opinions which further interpret that. This is not an area that's easy. It's not
something that makes a whole lot of sense in some ways because it's very directly uh connected to a core set of statutes. The the point being to make sure that the public has a complete
knowledge of anything that's going to be discussed um and might weigh in on the board's ultimate vote. Attorney General's opinions are where the attorney general of the state of Florida looks at the statute and
relevant case law and then a government agency, a school board, a city commission, a town commission, a county commission may ask a question of the attorney general and may say, "We want to find out how this applies to us in
this particular instance." And then if their question is specific enough, the attorney general will give them an answer. That answer then becomes law which we then try to interpret. Is it applicable to other agencies or other
things within our discretion? And so as a whole, what you end up with is a little bit of a patchwork of here's what the courts have said, here's what the attorney generals have said, and what do we make of that? That guides a
lot of what we do with board uh board policy. Um it also guides what I do as a representative of the board and my ability to advise the board. When can you discuss something? when can you appear in public together? When can you
um be part of some external committee? Now, as members of a sitting board, which is a advisory board or subboard of the Maring County School Board, you also are subject to the sunshine law. So, the
sunshine law indicates that for each of your meetings, those meetings are to be publicly noticed as we have here. Those meetings also are to be open to the public. So public can come in if they choose to watch what meetings are here
and make public comment if they see fit. Another item is that you that that any conversations or any discussions about that business needs to be open and available to the public. That would mean that just like I have to advise
schoolboard members, if there's an issue that is going to come before you, you can't send an email to other members of the of your board discussing what that might be. You can't talk about it in advance and then talk
about it on stage. You have to fully discuss it in view of the public. Now, when it comes to boards, that's difficult because you only have a limited amount of time in these publicly noticed meetings. You only have a limited amount of time within which to
get things done. And so there's a quite a bit of area regarding the sunshine law that is geared toward making sure that you can communicate directly with individuals or
with staff or even with me for that matter, but not amongst yourselves and with each other regarding issues. Now, there is a little bit of a I hate to put this term on it, but get out of jail free card. And that is that if you had
the ability to if you were if you did have some discussion um with another member on a particular item um then you brought it up in public later uh and fully disclosed everything that you
talked about and exactly how as part of your decision-making process that would probably be okay and in most cases it has been upheld. It's not an area that I ever advise my board to delve into though because they typically that's fraught with potential for people to
misunderstand. So it struck me that I haven't really informed um this committee of what the sunshine law specifically how it applies to you. And this is not intended to scare anybody but there are civil and criminal
penalties for violations of the sunshine law. Those are ones which I used to be a prosecutor with the state attorney's office for the fifth judicial circuit and where we found that there were blatant and flagrant violations, people intentionally violating um uh sunshine
law, those could be prosecuted. They are rarely prosecuted because in most cases it's inadvertent. People are trying to do the right thing. Um, and so I do need, however, to tell you that my board is very familiar with the fact that I am always the mother hen running around to
them saying, "Don't talk. For Pete's sake, if you get together for lunch, somebody's going to see you and they're going to complain that you must have been talking about the latest thing." However, Sunshine Law also allows for even people who are married couples to be on the same board. Doesn't mean you
have to avoid one another by any chance. What it does mean is that if you're having substantive discussions about anything that is going to go on at a board meeting, you do need to ensure that those are only done during the public record portion of the meetings.
So that being said, I've seen some of your discourse when you have here and it seems you guys flesh out everything you that's on your mind. I don't have any impression or any reason to believe that you hold back anything whatsoever. However, since I hadn't informed you
previously, I want to make sure that everyone's aware with those kind of communications, anything that is about board business, it can't be something when you leave the committee meeting, you go and have any off thereord communications and then come back and
then pick up where you left off. Even though in the world of business, that's how we do things. that's the most efficient way to do things. Um, I know that if I had to limit how I conduct business to only,
you know, my monthly or quarterly meetings, I wouldn't get anything done. That is sometimes why business in the government eye takes longer than we would expect. If I want to close a contract on something and I have a
private business, I can do so within a day. If it is over a certain amount funded by taxpayer funds and it's for the district in my role as the as the school district's attorney, um I have to put it on a board meeting. I have to wait for it to be agendaized. I have to
give public notice. I have to do all these things in order to get the sign off on that. Now, private businesses that work closely with the school system or with any governmental agency, they're used to these things, though it doesn't make anyone's life easier. The ultimate
goal though is to ensure that all members of the public know exactly what's going on with the body that they're paying for, which is the school system or the school board. And so I would encourage each of you um to go
you'll see if you look up uh sunshine manual Florida, you'll see something that looks like this. Says government and sunshine manual. Fortunately for this question, there's only a very few pages that really apply to what you're doing here. There's I don't know 300 or
more pages. I have to go through that all the time. The main pages that apply to you are the first page that say the sunshine law is equallyable applicable to selected elected and appointed boards or commissions. Special district boards
and boards created by interlocal agreement are also included. what entities are covered by the sunshine law and very first thing it says is number one advisory boards. So as an advisory board each of you have
the same sort of duties and the same sort of uh requirements that our school board members do. Um and that will flesh that out a little bit a little bit more. The there is a distinction in the law I don't want to get too fine a point on
it. The distinction is if if the board is sent if if the board that is formed is simply to feel the public pulse so to speak. The board is formed to find out what issues face us
in our community today. Well, that's that's something where it's sheerely factf finding. It's it's just an exploratory board. That's something that doesn't require sunshine law notice. It gets very blurry though and
there are five different cases that I won't go into that I'll talk about where the fine lines and distinctions are. So you got a lot of judges, lawyers, and attorneys general who are all figuring out where's that line. The line mainly seems to be if it's
anything that a board ultimately could take action on or if you're if you're recommending an action be taken or not taken, then the Sunshine Law probably does apply to your proceedings. So, in that sense, we'd want to make
sure just to be completely transparent that any discussions or any kind of uh um communications that you have, whether it's by email, by phone, or over lunch or whatever it might be, that those be limited, that those not be inclusive of
the kinds of things you're going to discuss here in the open meeting. Or if anything inadvertently comes up, that you disclose it. Because once you've disclosed it, it's fine. just go ahead and say, "Hey, um, here's an issue." Bring it up. Make sure it's actually
clear. If you happen to have talked about it before, just make sure that it's fully disclosed so the public is also aware of that particular decision. So, I don't want that to seem as though I'm, you know, admonishing anyone. It I
just want to make sure that you have the same information that I am regularly giving to my board members. and they'll all tell you I'm the guy who when the meetings are done I'm like don't don't talk about anything just just go back to your cars you know I'm I'm I'm that guy. So, uh, and that's because that's my
role. You know, my role is to make sure that I keep them safe because, um, of course people who willfully violate the Sunshine Law, which is none of you, people who willfully violate the Sunshine Law, the Sunshine Law was
designed to prevent any kind of shady backroom deals, things like that. Those people are going to always claim that, oh no, it was innocent and it was harmless. they're going to claim protection and shelter under inadvertence and that's not that that's unfair and you don't need to to be
exposed to that kind of thing. So on page three of that sunshine law um you'll you'll see on in the government and sunshine manual factf finding committees and that's where it outlines I've done kind of the work for you. You're a little bit more than just a factf finding committee because your
role is to to guide the board and to review to review specifically what purchases are made, how they're made, what whether that's in keeping with what your what with what your requirements are under your bylaws. And so I was
going to pull up the bylaws here and I was having some trouble logging in. So I've got it here. Give me just one moment to pull this back up in the bylaws. And that's the second part of what I was going to get to. I I I did prepare some other things. So, if
you have questions about Sunshine Law, I can get into specifics and kind of maybe help guide you a little bit more, but I don't want to just drone on about that. Um, so if you have questions, I'll I'll get to those. The next step though would be
as to what your responsibilities as an oversight committee shall be. We want to make sure with any board that we stay within the scope of what our bylaws allow. So for example, if you were on a textbook committee. Um
your your role would not necessarily include how we how we purchase textbooks or other curricular material that's not related to textbooks. It would be that just specifically that your role is a larger
one because it anticipates a number of purchases, a number of uh of uses of sales tax funds that you have to be free to answer a large number of questions about. So your responsibilities are basically A
through E. Most of them are easy. Elect the chair and vice chair. Done. Establish a meeting schedule. Done. review the expenditure of revenues from the sir tax and ask for more information pertaining to the expenditure if needed.
That is what you spend a lot of time doing and as you should if there's something there's absolutely I want to make this clear there's absolutely no no problem whatsoever with this board or any individual member of this board
asking for more information from staff or anyone else about what's going on with a particular purchase. We need more information about this purchase. Is this purchase valid? Can you show me details
of this purchase? Um, I'm not sure if this purchase applies to this particular district or that particular district. Those are all things that are completely within your purview. It's probably not something, however, that you would want to speak about with other members of the
committee except here except here in public. So D, provide a written report to the superintendent and the school board regarding the expenditure of sir tax revenues on an annual basis. That's something you'll get to later. So you can then summarize in a report what
issues you may discover or what things you believe might need to be changed regarding expenditures. And certainly you can discuss that broadly, openly, and publicly here as well. and then report to the superintendent and the schoolboard chair in a timely fashion
any inconsistencies between the ballot language and the actual expenditure of sir tax revenues. Now let me be very clear that should be one of your largest goals. The ballot language should be something you all almost commit to
memory. The ballot language of how we can utilize these funds. And if there's any question about what exactly does it mean, discuss it. talk about it openly. Um, that ballot language is your guiding pole star. That's what tells you exactly
whether or not an expenditure is permitted or whether you believe it should be permitted or whether that is something that gets far astray. So if there's an expenditure for a particular school or a particular fund or a
particular project and you have questions about it in order to make you feel more comfortable with that expenditure, by all means you are completely entitled to and should. It would be negligent of you not to ask ask more, get more detail, find out. So
certainly there's no chilling effect on what you guys are are looking into. The goal is that because I represent the school board. I don't necessarily represent the school district. They're they're they're different. I represent the school board of Marian County. Each
of you were appointed by a school board member. So my role is to make sure that each of you are protected and that you're doing your job according to what uh requirements are met. And it is also your job to closely and carefully scrutinize those expenditures and make
sure that if those expenditures are recommended, you feel comfortable that it is within the guiding polestar of the ballot language. Okay? So, um, I am here to try to help keep you safe on that and
make sure that if there's any questions, I'll answer them to the best of my ability. And if I need to do a little further research to get you an answer, I'll come back and and make sure that I uh discuss it more in detail with you. I'd like to give you an opportunity to ask some questions. Um, what I do want
to also say is that when it comes to the scope of what you should do, I would encourage you, uh, not that you have, but I encourage you to keep that scope very limited to are the expenditures that you're seeing or that you're being asked to review and approve, are those
expenditures on point for lawful expenditures under the ballot language? It's not necessarily whether we think we could maybe spend this expenditure probably
although a good and lawful expenditure if you agree that it is maybe it should have actually been spent on something that would be more efficient or that's probably a bad example. Let me give you an example. Let's say
that um there was an expenditure and you looked at the expenditure and said that expenditure is that it's fine. It meets the ballot language. It's used for lawful purpose and the district has chosen to make this expenditure. But when it comes to
owner direct purchasing for example um we think that we need to restructure the way we do owner direct purchasing. That's not really within your scope. That is a scope for you as an individual member of the public. As an individual member of the public, you could come
here and say to the board the exact same thing. I think you need to look at this. I think that you need to uh change the way that you do your construction contracts or you need to we we could get more value if we did X or um the owner
direct purchasing policies you have in place could be better. Those all may be true and you may have valid points, but those would be things that members of the public can come to or another committee could come to a realization and say those are items to deal with.
But largely those are also things that you individually could contact the board members who appointed you or any board member and say I have these concerns and they then would be the ones who have that role. Your role would be to look at
the approval of the purchases. And I guess the reason I say that is that's really a darn big role. The role you have is is a very is a is is a big one. Looking at all of we we're doing more construction now in this county than
we've done in 20 years. Um we're having to approve and review a lot more projects than we ever have. And the goal of the sales source tax committee was specifically to make sure that we reviewed those in such a way that it is
transparent to the public. They know exactly what's going on and they have an idea of what concerns you may have, whatever they may be. So that's a darned big role and I want to make sure that you um that that you don't get sidetracked on some of the other things
which would be the board's perview to jump on and start dealing with. Certainly, if you see those things, I would encourage each of you individually to make a recommendation to the board members who appointed you or to make a recommendation to all board members that they should look into something more
particularly um for your roles though, those are those are the ones that we definitely need and are most valued and were within your bylaws and where you exercise total control and power. So, I
will do something lawyers rarely do now. I'll be silent and I'll allow you to ask any questions you might have and I won't even charge you any extra for the time. >> So, thank you very much. >> Thank you, Attorney Powers. Any questions? >> I'll exercise due wait time. If you have
any questions, you guys feel free. Um, and I'll I'll come back and answer if you do have if if if any of you want to reach out to me individually. Um, maybe not right now and ask I've got a question about a particular item or a particular question. I'll look into it
and do my due diligence for what answer I can give you. Um, my role is to advise the board and as you are a subcommittee of the board, I take it as my role to try to help advise you in any way I can uh in making sure that you do things in in compliance with Florida law. And as
your board members would expect and as each of you I there's a certain element of this that I feel responsible for because of the fact that it's my job also to make sure just like I do with my board members to keep you safe because Florida law Florida law is meant to
be extremely vigilant about protecting sunshine law and protecting public records law. And I don't want us to ever be in an attorney general's opinion if we did anything different beyond that. So, any questions?
>> Think we're good. >> All right, then. I either did a really good job of it or a very poor one. >> Scared us all to death. One of the two. >> I should I should I certainly don't want you to take it that way. I I just wanted to make sure I that I know initially everything I was focused on was making sure that you guys understood the bylaws
and it was a a weighty setup process and I wanted to make sure that uh that I came back and and had an opportunity to speak with you on those issues so I could help help you in any way I can to help you keep focused. So I thank you very much and I'm very much in your debt. >> Right. Thank you.
>> I will excuse myself if uh there are no further questions. >> Right. Next item is a presentation from Harvey Vanderven for procedures for contractor selection. >> Attorney took up some of his time. >> Not going to do it, Matt.
>> I didn't either. >> Uh, good afternoon. Um, I believe they gave you guys a copy of the actual procedures of that. I don't know if you want to ask me specific questions or if you want me to walk you through it. I will do whatever your preference.
Has everybody had a chance to review it or are we just now seeing it? All right. Does anybody have specific questions for Harvey or would you prefer that he go through it? having just give us a brief overview >> brief summary. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. Um so I'll use one that I was I served on a committee and we'll use that one as a kind of a guideline of how it goes about. So the school um uh facilities will they'll send out a
invitation for bid or advertise it go they have a list of vendors plus they they they publicize it and then GC's can apply or whoever wants to apply for invitation they form a selection committee that
committee is brought in and agree they added the cone of silence to it so now we sign a letter making sure we understand what you you guys were just told about and keeping everything confidential. They take and um publicize it. They get
um a public meeting with an RFQ announcement. Then they um give them a deadline for questions. The questions are asked by anybody that wants to bid on it. Then they put a submitt due. Then they do a pre-screening. And then once
they qualify the biders, they bring the committee together. And then they um have us the committee would then review the u bids through their package. They would they would rank them based on u the point spread that is designed in the
actual um breakdown of how we've got a nice chart in the back of the um procedures that break down how to score things. They would do that. They would turn that in. it would be tallied um and then they would um make a short list. If
there was say 10 biders, they would narrow it down to three biders. If there's four, a lot of times they'll go and invite all four back for a live interview. Then they would start the points over and then those points would be re redone based on their um physical presentation and then they would score
those again would be scored based on a a sheet that both they're given that sheet so they know what we're looking for and they know what to tell us and and then we uh the committee would score it and then after that they um they will rank the the biders and then they will take
and present that to the school board and then the school board would actually make the final decision. whether to accept the recommendation. That is the short short version. >> All right. >> Any questions?
>> I have one um actually maybe two specific to your selection committee composition. Um going through that you've got nine different categories involving different aspects of u
individuals backgrounds to be involved in the committee. How many of those individuals actually have construction background experience to evaluate a contractor's presentation or proposal? >> Um it's a good question. I can't answer
that one. Um the if you're the goal is to get two outside um citizens that have some um experience. Um the committee that I served on that helped review the um qualifications in
choosing that board. Um there's certain mandatory requirements and if you look through the list um we kind of have ones that are required and then some that are optional and then depending on what they're doing. If it's a cooler then they're
going to get somebody that has uh experience with knowing what those coolers are for and where they're going to fit. If it's a brand new high school then they say they use um a couple members from facilities. So, so those are um they also usually include a
principal, usually include a um well, again, depending on the site, it could be a a new a new building would have um more staff members. Um but I'm trying to think of how to answer. So,
>> well, let me let me be more specific with the question, I guess. Um, and looking at the nine different categories, category five and seven stand out to me when you're building a school. Um, operational including but not including support services, technical
services, custodial and facilities, and then curriculum and instruction including not limited to tech, info services, principal, supervisor, CTE. You know, most of the schools, elementary, middle or high school are pretty well known. submittal
>> is my question. >> Hello, my name is Iwan Bumbach. I'm the director of facilities and I might um be able to answer your question. One of the um required uh representative in the committee is the facilities department director. That
would be me and also the construction coordinator. and we do have a construction background and can bring that expertise to the committee. Um when you look at number five operations um we have our tech service uh department
usually included um that is the maintenance department. They are the ones who operate the schools who work on the equipment. So they have construction background as well. And then when you look at the community representatives, um most of them that we had in the past
have construction experience as well and can evaluate um the contractors and their proposals. And then when you look at the principal or school staff, um they can bring expertise in on when the contractor for example explains to them
how they will face the construction. um they show maybe an aerial they show where they want to have the lay down area where they want to enter and secure the campus. So those are then very good points for a principal to try to understand how construction will
influence or um you know work with school operations let's say if it's a an operational campus. So that's why um the different departments uh and the committee when we put that manual together we had lots of discussion on
who should be on those committees and we wanted a wide range of people who have interest in that uh construction project to bring all the expertise into into the committee and into the evaluation. Unless there's somebody else. My second
question is specific around the dollar value of the projects for people who are currently working for the county. If uh you have a contractor locally who is finishing jobs on time within budget,
currently doing work and uh they have 50,000 or more it looks like they get penalized as they do more work in your grading scale. So the more successful they are, the more jobs they do, the more they get
penalized for that work. >> Yes. So that is actually a change that will happen. Now, Florida statues has changed the summer and we have to uh incorporate that change and we're going to meet um with the uh the committee who put that manual together to show them
that change and that that uh that criteria actually is coming out because the Florida statute says we cannot penalize or not penalize if you have too much work or too little work. So if you look at the uh points I think they they
got 10 points at the end um if you look at the you know where where you see the points under F volume volume of work with MCPS that whole section will come out because statues has changed.
>> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions? >> I've got one quick question. Um on section B before you list all the people that are involved
it it has it basically says may participate and then within the section it says required. So, is it these people may participate or are all these folks required?
Because in the heading it says may and then in parentheses on some areas it says required. So, I'm trying to figure out what's required and what's optional. Right on in the um in the list of the nine categories there's a if it's behind
at the end of it it says required and that we're saying there has to be one person from that group doing if it's a may then because anything over what's the dollar amount two and a half million or one that you have to bid it out I mean >> seven and >> seven and a half anything over seven and a half million so it's not always a new
school sometimes it's like the last one we had to do the >> the cooler freezers so in order to cover all the different categories. They have to kind of leave themselves room for for the ability to have enough people that can have input that may need to have
input. So, so if it says required, then that one we have to have one person from that department. And when we were doing as a committee, we were trying to make them vague enough to leave room so that that person's on vacation, it doesn't create a problem. And so that's why some of the some of them are written a little
generic because we're trying to leave enough room to allow them to pick the right person for that project to to in choosing that person. >> Okay. Okay. So there's there's a threshold there between mayor and required is just not stated.
>> It says it says minimum of five and a maximum of nine people on right there where it says selection committee. >> Okay. I was just looking above number one. number one. >> Straight straight above number one. >> Oh yeah, just go a little higher up there
and it says so they can get by with five people on that committee and then that would be the five that say required or they can go all the way up to nine and sometimes even getting um volunteers from outside sometimes gets to be a challenge for them too. So so I think we
have we recommend two but I think it's optional, right? Second question is it required the community members have construction or engineering experience or >> they don't have that as a requirement
but facilities tries to get people that match the field to make it >> well the selection >> if you're tying them to projects greater than 15 million it's not replinging you know, a small HVAC system. You're
doing a a larger project. So, I guess perhaps being a little more specific on who you're looking for to the gentleman's point, making sure you get someone who's got construction engineer, someone who could dig into the detail,
especially as you're getting proposals in to be able to ferret it out the VA value engineering issues, other issues. >> Yes. So, I've sat on a a few committees. I've sat on a school and I've sat on the cooler freezer and um the
the requests for information are so good. So, and these guys that bid on these schools are so well educated on what to submit and how to submit it. You could literally use what is the new thing, chat, GPT or
whatever. you could you could learn about it quick and you could do as good as I could and after 40 years of experience. So we don't get to interview them. We don't get to critique their work. We get to review what they say and we're and they are we get a package to review. So their information is pretty
strong in there and and again if you if you're um >> well I have no doubt of that. I'm just looking if you have people that have experience they can help fer it out the ones that give you the highest value for >> that's not what they do. I mean, these
folks are really looking at qualifi qualifying a contractor. >> Yeah. >> I mean, you the things you're talking about is after you get a GMP and then you start looking in Oh, you're right. You're right. All those what they've done, what they've built,
what their experience base is, and be able >> Yeah. Once once >> I read the bid slate >> um once we um pick one two three based on their qualifications then if the board gives per permission to staff then staff negotiates the contract and if
they can't work out a fair negotiation then they go to the second one but we're not allowed to go by price. We're not allowed to talk any dollars. We can't like say, you know, why are you better? But the questions that are asked are very good questions and they're and and if you look through their they do help
narrow down, but they're all I mean, if you apply for a school to build a new school, you've got experience and usually you've done enough of them that you have a pretty good record. It's it's hard to def to differentiate between number one and number three when you look at those packages.
>> Understand? Thank you. All right. Any other questions? >> All right. Thank you, sir. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next item of business, and I'm not sure
who is presenting, but uh finance sales tax revenues and how it is shared with charter schools. >> Good afternoon, committee members. I am Mr. Robert Rios Welsh. I'm the new chief financial officer here for Marian County Public Schools. I wanted to come and
introduce myself. I'm actually going to have our esteemed budget director, Kayla Johnson, come up and brief you guys on charter school funding. So, with that, Miss Johnson. >> Good afternoon. Like Mr. Welsh said, I'm Kayla Johnson. I'm the director of
budgeting. So, you guys had a question on how charter schools share in the sales tax revenue. So per Florida statute, we are required to share the sales tax revenue with the charter schools. That's Florida statute
212.055 section 6. And that actually outlines how we're required to share revenue with the charter schools. And it's based proportionately on the charter schools FTE compared to the district's FTE as a
whole. So for the fiscal year 2526, we had numbers from the second FTE count of 2425 to estimate the charter school revenue. When we get actual FTE numbers for 2526, those calculations will be
revised and the allocations will be adjusted. Currently for 2526, we're estimating about $39.6 million of revenue for sales tax. That gives us a factor of $763
per FTE for each student in Marian County. That gives us a total for the charter schools of $860,633. This gets distributed to aa a colon $415,881. Marian charter will receive $174,149.
Macintosh Charter will receive $35,899. Ocali Charter High86,592 and Ocali Charter Middle will receive $147,752. And like I said, this is based on the second FTE of 2425. We don't receive
2526 FTE until January of 2026. So when we get those numbers, we'll revise it. the the allocations and we'll actually have to go back and revise based on final receipts because our revenue right now is estimated.
Do you guys have any questions? >> Yes. How how do uh they determine what their capital needs are in that regard? >> So they look at the one on 200 is a brand new school. So I mean >> um they don't give us what their capital
needs are. So they are required to follow the same ordinance that was voted. So we submit all that information to them. They have to go through their own single audit where independent auditor comes in and evaluates all of their expenses and then we receive those
audit reports at the end of the year. >> Is there any additional questions? >> Don't you also receive a monthly statement of accounts from all the charter schools as well? >> We do not. You do not. >> No, we do not. >> Thought that was state statute
requirement >> that all charter schools send in a monthly state of account to their sponsor. >> Uh so I don't believe we're relisted as their sponsor, but I can't speak to that. I could get you more information
on that. We are a pass through for to them, so they might submit that to DOE, but I could get clarification on that. You lost me. The $860,000 coming out for each of the schools for individual schools or what was the $860,000?
>> That's the total that we have for all the charter schools. Yes. >> How many schools are there? >> There is five schools >> and that is based on each school is based on the FTE. >> Yes. On the audits, are the audits done
annually or how what's the timing of the audit? >> Yeah, they're required to complete a annual audit and it's our fiscal year end is June 30th. So, it normally follows shortly after that. >> But, but who conducts the audit? Do they hire a third party?
>> They have to hire an independent auditor. >> Thank you. Are there any other questions? >> I don't believe so. Thank you. >> All right. Next item is from facilities for owner direct purchase.
Good afternoon. Ivan Bumbach, facilities director again. Um, when I got into the position of facil director of facilities last year, that was the first large item I had to tackle. Um, because I heard it from the
contractors. um ODP is is it was a difficult process or it was perceived as a difficult process and I heard from the board um we have to make that priority for them. It was very important to save as much sales tax as
we can. So we um researched it. I had new staff come in. We did did a lot of research. I worked a lot with legal too. how to make that process better, smoother, faster, so we can actually purchase as much as possible through the
ODP process and save the sales tax. Um, at that time we were already in the middle of the construction of the elementary schools. We were going really fast because we had a deadline this this August. The students were coming, they had to move in. So construction was
extremely fast and we could we had to follow through finding a process to still have a lot of savings through the ODP process. So I presented to the board in a a slightly changed process and you can see that also on our website when
you go to the facilities um website under MCPS. Um um there is the um um the specifications section um uploaded um that we shared with the contractors with the new process and there is a little chart too um that um just highlights the
steps that we need to take and um when we started the process every purchase we had we created a deductive change order. So from the contractor um we have a guaranteed maximum price a GMP including
all the material. Then they want to purchase that chiller. They had to do a deductive change order for that chiller. Um that had to be board approved. Um at that point um we could deduct the money out of the GMP. At that point we could
issue a PO to the vendor directly. Um so at some projects we had 20 30 um a large amount of number of um deductive change orders for every single item that was
very um cumbersome to get get it all through the channels. So we we decided and and we checked with other districts too. When we get a GMP at the beginning of the project, we do a a single deductive
change order because at that point that the contractor already knows I'm going to purchase the chiller, the cooling towers, the the drywall, the roofing material. They already know what they're going to purchase and they already know um a value that that that would be. So,
we do one deductive change order just estimating on on all those costs. Um, let's say $1 million in a change order and that frees up that money at that point. So, then we have all the vendors and the vendors need to be uh approved
by MCPS and that was a huge hurdle last year because statues changed. So, we had a a list of a lot of approved vendors, but because statues changed and they had to fill out new paperwork, none of those vendors were approved vendors anymore.
So, that was another huge hurdle we had to face. Um, now we are a year past that. Our list of approved vendors is getting uh larger by the day. Um, so that when we have a new project, the first thing what we do is send a list of
all all our approved vendors to the contractor so they can see them. And if they already know, oh, I have a vendor that is not on your list, we started a process of getting them approved right away. Um, so the vendor gets approved, they have to go through um, all the
paperwork gets approved by the legal department. We establish them in our system. From there on it's quite quick and easy. Um they they give us the quote. Um we issue a purchase order to them. They get um they get that purchase
order issued. They can order the material and then when when we get the bills and we can pay them directly and at the end we um um close out the books then on the ODP process. Um usually um
we estimate it high. So, we owe the contractor some money back. We do an additive change order before we close out the books at the end. Um, that process seems to go very smooth and easy lately because our list of vendor approved vendors is growing. I think
that was the biggest hurdle. But, um, other than that, I think that process works really well. >> What is the timeline to get a new vendor approved? It really depends on on the vendor itself. And uh funny as it is, the the
larger corporations have a harder time filling out the paperwork and getting the right people to sign the paperwork. Um they have to be listed on Sunbiz and some of the larger corporations list very few people. So it's very hard for us sometimes to get that signature in a
timely manner. But as soon as that paperwork is filled out correctly with the right signatures, it goes through legal makes um our process a priority. Um we call them, we say we have a new vendor application for ODP process. They know we are always on a tight timeline.
So we're working really well together and getting that approved fast. Smaller firms, u it it seems to be easier because they list all their people on the Sunbiz. >> Thank you. In your ODP procedures, where is it
require the Sunbiz individual to sign the PO? Why would you not allow a district manager, regional manager for a nationwide corporation to sign that PO? >> That that is a legal question. So that is on on the form to be an approved
vendor which gets approved by legal and they have those stipulations in there. It's a safeguard of um how we how we let to sign those applications and um I think it saves saves the
protects the district if the right people are listed on the sunb. Um, >> well, I guess my question would be if it was the general contractor or the subcontractor, say roofing for instance, that was purchasing the materials, it's
already in their contract. All the ODP do it does is route the method of payment essentially. >> Yes. >> For tax savings. So if for some reason the PO could not be fulfilled by the vendor, the supplier, then the
subcontractor is still on the hook to purchase the material and and complete the contract as is a general contractor. So where would the liability lie on the school board than to be concerned about having the Sunbiz individual sign it? I
mean my like ABC for instance, uh Diane Hendricks owns ABC. Her office is in Wisconsin. I don't think she's going to sign a PO for Marian County and North Central Florida. So, you know, she would leave that up to a district or regional manager
and that's what a GC would do or a roofing contractor would do if they were self-performing that work not going through the ODP process. >> Yes. >> So, and I didn't see that listed anywhere in your procedures as a requirement. >> Yeah, that that would be on the vendor application and that would be a legal question. Um, you might want to share
that question with uh attorney powers. Um, but they also could provide us with a power of attorney to sign applications and we have done that in the past as well. >> Now, they're just signing the
application, not the individual purchase orders. Correct. >> Correct. >> So, it's just to set them up the initial time. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And then as soon as we have that application, they're established. They don't have to do that every time um we're purchasing something from them.
It's only the initial application. Do you do more than one change order or do you only require one ODB ODP change order at the beginning of the job? >> In other words, if they were halfway through the job and say it's a year-long project and they were six months into it, found they could then purchase
$200,000 more worth of material, would you not then allow them to do another ODP change order? >> Yes. >> It's always a good sign to run out of ODP money. and do another deductive change order.
>> Got a quick question on the ODP and I'm trying to in my mind I'm trying to clarify the question. Who is actually buying the equipment or the material? >> That would be the school district. We issued a purchase order.
>> Okay. So you so so then how is that contractually transferred to the contractor for care and stewardship of for example let's say you buy 20 pumps and so you got 20 pumps
that are have now arrived and are sitting and have to be looked after made sure they're cared for. How does contractually how does the school board transfer that responsibility to the contractor because
you're the owner essentially when you purchase it. >> Yes. >> So I think it's a good program. I'm just concerned about how does that transfer happen as soon as equipment gets on the construction site. >> That is a part of their contract and it explains it in their contract that they
will have the responsibility of that equipment. Um, we also need them to confirm that equipment is there and delivered um before we make any payment um on an invoice. But in their contract, it explains
that process and they signed the contract and the deductive change order um links it all together. >> Okay. Thank you. >> If I could, the GMP when it's approved has everything in it that they need to build, whatever they've been contracted
to build. The ODP process is just taking the process of making that payment out of the GC or subcontractor's hands and giving it to the school board for tax savings. >> They reserve the right to make them >> process. >> Oh yeah. They they still have to procure it, protect it, coordinate it, install
it. Everything still falls on that subcontractor contractor to do it. >> You mentioned that you don't pay it until it's confirmed receipt on site per your procedures. Would there be any problem with them bringing it into if
it's a roofing contractor their facility and storing it if it's licensed insured invoices are received? I mean it'd be better to procure all those materials months in advance of it being needed in the event there were a HBAC contractor and train supply was the manufacturer
and they went on strike a month before they needed them. That obviously would affect the delivery of that equipment. >> Definitely. And we have um in the past uh used storage containers on site to store the those equipments or they had their own warehouse where they store
store it and then uh we take pictures or we make sure it is really there. Um yeah we we encourage to order early. We a lot of times do early release packages just just to make sure because a lot of items are long lead items or you get promised
that that chiller is coming and you know a month later oh sorry it's delayed. So we definitely encouraged to order it early and store it on site. >> Is that process in the procedures? Because I read through it and did not see where you allowed for that to be
stored in an independent insured facility. I think we just talk it through with the contractors when we talk through when they order it and when they see the delivery dates and we work with them. >> Thank you.
>> Any other questions? Thank you. All right. Next item up is five-year capital plan. >> Good evening. I'm Angela Usher, senior executive director of operations. Last
night, the school board approved the five-year capital plan for the school district. The total amount for the five years is the 576,20,749. It includes all um capital funding sources in the plan and for this year
2526 it's 114,647,937 and actually the school board only approved the first year because the four the additional four years are based on projection and every year the plan comes back and it's amended annually under sales tax as Mr. Johnson mentioned,
we're getting about 39 million. And in the plan, we have Belleview Elementary. This is a new elementary school to replace Belleview Santos and the old Belleview Elementary. So, we have in the plan 37 38 million for this project. And
we have an additional 1 million for a Bel at Belleview Middle School where there's an emergency need for the HVAC replacement. But every year, like I said, the plan is being amended and the project for Belleview Elementary will be closer to
70 million. So next year, you'll see another 35 million for Belleview Elementary. Whenever Miss Bumach goes out for selection, um certainly she'll be contacting the sales tax committee members to serve on that committee. You all have done so before. I know she has
tried to reach out to you all for to serve on um other committees. So we will continue that. Um and you will see all the ODPS coming in from those projects. We'll keep you updated with that information. Also,
previously at the last sales tax meeting, we mentioned that the doors, the security doors for Oola Middle and East Marin Elementary are funded from the first um amount of sales tax we got. These projects won't go out for contractor because they're under 7.5
million. So, they'll be assigned to contractors and continuing contract. Um, we'll just keep you updated with the sales tax projects as soon as we progress with them. We we have those two door projects and the Belleview Elementary. We just did the contract
last night was approved by the board for the architect. So, we're starting on the design of the new Bellev Elementary. >> Thank you. I do have one question. Um, page four of the presentation states that the first two quarter revenues from sales tax were not as high as
anticipated. Do you know what those numbers are, >> Miss Johnson? >> Um, we we were thinking we were going to get more like 40 million and that was presented at the last meeting how much we had. We had four million. We have
like six or seven million for the door project and we got about maybe 12 million at the most. I think the first quarter and we were projecting that we would have gotten more but now we're closer to the 40 million per
year that was original originally projected. So we're back to the 40 million that was originally projected when we went out for the sales tax. At first we thought we would not meet the 40 million mark because it wasn't coming as quickly. But now in this
capital plan we have the projection for the 39.7 million as we had previously projected. >> Okay. I have one other question on uh on page five.
Um the sales tax program will take more than 10 years to complete for the expenditures. >> That's correct. >> Um we have 10 years for the sales tax, right? that until 2034. >> So what's the plan for that?
>> The plan is um the board in December had a priority list of schools Belleview Elementary, Donell Donellan Middle School replacement and UK8 some work here at MTI. They had the door projects,
East Marian and Oyola and um I said MTR already some some wing addition at two or three schools but doors are not set we will bring that back to the board the board asked us to do some studies and looking at the schools up north looking at the use of
MTI because we don't want to put money here if we have another use for it so we're conducting those studies right now and we'll come up to the October 16th work session with some recommendation to the board regarding the schools up north
and the MTI facility and they will rep prioritize their sales tax project. They know that we are looking at Donellan Middle High School as the next project because of the condition of those two schools. So that wasn't the plan that the board approved last night. That will
take like five years. It'll be like more 150 million because we're not borrowing against the sales tax. we have to wait until the money acrews to be able to fund that project. But then we have projects that go beyond the 10-year like some improvements to the schools up
north. So hopefully that we will get the sales tax renewed and will be re reissued after the 10 years. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> I've got a quick question. And on page seven, uh, we have this this table and,
um, it has property insurance as a capital expenditure. I'm just trying to understand that a little bit. We get a millage 1.5 millillage for capital and that comes up
to about $61 million. But we do have to share it with all the other support which includes property insurance, buying buses, buying vehicles, um maintenance transfer to the general fund. So property insurance is paid from
this millillage, this 1.5 capital millage that we get, we um we pay for a property insurance which is 2.293 million. >> Okay. I I mean, I'm just looking at the the ballot, what was put on the ballot,
and I'm trying to reconcile, you know, construction, improvements, uh, debt servicing, leasing, all I get all that. I I'm just struggling a little bit with it with insurance. >> Let me back up a bit. This five-year
capital plan is for all the revenues we receive, not just sales tax. I mentioned the millage just now. That is separate from sales tax. >> Okay. So, this is listed here, but you're saying it's coming out of a different >> different fund. Okay, that's correct.
>> That's fine. Thank you. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Perfect. A question, Mr. Wagner? Anybody else have any questions? Mr. Chair, we do have the the um superintendent couldn't be here, but she did send a representative and I'd like
to introduce her and also mention that we have the chair of our school board here with us, Chair Conrad. So, just to mention you want um okay, Dr. would have liked to be here, but she's in Tallahassee um presenting about
one of our schools and it was it was a positive meeting and that's why she's not here. She'll try to be at the next one. >> Okay. All right. Thank you, Miss Conrad, for being here. And uh looks like the next
item is our December 3rd meeting at 4 o'clock. Unless anybody has anything else, we will entertain a motion for adjournment. >> Motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. All those in
favor signalize by saying I. >> I. >> We're out of here. Thank you guys.