Good morning and welcome to our July 28th, 2026 Board of County Commission meetings. I'm calling this meeting to order. Uh we're first going to please join us for an invocation led by Pastor Stan Allen from Redeemer Lutheran Church
followed by the Pledge of Allegiance which will be led by Todd Ross. Good morning, pastor. >> Good morning. Thank you. Please pray with me. Father in heaven, we are we are so thankful for the joy and blessings of this day. An opportunity for each and
every one of us to to serve our neighbors as you have served us through your son Jesus. Lord, we're thank you. We're thankful for the various gifts which you have given to each of us. And we pray that you would lead us to serve one another with our gifts with a with a
with a feeling of joy, compassion, and wisdom. Lord, I also pray for guidance for our county commissioners and the work that they put in to lead this county into the future. We thank you for their efforts. We also ask you
to bless their families as well. And Father, we're also so thankful for all those who work for the county in the government, in their various positions, um in police, especially for me in the fire, for those who work in the county parks and recreation, all of them. and I
pray that you would bless each and every one of them. And Father, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of this great nation, we remember all those who have sacrificed so much that we can be here
today living in freedom, peace, and joy. I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. >> Amen. >> Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Would you tell us a bit about your career, please? >> I was in the US Navy from 1981 to 1987.
Um, aviation electrician, translated from that into flight engineer. So, I flew as air crew the last two and a half years that I was in the Navy. Spent most of my time in the Mediterranean. A lot of time in Spain, Sicily, um, flying anti-ubmarine
missions and surface interdiction, drug trafficking when we were states side and uh, enjoyed it a lot. It was a good experience. >> You too, to me. >> VP5. >> Okay. >> VQ is reconnaissance, but we did anti anti-ubmarine patrol.
>> Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all for YOUR agenda today will consist of presets. At 9:05, we'll hear from the public. At 9:30, we'll hear a fire rescue presentation. At 5:05, or at the conclusion of our meeting, we'll hear
from the public again. There are no additional items. There's one request to withdraw. Department two, which is contracts that meet the threshold for board approval of $1 million or greater. Uh, and we all can also there are no consent uh polls. So, we can also
approve the consent agenda along with the agenda. >> I will move approval of the agenda and the consent agenda. >> Is there a second? >> Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? I opposed. That
motion passes unanimously. We'll now take up uh public comment. The first request to speak form I have is from Dustin Driscoll, followed by Carrie Driscoll. Please come forward. >> Uh while they're on their way up, uh just as a reminder, since we are in
election season, politicking is prohibited, which is defined as advocating the election or defeat of a candidate for public office, either partisan or nonpartisan. This includes the use of words, dates, signs, props, and or wearing apparel that convey a
message of support for a person or group of persons. You'll have 3 minutes. At 2 minutes and 45 seconds, there'll be a yellow light indicating you have uh 15 seconds left to Thank you. >> Good morning. >> Morning.
>> Good morning, members of the board. I am an owner of KW Record Service. I come before you today to seek help on a matter concerning Martin Countyy's towing rotation. Since 2023, my company has been on the rotation list and we have served our community with the utmost pride. As of March of this year, we were kicked off of the list for our
first and only offense that was nothing more than a clerical error. My company and others for years have been telling the sheriff's office that the rates they have set and the wordings used are incorrect and are actually hurting the citizens of the county. And this error is just one of the reasons that my company has now been affected. On March
20th, we were called out for an accident on Caner Highway near Indian Town involving two larger commercial vehicles. One owned by Coastal Waste out of Hope Sound was recovered and towed back to Coastal O's yard per their request. Typically, when towing to a location other than our own yard, we receive payment at the drop off
location, but because we have our working relationship with Coastal, we told them we would help handle the bill later. Later on, the manager, Bo Milton, contacted us and asked why the bill was so high. We assured him that we would take a look. Before we were able to fully break down the bill and see the
mistake, Bo said that he called a rival towing company and Commissioner Blake Caps. Bo said that he and Commissioner Caps called MCSO together and put in a complaint. Our truck times run off of an app and due to the lack of service at the scene, our computers were not given accurate times of when we arrived and left the
scene. MCSO sent two offic two officials to talk to us. They said our times were off according to their records, which is when we explained the GPS issue and changed the invoice to the times the the officials told us to. The officials informed us that there was another mistake and told us to change that as well, which we did. Even at that time,
we had never taken any payment and did not have possession of the vehicle. The next day, we were informed by phone that Sheriff Buddhenseek deemed us a threat to the community of the community for malicious overcharging and that we were being removed from the rotation effective immediately. Even though we
never accepted any money and fix the issues they told us to. This simple mistake was our first and only mistake ever reported. And yet, we received the harshest punishment when our com when other companies were given 30-day suspensions or less for much worse offenses. But still, we followed
procedure that was set forth in the contract that the commissioners approved, which is resolution 17-5.17. We asked for an appeal, and after the lawyer for MCSO, Bernardo Romero, was made aware that we never took any money and didn't have the vehicle, he acknowledged that it wasn't intentional.
Yet, Sheriff Budens, still deemed this small mistake as a removable offense. My company has been active within this community for 22 years, and we are family-owned and operated in this community. We go to schools to teach about moving over for emergency vehicles. We are the only tow truck
company that annually attends the MCSO trunk retreat and many other efforts within the community. I ask that you truly look into this, see that this was a simple mistake and please help put my company back on rotation where we can serve this community with true pride like we always have. I only had three minutes, but the packets I have provided
to each of you have many more details to help you understand all the circumstances. >> Thank you. Carrie Driscoll is next and Douglas Adler. Do you want to speak at p public or in Yeah. Okay. You'll be after Miss Driscoll.
>> Good morning. >> Good morning. I'm an owner of KW Record Service. I am here to bring to your attention the rates and wordings in the record rotation manual for the sheriff's department are incorrect and have been for many years now. Myself as well as other companies have tried telling the record rotation coordinator on several
different occasions and each time our concerns have fallen on deaf ears. The wordings and definition changes that were approved are incorrect and have need to be refined. These small mistakes are potentially costing the citizens of Martin County hundreds of dollars. As of
now, with how the rates are worded, a simple toad that uses a flatbed could cost a citizen $694 for the hookup. The actual age should be 202 for hookup. This is because the commissioners and MCSO don't understand the difference
between a class A and a class D in the towing industry. A class D is a heavy duty call such as a tractor trailer or bigger. But the manual has class D as any flatbed. This not only affects a rotation call but also private property towways which also have to go by Martin
County rates. Also, the contract contradicts the state law of Florida when it comes to storage time frames needed for the statute to be correct. We have also brought to their attention the rate known as extra man is fundamentally
wrong. The rate as of now is a flat rate for any extra man, no matter how long he is on scene. Most accidents don't require an extra man, but the ones that do tend to be major accidents that require hours of manpower. While most other extra fees stated in the contract
tend to go by segments of 15 minutes after the first half hour or hourly. This rate tells the tow truck companies that if they send out an extra man on any accident that takes hours to clear, those workers are getting paid less than minimum wage to help clear our roads safely and securely.
Second, the manual does not have a clear procedures of how to handle disciplinary actions against a towing company or even a company's ability to have proper unbiased appeals process for any error or disciplinary action. And the procedure that is in the manual is too
vague. As you know, ambiguity in a contract should benefit the ones that do not write it. Meanwhile, my company made a clerical error and we are called dangerous to the citizens and are forced to be on the verge of closing where others have only been given a suspension
of 30 days max. But we are kicked off even though no funds were ever exchanged. In conclusion, the record rotation manual of Martin County should adopt the Florida Highway Safety Motor Vehicle Rule, chapter 15B-9,
like many other counties have done. It is more comprehensive and defined. It protects the citizens as well as gives more secure definitions and rules for the towing companies and the sheriff's office to follow. I implore you to look into this and fix these issues. Thank
you. >> We will thoroughly review this matter. I assure you. >> Yes. >> Douglas Adler is next, followed by Mr. Mcrist. Would you like to talk now or at fire rescue presentation? Robert Wolf is next.
>> Good morning everyone. My name is Douglas Adler. I live here in Stewart. I'm speaking you to you today because uh I just found out about the proposed changes to um chapter 17 section 17.9 which is rules
and regulations regarding Martin County Parks, more specifically the public beach properties. Um, according to this proposed amendment, we're going to be striking out um some some laws and some rules which
really, in my opinion, are crucial to the safety of the public. As of right now, uh, shark fishing is illegal within 1,000 yards of a full service public beach. That's a beach with a a bathroom, a shower, and a lifeguard. So that's
like Stewart Beach, Jensen Beach, Bathtub Beach. If we allow shark fishing within those beaches, could you imagine the calamity? Along with striking out that language,
we're also removing the ability for a law enforcement officer to to warn someone that where they're fishing is dangerous. In other words, if someone's casting out into a crowd of people at
Steuart Beach and a police officer says, "Hey, I think that's dangerous. Maybe you should cast down the beach." the that police officer now has no authority and and the fisherman can just continue fishing into a crowd of people.
On December 31st, 2024, I was surfing at San Luchia Beach, which is in within 1,000 yards of of Steuart Beach. I was caught in a shark fishing line. Uh braided line wrapped around my ankle, tore through my wets suit. It was one of
the scariest moments of my life. Um, I' I'd like for that to not happen to anyone else here in Stewart. Um, something that I think is important to add, if we're going to be amending these rules, there there should be some amendment regarding shark fishing using
drones, which has become a huge problem on our beaches. The day that I was even trapped in the shark fishing line, >> they were sending their bait out several hundred yards offshore with drones and they were standing up in the dunes with their fishing rods. No way of even
knowing that they were fishing on the beach. I went out surfing, tried to catch a wave. Next thing I know, it's wrapped around my ankle and you know, I had no idea they were even there. And so we're going to just make we're going to make this totally okay. at any of the
beaches, go shark fishing, baiting, chumming the waters. You know, the the proposed amendment says it's to to better align with the the Florida state fishing regulations. Well, we're also
striking out language that prohibits chumming and blood baiting. The Florida >> time is up. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. McQu. You want to Robert Wolf is next, followed by
Robert Vulpe. >> I'm Robert. >> Robert Wolf. >> Thank you. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, everyone. So, my name is Robert Wolf. I live here in Steuart, Florida. I moved here in 2004 before
Francis and Jean and was living on Hutchinson Island at that time. Um I am a beach user, a swimmer, surfer and um as Doug said, we see these shark fisherman coming up from all of South Florida to get a a picture of them
holding a shark on the beach so they can post it online and tell everyone where they caught it and how big the shark is. And I don't think that's good for tourism. If the tourists find out that these guys are coming to Jensen and Stewart and Hope Sound Beach to Sharkfish and posting these pictures
online, that's not good for our local community. Plus, it's not safe. One of the other items, I'm sorry to uh jump ahead, but I am talking about the um the changing of the language for uh chapter 17, article 1, uh 17.9A,
about uh county beaches and uh fishing regulations. Um here is striking the time uh for shark fishing from uh these full service beaches. Striking out at any time. Uh,
so that means that they can shark fish before and after guards open the beach and close the beach, which is around 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. So, can you imagine a shark fisherman at the middle of Jensen Beach at 8:00 in the morning
chumming the water, which I do believe is illegal by the Florida uh fish and wildlife. So, that's already aligned with Fish and Wildlife. And this language that's in the Martin County rules right now is good language, strong language that protects the citizens of
Martin County and the people that swim along our beaches. So taking these words out is not protecting the people, but it says here that the reason for striking these out is to protect the people. So it's very confusing there. Um, so can
you imagine shark fisherman set up with drones, huge fishing lines, multiple lines going all the way out 8:00 in the morning? Fish swimmers are already there. Joggers are already there. People are using the beach already. People are also using the beach after 5:00 p.m. when the guards close the beach. You
don't want shark fisherman showing up and throwing bait and stuff out. Leave the language how it is. It's great language. It's strong language. It's beautiful. Thank you all for putting the language in in the first place. Please don't take it out now. We fought hard to get the language in there so that we
don't have these problems. Um, the other the other thing that I'd like to say is that we did lose one of our surfing community back in 2010, Steven Schaefer, rest his soul, by a shark bite at Steuart Beach
16 years ago. We don't want that to happen again. Uh, is that my 3 minutes? >> 15 seconds. >> Huh? >> 15 more seconds. >> 15 more seconds. Um, so, so there's only three beaches, full service. Steuart, Jensen, Hob Sound, and Bathtub. Imagine
again fisherman at Bathtub Beach family beach inside the tub. Shark fishing and chumming because your language is taking out the chumming. Leave it in there. It's part of the Florida state statute and it should stay in there. Thank you. You guys have a nice day. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Robert Vulp is next, followed by John Dial. >> Good morning. Um, I asked to speak on PHQJ3, the public hearing. >> Okay, >> just to clarify. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> I'll move it there. >> Thank you.
>> John Dial is next, followed by Jim Moyer. >> I'd like to speak to PH2. >> Okay. Good morning, commissioners. My name is John Dah. I live in uh 5254 Southeast Rocky uh Horseshoe Point Road in Rocky
Point. I'm here today to talk about the uh physical impact presentation of the homestead exemption. I think we need to all be very proactive as if this will pass and not if it will pass. And we cannot afford to be reactive as this
will be the will of the voters. and I've studied the results of the 2008 and 2010 downturn and it was not very pretty. I urge you to schedule a workshop if you can for the future so we can at least have a leg up on this if it passes with
the 60% it needs. We cannot afford uh to fund or to defund or cut our first responders in any way. It's just not an option and we have to find ways to uh maintain our current Martin County way of life. The second thing I'd like to
bring up is Mr. Derek Pal's property. I went out there and visited him again this last week when it flooded. It's a simple solution. I took an engineer out there on my own dime and I know that the county commission and everybody's been out there looking at it. Last time I think there was four paid county
employees out there and the guy that I took out there is very well-versed in this. He said it's a simple fix, just a drain box and a couple lines pitching it back to the wetland in the back. It's real easy and uh I just urge you to please get this resolved not only for
him but for the contractor and the developer next door who's having their sidewalk underwater right now. It's a real easy fix. And thank you for your time. I appreciate the work you all do. Thank you. >> Thank you. Paul Laura is next, followed by Angela
Ratinella. May I wait until PHQ comes up please? >> Yes, >> Angela, you want to wait too? J noise. >> Good morning >> everybody. Morning. My name is Jay Noise
and I'm here to support uh the local surfers in town here. Also about the shark fishing. Um I myself have been caught in shark fishing lines and it is not fun, you know. So um I really don't have much to say but you know that's
where I stand on the matter. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Oh, nice and tight. >> Let's see. Diane Shrivever, >> it's been addressed. Thank you. >> So, you want you don't want to speak to us? Okay. Thank you, Darlene Van Riper.
>> Good morning. >> Good morning. I'm Darlene Van Ryberer, executive director of the Martin County Taxpayers Association, a taxpayer watchdog organization. I'm here to express the organization's dismay at the misleading information
being put out to sway the voters from voting for amended amendment three in November. If you have if you all have not broken Florida statute use of public funds for lobbying, you have walked right up to the door and knocked as hard
as you can. You will not admit that your information is misleading. You will say that the public has the right to know what the consequences of losing revenue will be. I'm here to tell you that when you don't tell the whole story, you
mislead. There is a reason when you put your hand on a Bible in a court of law, you sw you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Let me share the rest of the story with the public. There was a clubhouse built
on the county golf course. It cost $10 million when a $5.6 million building had been agreed to. Did we need a $10 million building to serve hot dogs and beer? Some might say that was excessive spending. We have a $600,000 walkway
through one of the county's 75 parks. It goes through mangroves. I wonder what the yearly maintenance of that is. uh some might call an expensive walkway through mangroves in a county where there are m many miles of beaches to
walk excessive spending. It was stated by a commissioner at one of these meetings that the fire rescue department had gone $10 million over budget on the burn training complex that they built. Sorry, you cannot blame all of that on inflation. Some might
consider that excessive spending. Phase three of that facility alone cost $6.7 million. The reason it was built was to relieve firefighters from having to be transported all the way to Fort Pierce for this specialized training. That
transportation costs approximately $120,000 per year. A commissioner even pointed out that it would take a long time to break even. Martin County Taxpayers Association did that very easy math. It will take 55.8
years. Some would say that is excessive spending. Allowing the Community Redevelopment Agency to give TIF dollars to private industry without a means testing on affordability would be considered by some excessive spending. I
could go on, but I'm I thought I was out of time. Maybe we should talk about the list of nonprofits that you give money to our taxpayer dollars every year. Thank you for your time. Thank you. >> Your purse. >> Purse. >> Thank you.
>> Daddy Lansancy is next. F followed by Ellen Aselin. >> Hi Daddy. >> There I am again. >> My name and good morning everybody. My name is Dy Lansancy and I live on Hutchinson Island. I'm a member of the
Hutchinson Island Preservation Initiative. Uh, and our mission is to preserve and protect the natural beauty of Hutchinson Island in Martin County. I'm here today to urge you to reject the proposal to lift the ban on shark baiting on our county beaches. I could
not believe that the commission was even considering such a terrible idea. Who in their right mind would suggest something like this that would endanger the safety of residents and visitors alike who want to enjoy our beautiful beaches? If you took a poll in the
county to see who would support this plan, I would think I think you would realize how foolhardy that this this uh proposal is. And to bring it up at this point in time when most people are away on vacation and don't have any public notice about it is doing a big
disservice to your constituents. I only learned about it when your agenda was made public a few days ago. The previous administration who put this ordinance in place forbidding shark baiting on beaches protected by lifeguards realized that this was a good idea. Have you
asked for any input from the Martin County Fire Department who provide the lifeguards at our beaches? I believe they're here today. Um, do they support shark baiters able to use their drones to ch the waters in front of their lifeguard stands? Attracting the sharks
to the shoreline where families with children are swimming. Please put the public safety first and instead of lifting this important ordinance, I believe you should extend it to include all of the beaches in Martin County, regardless if lifeguards are present or not. You saw what the
surfer said about um that I personally want to tell you about an incident that I witnessed. A group of four or five men spent the weekend on the beach in front of my house. They were had their cameras equipment on tripods and many fishing poles stuck in the sand and were using a
drone to fly out from the shore to Chum to quite a distance off the shore to drop um the chum to attract the sharks. I don't know if they were successful or not, but the next morning after they had gone in the exact same spot where they
had their equipment, a family of four put up their umbrellas. They were completely unaware of what and two young children were playing in the water there. They had no idea what took place the day before and that some hungry sharks might still be there in the area
attracted by the previous activity the the uh week the day before. I really hope you will not under any circumstances lift that ban on shark baiting in Martin County and instead extend the ban to protect the people using all our beaches. State rules
concerning this do not prevent local government from passing laws of their own restriction in the interest of public safety. And uh in just this past um February, Miami Beach passed a law uh pre uh banning land-based shark fishing.
I hope that I to hear from you each of you this morning on what your position is on this. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And I have a picture I have a picture of the shark baiters if you care to see it. Okay. Well, maybe later. Thank you.
>> Ellen Aselin is next, followed by Victoria Blake. >> Good morning. I'm Ellen Aselin, and I'm received the letter about the fact that you're going to increase the >> Can you move over to the microphone, please, so that we can hear you better?
>> Sorry. I received the letter that you are going to increase the amount of assessment that we are going to have for trash pickup. Um it comes as a very bad time. I realize I
have read the reasoning that your contract has gone up with waste management and it's going to have to be charged to us. But it comes at a very bad time when you've got
this amendment three. It's just another panic that people are going to say I need to vote yes on that and that's what worries me. Thank you for the time. Thank you. Victoria Blake is next
followed by Angela Harrison. We're back. >> Hi, I'm Victoria Blake and I represent um Tent City Helpers. So, we've spoken many, many times and um we just don't know what we need to do to get on the agenda and how can we receive funding.
We need land at least or better a shelter. Little Vero has a shelter. Um I recently just had a camper donated to Tent City Helpers. We have nowhere to put it and it has the ability to give showers to the homeless. Can you imagine if we had 5 or 10 acres where our homeless could be unhoused can use a
free shower? Um, out of respect for their identity, I'd like to give you a couple examples of some wins that I've witnessed personally. I'll call him Bobby to save his true identity. Um, when I met Bobby, he was very drunk on a few occasions and he worked very hard to
get his license back. All of it her his identifications. He got a job recently. He's a totally different man. He looks me dead in the eye. is like I'm so proud of myself. I'm so I'm pr so proud of you, brother. And when he drives to work every day at 7:00, he listens to the
church bells ring. I think that's God if it's nothing else. Um I'll call him David, not his real name, but my church, Calvary Community donates Bibles. David looked at me last week in the eye and said, "I read my Bible every night in my tent. Victoria, thank you so much." And I'm like, "God bless you, man." Then he
got hit by a car, cracked his neck, and the driver drove off. I mean, these are how we're in Martin County treating our unhoused. Uh, the last one I'll mention is Tyler. Tyler recently passed and I'm going to cry. Um, incredible man. What a wonderful man. And thanks to Kirstston
and Rashonda, he was housed the last month of his life. He had air conditioning for the last month of his life. Um, and when I I was driving to his service, it occurred to me. I was watching a Kobe Bryant documentary that morning. And I was driving to the service. We had about 25 people attend.
And I thought, you know what, Tyler is just as important as Kobe, right? Amen. So, please tell me, I mean, what can we do? I know the elections are coming up. I think it would be important to Martin County residents if we found a place for our unhoused rather than sleeping in the
woods or under the bridges um andor the police hunting them down with dogs. I mentioned last time that Doug Schmidt was bit by a dog while being chased by the police and he died by the infection. Um, shortly thereafter, his son hung himself as a result of this tragedy that
just keeps going on and on. So, I beg you for a solution. Again, I don't know what we can do to to want some investment. You invest in Bright Line and that's great, but how about we invest in human lives and I beg you, please let us know how we can get on the
agenda and how we can apply for funding. God bless. Thank you. >> Thank you. Angela Harrison is next followed by Tom June John. >> Good morning everyone. It's always a pleasure to be here. Um Angela Harrison
representing Tit City Helpers. I do have a few resolutions that hopefully we can all come together with. So I've been in contact with Tony a lot with the program called the source. He has something called the dignity bus. Tony would like
to be placed on the agenda so that he can come and give you the full details of what the dignity bus is. From what I understand, it houses at nighttime 20 to 30 people. There is space for them if
they have animals. It does have showers, but of course, we would need somewhere to park this bus. Also on August 4th, um Gail Harvey, our amazing leader, she um found somewhere where we can go and apply for a $100,000 grant, which we
will be doing, Victoria and myself. Um I believe it's August 4th. So, I'm hoping that if we get that money, maybe you guys would be willing to kind of, you know, like I said, I'm going to keep coming with solutions and then eventually we'll come together and we'll
figure something out for our unhoused people. But like I said, um if you guys ever have a chance, I know your schedules are huge. I mean, they're bus they're busy, but if you ever have a chance to come out on Monday with us just to meet our people, we serve
anywhere from 50 to 70 people. We provide necessities, tents, sleeping bags, and like I've said before on our um many visits with you guys that we deeply appreciate, it actually costs more money for them to be unhoused than
if we do provide housing for them. And we're talking anywhere from 180,000 per person down to 10,000 per year. And that's out of our, of course, I'm a taxpayer here in Martin County, so that kind of hits all of our pockets. Um,
so if we could really get him on the agenda to kind of come and talk to you guys, that would be such a beautiful blessing and we would be so just grateful for that again. Thank you always for having us and giving us the opportunity to speak. Everyone have a beautiful blessed day. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Tom John is next followed by Dr. Justin Gubich. >> Oh, good morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. My wife asked me to come just moments ago because the subject of
sharks came up. So I go back in the shark. Oh my god. When I was a little kid with hair, I started surfing. And I mean literally at 10 years of age in California. California is pretty well known for sharks, great white sharks.
And uh I'm, by the way, I don't have the fear of sharks that seem like everybody I knew had. So I would go surf Anna and Noeo and Anna Noeo State Park. I used to be able to go out there all alone or
with one or two friends cuz everybody's so dang afraid of sharks. But we'd sit out there. I'd sit out there right at the edge of the kelp bed and I'd watch the shark fins go by. And then I'd see the killer whale go by and I'd go, "Why am I out here?" Mhm. >> And I'm out here because it's one of the
only places I can get a great wave and nobody will go. So I was like, woo, love it. And then see how long you can last right before the fear eventually does set in. But anyway, somewhere along the line
somewhere somebody decided that this could be an attraction and they started fishing from the beach and chumming. And now those sharks that I used to watch go right by would come right to the shore. Great whites. And it became completely
you do not go out there. And if you search it on your phone nowadays and and in Novo, you'll just get pictures of big sharks, right? So sharks are are prehistoric animals. Um I grew up fishing with my grandfather and my
uncle, both of which were commercial fishermen. And they were explaining to me that a shark is almost impossible to kill. Don't bring them aboard. They have a brain the size of a pee. They have no bones. They have no They only have a nervous system that
runs down them. They're very prehistoric like a alligator. They come from that same age. Yet alligators, you got sturgeon. You can't kill a sturgeon either. And the weird thing about them, uh, they have no brain, but they can
smell food a long ways off. And that's why if you want to catch sharks, you chum. You want to bring alligators in, you chum. They're they're very very prehistoric animals. Um, my my only thing I would say is we have
a lot of tourists here. I'm now in Florida. I'm no longer in California, right? And you see everybody at the beach. But I tell you, you start putting chum in the water, you will have sharks. And those sharks are like uh alligators. They're like a stray cat. You feed them,
they come. And uh like I said, I'm not afraid of them, but you will get shark attacks. That's something that happened in California. That was a mistake they made when they allowed that chumming. Going back to the original spot, Anna Noeo, they not only got shark attacks,
but they spread all the way down to another uh place right beside there. Uh can't remember the name, the creek, Steams Creek, whatever. Another surf spot. But you feed sharks, they will come. That's that's all I got for you. Not
much, but I don't think it's a great idea. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Justin Grubich is next and Dr. Gubich is the last request to speak form. If you would like to speak to us on a non-aggended item, please fill out a request to speak form and get it to
the baiff. >> Good morning. >> Morning. >> Morning, commissioners. Uh my name is Dr. Justin Gri. Um I've been a resident here now about five years. I moved up here for the surf and the fishing from Fort Lauder. I'm a native Floridaidian. Met my wife in the waves. Um she's here
today. She's the one encouraging me to come up and speak. I work in marine conservation throughout the state. Um I've done research on sharks in the past. Um I was only made aware of this this morning that there was going to be a language change and some of the regulations you have to be consistent with uh Florida Fish and Wildlife
Commissioners. I think keeping that language that you have now is probably the prudent and uh best option. It is consistent the way I read it with FWC. And what we're trying to do is prevent sort of that chumming activity, which is adding more bait and blood to the water that attracts more sharks. I was
recently at uh the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership lunchon in Orlando at the ICAS. I'm a big recreational fisherman, so I love fishing as well as surfing. Um and there's new scientific evidence or more accumulated scientific evidence that um
you can create problem sharks like problem bears. So if you have blood baiting going on or chumming in in public beaches, especially rear near guarded areas, you could create sharks that get used to coming to that area and eventually you're going to have an interaction, wildlife interaction, and that would be that would be a tragedy.
So I suggest keeping the language the way it is. There's scientific evidence that suggests that you don't want to be uh bringing sharks to those types of areas so that you're having those types of potential dangerous interactions with bthers, surfers, other beachgoers. Um,
and there is ample opportunity for recreational fishermen to take advantage with the current rules in place away from those public beaches during those time zones without uh blood baiting that is actually banned by FWC uh period. So uh that's all I have to uh comment on and thank you for your time.
>> Thank you. Uh the next thing on the agenda is a proclamation recognizing July 26th as international day for the conservation of mangro ecosystems in Martin County, Florida. Good morning, commissioners. Mangroves are keystone species and an
iconic iconic feature of Florida's coastal ecosystem that provide critical habitat for native Florida wildlife, including at least 220 species of fish, 180 species of birds, 24 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 18 mammal species. Root systems of mangroves can
trap sediments and pollutants, absorb excess nutrients, and filter heavy metals and waste water before they make their way to the Indian River Lagoon. Mangroves are also protect they also protect our coastline acting as natural barriers during extreme weather events. In recognition of this special day, the board urged the community to help
contribute to the restoration of mangro ecosystems. And here to accept, we have Indian River keeper Jim Moore on behalf of the Marine Resources Council. >> Thank you very much. Thank you, commissioners. Um, you know, Florida's lost about 87% of the mangroves that it
used to have. Um, it it's unbelievably important. It is a foundational species. It it has made much of Florida and and I think that we in this county have some of the biggest, most magnificent black mangroves, as you know, Commissioner
Campy. Um down in Jupiter Island, there are some wonderful mangrove marshes. Uh there are beautiful black mangroves. Uh it's it's a fantastic mangrove ecology and we we are doing our part by designating um July 26 as UNESCO
International Mangrove Day and I hope that we'll consider July as mangrove month and that perhaps every other day in the year is mangrove day as well. Um there are there are some serious problems that mangroves are having besides being uh bulldozed and and
having seaw walls in place of themselves. Um there's a there's a a pretty serious pathogenic fungus that is uh killing mangroves that are stressed out. And so in our mosquito empoundments and other places where we tend to put a
high load of of uh stressors on those mangroves, we need to do a better job of protecting them. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you for uh for loving mangroves as much as we do. >> Thanks a lot. >> Thank you for bringing it to our attention. Thank you. >> One, two, three.
One, two, three. This isn't so >> Okay. >> Madam Chair, I know you're going to bring we're going to have our preset, but the conversation for fishing on the
beach is public hearing number two and the assessment for the special assessment for the tax collector is number one. Since we have the members of the public here, can we switch two in front of number one after the firefighter presentation? >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> And commissioners, we need to adopt the
proclamation uh recognizing July as International Day for the Conservation of Mangrove Ecosystems. >> So moved. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. Any objections? That motion passes unanimously. I can attest that how important mangroves are. I have really,
really healthy mangroves on my lot. And uh I have my rain gauge on my dock and I checked it on Sunday morning because we had a big thunderstorm on Saturday night and there were snook this long and this long under my dock because I have such
healthy mangroves. >> We're now going to have a a preset which is fire rescue presentation department three. >> Good morning. Got that right. >> Morning commissioners. For the record, Chad Shantuli, fire chief, Martin County
Fire Rescue. >> Good morning, commissioners. For the record, Rock Napoli, deputy fire chief, Martin County Fire Rescue. >> Good morning, commissioners. Matt Rush, Fire Rescue Administrator. So today we're here to do a presentation for you and I I got to be honest with
you. It's been on my mind. I want to make sure that I open this the right way because it's important. There's been a lot of attention to a presentation we haven't even conducted yet and it has no context. None at all. We have media attention and we have social media attention. So the opening is extremely
important. So what I would like to do is this. I'm going to bring you into a mind of a firefighter. A firefighter who trains on a regular basis. This is how we operate. This is how we think. When we train, we train as close to real world as possible. And it's important.
We have to because when we arrive on scene, we want to make sure we have no tactical gaps. None at all. So, if I'm going to do a training iteration and it's going to be a residential structure fire and I'm on the street, one of the backbones of running any operation has
to do with your communication. It essentially is how you do your command presence and how you actually run the tactics of the call. So if I just jumped into that training and I jumped on the radio and I initially started with a size up right out the gate and I said something like arrival on scene
singlestory CBS structure approximately 2,000 square ft. I have smoke and flame showing from the Alpha Bravo corner. We're about 20% involved and we're going in an offensive mode of operation. If the department was listening to the radio, which they do all day, and they
heard me do that size up, they're immediately going to want to know where I am, what I'm doing, and how quick do they need to get there. So, why am I sharing that? What I would normally do on that training exercise to make sure I deescalate that is I would get on the
radio and the first thing I would say is training, training, training. This is a training exercise only. And then proceed. and then I don't have to worry about anyone coming on scene of a training exercise. So I share that with you today because today we're here to do
a presentation. This presentation has to do with if the homestead exemption vote passes in November and there is an increase to homestead exemption in year 1 and two there are direct impacts obviously to the entire state to the county but I'm just here to speak about
those impacts to fire rescue only. So, we're going to talk about just year one and we're going to talk about year two. This is a training exercise and a training exercise only. However, these numbers, they're real. This isn't fear-mongering. This is real. We have to
absorb those impacts and we're going to break that down what that looks like. So, let's begin the exercise. So, first let's talk about how fire rescue is funded. So, the lion share of our fund comes from the municipal service taxing unit, the MSTU. And if you think about
how that works for a revenue stream, it's going to be based off the taxable value times the millage rate equals the revenue. If the homestead exemption does pass and the first year is going to be 150,000, it increases. It means our taxable value will drop. Millage stays
the same. Revenue drops with that as well. And then in year two, it climbs up to 250,000. Same scenario. Tax value drops again. Millage stays the same. Revenues drop substantially. So, let's talk about what
year one and year two look like. In year one, when it's $150,000, if this passes, fire rescue receives a reduction in our budget of $9.5 million. And then in year two, it compounds. In year two, we
received an additional $7 million reduction, which is a total of $16.5 million just to our budget. That's a 22% decrease with how we operate today. And that's something that we have to make sure we pay attention to because those
decreases, they have impacts. What I want to do is bring you back to literally two weeks ago, we just did a budget meeting and I think in the budget workshop, the biggest message I think I presented in that workshop is 93% of fire rescue's budget is people. So just
bear that in mind. So I'm going to go with year one. In year one, what I'm going to show you is the cuts in services. I have to re reach the benchmark of roughly $9.5 million. There's only so many ways I can do this. So, we're going to go through what that's going to look like. If this
passes in year one, we're going to go ahead and close down station 18 and we're going to close down station 33. I'm going to show you later in a map for context. Station 18 is at the northern end of the county. Station 33 is at the southern end of the county. The cost to operate a station on an annual basis
roughly 390,000. So, that's going to come to a sum of roughly $780,000. I have to reach 9.5 benchmark. I have currently 13 of our firefighters that are at the end of their career that are going into retirement and they're going to leave the department. Typically, when
those 13 firefighters would leave, I would go ahead and backfill them with new employees to keep our staffing levels the way they're supposed to be at our minimum staffing. Well, in this scenario, we're not going to backfill those employees, and that's going to be a cost of $2.6 million. I also have nine
additional vacancies right now as we sit. We're not going to backfill those as well. So essentially what we're doing is letting those full-time employee spots pretty much just retire out of the department. And I'm reducing my staffing by 22 full-time positions. That's going
to bring me to roughly $4.3 million. Now we're going to slash overtime. Overtime with fringes is roughly $1.4 million. Now what does that mean when I cut overtime? This is what it looks like. When when we shut the stations down, we
took all of the apparatus and the personnel, we redistributed them to the other stations that are still open. And you got to keep in mind, those stations aren't built to take in all that extra equipment, and they're not built to house all the additional personnel in
one dwelling. But when we slash the overtime, if I have somebody that is out on, it could be vacation, it could be sick, it could be FMLA, could be workers comp, whatever the case is, and I don't have the staff on duty to fill that position. I'm not paying overtime.
Typically, we would call an offduty person, offer them to work that day for the extra hours and pay them and then keep that truck running. Well, now we're shutting the overtime down. I don't have that ability to do that. So, essentially what happens is this. You have stations that are still operating in the county,
but on a randomized basis, some of those trucks will get shut down. So, it's going to be a very inconsistent level of service. You could have a fire truck shut down for a day, depending on my staffing, or you could have a rescue truck shut down for a day, depending on our staffing. But that's the
inconsistency that's starting to occur. Next, special teams. Special teams we're going to eliminate. That's going to bring us to roughly a 6.17 mark. That's a cost of 381,000 to operate those teams on an annual basis. I'm going to talk about three of these teams real quick.
We have a hazmat team, technical rescue team, and our dive team. Our hazmat team, I want you to think about Martin County and most in the public, they're not the wiser. They don't really know. We have hazardous material transit through this community on a routine
basis all day, all night. You think about I95, the turnpike, Federal Highway, the railway, and the marine industry. We are surrounded by it. Our hazmat team is not an ordinary team. This team is a nationally recognized
team, and proof is in the pudding. We literally had some highle incidents out in western part of the county, FPNL, and this is something they're able to handle. We had two large-scale incidents in one year. The public went to bed and woke up the next day, and everything was just fine. They had no idea. However, we
were able to operate that call, mitigate that incident, and by the next morning, everything was good. The public doesn't know what we can do internally. But they have that ability to do that. So, if I eliminate this team now, what's that same scenario look like if I have an
incident in the future at FPNL? Well, this is what happens. Our crews arrive on scene. They're going to identify it's a hazardous material call at an industry at a factory or at a plant. And they're going to go ahead and secure the scene, isolate the scene, evacuate far and
wide, and then they're going to go ahead and call for outside agencies. They will call for St. Lucy County or Palm Beach County. One, they're going to ask them, do you still have a team? And two, if you do, can you respond it to our incident to mitigate it? Now, that's
going to be something called a mutual aid agreement. A mutual aid agreement is simply this. They could have the assets to give you, but if they don't have the time to give you those assets, you're not going to get them. But you're definitely not going to get them in a timely manner. One thing to understand about a hazardous material call, those
calls escalate at a very rapid time frame where we're going to sit there and we're going to watch this and secure it the best we can until we get the proper assets on scene. Next, a technical rescue team. This team has got many different disciplines just in the team itself, but I'm going to just kind of
extract one for you because it's something you see in a regular routine basis. It is their ability to do complex vehicle extrications. I've I've said this a thousand times before. There's something about this county. The type of vehicle collisions we have in this county, they are extremely traumatic.
They are fiery. And the amount of damage sustained is just unreal what happens out there. There are some scenes that we go on. This isn't a typical fender bender where there's just a door pop. There are some scenes that we go on that are so complex with how to cut these people out of the car. We have to deploy
this team. This team has a specialized skill set. They have the specialized training. They have specialized equipment to be able to mitigate that scene. It's extremely important, but we're going to eliminate that. So, what's it look like? We're going to go to these scenes and we're still going to throw everything at it that we can and
we're going to try to perform that extrication. But if it goes beyond the tools that we have on scene or the skill set, then we're going to have to again call for an outside agency to mitigate our incident. It's either going to be St. Lucy County or a Palm Beach County
and have them come to our scene which is going to delay the entire point of patient care and transfer them to appropriate facility. Last is our dive team. our dive team. If you think about Martin County, Martin County, it's over 700 square miles.
Roughly 200 square miles is waterway, 22 miles just coastal line. We have incidents where we have vehicles that go off the roadway into it could be canals, lakes, ponds, whatever it is. And the way we have built this team, we built this team to where it can actually be in
a rescue mode of operation. What does that mean? Essentially what they're doing is we deploy them immediately from the incident and then they get to dress out and route to the call and then as soon as they hit the scene they splash the water. They have a 45minute window to stay in a rescue mode to perform an
effective positive outcome. But essentially if we don't have that team, we're going to go ahead and be on the side of the water, whatever bank that is, we're going to secure the scene. We're going to secure our witnesses and then we're going to call counties north and south of us to ask that they still have those assets available. a dive team
and then if they can respond it to us and then when they do respond essentially what they're going to do is a body recovery because your rescue window of opportunity it's shut. Now you're just going to pull bodies out of the water in that scenario. All right. Next I'm going to move on to capital and equipment deferred project.
This is roughly a $3.1 million cost. I'm not going to go into that now but it's worthy of its own slide and Mr. Rush will do that when I finish this slide here and you'll understand those details and the ramifications. So next we're going to move on to Lifar. So for the general public, Lifar is our
trauma helicopter. We have a trauma helicopter for a reason. What we do not have in Martin County is a trauma center. We don't have a trauma hospital. It's why we have a helicopter. We're held to two standards. One is someone that is deemed a trauma alert. This this
is a very specific criteria. This isn't criteria that Martin County Fire Rescue came up with. This is state criteria. If you meet the qualifications of a trauma alert, you have to go to a trauma center with a trauma surgeon and a trauma team within 60 minutes of window. That's the
second standard, the golden hour. If we can get you to a trauma facility from that point of impact, within 60 minutes of time under that benchmark, then you have a high probability of survival. If you go past that 60-minute window, you
have a high probability for loss of life. This isn't frivolous information I'm just throwing out there. This isn't fear monitoring. This is fact. This is exactly what would happen. So, how does that call look in the future after the helicopter is gone? It's simple. We get on scene. We do what we can do. We
establish it's a trauma alert. We will call for outside assets if they can still fly to us. But depending on the time delay, how long it takes them to get here because they're out of county. Most likely, we're going to be driving them. But the problem with that is we're not going to be achieving the goal of
that golden hour to adhere to that standard and that's going to change outcomes. All right. Last I'm going to talk about here is the cadet program that we have. This is an awesome program that we have in Martin County Fire Rescue. This is essentially investing into the youth of our kids in high
school. And it's just recruiting our local kids to see if they want to be a part of fire rescue. And if they do, we bring them on to the program. We expose them what fire rescue is all about. And then if they do like it, then they go off to their formalized education. They get certified. They come back here. We
hire them. That is a lifelong employee. Those right there services would meet the benchmark of the 9.5 million that we're looking to achieve in year one. This next slide I'm going to kick over to Mr. Rush and he's going to talk about the capital and equipment. >> Thank you, Chief. Good morning,
commissioners. So, before I get into the context of this slide, I think it's really important to uh provide a little bit of context specifically about our capital improvement plan. So, unlike our operating budget, which funds the day-to-day operations, the capital
improvement plan is essentially our long-term financial strategy. And what allows us to do is plan 10 years in advance for the replacement of critical infrastructure and equipment. And we've been successful over the years at maintaining a very consistent level of funding with minimal increases by
employing two different effective strategies. First, we leverage the county's exceptional credit rating to purchase our fire apparatus at historically low interest rates as compared to the retail market. Then as those debt obligations expire,
we replace them with the next apparatus purchase. That discipline approach has allowed us to maintain a reliable fleet while keeping our annual funding remarkably stable. Second, we've created savings accounts for the bulk replacement of our cardiac monitors, our
SCBA air packs, our AEDs. So when they reach the end of their useful life in 10 to 15 years, we already have the money set aside to pay for them. So any significant reduction in our advalorum revenue would force us to abandon a replacement strategy that has
served us very well over the years. Now as we dive into the details of the slide, the first impact would be approximately 1.2 million in apparatus lease payments bringing the engine and res and rescue replacement schedules essentially to a halt.
This brings apparatus reliability into question and increases our maintenance costs across the board. The next reduction would be $835,000 for bunker gear, education equipment, and our marine rescue unit. That means firefighters would have to continue
wearing their personal protective equipment for longer than intended, and the rescue rescue tools would have to be used well beyond their useful life. The next reduction would be 600,000 from our fixed asset replacement budget uh which funds our large-scale fire station
maintenance items such as HVAC systems of roof structure repair and replacement and dealing with any building envelope issues. In addition, we'd have to postpone those savings accounts that I just discussed established for the replacement of our cardiac monitors or SCBA and AEDs. Uh obviously these are
all critical pieces of equipment that directly affect firefighter safety and patient outcomes. So in total nearly 3.1 million in planned capital investments would have to be deferred. Um unfortunately however deferral doesn't equate to savings. It just shifts the
obligation down the road and increases the uh volatility of our future budgets. >> Thank you Matt. So on this slide we're still in year one. This is where I referred to station 18 and station 33. These are the two areas that are going
to shut down in year one. What I want you to keep in mind is this. I told you I'm reallocating all those assets to the other opening stations. But now what I'm doing is I'm putting strain on these other zones and I'm also creating greater travel time which is going to change our response times. What does
that translate into? It's the level of service. In our comp plan, our level of service is defined in the urban service district. We have to respond to an emergency within eight minutes of time 90% of the time. If we did this, we
would be hardressed to make that. So, if we're not adhering to the standard of the comp plan, there's a whole set of ramifications that come with that. Or the other option is you open up the comp plan and you make a comp plan amendment and you redefine what you view as an
acceptable level of service in the community. But it will not be 8 minutes. it will increase from there. All right. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about ISO. I did this in the budget workshop for a reason. ISO is a very important rating and this is for
the community. When the community is looking to purchase a home and they call their insurance company or they're looking to re-evaluate their bills and they call their insurance company. Insurance company's going to look at where they live and then they're going to look at their ISO classification rating. ISO stands for insurance service
office. classification goes from a class one, it means it's the best class you can be in, to a class 10, which is the worst class you can be in. If you're in a class 10, your premiums will reflect that and they will be much higher. If you're in a class one or two, your premiums will be much lower. We are
striving, we actually just reduced our classification to a class two, striving to be a class one in the next couple of years. We are going to get re-evaluated in a couple years. However, if this scenario plays out, then ISO does come back in, they re-evaluate us, and they
see the things that have changed. There is very specific criteria with ISO. I'm only going to pull out two. And one has to do with how quick we can assemble firefighters on a residential structure fire in a certain amount of time. And then also how quick we can get water to that scene in a certain amount of time.
Once they realized our services have changed, they will change that ISO rating in those areas. Which means people today that are receiving a class 2, this class rating could change to a class 4 or possibly a class 5.
Translates to them their premiums can go up from 5% to 20% depending on what classification they go into. All right, so I told you I was going to give you two options in year one. So I just explained all the services that
we're cutting. That was option one. Option two is you keep all of the services. Stations are open. All the teams are there. None of that is affected. The other op option to that to meet the benchmark of 9.5 million. The only way I can do it is to lay off 64
firefighters. Remember 93% of our budget is people. So but here's the double-edged sword. The quandry you're going to be in. You have the services. You laid off the firefighters. Now you don't have enough firefighters to run those services because I don't have
enough people to do that job. All right. So, let's go into year two. So, in year two, this is the compounding effect. Now, it's an additional $7 million reduction. Now, we're at that 16.5 in total, which is a 22% reduction
of today's budget. There's only so much left to cut. I don't have much left to cut. So, we're going to cut. We're going to go ahead and shut down our third fire station, which is station 23. And I'm going to show you that on a map so you have an understanding. And then you have to, there's no way around it. You have
to touch the souls of firefighters and lay off an additional 52 firefighters. That is the only way we can reach the benchmark of that $7 million. All right. So the map for context again, you have 18, 23, and 33 pretty much runs
right down the center. So why do we choose those stations? It's just that there's zones surrounding them to where it's going to be a strain on the system, but at least we can try to pick up some of the slack. It will redefine your level of service. Just to point out,
station 21, Palm City, the square miles of just that area alone, it's difficult as it is 64 square miles. Station 21 is one of the busiest in the county. The next busiest is station 30. That's also the busiest. 23 is there for a reason
because of those two stations. Now, they're going to have to pick that up. They're going to have to increase their square mileage and coverage. And how busy they already are is going to make it even stretched more and put more strain on the system. That's the impact to the level of service.
So again, the overall option for everything in year one and two. If you don't do anything with the services and you keep all the services, keep all your fire stations open, the only way to reach the total of year 1 and year two of the 16.5 million is to lay off 116
firefighters. For perspective, we have three shifts, an alpha, a Bravo, and a Charlie. One shift consists of 116 firefighters. So now you have really spread this thin. Now you have to accomplish that over three shifts of coverage. But the problem is you have
all these services. You don't have the firefighters to nearly run any of those services. So that is going to be a drastic change to what the level of service would look like. But that is a decision that you would have to make at that time. So at this point I'm going to
conclude the exercise portion of this. I want to just make a comment and I've I've heard a a recent comment and it was really coming from a state level that they want to see us go to precoid budget budget numbers, right? Precoid numbers,
right? And it's interesting to like read that comment and understand that and I would love to have that conversation because here's what I want. If you want pre-COVID budgets, then I want pre-COVID expenses. That means I want the fire trucks. I want the rescues. I want the ladder trucks. I want our medical
supplies. I want the cost of insuranceances, heck, the cost of a home, the the cost of uh interest on a on a mortgage, the cost of supplies itself, just overall how to operate. If we can do all that in precoid numbers,
then maybe maybe we can talk and have a conversation about our pre-COVID budget. But I'm pretty confident that's not going to happen. So, I want to leave you with this, and this is probably the most important part. I don't support this. I don't advocate this. Not one item in
this document that I just shared with you. And I want to talk about our people. Martin County Fire Rescue, and I know you guys heard me say it a thousand times, but it's worth repeating. They are some of the most professional in the industry. The standard that we have here in Martin County Fire Rescue, I would
put them up against anyone in the state, if not the nation. They are good at what they do. Next level good at what they do. you lose one of these firefighters, it is a detriment to this organization. It is a detriment to this community. I'm proud to serve them. I'm proud to lead
them and I'm proud to be a part of them. So, with that, I'm going to conclude my portion and I'll open up to any questions. >> Questions for the chief. >> Mr. Caps, >> thank you for that excellent presentation, Chief.
>> Yes, sir. >> And I wanted to clarify one thing on page 640. We don't have any numbers like that. Which one are you looking at? >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> It's called the exemption arrives in two steps. >> Yes. It it seems to me like
the right column should say 16.5 million. Like if you're comparing a scenario where the tax referendum passes versus not passing and you started with your $80 million
budget that we have in the coming year and you know the first year you lose 9.5 and in the second year you lose 16.5 not seven it's seven more than the 9.5.
So in reality, when you look at what you're losing over a two-year span, it's 9.5 plus 16.5, >> right? 9.5 plus 7. >> Oh, I see what you're saying. Yes. >> 5 + 7. >> So it's really more like
10 million more dollars than what it kind of is portrayed there. >> So I'm going to pass that to Matt. >> I guess the easiest way to look at that would be to use the numbers that you had just mentioned. Let's say we start with 80 million. So the way I see it, so is by the end of year two or let's start a
year two, we'd be down to 64 million roughly. >> So be 16 million off the >> There you go. And that's just in the second year. >> Right. >> Right. So it's it's almost like it's worse than what that looks like there. And then I wanted to mention something
about the Hobound stations. We have 32 by Reed Park and then we have 33 by Heritage Ridge. >> Correct. And the thought would be to to shut down the one by Heritage Ridge and keep the one at Reed Park. And for our Hopetown residents, I I would wonder if
maybe you could give an explanation about why that would be the choice. >> Sure. So, when you look at when you look at the map and you look at those two stations, the newest station is station 33, which is the one you were referring to, but we're shutting it down. The reason is the proximity, the location.
So, it may not make sense because it's a brand new station. Why would you shut it down? you have to move your assets south because of the coverage that you have in a southern area of the zone. We have to cover all the way to county line. And if I move that hope sound station and I move it up north, I'm making that square
mileage that we were just talking about earlier, it's more and more of a strain. So the way we're looking at it is trying to reduce the impact. But let's face it, no matter what I shut down or what I do, it's a drastic impact to different parts of the community. Shutting one of these
stations down is detrimental. In fact, we've already done a presentation where we need an additional station as we're staffed today out in western Palm City and that has to do with their square mileage and the call load. So, to play this exercise out, it's complicated to
do because we're already identified that we need another fire station. >> One more question about insurance rates for homeowners that go up when stations close. Just for clarification, I believe the
rule is if you're more than 5 miles away, >> correct? >> Then you're going to pay higher insurance rates. >> Higher insurance rate. If you're greater than 5 miles, you're going to pay a greater insurance rate. And those are like for instance a Newfield area that's
greater than five miles. That's a class 10 area. So that's essentially what would happen. And that means your premiums will reflect that classification, >> right? And I believe my sense is that those that increase is pretty substantial. >> It it could be substantial. I mean, you
could call any insurance company. It's a little bit randomized of some that you call depending. Um, but you can look at a five or to 20% increase, but then you throw in hurricane season, whatever happens with the hurricanes, we get hit. It seems like the insurance companies, they have to make it up somehow, and
it's usually on the public. So, >> thank you. You're welcome, >> Commissioner Campy. >> Thank you. Thank you, Chief. I appreciate the presentation. Um, you mentioned it recently at our budget hearing. As far as I'm concerned,
whatever the voters decide in November is what we will deal with. But in my mind, I think about, and I've been here for a bit, I think about a hierarchy of services, hierarchy of government services. And I think our residents not
only expect they demand that public safety is at the top of the hierarchy. Uh that's fire rescue and police. So I appreciate this presentation um it's definitely a wake-up call. However, if the
referendum goes the way that many would hope uh that there is going to be sort of a constriction of money that's coming in. My first wish would have been that the legislature in Tallahassee spent more time worrying about home insurance
rates than property insurance rates. Uh property uh tax rates, excuse me. Um I think that would have had a much more positive financial effect on more residents without the uh constriction of
services. As far as I'm concerned, most of what you discussed today, and I'm sure as we have done in years past when budgets were tight, Commissioner Herd and I were here in 2008, 910, uh, and your union uh, back then also was
generous to postpone uh, rightful increases that they were entitled to through contractual negotiations back then, and they just did it again. So, I appreciate that. But that being said, I think we'll have to look further down the hierarchy of county services before
I would uh entertain any of this. Uh our residents, it's these are, you know, there's not a lot of services that counties offer that are a matter of life and death. this and what our our police department and sheriff's office does is
in my mind uh we would be doing a lot more belt tightening uh slashing of budgets elsewhere which is harsh and I have a lot of uh respect for our other departments but I wouldn't be participating in this level of slashing
here. I would request of the three of you that are in front of us now to find where you could legitimately find cuts that you without having, you know, the uh figurative gun to your head could come up. I know Mr. Res has done an excellent
job in years past, not only where to shave, but how to gain dollars from the state and the federal government and any other outside source that could bring dollars in to backfill. That I would request of you and the
department to find what you would cons would say is considered legitimate costcutting measures, but not any of this. I'm not interested in closing any fire stations. I'm not interested in laying off any personnel. For the years
leading up to this, we've been trying to figure out how do we keep personnel? How do we do we uh attract new personnel? How do we stop our neighbors from the especially the south from poaching our personnel? the value of the training and
the experience of having our people that are already here that know how to get in the truck that know where Danforth is that know where Point Sienna Gardens is. We don't need to constantly be revolving door personnel that don't have the
confidence of their training and their experience. So I'm not interested in any part of this. we can do a full hash beatdown on the rest of the budget before we would get to this. So, I appreciate the presentation. Um, I think
it's good for the public to hear. Uh, people have asked me my opinion of the referendum. I'll do whatever the public, the majority of the public says we should do, but it won't involve this. Thank you, >> Commissioner Heatherington.
>> Yes. Um, thank you for the presentation, Chief. Could you go back to slide number one? I think that has the services and there's there's no doubt that when you know if uh in November should this pass that the level of services across
the county across every department will be impacted in some way, shape or form. Um I was just curious how some of these numbers are derived. For instance, Lifar $100,000 that seems low. I mean, first of all, you're watching all the
fatalities that you you mentioned in on 710 and 714 and 95. It seems like we have one or two, you know, major accidents a week now that LifeStar is utilizes.
It's only 100,000. I mean, that seems like a low number. So, I'm just curious how you derived that number. So that was a a contract change that we did with our vendor um air methods. And originally, if you go back seven years ago, probably
seven years ago, it was a completely different financial setup. Um I'll kind of kick it to Matt here. He can explain it way better than I can, but because of the program that we have now, it operates different as far as the revenues and the funding, what keeps that program in play. That's why you see
it. That's, you know, I guess what you bring up is it's a it's a really good example of the fiscal responsibility that we have of running the organization. We've run it and and this is where sometimes I feel like you get faulted for this. We run a very lean
system, extremely lean. I mean, we're cutting the edge right now with personnel that we have running on the street. But then when it comes to uh a time for cuts, people will come to you and they cut the fat, trim the fat. Well, I don't have any fat to cut. Um, and that's an example of what I mean.
There's not much fat in there. There's no fat in Lifestyle. That's as lean as you can get. Um, but I feel like you get faulted for that. We're like, well, you got to have it somewhere. And that methodology, it would really lead you to, well, okay, in good times, then I need to inflate it because when the bad times come, cuz they come, then it's
time for me to go ahead and cut some of that fat that I created. We didn't create it because we are very fiscally responsible for the organization. Anyway, I'll kick it to you, Matt, for the vendor. >> Sure. Thank you. So, um, the reason why it's so low is in part of this exercise in year one, we were trying to avoid
making any cuts to personnel. So, what you're seeing, the vast majority, and and chief mentioned this in his presentation of our budget is tied up in personnel cost at 93%. Um, so what you're seeing as far as the cut here is strictly just the operating
budget for LifeStar, which may seem low, but that's all it is is 100,000. used to be prior to that contract change uh closer to $2 million. So we cut 1.8 $1.9 million out of the lifear budget. So now all that remains the majority of the
lifesty. >> So closings for instance closing station 18 and 33 is that 390,000 the way that those are derived is that personnel? >> No, it's the operating cost to run those stations. We just took a blended average
of all of our stations. So it's your utilities, it's medical supplies, it's station maintenance, things like that. >> Okay. So the same with special teams, that's operating expenses. So right >> you put the services here and then the personnel is are in those subsequent slides.
>> Yeah. As a last resort. Correct. >> So you if you cut these, you almost have to cut some of those personnel. Well, you have to cut the personnel, right? No, you don't because those are >> if you cut the 9.5, how do you operate? Like where are you putting the the
personnel from station 18? >> Well, it it doesn't work. So, if I cut these stations and the services and you still have the personnel, it's going to redefine how you respond to calls. Now, the people the level of service. So, that's what
changes and it's it's distance of travel. It's all that. And again, the building, the occupy, you can't even hold the people. is like days of bunk beds in a room now. Um it's just it it doesn't work. That's why I'm saying you you look at the scenario and you try to like make sense of it of like how can
you make it work? It's kind of the point. You can't. >> It's complicated. >> It's very complicated. >> And then I have one more question. The special teams for instance, you said if you may not have the hazmat or the special um extrication skills and you would have to
go to mutual aid outside of the county. Does our mutual aid agreement require that we pay um those counties? >> So, typically mutual aid agreements are if we can provide like services. So, if
they call us and we have like services um and we can provide that same service in return, usually there's no fee for that. >> But if we don't have we can't provide that in >> correct. Could that change? Yes, it could. Today it's not like that. No. >> Okay. Thank you. But you're also
assuming that Martin County is the only one making these cuts. They're going to make these cuts in St. Lucy County and Palm Beach County and Okchobee County, too. So, you can't just assume if we don't have a helicopter that we can call on St. Lucy Countyy's helicopter because they might not have a helicopter either. >> That's correct.
>> And Mr. Rush, did you do an evaluation of year three? No, we stopped at year two >> because our evaluation was that's when the extraordinary cuts occurred. Um, and also I think it's it's it's
really important to once again emphasize that the union was negotiating a three-year contract which was supposed to have begun uh September 1 and they stopped because this uh referendum advanced and they're foregoing raises
next year in order to uh save taxpayer money and that's extraordinary. >> It is extraordinary. I agree. >> I have two request to speak forms. One is from Ellen Aselin and one is from Frank Mcristel. >> Good morning again. This is Ellen Aelen
and um I wondered how that they came up with the ISO rating. It didn't show up on the on the um website when I was searching, but it's
altogether different when you come up with the presentation. Um I want to go back in history. My dad was a fire chief. He started a mutual aid in Franklin
County with some other counties including up into New Hampshire. It was the Connecticut Valley. You talk about a cadet program. He got together with the Boy Scouts, started explorer.
Every one of those explorer scouts went to the community college and took firefighting, took medical training to become EMS. And that was just with kids. Every
single one of those kids became members of the department. some chiefs, some captains because of their training, because they had that opportunity. So, this is a valuable
thing to me. And all the other things don't matter as much as that. Thank you. Thank you. If anyone else would like to address us, please fill out a request to speak form and get it to the baiff. Thank you. Good
morning. >> Good morning. Uh the presenter is very good, very good at his job. And as many times as he mentioned not trying to be a fearmonger, the reaction from the people my age and
older back there in the back of the room, it was pretty uh fearful. A lot of gas. I'm sure this whole thing this whole thing is very very complicated. But the reason I'm here this morning is when I read the uh
the presentation, the original the premise that this is the only way to cut is just like top to bottom. And I wonder and a topic so complicated.
Why is the idea of maybe cutting uh personnel pay to make up a short ball not even part of the options? Just wondering again something this complicated, why wouldn't we not look at everything?
And this idea of us keeping up with Palm Beach County in order to keep our employees, it's real. And maybe, as much as I hate to say it, maybe this
could be something that only the state is going to solve and maybe have some sort of uniform pay schedule for all firefighters in the state. That might be an option. To my gentlemen in the audience, the
firefighters here, this isn't about the rank and file. is my belief that in any public service organization, 85 to 90% of the fat is at the top.
That's that spot I call the swamp. However, gentlemen, if you want to serve yourselves better, here's what the public sees. They see firefighters driving $100,000 trucks working every third day.
If you want to help yourselves, look poor. Don't Don't do that. And if you've got the wife who is into the image, ditch the wife. Thank you very much,
>> Commissioner Vargas. This last speaker uh was similar to what I've heard from a lot of others to uh when I've been out in the field and I do speak with a lot of people. Um there are two sides here and I appreciate
your presentation. I also appreciate the union not negotiating for higher salaries. Um I don't think any one particular department should suffer the brunt of this. I just came back from a national conference where there were
3,100 over 3,100 counties represented across the country. There are other states that are also going through what we're going through right now. And I think that the motto and I think that Commissioner Caps and I were at uh another meeting about a month ago and
it's do more with less. Do more with less. Um you really have to look hard at every line item. It's just like corporate. just like a corporation. And so in effect, what we're doing is
looking at what's the possibility. It could go this way or that way. If it doesn't pass, you still should pull back. I I noticed that some of the biggest expenses next to salaries, which are huge, is the health care and the
retirement. Now, that's mandated, the retirement based on the salary. But I think we have to take a hard look here. We're at a point where there's going to be no turning back one way or the other. It may be a couple more years if they
have another swipe at it either way. So, I want to ask our county administrator, Mr. Donaldson. Um, would you please be kind enough to present a budget cutting 10% from every department of which the
firefighters are part of and show us what that would look like. I I think that's very reasonable. I think it's tangible and I think that something if you're a numbers person, you you can look at it and say, "Okay, this is this is reality. It's imminent again one way or the other what what we're going to
wake up to the following day in November. And I I've had a lot of people say to me and and this is something that I abide by also. Why are non-government employees expected to
live within their budget yet the government can't live within their budget? This is a big resentful sound out there. And uh don't put anything past Martin County residents and taxpayers. They're an astute bunch.
Believe me, they speak with me everywhere. That's why I go to another county to go to my gym so they can get some peace and quiet. But anyway, if you'd be kind enough to do that, I think that would be something that we could hold on to here and look at hard numbers. And I think that's something that's that's feasible.
and I would urge my fellow commissioners to follow suit and um support this. >> Mr. Rash, >> thank you. I just wanted to circle back to uh something that you had mentioned, Commissioner Campy, uh about utilizing
other departments throughout the county and cutting potentially from there to save the fire rescue budget. And um I'm not sure if Stephanie Merley is here to to confirm this, but the way I understand is because we have a fire rescue MSTU with our own mill rate that
would constrain our ability to do uh what you described. I think that these cuts are are legitimate that they would actually have to come off the fire to you. I just want to make sure everyone's on the same page so we have the correct information getting out there. >> I see Miss Merly in the lobby and she's
nodding her head. >> Yeah. So the um the issue is is that we have um a general fund uh millage rate and we also have a collection of MSTUs and the and the funds that the MSTU are collected on are spent within that
boundary. And um and so as the and it is about tax rates and and taxable values and so as the amendment would be uh uh implemented uh we would it is and and and a lot of these numbers here reflected too commissioner are are
what's generated from advorum and so the example of the helicopter is where if there's insurance funds or other things funding them that doesn't change um but you still so your your advorum funded or your property taxes are what's reduced.
Uh and how you adjust for that is determining what um what services are going to be provided. Uh and part of what makes this uh bill complicated is not only does it affect the homestead exemptions, it also purports to describe
what is an essential service and the legislature reserves the ability to further define what is an essential service. So part of the analysis is determine if it is even an eligible operation and I and so there may be you know um areas within the county that are
not listed under the bill as essential service and they can be eliminated and and the one that comes to mind often is talked about is like parks and reccks. It's not limited as a so it may not even be eligible for for that funding. So, how you how you first you
have to determine what's eligible uh what revenues you have and you have to determine for this body uh what levels of service you're going to provide. So, simply doing across the board cuts doesn't necessarily get you anything um
because it has to be specific to how they are funded to begin with. as as Matt Rush described, the MSTU is limited to it's funding a county unincorporated boundary and uh and that money can't be shifted. If for instance, if fire rescue
save money, it wouldn't be eligible to be shifted to um other departments. It's got to stay within the fire rescue MSTU as the ordinance that created that um requires. So the complication goes to um
um again it kind of gets back to that key core element is uh is it even eligible to be funded uh what's the level of service that you really want to make uh happen and um and we'll go through that exercise for each one of
these. So uh it should this pass. Commissioner Caps, >> just for clarification, I think what I just heard was that if this tax referendum passes, we
can't just repprioritize the general fund and take a bunch of money out of the general fund and throw it into the fire MSTU. These cuts kind of have to happen out of the fire MSTU. And the only way we would be able to
recoup some of that loss would be to raise the millage rate for that MSTU. Is that correct? >> That that's correct. It would be uh you would be looking at options for uh I believe the term of art is a tax shift, right? So you would be looking at other revenue sources whether it's through
increased millages, uh fees, other other means of um um of doing a tax shift. So, it's been described as one door is there's no tax shift. You you absorb all of the reductions in in their entirety
as they're presented in the bill. Uh or you uh the other extreme is a is a tax shift where all of the revenues are shifted onto other fees or um millage increases. Uh if
if your millage caps under the state law allow it. We have a 10 mil cap in the state of Florida and and um as you raise your millage rate to um so uh to to to generate the revenue to replacement um
you have restrictions on it. So all that ties into the the conversation. >> Madam Chair, do you mind if I come? >> Sure. >> So I just want to make a a couple of comments. Um there was a lot of information kind of getting thrown around. One is I want to say this. >> All of our firefighters right now
>> your microphone's not on. I don't think >> all of our firefighters right now, they're watching this presentation and they're listening to every word you say. So, I just want to be crystal clear that one, when you reference the firefighter salaries. In fact, if you like, I'll do
a study for you as well. They are not overpaid. In fact, they need to be paid more. And that's a fact. And I can share that and I can give you a study to show you that's dollars and cents. The other is what I encourage you to do is when you speak to people who claim to be a
subject matter expert in an area that they have no experience, they haven't laced up the boots and done this job and understand this job and what it takes to do this job. I suggest you look elsewhere for a subject matter expert that understands the job, understands the financing of the job, understands
how to be fiscally responsible in the job. That's where you're going to get accurate, good information. But if you make decisions based off people that really have ignorance in the profession, you're going to make some bad decisions. So I encourage you to seek out the right subject matter expert.
>> Commissioner Vargas, we're going to have to make a decision and you're going to have to make choices. Nobody is going to be immune. So, I'm not saying, and I'm not going to insult the Martin County taxpayers or residents, but some of them do know a
whole lot about how a fire department runs or shouldn't run. So, when I'm doing a study, I will go to experts, but this is the mood of the community. Now, having said that, I appreciate everything that you're presenting, but
also was spoken about, too. And this is where Commissioner Caps and I were at a Florida conference just about the last month or so. Very few legislators have been county commissioners. And we have a tremendous job right now
to figure out and we will. And not everybody's going to like it. But we're not here as a popularity contest. We're here to do the right thing. That's what we're hired for. I appreciate fire rescue. I appreciate the sheriff's department. But we only
have so many dollars to go around just as a private enterprise would have to make cuts or changes. Tighten up. That's what we've been told. >> Okay. As always, thank you for sharing. >> Well, this agenda item is not meant to
be one in which decisions are made. It's for uh to gather information. And these uh cuts here are theoretical, but the total is not. That's mathematical. So somehow uh if the referendum succeeds in
the first year, $9.5 million will be cut. We don't know where you're going to cut, but we know that that cut is real. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> We will take a 10-minute break and we will return with public hearing number two.
We are back taking up public hearing number two which is a public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance amending section 17.9 rules and regulations for Martin County Parks general ordinances Martin County code relating to fishing on county owned property.
>> Good morning. >> Good morning. Um, I am Melissa Petri. I'm senior assistant county attorney. Um, I have with me Mr. Joseph Baron. He's going to be presenting the item. Before we do that though, I wanted to bring to the attention um certain
statutes and rules that are in place um based upon I've heard the public comment going on. >> Would you first introduce Mr. Baron? >> Sure. This is Mr. Baron. >> Good morning, commissioners. I am Joseph Baron, assistant county attorney. >> Excellent. And where are you coming from? Um, originally I'm from Tom's
River, New Jersey. Um, now I'm >> How long have you been with Martin County? >> Um, a couple months, three months. >> Welcome. >> Yes. Thank you. >> So, the county attorney's office was approached by FWC
regarding or ordinances that we had on our books. We have certain ordinances that relate to fishing and saltwater fishing and including sharks. There is a state statute that has essentially preempted the powers from
the county to regulate saltwater fishing. That includes shark fishing. Preemption meaning the state says, "County, you can't control this anymore. The state has to control it. There are certain provisions that we are allowed to continue to do certain things, but
overall Florida Administrative Code 68-1.005 005 says the power to regulate the taking or possession of marine life is assigned to FWC.
So fish and wildlife is in charge now of saltwater fishing. The Florida administrative code rule 68B-2.001 001, which is a rule of the state,
says chumming the waters from a beach is illegal. Our ordinance presentation here does not say that people are allowed to come to Martin County and chum our waters for sharks. It is illegal underneath the
Florida Administrative Code. And if someone does chum the waters, their first violation is a secondderee misdemeanor. Their second violation is a firstderee misdemeanor which would carry a penalty of up to 12 months
imprisonment. So the ordinance as presented, I just wanted the commission to be aware we are doing this because FWC approached us because there is a state law that says we are limited on what we can do because
also chumming is still illegal in the state and in fact while fishing people who fish you need a license from FWC. FWC has actually it appears to have tightened the reigns and said if you want to shark fish not only do you need
a license but you need a particular permit from FWC. So if a member of the public sees somebody fishing on our beaches that involves chumming throwing blood bait they should be calling FWC so that person can get cited potentially
arrested and whatever penalties FWC wants to put in there. So just to clarify that is the reason for this presentation and for the amendment on here. We did present to FWC and Joe will
explain that in there our changes after our we did a Zoom meeting with them after our conversations with them. Obviously FWC they went through it. They didn't have any objection to the language that we presented. So, I wanted
to lay that out first and foremost before Joe does his presentation or if there's any other comments that we have from here. >> Yeah, Commissioner Campy. >> Oh, I was going to say if I may, Commissioners, so the ordinance presented today does eliminate our
regulation of shark fishing. If the board wants, we can rework the wording of the ordinance to not completely remove it, but to reference state law. We do that in other areas of the code. And given the public's um concerns, we can take the ordinance back after you
hear Joe uh Mr. Baron's presentation. We can re rework the ordinance and then instead of eliminating everything, we would just reference the the illegality of things under state law. So that's always an option if the board desires. >> Mr. Campy, >> that's a great segue. This morning
during public comment, I was very frustrated as when I heard the public because I agree with them. When I had originally heard about this agenda item, I'm like, why are we doing this? And I had contacted both Mr. Donaldson and Miss Elder and say, what are we doing?
Because we had been receiving emails for several months from folks for and against this. And I'm thinking, I never remember bringing this up to our staff. I didn't think my colleagues did. So this morning, that's why I asked to have the agenda item moved. I know a decent
amount of the public speakers have left, but I certainly didn't want the folks, especially, thank you for staying, to think that we had said, "Let's do this," or, "Let's make this easier." I have some friends that I know and family members that are either professional
ocean rescue lifeguards in other counties and ask them about this and they said, "Yeah, of course you wouldn't do this. The thing that I heard this morning that I think needs to be brought into the conversation is I it's another crazy new technology. I'd never heard of
uh chumming with drones. Uh it sounds so weirdly futuristic, but I guess this is where we are now. So I would just say to our staff, legal staff, that if FWC doesn't address that in their language, we certainly need to address that in ours. And then finally, if they're
setting up these casting lines up in the dunes that run through the beach out into the water and our folks are out there in the water, uh bathing and surfing is originally what the whole beach concept that we present is about.
So, I'm interested to hear your presentation. However, I wanted to make sure we had nothing to do with this. We didn't ask to do this. We didn't recommend it. And I like your idea that uh instead of striking the language, it stays in there and says refer to FWC.
Thank you. >> Yeah, I agree. Reinstate W and also include the FWC language. Chumming is illegal if you you have to have a permit. Put all that language reinstated back in our our ordinance. Commissioner Vark, uh,
>> is this something that just pertains to I'm reading here, uh, the information just to county owned land or what about those properties, condominiums, private homes that have own the beach rights on Hutchinson Island? I mean, I don't want
to go in the water if there's a shark. I'm a scuba diver. At least I can see and I can get away quickly. But, you know, this is something that I I it's unfathomable. >> So, the code has written I'll read that. It says the power to regulate the taking or possession of marine life as assigned
to fish and w as assigned to the fish and wildlife conservation commission by article 54 section 9 of the Florida constitution is expressly reserved to the commission. The reservation does not prohibit a local government from prohibiting for reasons of protecting
the public health, safety or welfare saltwater fishing from real property owned by that local government. That from what I understand and correct me I don't know if maybe I'm incorrect. I thought the beaches and all along our land are owned by Martin County. So there is no condo that owns the beaches
of Martin County. >> Correct. >> And our So we own the beaches. The condos do not own the beaches. >> Our is that so? >> Oh, let let's verify that because I understood differently and that's why I'm consulting with legal counsel about that.
>> And then the point problem comes to their the waters of the land are owned by the state. >> Yes. So the you're standing on a beach, which is technically county property. Now your fishing line is in the state's waters. That's where that's probably my
guess is maybe that's why they >> I can't say why they put this statute in place, but that might be one of them. >> Just to clarify the >> I don't think your mic >> this is the the microphone's on. Yes. >> Yes. So the the there is a there is
private property that goes to the water that is um the literal rights of those upland property owners and it intersects the stateowned land at the mean high water line. The county owns various pieces of property. You have the the
private property owners, condominiums and other private property owners that also own property that goes to the water. Some areas we have in our beach program, we have a uh a mean high water line established or a co line that that
where the state still owns the the dry beach in front of a lot of many of our properties. But for the state, as I understand it for this particular conversation, the properties that we specifically own
are the public beaches that we own. We do not own the property uh in front of the condominiums. There is a customary use doctrine that allows the public to transfer across it. Uh if there is no beach project, if there's a beach
project, there is a an established zone that is um um it's a platted we have a platted um for for the state to reserve that beach that was created and that is stateowned land. So, um, anyway, it is
the ownership boundaries are sort of complicated, so we may have to look at some nuances, but my my initial reaction would be that we could regulate in front of the county beaches, but not in front of the private properties.
>> Commissioner Caps. Yes, I'm fine with leaving the language the way it is with the caveat that uh the preeemption is the ultimate authority. Um we would be adding a line about that, right?
>> We can do that. >> Yeah. Um but just so our residents have a real clear picture of what the change is. So there's no chumming allowed and you have to have a license to shark fish, right?
>> You need a fish, you need a fishing license. You need a permit now from SWC for shark. >> And there's a course I believe you actually have to take in order to do the shark fishing. >> Okay. and and then folks who are not chumming and folks who
have the proper permit can do this in the off hours at public beaches when the lifeguards are not there. Like you say the lifeguards are there from 9:00 to 5:00, they can't do it then, but from 7:00 in the morning till 9 in the morning, they can do it. And after 5:00
in the evening, they can go do it at Hope Sound Beach. Uh but no chming, fishing only, got to have a permit. That's it. Right. >> Correct. >> That's the new rule. >> The way the way it was is it would it
eliminates you can't fish in guarded beaches during guarded hours. So if there is a beach over along the coast where let's say there is no lifeguard, >> this does not apply there. We can't prohibit the fishing over in those areas. So if most of the surfers are
over, you know, on off MacArthur or by the rocks where I understand, I don't think there is a lifeguard station there, we we can't regulate that. So that that I think is I don't know if that answers your question. >> Right. Right. But even even at our public beaches
>> when the public beaches are not guarded, people are allowed to do this now. Correct. What I would encourage our residents to do is to contact our state legislature legislators if if that's not a good thing, you know, and it sounds like it's
not a good thing, but um that's the ultimate remedy because it's not in our purview. >> Correct. >> Proceed, Mr. Baron. >> Good morning, commissioners. Joseph Baron, assistant county attorney. Uh before you today is an amendment to
chapter 17, rules and regulations for Martin County Parks relating to saltwater fishing. Uh the ordinance was properly advertised. The primary purpose of this amendment is to update the county's regulations concerning saltwater fishing to conform with
current state laws. Section 379.2412 Florida statutes reserves to the states the authority to regulate saltwater fishing. The statute does however recognize an exception allowing local governments to prohibit saltwater fishing on property owned by the county
um when necessary to protect public health, safety, and welfare. The amendment before you repeals provisions of the county code relating to saltwater fishing that are preempted by state law. The amendment also addresses public health safety and welfare concerns by
prohibiting fishing within guarded beaches during guarded hours. It also prohibits fishing from boat docks when it's actively when a boat is actively being launched or retrieved from the water. Uh county staff uh as previously discussed discussed this amendment with
Florida fish uh the fish and wildlife conservation commission. FWC was provided with a copy of the proposed proposed ordinance and they had no negative feedback. Uh any individual with questions regarding uh the regulations of saltwater fishing should
direct uh those questions to the state, specifically FWC, um or to the local law enforcement as applicable. Um this concludes my presentation. Uh, I move that the board adopt a proposed ordinance repealing
subsection 17.9 A2R V W E2 E3 E4 and amending subsection O and X of chapter 17 rules and regulations uh for Martin County Parks uh general ordinances Martin County code. Thank you,
>> Commissioner Vargas. >> Okay. So, what are you recommending? I mean, tell me in English what what you're recommending that we propose that we adopt that you're proposing. So, it would be a repeal of all of the um county ordinances that are preempted by state law and then amending the um two
provisions um regarding the no saltwater fishing at guarded beach during guarded hours and no fishing while at a boat ramp when a while a boat is actively being uh launched or retrieved in order to protect the uh health, safety, and welfare. >> You know, because I would have to be
policed again, the sheriff, you know, thing. at boat ramps. So if the beaches are guarded certain hours, there is no fishing or just shark fishing. >> Um there is no fishing. >> Fishing of any fish. >> Saltwater fishing which would include
the ocean. Okay. What about the drones? I understand I was speaking with a surfer during the break. got a line wrapped around his leg and there was a cement block on the bottom of it because the drones had gone up and they went out
in little skiffs to drop the bait there. So, what about that? How is that police? I I don't quite understand. That would be the FWC because those are going to be your statewaters. So, they're in charge of the state water part. And then going back to the
recommendation, that was our recommendation, but there were discussions just now that if the board wanted to uh make a motion that staff re that we rewrite the ordinance to address the concerns that just got brought back. I think that was your possible alternate
motion you were going to make. Uh somebody on the board was going to make. >> Yeah. Okay. So, because we're talking about the health, safety, welfare, as I'm reading this department, legal sufficiency review of those that are going to the beach. I mean, we might all go to the beach, too. Who knows? It'd be a vacancy come up. But anyway, having
said that, um, our beaches are our crown jewels here on Hutcherson Island and Hope Sound, too. So, we have to protect obviously our bthers and if you have, you know, this sort of activity going on, I'm certain you can understand people will go elsewhere,
go to the west coast of Florida. So, anyway, all right. So, what we're going to do is then rewrite. Is that what I'm understanding? >> It depends on the motion made by the board. So, if the board wants us to reddraft the ordinance to discuss the
state preeemptions, we can do that. We would have to research the drone issue because it seems drone fishing would be fishing and we're probably preemptive, but we can research that. So, my suggestion would be to table it, table this public hearing, and we can bring it back with a revised ordinance if that's
the board's desire. I would make a motion to adopt uh what uh Miss Elder has stated and give us a chance to look at this closely um because the drone factor is real and it's not going away in every aspect.
>> Should we hear from the public? >> Let me just add if I you >> just two quick things. Uh, one, if we can't uh regulate drones over the water, we can regulate drones being launched from the beach.
>> Mhm. >> So, we might, if you could at least when you're reviewing it, >> Yeah. >> review if if over the water is a state's prerogative, if we could maybe create that they can't be launched from the beach, that would potentially help. And
then also I thought this morning uh we heard from folks that if the beach is being protected at 9:00 a.m. but people are there at 7:30 and 8:00. Do we have the ability if you're working some crafting
some new language to say that uh can we add an hour before the beach is is manned? So, if the beach is manned from 9:00 to 5:00, can we say that we don't want shark fishing on or on the beaches an hour before and an hour after?
Because I agree, if if you're actively fishing and luring fish, sharks in this case, closer to the shore, they don't wear watches, I'm pretty sure. So, they don't know it's 9:00, we might as well swim off. I think if we
could buffer that with an hour before and an hour after would give us a lot >> understandable. >> Yeah. And I would second Commissioner Vargas' motion if those other items could be included. >> Jim Moyer followed by Paul Laura.
>> Thank you, commissioners. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you for doing the right thing. My name is Jim Moyer. I'm the Indian Riverkeeper. I live out on Rocky Point. Um, you know, there are lots of other fishings that go on on the beach, not just for sharks. And I think we need to
be careful about how we preempt some of those practices. >> Um, there are other communities. Uh, it was mentioned earlier today microphone close to the mic. >> I think it went off.
>> There it is. uh more stringent regulations than the rest of Dade County had. I think it would be worthwhile looking into that and seeing if there's any language that we could conform to uh to prohibit shark fishing in general from from Martin
County waters. Um it's it's a you know, speaking for the animals, these animals are incredibly important to our ecosystems. Um, the anglers offshore are complaining bitterly daily about how many uh of their caught fish are being
depradated by sharks. Attracting more sharks to the coast is not only bad for human safety, but it's bad for angling. It's bad for our public awareness. It's bad for the sharks. Um, I think we need to do whatever we can to
not only protect the people, but sharks. Um the just just to be clear, the drones that we're talking about are boats. They're radiocontrolled boats. They're not, you know, helicopter drones. >> Yeah. So they're running their boats out
offshore and dropping either weights or chum. Um they're not flying a a you know, rotary wing plane out there. >> High-tech. >> I mean, things are changing and drones are getting bigger, but um most of the ones that I'm aware of are are boats.
Thank you very much for doing this. >> Radio RC boats. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Was a fancier name, I guess. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Paul Laura is next, followed by Angela Retinella. >> Look who's back. Paul Laura is back. >> Yes. Good good morning. Uh my name is
Paul Laura and I'm director of environment for the Hutchinson Island Preservation Initiative or also known as Hippie. Um, first I'd like to um shout out to the staff. You know, we sometimes forget about them, but they're getting a
load of emotional emails right now and uh people are saying, "Why are you even bringing this up to the commissioners?" And the point is we some of us understand that they're just doing their job. So those that feel the pressure coming from the messages that they're getting uh hopefully uh they'll they'll
get over that and and we'll be able to move forward. uh coming to the discussion now on the shark. One of the things that I'm concerned about is the increased activity to attract sharks because you're feeding them. They're not going to go away. They're going to learn
how to get their food and when even they're not getting they're going to remember and they're going to keep coming more and more if we encourage shark fishing. So, we really need to control this. And when we heard the comment today from some of the people
who were talking earlier, it already seems a little bit chaotic. It's really not in control even with the regulations that we have now. So now we want to perhaps make them a little bit more friendly for shark fishers, fishermen.
But do is that really the direction we want to go? And I have a neighbor who is here actually and she called Fish and Wildlife because someone was shark fishing and she felt it was inappropriate where they were doing it.
So the question is how long does it take a representative to come out and talk to the person who's maybe not within the rules? I doubt very much that they're going to come within, you know, a c a period of time that it's going to be very effective. So, in a sense, the
state does not have effective control over shark fishing because they don't have the representatives. And if we go with the new homestead act that we're talking about, I expect we'll have less. So, these are things you need to think about. All right. Another thing I want to bring up, and I'm going to make this
a little bit more personal to you. As if I was a commissioner, I would do everything that I could not to put the public in danger. If you loosen up and make more flexible, you have to live with that. That's your legacy. And when
you hear on the news that someone lost a limb or was injured or whatever because of the amount of sharks that come into our precious area on Hutchinson Island, you're going to have to remember, was that something that I did? Was it me?
And because I changed the rules that allowed this to occur and I don't think you want that. That would be your legacy. and it doesn't go away when you leave office. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Angela Retanella.
>> Hi everybody. Good morning. Um, after listening to what everybody's had to say and the reasons why perhaps that an amendment was even suggested, um, I I just want to remind everybody that we do have the right to have um,
our own ordinances in place to protect the general public. And um, I don't know who owns the little beaches like Bob Graham Beach and Tiger Shores and all that. Is that Martin County? >> Yeah. >> Yes. So, why wouldn't those rules that
our ordinance that we have in place saying that, you know, um you can't do it within certain hours of guarded beaches, why can't it just be all of Martin County property that is protected from this? So, if we're going to rewrite the ordinance, I would hope it would
include that and maybe go a little further with it because I know I thought I read that, you know, between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. they can fish at those guarded areas. But, um, thousand yards from those guarded areas,
they're not allowed to. And I've seen our signs out there that say, you know, you're within 1,000 yards of a guarded area, you can't shark bait here. So, I I was hoping we can extend these restrictions we have in place because according to Florida statute 379.2412
that gives the saltwater um possession of saltwater fish, you know, the right to um the the um to the state to to govern this. It does not prohibit a local government from um from prohibiting for reasons of protecting
the public health, safety, and welfare. It doesn't prohibit our local government from saltwater fishing from real property owned by the local government. That's what it states verbatim. So I would hope that we can incorporate that somehow into the rewriting of it. The
ordinance. Obviously we don't want to get rid of something that protects us from this. And the drones do carry there are flying drones that are dropping >> the bait. Not just boats, but there is also we've seen it with our own eyes. So, if you could kindly please just keep
in mind that, you know, this is the public safety. We go to the beaches. Imagine taking your family to one of our Bob Graham beach or something and you go out there and there's some guy luring sharks to the shore. I mean, would you want your children swimming in that? I mean, I wouldn't. I I would want to go
somewhere else or it just doesn't seem fair that we should have to tolerate that. So, it's just so barbaric and it is harming our endangered species of sharks such as the hammerhead. three dead um three have been reported washed up on the shore dead in in Hope Sound
beaches and also in Jensen Beaches. So um these animals are being tortured literally. So thank you so much for your time and I know you all care so much. Thank you. >> Commissioner Campy, >> just one other point. First off, I do agree with the last speaker that if it
could be not just language about manned, you know, guarded beaches, if it could be Martin County property beaches, even if they're not. And then you had said that they need to have not just a license for fishing, but a permit for shark fishing.
>> Is there any requirement that that permit be presented or shown while they're fishing? Because if it's something that they carry in their wallet, I wouldn't want Martin County residents to go up and start asking people, "Let me see your permit because that's just going to create a situation
of conflict and potential violence." Uh, so I don't know like if you have a permit but no one knows you have a permit, do you have a permit? >> I don't know how that permit is carried. I don't know if it has to be carried on the person or they're registered on with the FWC. That I don't know. Sometimes
people have permitting like hunting or whatever they have to have it ex you know presented whether it's they're wearing it around their neck or they have to have it on their on their equipment that someone can because otherwise the permit is useless if if it's a secret. >> Yeah.
>> Thank you. So are you clear with the motion and the direction that we've given? >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Any further comments or questions? Everybody understands the uh motion that was made and the revisions that we want to make to the ordinance?
>> Yes. >> All in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. >> Uh I would like to take up uh public hearing quasi judicial number three as quickly as possible. That's growth
management if they're around. I think we can take up public hearing one first. >> Morning, Madam Chair and commissioners. It's always good to be with you. Um, glad to be here on this item. As you stated, this is public hearing one. Uh
for the record, I'm Sam Emerson, your utilities and solid waste department director. Uh the title of this item is a public hearing to consider adoption of the final assessment resolution for FY27, the solid waste assessment and certification of the special assessment
role to the tax collector. In summary, the board of county commissioners is required to adopt the final assessment resolution for FY27, the single family and multifamily curbside solid waste assessment rates as set forth in section 151.56
general ordinances of Martin County Code and certify the special assessment role to the tax collector as required by section 151.57 Martin County code. For some background, on June 23rd of 26, the board adopted the initial assessment resolution for
the FY27 solid waste assessment as required in section 151.52 of general ordinances of the county code. Excuse me. A copy of the assessment role has been prepared and is available available and open to public inspection at the
utilities and solid waste department offices. As required by the terms in chapter 151, the Martin Candy Code and Florida law, notice of a public hearing has been published and mailed by first class mail to each property owner proposed to be
assessed, notifying them, the such property owner, of the opportunity to be heard at this hearing. The solid waste municipal service benefit unit provides services to approximately 50,352 residential units in the county.
The single family dwelling unit rate proposed for FY27 for the solid waste MSBU is proposed to be $438.118. It's comprised of $330.72 for collection,
$121.31 for disposal cost, and $31.15 for administrative cost. The change from the amount assessed in the prior year, which is this current year, was $464.37.
This is due to cost increases and the solid waste collection, disposal, and increases in volumes of solid waste generated per household. These figures are also included in the resolution attached. And if I could break that down for you, I know
sometimes you like to hear what that means as an increase. It's $18.81 per year. It's actually less than a cheese pizza these days. >> I knew you were going to say that. >> So that's why I don't much less cheese can't afford to after this. >> But if we look at Starbucks, I don't
drink Starbucks or I I don't buy coffee out of Duncan, but I've talked to some folks that do. So my brief research this morning, that's about $6 for a takeout cup of coffee, your entry level cup of coffee, right? So that's three cups of coffee next year we can do without. And your budget and your body will probably
appreciate you for that. >> How much is it per? All right. So, we're providing four pickups per week. Uh, plus there's additional bulk pickup as needed per week. Uh, we run that route, but I'm calculating on four pickups. Two garbage per week, one vegetation,
um, and one recycling collection. That's 208 collections pickups per year. That's a $157 per month increase, 36 cent per week increase, and a whopping 9 cents per pickup
>> additional cost. I love my service. I hope you can say the same thing. I've got no issue with the service. It's a high level of service. Do we get complaints occasionally? Most of the complaints um not so much a mis pickup anymore, but uh more recently with the freeze and the drought, we had a lot of
vegetation. So, there were some concerns with piles left on the street for more than a couple several weeks. Um that's been picked up, cleaned up, uh and we're back to normal service there. But, I do feel it's a great service. I think it's worth the increase. As you know, we've spoke about before, our increases are
primarily um inflationary pressures. We uh you've heard me say, I want to keep our vendors, those that process our construction and demolition debris, those that process the vegetation, those that collect our waste, process our waste, transport and dispose of that. We
want those vendors profitable because when they're not profitable, level of service is impacted. And we've all seen that in some local communities. Uh, and I think the increase is reasonable and as I said, it's primarily inflationary
pressures. Um, let me read the staff recommendation. It's three-fold. Will staff move that the board receive public comment at this hearing? Secondly, move that the board adopt the final assessment resolution for the solid waste municipal municipal service
benefit unit or MSBU. And thirdly, that move that the board certify the special assessment role to the tax collector. And with that, I'll be prepared to answer any questions. >> Would anyone from the public like to address us? Seeing none, Commissioner Campy.
>> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hammerson. Um, it seems that every time this issue comes up, we receive some emails where people are saying, "What are you doing?" And I think that, you know, I know you were trying to make it more humorous, but uh 9 cents of an increase per pickup
or a dollar for the week is um is understandable. Uh gas prices are fluctuating and all through the uh different industries things are a little bit more expensive. But this particular service, and I remember going back to when we negotiated it and the waste
management, now known as WM, was the highest of the three. But we some of us at the time that were part of that were talking it was more of a service than it was like we weren't purchasing trucks. But we've also switched over the uh the
fleet. Waste management and WM has switched over the fleet. They're nearly silent. Uh the old trucks used to brakes. You'd hear them squealing. You knew when the garbage truck was coming. Uh especially if you had not yet put your pales out. You could hear them coming down the road. The squealing of
the brakes. You don't hear that at all anymore. You're right about the about the freeze. I myself had put out mountains of dead vegetative debris and was remar and so did all my neighbors. Um some
people had it where it was looked like it was 8t tall and it was 30 feet long. It was remarkable that people could put that much out and two days later it was all gone. So uh uh I have I don't know about my colleagues but I have very very rarely ever get an insult uh or a
complaint about the service. Uh it doesn't take much to read what's happening to our north where the municipalities have had to sue their service providers and settle and get settlements and how they have narrowed their services down to very few
collections per week. Uh, I know some people don't generate a tremendous amount of trash and trash and they wish that we would narrow our services down, but for the rest of us that do, you wouldn't want a one day uh once a week pickup on on trash, especially for
neighborhoods where you're not allowed to have the pales outside and it'd have to be kept inside. So, um, I we asked for public comment, there was none. I would move for staff's recommendation in all of those three categories that you mentioned. Uh I know some folks from
Waste Management WM are here. Uh I'd like to just continue to say thank you. Uh it's a very important service that affects nearly every resident and uh they do a remarkably great job for the money that they ask for. Thank you, >> Commissioner Heatherington.
>> What he said. >> No, actually you took all my you took my my talking points. So, um, but I will say that, um, watching what's happened, um, around in our counties, maybe to the north, uh, of us, it's been a lesson
learned. And originally, I think it was 2018 or 19 when we voted on the contract. I was not necessarily I thought, let's take the the the less price. let's you know but um one thing I will say is that I'm glad that my colleagues did not share in that
sentiment because I think the level of service that we have received um by waste management has been exceptional and um the service has been um a benefit
to our residents and I would gladly again watching what some of our counties that did take the the lowest bid um per se. They have um experienced a lot of hardship, not good level of service and a lot of
legal disputes. So, I will gladly second the motion. >> Commissioner CS, >> I would just like to mention what great community partners waste management are or >> is. Yes, thank you teacher.
>> Thank you. um they are involved in virtually everything in our community and big contributors to to so many wonderful causes and we deeply appreciate
their partnership and so many great things in our community. And I'll just mention this that they're a hope Sound business and we appreciate them being real close by and I have their their phone number memorized if I ever have a little
problem. It's 5467700. So >> I don't even have to look it up or Google it or anything. >> Transfer Station is in Palm City. >> Great. So thank you for your all you do for us. Commissioner Vargas,
>> I have visited uh both the transfer station, Western Palm City, and also the Hogue Sound facility, too. Um, and I I would I mean, if you could say it's really immaculate. I mean, it's garbage, but you know, not my thing. But the the other thing I want to say is when I
thought there might be a problem because there was a lot of trash, I called, pick up the phone. They didn't know who I was, but yes, ma'am, no problem. We'll have it taken care of. Extremely polite. And I did mention that to Mr. Jeff over
there. He's nodding his head. Yes. And I I appreciate that because we don't find that too often, but they come punctually. Again, garbage twice a week, special pickup for uh shrubbery during the week. And then of course you have
your trash pickup like clockwork. So, you know, if you're not at home, you can tell your neighbor, "Well, leave the can out. Would you please bring it in?" You know, this type of because they're going to be here on Friday or whatever it may be. uh wherever in your neighborhood. So, um I definitely say we stay with waste management at this point. We don't
need what the other counties have been going through. Cheaper is not better necessarily. Mr. Cosgrove, did you want to speak on this item or for public? Public. >> Okay. Uh and also I I echo the
sentiments. I love my garbage men and obviously they are wonderful and obviously Waste Management is a terrific employer because there's so little turnover. I've had the two in the in the 30 years that I've lived in my in my
address. Two two of the garbagemen have been there for 20 years >> and they're fabulous. >> There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We will now take out of order public hearing quasi
judicial number three. So this is quasi judicial. Any exparte disclosures? Commissioner Vargas? >> If I have any, they've been filed. >> And caps? >> If I have any, they have been filed. >> If I have any, they've been filed. And Commissioner Campy, >> I don't have any. And that's been filed.
>> And Commissioner Heatherington, >> if any, they've been filed. >> Excellent. Mr. Aguilar, have you provided your materials to the clerk? >> Thank you very much. A copy of my work history has been turning as exhibited one. >> Okay. If there's anyone who's going to
be providing sworn testimony, please stand up, raise your right hand, and be sworn in. >> Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So, help you God. I do. >> Excellent.
Please begin. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, members of the board. My name is Louis Aguilerar, principal planner for the growth management department. I'm presenting a resoning application for a property owned by Outback Real
Estate LLC. The applicant is requesting a zoning change from the existing M1 Industrial District to the LI Limited Industrial District. The subject site is located at 3101
Southeast Federal Highway in Stewart, approximately 560 ft north of Southeast Indian Street and just south of Southeast Carnival Court. These are enlarged area of the site. The property is built out and it's current
use is restaurant general. The future land use destination is industrial. The adjacent properties to the north, south, east have industrial designation as well. The property west of the subject site
has a commercial land use destination with the city of Stewart. So whatever you want to do maybe >> the zoning district is M1 industrial district. The property is subject to two
covenant agreements. Covenant number 210 to LI limiting industrial and comment 182 again to LI limited industrial. Therefore, this request is this request
to resone is considered mandatory per section 3.401B. The zoning district for the property to the west is PUD commercial with the city of Stewart. The proposed reason area is
approximately 1.93 acres. There are three standard category A zoning district available to implement the industrial land use policies of the pro of the comprehensive growth management plan which are LI limited industrial GI
general industrial and hi heavy industrial. A new zoning is an is an additional option for applicants. The applicant is requesting to resone the property to the LI limited
industrial district for comparison prop for comparison purposes. The permitted uses for these zoning districts are provided in detail on pages 2 through six of the staff report.
And these are the development standards for the industrial districts. The limited industrial is um uh the maximum height is 30 feet. The maximum building coverage is 40 feet and the
minimum open space 20 and these are the corresponding setbacks which are the same for all of the zoning districts. These are the conditions supporting the requested limited industrial district. The limited industrial district is
designed to minimize the potential for negative impacts on surrounding properties. The limited industrial summing district is the less intensive industrial district aligning well with the surrounding properties and zoning districts.
The proposed limiting industrial zing district is the and the industrial future land use destination align well with the character of the existing land uses in the adjacent and surrounding area.
This matter was heard before the LPA on July 16, 2026. The LPA voted to approve 4 to1. Development review staff have found the Brew Horizon Horizon's LLC recon
application to comply with all applicable regulations and the comprehensive growth management plan as detailed in the staff report. We're recommend to move that the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments including the staff report
as exhibit one and move that the board adopt a resolution amending the Martin County son in Atlas to change the zoning district designation on the subject site from M1 industrial district to LI limited industrial district.
This concludes my presentation and the applicant is here and is ready to answer any questions. >> Any questions for Mr. Agnar? I don't see any applicant. Would you like to make a presentation? >> Hi, good morning. My name is Robert
Vulpi. Is this on? Robert Vulpi with the law firm of Holtzman Vogle. on behalf of the applicant. We agree with the staff's recommendation and the staff's report. They did an excellent job and have been uh wonderful to work with through this process. The reasonzoning is is
mandatory um is one a mandatory option as as Mr. Aguilar uh mentioned. I do have one document and this is just a wet signature affidavit. We already filled out this affidavit, but uh staff asked for a wet signature and asked that we
provide it at the hearing if you don't mind. Um otherwise, we are available for for comment or for to answer questions. Um the engineer of record uh is is here as well. Um and we ask that you approve
this resoning and thank you for your time. >> Questions for Mr. Vulpe? Thank you, >> Mr. Wallace. Would you like to talk to us? >> Yes, Madam Chair, I would. Uh, good morning, Bill. I'm My name is Bill Wallace. I live in Hope Sound. Um, I'm
here today to talk to you about this item because we are the contiguous property owners on one of our automobile dealerships, Wallace Kia. And the current arrangement is it's a shared driveway. They they come into our
facility and into what the former Outback Steakhouse, which is, you know, no longer in existence. Um, and even while Outback was struggling, obviously they they closed, so they they weren't very busy. But even with that amount of
traffic in that shared driveway off of US1, it's a very dangerous turn. People are coming up from Indian Street that you cannot enter the property from the south. You have to enter the property coming to the north. So people go down to Indian Street, do a U-turn, and come
back up. So all the traffic can only come in one way, and that's from uh south to north. And they have to make that turn in a very short period of time. And if you're making the turn, which we all
do that work there from time to time of obviously customers, it it's it's probably one in three times that you make the turn, somebody is just racing up behind you. It's just a very very dangerous intersection. And I have spoken with Mr. Vulpi, explained to him
what our concerns were. Um, we've yet to see or hear from the applicant how they plan to deal with that. At one time, uh, that was going to be their main entrance. Then they adjusted it where the entrance was coming off of Carnival. I'm not sure where they are now. But
whether they are or they aren't, legally they can, and now is the time to address it. I understand that you're just dealing with a zoning issue. And I I want to share with you that at the planning zoning meeting, yes, it was passed, but the planning zoning the
biggest conversation at the planning zoning department was if this is mandatory, what are we talking about? Why why are we why are we discussing this? It's if it's a mandatory reasonzoning, then there's really wasn't a whole lot to discuss. It did come up that the traffic was an issue. But they did pass at 4 to one. That's that's
absolutely accurate. I think if you ask them though, they would tell you we were given a mandatory zoning request. So they just did that. So what I'm asking you is before you just mandatorily rubber stamp something that's a problem,
this is the time to deal with it. I think that you at the very least they should provide us a a traffic study and let's get an analysis of how you could how it could be handled. Um the the right way to handle it would be to add a turning lane on that side. That's the
only really the only permanent way you're going to resolve this. Um this was done 25 years ago, way before uh our uh occupants of of the property. So, I think we all know what's happened the last 25 years in Morgan County. Things
have changed. So, the amount of traffic is is is really something. The uh to add to the uh to exacerbate the situation that >> your time is up. >> Okay. Sorry. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Please just stick around if I can answer any questions,
>> Commissioner Vargas. >> Okay. Um I have a couple of questions. You mentioned an alternative was Mr. drug was a PUD. >> A PUD. Correct. >> Okay. So, what would be the difference between just a straight change of the
zoning that's being requested or a PUD? Is one more advantageous to the applicant? >> Luis, if I may for a second. Okay. Sebastian Fox, senior assistant county attorney. U Mr. Aguilar mentioned that you can sit down, sir. >> There's a section of code 3.401 401 that
states all land zone category C subject to a covenant agreement um shall be reszoned to the most appropriate category A zoning district. Uh so I would urge caution um in going down the the road of potentially assigning a PUD
zoning district to that. I do not believe the code allows for that. >> Okay. And why would that be disadvantageous or advantageous? >> Well, I I don't know that it's permitted under the code. Uh the code states it shall be changed to the most appropriate category A zoning district.
>> Do you have a comment, Miss Elder? >> So a PUD is not within the category A zoning districts, but also in order to have a PUD assigned to a property, you need agreement from the property owner. And if they're not giving the board agreement to do a PUD, then we can't
just assign PUD zoning. So that's not a really good option. um especially when you when the property owner is looking for a category A and that's what's provided for in the um code. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I but I wanted to question that because I noticed that in your
presentation of course. Um I've driven US1. That's a speedway. And if you cannot safely slow down to inch over or move over quickly to make a
turn into a business, it's it could be a potentially dangerous situation. And not just for the person driving the car. It could be somebody next to you, the vehicle next to you, or the electric uh bikes that are there. So, I I think
there may be some relief that the property owner should be giving in order to receive this change, Mr. Vulp. >> Yes, thank you. And as Mr. Wallace mentioned, we have spoken, there is a shared driveway in one of the entrances
to the property. Um and uh the the traffic issue and on US1 will be addressed at the site plan stage. We would have to meet this is in the staff report and and in your code. We would have to meet all the
requirements of of code. US1 is also an FDOT road. So we will have to work with FDOT on on traffic studies on um access points and to meet all of their requirements. FDOT would be the uh agency that determines those access
points and how those are are managed and certainly we will work with them at the the site plan stage. Um and I think that's the the appropriate stage for that analysis. We don't have that that full analysis for resoning and it's um
it's really required once you have exactly and precisely what will be built on the site and and how the the access and internal maneuvers will work. Um but we intend to do that work and we intend to work with staff on that um at the
appropriate time. >> Right. So, so this will come back to growth management department uh to verify that it's a safe turn that's ingress egress I assume >> through the de site development process engineering services will evaluate the
traffic flow. >> Okay. Will there also possibly be another ingress egress on the back street >> there? There is access. Yes, there so there will be on uh Carnival Street on the I guess that's the northwest side of the property. So, there will be at least
two access points. Um, and I think I've mentioned to Mr. Wallace, we will work with him because we have that shared access. Actually, the property line split splits right down the middle of that access point. So, we will work with him on whatever improvements or or configuration is needed at that access.
But yes, there will be two access points. >> Okay. All right. Just as long as you have oversight, that's important. >> Commissioner Campy. >> Thank you very much. Um, yes, it's mandatory, but I think it was important that we heard from your next door
neighbor >> uh about his concerns. Obviously, you want to be neighborly. There's also a bus stop there, isn't there? Like right in front of the >> That's south of there. That's in front of Wells Fargo, right? >> That that's >> Well, Wells Fargo Kia out back there. Boom boom boom. So that being said, I
think that I will make a motion to accept staff's recommendation with the understanding that when it is appropriate uh during our agenda process for when you come forward for the planning that u that you have reached
out uh with your neighbors to make sure it's safer. It's not just for Mr. Wallace and but it's for the traveling public that it is. I've done that. I've been to the Outback plenty of times and sad to see that it went out of business. Um, but you have to go to Indian Town,
you got to be in that lane, you got to make the U-turn, and then you got to immediately come over to get as quickly to the Outback or Kia as possible. So, now that this window of opportunity has opened, let's take advantage of it and create something with both driveway
entrances, your south and north side, that's safer. I mean, if Outback had continued to just do business, you wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be able to have this conversation. So sad for Outback, but potentially beneficial for
the res traveling public of Martin. So, thank you. >> Understood. Thank you, >> Commissioner Caps. >> I think this is a good time to bring up the whole concept of road concurrency. uh back in the old days uh
10 20 years ago, I understand you could require of people developing things that they fix the road first and that would seem kind of reasonable, right? Get the road fixed and then build your thing. Well, that's preempted by state law now.
You you can't do that. Um even though it be that'd be the most reasonable thing. Um, basically the idea, Miss Elder can tell us the specifics, but the idea is you got to let them go and build it and then they they can be required to pay a
proportionate share of road improvements and that kind of thing, but you can't you can't force them to do that first. Is that right? for uh concurrency if you want me to address it. Yes. So the um uh that's
correct that uh um if a road is failing, this is for capacity increases that um we cannot uh stop development because of a failed roadway under state law now. Um and they've made it exceedingly difficult for counties to even increase
their impact fees to deal with road improvements. So, but in particular in relation to a driveway, we do have land development regulations that can can help in this a little bit. Um, but also you have to deal with DOT in this situation. So, that is um so we're we're
that will ultimately be the the final arbiter in this situation will be the DOT and their in their regulations. So um your your motion is uh clear in the terms of I understand if there is a motion and then all other items are or
suggestions to encourage the applicant to work together with their neighbor and our staff are apprised of these conversations and we'll be on the lookout. >> Commissioner Heatherington. >> Oh I was just going to as Mr. Vulpi was up there suggest that the um the
concerns of Mr. Wallace and uh the um the applicant be addressed at the site planning process which we just discussed and um because it's mandatory resoning. I would second the motion and just fun fact uh the outback it will be missed
because I was one of my I worked there the day it opened in the 1990s uh when I was in high school. So we will miss that facility. Yes. Yeah. Thank you. >> I'm looking at the aerial uh on page 574
and I don't see the connection between Carnival Court and the subject site >> right there. >> I don't think there is a connection. >> There is. >> Yeah, there is. It's in the tree line. >> Yes, it's around here if I'm not mistaken. >> Do you have to go through the trees?
>> No, >> you have to clip the trees >> overhang. It may not be in the same location. um if when the redevelopment of that site occurs. So, it will be meeting the the county's code requirements for distance and separation and >> think that there's >> and make sure it's a access point that
>> yes >> is up to the engineering standards. >> Okay. And also um the site plan um this will presumably be a minor >> so it will not come back to us. >> It will be it will be approved by staff.
So, it's it's uh >> staff heard us, right? >> Yep, they did, >> sir. >> Any further questions, comments? >> I was just going to reiterate that this is a mandatory reszoning. If you look at uh Lewis's prior uh exhibits, there are
two covenants and those were uh assigned when the sites were originally developed to be developed under the limited industrial zoning district. So that's why it's the appropriate district to assign to the property. >> Okay, there's a motion and a second. All
those in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. >> Thank you. We will now return to the see public hearing number three. Public
hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance amending chapter 155 streets, roads and bridges general ordinances Martin County code relating to speed limits, delegation of authority required permits and security. Mr. Griselulka Good morning, commissioners. I am
Michael Gresulka, the county engineer, bringing forward a code change to uh chapter 155, streets, roads, and bridges. Um there's two main changes that are that are involved here. One of
them is um authorizing the county engineer to sign all permit applications on behalf of the county for DOT permits, D permits, Army Corps permits, South Florida permits on county on all county property or county rights of ways or to
then be able to also delegate that authority to other department heads as as deemed fit. Um the other major change to the code is that um we have a rightway use permitting
process in place in Martin County that we require all private developers to obtain those permits. This change is now requiring all internal uh Martin County departments as well as
um divisions within the public works department to all be required to go through the permitting process to obtain those permits. Primary reason for that is so that um the engineering services division has the ability to review all the
maintenance of traffic plans and keep them consistent across the board as well as all the restoration of county rideways. Um the other minor stuff that's in here are more cleanup items. Uh the first one is we're removing the
minimum speed limit of 25 mph um across the board which then just leads us back to the DOT standards which now allows um with their change with their recent changes to actually go down to a 20 mph speed limit in certain congested urban
areas and and things like that. So it just gives us the opportunity to have that off that ability as well. Um the other items are um I am adding back or into this section of the code u stuff
to require uh bonds for work within the right of way. Um right now we we have been collecting the bonds but it hasn't been codified for it. So, we're adding that in this section of code just the same language that we use for um the
plats and the bonds for the plats and the required improvements. Um we are changing there's just some date changes on when the board will recognize open roads and accept the roads into the county
inventory. Um, before you'd only see them once in a while, but nowadays since the board does not see the plaques anymore, all the roads that are getting platted are going to have to come in front of the board as well to be accepted as open roads within the road inventory. So, I just removing the the
mandatory dates of twice a year because we may bring them more often as the plats come through um just to get them all accepted as into the inventory. And the other item that was kind of out there is there was some outdated
language about taking of animals, foul, reptiles from public rights of ways and how there was an emergency declaration in the county. So I've I've left the language in there about being not allowed to take any animals or birds from the county right aways. However, I took out the whole language about being
a countywide emergency and it being a declar declared emergency. Those are the the the main items on the the whole thing with the the cleanup items. So, um staff recommends approval and ask for your approval.
>> You have any questions? >> Thank you. I had the opportunity, I think we all did, to speak to Mr. Griselka about these. They're primarily administrative kind of housekeeping issues. I would make a motion to accept staff's recommendation. >> Second. >> Any further questions? >> No.
>> Any objections? that postes. It's this is a public hearing. Is there anyone from the public who would like to address us? Seeing none, all those in favor? I opposed. That motion c passes unanimously. Thank you.
Next up is public hearing quasi judicial number one, which is a second public hearing to consider approval of the first amendment to the development agreement between Martin County and the master devel developer for Newfield and the second amendment to the conservation easement. Good morning, Mr. Walden.
Afternoon, Mr. Walden. >> This is a quasi judicial public hearing. Any exparte disclosures? Commissioner Vargas? >> I I have none. It's been filed. Commissioner Caps, >> if I have any, they have been filed. >> I don't have any and they've been filed. Commissioner Campy,
>> I don't have any and that's been filed. >> And Commissioner Heather, >> if I have any, they've been filed. >> Excellent. Have you given all your required materials to the clerk? >> Copy me. Of my work history, any agenda item has been turned in. >> Excellent. Anybody who's going to be providing sworn testimony, please stand
up, raise your right hand, and be sworn in. Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So, help you God. >> I do. >> Please proceed. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, commissioners. Pete Walden, deputy
growth management director. I'm here today with John Mayo, your environmental resource administrator. Uh, we are only going to talk about the first amendment to the new field development agreement today. There is a supplemental memo requesting that the second amendment to
the conservation easement be removed for today. The applicant would like the opportunity to produce a formal survey and legal description of the property prior to attaching that to the conservation easement amendment. So that'll be coming back soon. Uh that the
property has to be conveyed prior to the 700th residential permit and we're about 300 permits in. So we have a little time. Uh so this is a request for the first amendment to the new field development agreement.
Little history again. Uh this is this this is the second hearing. Uh both hearings were not noticed in the local newspaper and the first prior to the first hearing a uh mailing was going out
to has gone out to local um surrounding properties. So, back to the project history. Uh, in 2018, the mixeduse village and the plan mixeduse village land land use and zoning were both
approved. Uh, in 2020, this development agreement was approved. There have been several conservation easements applied to the property. Several master plans approved, trail heads have been built, soccer fields have been built, almost open.
and numerous site plans for residential and commercial activity have been approved. So this is a staff initiated amendment to the development agreement. Um it requires two public hearings as I said and this is the second one. Uh the
purpose of the amendment is only to amend section 70B which is the open space conservation lands. The wording is proposed as master developer shall identify 125 acres to be used by county
for environmental purposes including but not limited to the placement, storage, grading and management of excavated materials such as muck soils, sediments and related byproducts, the environmental parcel. So, there was 125 acres on the regulating plan for
Newfield that was designated to be built as a storm water treatment area. Uh John has identified a better use for the the land and that's why we're here today. Uh the land is also part of uh impact fees
that are credited to the developer and uh like I said we will also bring back a an amendment to the conservation easement to allow the use and and the property will still stay in the conservation easement. This is an aerial of the two areas that
could be possibly be used as the uh soil sites. The property next to it is the fine site. It's about 125 acres. The new field contribution is also 125 acres. I brought this uh display in. This is um
for two reasons. This is a proposed trail heads and trail activities that are being planned for a section of Newfield. And this also satisfies some of the impact fees for Newfield, but it's also a template that could be used
to uh finish off once a spoil site is done. Something like this can be implemented. There's equestrian, biking, pedestrian trails, and a trail head. Uh in this area here is approximately the same size as the area
that's uh going to be donated. um cuz Newfield has 2200 acres of open space that is dedicated as such. And um this will be the third formal trail head um for the public and the uh folks in
Newfield to uh access those public lands. So with that, I'll turn it over to John. Maybe I'll make the motion first and then >> make motions recommend. Well, I will recommend that the board makes a motion.
>> Thank you. Thank you for that. >> I'll second it. >> There you go. >> Perfect. >> We will move that the board receive and file the agenda item and its attachments as exhibit one and move that the board approve the development agreement amendment for the new field project. And
with that, I'm sure John's here to answer any questions you might have about the proposal. >> Questions for staff? Would the applicant like to make a presentation? Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. I'm Kristen Spake of the Gunster Law Firm on behalf of um the
property owner and we're happy to support this and here to answer any questions that you all might have. Appreciate it. >> Questions? >> Would anyone from the public like to address us? Seeing none, we'll return to the board.
>> I would actually make a motion. Uh, appreciate the land owners as we've discussed this at the last agenda item when we had this at the last meeting. Appreciate the partnership. If John Mail and our environmental folks
say it's environmentally appropriate, then it is. And I like that we all work together to create this. And I make a motion to accept what Mr. Walden said. >> Commissioner Heatherington. I I'll second the motion, but I'll I will add
that this past week over um in environmental summer permitting school, I had the opportunity, and it's relative to the spoil site talked to I was going to say this at my commissioner comments, but it seems sort of relevant here as
well. um V Virginia Baker and what was uh Jean Allen, they were talking about how successful Breard County has been in their muck dredging and and talking to Jean, she said there's two um imperative things that you have to you have to have
a spoil site where you can put the muck. So, thank you very much to Newfield for participating in this and and that is absolutely imperative. And of course, you know, second thing is you you need funding so that you can match um the
dollars. And I can talk a little bit more about that on commissioner comments, but thank you because that puts us um this puts us one step further into Indian River Lagoon. Uh the health improving
the health of the Indian River Lagoon and the spoil site was absolutely imperative. So, thank you to staff for all the work that you did in achieving this, too. and I'll gladly second it. >> Yeah, this this uh is a huge huge deal. This is when it's completed, this will
be the culmination, the necessary culmination of Indian River Lagoon South. It's the final step. Um you know, we will have in place approximately 9,000 acres of reservoirs, approximately 10,000 acres of storm water treatment areas. We have a new lake Okachchobee
operating schedule that's going to eliminate uh discharges from Lake Okachchobee. We're buying natural lands and the final project which will ensure uh system systemic uh ecosystem
restoration is removing the muck and this is that necessary uh final step that's going to assure that once again Indian River Lagoon becomes the most biodiverse estuary in North America. So it's a very very big deal and also I know that there are some who advocate
severing the relationship that we have uh the partnership that we have with the Army Corps of Engineers and I can say that would be the biggest mistake Martin County has ever made because they're terrific partners. Thank you >> Mr. Caps.
Wonder if someone could comment about the potential scarcity of um muck sites. You know, whenever muck removal begins, that's going to be a big problem, right? And this will go a long way to helping that problem. There are
always going to be problems with finding places to put this stuff. >> Yes, that's true. Um and it's really the impetus for the whole conversation that started with New Field. Um when you look at a map of how you can uh best position
a a site to receive uh dredge spoil from the estuary I mean obviously um development is was favorable near the estuary that's the most valuable real estate and so anything even close to the water has historically always had a lot
of pressure. So finding a site that um hasn't um already been developed is is really challenging. And this was the site that was contemplated by the the uh the the federal government when word 2007 was originally passed. And in the
project implementation report that lays out the plan for how you would achieve IRL South, um there's a map then it's got a box right around this spot. And and I think that's probably why the Florida Inland Navigation District acquired the parcel that they acquired.
And uh it just it was just begging to be uh um included in this. And if if it weren't for this, it would be miles and miles further, which would involve, you know, large diesel pump booster stations along the canal and more disruption. and
uh you would have to pump it at higher rates of of water to sediment and and so the cost and the time and everything goes exponentially higher. >> So who do we credit for thinking up this idea? >> I would say the core of engineers and
putting it on a map. Um I'll take credit for seeing the opportunity I guess and and bringing it up. But I will say the last meeting when I was coming forward to sit next to Peter, I said, "What am I doing?" Like I have a pretty easy job bringing items to the dis and coming up
here with this guy. I'm like, "Why did I think this was a good idea?" Um, >> is a bulletproof vest? >> They didn't. I knew you would skirt around that. I And that you would be humble and not bring attention to yourself, but I think you probably had a lot to do with that.
>> True. So, >> thank you. and the land owner >> and the land owner >> because it would be >> it would be very difficult to purchase that property now. So, thank you. >> Yeah, I will say the first time that we spoke um with the Newfield folks um I I
had about a 5050 projection that they might just laugh me out of the room, you know, to to change gears at this point. And with those deadlines looming um they had already uh had um under contract an engineering firm to start working on design of that
STA and you know that far along to say to pull back and completely change gears and to to take that chance was um I think they deserve a lot of credit for that >> partnership. >> Thank you all. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? I opposed.
That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh next we'll take up public hearing quasi judicial judicial number two which is a public hearing to consider approval of a planned unit development zoning agreement including a master final site
plan for the paradise lake project. Mr. Aguilar this is quasi judicial. Uh any expporte disclosures? Commissioner Vargas >> I have none. It's been filed. Commissioner Caps, >> if I have any, they have been filed. >> I don't have any and they've been filed.
Commissioner Campy. >> I had a conversation yesterday and that's been filed. >> Excellent. Commissioner Heatherington, >> if any, they've been filed. >> And Mr. Aguilar, have you provided all your necessary documents to the clerk? >> Yes, ma'am. A copy of my work history
has been turned in as exhibit one. >> Okay. Anybody who's going to be providing sworn testimony, please stand up, raise your right hand, and be sworn in. Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So, help you God. I do.
>> Please proceed. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Louis Aguilar. For the record, principal planner for the growth management department. I'm presenting a request from Heisenberg
Family Financial Investments LLC to revise a previously approved but now expired master and final site plan for an approximately 72 acres property. Included with this application is a request for a certificate of poly
facilities reservation. The proposed development includes 11 single family lots on approximately 72 acres resulting in a gross density of 0.15 units per acre which is below the
0.5 units per acre density allowed by the rural density future land use. The proposal includes dedication of approximately 1.40 40 acres of railway to Martin County along the south side of
Southeast 138th Street as a condition of approval for the Paradise Lake master final site plan. The plan provides 94% open space, 32.38 acres of freshwater wetland and 10 acres
of restored wetland all protected under the preserve management. the preserve area management plan which includes removal of invasive species and restoration efforts. The subject site is located south of
Southeast 138th Street approximately a quarter mile west of Southeast Kitchen Creek Road within the secondary urban service district. And this is an enlarged area of the site. >> It sure is. My wife would like that.
>> The property is undeveloped. The zoning district is already PUB residential and has a rural density land use designation. as a reference. This here is the 2010 master plan
and this is the proposed master and final site plan. Access to the site is from Southeast 138th Street which will be here. Key features include an upland preserved
area, which is this one over here. A 30 foot wide firewise defensible space, which is this one over here, dark. A 70 foot uh 70 foot wide upland buffer,
which is this one. And a three mitigation area, which is this one over here. The bor county commissioners approved the prize lake pud project on March 16, 2010. However, the applicant did not
obtain final site planning approval within the required time frame. As a result, the development rights in the original PUD agreement have expired. The proposed project originally approved
for 12 lots on 72.40 acres have been reduced to 11 lots on 70.99 acres to preserve specimen oak trees and maintain native upland habitat.
The project will provide 94% open space and 32.38 acres of wetland preserved. The site's maximum density is 27 units while the project proposes 11 units
resulting in 15 units per acre. An existing recorded flow through drainage easement lies in the eastern portion of the site as part of the 2010 PUD agreement benefits.
The proposed POD benefits include increasing the aban preserve area by 2.54 acres from 14.84 to 17.38 acres. Increase side and rear building setbacks
from 30 to 35 ft. Provide 0.57 acres of native tree protection area that will be retained in existing native vegetation. The applicant agrees to prohibit guest
houses on the lots and to donate $1,000 per unit, $11,000 total, to the Martin County Community Land Trust. As a references, as a reference, this is the POD benefit and justification
statement from the 2010 application. This matter was heard before the LPA on July 16, 2026. The LPA voted to approve 520. Development review staff have found the polarized lake application to comply
with all applicable regulations and the comprehensive growth management plan as detailed in the staff report. We recommend to move that the board receive and file the agenda item and all the its attachments including the staff
report as exhibit one. Move that the board approve the par the polarized lake POD agreement including the master final site plan and preserve area management plan and move that the board adop resolution approving and accepting the
quick claim deed from Heisenberg family finan financial investments LLC a Florida limited liability company for the occasion of right away and authorize the chair to sign any and all documents necessary to complete complete
the transaction. This concludes my presentation and I believe the applicant is here and uh he has a presentation and ready to answer any questions. >> Questions for Mr. Aguilar. >> Minister Katy, would you like to >> Mr. Kdy if you would allow yourself to
be sworn in, please? >> Do you swear or affirm the evidence you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So, I help you God. I do. And I apologize right off the bat because I my clients were out here all morning and they went for lunch and so they're rushing back here. He he was going to
make a few comments before the presentation. Um but hopefully he'll be here but after the presentation to say those comments. Can I can I borrow your mouse please so I can I want to use the pointer if I can. >> Can you imagine that conversation over the lunch table like you call them and they're like you got to run back. Um and
for the record my name is Morris Krady. I'm senior partner with Acceone Associates and thank you Luis. He provided a very comprehensive and detailed report and I appreciate that. Um, and I do have a just a brief presentation. I'm going to go rather slow to give him time to get here.
Sometimes I talk too fast. Um, but uh, Mr. Heisenberg and his family purchased this property almost 20 years ago on July 14th, 2006 and at the top of the real estate boom. Um, and so we spent about the next two years working on the
first PUD master plan application. actually had Pat Lacanti who's the the record engineer with me and also my partner Brian Nolan who helped process this current application. Um so in 2008 we submitted the first PUB application. Um and Dor by that time we started
crashing the recession started crashing. So we did get the the final master plan approval in 2010 at the at the bottom of the recession and uh and it just delayed going forward with the final site plan uh to deal with that and then right
after that came co so uh it's been a project that's been 20 years in the making but we did follow through with the first public benefit for the 12 lots and that was to dedicate a public drainage easement for the Kitchen Creek flowway project um as a public benefit and that was for the original 12 lot
project. Uh 10 years later in August 2021, the PUD timetable expired and um here we are 3 years after that. We submitted a brand new PUD application and negotiated additional public benefits as as a consequence of the PUD
expiration. This is just to show you the location. And I'll give you more detail on the actual site plan in a moment, but here is the Kitchen Creek Flowway project. And and this is the drainage easement that we provided. It runs along our our eastern property boundary. And
of course, we're located just south of 138th Street and have Jonathan Dickinson State Park just to the south of us. Uh so to uh look at the existing current aerial, you can see the property has been uh vegetated. Mike and and this
particular feature has been here since the uh before 1980. And uh Mike and his family has used it as a uh as a a camping retreat. He's he's volunteered and had special events out there for Jensen Beach High School, ROC, and has
been managing the the Upland property very well and nurturing the growth of uh native trees and and oak trees that he basically has to has to mitigate for now as he develops the property. Um, but you can see and this is a 1986 area. So, you know, even even uh 20 years before Mike
bought it, you can see the the upland area, which is this area here. And it it continues down here. You can see this particular area here is what staff has focused on because it's always been like a wildlife habitat native connector between these two welton areas. So from
there we developed the site plan and this is just to show you the north south orientation. Um again the kitchen creek flowway project is here. Our easement that we dedicated is located here which provides a connection to Jonathan Dickinson State Park. And one of the the
major areas the one of the major changes that we made was we we gave that up we gave that 12 lot up to provide uh this wildlife connector and also created a 920 ft buffer adjacent to the state park
where by code only a 40ft buffer is is required but all that's preserve area now is contiguous and we're we're developing a much smaller footprint than what was originally approved. But as as as was mentioned, these are 75 foot buffers, not 50- foot buffers because
these are wetlands of special concern. And uh just to give you the comparison, now we're looking uh to the to the left of the screen is Jonathan Dickens State Park and to the right is 138th Street. So east west orientation. Um this is the
original approved project. Uh you can see on this aerial this is the 2010 aerial that that identified the the drainage public drainage easement that was dedicated. So it's in highlighted in blue but you can see even uh 20 year in
2010 there's a lot less trees on the site. So Mike has has been nurturing the growth of these trees and the staff again was looking at this area as a critical connection. This is where most of the mature pine trees are located and
some pristine native habitat. Now, but that wasn't the staff also had us look at what we could do by right because one of our options was to come back and reinstate the PUB agreement with these additional uh public benefits and conditions or we had the option of
just doing it under by right zoning the RE2A zoning district. So, we could have come in under by right and we wanted to evaluate how many lots could we get if we did it by right. So under by right you're required to have two acre lots and you need to have 175 ft frontage on
on a a standard road and in in this scenario we could yield eight lots with a lake in this area and a lake in this area. Um but there we take away the connectivity uh on a 2acre lot you can build a principal house and a guest
house. You can have uh you can uh develop all of the property. Um, and we also did an analysis to see if we didn't do the lakes and we were going to haul in fill, how many lots could we yield in and straight zoning, we could yield nine lots, nine 2acre lots under straight
zoning. So compare that to what we have actually achieved and you can see we've significantly reduced the development footprint even though we have 11 lots and these 11 lots are all one acre or just over an acre in size and but we're able to to to preserve an additional 2
and 1/2 acres more than what was previously on the PUD plan and almost 5 acres more than what we could do under straight zoning. So again this is the rendered version of the plan. This is the area of mitigation. Again, one of the things that we have to do
because these uh lots require fill and septic tank and and and wells. Uh most of the site of these lots have to be cleared. So, we had to go in and mitigate for all of the oak trees that Mike nurtured over the years and and uh and replant them. So, we're replanting
them in this area. We're we're doing live oak trees along the perimeter of the road. We're planting additional trees around the lake. We've created these common areas on the four corners of the lake uh so that you have access to the lake whether you're on the lot or
or not. This is a uh an entry feature that that will be designed like a old Florida cracker house. What Mike wanted to do was have an area where you could sit on the front porch but also allow for deliveries. you know, mail will be
delivered there and that will be an area for equipment and uh and stuff for the community. Um, so looking at the site data, the the the 71 acres now, there was a 1.4 acre rideaway donation, 50-ft rideway that we
donated along 138th Street, and that's critical because that's where a a ditch is located that provides drainage for um 138th Street. Uh the wetland preserve area on this site is significant. 32 acres, almost 45% of the site is wetland
and all of that has to be preserved. So, we're preserving all of the all of the wetlands on site and even restoring some of the wetlands where they had access uh through the wetlands and uh that was built decades ago. Uh so just looking at the maximum density transfer if we if we
utilize the county's allowance to transfer density out of the wetlands and apply the one unit per two acres on the uplands we would be able to yield 27 units but we don't have enough upland area to actually build that many units. Uh so but just just wanted to show you
the numbers though nonetheless if we did maximum density without the the density transfer which would just be based on the upland area uh the yield would be 19 units um we're proposing 11 units uh which represents 40% of the maximum density and in terms of native upland
habitat out of the total site that's upland 31 is existing native habitat uh the normal preserve requirement is 25% um but with the 75 ft buffer that bumps up to 12.84 acres and u the uh upland preserve that
we're providing on top of that when compared to straight zoning represents almost 56% of the existing habitat on site. Total site preservation overall is 50 acres of site preservation that's going to be uh preserved in perpetuity
and managed under preserve area management plan by Mike and his family. and and Mike we are going to let you speak at the end of this presentation so I apologize uh for sending you away um so uh in terms of the the uh total
open space that's already been mentioned we're 94% open space we really exceed all of the criteria under normal development scenario um and public benefits again it was the perpetual flow through drainage easement again this is this this area was set
aside for the Kitchen Creek uh drainage project, but a lot of that was put on hold. Um and and now that that we have an active project and a pimp, then it's going to be Mike's responsibility and his family to clean all the exotics out of that area and to open up those
flowways so that the water can go from north to south into the Jonathan Dickinson State Park. And he'll work with the county to do whatever that that takes. Um, so we're preserving when compared to straight zoning, we're preserving over five acres of additional up and preserve, including the restored
wetland buffer areas, tree protection areas, and a 920 foot native preserve setback from Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Uh, we are willing to prohibit guest houses and accessory dwelling units on this property. Um, and and the
site's only one the lots are only one acre, so we feel like with a principal house and septic system, there's there's no need to to try to force more onto the property. Um, we are willing to contribute $1,000 per lot for the Martin
County Community Land Trust. And the only benefit, I'm not saying this is a developer benefit because Michael is not a developer. Uh, he's a property owner, a 20-year property owner, and he purchased this property before Atlantic Fields, before Grove 23 before any of that stuff happened out there. And uh
but the the the what we get as a PUB is an additional two or three lots out of the deal in exchange for the public benefits. And I think that's a that's a fair deal. And I'm certain that Mike and his family are great stewards of the land now and they're going to be great stewards of the land in the future.
Mike, if you know, Mike, can you say a few words? >> Good afternoon. >> Apologize. We were we were told we had a chance to take a break, so we uh we went and started to get some lunch. And >> no reason to apologize. >> Anyway, I appreciate uh your time and appreciate you allowing me the
opportunity to talk. Um as you probably know, uh this project's been 20 years in the making. Um we're 30 year plus residents uh in Martin County. We've raised three children here and raising a bunch of grandchildren now. And uh it's
always been a dream of mine to have a piece of property where we can develop and be able to have a neighborhood that's really just for the family, a family compound. And the family has worked very hard uh through several family businesses serving Martin County and the Treasure Coast. And we're
finally ready to uh embark on this uh this this process of developing the property. And we're not, as uh Morris said, we're not property developers looking to make a profit from a piece of land. We bought this land with one purpose and to build our family
compound. And it's taken us 20 years to get here, but we're here now. And what we're we're uh we're not developing land. We're uh and we're not investing into into a project. We are investing in our family and we're investing into the
Martin County with what we're doing. So, we ask you all to please uh approve the project and uh let us that dream uh be fulfilled. Thank you very much. Any questions for me? >> I have a comment. It's a beautiful
project and it's a it's a it's a noble one, too. It's a it's going to be beautiful when it's finished. >> Thank you. And I hope that the I'll be sitting on that little porch watching my greatg grandandchildren off to school in the mornings. So that's that's my goal. >> Thank you very much. I I got to plug for
Mike. He's the owner of Expert Shutters and he employs over 100 people and uh has a very successful business and and uh it's we I appreciate that. >> Thanks, >> Commissioner Caps. >> Yes. Uh thank you for that great presentation. I know it's uh lunchtime,
but I just would love to have uh Mr. Krady show us a picture again of the Kitchen Creek Flowway and how this property can be used to see if they get >> to benefit um wetlands rehydration down
in JD Park and down south and even above there on this parcel and north of there. Uh just to show us >> load it back up. Let me see >> that benefit. >> Let me see. >> Here we go.
>> You see it? >> Go ahead. I was at the end of the other one. >> Yeah. Be the second. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, this is probably the best picture. This is the This is And again, I'm I'm not the expert on the Kitchen Creek Filway project, but I believe it
encompasses all of this area up here that the county has been acquiring. I think there's been a recent acquisition of a piece of property in that area. Um, so that so again that ties into the wetland system and you know, it will eventually allow the uh wetlands in
Jonathan Dickensson State Park to receive their normal water hot water flow. Commissioner, I can say that getting that link from Bridge Road to the park, while it naturally overflows here and there, having a dedicated easement with
the ability for us to manage it and improve it for that and working with the state park has been a uh a project that uh staff has been working on for 10 or Yeah, exactly. a long time. And so uh and there are some adjacent property
owners who have um have attempted to work with us in the past, but they're rather uh have unique character is characters that uh we appreciate this project is critical in actually achieving that. So it's uh it it is it is an important piece of this project.
Can't underestimate it enough. Thank you. >> Great. It looks like you're doing things in a very environmentally friendly way. And I would just like to say welcome to district 3. Do you live in district three now? >> Jensen Beach. >> Jensen Beach. Okay. Well, welcome to
Hope Welcome to Hope Sound. If you >> uh when that works out and I would make a motion to approve with a caveat on page 367, there is talk about owners shall donate $1,000 per lot to the
Martin County Community Land Trust within 60 days of final site plan approval. you know, that is for the purpose of affordable housing when we have a real challenge with that in Martin County these days. And I would like to
see if you would consider bumping that up to a $50,000 donation instead of an $11,000 donation. Um, and if you would be willing to do that, I would make that motion to approve.
Is he doing that on the >> Well, we are fully committed and we are committed to seeing Martin County continue to improve. So, we are 100% in favor of that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Oh, I thought that was going to be a
>> Thank you very much. >> Wish campy. >> Thank you. Um, first off, I love the concept of a compound. My oldest daughter has been wishing that for my family forever. Multigenerational family
compound. Uh, it's something that I think a lot of families dream of or aspire to, but it's just nearly impossible to reach. Um, I did mention to her this weekend about your project. >> So, she has a renewed hope that it's a
possibility. Um, I think with your history, it's interesting that you probably started this project thinking about it was going to be a place where you and the kids could live and now it's a place where you and the grandchildren can live. And you said great grandchildren. It's taken my dad nearly
90 years to become a greatgrandfather. So, I wish you well on that. Uh, I think it's an exciting project for your family. I think it's an exciting project for the community. Um, so I'd be happy to second Commissioner Cap's motion and welcome you and congratulate you. And I
know the shutter company and you've recently had some exciting and great news that is welld deserved. I've uh mentioned the project and people sang your praises that you're self-made and that you're really super hardworking and that you have a beautiful family.
>> Family works at it. >> Yeah. And that's what I figured. Um, yeah, some people a family compound would definitely not work uh to be living that close to each other. Most people are like, "No, thank you." But, uh, so it really speaks volumes to who you are as a family. And so,
congratulations and thank you very much for doing it in Martin. >> Commissioner Heatherington. >> People would put the grandchildren in an accessory dwelling probably in our town. U, it it's a great project. I will proudly support it and I wish you many years of happiness and your family at
the property. This is a public hearing. Would anyone like to address us? Seeing none, back to the board. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. >> Thank you.
two more items for you. >> Thank you. >> He sold it to Hunter Douglas. >> Oh, >> yeah. >> Wow. >> Miss Merly, you're taking up department one. >> Yes, I am. >> Merrly?
>> Yes. Good afternoon, Commissioner. Stephanie Merley, director of the Office of Management and Budget, presenting you the OMB item today. Our first item is a permission to apply for the State of Florida Department of Transportation public transportation
grant agreement for the FY27 section 5311 non-urbanized area formula funds. Um, this is a grant that provides operating assistance to continue the Indiantown non-urbanized bus route service. Our public works department is requesting
$213,743 and the estimated grant match of the same amount is budgeted within the public works transit operating budget. Our second item is a permission to apply for the FY27 mosquito control state financial assistance agreement from the
state of Florida. Um, our mosquito control division of the public works department is requesting $69,587.50 to provide funding for the mosquito control division to be used for the purchase of chemicals and equipment used
for arthropod control. There is a match of 20% which is budgeted through mosquito controls current operating budget with the purchase of other chemicals. Item number three is a permission to accept the FTA section 5339 bus and bus
facilities um grant. Um Public Works Transit is requesting the grant award of $146,920 to partially fund the purchase of an Americans with Disabilities Act accessible bus to be used for the Marty
system. Um there is no local cash match required and um soft match will be used by FDOT total revenue credits for $36,730. Item number four is adjustments to fiscal year 2026 budget or some cleanup
items for this year's current budget. The first item is a request to approve a budget resolution for the state FY27 allocation of Federal Highway Administration or FHWA funds for our Martin County Metropolitan Planning
Organization or the NO. Um the county is in receipt of $800,88 to be to be appropriated into the budget for the um Martin County MO's budget. The second item is a request to allocate
allocate insurance proceeds from damages to traffic signals and street lights. Martin Countyy's in receipt of insurance proceeds due to damages to county maintain traffic signals and street lights caused by third party accidents. And OM is requesting um a budget
resolution to allocate $19,44 back into the traffic signals and street light rehabilitation project budget to offset the cost of those repairs. The third item is the FY26 capital improvement plan amendments for the utilities department. Um Martin County
utilities have completed a few projects and are now requesting to transfer the available balances um to other projects in order to accelerate them from FY20 from FY27 to FY26. And OM is just requesting the amendment of these CIP
sheets to recognize them. The next item is the allocation of funds for fiscal year 2026 salary adjustments. During the FY26 adopted budget, um the board allocated salary adjustments into our reserve account. Um they were placed
in reserves and according to our fiscal policy, moving monies from any established reserve requires BOCC approval. So, OMB is requesting the approval to transfer those funds that were previously budgeted into the various departments in order to pay for
those salaries that occurred on 101. And the last item is a request to allocate insurance proceeds from damages to Martin County Fire Rescue vehicle. Um we are in receipt of approximately $167,27 for um insurance proceeds for service
trucks that have sustained body and structural damages due to third party vehicle collisions. And OM is just requesting a budget resolution to allocate those monies so they can offset the cost of the repairs. And that's all I have today. >> Questions for Miss Merley?
>> Move approval. >> Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you. >> Uh, department two, contracts that meet the threshold for board approval of $1 million or greater.
Did we withdraw that item? All right. >> Department three. Department four. Department four is adopt a resolution approving and accepting the acquisition of a 2.7 acre parcel north of Southwest Blue Waterway as recommended by the
environmental lands oversight committee and approved by the board of county commissioners. >> Miss Sigura afternoon. It's Carlos Agura, real property manager. Um, this request is for the adoption of a resolution approving the acquisition of 2.7 acres
located north of Southwest Blue Waterway. It's currently owned by Bruce Burstein and Wendy Hixon. The board approved the ELOC nominations of 16 parcels. This one ranked number seven on that list. Um, the two appraisals were
conducted um with an average appraised value of 700,000. staff successfully negotiated a purchase price of 648. >> I'll take >> the title work's been reviewed and there are no known incumbrances. A boundary
survey and legal description are being finalized right now. They just got the um draft one in. It has a couple more comments and then they should be ready to go on that. Um staff requests that the board adopt a resolution authorizing the chair to
execute the vacant land contract in the amount of $648,000 and authorize the county administrator designate to execute all closing documents necessary to complete this transaction. If there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer
>> questions. Is any of this upland? I think a small portion of it is, but it's mostly mangroves. >> Yes. >> Black mangrove. My favorite. >> I bet it's mostly red.
>> Any further questions? >> Move approval >> for black. >> Second. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. And finally, department five, adopt a resolution approving the acquisition of
10 parcels of environmentally sensitive land located in Point Sienna Gardens as recommended by the Environmental Lands Oversight Committee and approved by the board. Um, Carlos Siger, real property manager. Um, these 10 parcels in Poiata Gardens
total 2.717 acres. They're currently owned by Rose and Joseph McGilly. Uh the purchase will be funded through the conservation land sales tax program. The parcels were approved as number 15
on the list. Based on the previously obtained appraisals, the county has traditionally paid approximately $92,000 per acre for these properties. Staff negotiated a price of 255
255,000 for these parcels in total. Real properties completed its review of the title work, confirmed ownership, and identified that there are no incumbrances. We ask the board authorized the chair to adopt and execute the resolution and vacant land
contract in the amount of 255,000 and authorize the county administrator designate to execute any and all documents necessary. If there's any questions, >> any questions? >> I would make a motion to accept staff's recommendation. >> Second.
You familiar with this parcel these parcels? >> Yes. >> There's a motion in a second. All those in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. Uh we have one request to speak form and that is from Joe
Cosgrove. Would you like to join us sir? >> Afternoon. >> Afternoon. >> Thank you for your time. Uh once again I'm here in front of this board and other commissioner. >> Speak right into the microphone. Yeah. >> Oh yeah. Sorry. other commission boards about this ebike issue. Uh it's gotten
to biblical proportions now in so much as that um they are legalized on the roads and sidewalks. So we have a private community so they automatically come in from the street and terrorize our neighborhood doing wheelies, speeding around almost causing
accidents, interaction with residents who oppose it. Um, I understand the state in the in July was supposed to take some sort of action about some legislation to address this situation. I don't know has that happened. I don't know if you know
either. And if not, I was wondering if there'd be any way possible that the county >> could take some sort of uh action in so much as a statute or some kind of a um
um ordinance to address these uh menacing vehicles. These things aren't funny anymore. They're big and heavy. They're going 30 miles an hour on the sidewalk. I almost got hit headon about a month ago. Um, if that hit somebody at
that speed, the thing probably weighs overund and some pounds plus the rider, I probably would have got killed. Um, and also we have there's not just ebikes, electric bikes. They're motorized scooters, gas, electric, whatever. Skateboards,
go-karts, golf carts. Now, golf carts aren't what we remember. Golf carts used to be a two-seater thing with a couple bags. These things, some of them have four seats. Some have six. You know what a smart car is? A smart car. People,
they're bigger than a smart car, but they're allowed on the sidewalk. They don't have insurance, no registration, no driver's license. They have no safety equipment. As a bicycle rider, I ride every day. We're a minor. Pedestrians and bicycles are minorities on the sidewalks today.
We have to get away from them before we get run over. I have to yield to them. They shouldn't even be there. We have to yield. We're authorized to be there. And if you do uh make mention to you get the usual verbiage and everything that
follows. I'm just concerned as in your pos you probably there's I'm sure there's been plenty of injuries. There's c many accidents. I don't know if there's been any fatalities in the area, but I know this stuff is going on every day. It's
getting to be it's it's out of control. the uh there's no nothing to monitor these things. But yet I have to have we have to have car insurance. We have a driver's license. You have to have registration. You have to have safety equipment. And a gentleman here was
talking about a highway that was a 20 mph speed limit. They're limiting a speed limit to 20 on a highway, but they go 30 40 on a sidewalk. So it doesn't make any sense. Somehow we need to get more proactive into protecting the citizens of this of this community. Of
course, somebody's going to get I don't know if there's been any fatalities. I don't know. >> But if there are if there haven't, we've been pretty lucky. And and with that being said, uh I appreciate your time. Uh >> your your time is up. Thank you. >> And my time is up. But anyway, I just
want this is about the third time I've been here. Plus, I've spoken to one of your assistants out in the hallway one time as well. That's four. >> We agree with you, Mr. Cos Cosg Grove. >> Completely agree. >> Commissioner Campy. >> Mr. Cosg Gro. Yes, we agree with you. This has been a problem. I represent
Palm City uh specifically. It has been a huge problem for a very long time. You hit all the nails on the head. It's little scooters that are silent and low profile. The the golf carts that can hold you.
Everything you said is 100% true. Uh they're riding all over the sidewalks. There was just recently, I think in Indian River County, a fatality. Two young kids. It was a nineyear-old and a 12-year-old riding. The thing that's come back, which they used to have when
I was little, was a little dirt bike. Like it had almost like a lawn mower engine on it and they were small. The only advantage to those is you can hear them coming. But the silent stuff they ride all over the sidewalks, I'm sure, everywhere. But in Palm City, we have music in the park and the kids are
racing around doing wheelies. And when it's the full spectrum because there are some kids that look like they're about six or seven years old, no helmets. Most of the time they're not wearing they're either barefoot or they're wearing flipflops. But then there's also some kids that are much older that are in
their late teens or even I would dare to say young men that are also racing all through the sidewalks through the crowd doing wheelies down the center of the road. Um but the sheriff, we've all had conversations. I've had a lot with him.
If you were to come over the Veterans Memorial Bridge, even today, we have an electric sign that's discussing >> it's gone. who was there yesterday >> um about the ebikes and we've put other signs because you know when you speak to the parents >> and I'm agreeing with them but when you
speak to the parents a lot of them will say oh we didn't realize we didn't know yes you did and so the other issue there is we've been using drones to combat them uh because you know if if a deputy is either on foot or in a car it's hard
to chase after someone who's on an ebike that can go through the trees and the bushes and race through the neighborhoods So, we have tracked them even with drones. Uh, and we do um seize or confiscate the bikes that then have to be paid, you know, they're they're towed
away. So, they have to couple hundred dollar fee to get the bikes back. Uh we've worked with the school district to see about uh not allowing the kids to ride them to school, but uh the only way that that the only thing that that creates is that the kids would ride them
to school and then lock them up off school property. So that's not really an an option. Uh the state I don't believe did take any action. >> They did, but the governor vetoed the bill. >> Okay. So yeah, governor vetoed that bill. >> They didn't do anything. >> No. So that's out the window. So yeah,
it is on us locally. If you have specific issues, um you can contact the sheriff's office, but it's not a light issue for us and it's not a light issue for the sheriff. It's a very serious issue. Uh because not only will they hurt themselves,
but they'll hurt pedestrians or cyclists. But the other problem is is that as if you're a very conscientious driver and you look to your right to see if anyone's coming and then you look to your left to see if anyone's coming and then you start to pull out that child on
an ebike or an ecooter who was so far away when you looked right, you did everything correct, but you still hit that child, God forbid. And then you have all of the insurance and the legality and the and the emotional
distress of having hit someone who most likely it was 100% their fault. So we agree we'll still keep working on it. But I like that you come every once in a while and remind us. >> May Can I add one thing? >> If you were going to Let me ask you a question. If you were going to add one
thing, what would it be? >> Am I right? All right. I just like to say that happened at our development. Somebody was pulling out. They got t-boned by one of those bikes. Their insurance paid them $100,000 and they got t-boned by one of those ebikes, right? Coming out of the community. And
it' be a it'd be nice if you guys could fly some drones over there on Willoughby Boulevard across from the golf course. That's where all the action is >> between Indian Street and Palmemoroy. >> Noted. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> I need some >> Frank Titicus, would you like to address us?
>> Frank snuck in just under the wire. My I my ap and my apologies for not being here this morning, but I was tied up this morning. Uh I'm representing the taxpayers association. I think perhaps uh Darlene spoke. >> Oh, she did. >> And uh specifically, I wanted to address
uh the comments um by the fire chief and I I missed his presentation, but I had an opportunity to review it. I'd just like to say the population growth in 5 years has been 8,600 people in Martin County. Uh it's 5.4% or a little over
1.1% a year. Cost increases on a per capita basis for the fire service have risen from $31 per resident in 2020 to a projected $460 per resident uh in 2000
fiscal year ending 2027. That's a $159 or 52 point uh 52.8% per capita increase and it's outpaced the US average per capita cost for similar services. Um,
now granted that uh a $9 million uh budget reduction is a big nut to swallow as is um you know the additional um 16.5 total that would be after 2 years.
And the chief has said that he would have to lay off 116 firefighters or roughly onethird of the force and potentially close three stations. But pure cuts of that magnitude are no long and risk longer response times and reduce capacity. I think there are more
sustainable approaches that focus on efficiency, revenue demand management, targeted operational changes while protecting the core emergency services. For example, overtime staffing, overtime and staffing optimization,
um, which is the highest percentage of cost, 93% of the cost. You can do that by permanent fill vacancies permanently rather than covering it with premium overtime. You can improve the retention and compensation competitiveness to cut
the high cost of constant recruitment training cycles. And you can evaluate dynamic deployment or selective adjustments to minimum staffing on low-risk units. Um, recent additions of personnel and rescue units have been
partly overtime funded. Converting those to sustainable models can yield multi-million dollar savings. Also, there's an an independent efficiency and operational review is in order. I would commission an outside consultant to come in and benchmark
response protocols, station locations, apparatus utilizations, call triage, and administrative overhead. I'll be more than happy to mail this to you or email it to you all. The other aspects are revenue enhancement, demand reduction,
and alternative response, and shared services and mutual aid. Um but there are ways to achieve running the department within those efficient or by efficiencies rather than 116 people being cut and three stations closed.
Thank you and have a good lunch. Thank you. >> Appreciate you fitting me in. >> Would anyone else from the public like to address us? Seeing none, it's time for commissioner comments. Commissioner Heatherington. Oh, I think I gave all my comments
during the um conservation or the new field item. Uh just to say that at the environmental uh permitting school, which it will be my 12th consecutive year attending and um I always look forward to meeting our regulatory
agencies and hearing from them. But I'm super excited to learn more about Brevard County and how they managed to get all that muck out of the Indian River Lagoon. And I know that Commissioner Herd that was one of your priorities. I think it's a noble one and
I look forward to us accomplishing it. Thanks. >> That's it. Commissioner Campy. >> I'm all set. Thank you. >> I am too. Commissioner Caps. >> I'm all set. >> Commissioner Vargas. >> Yes. um as I had mentioned before requesting that we receive uh a budget
cutting of 10% across all non-mandated um responsibilities. Uh and I think that's something that we need to bring to the forefront now. Um so is this possible you can uh prepare this for us, Mr. Donaldson? Um I I certainly can prepare it, but I'm
not going to prepare it unless I have uh three commissioners that request it. Um if the board direction, I I am prepared in terms of the um potential reductions and we have a whole slew of items uh that we would be
discussing with the board should this pass. Um and uh and and part of that discussion, like I said, would be on on reviewing the types of services that we are going to provide. You know, I think we've heard from commissioners today on
certain priorities that you would have. Um but um so I can do these various exercises on money changes and and revenues. Um but um it's simply an across the board 10%. uh we we can
certainly provide that but I would like some I would be asking you individually or collectively at a meeting sometime about within those particular operations what is your focus on um on the priority services that within each of those
departments I have um but if uh you know we have a budget that's been prepared for this year we'll be prepared to discuss it at the hearings again um and then more importantly uh come November um we'll have that year
to do an adjustment. So essentially next year's budget will begin in December really through next uh August um on all of the different reductions or changes or tax shifts,
fees, revenues, all those different things is what we'd be discussing for a majority of the year. So, um um that's that's my current plan. Um if there's any change to to that, then um I'll need
direction from a majority of the board. Thank you. >> Okay. So, my next question is, do I have two other votes uh to receive this? Mr. Donaldson, >> Mr. Campy. >> Thank you. I have been involved in some
of these exercises in 2008 910 when we had the now known as the great recession across the board cut strategies don't necessarily work. There's too many variables within the different departments. Some could do more than 10. Some could never do 10. I did ask Mr.
Donaldson to be prepared as we progress through the budget budget process to have an option for uh what a roll back would look like. You know, there's a couple of options for folks. You can raise taxes. You can leave a constant,
which is where you do not change the millage, but if there is a property value increase, you the government would still get the additional funds. And then there's a roll back, which is where you lower the millillage to the increase in property values so that the government
takes in the same amount of money that they took in the year prior. I did ask Mr. Donaldson to have that as a budgeting uh option available as we progressed, but I'm not in favor of doing having staff spend time doing a
10% across the board. Uh it sounds terrific uh but it genuinely doesn't work. Uh because it's not so cut and dry as that. And then also it requires a tremendous amount if it's done legitimately well. that requires a lot
of staff time which they're working on other things. So I mean a roll back is something that could be on the table legitimately on the table versus an exercise of a 10% across the board. That's my opinion. Anybody else? Okay. So the commission does not want to
look at other numbers. Um so we may not be receiving the same income. we may not be receiving the same income. So, uh we may have to cut the millage rate um because um this is something that is not
static and um it's not a waste of time. It's a lot of information that we need to have to make viable decisions for those of us that that will be here um come December. Um so, okay, I put it out
there and the public hears. the board is not willing to do this. The other thing I want to talk about also is about the record rotation, the uh KW record service. What can we do to um have the uh sheriff uh consult with them again so
that they can be on the rotation? This is a small business and we need to protect small businesses in the county and especially if as they said they have done nothing that is incorrect. They corrected what they needed to do. So, it's a it's a contract between the sheriff and the wreckers, the um tow
companies. It's not our tow contract. I mean, we could talk to the sheriff, but most likely we don't have any input on it because it's a direct contract between the two. >> I understand that. Mr. Donaldson, would you speak with the sheriff in light of what we've heard today by this uh business owner?
>> Yes. we will let the sheriff know the of the public comments and um and uh ask them where they are if there's any um mitigating circumstances that they can look at. Um but that again as uh council
stated it is u it's it's up to the sheriff and his contracting agents to um to make the decision. >> Yes. Okay. But they could reconsider and certainly he values your opinion. I mean you have the business owner here. Um it seems as if it was something that was an error and businesses make errors but
they collected no funds. Um so you know there was there was no injury uh to the party in that regard. So I'd appreciate if you could please do that. >> But we we I will I certainly know that in all contracting cir circumstances we
only heard a short piece of the story and we don't know what the >> what the sheriff has in and their information. But I think um I understand that the case they made was certainly one of passion and um and certainly uh sounded of consideration and uh I will
pass that on to the sheriff. >> Anything else, Commissioner Vargas? >> Nope. That's about it. >> Commissioner Heatherington, >> I this is just opining in on the previous conversation on the um exercise of 10% cuts. I feel that this is the
first time I'm hearing of that. I thought the budget workshop would have been a fine time to discuss um budget um different departmental budget items and we will have two more public hearings that you can certainly bring that up.
Well, I'm asking for more information now for those of us that will be here. It's very important to have as much as we can. Um, so you know, if you're really thinking about this for the future and you definitely want to leave a legacy of, you know, caring for your constituents, previous constituents and
residents, you might want to consider this. But Mr. Donalds will not do anything without two other votes. That's why we have two more budget public hearings coming up for everybody to discuss it. >> Yes, I understand that. But you cannot have too much information.
>> Or maybe you can. I don't know. >> Mr. Donaldson, any further comments? Uh just going back to your conversation with Virginia Barker, uh she like our John mail is a kind of a superstar in in our state for doing uh uh coastal uh
water resource environmental work and um I think uh we can learn some lessons from them on their environmental dredging and things that work on. And I appreciate the conversation you had with her. And um and also just kind of switching gears on, you know, since I
know taxation and levels of service is always a focus and um and and one of the things that you have to remember and uh and we are caught in this in this situation where Martin County's population growth is is relatively small, especially compared to our
neighbors, but it is strongly influenced by our neighbors and their continued significant growth. We see it in our traffic counts which our our neighbors all complain about. Um but it's not self-generated. We are successful have a number of successful businesses and a
number of our you know uh assisted living facilities. The call load has certainly continued to go up on them. The the call load for our services on 995 and these other things. So when I look at public safety's response, it's largely the call loads that are driven
it, not the necessarily the population increases. So those are real things. It's kind of so I just, you know, when when when you look at how things are progressing in the county re, you just need to look at, you know, we are not a county that's isolated in the center of
Kansas. We have two major growing counties to our one to our north and one to our south that have been adding um you know uh building permits on the order of five and 6,000 building permits a year uh over 10,000 people a year
moving into both north and south of us and that has an influence even if you don't grow significantly and those are and um those do influence influence our our level of service and with that um that's all I have for today. Thank you, >> Miss Elder.
>> I'm all set. Thank you.