Good morning and welcome to our June 9th, 2026 Board of County Commission meetings. I'm calling this meeting to order. Thank you so much for joining us. Let's begin with a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance which is going to be led by Michael Dr.
who's our US Marine and veteran services manager. >> 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. >> Okay, we have several presets today. Hey, the first is at 9:05 public comment followed by 9:30 a.m. Lake Grove Water Main Municipal Service Benefit Unit. Uh at 9:45 we'll hear a uh presentation
about a dredging project. At 50:05 or the conclusion of our meeting, we'll hear public comment again. There are two additional items today. Consent 19 is adopting a proclamation recognizing June 19th 20 26 as Junth freedom day in
Martin County. R&P1 is the inter coastal waterway and Okachobee waterway maintenance dredging project update by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the non-federal sponsor the Florida Inland Navigation District. Is there a motion to approve the agenda?
>> Move approval. >> Approval. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. Uh it's now time for proclamations. Are there any proclamations today? It looks like there's >> one more one.
>> Mhm. >> First, we have a only today. We have a proclamation declaring May 2026 as mental health awareness month in Martin County, Florida. The mental health of every Martin County resident and business owner is a critical factor in our area's emotional and economic
stability. 44 million American adults, roughly 18% are living with a mental health illness. And 13% of American youth aged 12 to 17, are living with major depression. Raising awareness and fostering open conversations about mental health can promote early intervention, reduce barriers to care,
and build stronger, more supportive communities. May was mental healthware awareness month, and it is the duty of each and every one of us to provide continued consistent access to mental health care resources. And here to accept we have Gregory Jackson, CEO of New Horizons of the Treasure Coast in Okobee.
>> Sure. >> Good morning. U first and foremost, I want to say thank you to the board for your continued support. Uh with your support, we've been able to serve uh over 1,500 underinsured and uninsured individuals, providing essential mental
health services. At New Horizons, uh we have a legacy of um providing essential services uh to those most in need uh serving as a uh part of the uh safety net as far as mental health services for our community. So, we want to thank you
again for that and reiterate that uh we're committed to uh continual service, also advocating for our community to make sure that we can have the resources we need to respond to the emerging challenges. So, thank you
again. >> Oops. One, two, three. One, two, three. Next we will take up uh public comment. >> Mr. Donaldson, do you have a >> I do. Do I have a prepared statement said and this is um since we are in the
election season uh 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. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh the first request to speak form I have is from Doug Farley followed by Missy Harris. >> And as Mr. Farley comes up, you'll have three minutes. At the 2 minute 45
seconds, they'll have a uh warning. >> Thank you. So before that starts, I was told I could show these pictures on the on the monitors. Can I get some direction on how we do that? >> Just lay them on top of that white square on the desk. >> Okay. Here comes someone to help you
>> like that. >> Thank you. >> There we go. >> Y >> might have to stand there and hold it up. >> So, good morning. You know, I've been uh working with uh a lot of folks in Martin County, your constituents, to try to
convince this commission to work towards uh quiet zones at railroad intersections. Uh we've been trying to convince you to move this way uh for the quiet uh feature, of course, but it's also safer. And that's the part you're kind of missing a bit. We've used uh explanations and discussions and it
hasn't worked. So, we brought in some pictures, or I brought in some pictures to help illustrate and show you that you can have a quiet zone, and it's actually safer when you follow the Federal Railroad Administration's guidelines for quiet zones. Um, this picture shows uh
an intersection in Rio that does not qualify for a quiet zone. You can see there's only one gate on each side of the road here. That's the liability. That's where the problems happen. It's a suggestion. And the horn is a suggestion at this point. People who who use poor
judgment will drive around the gate and that's where the problem happens. We all agree that, right? This next picture shows a uh an intersection in Martin County that does qualify for a quiet zone. Take a
look at that. Ask yourself objectively why a horn would be necessary in any way to keep you safe here. You're physically barricaded from the danger zone. It's a no-brainer. You cannot you cannot
pass through it even if you wanted to. That that qualifies as a quiet zone and that's what makes it safer. The Federal Railroad Administration has a number of requirements. The biggie are these gates. have another picture.
It's another example of an intersection that does not have does not qualify for quiet zones. This is down at Monteray and Dixie. This is where last month a 68-year-old man was killed on his bicycle
crossing this quiet this intersection that does not qualify as a quiet zone. If it did qualify as a quiet zone, it would have four gates. The sheriff's report says that that man tried to cross that crossing where there was no gate here.
All the bystanders report that the horn was blowing. So it says you tells you a few things. The horn doesn't even work. And if there was a gate there, would that man be alive today? Because that would have been a physical barricade keeping him from going forward. So if you move forward for
quiet zones, your residents, your constituents get some peace and quiet and a good quality of life and they get this real safety to prevent them from from danger. So do the right thing. Uh to not go to
quiet zones is irresponsible at best and at worst a liability uh negligence. So thanks very much. >> Thank you. Missy Harris is next, followed by Derek Powell. Good morning.
My name is Missy Harris and I live on Alamanda Way and I've been a longtime resident. I even had a business for 24 years here. What I am requesting is that the board put back on the agenda. So help me God
in the oath. The oath do you affirm to tell the whole truth has left out so help me God. I am requesting it to be put on the agenda for next week's approval, next meeting's
approval, please. It needs to be reinstated. Our nation back to God. The president even declared it. He knows that by honoring God, we can save this nation.
On May 17th, he declared one nation back to God. Every president has taken the oath, so help me God included every president. And you know who else doesn't say it at
the courthouse. They have deleted it also. And so there is no accountability. I'm asking for it to be put back on the docket and included in the oath. By deleting So
Help Me God, we are not honoring God and his authority over Martin County. I'm asking it to be reinstated and to be put on the next meeting's agenda. Thank you so much and may God bless Martin
County and America. >> Thank you. Derek Powell is next followed by Yamila Rolan Escalona. >> Wow. Good for you. >> Good morning. Morning commissioners. My name is Derek Powell, resident of uh Cove Road. I'm sure you guys are getting
tired of me being up here because I know I am. Um, I sent an email last week just by a show of hands. Did anyone receive that? Okay. So, I'm going to reinstate that email. Um, three of three of the
commissioners here have been out to my home and I do appreciate that and um I welcome the other two if you guys would like to come out and see what we're working with. Um, here's the email. My name is Derek Powell and I'm here because I believe Martin County deserves better. I was submitted a complaint
regarding the newly constructed sidewalk adjacent to the Pepperwood development. Several days after the last rain event, there are still sections of the sidewalk holding standing water. Sidewalk supposed to improve. Oh boy, I lost my track.
Sorry. Uh, let me get back to that, man. A sidewalk's supposed to improve safety and accessibility, not become unusable days after it rains. As someone as someone who works in construction and
deals with drainage, grading, and quality control every day, it doesn't make sense to me. Proper drainage should have been considered before forms were set and concrete was poured, not after residents start pointing out the problems. What frustrates me most is the
lack of account accountability. If if I perform work that doesn't meet expectations, my customers expect me to make it right. If a local contractor or homeowner builds something that doesn't comply with county requirements, they're expected to fix it. But when a large developer builds infrastructure that
clearly isn't functioning as intended, it feels like everyone suddenly starts looking the other way. Taxpayers deserve better. I've also been told by workers on site that the drainage basin overflow and the pond are essentially at the same elevation. Not the pond, I'm sorry, the
burm. Maybe that's accurate, maybe it's not. But if it is, it doesn't make much logical sense. Water needs to go somewhere. If the overflow elevation and the same and the burm are the same, we're creating a situation where drainage problems become predictable instead of preventable.
I'm not standing here just to complain. I'm standing here to look for solutions. I believe we should all we should bring all parties on site. Let's have a meet and greet. Let's walk the property, look at the elevations, discuss creating a swale behind the sidewalk and restor
restoring a drainage path to the wetland the system can handle because we all know we're going to get plenty of rainfall. I'm willing to be a part of the solution if a swale or ditch on my property helps solve the problem. I'm open to that discussion. I'm just going to keep going.
Uh what I'm not open to is spending another $10,000 out of my own pocket to correct correct issues that should have been considered before development ever ever began. At the end of the day, it's not about the sidewalk. It's about accountability. >> Someone had an inspection there and pass that inspection.
>> Sir, your time is up. Thank you. >> I appreciate it. >> Mr. Powell, I will meet at the site with you again and with an engineer and we will fix this. I think that'd be a great idea and I do appreciate it and thank you again for the funds available for the uh the hedge.
>> Thanks >> Yamila Rolan Escalona followed by Morin Keelian. >> Hello Buenos Das again commissioners. Um, if you guys forgot who I am, I'm Yamila Hoyang Escalona, executive
director of Yaya Porbida Harm Reduction here in Martin County. Before I speak, I want you guys to look at my shirt for a moment. >> This is my sister, okay? I want you to see her face. Not sure if you remember me mentioning
to her to you to her at all in May and various chats in private as well. She lived with substance use disorder. She cycled through care and stayed in what we call a flop house. She was unhoused for a period. She died because the
system failed her. I am here so you do not fail the people that are still breathing. Your presence was missed by the way last week at the Treasure Coast Opioid Task Force fireside chat that we invited you guys to. I do think the one law enforcement officer who attended,
the only one from Martin County, which we're very appreciative to, that single officer showed more engagement than any of the elected officials that we've come across that we've tried to engage with before. After the May 19th BC meeting, an official from your county claimed on
the news that unhoused individuals have an abundance of options. If they just asked the individuals that were here last time, I would say that they would beg to differ. It ignores a 21,000 patient ADOP cap cap cutting off that we
mentioned to you guys last time, which by the way is ready to be signed for reinstating, but it's still going to take 21,000 residents away from potential housing and HIV medication. When are we going to stop the lies? This board has proven that housing is a priority. You took action on Florida's
RV and mobile park. You've made quality of life a priority, allowing residents discussing and demanding action to stop train horn noise. But we are not misaligned. We're asking for the same thing except the quality of life that we're fighting for, survival itself.
Last month was mental health awareness month. We just spoke about it again. Now, a resident asked today and last time, put God back into government. I believe that means recognizing that God dwells in every single human being. God is in the person sleeping under that
bridge. God is in my sister's face that you just saw. Putting God into government means putting humanity into policy. Therefore, I call on the board to add three specific discussions for the next session as utilization strategy, correcting misinformation, and
again the voluntary community advisory committee. My sister shouldn't be on a memorial shirt for me to show y'all. She should be living her life here with me. Quality of life means nothing without life. Put these on the agenda. Schedule
the discussion. Hold yourselves accountable. Happy Pride, by the way, and God bless. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Moren Keelian is next, followed by Victoria Blake. >> Good morning again. Is this on? >> Yes. >> Good.
>> Okay. Um, my name is Moren Killian. I'm the founder of Southeast Florida Recovery Advocates. I'm on the I'm a board member of Right Light Services whose job is to bridge the gaps and I am Martin County resident of district 1. More importantly, I'm here as a mother
to share experiences of the mothers in your o all district, every district. My son struggles every day to attain a long-term recovery from substance use disorder. He survived what we call the Florida shuffle. I'm here because not everyone does. 30-day stints in rehab is
not a solution. It's long-term care and long-term lifelong support services. This is a follow-up to our last meeting. I'm back because the urgency has not diminished. In fact, it's growing and will continue to grow. We are living in an unstable economic environment. An
ongoing war has driven up the cost of gas, food, and everyday staples. Rent is out of reach for working families with two people working, let alone for someone stepping out of treatment with nothing but the clothes on their back. The financial pressures bearing down on vulnerable people right now is immense.
And it's pushing more men, women, parents with children, our seniors, and our veterans towards crisis, towards the streets, and toward the very predators we're here to stop. We're facing two crisises at once. The first is the body brokering, the illegal trafficking of
vulnerable people struggling with addiction, and cycle through. It's a felony now, but we need enforcement. Second is the is visible. It's the homelessness. When insurance runs out, the people cycle through and are abused by
predators. They resign up and they re reabused. They're induced to use again and bill at a higher level service for detox. This is a business model. Sadly, since our last meeting, I have had a productive conversations with Miss M Shell Miller and Miss Joanne Green
regarding safety inside recovery residences, and I'm grateful for their engagement. However, connecting with the appropriate Martin County Sheriff's Office liaison is becoming a little bit problematic. On June 3rd, we had the Trevor Coast uh recovery residence. It
was well turned out. Uh we had people from Port St. Lucy, elected officials there and some officers. A spark was ignited and our community is ready to act. I need to speak plainly about House Bill 1365. The law prohibits camping, public camping and sleeping, but it
mandates unfunded mandate. Counties provide a shelter. Martin County does not have one. You cannot enforce a law that requires shelter when there is no shelter to offer. What we're left with is criminalization of people have nowhere to go. A citation does not treat
a disease and arrest does not provide a bed. your HHS department is updating the Martin County website and I'm thankful for that for the with the laws that are going on and the dangers and we're going to put up there like what I uh submit in
our community red flags for when you're seeking treatment up >> to to help you. >> So, I appreciate it and um let's do the right thing here as the stated. Thank you. >> Thank you. Victoria Blake is next followed by Scott Butler.
Good morning. >> Morning. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. >> I want to start with a scripture that it I think just really hits home here. I'm Victoria Blake and I volunteer with um Tent City Helpers. Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you. You know
it, right? For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Um, I've worked for corporate America for 33 years and I have worked with and sold to some of the top fortune 100 companies
and my job was to identify their issues and problems and come back with very uh valuable and uh solid solutions. So, I think about what's going on here in Martin County and it just baffles me. So, there's a law that says that people
can't sleep in public property but we we don't have no solutions for them. We have no shelters. We have no land. And so, you know, I look at Vero. Little Vero has a shelter in Martin County, which I think we would agree is a very affluent county. Um, does not have any
solutions for our unhoused. And sadly, we're hunting down the unhoused with police and dogs. Um, Doug Schmidt was recently a short time ago was bitten by a dog on his finger. It got infected and he eventually passed away. Um, it's very
inhumane. So I think we are looking at three options here. We can rent land, buy land or build a shelter, right? Um I think about the land right beside La Hai um love and hope and action. Big piece of property property there. They said the
owner will not let them sleep there. Let's make him a deal. Like can we rent it for a thousand a month? Let's you know make it so he's get something back for it but it's right there next to where they feed them and shower and they can do their laundry. Um can we buy a few acres? Um, I've chaired various
fundraisers in my life and I would love to chair, you know, advisor advisory committee or fundraiser to raise money for a shelter. And lastly, um, Governor Dantis passed the bill, uh, 1365. Can we ask the state for money since this is a
bill, you know, that the county needs to, um, adhere to? Um, I'm just asking again, Jeremiah 2011, not to harm them, plans to give them a hope in a future. Can we be the hands and feet of Jesus? And I'm asking officially if we can be put on the agenda for the next meeting.
Thank you. >> Thank you. Scott Butler is next, followed by Angela Harrison. >> Hello. >> My name is Scott Butler. I was wondering if I could use the screen to show some videos I've posted over time. Is that available?
>> We have a a policy that those have to be approved in advance. We have to be able to look at them in advance. >> Okay. All right. Well, then I won't show up. I'll just uh explain what I do. All right. So, first of all, um I'd like to say thank you for hearing me out. You know, I want to say our
community is is one of those communities that are like no others. We have an environmental system where we have what we call the small tooth sawfish, which are frequently in our area. They're highly endangered and they travel our our oceans up and down the reef and they go into our rivers and where they have their babies and stuff. So over the
years I've been documenting it with my drone and I've become accustomed and fond of these animals. But during this time when I'm seeing all these beautiful animals including the endangered um um small sawfish, the the eagle rays, the
giant manta rays. I've seen a sperm well out there last year. Um it's amazing the ecosystem we have out there. But as I'm flying, you know, back in the day when we were doing the bathtub beach reourishment, I started seeing how all this toxic looking sand was being pumped
from the river over into the beach. And I also had video at one point where some of the toxic sand coming out of the Sailfish Marina was pumped directly out onto the reef. Well, at that time I wasn't a licensed drone pilot. So my my pilots my license the videos weren't
able to be used which I gave to certain people and the boat water people and they said this is definitely criminal. So at that time went by. So, just recently, um, probably about a month ago, I started filming and seeing all this dredge work that was going from the
inter coastal waterway that was putting sand out on an area which is right next to South um, Bathtub Beach and Sailfish Point on the south end by the inlet. And during that process of filming that, I was watching, you know, fish being
pulled out of the pumps and dead fish kills, uh, welsh shells, um, people coming up to me and sending me pictures and showing me all these animals that have died because this pump system coming through. And just being a resident in Martin County for most of my
life, I also understand that with, you know, we had the Okachobee waterways always had dumpage. And we know if we live here that water is toxic and that toxic water has nothing but to do but settle. When it settles into the sand, you know, it's fine until it gets
disturbed. So during this process, I was seeing all this pumping that was going on, seeing all this stuff being pumped up from the inter coastal waterway being dumped onto this island that shouldn't even be there in the first place, which that's going to become a problem. I guarantee it because our inlet's getting to the point where it's going to fill up
like Jupiter Island. And this is just my opinion again, but I see it from a drone. And you can really see that if you look at the videos at some point, but the point I'm trying to make here, I'm not against dredging. I'm not against bathtubs or the beach renourishments. I just wish that it
could be done in a way was safer. Um, you know, by watching these things, I learned a lot on turbidity testing. I don't think there's much oversight on this project. Um, and who knows how much toxicity was put out into our rivers. and know now that our three reef systems
are completely smothered with sand. They are dying and they have had >> your time is up >> for years. >> Mr. Butler, at 9:45, we're going to have a presentation that's going to address just those. >> That's why I'm here. Thank you. >> Thanks. Angela Harrison is next,
followed by Angela Rantinella. >> Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I hope everyone's doing well today. Um, Angela Harrison, Tent City Helpers. I wanted to go over a few
um, I guess you would say facts in what the cost of arresting arresting unhoused versus building a shelter. It's actually two to three times more expensive than providing them with permanent housing and social services. While building and
maintaining shelter will involve capital and operational costs, the revolving door of legal and emergency medical systems places a huge financial burden on taxpayers. Florida did a study and found that arresting 33 frequently unhoused individuals
costs $171,000 per person annually. The annual cost to house is from 10,000 to 13,000 per person. Um, I've done a a little bit of research
and I've actually found an organization called the source that provides something called the dignity bus, which I will be meeting with Tony, the gentleman that um builds those this week um to see what the the price and the cost is so that I can present that to
you guys. And I also noticed that there's an article that we're building a $3 million dock in Stewart, but we can't we don't have any funds to build a shelter. I mean,
that's kind of heartbreaking to know that we can spend 3 million on that, but we can't spend a few dollars on building a shelter. Thank you guys. Have a wonderful day. Angela Rantanella is next, followed by Dy Lansancy.
>> Morning. >> Good morning. >> Morning. >> Good morning. I'm Angela Rantanella and I represent Hutchinson Island Preservation Initiative and we're here today to express our concerns about the damage that's being done to the reefs and habitats in the
Bathtub Beach area as a result of the dredging nearby. Um, we understand there's a need to dredge uh to maintain the inlet and the permit issued contained rules and it also had restrictions designed to protect the environment, but apparently those
precautions were not effective enough because the reefs are covered with sand and muck, smothering all living things, which should never have happened. Hippie asks that all dredging please be halted over there until the proper protection
can be put in place and any current current damage to the reefs be addressed. We know how much our Martin County officials care about our island that we all share and love. Hippie is confident that you will take action on this matter
and save our reefs and habitats that are so vulnerable and beyond priceless. Thank you. >> Thank you. Die Lansancy is next. followed by Kathy Ahern and Miss Ahern is the last request to speak form I have.
>> Good morning everybody. >> Morning. >> Am I speaking into the mic now? >> You are. >> Good morning everybody. It's nice to see you again. Thank you for having me. My name is Doy Lansancy. I live on Hutchinson Island. I'm also a member of Hippie, the Hutchinson Island
Preservation Initiative. And I would uh before I go on with why I'm here, I want to thank you for the excellent job that you're all doing. I really think that you're keeping Mountain County the most wonderful place in the world to live and your constituents appreciate it. You
listen to what we have to say and you act on it. You had listened to a lot of people here today and you seem to be concerned about their um problems and you're looking for solutions and I think that's wonderful. So, I just want to say thank you. Uh, I'm here because I wanted
to add my voice of concern to the what's going on on the reef out there. Um, other speakers will come and speak about the permitted dredging that's going offshore there and the dangerous effects that it's having on the reef. The reef is very fragile. I'm looking forward to hearing the
presentation today on the subject to see what's uh the problems are being addressed. I trust that the permits were approved with safeguards put in place to prevent any danger to the marine environment, but from what I hear from concerned people, this is not happening.
Some oversight on the part of you all needs to occur to see that the permit rules are being kept by the subcontractors doing the work. Harm is being done to our reefs and we need to act now to prevent any more harm from happening. If the rules are being followed, then the terms of the
permitting are not working and they should be reassessed. Please recognize the seriousness of this situation and do what's necessary to correct it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Kathy Ahern is next. That is
the last request to speak form I have. Good morning, commissioners. Thank you for being here. >> Speak right into the mic. >> Oh, hi. Good morning. My name is Kathy Hearn and I've been a Mountain Current Mountain County resident since 2011. I
moved here and uh worked for hospice in Martin County for eight years. I've worked in every section uh through Treasure Coast Hospice. I've done the hospitals, facilities, community. I've been in the richest homes to the
RVs out in the woods and um I I volunteer now at La Haya. I'm retired and I found La Haya through Treasure Coast Hospice. We had a young gentleman, a war vet, his name was maybe Sam. Uh was at our hospice house when I worked
nights there. and through LAA and Treasure Coast homeless uh commission they found him an apartment and that man got to live the last month of his life. He was in his early 30s. Lungs were shot from Afghanistan
and it meant the world. So when I retired I wanted to find out about Laaya which is stands for love and hope in action. And through LAI, I've also met my friend Justin Ducas, who I've worked
with on Saturdays. We clean up after anywhere from 50 to 70 people every Saturday. He's there. He doesn't have to be. He also volunteers. Uh although he's not being paid, but he wants to give back to his community. And
we have a tremendous amount of community support. We are almost entirely supported by the community. But what we need now is government connection. We need you guys. I would invite any of you to come any Saturday at noon. Come at 11:00. We have
a church service first. And uh we'll be happy to show you what we do and the wonderful people our clients are. We have many seniors living in their cars. It's it's horrible. They have nowhere to go at night. Mhm.
>> Uh, you know, they are with walkers and and big medical problems and in and out of the hospital. It's not just substance abuse. There's many many reasons I saw working hospice that people can become homeless. As many as there are stars in
the sky, there are reasons people find themselves without housing. And we have to do something. This is the sixth wealthiest county in in Florida. You know, it's what does it say about us if we can't even take care of our seniors?
>> Nobody should have to live in that car, >> especially not with the price of gas. >> Thank you. And the next and last request to speak form I have is from John Dial. Good morning, commissioners. Probably
need 30 to go through instead of three, but I'm gonna try to make it clear. >> First, I'd like to speak on the plight of Derek Powers. I've been to his property several times, and uh I urge the commission to revisit the results of the poor planning and the impact of the
sovereign homeowner on his property rights. Poor planning has negatively impacted his access to his property, and a hedge will not solve this. it should be resolved by the developer and not taxpayer money. Second, I want
to go to the dredging projects that are on the agenda and recognizing that the dredging programs are essential to maintaining the navigational waterways. I just hope that this time it's better planned not to have the same resulted public outcry. By the way, I have been
to both of those projects several times, so I'm firsthand know what those are about. Lastly, I'd like to uh urge you to reconsider Oh, there we go. I would like for you to
reconsider the $74 million no bid contract for the emergency response center. This is stated as a private public partnership. Well, in private business, a private public partnership discloses all aspects of what your costs
are, what your profit margins are, what your markups are, and every other aspect of that business because it's a partnership. Partnership means we put all the cards on the table. Plans are usually done to the nth degree in detail prior to getting bids. And you should
also know the path of the project. I've done this in the past many times with NOS's in the case and we all knew the cost of the materials, the markups and applied what the labor rates were. Then you plug in the variables of the things like weather delays and material
availability. You do not and you do this all prior to making a decision on what the project would cost. Then for pull full public disclosure, it should be put out to bid with the RFA project or process with at least three bids if available and it should be examined as
well as a project of this size. I would advise even hiring your own consultant to give an unbiased opinion of what the cost and the guidelines would be. You can say this adds to the cost, but believe me, after supervising many, many
multiple projects that are multi-million dollar projects, this is a safer pro process than a no bid contract. For the sake of public transparency, I would hope you would reconsider this project. And the last thing I'm going to try to squeeze in here is why don't we have a
method for getting public input on issues rather than all of us only getting our three minutes up here on a Tuesday. something like a um change.org type situation that has secure electronic means for people to give their input.
Thank you for your time and I hope to see you again soon. >> Would anyone else like to address us? Seeing none, we will turn to commissioner comments. Commissioner Vargas. >> Okay. Uh yes, I'll be addressing some of those issues that were just spoken about
later on in this meeting. Um, I was summoned uh two Sundays ago about this dredging project and I did see the dramatic drone footage. I'm a scuba diver. I appreciate reefs. I have I've dove all over the world. Uh, but this is
my backyard. I want to be able to do it here. And I did speak with our county manager that Monday as I said I would. And I asked about best management practices with the water quality. and that should be paramount and complied with with no exceptions. Uh there was a
huge public outcry that was deafening to me and this created a viral community awareness. Um my understanding is that this sand was uh taken from the Shaw area was put in an impoundment basin and there it remains. However, there was a
lot of turbulence. So, it created um I think adverse uh situation and I thought that the best thing would be to uh put it out on a barge away, but they said that was more expensive. So, I'm waiting to hear from what our
presentation is in a few moments actually um away from nearshore reefs and avoiding further damage. So, I'm aware of this. I took action right away. Um, my understanding is this project is finished. Am I correct about that?
Okay. So, the project is finished. It's after the fact. I'm sorry about that. I wish I'd known sooner. I'm going to um just bring a little levity right here. Um, on another uh point, our um we have a four mile beach project that was uh
completed man uh May 2nd and that was funded uh $15 million by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Thank you very much. Uh and we needed to have this done obviously before season. We're in turtle season now, too. And we also
received an award from the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association. And uh this is uh open to anyone interested in protection and preservation of America's coast. It has a multidisciplinary mix of coastal managers, professionals, researchers,
academics, that type of thing. So um thank you very much. Uh that is uh something that we can be proud of and please do visit our beaches. We have beautiful beaches on Hutcherson Island elsewhere. Another thing um want to be able to talk to you everyone about that
can hear me or see me also not just those here um your own backyards um you might want to take a look at them and say gee I really could use some help. Well I have the answer for you. We have our very wonderful extension offices with master gardeners here that is right
at the Martin County Fairgrounds. I put in pollinators. So what I did is with their assistance I was able to select plants that bring bees, hummingbirds and butterflies and they have a lot of educational programs. They
cover a wide range of topics including agriculture, commercial horiculture, natural resources, environmental horiculture, family consumer sciences, 4H youth development and again the master gardeners are there
to make a positive impact the community and school enrichment programs, school gardens, community gardens. You know that we're in a drought season or we're restricted and also with our fertilizer. So, we want to take care of our beautiful Martin County. So, in the meanwhile, since I followed everything
to a tea, they awarded me the gold level. Gold level. All right. So, I'm really proud of this. It'll be in display in my office. It is a free service to everyone. Even if you have a restricted lot, no problem. Anybody can
do this. Thank you, >> Mr. Caps. >> I'm good today. I would like to add a an unofficial uh item to the agenda today. I want to talk about the have a report from staff about the property tax legislation. >> Yes, ma'am.
>> Should we commissioner? Should we add that to the end of the meeting? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> I thought that's what we were going to do. Didn't we decide that? >> I don't think we've decided anything. >> Well, I think Don spoke about that with me. >> Yes. >> That'd be great. We're going to do that. >> Was planning to, but thank you, Madam Chair. Yes.
>> Thank you, Commissioner Campy. Madame Chair, good morning and thank you. Two um serious issues I'm going to bring up. The first one is a recommendation to our staff that I had an opportunity
to speak to Mr. Donaldson about is that we do create in our continuing effort to educate and inform the public about the one of the topics that was brought up this morning which is the centralized maintenance facility building.
Um this is not a new process. This is something that has been in the discussion phases. Mr. Donaldson can attest for probably 20 years the need for some type of a consolidation and a redo of our maintenance system, facility
system. We then went through a process that was very public. There were several meetings. There was opportunities to speak. There were presentations in this chamber. I think most people grew up
understanding that if you were bidding on something, you would get multiple bids. However, I was one of them. But that doesn't mean that there are no other techniques and and strategies that can be used for a
bidding process. It had been successfully used by Indian River State College and the folks that built the Indian Town High School. uh was the first time I had seen it in and that's here in obviously in Martin County. I
was also skeptical of not doing it the more traditional way. It is one of the largest projects that the county has ever undertaken in terms of uh coordinating and consolidating. Many people that are familiar with this
process remember that we've even had conversations in years past of creating a really centralized universal maintenance facility with the school district, the city of Stewart, our other municipalities, the sheriff's office. Uh
in Stewart, we even looked at the property that used to be the driving range and now has a crematorium on the front of it. It's a brownfield. We thought that that could be something in an effort to save taxpayer dollars by consolidating all of these satellite,
you know, technical services that are needed by an organization of this size. We then looked at property. We had many conversations on where the potential properties. Some of us disagreed. It was a healthy debate. many different
properties were considered and then eventually found our way to a piece of property uh off of Caner Highway. That process of purchasing the property went through a whole vetting process. Then we got into how we would design the building.
I had and then look, I get it. There's a lot of confusion and concern uh because a lot of our residents have not been given the opportunity that we are afforded to ask questions of experts to find out exactly how the process went to
participate in the process before making that decision. Uh it passed 4 to one. Uh that's why there's five of us because there's five unique uh opinions up here. that's that's the best representation for our citizens and we approved it. I
had then started to hear push back and feedback from people that said wait a second I don't understand it the taxpayers association others constituents had reached out to me directly and I asked staff to consolidate and boil down this
complicated process into sort of more bite-sized info bytes if you will and they did. Then I had heard more pe then the taxpayers association did came out with like a white paper discussing their thoughts and how they had heard about it
and how they were uh informed of the process and they shared that which was very helpful because it was separate from the county. It was you know the taxpayers association is is you know 60 70 year old organization. It's independent of the county government.
They have no problem calling balls and strikes, which they've done very successfully. They put out a paper. I still heard about it. So, I asked our staff to create an info document, like an infoggram that explained very sort of
easily, very succinctly the process. And I submitted that out to people that were interested in seeing it. Then I had a call from a very well-known Martin County resident who is uh very active on social media. Good for him. Um, most of
the time I would agree with most of his positions and opinions on things that are happening in the county. Um, he called he first he put out a video. I'm friends with him. I reached out to him. I said, "Why don't you come in and meet with our staff?" One, I was very appreciative of our staff at the highest
senior levels to meet from legal, from budget, from general services and tour and come in. And he did. I don't think that meeting went the way that we were hoping. He still had many questions and concerns. He has continued to post. So, what I'm asking our staff
to do is create a video, not a half an hour long video, but a shorter video that can be social media friendly. Many of our people uh use social media platforms in all of their varieties as their way to obtain information. So I
would like us to participate at that same platform to create with our staff the visuals necessary. The first question is why are we moving from where we are in the first place? The second question what's the situation with the FAA about having non-avviation related
fra uh business on the airport property. The next was the process of where did the land acquisition come from? Then the the design aspect. We didn't just say, "Hey, build us a building." There was hundreds of hours of discussion and
input. Then the financial portion and how did we come up with this 3P? I think we owe it to our residents. They're expecting it of us. Sometimes uh certain controversial issues or topics peak and then they sort of naturally fade back to
a normal process. This one seems to be gaining more traction. I think it's a it's uh our responsibility to continue to inform the public. Will we convince everyone that it was the right decision? Probably not. But we need to continue to
work on that. So that's first. The second one is probably going to shock most people. And that is I am one of the few people that has been involved in the Bright Line train station discussion negotiations
um settlement since the beginning. Commissioner Herd and I are the only two that are sitting up here that were involved from the very beginning. Not the conversation of should the train come through Martin County. That was primarily out of our hands. But once it
did, my philosophy was if we are going to as residents take all of the inconvenience of a train system coming through top to bottom Martin County, shouldn't we at least get the benefit of a train station? Now, if you remember those folks that were tuned in in the
beginning, Bright Line said they were only going to have a couple. Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm, Orlando. There was none for the Treasure Coast. There was very few smaller community stations that were even being discussed. Then they added Adventura, then they
added Bokeh. Then they talked about the Treasure Coast, and they said, "Well, we're not going to stop on the Treasure Coast." And then we negotiated and asked them to do that. Uh and then it became sort of a contest. We did settle a lawsuit with Bright Line. At the time it was called All Aboard Florida. Uh and we
did get a certain amount of uh accommodations in that negotiation. Some are still valid, some are completed, some are not and they seem a little more nebulous. I won't go into the history of Fort Pierce for Stewart and the back and forth. But as you know, the station was
selected, the community of Stewart was selected from the very beginning. My suggestion was that the station be at the fairgrounds, but the downtown business community, Steuart Main Street, a lot of our local businesses said if you put it down
there, it's really not anywhere in particular. uh it would be much better for us as businesses to draw all of the reasons I won't get into about the benefits of having stations. Some people hate it, but many people like the concept. But as it started to
materialize, it started to get complicated. We had different set of partners at the count at the city at the time. Most of their administrative staff that was involved in the decision are gone. several of their commissioners that were involved in the decision-making and the
approval at the time to partner between Bright Line and the county and the city are gone. Some of our colleagues that were part of the decision-making process have changed. There's new faces here since that time. Uh and now it's become obviously it's campaign season, so it's
a big campaign issue. It's also gone from 30 million to 40 million to 50 million to 60 million depend on who you're asking. Now, they're talking about a number that's in the $80 million range. I don't remember agreeing and signing on to an $87 million train station. I don't
remember that we were going to take on all the responsibility, but I've stayed quiet because we've been going through a process of receiving grants, trying to receive federal grants. So, I left it alone. I also capitulated to allowing uh
from my perspective it being put much closer than downtown Stewart on a piece of property that is county-owned within the city limits next to the courthouse and we left it alone and we got the we got the um award of the location.
The finances have changed, the logistics have changed, the personnel even at Bright Line, their senior management is basically different people now. So I am requesting that the county staff because
the city of Stewart had voted with their new board as is absolutely their prerogative once they rec you know they had new commissioners come on the board. They changed their opinion and stepped out of the process completely and we took it on. I speak to residents and
most of them although they could disagree on where the location of the station should be, most don't disagree that it would be good to have a station. Now, I'm not saying everyone, but I think a majority of our residents would like the concept and the
convenience of a station. Now, the other big elephant in the room is Bright Line is up against the financial ropes and maybe there'll be no Bright Line. Maybe they will go bankrupt. I don't like this expression, but I've been hearing it used. It was used during
the recession. Certain industries or certain businesses are too big to fail. Think about this. It's not just my opinion. Think about it. They built a massive train system and station in Miami, in Fort Lauderdale, in West Palm,
in Adventur, in Bokeh, and in the uh at the airport in Orlando. They've laid a double track from Miami to Orlando. All of the heavy lifting, the expensive, very technical, and hugely expensive
work is done. If you've done research into how Bright Line is working, their ridership, their cost per rider is okay. What is sinking the organization is the tremendous weight of the debt of the
work they've already done. I think reasonable minds will agree Bright Line, whether it's Bright Line or a company that purchases Bright Line or a governmental entity that has to take over Bright Line, there'll be some train system
on the east coast of Florida. Will we participate in it or not? Um, with that in mind, I would ask our staff to begin a conversation and discussions with Bright Line leadership for the
possibility uh of changing the location from where it is currently, which creates parking issues and other issues that um are reasonable um points that we disagree on. back to what I think is a
in my opinion a good option which is at the fairground that the county owns. If you're not familiar with where the fairground is, it is east of US1 and it's basically on Dixie Highway. It's north of Indian Street. It's owned by the county. It's approximately 11 acres.
I don't think it would need more than a portion of that. The fair has been negotiating to exit the fairground property after 65 years to move out into western Martin County. So, the timing of the fair exiting that that location and
the if all of the puzzle pieces fell into place would be appropriate timing for a Bright Line station. It doesn't adversely impact neighborhoods. There's plenty of parking. You're in between the busiest road in in Martin County, which is US1.
It's adjacent to the airport. It's close to where other industries are where people could walk to the station. There's possibility of other economic development along the fairground property that was going to happen anyway when the fair exited. There is other
industrial and commercial lots and properties along that same corridor. One of the most important reasons I believe in moving is you've all heard recently that the FBC sent a response letter to former mayor Collins about their
concerns. And FBC and Bright Line, I think of them as cousins. They're from the same organization, but they don't necessarily agree. And FEC's big concern was that a station would interfere with the St. Lucy River Bridge, which is a
big big issue. And we've had our marine industry and our boers worried about and negotiating for quite a long time. Uh and we've have Brian Congressman Mass to thank for bringing in huge multi-million dollar grant opportunities to replace a
100year-old bridge that when it's in its down position knocks out most of Boers from the western side of the county. We cannot jeopardize the future improvements of that bridge, the grant funding or the bridge construction and
its work. If a station, which some people like and some people don't, is deemed too close by the Army Corps of Engineers or the US Coast Guard or whoever is involved, then it it comes off the table for me because the more important issue for Martin County
residents is replacing this the St. Lucy River Bridge. If you move it further south to the fairgrounds, that issue comes totally off the table. If you think about, well, there's the possibility that if a train is in the station to stop, it could block
intersections. Not at the fairgrounds. I've been out there many times to look. If you think you drive over the train at Indian Street, make the left onto Dixie and then travel the length of the fairgrounds all the way up Monteray,
excuse me, Dixie to Mter Ray where the Monterey crossing is. You could fit three trains full length on that property. Nothing would block the roadways. The last point is this,
the the look and feel of the station. Prior to this ever being discussed, I had an opportunity with some of our staff to meet with the senior senior leadership at Bright Line. And I gave them several options. I said, "Why do you have to build a brand new big
permanent station right off the bat? Why not do a temporary station like they do if you're building a new neighborhood? If you've ever gone to a sales center in a neighborhood, they're beautiful. If you've ever been to a major sporting event and they set up those tents and those those retail, you
know, the gift stores and and the hospitality tents, they're pretty legitimate. And Bright Line said, "We can't do that. We have certain security issues and all these other things." I said, "Okay, if you can't do that, why not just build a much smaller train station? It doesn't have to look like
Bokeas. It could be a Steuartsized train station." And they said, 'Well, you know, we have waiting rooms and and administration and ticketing and restrooms. We need to have a certain look. I said, 'Well, the most obvious choice would be no
station at all. Why not just a platform where the train stops and the doors open and you get out and you walk to your car and if it really works, make it a proof of concept. let's do that first and see
if it works and then you can tell Martin County residents and taxpayers it's time to build a station. They weren't interested in that at the time. But I think uh intelligent people have the ability and should change their opinions
when the circumstances change. And that's what's happened to us now. The circumstances are different. Our colleagues, I I can't speak for them. They're hearing me say this for the absolute first time. I can't support the station in its
current location at its current budget and price tag because it is disrupting and destroying our community. It's dividing us. Friends are divided by this issue. I've kept quiet because I wanted to see what was going to happen in
Tallahassee with the property tax. I've kept quiet because it's it's campaign season. I'm not running. Uh, but it's campaign season and I don't want voters to have to worry about where do incumbents or uh candidates fall on are
you for the Bright Line station where it is or not. It shouldn't be a campaign issue because it's really shouldn't be an issue. The the version that exists today in Stewart at 87 million or thereabouts, I don't think most people are interested
in that. I'm not. So, I would ask staff, well, first off, my colleagues will have to hopefully agree at least to enter into that conversation. There will be a Bright Line system. We don't know who will run it, but we don't want to be left behind in a station
uh opportunity. Thank you. >> Is it time to comment or >> Sure. >> Okay. Um, Bright Line is in junk bond status. In case you don't know, they were sued by FEC a number of years ago.
Uh, this has been divisive in our community. Um, we are dealing with a lot of issues that have not settled yet. Last week changed a lot. We were anticipating, I was anticipating at least that we be nipped on our income that we're going to be receiving in this
county. Um, we should not be discussing Bright Line at the moment. We have other issues that that definitely take precedence and I know that you really really have been pushing for this but I urge you to consider the alternative of being reasonable. There is only so much
money to go around. Our taxpayers are squeezed beyond belief and there should be no smiles from this commission whatsoever. This is a serious serious concern. I deal with people all the time and if you're a serious commissioner,
you will listen to your constituents. Those are our bosses. There is nobody here. I don't think any time by staff should be spent on a losing proposition. I believe and I can get you the name and his position was just found dead in
London after he moved over there from Fortress from Texas. So, you have to look at everything. It's changed from 20 years ago when you started looking at it and you've been on this board for quite a few years. >> Yeah, I I'm I'm certainly amanable to
continuing uh conversations. We have until, as I recall, June 27, June 30, 2027 to back out of the deal. Sure. Until then, we we continue evaluating all the options. >> Thank you,
>> Commissioner Heather. Yes. So, my turn to public comment. So, thank you for that. And I agree with continuing those conversations however they may shake out. And I saw Miss Ahern looks like she just left, but I had a note here to
thank her for the invitation uh to visit La Haya. I have had um the opportunity a number of occasions and have been there and have had a really good partnership over the years with the district 2 office which is our office and laaya appreciate what they do. We'll gladly
come back again and look forward to continued partnerships. And then I would say to Missy who I wrote down who spoke this morning, I don't know what particular oaths you're speaking of, but I certainly agree with you and please get in touch with the office. I would I
would um support having God in our oaths. So, and with that, thank you to Army Corps for being here and the fine representatives. Uh a number of years I've had an opportunity to see your presentations at Florida beaches and shores. And thank you to Jessica and our
ecosystems. You do a fine job presenting information, sharing that with the public. And thank you again for being here this morning. And I look forward to your presentation in just a few moments, >> Mr. Donaldson, >> Miss Elder,
>> then we will take up our 9:30 preset, which is public hearing number one, which is the Lake Grove Waterman Municipal Service Benefit Unit. Good morning, commissioners. >> Morning. >> Morning. >> Um here.
>> Uh for the record, David Duncan, senior project manager. David Duncan, senior project manager with the utilities and solid waste department. Um, Martin County Utilities received a petition from the residents of the Lake Grove community requesting
that the utilities department conduct a ballot process for the provision of portable water services for 64 properties that currently do not have access to public water service. Um,
following the completion of construction plans and the receipt of bids, a staff workshop was held on June 2nd at the board of county commissioners chambers. Uh, the purpose of the workshop was to
review the project scope, associated costs, and the assessment process with the affected property owners. In addition, the department has received a Florida Department of Environmental Protection permit to construct the
project and the lowest responses responsive proposal was selected. So, we'll go to slide two. Slide two shows uh the site plan for the Lake community for the proposed water distribution system improvements.
Uh the proposed project offers significant benefits to the community. First, residents will experience improved water quality throughout the connection to Martin County's public water system. The project also will provide a reliable and consistent water
supply, including during power out power outages. Additionally, the installation of fire hydrants throughout the neighborhood will enhance fire protection for a pretent uh potential reduction of homeowners insurance rates.
Uh the proposed assessment includes 64 properties representing 64 equivalent residential connections or ERC's. As shown in the slide, the project cost total is $740,900. Uh Martin County Utilities contributed
110,000 towards the project, reducing the accessible amount to $630,900. The accessible cost is divided by uh divided equally amongst the 64 benefited properties, resulting in an estimated
prepayment amount of $9,857.81 per connection. For property owners choosing to finance the assessment, the estimated annual payment would be $964.86 86 cents per unit advertised over 15
years with an interest rate of 3.9% plus applicable fees. Martin County Utilities currently serves just under 40,000 water customers. The average residential customer pay uses approximately 6,000 gallons per month at
the current rate of $2.56 per thousand and includes a monthly base charge of $19.99. The average residential water bill is approximately $35.35 per month. Uh, pending approval of the final
assessment resolution today, the department anticipates beginning construction in August of 2026. Construction is expected to take approximately 5 months with substantial completion anticipated in December of 2026.
Property owners who elect to pay their assessment will have until August 1st of 2027 to submit payment. Any unpaid assessments after that date will be placed on the annual property tax role beginning in November of 2027.
That concludes my presentation. >> Questions for Mr. Duncan? >> Commissioner Campy. >> Barring any public comment, I appreciate the efforts of our staff. Uh I this is a community in my district that I'm very familiar with. Lots of friends live in
there and I know it's been an issue that they've wanted to have this for quite a long time. Uh I think by the virtue of the fact that there's not a big contingent of people here saying they didn't like it. I think universally or close to it, uh people appreciate it as
a as an excellent value and a option from the county. So I would make a motion to accept staff's presentation and request. >> I'll second. >> This is a public hearing. Would anyone from the public like to address us?
Seeing none, we will return. And also, Commissioner, the balloting was very lopsided in favor of the uh assessment. It's the strongest balloting I've ever seen, I think. So, there is a motion and a second. All those in favor? I opposed.
That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. >> Thank you. You >> We'll now take up um requests and presentations. uh number one which is the Army Corps of Engineers and the non-federal sponsor the Florida Inland Navigation District
uh for the uh Inter Coastal Waterway and the Okachobee waterway maintenance dredging project. >> Good morning, Lieutenant Colonel. >> Uh well, it'll be some time before I'm officially promoted, but uh >> Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Thank you so much.
>> Really congratulations. >> It's on. >> Yeah, it's quiet. >> It's green. >> Got to use your army voice. That's right. Uh, so Major Cory Bell, deputy commander for South Florida, the US Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District out of the Palm Beach Gardens office. It is my honor today to introduce Ashley Fontaine. She's with
our she's our acting chief right now for navigation. And then Miss Jessica Garland as well for Martin County's coastal program. So with that, we'll start with the presentation. >> Are these on? >> You're on. Yes. >> Okay. Good morning, commissioners. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate
>> Can you try to get closer to your mic so we can all hear you? Thank you. >> Yes, I can try to do that. All right. Good morning, commissioners. Thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you all today about the uh inter coastal waterway and Okchobee waterway, what we refer to as
the crossroads maintenance dredging event that just recently completed. As Major Bell just Oops, sorry. >> That's okay. That's a clicky. Um, as Major Debel just uh introduced us, um, I am a project manager and I'm also a
chief with the Jacksonville district, I'm I have the opportunity today to cover for one of my colleagues, Mr. Eduardo Moren, who is the project manager for this project. Um, and we do have representation from our non-federal sponsor, the Florida Inland Navigation District, and I'm happy to present here
with Miss Jessica Garland. So, thank you. A quick timeline on uh this work particularly for crossroads which was uh a contract that was in connection with work that we also did in Palm Beach County in the vicinity of Jupiter Inlet.
I'll give a quick timeline there. In 2024 and 2025, we received some reports of sholing. Um these were not new to us. Uh we do take annual surveys every year, but we did receive reports of sholing and we have a couple of those letters in our presentation today.
letters from uh Marine Industries Association and Indiantown Marine Center. Uh after that time of the surveys that we took and the letters that we received, we initiated what we call the plans and specs uh for the plans and specifications for an upcoming
operation and maintenance event or O& and M event. That ON&M event um was planning to place material in the St. Lucy empoundment basin just north of the inlet. Um and that was a location where we have placed previously. So whenever
we do dredging and I'll talk about some um overview of how we do our dredging and how we plan our O andM events um we take surveys. So the St. Lucy empoundment basin had plenty of capacity more than sufficient capacity to be able to place the anticipated volume that we
were going to dredge. So, as far as uh reporting that information out for the public, we did issue a news release in October of 2025 where we had um indicated where we planned on dredging and where we intended on placing that material as well as who want who had the
award which was Southwind construction, how much that cost, etc. In February, Southwind mobilized to the IWW for the dredging in the vicinity of Jupiter Inlet and they demobilized in April. But in that time frame in March
due to coordination that we've had with all of our partners previously acknowledged uh we elected to make a modification to our contract and reduce our scope of the amount of material being placed at the empoundment basin. So that scope we descoped the volume
went from 20 about 20,000 cubic yards of material to approximately 70,000 cubic yards of material. We will receive after we did our after dredge surveys so we'll know exactly how much was placed in the empoundment basin here shortly. I don't have that yet but that's the approximate
volume. And so in March we issued the dcope southwind mobilized to this area in April and they started dredging on May 5th singo and they just concluded on June 2nd. So they are their demobilization efforts
are underway and I think we just saw some pipe leaving uh this morning on our way in. Okay. So I talked about uh surveys that we conducted uh and uh we dredge this area approximately every 3 years. We survey it on an approximate
annual basis. Um we we identify these schos. So sholes are just the high spots above our authorized project depths. Uh Scholes can occur to many reasons. Just a few are the currents that we have here in this area. Uh tides actually uh do
come into play with Scholes. Storm events are a big contributing factor to Scholes and I'll talk about that because that did impact the capacity of the St. Lucy empoundment basin. And then here in this area specifically we have a convergence convergence of multiple
waterways. We have the Okachobia waterway. We have the interra coastal waterway and we have the St. Lucy inlet. Um so a confluence and then storms uh can all impact scholes within our channels. Scholes affect draft restrictions or can cause draft
restrictions and um all of our surveys may be found on he hydro. So about economic um impacts of dredging, Florida Inland Navigation District Find did an economic analysis uh specifically
for Martin County, that's the infographic that you see on the left. I think we can all say uh with certainty that there's a clear connection between the waterways and Martin County's economic vitality. Um we work with our partners, our non-federal partners um to
plan these projects. uh Jacksonville district has something like 900 miles of waterway that we uh are federally that are authorized. Obviously, we can't maintain 900 miles of waterways um every year, but we do our very best in
coordination with our sponsors and stakeholders. These two letters on the right are the letters that we received with reports of Scholing. again the news release that was issued in October 2025 which identified the dredge areas and the placement location of this material in the empoundment
basin. The link for that is on the bottom of this slide. As mentioned previously, our original scope of work was uh for about 220,000 cubic yards of material based on the reports of Scholing and based upon our surveys. Uh on the slide in the yellow
boxes you can see some darker gray hatched areas. That was the original scope of work that we had and then we we modified and descoped to the areas that are seen here. So just like you're at the eye doctor that one was the one of
our original scope and this is the one that uh we have recently completed approximately 70,000 cubic yards. when we conduct these surveys or hydrographic surveys uh on this on the
screen you should see uh maybe you can't read the numbers they're kind of small but uh the red numbers indicate where we have uh elevations that are above our authorized limit. So when you see red that indicates a shaw and blue indicates
it is at project depth or below. So when you have these red areas on our surveys, that's how we identify our dredge boxes that you saw at our last slide and that was in plan view. And then this is in cross-section. So we have a 10-ft
for instance here we have a cross-section looking at a 10-ft project uh with 2 ft of allowable over depth. So that is how we structure our contracts. contractor may uh they are required to get to 10 feet but if they get to 12
that is uh that is a pay volume that we will pay for and just uh just a simple schematic here of what a cutter suction pipeline dredge looks like which is what we just had here for from southwind construction we
have the cutter which is the actual um the dredge where that is sucking up material cutter suction and then you have the floating pipelines as you can see here. There's also a booster pump um which we did have in this contract and you also have ancillary vessels that
need to move the floating pipeline around. Um and so I just wanted to share this schematic. This is what dredging does look like and this is the equipment that is needed to perform a dredging contract. And this is uh here in
this is an aerial of a dredging this dredging underway. So you can actually see um if you squint your eyes you can see the submerged pipeline. So the last slide had the schematic had floating but we do try to submerge our pipeline just to kind of avoid any impacts to
navigation and you can actually see that there are vessels that are transiting over the submerged pipeline. That pipeline is marked in accordance with US Coast Guard uh safety requirements. So what you can see here is you see the pipeline from the dredge um pipeline
from the dredge then you have a booster pump uh booster pumps are needed when the material has to be transported longer distances and then you can see that the submerged pipeline is going to the empoundment basin as mentioned previously this is not the
first time that we have placed at the St. Lucy empoundment basin. Uh there's several dates here listed where we have placed previously in accordance with all environmental documentation and permits. In 2019, we did a maintenance dredging
event using one of the core dredges from our fleet, the the Murden. Uh that was approximately 40,000 cubic yards placed in the empoundment basin again in 2021. But that was uh a contracted action from Atlantic and Gulf Coast. Atlantic engulf
dredging and marine AGDM. That was a cutter section which is what Southwind used today. They placed approximately 60,000 in the St. Lucy empoundment basin. 2024 an emergency event. Again, we we sometimes um mobilized the Murdan
following emergency events after storms. And so the Murden conducted an emergency dredging event in 2024 um placing in the empowerment basin. And then here we just recently completed our event. Um happy to report that we cleared the shores that the mariners
were concerned about. Um and we placed that material in the St. Lucy empoundment basin using a cutter section. The work that we're doing for the IWW and OWW is not the only work that's occurring in the area. And so just wanted to acknowledge that we do have
the inlet here, another federal navigation project. Um this work was uh conducted in 2024 and it had it hit a couple of um delays due to the the very new listing of a threatened species the
queen conchk um in which there were required surveys. So the the the queen conchk was listed in the beginning of March and we awarded in the beginning of March and then we were uh told that we needed to conduct uh queen con surveys. So, we're always uh adaptable here and
we wanted to make sure that we were doing everything in accordance with all environmental requirements. Uh we coordinated with the National Marine Fisheries Service on that and we hit a couple of delays but ultimately dredged approximately 380,000 cubic yards of material that does not fit in the
empoundment basin that went to our offshore borrow area B and that material will be used for future beach nourishment projects. These next these next few slides are just a couple of surveys that were provided by Martin County. Um what I
what these slides really are just representing here are that inlets are very dynamic systems. They can change from month to month and day to day. I think anytime you've ever walked on a beach, it looks different probably every single time. Inlets are the same way. Um this white box identified here is the
outline of the St. Lucy empoundment basin. the warmer colors like the reds and pinks, those are the um higher elevations. And as you get to yellow and greens and blues, those are the deeper elevations. So, you can kind of see changes as I'll go through these slides,
just how how the sands are shifting in this in this system, in this inlet. But really just want to acknowledge that we had um some high spots in the empoundment basin. Um and then you can also see the St. Lucy inlet. there's um there's movement and I heard discussion
earlier today that the imp that the inlet is going to close. You can kind of see that it kind of flushes itself out as I move through these slides. Um okay, so this is in February and you can I'll go to the next one here. Um you can see
that there's still a low spot in the empoundment basin and this is before we started dredging and then a high spot on the west. Um, you can see kind of there's a little bit of a shaw moving into the channel and that yellow. Let's see if you can see my cursor here.
There's a a shaw in the in the channel in the St. Lucy inlet. Uh, we were keeping track of that. And then you can also see here we are in May. We've started placing in the empoundment basin. You can see the elevation of where we're placing is is increasing um
as designed. And then here in June after we're done dredging, you can kind of see uh we still have that high spot there. Uh we still have the lower elevation to the east. Uh and then you can actually see if you kind of look at the inlet that the inlet has kind of the shaw in
the inlet has kind of shifted also. So sediments move in inlets is basically the bottom line here. I wanted to touch on the endangered species monitoring that we do with all of our dredging contracts. Uh this is in accordance with our national
environmental policy act um document and also all of the consultation that we had to do with all of the resource agencies, national marine fishery service, etc. So we had to have endangered species observers looking for species such as
manatees and sea turtles during the duration of construction. um we had to stop so that we that was our requirements during our dredging and I just want to acknowledge that all work was completed in compliance with all of
our requirements for our permit and our consultations when we're talking about turbidity which I've heard about turbidity concerns uh dredging innately does cause turbidity that is it is the nature of dredging you can't clear
sholes and have navigational channels without doing dredging. When you dredge, there is there is turbidity. And so with our uh permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, there are very clear standards. We have mixing zones, and I'll talk about those
on the next slide. And you also have um requirements on how you can how far you can uh go your turbidity above background levels which are recorded. But when we're talking about turbidity, the reason why we're talking about it is because there's impacts. You
want to prevent impacts to submerged aquatic vegetation, reef, uh, habitats. That's why we talk about turbidity and why there's turbidity compliance monitoring. Um, one of the things that we do with this project is we collected pre-construction seaggrass surveys. So,
we want to say, okay, um, we know that there's seaggrasses in the area. We want to make sure that uh when we're going through our project that we are documenting the seagrasses that are there in the beginning and documenting the seagrasses that are there afterwards. So we'll have post construction as well. Turbidity can
impact some of these habitats. We want to make sure that our project is not doing that and we will do that with data from seaggrass surveys. So, uh, we did not have seaggrass surveys around the empoundment basin, but we do have them
around and adjacent to our channels. When we're talking about turbidity, you can see here the diagram on the right, you have a turbidity plume and you have a mixing zone and you have specified areas where you take turbidity
measurements within the mixing zone and outside of the mixing zone. And the number of turbidity exceeded that we had during this project outside of the mixing zone were zero. The sand that was being dredged out of our channels has
goes through extensive testing. Uh we have tailor engineering here. Uh they have a lab. They do geotechnical testing. This material is compatible with beach placement. That is been determined by Florida Department of Environmental Protection. They have a
sand rule. They tell us this whether this material we submit all of our data to them. They determine yes this is compatible for beach placement or no this is not compatible for beach placement needs to go in the nearshore. This beach that or this material that we
dredged is compatible for beach placement. I will acknowledge though that when you are dredging material from channels that yes um wet sand does appear darker and also wet sand the material that we're dredging does have organic content in it and that will
oxidize over time um it will when you place material on a beach the sun does bleach the sand and that is a natural process so just want to acknowledge that um Taylor engineering uh one of finds agent um provided some of these slides
here about all of the FDP guidelines that we follow for the material looking at grain size distribution finer versus more coarse. Um the um also the color determination using a manel uh color chart. That is how we
kind of determine the coloration. Each of our beaches have unique colors uh for the sand. It's important for the turtles. We take into we take that into account. And this is the table that's uh our sediment test results. So compli comparing our compliance values with our
samples of our uh material from crossroads for example uh from the OWW and from um cut 5 and the IWW all within compliance. And in summary, I just want to say that I enjoy working
for the core of engineers. I enjoy my collaboration that we have with all of our partners, with our stakeholders. This was well coordinated with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. We work closely with find and with Martin County um coordinating this to try to make it um to do this
work within the most efficient manner. Uh the material that's being used here in the St. Lucy or that is being placed in the empoundment basin is actually going to be used for Martin County later on. Um this is a cost savings to Martin County so they don't have to go get material from offshore. It's right here.
Um, this is beach compatible material and we're keeping it in the system, like I said, which is uh cost savings. We're not having to offload a DMMA, a dredge material management area. We're not taking the material out of the system that should naturally be in the system.
Um, and all permit compliant, all permit uh conditions were met and our turbidity monitoring was uh in compliance. So, with that, I'm going to hand it over to Jessica. So, good morning everyone. Um, I'm going
to talk about what are the next steps with the material that has now been placed in the inlet. Um, and it's our three-year process. We dredge the inlet every 3 years for both inlet maintenance and for our beach nourishment project at
Bathtub Beach and Sailfish Point. So, the first project I'm going to uh talk about is the St. Lucy Inlet Maintenance which is um going out to bid the end of this summer and it'll be bid in conjunction with Bathtub Beach so we can
get more of a larger project with one contractor doing both projects. So we will be placing the material in the St. Lucy Inlet State Park similar to what we did in 2022. Um roughly about 400
450,000 cubic yards of the material that's sitting in the empowerment basin and the inlet will be going south to the St. Lucy Inlet State Park. This will be a county project all on our own and then we will be monitoring the project for 3 years following construction. Um we're
looking at construction being in January of 2027. I do have some of the same photos that um Ashley showed, but it's just to show you that we've been we do our due diligence on monitoring the inlet. We perform two required large monitoring
efforts um in the inlet every year, August and February. This year we have uh done quite a bit more just because the inlet has been filling a lot quicker over this last year. It's mother nature's is moving sand around a lot
more. As a uh Ashley showed in the the slides, there was a lot more sand that showed up even before the Army Corps and fine pro project even began. So at this moment, as of the June survey that was completed last week, there is roughly
500,000 cubic yards sitting in the empowerment basin. That's a lot just in the empowerment basin. The empowerment basin alone can hold anywhere between 500 to 575,000 cubic yards before it completely starts filling over spilling
over and closing off the transition area and into the uh navigation channel. So we're just in time to do our next project in January. So before we have uh large shing efforts in the inlet. Um, with that, the other
project is Bathtub Beach, which will be bid, like I said, with the St. Lucy Inlet. Construction will begin in January and 2027 with a planned project completion of April 27. But, as you can see in some of these pictures, Mother Nature put a large slug of sand through
across the reef and rebuilt the beach. So, we weren't stressing the last two years on what Batuba Beach was going to do. We did not have to do any large truck calls or emergency truck calls during storm seasons because mother nature did that for us. So, Bathtub
Beach has been very well protected. Um, I do have um Cheryl Miller here in the audience to answer any questions regarding the health and status of the reef. She has been studying the reef for at least 20 years, if not longer. um she knows this reef like the back of her
hand and she is one of our consultants um doing all of the biological monitoring on Bathtub Beach Reef to meet all of our D permit requirements. Just here's some more pictures of Bathtub Beach Reef.
And the dredge areas will not only just be the empowerment basin, we will also dredge the Sailfish Point channel per our agreement with Sailfish Point and uh if need be the Floodshaw uh borrow areas. Um, and the placement for this
project will be um, roughly 250,000 cubic yards going from the uh, just a little south of the Sailfish Point clubhouse up through uh, Bathtub Beach. And all sea oats will be replaced and planted within the project area.
And that is it. So we are open for your questions. And like we said, we do have Janet Zimmerman from Find and Taylor Engineering or Cheryl Miller for questions, for technical questions. >> I'd like some more information before we
before we turn it to the uh uh commissioners and to the public. And that is uh you said that we have an expert on the reef. Let's hear about the reef first. >> Cheryl Miller, >> hi. Up here. >> Yeah, sure.
>> Good afternoon. Um, as Jessica, I'm Charl Miller with Coastal Eco Group. We're the county's biological consultant that's been doing bathtub beach monitoring since um, officially since 2009 in terms of your permit requirements. Um, and during that time, I mean, bathtub you've all seen, but
it's gone through uh, cycllically over the years with the erosion and then the repeated storm responses and um, truck hall projects, largecale truckall projects. It is a very dynamic system for us to monitor. Um, beach projects
usually have one annual survey in the summer and we work with Martin County because that just doesn't work in this environment. Um, the county actually has a plan where it's three surveys a year, the big summer one, but we do uh edge map the reef uh, additionally two times a year as well do sediment monitoring.
So we have a very large data set and along with what we've recently implemented, we do monthly drone surveys now for the past year and are continuing and we sometimes actually will go out 2 days later because the level of change within 2 days at Bathtub Beach is enormous. So we're capturing very short
intervals of these change and being able to map it and then we delineate all of the exposure of the reef as well as the worm rock reef, the accretion, the buildup where it recruits and then dies off naturally, recruits again. So we're following that elevation and the reason we do this is we need this type of data
set for this v variable system to be able to understand okay do we have project related effects that are in excess of natural you know impacts from storm systems. We would not be able to kind of get to that answer without doing this many surveys and it is a very difficult area to survey. I mean, in
terms of wave action, you know, the tides, the visibility, the Lake Okachchobee releases when we were trying to do water quality sampling and doing the reef sampling during those, it's a it's a very difficult place. It it basically we're we're out there every month doing monitoring. So, we have a
very large data set to help us answer these questions as to will mitigation be required for significant environmental impacts. So, um the level of change that we've seen just this year alone where we were looking at a lot of worm rock uh during the first recruitment and
accretion period, we're hoping this summer we'll see that naturally come back again. When you add sand to the system, if it is good sand, if it is appropriate sand coarse grain size, the worm reef, it likes that. That's what it uses to cement together and build up. If you put too much silt, it smothers it
and it will die back. And so we're paying very close attention and collecting that type of data to, you know, make those assessments. >> Commissioner Vargas. >> Yes. As I told you, I'm a diver and I'm going to go dive and I'm going to go take a look. >> You can come with us while we're out
there all the time. >> Let's go with me. Yeah. Okay. So she can see that. Yeah. Unfortunately, a lot of reefs in Florida have been destroyed. >> Absolutely. >> And they're never coming back. And you know, I think of um Pennicanamp Park uh where I learned my open water diving and
I it's not what it used to be. So, we're very protective reasonably as we should be. I appreciate your expertise. I appreciate your oversight and I've had extensive conversations with Jessica at conferences also when we're up in Panama
City Beach. Learned a whole lot up there about marine life that I didn't know and how to preserve our shores. So, I do thank you and thank you for keeping an eye out. >> I mean, the county really is a good steward and recognizes how valuable that system is to our reefs. Um, particularly with all of the, you know, natural and
man-made influences on our nearshore habitats. So, they're paying close attention to it. >> Commissioner Caps. >> Yeah. I wanted to help us try to uh dispel some notions
about this project uh that have appeared on social media. There have been some, this is political season, and there have been some people running for office who I think have used and misused this issue
and have stated a lot of things to try to discredit uh the project and the people involved. Um and the first question I had was it has to do with governmental authority
and who has authority over this kind of a project. You know there was almost this suggestion that county commissioners have the ability to stop something like this from happening and maybe you could address that question first.
>> Yes. Thank you commissioner. I I believe your question is this work is underway. We have appropriations to do this work. We have all necessary permitting. We have all necessary documentation to do this work. And I think the only thing that would
stop this uh would be one if there were con contractor delays their equipment. Uh this is I'll I guess I'll just kind of outline reasons why we might stop dredging. Uh there might be contractor issues with their equipment. Um we could
be shut down for turbidity, which we were not. Um we could have if there was a take in a sea turtle, then that would shut operations until there was an investigation that was completed. Um we those those are reasons why we stop our
dredging. Once we award a contract, we take it that contract award very seriously. We have a lot of regulations about um our awards and we did a we did a modification. it was in the um it was
due to conditions, but as far as stopping the work, we there's only a few reasons why we would do that and we didn't run into any of those. >> And one of those reasons would not be because uh county commissioners have
have said that it needs to stop. You don't take orders from county commissioners. This is the federal government and you don't tell what the federal government what to do. Yes sir. I just want to commissioner Klep just want to clarify some things here. So we have the you know federal um
appropriations that's the funding to do these projects and the authorization which gives us the authority right so that again comes from Congress. So it's two different things. So Congress approved this project and then they appropriated the funds for us to execute that project. So it's called an on andm operational maintenance. So that
continues to happen on a cyclic basics based on the environment that changes right. So we do it two to five. It all depends on the system that you're looking at, but we put a lot of emphasis behind that. So to turn this project off, you would have to get congressional approval um from those representatives to terminate that. And if that is de
what's called deauthorized, then that project will never become reauthorized and then that will be a full cost to the county or state depending on how they want to handle that. Does that answer your question? >> Yes. Very good. >> That's good. >> Putting the bill. The the the next question I had to do with has to do with
um prior empoundment basins. Uh has this been done before? Uh my suspicion is that it's been done several times. >> Yes, we h we have placed at the empoundment basin several times. That is correct. >> Right. And then
there was this charge that the sand is poisonous. Uh, and you you sort of already addressed that by saying that it's compatible with beach placement. >> Yes, that is correct.
>> You know, I don't think we're going to be putting poisonous sand on our beaches for our kids to be playing on. And then you mentioned that wet sand appears darker in color. Um but and that it does have some
organic material in it, but the sun bleaches this out over time. So this the sand is thoroughly tested, right? >> Yes, that is correct. >> And then on the issue of whether the sand is covering up our reefs, that
charge was made. And you know, we just heard uh from this uh agency that that monitors the worm reef at bathtub re uh beach and I think the evidence that was presented there was quite compelling
that the sand is not covering up our beaches. Another thing about the empoundment basin is that it's a cost-saving measure by having the sand in close proximity
to where we're going to need it. Can you touch on excuse me can you touch on um the relative cost like if if we were to take all that sand and dump it out in the ocean and have to go retrieve it and
bring it back to the beaches, >> right? Uh that would be enormously expensive, would it not? >> Yes, that would be uh mobilization costs can exceed upward of a million dollar to a million dollars to mobilize a dredge. >> Mhm. Okay. And then one last thing,
uh there was a Facebook post that seemed to suggest that that the public outcry on the issue shortened the project's timeline and that we that
these folks supposedly shut down the uh the pumping of sand into the empowerment basin. Uh, I don't think that's true. I think that the project stopped when it was scheduled to be stopped and whatever
uh pressure these folks exerted had no bearing whatsoever on when the project ended. Is that true? >> Southwind completed their remaining cuts on June 2nd and then initiated me uh demobilization efforts. So, they completed their their work within the
contract. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good presentations. >> Thank you >> from all involved. >> Commissioner Campy. >> Thank you. I think uh Commissioner Caps did an excellent job of summarizing some of the misinformation that's out there.
Not going to render a guess on why that information is put out there. But it's disappointing because it scares and uh and makes good people, legitimate, thoughtful Martin County residents upset and anxious and nervous and mad. So, uh,
again, it's an opportunity where those of us that are inside the organization get to hear from our staff, which is award-winning and normally very highly regarded, but all of a sudden they're all quacks. And the beatd down on the
Army Corps, which most of the time, um, most of the people that were beating the drum the loudest, were highly complimentary of specifically the major and and the team. But all of a sudden since it fell into a weird narrative
uh at this particular issue similar to our maintenance facility has really revved up the community and it's disappointing because we're trying the commission, the staff and our partners are trying as hard as they can to do things above board the right way,
fiscally responsible. And in this particular case, Martin County is very very um specific about our environmental protections. And every day, Commissioner Caps is right. Every day there was just this constant just and it was escalating. It wasn't plateauing. It
wasn't deescalating. It was escalating. Uh and I knew that you were coming. Uh we all had an opportunity to speak to our county administrator. It's not like there's only one of us that can speak to him or one of us that's watching the videos. there was no need to go down and
stand on the beach because we already knew how the process works. It happens every couple of years. That being said, there was some concerns and there was some videos of uh fish kill, dead fish laying around. Can any of you explain the natural
process obviously if you're in an environment you're dredging, which is basically vacuuming up sand and water and uh sea creatures. Um, was there any more this time? Was there any uh was it
consistent? Was there some kind of an anomaly that would have caused this? Or is this just a focus showing what naturally occurs? And yes, any loss of even sea creature life is disappointing.
However, I think you made it clear that if we don't do these projects, what would happen? Because there were comments that said, "Stop doing it. There's no reason to keep dredging." I think if anything, we're fortunate to have the partnership and the relationship that we have with the Army
Corps because I'm I remember the days when we would go to Washington when Congressman Rooney was able to earmark money for dredging our inlets and then the earmarks went away and we would have to go to Washington or Jacksonville. And
I've made that trip several times to beg hat in hand for the core to please consider Martin County in their budget. And I remember being uh at the Pentagon speaking to someone uh one of the higherups in the Army
Corps who was explaining that his responsibilities was not that big. It was the Mississippi River, the Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, uh and the St. Lucy inlet. And he the first question he asked us is how many tons of
shipping cargo exits the inlet. Guess how much? Nearly zero. But we've still with our staff and our relationships in Florida and in Washington and in Atlanta uh have been able to constantly do this and I think our residents have become
used to it. But for whatever reason, and remember the climate and the and the and the season that we're in, that you all were used as a opportunity to just beat the drum. Uh, and it's disappointing because, you know, you never mentioned
your CR your um your resume and our and our reef expert didn't mention their resume, but I'm sure it's um stellar and so I appreciate it. I mean, I'm sad that it our meeting was on the 9th and you were all ready to make this conversation
10 days ago, but we waited because this is our format. Uh, and again to this issue, similar to the other, I think we need to create a sort of a crisis management information team. We have an excellent uh media group uh information
group. But I think what we can learn from this on our side is that we need to respond with facts uh from experts very quickly. Uh even this morning with our friends from Hippie that came and they had concerns. Hopefully they were
addressed today. But that's a good group. They live right there. Um and it's sad that they got panicked that somehow you all or we were doing something wrong. So I appreciate you very much. Commissioner Heatherington, >> thank you. Um, all my questions have
pretty much been answered and asked, but um, I would point out it was a great presentation and I think it illustrates the enormous regulatory oversight that happens on these projects both with all the agencies and I think Jessica, it's also worth pointing out again, how many
surveys does Martin County do in addition a year? In the inlet, we perform two at minimum. Um, this year we've done seven since December.
>> And I think Martin County and their partnerships, if you look around the state and when we've um we've attended these Florida beaches and shores, we have a very model partnership, Martin County, with some of our neighboring agencies and our federal partners. So, I
think that we exemplify this kind of work um and we're we're noted for that around the state. And then I would say too, um unrelated to this, but on the the topic of reefs, there was a really good presentation at AWR maybe a year or
so ago ago on bleaching the re the reefs and their health and the water temperatures and how that related to the health of the reefs. I know we have some newer commissioners and I think that would be good as an unrelated topic to bring that back as a educational
presentation on the health of our reefs and how the water temperature and the conditions have been affecting it statewide. >> Thank you for your presentation. >> Yeah, and I also thank you for your presentation. Lots of important facts. Um there's just one question I have and
that is that uh Martin County is solely responsible for St. Lucy inlet maintenance. >> No, we are not solely responsible. We do work in coordination with the Army Corps depending on their fund funding availability, but as the budgets came
out for this year, they did not get funding for the St. Lucy Inlet. So, we have as the board coordinated several years ago after the St. Lucy and Lit TAC committee um and advisory committee. We put together a funding source to put
money aside just in case the core did not have funding. So we will be funding this project with help from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection grant program. Um but so the next time hopefully the core has funding. They did
fund the 24 project but they will not be funding this one. So it's almost every other project that the core has funding. We did have it in the work plan request and the president's budget, but it did not get funded. >> So, currently there's about 500,000 cubic yards of sand in the inlet that is
that Martin County is going to be responsible for removing. >> Yes. Next year. >> And it will be going on Bathub Beach and the St. Lucy Inlet State Park. So, how do we justify putting additional cubic yards, 70,000 cubic yards in that empoundment basin that we're going to
have to uh pay to remove next year? >> We will be asking our find partners for a cost share on that since it is their um sand. Jessica, also you could point out that
the state of Florida um requires the county as the local sponsor to be responsible for the sediment volume that this inlet interrupts. >> Yes. >> So we have a target every year that we're required to on an average annual
basis move sediment that the inlet has. It acts like a check valve. It blocks sand from going to the north because of the jetty. So that's why there's a small volume allocated to go to the north and it also blocks sand going to the south which is a significant issue. We also
have a secondary agreement with Jupiter Island that puts uh additional uh requirements on the county to ensure that we move um approximately 200,000 cubic yards a year on an average basis.
So without so we have an obligation that the state unfunded mandate put on us to meet um their carrot is a funding partnership of up to 7525 but we usually only get 50/50. Yes.
>> Um in terms of their funding and so that's I think that's the important piece is that we have a statemandated obligation to move that sand onto the beaches to to compensate for the impacts that it is doing for the erosion it
causes to the north and the south. >> Correct. Our inlet management plan uh statemandated inlet management plan requires that. So that is part of the every three years project. >> Commissioner Vargas. >> Yeah. Um I was in Washington DC um gee
uh number of months ago um and the Army Corps of Engineers was very enthusiastic to work with us. So we were very very fortunate. I know that it's a little bit iffy right now. Um and we will get past this and with find over there. I see him
sitting in the back Mr. Kennedy. Um we appreciate that and we will get this done. This is our crowning jewel, our beaches here in Martin County. So, thank you. >> Mark Perry, would you like to address us? >> Thank you, commissioners. Uh, appreciate
that. I I think you've been shown a an adequate presentation by the core and and FID and and what that project is. Um, but it just came to our attention when at the beginning of May when we started seeing photos and actual
demonstration of what was actually going into the empowerment basin and what was being dredged up out of the inter coastal waterway and put on the site. And it did not meet beach quality sand. In fact, it was very fine silt and sediments that were probably at the bottom of the inter coastal waterway
whenever the dredge was in that area at that time. and the disposal was happening right on onto those things. There was photo documentation by a lot of captains. You heard from uh Scott Butler and he's actually taken drone footage of a lot of this silt and
sediment material that not stayed on that beach, it also went out over the reefs. It went offshore, it came inside uh the system. So, we were pretty concerned at that time. And then later on we also got pictures of and documentation about 128 fish dead on the
beaches north of the inlet along the sail fish point area. So became a big concern of us as to how this um how this could occur and how this could be. We know that dredging operations have happened a lot of times and over over
the years and basically you know they usually have to get an MPDS permit or 404 permit and it's regulated under DP to monitor those turbidity and monitor those systems not just at the disposal site where they come into the impalant
basin or an upland disposal management area. It's also they have to monitor it at the wellhead and there were several times in the inter coastal north of the crossroads where we saw a lot of turbidity created by the wellhead the suction wellhead right around that area
which could cause impacts to our seaggrass beds and other areas when you talk about putting this material in a place and I know they've used the empalment basin the empowerment basin was constructed inside the north jetty
and the north jetty is kept low because there's about 230,000 cubic yards of sand that is literal transport, latoral transport south into the inlet. And they allowed that empoundment basin to be dug to about 7 to 16 ft in depth in order to
maintain um a catchman basin for that literal transport. And then periodically once a year or so, we're obliged to dredge that out and dispose of it now in a hopper dredge offshore in in that borrow area B as you've heard about,
which is off Jupiter Island. Then they can use that to reourish that beach and continue on. Um, you know, I just it's just ludicrous how they can say we didn't have a turbidity issue. We didn't have a problem with this this dredge
material being here. They should have been using M5, which is the FINDD site on the southeast corner of the crossroads. And we just needed to make sure that that that site could have been used. It's 15 acres. It's a it's the
site where they've used before. It's got a big high burm around it and it contains the silt and sediment and anything you're dredging out of the inter coastal waterway contains in there. These upland disposal areas are used by FID all the time and they're going to be used as they dredge up the
Okachobee waterway. Um, but we don't need to use the empoundment basin for this. It shouldn't be used. It was a terrible incident. We hopefully can learn from this that they should be on top of that monitoring every day and if something starts to occur like that,
they should shut it down and then go check out the suction head, see where that is and adjust the situation. >> Mr. Campy, >> uh Mark Perry is our astute and uh esteemed, renowned local expert. We're
very fortunate to have him. Would any of you like to respond to some of his comments and concerns, please? >> I know we have find here as well, but I'll just speak to uh M5. M5 is at capacity and we were not able to use it for this event, so I'll speak to that. And then Janet, did you have anything to
add? >> Good morning, commissioners. Janet Zimmerman. I'm the executive director with Florida Inland Navigation District. The district does provide dredge material management areas where the Army Corps is able to put material for
disposal. What we have in this current situation, M5 is currently at capacity and no longer able to take any of that material. Once that material goes into a DMMA site, it's essentially taken out of
the sand sharing system. This means that you have lost um I believe our capacity there is about a half million cubic yards of sand, if not a little bit more than that for M5. So by placing material in M5, we've
removed that. Your beaches no longer have that material available to them. We will be doing an offload for M5. That happens once every 20 years that that material is able to either be put back
into the system or that material may be used for some other activity. Previously, that material was used and barged up to the city of Fort Pierce, and they used that to create islands around their marina to protect and add
additional storm protection for the rig construction of the city's marina. What we are hoping to use some of the M5 material for is an upcoming project at Boy Scout Island. If additional fill material is needed, we can place
material behind your engineered um expansion or reestablishment of Boy Scout Island. I believe some of the M5 material was also used at M2 when they did that Bird Island restoration.
The cost savings by having the material placed into the empoundment system is not only um keeping that sand in the sand sharing system, but not having to go offshore to barge that material back
in. Our permit limitations with the core tells us exactly what has been studied extensively where that material has the ability to go and our current permit during sea turtle nesting season. We're
allowed to put the material in M5 or in the empoundment basin. And I believe the core made the best environmental as well as uh best economic decision. Um, as was mentioned earlier, our turbidity monitoring was
done three times a day. It's done both at the cutter suction dredge head as well as at the placement location. And all of those testings were sent to DP and were found
to be in compliance with our permit. And I'd be happy to answer any additional questions. >> May I? >> I appreciate that. Uh did you get an opportunity to see any of the photographs or the videos uh drone footage and what is your opinion of what you've what you saw?
>> Uh I have viewed the videos. I am also a Martin County resident so I was out at the site weekly to double check um on what turbidity plumes were being shown in the video. Um I do have some of my
own photos from those days. I do believe we were in compliance. >> I asked a question earlier about sea life and sea creatures. We heard from Mr. Perry that there was hundreds and we heard from our the drone
expert. You got a new uh certification about that. Can you share anything? Is it was it in the parameters? Was it more was it more for a reason? >> I can speak to that. Uh thank you for that question. Yes. Uh
during dredging the the innate action of dredging uh does unfortunately uh cause the life of some marine species. Um and so that has been accounted for in our national
environmental policy act when we do our alternatives analysis. Uh that is accounted for in there. Um, we do have our environmental team member Aaron Lasser here who can kind of speak to more specifics, but um, we have um, I,
as has previously been mentioned, we there is a cutter section. It is like you mentioned sir, a vacuum. Um, and sometimes fish can go through the cutter, they can go through the pipeline and they can come out of the discharge pipe and be perfectly fine, but at at
sometimes they are not. And that is just the fact of the matter of of the process of dredging and we did account for we do account for that in our in our environmental documentation. >> Either you or one member of your team, do you feel that this particular uh
dredge operation was less equal to or more than normal? >> I do not think it was more than any other dredging operation. No. >> Um I mean I'm asking questions on behalf of our constituents. Yes.
>> So that we can try to answer and present. You know, Mark Perry puts out some, you know, local concerns. And I know a lot of you are locals, uh, as well as our team. And so I think it's become an issue, which is
understandable. The project is done. Um, I know that when we talk about uh the environmental impacts of not doing things and then the price tags, I just wanted to be careful when some people might say, well, you know, you could have done this, you could have done
that, but you were doing it in an effort to save money. I don't think, you know, uh, and I'll ask Miss Garland to explain, especially here in Martin County, we're not just looking for the least expensive. Correct me if I'm wrong.
>> The least expensive option in an effort to save money, which is one of our priorities, but not at the expense of our environment, our sea life, uh, permanent issues. Um, I'm not an expert, but the turbidity I know that when you
stir the things up like that, but if you were saying that it was monitored, well, actually, you said it was monitored u several times per day and submitted to the D and came back. The D is not
looking to shortcut or do anybody any favors to keep the project going, right? They have no issue with saying stop. No, they will they will tell the Army Corps to stop a project just as quickly as they will tell us to stop a project. We all have to meet the same turbidity requirements. When the Army Corps is
dredging in the ICW, their turbidity requirements on their D permit are the same turbidity requirements we have when we're dredging the inlet. Um, everybody has to meet the same requirements. We all have different permits, but there's all there's turbidity requirements
because you're in an aquatic preserve. You're in outstanding Florida waters. There are requirements because of the type of river and inlet we are in. We have requirements that we have to follow. We have to stand by and we
cannot veer outside those boundaries because they will stop us. We if we're over a tidity limit, we have to shut down. We have to stay shut down for a certain amount of hours. Wait for the turbidity to settle. We start we continue sampling
and then once it stops then we can continue back. So there are requirements. A turtle comes within so many feet we stop working. A manatee we stop working. There are strict requirements. You cannot keep moving. >> Thank you. Was there any point during this project that the turbidity levels
it got to the point where you had to shut the project down? >> No. >> No. So when I hear from our local I count him as one of my personal experts uh and then I hear from you all who are also experts. Is this just a situation where you will agree to
disagree? Commissioner, I think um it's important to note that um you you do have occasions where your your sediment mapping isn't perfect, you know, and you may come up with where an area where there's more organics than than
anticipated. And so the duration I think Mr. Barry was talking about was there may have been something in that northern reach at a time through and it may have not lasted long but nonetheless you can have a a more organic load and and then goes back to normal. I think it's fair
to say that our after action would take a look at um those reaches to the north the next time to see if um uh more uh detailed analysis is needed before it is allowed to go on the empowerment basin. We certainly know that the crossroads
which has been routinely dredged numerous times its infill rate is so rapid over the time that it's always full of clean sediment. Anytime you touch a portion of the channel that hasn't been dredged for 10 or 20 years perhaps it may have pockets that you
didn't anticipate even though your sampling showed that there was there was good look. So I think it's fair that um um with M I don't want to uh Mr. Perry and others may have seen uh conditions where um that there there was a pocket
hit. So I think u my suggestion is that um in our afteraction of this is that we carefully review the next time we do um uh an ICW cut or next time you want to use the empowerment basin that we um especially in areas that have not
dredged before that we do much more extensive uh analysis um and uh and Martin County would take that on um um to ensure that that empowerment basin is is only used for um truly beach compatible uh material cuz that's what
it's that's what it's for and that would be my suggestion. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Any further comments? >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> We will now take a 10-minute break. We are back taking up our consent agenda. There is let's see
uh one uh consent agenda item that has been pulled and that's consent 16. Shall we take that up? >> Sure. I pulled that. that is uh adopt a resolution approving
the acquisition of a parcel of environmentally sensitive land locating located in Point Sienna Gardens as recommended by the Environmental Lands Oversight Committee and approved by the board. >> Good morning, Carlo Sigura, Real Property Manager. Um, this request is
for the adoption of a resolution approving the acquisition of that parcel that's 20 acres in Point Siana Gardens as approved by the board in October 2025 with the environmental lands oversight
committee using the funds for the 10-year tax referendum. Appraisals were completed on these properties and staff negotiated a price of 24,000 for this parcel. Real property staff has reviewed the title work and
confirmed the ownership and um with the legal department's review and the board's approval will close before July 14th. Staff requests that the board approve the vacant land contract in the amount of 24,000. adopt a resolution
approving the purchase. Authorize the chair to execute the contract and resolution and authorize the county administrator to execute all documents necessary for the closing. >> Questions? Commissioner Vargas? >> Yes. I um I just want to say every
little bit helps, right? On vacant land, what are we going to use this property for? I know it's near the Atlantic Ridge. Is that correct? Uh Michael Houston, senior project manager for the environmental resource
division. Uh the goal is to continue to acquire lots out there because of one of the challenges of the area is its small lots uh uh similar to what we have in Palmar. But but the goal is yes to eventually it will provide a buffer for
Atlantic Ridge State Park. It could provide public access to get us into the park. Um and then in in addition to that uh to protect its ecological values cuz it has some nice habitat out there. So just to you know in this case a little
bit of it at a time just continue to acquire properties until we have a nice big manageable chunk that we can then incorporate into our program and manage and provide access to. I remember looking at the map I think with director John mail. Uh we
pinpointed all the areas that you were targeting and um this is right on the heels of one of our constituents that was most gracious and has invested $10 million. So I'm speaking to everybody out there who has few extra pocket change. Please please help us preserve
Martin County and that's why I asked to comment on this particular acquisition. This is only a quarter of an acre. A lot of homes are built on a quarter of an acre or less today. zero lot line. Okay. >> Any further comments? Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?
>> I'll move approval of the consent agenda. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. We will now take up public hearing number two which is a legislative public
hearing to consider adoption of the comprehensive plan amendment 253 P3 public facility with clinic future land use map a future land use map amendment. >> Good morning Mr. Doulan and Miss Nabi.
>> Good morning commissioners. Good morning. For the record, my name is Jenna Nabi, senior planner with the growth management department. And before you today is a request for a smallcale future land use map amendment for a 2.66
acre property that is located east of the intersection of Southeast Runk Street and Southeast Willoughby Boulevard. This site is adjacent to the Sailfish Splash Water Park and is located directly south of the Martin
County Public Safety Complex. On October 21st, 2025, the Board of County Commissioners approved resolution 25-10.30, 30 which initiated this amendment to the future land use map for a change on the uh land use designation from
institutional general to commercial office residential. This is a smallcale future land use map amendment and so there are two required public hearings. This is the second of those two required public hearings. The first public hearing was held before the
local planning agency on May 21st, 2026, and the LPA voted 5 to zero to recommend approval of this proposed change to the board. The appropriate public notices were turned in at the LPA meeting and those
notices have also been published in this agenda item as well. This is an aerial photo of the subject property. It is 2.66 acres in size. And this is this site is a portion of a
larger roughly 9.08 acre parcel that Martin County has owned since 1990. This is the existing future land use map that shows the institutional general future land use designation. And this is the proposed future land use
designation showing the commercial office residential designation. Section 1-11 in chapter 1 of the comprehensive plan outlines four criteria that uh staff and the board must analyze when evaluating each future
land use map amendment request. During staff's evaluation of these four criteria, we concluded that three of the four criteria had been met to make a positive finding and recommend approval and that one of the criteria had not
been met, which I'll go over briefly. It's this criteria C right here that says the proposed change would correct what would otherwise appear to be an inappropriately assigned land use designation. And since this property has been owned by Martin County since 1990,
the general institutional future land use would be an appropriate district. And so this request isn't necessarily correcting an inappropriately assigned designation. Section 163.3177 of Florida statutes outlines two
different sets of uh more criteria that are used as indicators for uh to judge whether a land use amendment discourages the proliferation of urban sprawl. Staff analyzed both sets of these criteria and under the first set we concluded that
the proposed amendment complies with 13 out of 13 sprawl criteria that discourages the proliferation of urban sprawl. And under the second set of criteria, we concluded that the proposed amendment meets eight out of eight criteria that determine the application
discourages urban sprawl. And in conclusion, staff recommends approval of the future land use map amendment from institutional general to commercial office residential for the 2.66 acre property. And that concludes our presentation.
Questions for Miss Na'vi? Commissioner Caps. >> Move approval. >> I second. This is a public hearing. Would anyone from the public like to address us on this matter? Seeing none, we'll move back to the board. There's a motion and a second. All in favor? I
opposed. That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We will now take up public hearing quasi judicial number one, which is a public hearing to consider adoption of an amendment to the Martin County zoning atlas to change the zoning district classification for the P3
public facility with clinic reszoning. Uh this is an exparte uh or a quasi judicial public hearing. Any exparte disclosures? Commissioner Bargas, if I have any, they've been filed. Commissioner Caps, >> if I have any, they have been filed. >> If I have any, they've been filed.
Commissioner Campy, >> I don't have any. It's been filed. >> And Commissioner Heatherington, >> if any, they've been filed. >> Excellent. Uh, have you turned in all of your relevant materials to the clerk? >> Yes. >> Any of the item and my work history has been the clerk. >> 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? Nothing but the truth? I do. >> Please proceed. All right. Thank you. Again, for the
record, Jenna, senior planner with the growth management department, and this is a request for an amendment to the Martin County zoning atlas for a property that is 2.66 acres in size and is located east of the intersection of Southeast Runky Street in Southeast
Willoughby Boulevard. Again, it is adjacent to the Sailfish Splash Water Park and is just south of the public safety complex. This concurrent resoning is uh concurrent with the future landies map amendment that you all just approved.
And this request is to change the zoning district from the PS2 public service district to the commercial office zoning district on the subject property. The proposed CO zoning district implements the core future land use designation. And this is also the second
public hearing on this request. The first was before the local planning agency on May 21st and they also voted 5 to zero to recommend approval to the board. This is an aerial photo of the subject's site and this is part of a larger 9.08
acre property that the county has owned since 1990. There are three different zoning districts that implement the core future land use designation. Those are the CO, the core 1, and core 2 districts.
This table here is an excerpt of the purpose of each district. And specifically in the proposed CO zoning district, commercial office, uh the CO district permits fewer, less intense uses than the core one and the
core 2 district, and it also specifically excludes residential uses. This table here shows a comparison between the existing PS2 public service zoning district and the three zoning districts that implement the core future
land use. So if we look between the existing and proposed zoning district for this application, the minimum lot area and minimum lot width are both the same. They both exclude the residential and hotel density. the maximum building
coverage is lower under the CO proposed district than the existing and the maximum height in um feet and stories for the proposed district is lower than what's currently permitted under the public service PS2 zoning district. So
just for comparison's sake, this is the existing zoning map that has the PS2 district and this is the proposed zoning map that has the CO zoning district assigned to it. Martin County shall reszone individual
parcels to the most appropriate zoning district. that's consistent with with the LDRs and that's pursuant to policy 4.4A1 in the comprehensive plan. And section 3.2E2 in the land development regulations provides seven
different criteria uh for review when analyzing a zoning district change. And during staff's analysis of these seven criteria, we found that it complies with all seven standards. And with that, staff recommends approval of the proposed reszoning from the PS2
district to the CO zoning district. And that concludes our presentation. >> Questions for staff? >> Commissioner Caps. >> Move approval. >> Second. This is a public hearing. Would anyone like to address us from the public? Seeing none, there's a motion and a
second. All those in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. We will now move on to department one which is office of management and budget items which require board approval. Miss Merley.
Good morning. Stephanie Merley, director of OMB here to present two items on our OM item today. Our first item is a permission to accept the Federal Transit Administration FTE or FTA FY22 section
5307 urbanized formula grant. Our public works is requesting the acceptance of $1,520,776 um to provide operating and capital assistance funds to the Martin County Public Transit Service or Marty. The grant also includes $617,424
for the replacement bus purchase and safety security enhancements. This requires a grant match of $45,119 um which will be used from the FY22 state public transportation block grant as well as 498,000 from the transit
division operating budget which is currently budgeted. Our second item is a permission to accept the Florida statewide response for opioid abatement funds. Our human services division is requesting the acceptance of $785,066
for the renewed state opioid settlement funds. Um, and funds will be used to support direct client services and diversion courts to implement opioid abatement efforts. There is no cash match required for this grant. >> Questions for Miss Merley?
Is there a motion to approve? >> I'll move approval. Second. >> There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? I opposed. That motion passes unanimously. >> On to department two, contracts that meet the threshold for board approval of
$1 million or greater. >> Good morning, commissioners. Tasha Sap, procurement supervisor. Um, I do have three items for your consideration today. The first one is dis uh disaster recovery engineering services with a maximum not to exceed value of 5
million. Maximum not to exceed term of 5 years. Recommended action move that the board award the contract to the two highest scoring firms, Lante Engineering and Capek Engineering, and move that the board authorize the county administrator or designate to execute all documents
related to this request. Second is a disaster debris monitoring with a maximum not to exceed value of 3 million and a maximum not to exceed term of 5 years. Recommended action move that the board award the contract to the two highest
ranking firms uh Thompson Consulting Services and Debbie LLC with a maximum ex I'm sorry. And then your third one is the Aviation Planning and Engineering Services Rebid
with a maximum not to exceed value of 3 million and a maximum not to exceed term of 5 years. Recommended action move that the board award the contract to the two highest scoring forms uh H oil Tanner and Associates and Avcon Inc. and move that the board authorize
the county administrator or designate to execute all documents related to this request. >> Questions? Is there a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> There's a motion and a second. All those in favor? I opposed. That motion passes
unanimously. Uh, department three is parks and recreation special facility revenue update. Mr. Abate, uh, good morning. Kevin Abbate, parks and recreation director. Um, today I
just want to provide a short uh, presentation on the successes of the special facilities within the department. So, we have a really short presentation, but some pretty good figures to show you of our accomplishments over the past few years.
The first facility that I would like to start off with us um is Seaside Cafe. This is an operational summary of our facility. Um since we've opened the cafe, we um this facility has grossed over $6.8 million. Um currently
in this fiscal year a year to date we are currently sitting at which says 443647 and the revenue actually as of today it's 474,454 uh and our current um budget year today and then our current total reinvestment
reserves so that's for future uh repairs is at 1.44 44 million. And this facility has one full-time employee. Um, and then we contract out approximately 24 employees through resources government services. And some snapshots of some
things that we've done up the past couple years is we sell a lot of breakfast meals, over 62,000, lots of lunch meals, over 84,000 last couple years, and our beach chair memberships. >> You bring any samples? >> No sandwiches for the board. That'll be
the next meeting. Um, Selfish Sands Golf Course, Restaurant and Hitting Base has a complete unit of their operational summary. Um, if you recall before we constructed this project in um, fiscal year 2020 uh, during the pandemic, um,
we our subsidy had reached a 1 uh, $1 million subsidy. Um, our gross revenue over the past few years uh, is over 7.1 million. Our current reserves as of um actually the numbers as of today are
1,112,721. And our reinvestment reserves that we have that's um are over just a million dollars. That facility has three full-time employees and approximately 87 contracted staff. Um some snapshots of
our uh past two fiscal years um are staggering. We hit over 5.7 million golf balls that we traced to our technology. Played over 79,000 rounds of golf, over 1,500 U memberships,
1300 lessons, um 387 junior programs, and then our junior players card program. Fibs Park Campground was another investment we had with the Florida Inland Navigation District um and county
funds um for a campground that used to be a FEMA site during the 04 and05 hurricanes that we turned around. Uh so that currently the operational summary um the gross reserves for the past two fiscal years is over 2 million. Um our
current reserves are actually at 582505 as of this morning, not the 560. and our reinvestment reserves for future improvements are over 1.1 million. Uh we have uh two contracted staff, no full-time employees that work there through resources government services.
Um we do have an administrator that oversees the campground in the two moring fields. That's paid by their revenue 100%. Um the snapshot over for that facility over the past two years was over 16,000
guests and 30 almost 3,400 pets. Well, I don't think we charge the pets and over 35 almost 36,000 total site rentals. Manatee Pocket Morning Field um is our you our star morning field of right now
because of its location. Um currently our reserves are at 36,543. Um our current fiscal year reserves as of actually as of today is 61,487. Um and then we have reinvestment
reserves of 23,852. >> Um one of the things one of the most challenging things about this project is the constant maintenance of the morning balls and the anchors um to be secure. Those are constantly under um repair and
through an outside services um for both Jensen Beach and Manatee Pocket. that we use the revenue that we collect from these projects and we put it into that moring ball maintenance to make sure that we have good uh coverage. As a matter of fact of note of all the
products me mentioned thus far um they don't use advalorum it they're basically revenue offsets just for information. So we use uh we have a harbor master um we split their FTE salary between both Moringfields uh Manatee Pocket and
Jensen Beach. So you'll see a 0.5 FTE and we have no contracted staff. So in the past 2 years over at Manatey Pocket about you know 1,250 guests or so and 107 pets and at Jensen Beach Moringfield um the
FY25 reserves is 65,000. FY26 current reserves is is 108. Um and um full-time staff again we split that more at Harbormaster and they've done 1,600 guests in the past 2 years and 166
pets. I did take uh an opportunity to kind of add them all up of this slide today for our current reserves fiscal year to date. We're about 1.662 million. Our total reinvestment reserves is at 3.889
618. So almost 3.9 million. And if we are run the same uh trajectory of this current um fiscal year trend around the same numbers of where we are today, we could end this fiscal year with approximately 5.55 million in our total
uh reserves, a reserve fund for um future improvements. And some examples I can give you, for example, at the cafe, we've replaced the thatch on the roof through a storm recovery. We've replaced the air conditioned systems and replace them with coastal units. Um, and there
are so we're constantly looking at improving the asset, but the money stays home for now. Of course, it's up for discretion. Um, but those are some of the the success stories of our departments um for these facilities. And the first uh facility that I when I was
I arrived here over 15 years ago, um, Sailish Splash Water Park and Pool. Uh, if you recall uh when I got here, well, maybe you don't recall, I think Commissioner Campy does. Um uh we had a subsidy that we used to uh pay to the
pool at Martin County High School Pool of about $100,000 plus um capital repairs. Um so since the inception um this facility has generated about 16.4 million in total water park and pool revenue. Our swim meet economic impact
is 40 million. Um we used to host the state swimming and diving finals for over a decade. um the budgeted pool subsidy which we've used five times since inception we do we've always had a budgeted subsidy for the pool just in case I call it's called a weather
subsidy um but it is a pool subsidy the water park uh has successfully paid for the entire facility but the pool is quite expensive um we've dipped into that subsidy at an average cost of 108,000 annually our current reserves for the uh for the water park in pool
are 159,000 And that facility does have um 135 uh seasonal employees. And since we've opened, we've employed over 1,000 students since we opened it since inception. I'm given over 200 swim
lessons. And one of the things that's unique about this facility as it relates to relations and our and our insurance is that we spend with our revenue to cost recovery 119,000 on our premium for the water park and pool insurance coverage. So the the
overall picture for the parks department as it relates to those special facilities is has been great. There's a a whole team involved. Um lots of success stories, lots of hard work to make these little semi-enterprise funds happen to for the betterment enjoyment
of the community. And we'll have any questions that you may have. I just wanted to give you a nice short presentation. Thank you, >> Commissioner Vargas. >> Thank you very much. I I do like buildings that produce uh very well. So, um I I appreciate you putting all of
that together succinctly. Um but I do want to talk to you about the um Sea Turtle Cafe. Now, the schematic that was done, I think it was by our building director, um Sean Donahghue, who's here,
um I find it, excuse me, but I find it incorrect. Uh, we have more than 4600 square feet. There is no way, if anybody knows me, that I would ever ever say $912 a square
foot is appropriate. That is not the case. As a matter of fact, we were just talking about a vertical square footage. But we do have because of the specialty building, we do have restroom, storage building, breezeway,
ramp, stairs. We have the tiki and the bar. Um, we also have kitchen equipment that's specialized. We have a keggerator. I believe that's what it's called also down in the basement. Um, if we're talking about a total amount of
square footage, it's over 10,768 square ft, not 4614 square feet. So, that's a vast difference. And, you know, it's it's a a division. And again it it it is not
correct. So that needs to be noted uh that in fact we have we have more than double that amount square footage based on the cost for this. Um the other thing is I'd like to mention that it's
$422.49 a square foot. Now the thing is that we have to look at to where it's located. This is not an inland building. It's not an industrial building. We're talking about something that is on the ocean and so it has to be curated properly um and
set so that it conforms with the D with any statutes. Also, it has to be um ADA compliant also. So, I wanted to bring that to your attention. Put this on the record. Let my fellow commissioners know also that we're talking about a
substantially drastically lower amount and we haven't even gone to bid yet. So, that could be more attractive by the end of this year. We're hoping to do that at that point. Do you want to add anything else to that? Did I miss a point or misdate?
>> I do not have any questions. >> Okay, that's fine. So, anyway, if you would please make a note of that. I have a graph here. Happy to turn it in if we need that. Also, um I did a study when I when I saw this, I said, "This is totally incorrect." I mean, this just
jumped out at me. So, Commissioner Campy. >> Thank you, Mr. Donahghue. May I ask you a couple questions, please? >> Just heard from my colleague um project up in her district. I know she's uh very familiar with it. the original
square footage or the of the floor space and how you did the original calculation is uh did you when you did the Steuart Beach was the calculation similar? Did you agree with what we just heard? Uh were you have did you have the
opportunity to review that? How would there be such a a discrepancy in terms of the original square footage or or square feet versus our new calculation that we were just presented with? >> Yes. Gen generally uh when I do these
calculations, I try to keep the vertical uh component intact uh and not include the horizontal uh in the square footage. Now cost of construction depending on location as as stated can be extremely high uh and the size of the project and
the infrastructure that's involved uh can can you know vary dramatically. So it can skew the numbers absolutely uh but to be apples to apples comparison uh with all the other projects and looking at looking back at current contracts over the last five seven years and
seeing price uh price per foot of vertical construction uh versus the contract. Uh that's that's the analysis that I tried to portray. Uh so so yes horizontal construction can be expensive and and it can you know change the way
the calculation is derived. Uh but to keep it apples and apples with with the other past contracts that don't have that breakout uh that's the calculations that I used. >> Do you need then to re-evaluate some of our other square foot calculations based
on this new formula >> to to be able to I can't break out the other projects and have a horizontal component to it and and separate that. So it would be I would skew it the other way. So I'm either going to, you know, we have to hold that that calculation
and just acknowledge that price of price of um cons of construction and development for that particular project is high. It's actually also evident when we did the um uh the the classroom building at the public safety training complex. Uh that was not just a vertical
component. That was a whole entire site because that site was brought was raw and we came in from the fence line and developed that entire site. So the cost of that construction was actually also pretty high at the time and I think that was 2022 or so uh you know inflated high
uh in a sense because we had to do a lot of site work to make that work uh and it was expensive construction. The pursuing construction after that with the burn building and the and the training tower were within a within reason you know much lower than the original because we didn't have all the site development
included. So again to keep it apples and apples and have that comparison intact. That's the calculation that >> last question. Uh when we're looking at the calculations of price per square foot at the future maintenance facility,
are we going to use that new calculation matrix in terms of site work, parking, electrical, landscaping, outside lighting? Is that all going to be then divided out or are you just doing it the oldfashioned way with um vertical?
>> I still the I still think we need to keep it on the vertical uh just to keep it consistent. Uh those numbers did are you know as we designed the site um for example there's a chiller plant included in the in the cost. Now uh the cost didn't go up but the chiller plant is included. Uh there's other buildings
hazardous waste building that we talked about previously. Um, you know, other ancillary buildings, a standalone restroom and things like that for Marty Bus and and other areas of the site are starting to develop into additional square footage that are that are changing the numbers, but it's not dramatic and and certainly it's not
changing the price of the of the project. It's it's all included in the design. We were we we paid for what the design is turning out to be. So, so commissioners, if you included the parking area, the STAs, and if you include their square footages as a
overall component of the site area, it could drastically reduce that number even further in terms of what its unit price cost is. So, I think what um um Sean attempted to do was to isolate the main component of the building and and
and look at them. Keep in mind that the beach has to have a pileup supported foundation. So anytime you even a small structure there, you're going to have that pile of hard foundation. So it's going to be increase in cost, you know, compared because you're not doing a slab on grade like you would do next door to
if we did something right here in our own parking lot. So >> what was there currently >> there? Uh the um there was a restaurant there and it was torn down and now it's an exposed >> I mean what was the foundation of the
exist the former restaurant? It was um it was um >> wood pile >> wood piles that were damaged by a car and other things. So they were non-existent. So it all has to be redone and of course redone to the current state um standards for a coastal
construction zone. >> Makes perfect sense. >> Yeah. So it is uh I it you know you know the merits of the project I think are excellent you know in terms of uh and we saw um the presentation on the revenue generation and they were able to pay for
it but it is a unique structure um in terms of um where it's located and again the pile foundation is such a critical component of that that you don't have in other structures which immediately increases the cost >> commissioner Vargas. Okay. So, um as a
real estate broker, I do have done many many comparative market analysis. You have to eliminate this one. This is different. This is unique. But again, I have the numbers here and it's 9 not
$912 per square foot. So, I'm asking that this if you want to redo this schematic, that's fine. But this particular cafe does not belong there. It is unique onto its own. And here's the number, just over 400 square feet
for the pilings, for the building, for the walkways, for everything else that I mentioned also. So that's up to you, but I want it on the record that I am not spending $912 a square foot for this particular property. >> Taxpayers,
>> it's $42248. Yes, it's taxpayer funds, Commissioner Heatherington. We always have to remember that. And I will never spend that amount of money on a structure. And we are going to go to bid and we are going to find the best best company to
be able to execute this. That's it. >> Commissioner CS >> I'd just like to mention about how new construction projects vary dramatically in price depending on where you're building. you know, ocean
construction right along the beach is a totally different animal than anything else. Um, the uh the foundation issues, pile foundation that was mentioned by Mr. Donaldson.
Also, I think there's a lot of expense associated with building a building where you cook in the building like the the grease trap thing and all of that. That that's enormously expensive. And just the size of the project is it's always going to be more per square foot
when you're building a small building compared to some large thing somewhere else. Uh they're apples and oranges. You you can't compare the two of them. I had one other question about Selfie Splasher that I
wanted to mention. You know, when you ride by there, you think, "Oh, this is a place for kids to play. There are sliding boards. How cool is that?" Um, but most people don't really know what all goes on there. And the whole swim
meet thing. Uh, when I took a tour with you, selfish splash. Uh, I was really impressed with all that goes on with that. And the the thing that I thought about is my my nephew was real involved with travel baseball and there's like
this whole society of people who spend their whole weekends with their kids like for like a year just traveling all over the state getting hotel rooms playing ball on some field in Tampa and then one in Jacksonville
and and it's it's a really big thing and and the same thing goes on in in the swimming world and our facility is used for that purpose. Can you expand a little bit more on what all happens with that? >> Well, yeah. The competitive side of our
facility where we do our swim lesson program is is intense. You know, you have, you know, diving programs. We we host every high school swim meet we can for all three county high schools and also the Pine School. Um we have competitive um swimming programs there
every evening. there there there is no lanes left that are not unused. Every single lane of that facility is used almost every single night u during school hours. So it's it's a very busy facility. You know for example this summer we'll host a junior Olympics
program. We'll have a thousand swimmers from all over the state. Similar like as as I put in the presentation, the 40 million in economic impact since we've opened is a result of having 20 to 30 swim meets a year. The state swim and diving finals that we had for a decade
was great. But we also bring colleges every year, 10 different colleges a year that stay here for 10 nights and they got 20 30 a team. So there's a lot that goes on in that facility other than the com the recreational fund size that pays for the whole place hopefully most cases
most years. But it's the the vibrant community of aquatics uh from swim lessons to private to public to grant swim lessons to the children's services council. All of that program occurs there every day. Um and yes, there are parents that use competitive swim meets
similar travel sports to watch their kids u grow up and excel um in a great sport like swimming. So it's a great it's a great asset for the community. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Vargas. No, I I think that was an old.
>> Okay. Any further questions? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Now, we will take up our last agenda item, which is a presentation on Martin County impacts from the proposed property tax legislation. support.
>> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon, Commissioner. Stephanie Merley, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and I have our county administrator with me, Don Donaldson. >> Yes. To to join in on this uh important
important conversation. So I'll go through a little presentation and then we'll open it up for any kind of discussion or questions at the end. Um but we're here today as you all know um a week ago the Florida legislator had legislature had completed a special
session on property tax reform convened by Governor DeSantis in a two-day period from June 1st to June 2nd. And during the session, lawmakers passed a joint resolution proposing constitutional changes along with implementing legislation to support administration of
those changes. The proposed amendment would expand homestead related exemptions, adjust assessment limitations, and restrict how advalorum revenues may be used by local governments. The implementing legislation establishes the administrative framework for how these
changes would be applied. If approved by voters, the constitutional amendment will appear on the November 3rd, 2026 general election ballot and will require at least 60% approval to take effect with an effective date of January 1st, 2027. So passage of this amendment would
be realized within our fiscal year 2028 budget development. So I say that to you as I present these numbers. This is strictly on a revenue loss perspective. This does not contemplate any replacement revenues. This is just strictly the loss of revenue that Martin County will realize if in the event this
passes. So, first it would behoove all of us to know where exactly our property tax dollars go. So, for every um dollar that you give to Martin County Board of County Commissioner, a typical um unincorporated taxpayer um will see this
split. This is as of our current budget development that we're working on right now. So 65% of each dollar that you pay Martin County Bocc goes towards public safety which includes the Martin County Sheriff's Office, fire rescue, E911,
emergency management, and all of ocean rescue, hazmat, air medical, >> the jail, >> the jail. 23% goes towards general government expenditures which include all other constitutional officers like our supervisor of elections office, our
clerk of the circuit court, our property appraiser and our tax collector. The county's judicial system which includes our medical examiner, our public defender, guardian adidum, state attorney's office, victim services and
court administration. also county administration, the county attorney's office, our general services department, public buildings, information technology, and technology improvements. 6% goes toward roads, storm water, environmental expenditures, which
include all of the coastal items you spoke of earlier today. Um, and then 6% goes towards our culture and recreation type programs. It includes the Martin County Public Library system and our general park operations. So this slide shows the estimated
reduction in Martin County property tax revenues under the proposed homestead exemption scenarios. So based on current taxable values, the county could see revenue reductions ranging from approximately 42.5 million under the $150,000 exemption to more than 170
million under full homestead property tax elimination. So, a key consideration is that the proposed property tax changes will not affect all municipalities and counties equally. Martin Countyy's tax base is approximately 75% residential and a
significant portion of those properties are homesteaded. Martin County will likely experience a greater impact than commun than communities with larger commercial and industrial tax bases. So, it's important to note that these estimates reflect only the direct loss
of property tax revenue based on current values. They do not account for additional revenue reductions from lowering the nonhomestead cap from 10% to 5%. Nor do they include the impact of additional property owners who may qualify and apply for homestead
exemptions in the future. As a result, the actual fiscal impact could be greater than is shown here on this graph. And Miss Merley, what's the the uh timeline for the first 42.5 million, the second 75.7 million, and the full
homestead of 170, the >> 150,000 exemption realization of 42.5 million. We would this time next year, we will be doing those cuts for our fiscal year 2028 budget. >> Okay. And how about the next one? >> That would be the following year for the fiscal year 29 budget.
>> And the following year for Folic Homestead? That's our big unknown question. They have been given the ability to phase that in, but it's at an unknown period which I will discuss in the next slide. >> So, of course, uncertainty is the big
question here when it comes to property tax legislation. So, this slide highlights several areas of uncertainty in the recently enacted property tax legislation. So the bill creates ambiguity around eligible expenditures including unclear definitions across
seven um specified funding categories which may lead to inconsistent interpretation and implementation. Those seven categories are listed as public safety, judicial services, um corrections, infrastructure, public health, human services, and general
government operations. It also lowers the non-homestead assessment cap from 10 to 5%. Um, this may further constrain revenue growth and reduce flexibility for governments, particularly dur during periods of inflation. Um, making long-term
forecasting more difficult. This is a harder number for us to calculate right now based on current information, but I did see that the Florida Association of Counties had done preliminary analysis and for year one, based on this assessment cap, I think it was around $14 million for year one. Um in addition
to our property tax loss >> that was specific for Martin County >> for Martin County. Um the provision also changes the formulas to calculate um the roll back rate and allowable millage which may effectively lower the ceiling for revenue growth. Um local governments
may have less flexibility to adjust the millage rates in response to that inflation, population growth and increasing service demands. Um and finally, the legislation grants the legisl legislature broad authority to phase out the property taxes over
time without a defined timeline or clear parameters. Um adding additional uncertainty to long range fiscal planning. And so overall, these provisions just increase the uncertainty in revenue stability for budgeting purpose and for future fiscal outlooks.
And with that, that was a very short presentation, but I tried to give the highlights from a >> and and I think it's important to point out that the eligibility um uh expenditures also there's the legislature has flexibility to further
define what is eligible. they have specifically say to what can be but there's a sort of an an item there that other as approved by the county um which gives you sort of some flexibility in year one but it as I understand it there's a move that should it pass the
legislature would like to come in and define those um before immediately after passage as a as a special session potentially. So those are some of the things that would uh would likely be defined as we um if should this pass for
next year. Um and that's just before we get into questions I just wanted to point out sort of some ongoing strategies is is uh as Stephanie pointed out what we presented today was the uh the impact without any um changes to
your millillage or tax shift. Certainly there are a number of tools that the county has available that um in how we collect uh funds for services. You certainly heard an example of one previous to this and the successes of some of parks issues. But there's also
revenue sources like charging uh parking, you know, at at parks or and I think parks is probably one of the areas that unfortunately is most out there in terms of not specifically as an eligible item for um using advor funding for um
things that we do in parks department today like making the um ball fields um free to all youth sports, things like that would have to be examined. um a lot of fee fee for services. Um and as Stephanie pointed out that in some cases
even though it may be eligible um if if there isn't any ability to move your adorm at all in a tax shift um you won't have the revenue to fund the eligible item anyway and so you'll be having to look at different alternatives. So at
this point in time um uh we're we're preparing um I think our recommendation is to prep prepare two analysises. One is as has already been stated here which is what happens if you just simply left your millillage as it is today. What
does that look like in a revenue sums? as we're going through this working with our county attorney and how the language is spre um is to also develop a serenario on what what kind of tax shift would it look like if you modified your
military. So um which I think is an important question that I understand a lot of the public are concerned about is what what is a tax shift and that tax shift comes in our mind in in two different areas. One is actual property tax collected and then it's the fee for
services potential that you would be applying to the various services we already provide at no additional cost to the public like parking at beaches or um uh a fire fee or other MSBU type of um
uh actions or point of sale type of um do you charge uh people to enter the library? Those kinds of things. how do you how do you fund the services that that you want to serve? And then also um and so that's I think for this point of our exercise in better in educating the
public is to is to develop those two two different scenarios on how it might impact at this point in time. That's that is our recommendation. Um, of course, we'll be bringing forward you a budget for next year that um we're we're
um uh looking to keep uh a flat. Um but um should it pass that's when the real work of terms of how you transition between November and July of the following year of um a combination of uh
an u of um uh you know shifting um um how you collect fee for services and reduction of services and and that's a very painful pro process that we're prepared to do. But at this time, we're looking at it from a much broader
perspective. Um, and just simply our our main goal is to is to educate the public so that when they make a vote, uh, they're well informed. And and so finally, I'll just end it with um our our request from you is to authorize us
to prepare a hot topics page on our website um that um contemplates both of those analysis. One is uh without a tax shift and then another analysis with um the types of tax shifts that you might
might occur uh should the advorum be changed or fee for example services and before we put some of those out there we would meet with you all uh to at least give you a heads up of what we're what we're looking at and that will open it up to questions.
>> Commissioner Campy. >> Thank you ma'am. Um I appreciate that summary. obvious a lot of this is fast moving >> uh and just happening but I'd also want to caution us as an organization not to just say if we don't get the money
through these ad valorum taxes that we would shift it into different ways of collecting the fee. I think the message needs to be clear that um there'll be belt tightening uh new fiscal we're relatively uh strong
fiscally conservative community to start with so it makes it harder. We've done this exercise in the past in regards to um trying to look for the lowhanging fruit of excess, but I think it's important that our residents hear that we're also talking about not just
saying, well, if we're not going to collect it this way, we're going to collect it in a different way. I think the message from Tallahassee uh to us and from us to the residents is that we'll do belt tightening. We're not just going to just look to make up the
money that's lost in some other ways. I think that would scare our residents. I don't think that's the the message that you were hoping to to convey today because I certainly don't want to be part of that. It sounds like well, you know, we still need the
money. So if this is a goes to the referendum and the and the residents speak, it's also about bringing budgets down through Miss Merley, you're the perfect person to lead your team of experts with our
overall staff to find ways to do it. We've done in the past, but I don't want it to sound like, well, we won't collect it over here. We'll collect it some other way or we'll start cutting all your services. That's not the message I'm looking to send. uh we'll do the the bite belt tightening, we'll do the efficiencies,
we'll do the right sizing of the organization, and that's what the residents can expect from us. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Vargas. >> Okay. So, um you'll never make up this money on parking fees.
You just won't. That's part of the charm of Martin County. Slide right into a parking spot. you don't have to fumble around or I know in Miami Dade County my stomping grounds you can do it on an app and all of that it's costly
um and to eliminate services no you got to reduce expenses I do this in my business reduce expenses nothing is off the table nothing and this is the moment of reckoning
so um I feel that I want our constituents, our taxpayers to hear us this morning. We're going to do what is in their best interest, not in our best interest. We are there to serve. We are here to serve them, not the other way around.
>> Commissioner Caps, >> Miss Merley, you you had one more page >> in your presentation. I was wondering if you could put that up. >> Sure. Before I start on that, I thought I would mention one general thought and that and that is that when you're
approaching this subject, there's a dilemma. If you talk about it, you're an alarmist and a fear-mongerer. And on the other side, if you don't talk about it, you didn't warn the residents
of the consequences of things. So, in the coming days, this board is going to need to be involved in educating the public. We're not advocating. We're not saying telling the voters what to do, but it is our job
to let them know what would happen. We don't want people to get blindsided uh and shocked at the consequences of a vote. And this is a constitutional amendment. This is not a piece of legislation that can be
reversed or changed or tweaked. You know, this this is permanent. This is forever. And uh the consequences here, like if if this were a business venture, uh this is this is grave. You know, this is the consequences here are
really big. And I' I'd like us to look just at year one at the $150,000 exemption and look to look at the red numbers here that we don't have a single dollar for
just getting started at the 150. The next year it's 250. The next year it's probably 350 and the next year 450, 550. And then eventually people who are living in $40 million homes are not
paying any taxes either. So it it'll and and and at that point we lose $170 million. But just look at the very first year of the things that we do not have any money for. Libraries,
uh administration, that that's everything in this brick building. the the salaries, the the the things that we the money we use to run the government. There's nothing, not a dollar, uh parks and recreation, there's no
money for parks, nothing. Public works, which includes mosquito, environmental, real property, zero, not a dollar. the county attorney's office. We have no
money to run the county attorney's office. I hope you guys are ready to work for grat. >> And then grants and aids. No money for that. This is in year one. Uh I would really encourage our
residents to study these red numbers. And uh in year two, what are you adding to that? You're adding capital maintenance. uh of $28 million. You're adding
>> $8 million for the general services department and you're adding $7 million for technology infrastructure and you're adding it department operating another $5 million just in
year two. uh that kind of eliminates five or six more giant departments of the government. This is not this is really revolutionary and the way government services are
uh provided for our residents. Uh, and you know, I would just urge our residents to to study it hard and we'll honor whatever conclusions the voters come to and
uh we will adjust as needed and uh we uh we'll do what we have to do. But this is not a 10 or 20% tweak in in a budget. This is a complete upending of the way
county government has done all across the state. Please address reduced flexibility in millillage rage set settings. That's kind of >> this it's a pretty complex um calculation currently when millage rates
are being set. Um there is a formula essentially that contemplates um what you raised your millage rate last year and in juxtaposition to the maximum millage cap of 10 um with a little bit of CPI adjustments and
allowances for new construction. So, we're still kind of dissecting what that language means, but effectively in periods of um downturn, your roll back rate essentially is higher than your current millage rate. So, if we saw a
sudden reduction of 25% of our tax base, our roll back rate will then become um higher, but then it'll essenti effectively become our ceiling. So in periods of higher valuation increases
essentially what happens is that roll back rate becomes our maximum millage rate rather than the 10. Um so we're still kind of working that through and seeing what that truly means. Um and exactly what kind of adjustments can be made on a year-to-year basis. There's
provisions. There's already stringent voting requirements. This seems to further make those requirements um more stringent. So, we're really just trying to understand what that might mean at this point. >> So, the um voting requirements start at the roll back rate and at a roll back
rate you were able to pass a budget with a 3-2 vote and between the roll back rate and up to 10% um you need a supermajority vote and anything over a 10% increase over the
roll back you require a unanimous vote. and the uh expenditures that Commissioner Caps was just talking about, those are the ones that become non-discretionary because they're non-essential. The legislature has said,
"Okay, by year three, um there are $123 million in your budget that are no longer fundable because they're non-essential." >> And even if we had the money, we couldn't spend it because those services are not essential. And and
commissioners, if I could just wait one one point on that chart because I it is a very high level gross approximation and not to be followed by our staff as or the public as an exact um targeting of how you would reduce the budget
because simply there are items above the red line that you could shift to the other. So I just want to make sure that we're also but it is a clear example of of the types of services that weren't initially contemplated by the
legislature and how they would be be reduced. you know, things like state revenue sharing is not an avalorum tax and you could, you know, potentially shift some items along, but still that $31 million has to come out and it doesn't
contemplate any inflationary increases and fuel increases, things like that that are going on um for the next year that you also have to account for. So the the issue is is that while I agree that there is a a significant amount of
belt belt tightening, we have not foreseen in any scenario that if you take $31 million that you could do it simply by belt tightening. There would be elimination of a service or implementation of some other fee for
service that could contemplate keeping some portion of that service alive. And also the $ 31 million shortfall in year one also doesn't include the uh non-homestead assessment cap of dropping
from 10 to five. That's another 11. >> That that was estimated at 14 million for Martin County. >> Okay. >> Commissioner Heatherington. I've had a lot of questions from businesses on that non-h homestead um
cap too because there are a lot of businesses that were nervous that you were going to shift that over um and they were going to be paying paying the lion share. And I think it was interesting that you noted that 75% of our tax revenue comes from
residential homes. So while it's going to impact the uh counties very differently, I think that would be good to have a comparison of other counties too of how that uh impact because for instance I've seen numbers from Miami
Dade which has far more commercial revenue where their impacts and maybe some others throughout the state are not going to they're not going to feel the impacts because they're not 75% residential. they have far more commercial collecting revenue. I think
that's important to to illustrate that as well. >> Yes. The other thing that Miami Dade would have too is a significant number of properties over 250,000. >> So that also um limits the impact you have. I think part of the conversation
that confuses folks too is the assessed value increase limited to 10%. does not take into contemplation of what any board, I'm not saying this one does with their actual millage rate. You still have the ability to change your millage
rate and that is a tax shift. And so where you have a large so if you even if you reduced it let's say some amount maybe not all 31 million but whatever amount less than 31 million you do and you increase your millage rate the
the tax the the shift would be on the commercial and um and non-homesteaded properties and the same is true of even if you don't change the millage rate. So who's paying property taxes? It's those that are have values more than 250,000
or significantly more and uh the commercial and industrial properties. So, so if your your neighbor um may not be paying any taxes and uh and those who just moved here or or it's a second home will be paying all the taxes. So, that
that t that tax shift is current even if you don't change your millage rate. You may collect the same as you did last year from a particular homeowner, but the tax shift is happening no matter what. Now, the magnitude of the tax shift also depends on how this board and
others boards decide to vote on the millage rate independent of that 10% tax. That just simply means their valuation is changed. Even if their valuation changed by um zero over the next 10 years, we so we were flat. there
was no there's no we we were into a kind of a stagnant time. Um certain commissions could continue to increase their millage over that 10 until they hit their 10 mil cap. Right? So that so that shift could still continue to happen. So the the
conversation is complicated by how valuations are calculated, what the homestead exemption is, and the and the ability or limitations by voting that are implied on the um the on the tax rate. And then your tax rate is
influenced by the 10 mil cap depending upon whether it's a general fund or an MSTU. And I know I just probably really complicated the conversation for a lot of people, but that's that's the nuance of of of of what how this will actually
infect. And then there's the nuance of what you do for for fees or other services or elimination of them. Um that's that's the challenge. >> Commissioner Heatherington, >> I just had a thought. I didn't see it in the legislation, but did it did it um
reference portability of homestead? >> It did not. So that would stay into effect whatever is there. >> Commissioner Campy, >> I travel for work all over the country and I know that this topic is big elsewhere. Not that other states are
looking to do it. There are only seven states that don't have a personal income tax, Florida being one of them. And I know that the governor's plan was to make Florida the first one to have the ability to eliminate this level of property tax. So potentially um a
consequence of this will be that it'll make Florida even more appealing to folks that live in other high tax states um regulatory states, you know, of from the north. Uh there's been a huge influx
since the pandemic for freedom issues, but then financially a lot of folks that look to come. It'll put continue to put a lot of pressure on the real estate market, the rental market, and the folks that own property that have yet to
develop it when there's a continued push. Because if you live in just, for example, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, California, Illinois, uh, and you're feeling really the burden of taxation from your state and local
government, where would it be great to go? and we are already feeling not just in Martin County but everywhere the the pressure of development and real estate uh to push. So that's something that
we'd have to take into consideration when you know I know it's interesting when the city of Stewart or the county we win awards on the best place to live and the best oceanfront and the best coastal community. Well, people in, you
know, in the Midwest and winter are reading those magazines and like, "Honey, I know where we should move. We should move to Florida." And maybe more particularly, we should move here, which is terrific. A lot of us are transplants. However,
this will also be another big potential selling point for folks that live elsewhere to want to come here. If if I could add since you've spurred on my memory of other things in the bill, um if you move here, it takes five years
for you before you can qualify for the full exemption. >> That's correct. >> Unless you move here before January 1st. >> So, uh so >> you could see a real flood of folks looking to come here in the next 6 months. And the other thing is is that the state of Florida right now is a very
progrowth state and and and anytime it's a >> state >> state and you're rewarded for high growth. So if you approve a lot of new development, you will get a lot of new taxes coming in. Um um and you can pay
for some of these services under the false sense security that it will last cuz it doesn't cuz it all kicks in. So anyway, I at least I personally, you know, this is your county administrator's opinion, it does reward high growth communities uh by helping them to continue to pay for new services
without um with dealing with the roll back condition. Um adding more tax base to your to your community is rewarded >> and for us that's not a great option either because none of us are interested in starting to >> I don't think it is either. I'm just thinking that that is consequence. Yeah,
like Commissioner Cap said, >> we have to be able to put it out there in a neutral way for people to just make their own determinations. >> Some people will see this as a fantastic opportunity to lower their expenses and other people will look further down the road and say, "What does this all mean?"
I mean, I thought Commissioner Caps hit the nail on the head. We will do what the people request of us to do. >> Yep. >> That's right, Commissioner Caps. >> Few other observations about it. Um you know in some of the earlier bills
that were in the legislature there was a carveout for public safety and we saw on the first slide here that public safety is 65% of our adorum
and public safety would be defined as sheriff and fire rescue right and >> emergency >> right which is part of fire rescue. jail. >> Well, the other it's been the tradition and the history here to really try to
uh award the requests of those departments and do our best to make that a top priority. U but when you're looking at the numbers on the last page here, that's impossible. You know, uh we will
have to look real hard at those numbers as well. and and the public safety carveout did not make it into this bill. U there is no carveout for that and
uh they're subject to cuts as well and they'll have to be um probably rather dramatic cuts. You know, we need to let people know that. Um, another thought that was in some of the earlier bills was that we were going to have this
trust fund established by the state where maybe we we could go and get some grants or some help if we have these shortfalls and stuff. The trust fund thing did not make it into this bill either. There is no trust fund,
>> but that's for fiscally constrained. >> Yeah. But but it doesn't even exist for fiscal fiscally constrained counties either. >> It does not now, but that's what it was for. I'm aware of that. >> So there there's nothing for the counties to try to appeal to uh to get
to get help um either. That's not in the bill. And then another thing I would like to remind people of is that so much of what we get to do in the county government requires a small local match. And the, you know, when we hear about
the grants every meeting, uh, that Miss Merly tells us about and, um, you know, it's always based upon a local investment, you know, 10 or 20 or 30% or something.
When you're running on fumes, you don't you don't have you can't scratch up those few dollars and the whole project just doesn't get done. you know, whatever you're looking to get a grant for, it's out the window because you you can't scratch up a few dollars
to to pay that uh initial investment in into the thing. So, um you know, the there's a lot lot to look at here, a lot to consider. Um this is uh this is really big and and a
humongous change in and uh the way counties would operate. Well, like we said before, we'll do whatever the voters decide, but we don't want to be accused of not letting people know repeatedly uh what
the consequences would be. May I say that my larger annual bill at my house is my homeowners insurance. I wish they would have stayed. I get the the tax one, but to take their eye off the homeowner's insurance
uh issue is much greater. Mine's over $10,000 for my old house that's wood. And that's a harder nut to crack than the property taxes. I'd like to, you know, lower them both. But I hope this doesn't they don't feel and remember
this is a county budget issue. It's not a state budget issue. The state's budget is completely intact. I wish they would have in conjunction to addressed insurance homeowners insurance issues because that's the runaway one.
>> Miss Williams, would you like to address us on this matter? >> Absolutely. >> Please join us. >> Thank you. Thank you for having me. >> Got it. my heart. >> You got to start at the mic first. >> Oh, okay. Let me get >> Yeah,
>> let me get back to my timer. >> You get a few seconds. >> Oh, I have to wait till you get back. >> Oh. Oh, okay. >> Shall I start now? >> Sure. >> You could have started. >> Thank you everyone for all that you do
this budget period question. I'm sorry I came here late. Thank you for answering my questions if you can. This is directly from the state. This amendment is state regulated. So that means that the county has no say so or will the
residents be able to change and say no, we don't want this at all. >> It's a statewide referendum. >> Okay. So h how are you all going to do this and still stay fluent and keep the library as it is and
the fire department as it is and the police department as it is and the parks as it is and the government services for you know like the swimming as it is and the golf courses the beautifification
the road. How are we going to maintain an 2.3.5 million just for public safety? This is a really safe county. So, how you can't even answer that right now. I
understand. But it's devastating to think that it's more important for some homeowners to get this break that's going to decimate the whole county. Is it really worth it? And so is that going
to be a question on the referendum? Can we say nay? No. Get rid of it. Um, and then the last statement is I'm Can I get a copy of this so I can look at it and understand what you're talking
about? I only had 10 15 minutes of listening to you. Yes, you all have a you're going to make me cry. How are you going to do this? I understand you may have a business, but this is beyond owning a business. This
is saying the people like me and I'm going to use me an example who can't get a business but love the luxury that's available to us i.e. the library i.e. the training of the aviation i.e. the parks the
beautifification of fishing all of that is going to be taxed and that's going to leave me out of a lot of stuff. So anyway, amen. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any further comments? Thanks, Miss
Merly. Thanks, Mr. Donaldson. >> You're okay. >> Are you all right with us starting a um a web page, a hot topic to >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Just just just objective though. No fear-mongering. >> Show the options.
>> Let's not do that. Okay. >> Just the facts. >> Just the facts. That's it. But it's not all about just we'll either raise additional money or cut services that people love. There'll be a there'll be a more >> comprehensive. We're going to look at both sides. Yeah.
>> And thank you. >> Otherwise, we're doing ourselves a disservice. >> Yep. We agree. >> Would anyone else from the public like to address us? >> All right. >> I would like to make comment now comments. Okay. Um I um I've taken a lot
of time to look at the paperwork that was presented for the P3 project, the operations center, and I want to make some comments on this. Um I want to talk about the key taxpayer risks for Martin
County operations facility project. So the documents that I looked at were the CMS conceptual estimate, the comprehensive development agreement, CDA, the halfsent sales tax revenue bond series 2026 final numbers and the county's white
paper, well the one we spoke about this morning uh P3 detailed page and it shows a project that's promoted as efficient and cost-saving via a P3. However, it is riddled with unknown risks. And here they are. I'm going to
make four points. The total taxpayer costs significantly exceeds the $74 million headline figure. So, the bond reality of that, because we had to send out IUS on this, the county issued 59.685
million PAR bonds with premium generating 64.47 million proceeds. However, that total debt service is 94,984160. So that's the principal amount floated
plus 35.3 million interest over 20 years through 2046. And I think taxpayers should be made aware of the true cost of this project. It is not the headline figure. It's more. Number two, cost overruns and
change order exposure. The CDA, that's one of the documents I referred to initially, sets the 74 million guaranteed maximum price except for approved change orders. That's on page 26. And the CDA on pages approximately 13
through 14 and 49 states that the county administrator can approve amendments without BOCC approval that increase those expenditures provided the increase does not exceed 10% of the original contract value so as not to exceed $499,999.99
each. There are no limits on the number of change orders under half a million dollars that Mr. Donaldson can approve. The CS CMS estimate shows 76.66 million probable cost including a 20%
contingency plus a 6% escalation. So the qualifications note material costs could change substantially. We just had a discussion about that earlier. and it excludes items like geotechnical studies, security guards, and certain unknowns. How much more are
these items going to cost us? There's no longer a fixedpric contract. A 20% contingency is excessive in any standard, any standard. A normal contractor contingency is 3 to 5%. This
is much higher, 20%. and lenders would reject a 20% contingency clause in any hot minute. So taxpayers are ultimately the backs stop via bonds and change orders. The 18-month timeline promotion
assumes no major add-ons, but the contract and the estimate allow them. So on page 26 of the CDA, which I referenced before, exhibit C1 context, the total value is described as an amount not to exceed $74 million except
for any approved change orders. Just talked about that guaranteed maximum price. Th this is a guaranteed maximum price structure. How? However, it also has an built-in flexibility for change orders. I remember our staff saying to the contrary, "But didn't the staff say
that there were not going to be any change orders?" I do remember that as they sat here. Timeline mismatch and delay risks. Number three, the county promoted an 18-month buildout to commissioners to us. However, the contract provides multiple avenues for
extensions which could extend beyond that. So the CMS which I referred to originally that's conceptual estimate escalation allowance of 4.34 million is based on a 28-month completion and
delays beyond 18 months erode the faster cheaper value proposition by increasing interest cost that means more time carrying the bonds so we have to rent the money for longer and may trigger additional change orders or escalation.
The CDA, which is the comprehensive development agreement, explicitly allows the developer extensions of time for delays arising from causes beyond the developers reasonable control. That's on page 26. And there are related sections to that unex excusable delays.
Uh this includes standard force measure like acts of God, owner directed changes, etc. Liquidated damages are waved for approved excusable delays. One other thing I wanted to ask, where are the building plans? Are they
available for the public to view? Number four, lack of the owner's representative. For a project this size and complexity of Martin County's operations facility, best practice and strong risk management
strongly favor using an independent owner's representative. Many public entities voluntarily hire them precisely for transparency and oversight and these are reasons taxpayers are raising locally.
Yet, our county canled its RFQ, that's request for for that service for an independent owner's representative and decided to handle the role inhouse to save approximately $500,000 on this major $74 million taxpayer
funded project. This is particularly concerning because the contract allows multiple change orders and amendments up to half a million dollars without our oversight, the BOCC. Who exactly at the county will serve as the owner's rep and what are their specific qualifications and experiences
managing largecale construction projects of this magnitude? We don't have answers to that. We don't have answers to that. That's critical. Cancelling the RFQ after it was after it was issued raises legitimate questions about transparency and accountability,
especially on this unsolicited P3 proposal that bypass traditional competitive bu building. Public trust is eroding. I hear from people all the time about this and an independent third-party owner's representative remains the standard safeguard.
Our taxpayers deserve to protect against cost overruns, delays, and change orders. So, this is to my fellow commissioners. Given the documentation we now have, the comprehensive development agreement, the
CMS conceptual estimate, and the final bond numbers, I have serious concerns about the true long-term cost and oversight of the operations facility project. The CDA clearly states on page 26 that
it is a 74 million guaranteed maximum price except for any approved change orders. So on page 13 and 14 and 49 that further authorizes the county administrator Mr. Donaldson to approve
multiple amendments each up to $499.99 with no apparent limit on the number of such approvals. The CMS estimate already projects 76.66 66 million probable cost with a 20% contingency plus escalation based on a 28-month timeline, not the
18-month buildout that was promised and presented to us. So here here's a final question. If staff previously told us there'd be no change order and this was tightly controlled fixedpric project, why does the contract explicitly build in so much
flexibility for cost increases and timeline extensions that taxpayers will ultimately have to pay 94.98 million in total bond debt service. Why is this? Where is the answer to this?
And why did we cancel the RFQ for an independent owner's representative? This is standard safeguard for a project of this size and complexity, especially when our administrator can now unilaterally approve nearly half a million dollars at a time. So, it could
be multiple without our oversight. That's a question that needs to be answered. And who exactly is the owner's representative? What are their qualifications for managing this $74 million plus construction project? And
how will we as a BOCC ensure that our taxpayers are protected from excessive change orders and delays? So my fellow commissioners, how comfortable are each of you going forward with this project after knowing this information which I have studied
and you are welcome to do also on your own. >> Any answers from anybody here? >> All right, relax. Commissioner Campy, >> thank you for that presentation. That information was also because you had
requested it of Mr. Donaldson was available to each of us. I have a printed version, I guess we all do, and I got the electronic version and I did also go through all of the pages of it. Uh, and I did read your questions to Mr.
Donaldson, and I read the staff's responses. So, I thought that was a very productive exercise. So, thank you. Um, there's a lot to unpack there in regards to giving our administrator the ability
to approve uh up to a half a million dollar f uh issues, >> change order, >> change orders or, you know, whatever. In this particular case, we also allow him to do that on a day-to-day basis. >> It's from our purchasing manual. We
copied it from the purchasing manual. >> That's what I was going to say. Uh we allow that all the time on anything. This is a very large organization. Hundreds of millions of dollars. Thousands of what how many employees do
we have now Mr. Donaldson? 1,200. >> Yeah. Roughly 1,200 >> 1,200 employees. Uh and the budget is north of 700 million. >> Yes. >> So we're a $700 million organization with nearly 1,200 employees. We have
many people that fall into all of the professional specialty categories. When you mention a owner's representative, if this was a private organization that had owners that were in manufacturing or anyone
else that's built these kind of projects, this is a large one. But that being said, most people on a day-to-day basis are running their companies. We have an advantage. Now we can agree to disagree but we have an advantage of having professional staff within
engineering within legal within public works within environmental within uh mechanical you know that is in-house experts uh across all of the different uh categories.
So I don't believe that we were necessarily and if if I'll make my comments and Mr. Donaldson can uh agree or disagree with what I'm saying or clarify what I'm saying. We weren't going to say it's going to be George Stokus, even though that would be a good
choice. Uh it's going to be our internal team that has uh the responsibility of overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of projects across all of the different categories countywide every single year.
This is a large single scale single item project as I mentioned this morning and I was all in favor of continuing the process of informing our residents uh helping them understand uh and clarify the
different concerns that people have. I didn't I I hear your concerns. I don't disagree with your concerns. It's a philosophical way of doing it. I had mentioned that in all of my previous experiences, a multi-bid
proposal is what we do on most of the situations. But that doesn't mean that we should dismiss an option that 47 states take advantage of in the cu in the US as well as multiple countries do. It might be a new way to do it. Uh I
like transparency. I like our residents to be able to ask questions of us. Uh when one did both through social media platforms and and reached out to me directly uh to be honest when he called
me we were supposed to get together with the staff uh and I hadn't heard from him and then he called me and said I'm available today at 2:00 to meet with your senior staff to discuss this. It was 100 p.m. I said, "Well, you're not
really giving me a lot of time to put the proper people in place." I called Mr. Donaldelson and he came over at 2:00 and our staff, Miss Merly, Miss Elder, Mr. Donaldson, Sean, uh, anybody else?
That was it. And went through all of his concerns for more than an hour, couple hours. >> I was not in attendance, but >> Okay. But I spoke to you afterwards then. All right. So the key proponents that could give him the advice did so that was helpful uh in terms of do I
feel comfortable? I'm very interested in hearing all of the information that we can present to the residents. The other thing that to take into consideration was the two points that I had made when we originally passed it 4 to one. One
was that remember this is a consolidation. I hear some of the information out there that says, "Well, fire rescue and the and the sheriff's office are already combined. Why would you need to do more?" Or I don't think the information that's been presented
uh through social media has really defined exactly what the scope of the project is. We're talking about consolidating nearly all except in unique circumstances of our far-flung uh
maintenance services facilities and we can ask staff to present exactly what they are. I think we're going to need to maybe have this conversation again. There are locations on Indian Street at Halpedio and Indian Town and Hope Sound
and Jensen and Palm City. There will be a full consolidation. So what we need to take into consideration is what will eliminating and consolidating and making it much more efficient the duplication of services that we've had no choice but
to have what will that save us the taxpayers and that savings is from the day that the facility opens forever. So you have to look at that and factor that in. Then my point was that those locations
where possible should be put up through our system, put up for sale and sold back to the private sector, back onto the tax roles. So start to whatever that is and we can ask staff to at least give us some preliminary numbers on what that
would look like that you know when we sell property like that that is really very uh centrally located around the different areas of the county what's that worth that comes off the top. Um
and then the efficiency of instead of having you know supervisors and foremen and managers at the multiple locations in the different departments there can be a an economy of scale in in
employment in leadership in services. So instead of having to effectively do the business of the county of over multiple locations when they're all brought together, what is this employment and the HR savings that can also come off of
it? The efficiencies and the environmental benefits of the building, how will that work? And one of my deciding factors is I had the opportunity to tour the Indian Town High School during its construction. and I
was involved with the original donation from the Johnston family to build it. I remember his concern that he was old and wanted to make sure that the project was done efficiently and quickly so that he could be there and that to me helped tip
the scale uh in terms of could this work. There was concern that the original company that we've selected is not a Martin County based company. Well, if you're looking for a very specific technical type of uh companies that do this type of work, if one doesn't exist
in your home county, what are you supposed to do? But my final point was is that I asked them and our staff to not just give us lip service, that they would hire local subs to work on these projects that that would genuinely
happen. And I've already heard that that has started to be a process that a lot of our very well-known um contractors that are based in Martin County have already started the process of engaging this as a possibility. So
that's where I stand. My colleagues might have differences uh to add into that. I hear your point. I appreciate your perspective. We might not always agree, but I'm glad you're sitting up here so that we can always uh hear what
we should be doing on behalf of our residents. >> Commissioner Vargas, >> I appreciate you all pining on this again. You've been here how long on this commission and you knew about this project? You told us 20 years ago? You've been here 16. Why did you not put
money aside every year for this project? Instead, we have to You can shake your head. No. Instead, we as taxpayers have to go out and pay for money. It is not free. The numbers do not lie. And I'm holding up a piece of paper. I've done
my studying. We need an independent overseer, not somebody who's employed and answers to our county administrator. We do not have the expertise in this building. And if you say you're doing this to save half a million dollars, but at what expense? We were told I was
here, you were here, the others were here. No change orders. However, that is not stated in the document. This is wrong to go forward with this without complete independent oversight. We do
not even have building plans. How can somebody put a price tag on something? And furthermore, industrial space per square foot is 200 to 250. It's not $533 which was written down on the schematic
here. So again, I'm asking my fellow commissioners to look your constituents in the eye and say, "Yeah, I'm fine about this to overspend by more than double your hard-earned tax money." This
is not sound. This is not sound whatsoever. This doesn't make sense. We just had a whole presentation, Miss Merly, Mr. Donaldson, about belt tightening, and we're very happy to spend $533 a square foot. We don't even
have the basics. This doesn't even make sense. So, you know, if you're going to stay mute, you have answered your constituents. I have done my studies. I have hard numbers. You cannot dispute the facts. You can be
emotional and talk about selling other properties and move over here and how everybody has to come together and leadership and team. I understand that. I've lived overseas in three countries and I've owned many residential
properties and other commercial properties. So, I know what I'm talking about. I have the numbers. Happy to supply it to anybody. I even refer to the pages. So, I've done your homework for you. I'm speaking to every commissioner here. Let your conscience be your guide on
this one. >> So, Commissioner Vargas, if you want to kill this project, what's your alternative? What are your options to proceed? >> The alternative is to sit down and look reasonably at another property that doesn't consume
$533 a square foot. We need to have three bids. I do this in my personal life. I said that initially, not just one bid and say this is a swell deal. This is a terrible deal. So this is what I would urge us to do.
We are not playing with our money. If you want, if you have a family foundation, Mr. Campy, that's fine. But this is other people's money and we are the guardians of this money, especially in these times, too. So, I'd say three bids and then we'll see where we are. We
know what the numbers are and we need to hire somebody independent outside of these four walls to be able to oversee this project. There are many other ideas I have also to get this on the straight and narrow. >> Mr. Donaldson.
>> So, it it was my decision to um pull the uh independent oversight, if you will, based upon we do have a few unique staff that have had the the the experience of dealing with large complex projects like this that we can put full-time on this
project. We have a gentleman who's done done this for year. We have a whole team as Mr. Campy described. Um and so a lot of the um construction management companies charge a percentage on your um on your um uh on the total contract
cost. And we felt that we had um you know hiring qualified staff in today's market is is is tough. The the private sector has the same difficulty and we have a few staff that are really capable of doing that and then we can bring
their resumes and their things to you and provide those to you. So I felt that it was in our best interest to to have um our staff oversee the project. It is a um u uh a project not to exceed. There
won't be change orders. There would be only a change order that we bring to you if there was something additional that you wanted or we wanted and it would come to you. We're not going to do uh uh it is a not to exceed contract and we're we're that's that's what we're looking for. That's that's the whole point. And
um um while our purchasing manual does allow up to 10% and that's the total cost, it does you could have you know lots of little change orders once you hit 10%. They always have to come to the board. But in this particular case um certainly um uh you know I there is no
change order is going to come to you without uh um um uh your approval. Often times we have change orders that are negative. this particular case the key point is to getting all the components in that development agreement that we
asked for includes not just buildings but fueling depots um fuel contain the whole not just the deep not just the the pads but the entire system the electronics the the computer system the pumps the same thing with mosquito
control all of the facilities our vehicle maintenance has lift um devices it's not just a shell of a building um it's a storm water treatment area, all the different things that go along with our traffic system, our whole traffic management system, which we have DOT
says one of the best in the whole district, all that fiber and computer system is being put there. So, it's got a whole new all those computer systems and all those things that go along with those attendance facilities are all going into that that facility out there.
I uh would not have recommended this project to you if I didn't feel it was a good project and good value. will continue to provide the education. I believe that the public wants to hear more about how all this works. The total financing dollars. Yes. Anytime you financing something, the total cost goes
up. You buy $100,000 home and you you get some, you know, uh 7% interest rate, you're not paying $100,000. If it's a 30-year mortgage, you're paying $300 or $400,000. That's that is absolutely true. Pay as you go is always cheaper.
But the challenge with pay as you go is the inflationary costs in between as you deal with the cost of materials and and all the other things that we've seen come up. Yes, it would have been great to build this right after the great recession or during it. Uh but we also
that's the time when you didn't have money. Um so um it is it is a challenge. It's been a challenge for 26 years. You know um um during the hurricanes we built the traffic center there. Uh and and I've said this story before that um
um there was reluctance to allow us to build that traffic facility cuz we were going to be moving off the airport soon. Well, that was in 2005 and here it is uh 20 21 years later and we we and now the seriousness of the part 13 and other
issues at the airport require that we got to get off the airport. We went through extensive times going through the property acquisition. we can produce all of the analysis to look for that. And also it's a it's not just a industrial building. It's all the
materials where we store our our uh mast arms for our traffic division, all the um the uh the the groundup asphalt that you take off a road or the the uh fill material and the other things that storm water uses and and all the all the host
of things um that are going on there. And as Commissioner Campy mentioned, it does allow us to the board's decision to sell properties that we're no longer using. So, we'll provide all of that. I understand the public's concern about
how, you know, it is a unique process. I I I um I still feel confident it is the it is an excellent means. It is the fastest way to to to get this project done, and I believe it's also the least cost method to do it. Um uh hopefully we
can uh I can convince Miss Vargas and those others that that it is a good methodology. I understand mistrust but um uh uh what is important to note is that you know um the questions you bring up uh I think are are reasonable
questions and what's social media is bringing up and uh and we'll address those. Are there things that during the process that we can do to help better? If you guys ultimately doesn't matter the cost and you think that it is a means to we can still reissue that RFP
and have a u have a firm um do construction management oversight. Essentially what we're doing now is we have a project management team and then you'll have private contractors that are going to take you know geotechnical samples and all the other things that go
into being able to certify that what we purchased is exactly what we get. So, um it is uh um uh it is I think a a good project and u I'll do what I can to educate everybody as we go through. Uh
and I last thing is that if you want any change order that happens um you know even for a dollar I don't mind bringing them to the board. >> Commissioner Vargas. >> No, Mr. Campy was first. >> That's fine. >> Um M
>> Mr. Donaldson, I think that I appreciate you just giving us your narration on the pros and cons or the benefits of the project. It's helpful, >> but probably not u complete enough. Yeah,
>> I would make a recommendation that um beyond the video that I had mentioned this morning after hearing and the the the pounding of the dis, we need to have an agenda item where we do a recap of what we've done. Uh we need to hear from
our financial folks, the bond folks on how that worked. We need to hear from Miss Merly. We'll need to hear from you. We'll need to hear from the uh department heads that are involved and we need to have uh PowerPoint so as a visual to show each of the departments
that will be moving to this facility where they're located. Uh you just ran off right off the top of your head about masked arms and mosquito control. I think it's important when one of us up here is as passionate as we're hearing
um for the rest of us and our public to hear what we have had the opportunity to hear to get a little bit of the history of where we've been. Uh if you don't know uh the different site selections, I
remember Commissioner Herd was very concerned there was property along uh Willoughby that we looked at. We need to have since there's new folks here and in the community and there is uh enough serious uh questioning and concern. I
don't think this is going to be like an eb and tide uh issue uh that will just go away. It's big money. uh it's got a lot of confusion in the in the community. So I would make a recommendation that we have a uh agenda item that brings us through
the process. What happened historically, how this process came about, why you selected it, who else has used it beyond the Indiantown High School. Uh we need to reassure and inform our public so that we don't have this lopsided kind of
um board. I wouldn't say that we need to do this in every specific case, but the dollar amount that's being discussed and the the novelty of this new approach, even though it's legal, I know some people said just because it's legal is
not the only bar that we need to um climb over. So, I think we need to have a more uh thorough uh review of how this went. Not that I might come out on the other side at a different point of view,
but let's hear it again. So that we four of us, five of us have had the opportunity to hear it. Four had agreed that it was the right approach. But if the public is not aware enough, then and Commissioner Vargas is going to continue to beat the drum, which is absolutely
her prerogative, then let's have it. I'm not uh embarrassed of the process. I think once people get a chance to see it, are you going to convince everybody that it's the right strategy? No. But we need to convince more people than we have. Commissioner Vargas, on this
schematic, it shows $63 million here. It's 74, but that's not the true number. So, I'm not beating the drum. I have >> Excuse me, sir. >> In my opinion, you're beating your That's your opinion. >> That's why it's my opinion. But that's
fine. But everybody doesn't think the way you do. Thank goodness. These are facts and figures. You cannot dispute them. You cannot argue with them. And don't argue with me because I' I've done my homework. I would encourage you to do the same also. >> But I brought back,
you know, the the point that since you've been here, as you proudly say, 16 17 years, why didn't you plan for this sooner? Put money aside. I see it happens. And I've only been here a year and a half. I'm a fast learner though, a
little bit of a difference. And we are not lopsided on this board whatsoever. There are five of us. You are not the boss. We all bring some particular expertise. Some less, some more. I bring
a wealth of it. Having said that, you need to have an independent individual or company. It's well worth the money. If it's 1% 3/4% of the total project, who's going to be writing the checks? Just somebody here writing
checks? Maybe the vice chair writing checks? Who's writing checks? What expertise do they have? I haven't seen this yet. Just to say, well, you we're going to do it in-house and they're going to be dedicate. That's no. You have people that do this actually for a living and
they know what is reasonable. They know what viable costs are. They know what expenditure should be made or not made whatsoever. So I am not talking emotional. I'm talking facts and figures. Some of my colleagues like to go on the emotional
rant, but I don't. And so you cannot dispute that. And this is not going away. The community is very divided on this. Very divided. I don't get my news from social media like some of my colleagues do. I speak with individuals and these are business people and they
know what they're talking about. I see the medical examiner's office. I I don't know if that's correct now because this is not correct. 63 million21652 and change. $839 a square foot. Well, I I don't know if that's correct, but let's say it were. That's very
specialized. Can we at least agree on that? And I understand you have to have bays, but it doesn't have to be embellished as the high school was out in Indian Town. It has to be something that's functional.
You talked about bays. You talked about offices. I have Joan Fabrics up in Jensen Beach that's totally vacant. You could put people there if they needed office space to consolidate them for oversight
to keep functioning well as an organization. I had a constituent say they were out at one of our facilities. There was nobody there. three o'clock in the afternoon there's nobody there. So what what are we talking about? This
is management that needs to look at this very severely and that's why they're compensated well here. So I am not going to let this go and say well my opinion doesn't matter. It's not opinion. This is factual. And I keep bringing it back
here again. If you haven't done the homework then you you can't really respond well to this. So, I'm saying this where everybody can hear me. It's a videotape. They can replay it back and forth. They can call my office. I'm not a I'm not going to duck them on this. I'm going to say this is what I spoke
about. This is something that's going to be at least 90 to $95 million, not 74 million or this figure of 63 million. I don't know where that figure came from. So, we need to revisit this. We need to
have two other bids. One bid is not sufficient. There are other companies that would be delighted delighted to throw their hat in the ring for this, but we the board chose not to do that. They chose to have one one bid. This doesn't even make sense. I don't do this personally. I would hope you don't, but
maybe they do. But this isn't their money. Remember, it's our constituents money. >> Commissioner Campy. >> Thank you. I will hold my colleagueu's position in the highest regard. I could care less what she thinks about me personally or what she wants to say.
That's fine. I will conduct myself professionally and her position being duly elected. I won't get into a back and forth uh with her. When I say lopsided, when something passes 4 to one, that could potentially be defined
as lopsided. I did request of staff. I'll make a motion to request of staff to have an additional uh new agenda item so that this can be discussed. You can say that you're holding up numbers. You've done your homework. I appreciate that. I've said it many times. I think I
hold you uh and and treat you in a much higher uh regard. And I don't care officially what you think about me. That's perfectly fine. Uh that being said, I represent all of our employees and our constituents to give a different perspective. yours which I have said I
value is your perspective. I'm not emotional. I'm not ranting. I'm just giving a different point of view. Your numbers I read. They came from staff. Staff did the homework and presented it to you. I give you credit for asking the
questions. That's all it is. I don't want to get into a back and forth with you. I want to treat you with respect that you've earned as an elected official in your position. We do not have to like each other personally. That's well beyond the
scope. I will always treat you fairly and respectfully. I will always be interested in hearing your opinion because it's a valuable opinion. I wish that there was a case. I'm not being emotional. I'm not making weird decisions. I've been here and it doesn't
make a difference how long, but I was sharing with you the history of how this happened. Now, when you say, "Why didn't we do this in the past? Why didn't we save money?" We've done all that. And I don't want to get into a back and forth debate with you on that. The record and
the history and the folks that know it already know it. That's why I said we should have an agenda item where you won't have to hear from me. You'll hear from the people that have been here for decades that have been doing this. And there is specific reasons why we didn't
do it when we did it. as Mr. Donaldson said, not for a lack of trying or a lack of foresight. It just it was on the back burner as other things were more important as it continued to work. I compliment our staff for putting up with
all of the inconveniences and the issues that they dealt with for year after year. And now is the proper time. Is there ever a good time to spend a ton of money on a project? Not necessarily. But by waiting longer, I'm not opposed
to any of the suggestions that you had made. I just want to be clear and no matter what you say, I will always treat you with the respect that your position deserves. >> Commissioner Vargas. >> Okay. Um, this is the final statement
I'm going to make to you, Mr. Campy. This is not from staff. I sought professional uh individuals who understand building and understand what money costs. So it wasn't from staff that I took this and I know you proudly say you read that
report, the question, the answer, the question, the answer. I have that also, sir. However, I went above and beyond. I would suggest you do also since you know so many people in this community. Take your time. Do it. It's important. I have a motion.
Commissioner Caps, >> I'd just like to say one thing. We are not professional construction estimators and we are not construction contract lawyers and we shouldn't pretend to be
either. >> I have a motion. >> We don't need a motion. >> What? >> We don't need a motion. All just in case we did I >> any any commissioner can request any agenda item. You just requested an agenda item. >> Are you clear with my request? Thank you so much.
>> Any further >> one other comment. Uh Mr. Donaldson, I do not think it's needful at all for you to be coming to the board with every little change order on the project. The the parameter on that that's in place
already, I'm very comfortable with that. Any further commissioner comments? >> Not just on this sub subject, but any subject. >> Yes, just one before we meet again on June 23rd. On June 20th, which is a
Saturday evening, we'll be having in Palm City our last uh music in the park patio playlist on Saturday, June 20th. It starts at 6:30 in the evening on Map Road uh right next door to the fire station. We have food trucks, beverages,
ice cream trucks. We have a great band to end the season. We won't be doing it in July or August because of the probability of rain. Um, so come out and see us uh for music in the park. Uh, also on that same day
at starting at 7 a.m. at the Jensen Beach Operation 300, which is the Aaron Vaughn's family um charity. They're having their annual Frogman swim. It also has a 5K and a 10K run. It's a
really even if you're not going to swim in the ocean or run, it's a really they have lots of vendors and it's a very patriotic day. Uh it's a fantastic cause. Uh if you have not been out to the beach to see it, uh it really is a
very moving and patriotic event uh to support one of our most beloved local charities. 7 a.m. you can register. It's Operation 300, which goes by like OP300. They have uh websites and and all sorts
of opportunities to register if you would like to swim in the ocean. They have a couple of they they even have a children's swim. So, if you have um young children that would like to participate, it's a beautiful event for a great cause. Thank you very much, >> Commissioner Heatherington.
>> I'm all set. Thank you, >> Mr. Donaldson. I'm >> all set. Thank you. >> Miss Elder, >> we our next meeting, commissioners, is a joint meeting with the city of Stewart and the village of Indiantown and the school board next Tuesday. Right. Y >> see you then. We are adjourned. Thank
you.