--------- good morning everyone and welcome to the Simino County Board of County Commission meeting the date is April 8th 2025 time is approximately 9:30 if you take a few moments and make sure that your telephones and any other electronic
devices are silenced so we don't have uh interruptions while the presentations are occurring today with us today we have Pastor Bob Melhorn who is going to uh perform the invocation and when that's completed I will ask Commissioner Delari to lead us in the pledge of
allegiance please rise good morning everyone it is a privilege to be here let's join our hearts in prayer oh holy one we thank you for the gift of this day how precious is time and we thank you and ask you would guide us in using these hours
wisely as we approach this uh this important meeting we are mindful that we live in two realms we live in a realm of of budgets and agenda and uh zoning and um development and all the considerations that ordinarily come
before this commission but also we live in a different realm a realm of aspirations and dreams and concerns for our families and and visions of what a community is and can be and so as we uh move into a season that's holy for more
than one of the great faiths we would ask that you would keep us mindful of our higher visions as well i would ask your blessing upon these commissioners we thank you for um sending them to serve this county uh we ask your
blessing upon uh the the sheriff and and his deputies upon our firefighters and first responders we pray for all the employees of this county and for all who make Semino County their home i ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ
amen please join the pledgece 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 thank you Pastor thank you Commissioner Dari next up is our consent agenda item i will move to the county attorney Miss Kate Tory for the rules of engagement
during the consent agenda if you would desire to speak on any of the consent agenda items please gather a speaker form out in the lobby fill it out for the agenda item you desire to speak on give it to Miss Dominique the clerk right down here with her hand raised
we'll make sure you get called up when those items come forward miss Tour thank you chairman good morning florida law provides the members of the public shall be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard on propositions before the board of county commissioners except when the board is acting on emergency or
ministerial matters or conducting a meeting exempt from the requirements of the sunshine law individuals shall be permitted 3 minutes each for public comment or 6 minutes when the individual is an official representative of a formal association or group the chairman may modify the maximum time for public
comment at his sole discretion when appropriate public comments on quasi judicial or other public hearing items will occur during the board's consideration of those items this afternoon public comments on pending procurement matters or on non-aggenda items shall not be permitted at this
time members of the public desiring to make public comment must fill out a speaker form and present the form to staff forms are available in the lobby mr chairman thank you mr thor want to note that Commissioner her is not here this morning but we do have a quorum uh
she had a conflict this morning and will be joining us as soon as possible and we'll go to the county manager is there any changes or updates in the in the uh consent agenda sir thank you uh Mr chairman and commissioners just one item that we are actually going to pull off
number five uh the uh proclamation with water conservation month uh here in Simol County and I believe Commissioner Constantine is going to read that so that is the only change to the consent thank you sir any commissioner desire to pull any items at this point seeing none
I will uh go to public input madame Dominique do we have anyone here to speak on on any of the consent agenda items today no sir seeing none we'll close public input and go to board action mr chairman Commissioner Delari mr chairman I'd like to make a motion to
approve consent agenda items with constitutionals 1 through 17 excluding five second motion second any further discussion all those in favor i oppose like sign carries unanimously thank you very much we will now go to item number
five proclamation for water conservation thank you very much Mr chairman and um I'll need a motion first to approve look he's making the motion as he reads it no thank you uh thank you very much Mr
chairman and I did want to welcome the the um water conservation board and hopefully you'll still exist after the legislative session um but uh this is also folks a very important uh thing in water conservation
we are we in Semino County have been a leader in trying to uh protect and save our water resources and it is valuable that all of us pitch in and work together for it so it is my privilege to make a motion to approve the
blockcomation of Semino County Board of County Commissioners proclaiming the month of April 2025 as the water conservation month in Semino County whereas water is basic and essential need of every living creature and whereas the state of Florida and the water management districts and the Semino County Board of County
Commissioners have worked together to increase awareness about the importance of water conservation and whereas Semino County and the state of Florida have designated April which is typically a dry month when the water demands are most acute as the Florida Water
Conservation Month for the purpose of educating citizens about how they can help save Florida's precious water resource and whereas Semino County has always encouraged and supported water conservation throughout various educational programs and special events
and whereas every business industry school and citizen can make a difference when it comes to conserving water to promote a healthy economy and community and whereas Semino County is calling upon each citizen and business to help protect our precious resource by
practicing water saving measures and becoming more aware of the need to save water now therefore be it proclaimed by the board of county commissioners of Semino County that we do hereby proclaim the month of April 25th April 2025 as water conservation month in Semino
County second motion second any further discussion seeing none all those in favor i opposed like sign seeing none carries unanimously congratulations thank you all very much before we move to our regular agenda we are going to take a short break and give uh
photograph opportunities to those proclamation awards uh before we move into the regular agenda so we'll call you up one at a time and get photos taken with staff and and the commission so those that are here that desire to stick around for that please do if not
please enjoy the rest of your day and I'll ask the commission to join me on the floor what's that oh who was that put his name up here that person's no longer with us oh and someone keeps
putting it up here oh jeez that friend of What's that there he is they don't yeah yeah i'll call him up in just a minute so we're going to give these award winners proclamation winners a
moment to speak at the podium let's call uh first up let's call the Miss Leverne Montes for Autism Acceptance Month if you'd come up to the podium and have a few words with us please right here to your right
thank you good morning good morning thank you um we are members of Zeta Zeta FBA Incorporated Sorority Incorporated and we're the Cai Zeta chapter of Simino County and we appreciate you taking time to approve and accept our uh
proclamation for autism awareness acceptance month um we're big proponents for autism and finding early detection and getting care for kids but we appreciate you as a chapter and thank you so much for getting this approved for us thank you well thank you all very
much for being here and the work that you do in our community we sincerely appreciate it thank you next up from Kids House Miss Melissa Winstead good morning everyone thank you so much for allowing Kids House to be the recipient of this proclamation it
means the world to us that we're raising awareness about child abuse prevention so thank you very much thank you we appreciate it thank you for all the work you're doing appreciate it very good next up we'll have from the St john's Water Management District Miss Dedra
Irwin mr chair commissioners thank you for allowing me to speak today i am the water conservation coordinator for the Central Florida Water Initiative region and we have partnered with the American Waterworks Association celebrating April
as water conservation month for 27 years and Semol County has been on that path with us we would like to thank you for all the really outstanding efforts in the past and we are very much looking forward to what lies ahead with water
conservation in Seino County so thank you very much thank you we appreciate the collaboration all right next we will move to our regular agenda items this will be number item number 18 springs concert for residents special event permit this will
be presented by Miss Kathy Hamill good morning Miss Hamill good morning sir um I'm presenting a request for a special event for the Springs Concert um which will be on May 3rd from the hours between 7 and 10 the concert will be at the Springs Clubhouse
porch which overlooks a small field in their common area the concert will be only for the residents only who will park at their own homes or any available parking spaces at the clubhouse they are anticipating 400 residents um or
community members to attend the concert by the Central Florida Community Arts Group who will perform songs from the 60s to the 90s they have complied with all the requirements for a sheriff's deputy insurance bathrooms bearproof containers and fire requirements we are
requesting for the board of county commissioners to approve this special event permit for May 3rd subject to staff's recommendations included in the attached special event permit and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have great any questions for staff at this moment is the applicant here in
desire to make any comments or statements before the board and just your name and address for the record sir asher Wyman 400 Woodbridge um this is weird taking questions from you guys uh no we're looking forward to it uh as you guys know the um Philarmonic
was in our community for a number of years um they decided to look for a new location so this was an opportunity we wanted to bring to our community and our residents to have something that we can call the spring concert again great any questions for the applicant commissioner Constantine I would not give up this
opportunity to ask a question good morning my dear friend um I'm glad to see that you all take the initiative and going ahead and and going to do something for your citizens because as you know a lot of them were going to miss the Springs concert and by the way
it was wonderful last uh weekend both Friday and Saturday big crowds over at the um Cranes Roost uh the one question has already been answered so um but I have to ask you uh because you're selling tickets and you're not a 501c
you are going to be paying sales tax to the state of Florida correct uncle Sam will get his share well Uncle Sam the state of Florida and Semino County needs your share they will get it we don't know how much the sales tax is going to raise thank you very much thank Thank you
Asher for being here we sincerely appreciate it is there anyone here from the public that wishes to make a comment on this item no sir all right we'll close the public comment portion and move to board action this is Commissioner Constantine's district commissioner yes i will move approval of
the uh special um permit for the springs at May 3rd as as recommended by the staff second motion by Constantine second by Delari any further discussion all those in favor I opposed like sign
seeing none carries unanimous congratulations and thank you very much next item up is number 19 economic development update this will be presented by Gee Couna our economic and development and tourism team welcome
sir for the record Geuna director of economic development and tourism so before we begin today commissioners and leadership I'd like us to uh recognize all the partners within the economic development team that showed up
in support uh one of the things that our team want to make sure everyone understands is these are not the partners that we call on and ask us why are we doing this these are the partners that say why not these are the partners
that answer the phone after five o'clock these are the ones that show up before 8 am so I wanted to make sure our team recognizes all the partners that are here that help keep Semino County Economic Development a very vibrant and
strong department so outlining our agenda today we're going to bring up our economic development manager Idma Stenman she'll discuss the big business portion where we're going to look at our largest
employers incentives in Semino County our largest partner agreement which is with the Orlando Economic Partnership and some of our strategies regarding foreign direct investment and relations then although mistitled by me our
business marketing manager Eststean Sada Riyaga will come up to discuss uh small business and entrepreneurship incubators small business resources and also the industrial development authority that we know we brought in house now and then
I'll wrap us up with workforce development but overall the concept that we should take from here is within Semino County and this comes from my athletics background we have a program there's a rhyme and reason for everything there's an entrepreneur as an
entrepreneur in Semino County we have the resources to develop your idea as a small business owner we have the resources to scale your small business and as a large business owner or corporation or headquarters that we have here we have all the information and res
resources needed to either import export scale work within the community as well so leading into our business profile reflective we're using the uh quarterly census employment and wages
we're looking at a reflection here on the percentage of businesses per industry and percentage of employment per industry so we look we are a large professional science and technical services construction health care and
social assistance retail and then we go into hospitality this top five is reflective of last year and the previous year as well here's our bread and butter is our unemployment rate we have historic lows
since the pandemic there is a seasonal approach as you see here employ unemployment uh within the entire state tends to tick up during the summer and then come back down during the uh uh fall and winter months what you'll see
is we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the entire state of Florida this is where Seino County has always thrived we do not have a labor force that sits on the sidelines here in Semino County when we transition here this is a
very interesting slide the establishments by business size 90% of our registered businesses in Seino County have 25 employees or less we're a small business
haven but of the 10% of the businesses of the 10% of the large businesses this is over 25 employees so 26 or more they employ more than 70% of our labor force
so there is a balance that we have to maintain in Semino County here's a very comprehensive slide sorry we tried to put all in one slide here we see that we are mainly led on the green there when we look at the
number of businesses by professional scientific and technological services that's the number of businesses is the largest within the county but also we look at a very large employment and a high average annual wage when you talk
about the leading businesses in any county that's the balance you want to see leading the way another candle that we want to look at there on the uh line graph the orange portion is that 102,000 average annual wage that is for our
headquarters so as we know certain portions of the county is a haven for headquarter development and that's where you'll see that spike in average annual wage in our next graph here we want to touch on the average annual wage as a
benchmark the Florida average annual wage is 61,000 so when we look at our businesses that employ 26 or more employees these aren't lowpaying
businesses these are at average annual wage or above that's where you want to see your strategy and you'll see that reflected in our household income as well so just giving us a summary here towards the end before we move on to the
large business portion one of the lowest unemployment rates in the entire state one of the strongest labor forces as we're seeing our labor force uh at 280,000 it's historically high within
Semino County we have over 20,000 registered businesses and we see here when it comes to our largest concentration of businesses it falls under the professional scientific and technical services industry which is a
highpaying industry so with that I'd like to introduce our business development manager Idmma Steenman who's going to discuss big business incentives the Orlando Economic Partnership and our foreign relations he's too
tall good morning uh for the record Ma Stengman business development manager in economic development um when we talk about big business uh Ghee alluded to those who have 25 or more or maybe those who have 50 or more employees uh which is not the SBA
definition of big business so um are when we we catal catalog and figure out look at who are our largest employers and dice it on private sector and public sector um so everybody will talk about how public schools is our largest
employer in the public sector side in the private sector side you'll see Advent Health as our largest employer and it's not just the hospitals and emergency rooms and assisted living facilities but also their headquarter is located in Seminal County so there's a lot of administrative functions that are in Semol County for Advent Health and
their NAKES code may vary because of those things from time to time uh also you see a large presence in the large employers in um healthcare u with Orlando health and HCA adding to that others in the financial services and um
insurance are also in our top employers list the lawyer JP Morgan and there's a number of others that we can discuss now this data comes from a number of sources and these numbers are rounded up um because sometimes the source may have a
um variance on what one list reports another data axle uh DNB um Hoover's uh Dunham Brad Street sorry Hoovers um the OBJ list of largest employers QCW and we want to protect privacy and also information that we received directly
from the companies what you don't see here is those companies that have a large number of employees disseminated through their various retail facilities such as Publix or Walmart which may have 2,000 3,000 employees among 40 to 60
facilities so we're just looking at other types of industries um now um when we're talking about our incentives Semino County has one incentive program to attract and help grow our businesses and that is the jobs
growth incentive that you guys approve for those businesses that qualify that are in the specific industry that allows them to qualify for that with the average um wages above our average with a number of jobs and a certain capital investment that they commit to those are
our most recent projects that we have um been awarded that as um you can see one has been forfeited and this is interesting to highlight this is a performance-based incentive if they do not
um end hold to their end of their agreement they will not receive the incentive that has been approved and not only hold on to creating the jobs and the investment but also holding on to those jobs for a minimum of two years so
it is um something that 22% of those approved incentives in the last since 2013 have not um been materialized so it's money that comes back to to us um and on the state level
we have remaining one uh QTI qual qualified target industry incentive still on the books that we're finishing paying up the QTI was the discontinued or um by the Florida state legislature in 2020 and um it's also
performance-based and also audited and after that they have created the jobs then by job creation phase then these dollars are awarded now uh as far as our partners in economic development our largest uh partner for partner for um business
attraction and helping our businesses grow is the Orlando Economic Partnership who has been um here with us for a number of years so they have they report to us uh spec about the region because they represent uh three counties in the
region but um they report their regional numbers but also specifically to Semino County and these are some of the results of what they have worked on they have um impacted the job creation and these wages for semol county in the last few years they also um have
um a pipeline as they market Semol County for business growth for b new businesses to come in uh they have a number of um projects in their pipeline if these 45 projects for semol county were to materialize that'll be about
8,000 jobs of course that is inquiries and it does some of these projects also take time some projects might take three four years to come to fruition some of the things that uh OEP helps us with is not just the job numbers and the wages and that
investment but there's al also other initiatives but when it comes to those traditional projects um I'm going to mention two that um most recent that are of importance to to mention uh project hub was the expansion of BNY Melon Bank
here in Semino County in Lake Mary with another 1100 jobs and that was um a year or so ago and high average wages over 90,000 a year uh large capital investment in their office space as well
project Pencil has a JGI approved um that you saw on the previous slide um which is exam room AI was they relocated creating 250 jobs for semol county also uh high wages so those are the kinds of projects that we look up to and as I mentioned there are other initiatives
that OEP also works with us one is um there started the economic development committee where there's a number of uh leaders from the region looking at how do we bring more companies to the Orlando area to semol
county and uh using everybody's connections to develop those those um to create more leads um also the development initiative for regional transformation or dirt uh it's looking at sites as uh all our land gets
utilized and developed then we have to be more strategic about the highest best and highest use of the land that's available for uh whether it's what is going you know and for in from our perspective what is usable for business development for new business or business
growth um so this is a strategic look at what is the land that's there and what is the county want to market what does the county want the world to know that is available for that kind of development um and oh I don't didn't
mention also there's um regional economic development team where economic developers from all over the region gather on a monthly basis to um exchange best practices and learn from one another now when it uh talking about foreign direct investment and relations of
course we are keenly interested in attracting any kind of business um but those that come from international um have um different needs and we have to look at those as well so we work for international relations with world
Orlando which uh they are are this US department of state uh sponsor or uh host for the international visitor leadership program the LP bringing from a number of nations overseas uh it's so important uh members from uh government
academia nonprofit and local businesses who want to learn from our community how to do business as well uh foreign trade zone um at the and managed by the Orlando Sanford International Airport um now with um it has been for a number of
years considered one of the largest because of the number of acreage that is available to that foreign trade zone um we are working closely with the Orlando Sanford International Airport Authority to develop and market it more because especially now with tariffs coming to
play our local manufacturers are more interested in seeing how if they are going to be reexporting products they can defer some of those tariffs um also for that foreign direct investment attracting businesses from overseas that want to just explore the mark not put a
large investment without knowing if how it's going to pan out want to start slow and uh estan is going to mention this a little bit later but the soft landing international soft landing is that provides that platform for these companies to start slow and uh ramp up
their business so we are increasing our soft landing uh presence here in semol county the central foreign international trade office is part of the national entrepreneur center also providing that kind of assistance to companies who want to do business international import export what is the role that tariffs are
going to play on my business how can I how can I do that how can I grow my business through international involvement and um now Estean is going to touch on some of those um um Estean Salariaga my colleague take it off the
name is so good you have to say it twice good morning everyone for the record Estean Salariaga business marketing manager for Semino County Economic Development i don't have any pie charts or pyramids gee and Irma took them all i asked for one but I didn't get one so we do um we're going to dive right into the incubators um and I think what's most
important here is I think we can all see the return on investment the occupancy of the current occupancy of the incubators what I'd like to highlight is really uh an understanding of what these incubators specialize in and expanding a little bit more on seminal state college center for business development so starting with the incubator in Winter
Springs from UCF um what I'll point to is if you look at that incubator client profile much of what's housed in the incubator at Winter Springs is high-tech uh technology companies uh innovation uh everything going from uh sustainable tech to uh cancer research um when we
move over to the seminal state college center for business development uh that's more if we refer back to the slide that geese shared at the beginning around that 16% of professional scientific services that make up the county's largest business segment that's really what service uh over at the center for business development now we
have it listed under incubators because it really uh one of its primary functions is to house uh you know early startup businesses companies that are looking for uh cheap lease space to have as overhead um but really the services expand to so much more um you know the the fact that the center for business
development uh uh small sorry the small business development center is housed at the at that incubator um tells you exactly that point um most of the county's small business interest gets filtered through that area um and as Eda mentioned just a moment ago uh this is
also the space where we have uh for the first time had a collabor collaborative effort to bring soft landing to the seminal state college heal campus uh a lease that starts on May 1st uh we expect to house five soft landing companies from overseas uh and as you alluded to these are really uh
incredible opportunities because these are not startups these are not traditional in the sense that they don't need uh capital they don't need marketing support what they need is an entry point to uh US markets which we will be able to provide from our uh from our county when we look at the small business resources this is really kind
of on the uh support side of our ecosystem for business support um and you know as you can see we listed some really clear indicators for community engagement uh what I want to emphasize is a few details that aren't listed here so for MACF the manufacturers association of Central Florida one of
the benefits that they've allowed our team to have is access to our local manufacturers uh thanks to the efforts of of that team uh we've been able to connect more deeply with the needs of the manufacturers understand what the makeup is of manufacturing in Semino County and engage them differently um
you know one of the benefits has been that we heard them loud and clear and were able to partner with organizations like the Central Florida International Trade Office and offer a a trade tariff uh uh workshop that we hosted at the economic development hub in Heathrow uh which that that's a plan series so so we
can see how how far that expands when we look at Prospera's impact Prosper is really one of the few multilingual business support organizations out there right so they're able to capture quite a broad audience because they're not just supporting um uh business clients that are coming in English it's a non-English speakers as well um one of the one of
the highlights that I want to make sure I mention for Prosper is uh through partnership we have uh uh entered and understanding that they will be hosting orientations for their future clients out of the economic development hub in Heathrow um I' I've mentioned the hub a few times because it really uh what this
is turning into now is uh a true hub where our community um business owners will be able to interact with not only uh the direct organization that they're working with but also our team um and any team that is working out of that space which is at this point all of our
partners the national entrepreneurship uh center excuse me um one of the one of the biggest highlights here that I'd like to make is uh the rebranding of what used to be biz Orange that is now Bizlick Central Florida uh it's taking on a broader name and allowed us to be
more regionally represented um it is a wonderful tool that I'd like to kind of just quickly share with you what those 60 residents of Semino County have gone through in their experience so when you go on to uh cflbbislink.com you'll actually enter some of your business data uh entity type uh what kind of business business
you're in uh in some cases it'll ask you specific industry codes uh to to kind of give a little more information on that end um and within three business days I received mine a whole lot faster i don't know if it's because I know somebody there but you know it was it was real cool um but you'll get an email outlining um all the resources and not
just resources but regional specific resources that you can call so tying it back to uh why it's so important that we have the small business development center at the center for business development man I like the acronyms a lot better trust me um is that that email will link them back to being able to book an appointment with a consultant
right here in Semino County um in addition to that at the end of the email it also outlines a few events that you can uh go to that are little to no cost you know things like marketing tools how to better use AI chat GPT a slew of resources that our small business owners can take advantage
of almost gave up um the Industrial Development Authority so before I go into the the only chart I got um just kidding um I want to give a quick background of the uh of Skya of the Seminal County Industrial Development Authority uh for 15 years over 15 years
uh this was managed by the Orlando Economic Partnership um you know they they uh they managed a few of the region's uh uh industrial development authorities uh as of October last year we brought that in-house and is now managed by staff i am the secretary for that authority uh Idenment is the
assistant secretary for that authority um and what we did in that in in that time frame was really uh reestablish the board and in time to close on our first bond that benefited the county uh directly and and I'll share more on this next slide so what you see here is 15
years of projects from the seminal count from the seminal county industrial development authority ranging from 2010 uh to uh last year 2024 um there's a few things that I want to point out to you um number one being the capital expenditures you'll see that most of these capital expenditures are above 10
million uh the reason being is that when we are looking for attraction for the use of an industrial revenue bond um the sweet spot is really at that $10 million mark where we're able to justify or I would say the borrower is able to justify uh the legal fees bond fees origination fees that come along with uh
closing on a loan like this the second thing I want to point to is the fees collected uh so if um if we do the quick math it's just under a million dollars that uh were collected through 2021 all of those fees were directly paid to uh the Orlando Economic Partnership uh with
the first one uh with the sorry with the last deal uh in 2024 with phase two of Galileo uh being the first direct revenue for the county um what this allows us to do uh taking it on inhouse is now create specific direct marketing
for our industrial revenue bonds to targeted industry industries there we go and so what you see up on the screen here is actually the first seminal county branded collateral for an industrial revenue bond um we are uh really proud of this work and and what we're going to be able
to attract using it um but this tool will allow us to give basically the the uh nuts and bolts of what an industrial revenue bond is how to use it how you're eligible for it most importantly how to contact us the economic development team here at Semino County to help push that along um I've listed three specific
channels that we're going to be using for the next year to um market uh the IRBs the industrial revenue bonds um Trade and Industry Publications Florida Trend Magazine and Florida Economic Development Council uh/Business Trend Magazine these are all very specific to get to uh the audience that we want site
selectors uh targeted industries like hospitality manufacturing healthcare um all read these magazines i'm sure most of us get these in the office and uh sometimes we'll just you know read the headlines and if it's interesting we'll open up the first page but um for for industry types um this is something that
is constantly being referenced to and when we're on the field and we're having conversations with manufacturers I can't tell you how many times um articles from trade and industry are referred to us as uh information that they find valuable so uh again this is the first time we are marketing the Semino County
Industrial Development Authority uh in the history of its of its time uh the last piece that I'll add to this is not listed here but our week-to-eek practice is that we our team reviews the the development review committee agendas uh for both the county and the city and
conduct outreach to find out if there's any projects there that are in a space where uh an industrial revenue bond can help that project be funded uh we've had multiple conversations mostly on the education side um but as we continue to market this we expect those conversations to um uh increase in
volume um and with that I will bring Gee back up to the podium thank you so just to summarize there the Orlando Economic Partnership had the rights to the industrial revenue bonds it was a separate agreement that sunset
this was not tied to the master services agreement with Orlando economic partnership workforce development we're going to discuss our funded workforce programs uh one of the main caveats here tied to soft landing is although we're
bringing these established foreign uh companies to Semino County the caveat for these companies to and Semino State College and UCF are all on board is to prioritize the Semino County workforce
their investment in the county we have the talent here so we expect them to hire here one of our uh two funded workforce programs Career Source Central Florida we have the youth program these are all seminal county resident specific that
that's being funded we had the youth program we did a couple years uh with Career Source it was our first funding of Career Source on top of the office that they have in Sanford um we also just uh approved last BCC meeting the
public sector academy that's three cohorts there's a youth cohort and two adult cohorts where we're looking at uh exposure and recruitment to in demand occupation and then seminal state college seminal uh uh uh seminal state
commits is your uh soft skills and hard skills development program we're seeing over 300 residents have already been uh uh assisted in finding uh skills for them to be employable better employable
um and also 40 workshop and courses both the public sector academy with career source and seminal state college term at the end of September so we will have those final reports uh in October and closing remarks here our team every year
does a yearly review of FY 24 and 25 we looked at the FY24 and we always position ourselves on whether we have headwinds or tailwinds so compared to FY24 we reduced over $500,000 in
nonrenewable agreements because of the uh prioritization for the county on certain deliverables uh within performance indicators that matter to us the better paying jobs and the high wage industry
sectors maintaining that balance all that while our economic development team uh the tourism team did get a lot of uh exposure during tourism improvement district I want to I would be remissed if I didn't say that IDMA Estebon played
vital roles in all the research that was conducted in order to get the tourism improvement district through and approved by the hotel years so within our entire department of economic development and tourism we continue to
prioritize the rural boundary we continue to produce for the county and we continue to make Seino County when it comes to business Florida's natural choice thank you thank you anyone here from the public to speak
on this matter no sir seeing none I will go to board for any inquiries or comments commissioner Lockhart we'll start at your end and move this direction excellent presentation thank you all both or all all y'all all y'all
all all y'all um I have um long been asking a very specific question that I think is freaking people out so I'm going to try to ask a different question and maybe get the same get the answer I'm looking for by asking the question differently
so we have this workforce pipeline we're very proud of our K12 higher ed uh workforce development continuum here in Semino County and um and we assert regularly that we anticipate we're producing this workforce for you so when
you come here hire our people and I've yet to find the data from these companies that backs up that they are in fact hiring our people and so I look at that not just as a county commissioner who is being asked for
money Seminal County taxpayer money uh to incentivize these positions but also as a trustee at Seminal State College are we in fact producing what it is we think we're producing right so I'm looking at it from a an accountability metric for us locally as well as
accountability on the part of the employer for are you doing what you said you were going to do so the question that I've been asking um is of your 2,000 employees
um how many are working remotely versus driving their car to Semino County buying lunch here buying their gas here maybe picking up something at ABC liquor store on the way home i don't know
depending on how the day went um don't forget Total Wine or Total Wine that's true that's true got to got to spread the wealth now you got to start good i know now I got to start naming all the liquor stores um which I could do by the way um but when you look at some of
these employers and there are thousands of employees that we have um incentivized the question that I've asked is how many of them of course are are actually here in person how many are hybrid or remote or what have you and how many of those are on are here on
H-1B visas and I've been asking that question for years and I've been ignored for years so maybe what I need to do is ask the question differently and say "What data do you
keep that tells me how many employees you have hired that are we'll call them native right you you went to Semol County Public Schools or you graduated from Semol State College or UCF or somewhere regionally um to show that this is this employ now
employee was a product of this workforce development program petri dish that we've created right so maybe I'm asking the wrong question um but I want the answer and so and and it's I'm not putting this on you
i'm sending it out to the ether for all the people who have been ignoring me for years asking us for money i'm not voting to give you any money anymore until you give me the answer so okay that's that commissioner Consting
that's a great question that's all I'm going to say it's a great question other than because I asked a very similar question earlier about you know do you have actual data that shows that these programs are successful wasn't as complex as as what my fellow
commissioner asked but specifically you know when you're dealing with the incubator um so let's go on to something else I just felt that um I I am very com from what was when I first got here to what is today i want
to compliment all of you really doing great job secondly you know when it comes to incentives you know I've always been a critic of many of the incentives that we were giving i I remember one of the first ones I voted
against was we were somebody was in dear and they wanted to come across the river and I said "Are you kidding me?" Um but uh frankly I think that we have now got a handle on that and I am in you know and I'm very impressed with uh the work that you and your staff are doing
commissioner Glory thank you Mr chairman Gee your staff do a phenomenal job and uh first let's celebrate that uh you know it's always great to have not just the workforce here but uh a group of
folks that live work and play in Semino County to help feed that economic engine and we all know the economic engine that really uh feeds not just our county but the entire economy is small businesses and like not government doesn't really
create jobs it's a small business people that do and so the people who put their their equity on the line their uh all the efforts that they do my hat goes off to them because day in day night day in and day out you never know what the
economy is going to be so we need to celebrate that uh and you're hearing from my other commissioners their questioning uh are valid uh the one question that I've asked in the past and have not really spoke about it that much is that when we do give incentives to
individuals and they're warranted some most of them are and how long do they stay here uh maybe a different way to ask the question because I know of a couple of companies that have left we don't talk about those because by talking about
those we can actually figure out what we're not doing and I know of one company that we actually gave incentives to a number of years ago and they did quite well they took their company internationally uh they have uh the patent and the technology to hold on to
that patent because they were challenged several times and now they moved outside the county to neighboring counties and so it also be nice to look at some of those uh short-term wins but what could
we have done to uh help them stay here longer uh but from what you've been talking to us from what we've been doing from what I'm hearing from the public we have a lot to celebrate your staff does a phenomenal job and it's not just the
three of you that are here because there's even more people in the office and there's more people behind the people in the office that's here in the audience as well uh so we have a lot to celebrate so I want to thank them for all the things that you've done and all the things that you will do so congratulations but would it'd be nice
to peel back that onion to see what can we do better uh to address you know Commissioner Lockheart's concerns uh to address you know how do we keep companies here longer and uh grow the economy so well done
ye thank you very much keep up the great work you and your staff for doing in my opinion fantastic work you keep moving us forward we appreciate it very much thank you thank you all very much back there that are part of that team we appreciate it great next item up it will
be item number 20 electronic public notices update this will be put on by Miss Melanie Coun assistant county manager somebody's phone there's a phone up here someone left a phone behind
you might need that grant I would sell it make some money get some revenue good morning um commissioners chairman my name is Melanie Coun assistant county manager um in September well we go over the
agenda so we're going to review some of the u findings from the September 10th meeting of last year provide you this is electronic public notices by the way sorry I didn't mention that um we're going to talk about the costs uh counties that are currently using
notices options and then their recommendation so on September 10th um we came to the board and we shared with you a summary of the new legislation for Florida statutes 50.0311 and 50.041 041 which allows counties to advertise
public notices on their homepage rather than using print advertisements additionally we provided the annual cost which was approximately $70,000 for both board departments BCC departments and um the tax collector for his delinquent
taxes and we shared with you the counties that were currently using it so from that point on you directed us to go do an RFP and to come back and bring the results so that's why we're here today um we went we created the scope of service and the the RFP was released in
um I think it was in December and the results came back in January and we found we had two respondents we found that the pricing sheet needed to be a little bit clarified and I think one was found nonresponsive because they completed the wrong form so we canled
that RFP clarified the request for how we wanted the pricing done and put it back out on the street at that point um it was in January we have the results back and we have reviewed the responses and we're the purchasing is prepared to put something on the consent agenda
should the board decide to go that way um so again the costs remain somewhat the same these were the costs in 2023 and I believe they're approximately still the same and at that when we came to
you last year we had six counties that were using it and now we have 18 counties they use both in-house software as well as they outsource and lastly the options still remain the same
we can continue to use print advertisement we could create something in house a software database or we could outsource and there's the advantages and disadvantages that you see on the slides so staff is um seeking recommending
outsourcing and hosting digital media advertisements on the public hearing notices on the county's web page and bringing the RFP award to the board on April 22nd this concludes my presentation if you have any questions I'm happy to answer sure is there anyone here from
the public to speak on this matter no sir okay then we will go to back to the board we'll start Commissioner Lockhart move our way down for any questions or inquiries do we have any idea if any of the cities or the constitutionals are interested in utilizing this is or the school board i
think there when we last asked the last time there was some um interest the one advant one of interesting um opportunities for us is that um we can advertise once we open it up if you the board decided to do this we would have
to then open it up to the cities we can charge them at a reduced rate and be a revenue to pay for to assist with help paying for the cost of outsourcing and one of the firms that um re that was actually one of the criteria
that we had them to be able to to build the city so we didn't have to okay but they were there were several that were interested as well as the tax tax collector was really interested yeah yeah okay i just I don't want to I don't want to turn this into a revenue generator but if there's a way to share the cost I think that would be ideal
okay thank you Commissioner Constantine we've heard this uh numerous times mhm i think we finally have um no focused it narrowed it down and I support the recommendation
mr lard no comments at this time uh as I've heard my other commissioners we've talked about this a number of times we have the information it's time to put on the agenda and make a decision i as well support uh moving forward um
the the only caveat I would ask staff to consider is when we ultimately go down this road that we do publish in the existing print media that we are moving to a digital platform and I and there is an annual requirement that you do that as well we would have to continue to let
the public know where they can find these ads good work thank you very much this has been a a long time coming since the legislature allowed us to do this so thank you very much appreciate it thank you all all right we remain in recess until 1:30 this afternoon it's just a
real real quick uh two things one um I like the idea of outsourcing just because there's already a company that knows how to do this and a lot of counties are using them and the archive piece in this is very good i mean you can go and research stuff and look and it's very difficult to do sometimes that
in the print media so it's very good on this and the second one um if I could get a motion on the recommended recommendation and then we will then bring that RFP back on the next board meeting mr chairman I will move the recommendation to be put on a consent
agenda in the near future got a motion i'm looking for a second second does it we have we'll we'll schedule it for the next one if that's okay i just want to give them motion second flexibility any
further discussion seeing none all those in favor i opposed like sign see none carries unanimously anything else Mr county Manager no sir thank you Madam County Attorney nothing else we'll remain in recess to 1:30 thank you sure these things Part: 2
difficult circumstances is the Simino County um sheriff's department Uh they have been very kind to us Uh they have been very encouraging Um I talked with them um maybe about a month ago and they I had a situation and they came out
immediately Um so I thank them and uh for what they have done and are still doing for us Um that's the end of this because again I could be up here all day telling you about my project but I have two videos that I think will explain it Um and I'd like to say also we have a
partnership with the riches program where we are um gathering uh um um oral histories and we have quite a few on our YouTube channel Um but anyway again this is um I thank Miss Charles because again
this has been a difficult journey but I like I tell everyone kidittingly that I could build a city now with what we have done So I thank you and thank you Miss Jobs for helping me with the process and thank you very much
All right This is the story of the historic Ovido Colored Schools Museum Did you know the colored school in Jamestown was called the Gabriella Colored School at its inception in 1918
it was part of a collection of approximately six colored schools within the Ovido area Oido Kaki Gabriella Wagner Geneva and Chiliota To learn more
please visit our website at hcs museum.org Thank you [Music]
Well thank you very much Miss Oh we got another one That was two separate ones already [Music] So I grew up very much imshed in the
colored school system because I was always helping my mom uh with her papers and things of that sort and again said she was an educator were always involved in things going to meetings with her Um uh also my dad worked for Nelson and
Company at the fertilizer plant Uh so he uh which was located downtown Ovido and now it's going to be a historic district called the water tower district Um so our town was very much centered around um the citrus industry because that's
what drove the community [Music]
As a kid growing up we were the baseball capital of Central Florida We we had a really good baseball team uh from the older guys that played baseball in Zwood That was the highlight of the
weekend especially on Sunday attending a baseball game And after the baseball game they would have a big fish fry All you could eat everybody contribute to the fish fry
[Music] Some of the other fond memories uh school lunches were always home-cooked meals and they were the best food on earth Uh also playground time I I I just
loved it because we had all of these playground equipment toys merrygorounds swings seesaws You you just had fun uh for the time that we were outside and then of course the music classes with my
mom on Fridays Absolutely amazing [Music]
Yeah it it was just mostly oranges and celery And that's all people did you know pick fruit and and cut celery And when my grandfather had his you know he had some of the high school students to come and and work after school so they
can have extra money or whatever And after that after everything started getting so big he didn't do sal anymore because you know he was just a small farmer They were big farmers with you know the healers and the Edmonds and you
know different ones at that time Mhm But that's what everybody started doing picking fruit and you know working on the farms out with S whatever Mhm Yeah But we all grew up here and knew everybody and whatever we do So this is
my home and I guess this is where I'm going to stay I'm not going anywhere else And this street Avenue B used to be Tyson Street Oh Because Mr Johnny Tyson had a store right down here where the
church is Oh okay Okay Okay He was the first black uh uh grocery store Okay In OA as I remember Mhm Okay Is that the end of it that's it Well thank you very much
Great presentation Good history lesson Thank you Miss Smith All right let's go to public input and participation Do we have any speaker forms on this matter yes sir We have one speaker Bill Hyde Mr Bill Hyde if you'd come down And while
you're coming down I was given a written public comment form on this matter from Richard Reap at 2707 Chelsea Street Orlando Florida 32803 that says "I'm in support This
approval will allow workforce development and of tourism in Semino County For the record you'll pass that down to the clerk You go Commission Con Thank you Mr Hyde Welcome Thank you Uh my name is Bill Hyde Live at 2379 Oley
Street in Ovido Uh and I'm here and actually can say that I'm here to speak on behalf of the Hyde family I have permission to be here Um I I remember the hole in the roof and I know Commissioner Delorei knows the hole in the roof Everybody in the community does And I remember when
Judith first started talking about it and it was like I don't know man Well give credit where it's due Judith has brought this project of her own energy and and dynamic personality to get it here And I'm really hoping for the
community that you guys can help any way you can to move this project forward Thank you Thank you Mr Hyde Any other speakers on this matter no sir Very good We'll close public input and we will go to board action This is Commissioner Delari's district commissioner Mr Chairman I first like to
ask staff a question Thank you Joy And I want to compliment staff and I'll talk about the project in a minute but I want to compliment staff about working with the applicant to this degree Uh there was a problem with this
piece of property called parking and you've came up with a rather unique way to solve that and I want to compliment you on that But there is one slight little issue with it It's tied to exhibit B which is the uh remote parking which I understand and I totally support
it That's not my issue My issue is is that in a later date if things do change with that other property owner they'll have to come back to the board So what I'd like to do is put uh an amendment to this that if
there is changes to exhibit B that it can be changed administratively as long as it meets the intent of where it is here today with the amount of parking That way they don't have to come back to the board for another public hearing
Yes sir Commissioner I can add that as a condition of approval to the development order Just giving the property owner and the school a little more flexibility So if something does happen so they don't have to come back to the board to have another public hearing they can work it out administratively as long as they meet the intent of what that agreement
says today Okay Very good I I can definitely add that if it is a motion that is approved I'd like to have an interpretation in from the county attorney so that everybody's aware of what that may or may not mean the agreement
We are looking at it right now Okay Give me like 20 seconds to agreement again really quick My concern I'm making an amendment to this and I'll make a motion Typically we make a motion that we get a second then we have discussion but I ref and condition F touch on that slightly
Go ahead George Sorry I'm sorry Condition F in the development order does touch on that slightly but we could add more language to that That's what I thought Commissioner I just wanted to point out that Miss Smith the hole in the roof sounds an
awful lot like my mother You reminded me of my mom today Mr Chairman while we're waiting Mr Constantine Yeah Miss Smith I just want to compliment you I mean I know this is his historical significance and that you
have brought forward this and worked so hard on it And I just for the sake of purposes because some people at a an event that I went to um recently said why would you use the word colored and I suggested to them and told them that
that was the that was what that you because of your historic significance wanted it to be called So I wanted to make sure that that was for the record if anybody had any questions at all about it Thank you for what you do
Okay going back to Commissioner Delari's suggestion I don't know that the amendment is necessary The parking agreement that they have is between the applicant and the church so we wouldn't have any say in amending that But staff has included a provision in the development order that if at any time
the parking agreement is terminated the museum operation shall cease until another parking agreement is provided And that agreement has to be provided to the county for review and approval Is your comment that it should be administratively approved my issue is I
want it to be administratively approved instead of having another public hearing Okay So we can add the word administratively into condition F 3F Okay So with that Mr Chairman uh do I need to make a motion to amend the
original DF So Mr Chairman I'd like to make a motion to amend the original DF per the county attorney's recommendation of 3F Second of 3F Second Motion second Any further discussion all those in favor i oppose like signs seeing none carries
unanimously Thank you Mr Chairman work with the applicant and staff Yes Can I just clarify it sure The motion that was just made was to amend the DO It wasn't technically Okay So we still need a motion I'm going to get there Got it
I promise you I'm going to get there Just give me 20 seconds Just check I get paid to worry Okay Commissioner So Mr Chairman I believe there's two motions that uh is going to be requested So first the first motion I have is I believe that there's significant evidence at this public
hearing to identify the portions uh of this in the comprehensive plan and move to adopt a request of a small future land use amendment of medium density residential to plan development as presented here today That's the first motion Second motion and second Any
further discussion seeing none all those in favor i oppose like sign carries unanimously Okay Before I make the second motion which is the final piece Judith I know you're getting a lot of accolades here but that's just a small piece of the credit you should be
receiving You've always had the can do attitude and your journey is as you said has only begun and you may have said it's a long journey but you start a long journey with one step at a time and you have many more steps ahead of you So I
want to congratulate you on all the wonderful things that you've done and I look forward to all the wonderful things you're going to be doing in the future and I can't wait till this thing is open so that we can all celebrate that So with that Mr Chairman based on the
staff's finding and testimony evidence received here today at this public hearing I find uh request and identifies the portion of the similar county landmark code move to adoption of the request of the reszone from R1 single family dwelling to PD in associated development order and master plan
development as presented here today and changed Second Motion second Any further discussion seeing none All those in favor I oppose like sign Seeing none carries unanimously Congratulations Judah All right We appreciate you being here
and and with uh your obvious stamina and fortitude as you did when you were an elected official in Oto you've pushed this through So congratulations All right folks Next item is we're going to move to our county attorney's report
I have no report today Mr Chairman Okay How convenient Next is our county manager report and staff presentations We have the fluoride update Mr County manager are there anything else from you for reports just one other thing before Mr Edwards comes up to the podium I just
want to announce our citizens academy kickoff It actually kicks off uh this month and the first one is at our fire department station number 11 this Saturday So it's an open house Uh so we'd like for you to sign up but you don't have to You can show up but we
have a whole host of departments that will be showing what we do here uh every day to serve the residents in the business community So we're excited about uh the new the new program that our communications department uh led by Mr Chris Patton has put together with
our directors Great Very m If I can Mr County Manager station 11 is on Ronald Reagan Road in Altoont Springs That is correct Right next to the Sun Rail station Dixon's Sun I believe in commissioner Is it Lockart's district
i just had to throw that one out Listen to him On the edge We're splitting hairs We're splitting hairs Very well All right Anything else nope That's it Thank you All right Mr Edwards you're here to give us a fluoride update
and I will say for the benefit of those that are here today Uh there's many folks that are here requested to speak on this matter we will give you an opportunity to speak Uh we will adhere to the board's rules which is 1 hour of input in total on each agenda item
maximum So when you get ready to speak I'll give you some additional rules but let's get through the presentation and we'll get you folks up here Mr Edwards you have the floor All right Thank you Mr Chairman Uh commissioners I'm Johnny Edwards the Smol County Utilities Director and I
greatly appreciate the opportunity today to talk to you about community water fluidation Um but if you would permit me just a brief moment I would like to uh call attention to the uh um maybe recognize uh how sweet it is to bring home another national championship to
the great state of Florida Tremendous and effort Okay Go get it Okay All right So was that because they had fluoride i didn't have fluoride No comment Um obviously we're we're not here today to talk about uh college
basketball The purpose of today's presentation is to provide a brief update to the board of county commissioners about community water fluidation Um our agenda uh just to talk briefly to put some organizational context Wanted to talk about seminal county utilities responsibilities um
some background information about community water fluidation and some operational considerations Uh Semino County our utility we own uh the county owns five water treatment plants and several water distribution systems Uh we treat the
water to comply with state and federal drinking water standards Uh verify compliance through sampling and analysis Uh we get permits that allow us to do this as any community water system uh needs to do uh we submit compliance reports to the regulatory agencies and
also our customers Uh what we do not do uh this county does not generate uh toxicity reports uh health studies We do not establish the drinking water quality standards uh or health advisory levels There are numerous other organizations
that deal with those topics Uh most notably um the United States Environmental Protection Agency uh promulgates uh primary and secondary drinking water standards And in Florida uh the Florida Department of Environmental Protection uh adopts those standards Uh and that is the primary
agency that regulates uh and provides oversight over community water utilities in Florida Um the Florida Department of Health we look to for guidance and advisories Um but there are numerous other organizations uh both governmental and non-governmental that provide
science that conduct studies uh to support those standards and the guidance and advisories I listed a few here uh the national institutes of health uh the center for disease control and prevention um and the department of health and human services n national
toxicology program uh just to name a few Um going back in history I wanted to provide a chronology uh a brief background Uh community water flidation became a public health initiative shortly after World War II Uh in Grand Rapids Michigan it was the first city in
the United States to fluidate their water supply in 1945 Uh they reported a 60% reduction in cavities and children born thereafter Uh the Florida Department of Health officially endorsed community water flidation in 1949 so just a few years
later Um but in 1956 we have Crest uh that endorsed uh by the American Dental Association as the first cavity preventing toothpaste because of its uh because of the fluoride included therein Uh in Semino County according to D
records uh we started fluidating uh our water supply in 1988 I believe that is when the county first uh bought a water utility um and got into the the and got into the utility business Um 2008 was the oldest record that we could find um
when it was discussed with the board of county commissioners of the topic of fluoride At that time there were supply chain concerns but um it was decided to continue fluidation at that point In 2015 the Florida Department of Health
responded to federal changes in federal guidance by lowering the fluoride recommendation in water from one milligram per liter to 7 milligrams per liter And the concerns noted for that change uh revolved around fluorosis uh staining of teeth bone deformities
gastrointestinal problems and concerns with joint pain Um moving up to last year in August a national toxicology program study reported moderate confidence of inverse relationship between fluoride exposure and children's
IQ Uh on the heels of that release of that report a federal court in California uh finally ruled uh against the US EPA citing substantial and scientifically credible evidence establishing that fluoride poses a risk
to human health and the judge ordered the US EPA to regulate that unreasonable risk Uh shortly thereafter November of last year uh the Florida Department of Health revised their guidance Um it now recommends against community water fluoridation citing numerous studies
worldwide uh and associated risk resulting from total fluoride dosage and risks of lower IQ on children increased risk of ADHD uh decreased child inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility increased child neurobbehavioral problems Uh the
American Dental Association and the CDC uh continue to advocate and um put press releases indicating their support for community water fluidation and list studies that indicate it reduces dental carries in children I had to look up dental carries Apparently that means
tooth decay That's that's the scientific term Um the CDC interestingly um some recent changes at the federal level I read last week I think it was that their oral health division has been eliminated Um so changes at the CDC I also read
that uh health and human services as recently as yesterday is convening um a task force uh to review uh the use of fluoride and community water systems and EPA in response to changes in the administration and the court ruling is
also reviewing their standards Um I spent a lot of time trying to look at the science that's available out there Um one you know there's very uh differing opinions Um one common theme that I saw in the reports that I saw um that a lot of there were a lot of
concerns that the data uh is limited and it's old These are in the results of a lot of the studies that I read Uh one report specifically indicated that the benefits of community water fluidation have been diminishing since approximately the 70s because of the
prevalence of fluoride products on the shelves in the stores that we shop at Um specifically you can find fluoride in toothpaste mouthwash gels floss varnishes drops chewing gum and bottled water Um one of the concerns that I've read numerous times is the um maybe the
adverse impact on the lower income segments of the community due to the availability of fluoride if community water flidation were to dis uh be stopped Um I so I went to my favorite superstore recently just wanted to look
for myself what is on the shelves Um every single lots of varieties lots of manufacturers lots of products Every single toothpaste on the shelf uh indicated that it contained fluoride Um I took a picture of the most the least expensive um normal size tube of
toothpaste It's got the ADA stamp on it It indicates it has fluoride um just you know looks um cost cost effective Um several Florida utilities since the change in the department of health
policy have stopped community water flidation Uh notably um close to home here Longwood Lake Mary uh voted in February to stop community water flidation I believe those were both unanimous votes Um a couple weeks ago I read that the uh state of Utah is the
first state in the country to ban community water flidation Uh in Tallahassee currently there's a Senate Bill 700 that's been moving through committees um that would effectively ban uh community water flidation There utility groups are working with the
legislature to change the language to make it maybe less open to varying interpretation Um but that would be the net effect of that legislation Can you hear a dance for me all right Thank you Um a few brief operational considerations I wanted to
touch on Um in Semino County uh we get our water supply by pumping water from the Florida aquafer Um the naturally occurring fluoride ranges uh that we see in that natur in in the Florida and aquifer range from 0.15 to.3 milligrams
per liter That's naturally occurring in the aquifer Um the US EPA and FT that I mentioned previously the primary and secondary drinking water standards their standards and these are maximums Uh we can't exceed these There's a primary drinking water standard of four uh
milligrams per liter If we exceed that there are likely resulting penalties Uh there are health concerns with those concentrations Uh the secondary drinking water standard uh if we exceed that we're required to notify our customers and let them know um that the water
supply has uh uh those concentrations of fluoride All right Uh few more brief operational considerations Uh we have again five water treatment plants the fluoride systems at those plants uh will be needing uh significant RNR over the
next several years I estimate those expenses at about $500,000 On an annual basis uh we spend approximately a h 100,000 for the chemicals and the monitoring related to fluoride Uh the American Waterworks Association identifies three sources of
fluoride for community water fluoridation uh we use what is by far the most common that is hydrofluorosyalic acid um and that is a byproduct of phosphate fertilizer fertilizer production um just again just wanted to touch on a few brief uh
operational considerations and that concludes my update for the board I'm happy to answer any questions if I can Great Thank you very much Uh go to the board Go to the board for any inquiries Start with Commissioner
Lockhart I have a handful of questions being kind of data driven Great presentation lots of information Of course I always want more Sorry Um one of the things that I think
everyone is learning in our community through this conversation and it's a good healthy conversation to have about overall public health It's a public water system Um but we supply Seinal County utilities is what we're talking about today We're not talking about any
of the municipal utilities We're not talking about any private utility providers It's just Seminal County utilities right i just want to get that on the record Um well that's correct Yeah Yeah I mean that's what we that's what we have say grace over That's
correct Okay And so do we know what percent of Semino County's population of 480ome,000 people get their water from us and not from someone else so I so the semino county utilities for the people that are on community water
supplies we are about 30% of what is pumped out of the Florida aquafer um to provide water uh through through community water systems Okay So there's a bunch of people in this community on wells correct that aren't Okay So they wouldn't be getting any additive additive fluoride I think one of the
reasons I'm thinking about that is because this has been really juxtaposed against the lower income communities and that that's where a lot of the concern is about them not having adequate dental care and would this be furthering concerns there But in
in learning more about this Utilities Inc who's a private utility provider in the county who does not put fluoride in their water has not put fluoride in their water serves many of those lower income pockets of poverty So those communities have not been getting access to community water fluidation anyway Is
that correct uh that is correct And I would I would add to that the city of Castlebury to my knowledge has never added fluoride and Winter Springs discontinued over 25 years ago Okay So Winter Springs Utilities Inc Castleberry
What about Sanford um I believe Sanford and Altoont Springs are continuing to flidate and looking to see if there are changes at the state level Okay So my non-scientist brain was curious about the comparison
of Lincoln Heights which is a Utilities Inc water community which does not receive fluoride and midway which does receive Sanford water which has fluoride if there is a marked difference in what
we see in and I'm not asking you to have this answer this is just this is a peak inside Amy's brain right do we see a difference between the the kids who are growing up in Midway and the kids who are growing up in Lincoln Heights based their um oral health their their dental health and and that's a question for the
health department right and so I'm I'm thinking about all sorts of different ramifications I have all sorts of different questions about it but I I keep coming back to the fact that it's the health department who's
overseeing the public health needs and making recommendations to us We're not the public health experts We're just the people who sell the water Um so I just I wanted to ask a couple of those questions Do we have any any of
that data have we looked at those comparisons or have we done any of that type of parsing of data i have not Um you know and and again I I spent a fair amount of time just like looking at what information is out there
and I couldn't find that type of information Okay And I don't I didn't expect that you would or they I mean no is a perfectly acceptable answer I'm just curious um if if we've looked at that yet Um
okay that's all I have for right now Commissioner Constantine I think we have a lot of people on both sides of this issue that are here to speak and so I'm I'm willing to listen first Commissioner Thank you Mr Chairman First
of all Johnny thank you and your staff if you had any assistance from your staff So thank you for the research I mean it's quite obvious that this was uh needed back in the day whenever that day was Uh and you went back to World War II
times I would think that we would have updated it back then since then but we haven't Uh you also said that the county started using it in 1988 Correct This that is according to D's data um they they track it Was there a vote by the
county commission or by a board to do that i don't know We did work with um commission records to try to find that kind of information Uh we could not Okay Sorry to hear that Okay Uh I mean
as many people we do hear from from and we do hear a lot of people talking about this As many people as you hear for it you'll hear maybe even more people against it Uh and I for one for all the information that I've seen all the additional products that have been put
out there with fluoride I don't know why we're continuing this I really don't But uh if we want to continue to process this we can but uh I'd be one to help try to remove this from our water supply right now Mr Chairman
Commissioner Herr U it was probably a year and a half ago I asked how much this is costing us and uh I've had an interest to get rid of it since then Uh quite frankly I think absent of absolute proof that it's not
dangerous we need to remove it And the fact that if you want to think about the potential of harm in the impoverished communities think about the potential of a neurodeiverse child in an impoverished
community and the inability of that parent to advocate for that kid And I can't fathom it And I've lived that life And so take it out And I would love to make this motion when it's time
Um so my perspective on this thank you Commissioner Her Um I am no scientist I am no expert but I pride myself in doing as much research as I possibly can I put this in the category of evolving
science from the standpoint of there was a time and a point in history uh where this was good practice uh proper practice uh based on the science at that time As science develops and time moves
along like many things uh take cholesterol levels in humans by example at least to my knowledge in my day it's changed three different times Um yours is way too high by the way Actually it's actually too low believe it or not Um
but I eat a lot of chocolate Um and so we have to be open-minded enough to understand that as time goes on and science develops we're going to learn by default newer things or more things
about what's happened It's just like the docane 14 doain that we've been talking about you know the EPA had certain levels and now it's becoming an issue and and and science is determining that it's something we need to look at you
know closer in our water supply Um to Commissioner Lockhart's point uh I think the numbers I saw and and tell me if this is right we've got 40,000 customers that we deliver water to Is
that correct that's that's a good approximation Okay And of course we don't know how many people are in each household but if you just took three that's 120,000 Uh if it's four it's 160,000 A quarter of our population We've got a great deal of our
population as have was already pointed out is on their own private well systems I can tell you that I raised my family in the rural area their entire life on a private well without fluoride and none
of my children ever developed any kind of issues with excessive tooth decay Um they used across the counter toothpaste Uh didn't receive any supplements from the orthodontist or their dentist Um so
if you take those things um you know from my perspective and the fact that we are telling the public that we follow federal and state guidelines and we just heard the Florida Florida Department of Health is saying it should come out of the water Um it's sort of a
no-brainer for me So I would I would be on the side of removing this from the water supply as well Um would be my direction Commissioner Lockhart one of the questions that I had for the county managers who were talk because we've been talking about this
individually for quite some time um is if if we have an opportunity to work with the health department locally on their they have a dental program right if we were to ask Dr Johnson what would help you most
delivering improve dental services for our lowincome community what would you want us to do how could we be helpful to you rather than deciding on our own what it might be maybe it's it's an additional contribution to their dental program I I don't know what that would
look like And I understand that our utility fund is an enterprise fund and funds that we would give the health department be from the general fund And I get you know I get all that but it seems like [Music] um we need to be asking additional questions about how we can continue to
be helpful if we if we're concerned about the dental health of those in lower income communities And I I remember as a kid and I don't know if how if they still do this I think they did this with my kids too but you go to the dentist and you know you sit they have the tooth uh the toothshaped foam
thing and they squeeze the the liquid fluoride and it was always a terrible flavor They'd ask you what flavor you want and you're like I don't care It's gross no matter what flavor you pick And you know you sit there and you just drool That was fluoride And they'd tell you don't swallow it Don't swallow it Don't swallow it And I remember as a kid thinking I was going to die if I
swallowed that I'm like "Well shoot If I'm not supposed to swallow it why'd you stick it in my mouth?" But anyway like I remember vividly as a kid what those fluoride treatments were like And I think my kids had the same ones And and um you know if if there are if there are
kids in our community who need access to that dental care albeit gross memory serves Um let's talk about how we can help doing that other than having everybody have to have it in the water And so I don't know if Mr Gray if
you had a chance to talk with Mr Johnson or not Um and thank you for that and as I've spoken with all of you on several occasions regarding this but um that was an interesting proposal that Commissioner Lockheart brought up to me So I thought and I to answer your question no I have not talked to Mr Johnson about this but I think it's
something that we we could we have our upcoming budget work sessions with our outside agencies coming up next month in May and I thought I'll I could start working with him and that he can make that a part of his uh presentation to the board Uh what the current program is what he has if and if there are any
requests that he is making from the state to maybe you know expand his the um his dental program that he has So I could definitely make that request to him Well to my recollection last report we received they talked a great deal about their dental program uh that we
were already funding Yes Um helping Helping fund Correct Uh but if you just look at it from a practical standpoint I think the numbers we just saw $100,000 worth of material and half a million dollar worth of O andM on equipment
$600,000 buys a lot of toothpaste Uh and and buys a lot of health care maybe through the the health department Uh so maybe that's a way to look at it Commissioner her I really don't want to go down I think that's a conversation for the budget
discussion I don't want to go down the path of assuming with lack of data that there's a need to start handing out free toothpaste in or whatever it may be The dental health is about taking
care of your teeth just like physical health is about eating the right things drinking the right things moving your own body This is about personal responsibility What I don't want to do I think Commissioner Lockheart's suggestion of if we're creating a gap filling the gap we need to know that
there's a gap but I don't simply want to assume in case Dr Johnson is listening Mr Johnson whichever it is uh we don't have 6,000 $600,000 that we're handing over to increase the dental program That's not I think where we're going Sure But if there's an identified gap
and it would have to be identified through data um then maybe And I don't disagree that that's totally different conversation sounded different today than today No no question at all Mr Chairman the only thing that I like Mr Lori thank you Mr Chair The only thing I'd like to add is Johnny the one
thing you didn't talk about is that back in the day in 1988 or even earlier uh not many people drink bottled water Now today there's more and more people drinking bottled water So if there is fluoride in the water you know more and more people
using what they're getting out of the they're purchasing from other sources and not our source So that's another piece of the equation as well cuz I could tell you how many times you go to the grocery store and you'll see people leaving Publix or whatever supermarket
you go to with cases of bottled water And there's a lot of people doing that Commissioner Lockhart Of course now they're saying we're not supposed to drink anything out of plastic right because then we have microplastics and we shouldn't the equivalent of eating like 15 credit
cards a year or something I don't know Yes Uh reverse osmosis Does that remove fluoride from the water do we know i could have Googled that probably and not bothered you to ask Yeah I'm not I'm not I'm not
positive of it So So I mean is this something that we would look to try to remove the natural fluoride Is that No I'm thinking if there are people in this community who don't want fluoride in their water and they live in a in a area where the
system is putting it in whether they like it or not not that reverse osmosis is an inexpensive solution but would would that remove it would they have the ability to control it at their point of entry with a reverse osmosis system yeah I honestly don't know about the the home filtration like the capability of
removing fluoride I can find that out and get back to you Okay My my quick survey of of constituents when I asked "Do you drink your tap water or do you drink bottled water?" And almost
without exception was "We drink bottled water." We use our tap water to make coffee or tea or Kool-Aid and things like that But right we we we drink bottled water Um so you know that that's that's the
input I've had Well before we go to public input is there anything else google says yes Google says yes Google says yes Put them on our oak Let's get them up here So um I do have a question for the county attorney if I may Well here
here's my question It sounds like by the dialogue that I'm hearing up here in the dis there is a majority of the commissioners that desire to remove fluoride from the water supply Is that is that a fair analogy
that I'm hearing up here that I'm hearing before we folks but Mr Chairman hold on But Mr Chairman yes I think I can read and account numbers but I also think that there are people here that want to speak on it both pro and against And I think that's a lot more important
than just us deciding before we listen to the citizens I'm sorry but I just believe that very strongly And I think you jumped ahead of where I was going Okay I I I hear you loud and clear but I haven't got there yet Um Commissioner Lockhart did you have something only that I think it's important that the
public knows that we have received hundreds of emails on this topic So this will not be the first input we have had from the community Right Correct Right Exactly Both for and against By the way this feel this is remarkably like co all of you have your own um scientific
sources that are accurate and support your position Well folks if please do not yell out you'll get your opportunity Um please contra cons Yeah Mr Chairman have have proper decor and
respect for the process if you would please Commissioner Delori the question I had for the county attorney is very simple Since this is under the county manager's report and it doesn't say that there's action can we take action on this today or do we need to agendaize it for a
future agenda item agendaize it Well you can take action on items that are not agenda at all And this is on the agenda I'm asking you it's not a work I'm I'm answering your question sir It is not a work session It is a you know discussion
item Um I think you can take action on it if you want the guidance the sunshine law guidance recommends against taking action on things that are not on the agenda alto together Um there may be a concern that maybe because this was a discussion item that part of the public
wouldn't think you would vote on it today Um but you know I I can't predict what everybody's thinking but the answer the short answer is you can take action on it today if you wanted to Okay any other questions for the
attorney seeing none we'll go to public input So here's how this works everyone Three minutes per person We will call those that are first
in favor of keeping fidation in If you've got them sorted do you have too many to sore you just want to call them one at a time One at a time Okay we'll just call you up one at a time Here here's my ask to all of you This is your time to have three minutes to tell us your
concerns If a speaker before you has already said almost the identical same things that you're about to say please show some compassion and courtesy to your fellow speakers Once we've heard it once or twice we don't need to hear it 25 more
times Uh we're going to limit this to a maximum of one hour of input uh once that hour has expired uh I will come back to my board and ask for direction So please a as compassionate as you may
be on the topic one way or the other please give us your input but limit it to something that has not already been indicated or stated uh here today would be very helpful for the process So let's call the first three please
Nicole King Cindy Jury and Jay Jury [Music] Doesn't matter Come up one at a time Tell us whether you're in favor or against Please try not to be repetitive Address
Name and address for the record So my name is Nicole King I reset at 25822 Pinehurst Street in STO Florida I am against fluoride Good afternoon Uh my name is Nicole and I'm a registered nurse in the Central Florida area I wanted to thank you for bringing this topic up Being proactive versus reactive
is always the right thing to do Today I'm here as a concerned citizen who opposes the continuation of fluoride and the county's public water systems because when we know better we do better As a registered nurse we have a moral obligation and duty to speak the truth and provide factual evidence when
educating our communities So where I may have many feelings on this subject I am here to provide some facts about the dangers of fluoride in the public water systems Fluoride was deemed by the US National Research Council as a neurotoxin back in 2006 Fluoride has
been deemed a medical intervention typically prescribed by a physician Natural occurring fluoride is not what is being added to the public water systems As you heard it is a toxic byproduct where chlorine is treating the water um fluoride is treating the people
Adverse health outcomes are widely documented when discussing fluorosis Fluoride toxicity can occur when unregulated amounts of fluoride are consumed through one's body Does boiling water remove fluoride the answer is no
Does toothpaste bottles contain a label for poison control to be con uh to be contacted if ingestion occurs the answer is yes The main focus um is how removing fluoride will affect our community's teeth Meanwhile over 90% of the world
does not use fluoride Fluoride is described as healthy for the prevention of cavities However like we've previously discussed so is access to healthier food dental care and safe clean drinking water Continuing flidation in the public water system is being done without the consent of your
communities which equates to a lack of informed consent Once the treated water leaves the public water systems you cannot in good faith measure how much your communities are taking in And despite all the facts that I just presented at the end of the day removing one's choice to bodily autonomy and
their right to uh medical freedoms should be the county's main goal Who better to take this gentle advice from than a registered nurse who worked during an entire pandemic and saw firsthand what happens when you take the rights away of the individuals thank you
Thank you Next Mr Chairman Sure Commissioner Lockhart as as folks are giving their address if they know who their water provider is that would be super helpful if they could say I'm a Seminal County utility
customer or right abs Thank you Because that was what I was getting ready to say was please tell us whether you're a Semino County water customer Okay After you've given your name and address I still want to hear what you have to say Just curious about the additional data Okay Um my name is Cindy Jury I live at
408 South Virginia Avenue in Sanford I have Sanford Water Um my doctorate is in child development I would make note of the fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics still supports foride in public water
I will tell you from my personal experience having worked with migrant head start in parts of the state where fordated water was not available to our children We saw extensive issues with dental
issues Migrant Headstart provided dental care for our children So we were you know able to track this But it's fascinating to me because I know since coming and living in counties like Orange County and Semol County where
fluoride has been provided I've seen nowhere near that level of you know dental involvement We see children who have dental issues in school This has impact on them we see
that dental issues can be a complication with later health issues as well I think we need to be listening to informed science And while I do understand that there are reports that were cited in um the utilities
director's um presentation I would also say that there has been a very strong growing anti-science um movement against fluoride that is very also closely linked to what we are seeing with the antivaccination
campaigns that we now have measles which was once basically eliminated in our country now re occurring in Texas I think we need to really and truly look seriously at this This may be
an issue that the state is going to make the determination for us you know regardless of what we as a county think But I would really strongly urge the county to really seriously consider before you take the step of removing
fluoride from the water on behalf of the children in our community who are you know their parents may choose to buy toothpaste for them or not but it's one of those where in the long run our children are our future and they deserve
the best We have three generations of adults who have gone through for who have used fordated water and if the results were as dramatic and as extreme as people are talking about we would have much greater data showing that
there are significant problems and I don't think the research that has been shown has really substantially um proven that which is why the American and dental association the American Academy of Pediatrics and other leading
children's health groups do not support removing fluoride from water Thank you very much for your time Thank you Next please Good afternoon commissioners And I want to thank I think it's Commissioner Lockhart for the popcorn
Appreciate that And I don't think that's going to contribute to tooth decay So anyway my name is Jay Jury I'm Cindy Jury's husband I reside 408 South Virginia Avenue Sanford We do get our water from the Sanford Water Utility Uh
however I'm very concerned about the county overall and county health is has been a concern of mine ever certainly since I've lived in Simino County What I want to do this afternoon is is make reference to um something that Mr Edwards brought up in in his
presentation which was the decision of the state of Utah to discontinue flidation in their water supply The American Dental Association put out a statement in response to that decision And I'm not going to bore you reading the whole statement but I've got about
two sentences that I think speak to the concern Um according to Brett Castler Doctor of Dental Science who is the president of the American Dental Association the most common chronic childhood disease is
cavities We know that when community water fluidation stops it's the children and the most vulnerable of our communities who suffer We urge legislators and voters across the country not to make Utah's significant
mistake and instead to trust credible data and science which shows that ultimately fluidating community water is safe effective and helps prevent dental disease And the only thing I would add at this point to that formal statement
is that as as my wife alluded to dental health oral health generally is um is not really the only consideration here that what happens with people's teeth and what goes on in their mouths is is very directly linked to
their overall health Uh cardiac conditions are something that have been looked at with regard to poor oral hygiene So there's that also to be taken into consideration And it's not you know the ADA statement talked about um children
So did my wife I'm sure others will as well but there are al also other people You know I'm a man in in my mid70s but I'd still like to keep the teeth I have left And um it's been also shown with some some of the studies that that toothpaste and mouthwashes alone are not
adequate to that and that the the the minimum standard of 7 to 75 fluoride in in the added to the drinking water is is really about the most beneficial overall So again thank you for your time this afternoon Thank you The next three if
you get those cued please Miss Dominique Nicole Owlette Leslie Kersian Balm and Casey Ash Brener All right if you folks would be on standby we'll get you through here Hello My name is Nicole I live up the road of
1417 South Oak Avenue My water comes from city of Sanford You can add another three minutes because I'm also the regional leader for uh FIA Sanford which is a local chapter of a national nonprofit organization for women by
women We do outside exercise It's always free It's always peer-led We have a lot of women in our group Let's try to wrap it up in three minutes but go ahead Sure But I'm also going to speak representing my my ladies and it said in the documentation that I do have six minutes if I'm representing a group So that needs to be Did you bring proof of that
representation and are you speaking i can bring it up on my cell phone if you'd like But if you'd like for me to waste that time is there anybody else here i don't know Anybody else be on Facebook seeing FIA Sanford anybody no All right So is there anybody else that's going to speak on behalf of FIA
Sanford no Okay then proceed Okay Can we wrap my minutes back because we just wasted a lot of time Go ahead So we've been dealing with a lot of things being said here today I'd like to address them What I've said or what I had written is kind of out the door Um first of all I'd
like to share that I have been here in this community since the late 90s I have um as a medical massage therapist as a holistic health coach and consultant I have helped people in our community overcome a lot of health issues I have
been studying natural health for over 30 years I have cured cancer in some of our community members when the hospitals could not 20 years ago I became the first person in the history of the state of Florida to take a patient from just points away
from hospitalization for lead therapy or for lead poisoning to trace free When the um Florida health department called me up and asked me what the doctor did and I said the doctor followed protocol which is absolutely nothing and they'd retest in 30 days
They didn't believe me and they called me a liar because what I did is I looked to nutrition and I used the keelation and just simple biochemistry in the diet So as I'm up here I'm not just talking because oh I saw something on Facebook or I saw like the trend I'm up here
because I'm seriously concerned about the water that we have what we're exposed to Nobody's mentioning how when we put that water in our mouths when we're brushing our teeth it's going directly under our tongue It's immediately being absorbed because it's sublingual It goes right into our blood
supply Nobody's talking about how when we get in the shower we're absorbing it through our skin When you go out to eat and you order soup there's fluoride in your soup In 2017 the National Scientific Committee made a statement on NPR You
can go into your phone you can find it on NPR They made a big statement because all of our ethics have been based on former ways in which we have funded our studies We no longer go for studies
funded for the public We now go for studies that are funded for the profit of the results Our science is not what we think it is I'm hearing people making comments that are completely unfounded for fluoride I'm sorry I don't want
fluoride in my foods my water I don't want to have to take it when I'm taking a shower You're taking away my ability to consent Since I was a child I have made all the choices that I could make I was raised on a farm that was certified
organic I've done organic foods my entire life I've done my own health I've been told two months ago over the phone that I have cancer now I have to take all of the toxins out of my daily
routines and that includes showering You guys don't understand that when you take the fluoride in it calcifies the pineal gland The pineal gland is responsible for your cardio or not your cardiac rhythms but your circadian rhythms When you're under the
stress of dealing with everything that everybody is dealing with in society today it makes it even more detrimental So that calcification of the fluoride or the calcification caused by the fluoride destroys our pineal gland it destroys the abilities na or the body's natural
ability to make melatonin to have the circadian rhythms function So you don't have your sleep your immune system is thrown off and it actually causes cardiac disease I also have mild cardiac disease So I'm trying to deal with all
of these things myself I'm trying to remove all of these toxins out of my diet which is already mostly organic I can't filter it out of my air I rely on you guys to take it out of our water
system You are taking away my ability to have consent over what goes into my body You're taking away my ability to make choices for my own medical decisions when you're talking about these kids that oh their parents don't want them to have fluoride so they're not buying them
the fluoride toothpaste but sure let's take away parental rights and force that that fluoride into these kids That's insane We forgot to take the time to do the pledge of allegiance when we started this meeting today I hope that we don't forget the rights
that we have as citizens of this country because my religion involves my body is my temple and it is a violation of that when we continue to force neurotoxins and known carcinogens into
our children our our family members and our citizens So there's so much more that we need to consider and I strongly strongly urge you to remove the fluoride from the water system and thank you for listening to me because another thing we
have people in our in my group that have elderly family members and those that have dementia the fluoride is affecting that and it's making it worse So even though we don't have all the answers we cannot jump to the conclusions that
science for profit is going to give us those answers So thank you for the time for listening Please please consider the future of these kids And honestly I can tell you that as somebody
that is underprivileged that would listen in the welfare you don't need to worry about that That is not the issue oral uh health has so much more to do with gut health with uh the microbiome than it does with the fluoride So we're
looking and talking about the wrong things So thank you for your time Any of the ladies here please come out and join us FIA we're all about supporting each other and being healthy So thank you Let the record reflect the meeting did start today with not only the pledge of
allegiance but the prayer at 9:30 this morning Next up please Leslie Kersian Bomb Good afternoon My name is Leslie Kersinbomb I reside in 110 Cedar Point Lane Longwood Florida 32779 And I am a Semino County resident
I use Sunshine Water that does not use fluidation I'm here to urge us to rethink a decade's old practice Adding fluoride to our water While it's been sold as a dental health necessity emerging evidence and common sense suggests it's time to stop Fluoride's
benefits are overstated Modern research like the 2024 Cochran review shows fluidation's impact on tooth decay has shrunk as fluoride toothpaste and dental care have become widespread We're not in 1945 anymore Most of us already get
fluoride from brushing Adding to our water is redundant like putting training wheels on a bike we've already mastered Second there's growing concern about the risks Study including the 2019 JAMMA pediatrics report link higher fluoride exposure during pregnancy to
lower IQ scores The National Toxicology Program's 2023 finding echo this suggesting neurological harm at levels not far above what we use Semino Countyy's kids deserve better than a gamble with their brains development
especially when fluoride's dental perks can come from a tube not our taps It's about choice Forcing fluoride into every glass of water takes away our freedom to decide what goes into our bodies Not everyone needs it Some face fluorosis
staining teeth from too much exposure Others like those with medical conditions might want to avoid it Why mandate a one-sizefits-all approach when alternatives exist semino County has fluidated water for over 25 years but tradition isn't reason enough to keep it
Nearby Kier can county and Winter Haven have already stopped prioritizing health freedom and new science We can too The cost of fluidation is about 130,000 annual annually in Panellis which could fund education or clinics ensuring
dental care reaches those who need it without medicating everyone Let's lead with courage remove fluoride from our water give families control protect our kids and trust us to brush our teeth Thank you Thank you While we're calling the next
one up I've got three written forms I will read for the record One is Heather Stardup comment is please do not get rid of fluoride in Semino County's water Evidence shows it is not cost effective way to support our children's dental
health which is vital for overall well-being Next is Robin Jones Uh please remove fluoride from the water Next is Jean Barwicks I do not support the use of
fluoride in the water It is the toxic agent and I was given the opportunity to it says I was not given the opportunity to make a decision to have fluoride or not for the clerk please Next speaker and please just a
reminder please do not try to repeat what's already been said and try to keep it on the topic of fluoride in or fluoride out of the water system Thank you Hi my name is Casey Ashbrunner I live in 541 Whitetail Trail in Chiliota
I am on a well Um but my kids go to Semol County schools which means they're getting fluoride at school Um and most parents know that when you have little kids you they don't brush their teeth before they have teeth When they're really little you give them
unflloridated toothpaste um because of risk of swallowing it So prior to brushing your teeth at three with fluoridated toothpaste kids are only getting fluoride in your DRO from
drinking water um up until then and through the food that they're getting prepared with water in your house um depending on where you live So studies have shown that those kids are benefiting from the fluoride in water because they're not using fluorid
fluoridited toothpaste from in uterero before even being born up until 3 years old There was a study in um Alaska that checked uh kids who were exposed to fluoride in their tap water and then fluoride out of their tap water because
they removed it in 2007 And the kids once that happened um the average went up to one more cavity per year per kid This was a study of kids that were on Medicaid so they could see what the difference was and the incidents grew Um
what we know is that when you have too much fluoride um it cause mild dental florosis and that's um fine pearly white pearl lines and flecking on the surface of the teeth um and it causes the tooth's enamel to be pitted or dis
discolored So if we the if our community was having a big incidence of too much fluoride in the water we would know it because our dentists would be contacting the health department and they'd be telling them that they see a huge problem in the water The other thing I
wanted to say is um Mr Zower you said that most people are drinking um bottled water Well that's if you're affluent enough to have it So a lot of kids whose parents might not be affluent where they get bottled water are only drinking the tap water and that might be where
they're the only place they get fluoride where that would benefit it I actually have a friend who has five kids and their teeth are a mess and she didn't have in this day and age there are still people who don't know the importance of teeth brushing and making sure their
kids teeth get taken care of and the only way that their kids get fluoride was through the drinking water And then one of the last things I wanted to say is that the gentleman who came up and gave the presentation at the beginning of this cited a study So I pulled up that study and that study is a study of
70 other 74 other studies and in the like fourth paragraph it says of the 74 studies 52 studies were rated high risk of bias and 22 were rated low risk of bias So that study in and of itself has been has been criticized by other people
as being not a good study You're out of time Thank you Next speaker please Elizabeth Lens Joe Flity and Carol Henshaw While the next one's coming up I'll read two more comment forms Natalie
Lochner Lackner our surgeon general Joseph Leado and RFK Jr are opposed to the continuation of fluoride in our drinking water There are claims that fluoride lowers IQ levels increases the risk of neuro
neuroscsychiatric disease in children I agree and hope you will as well Uh Rita Hoffman fluoride does not need to be in our water because it's dangerous chemical and a neurotoxicant that
reduces I can't read and intelligence in children like toxic meth like bad mercury and arsenic This is documented in medical journals Lancet neurology If fluoride is in our city water we are
battling it and it's being absorbed through the skin So drinking filtered water is only part of the solution for the clerk All right Yes ma'am Good afternoon I'm Dr Elizabeth Lince I'm the senior scientist for
population health programs at the American Dental Association at the American Dental Association and I serve as their fluoride subject matter expert Uh but today I am here as a public health sentence And your address for the
record please oh sorry My address is 4750 Cove Circle Um and that's Madiraa Beach Florida Okay But I used to live in Elmont Springs Oh good for you So but today I'm here as a public health dentist I've practiced for
over 30 years and I'm a longtime Fidian Um for me this is personal I have young cousins and nieces and nephews throughout Simol County and I want to con make sure that they continue to have the advantages of fluoride throughout
their lives My three brothers and I spent our early years in Illinois and we're now in our which is 90 something plus% fluid fluoridated We're in our 50s and 60s and none of us have ever had any cavities And I think that's true for a
lot of us growing up in this generation And just as a side note uh all of us have doctorate degrees My oldest brother is actually has two So I just don't think it's accept you know it's really affected by IQ But anyway so um before I
came to work at ADA I was a professor at University of Florida College of Dentistry I was in charge of running the school-based dental programs for Elatchel County And we could easily tell the areas of the county where there was fluoride and there was not because the
kids in the non-flloridated areas had ve had a much more cavities Um and a lot of these kids had little or no access to dental care One of the things to remember about Florida is that it has one of the worst dental access problems
in the country uh with 65 out of 67 counties having a dentist shortage In Elatcha we saw children who had dental abscesses They were in pain and they were missing school because they couldn't find a dentist to treat them
even with Medicaid Um University of Florida's Children's Dental Clinic is overwhelmed with a waiting list for kids waiting to be seen Stopping fluidation will only make this problem worse Studies from Israel from Juno Alaska um
from Calgary Canada from Louisiana from Texas all show that where there is no flidation 2K rates are higher and dental expenses are also higher In uh Calgary Canada in Calgary Canada they stopped
flidating in 2011 I believe And after that they saw an increase in cavities Um the local children's hospital saw a 700% increase in patients needing IV
antibiotics to treat dental infections Continue Okay continue Go ahead Uh and they saw a 78% increase in young children requiring general anesthesia because they had such severe dental decay Recent studies have
been misinterpreted as concluding that the fluidation of water affects the IQ of children Um the report that was cited the national toxicology program fluoride and neurocognition Um if you flip to the
third page it actually says in bold print that it does not apply to community water fluidation as practiced in the US And I can show you that it also clearly states that they did not review any studies from the US The
studies included were from uh China and India which have very high naturally occurring levels of fluoride So we use a level of fluoride that is very small It's only.7 parts per million which is the equivalent of three drops in a
55gallon barrel So we do know the toxic level of fluoride and that is 5 mg per kilogram which is like 2.2 pounds So that means that a 165 person 165 lb
person would have to drink over 120 gallons of water before they reach the toxic level of fluoride So even if you're really thirsty I don't think you're going to do that Um and you actually drown before you could do that
So um more recent highquality studies from countries that fluoridate in the same range we do like Australia which is 90% fluoridated um those those studies do not show any
effect and in fact studies that have fluidate where fluidation is at the level we use in the US do not show any effect in IQ So again those levels of fluoride that show a problem are very high naturally occurring levels Um
fluoride is found in all water and soil and air And even with the advent of fluoridated toothpaste and rinses it still reduces an additional 25% So fluoridated Okay doctor we're going to ask you to try to wrap it up here Okay
we're wrapping it up So fluoridated toothpaste works with the fluoridated water Um so I would just like to say that drinking fluoridated water is recommended by every health professional association the American Dental Association the American Medical
Association American Academy of Pediatrics World Health Organization all of those And I urge you to consider the health of your youngest and most vulnerable citizens when you make this decision Thank you Thank you And before you get away from there I may have a
little point of privilege with this witness Um you are with the American Dental Association Yeah I just happened to be in town and I wanted to speak because my nieces and my nephews and cousins here So one question that that I've been
pondering as I've done my own research can you tell me why the ADA supported levels at 1.0 and then supported them being reduced to 7 yes I can tell you that I very much know
that So um like in and this happens in Australia as well So they were fidating at a range and basically they thought that people that lived in colder climates were not drinking as much water
and so they would need less so they would need more fluoride right and so people who were living in southern climates where it was much hotter who would be drinking more water would need a lower amount But with the advent of
air conditioning and everyone's in their air conditioned cars and and houses and um that kind of flattened out and so that's why they changed it from a range of 0.7 to I believe it was like one to
dropped it to 7 Right Okay Thank you very much Next speaker please Joe Flity Uh next speaker They're not coming forward Carol Henshaw Just give me a minute here While
she's coming up I'll read a written comment from Julie Anner It looks like I would support getting rid of toxic fluoride in our tap water Thank you so much Yes ma'am Please Am I the last to speak oh
I don't think so Get out of here Thanks for the popcorn you guys What a nice surprise Not unless y'all get real carried away I'm Carol Henshaw I live at 660 Lakeworth Circle in Lake Mary Uh I'm also thank goodness on the library
advisory board Thank you Commissioner Constantine Uh and I'm enjoying this appointment very much Um as we can see there is a huge diverse opinions about this situation just like every other thing that's happening in this country
This from way out here to way down here Uh and what I say is not going to change anybody's minds But somebody mentioned the other day what's the role of government in supporting and protecting citizens
let's look at the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution We hold these truths to be self-evident Certain inaliable rights inaliable rights life liberty and the pursuit of happiness ensure the domestic
tranquility promote the general welfare How can citizens enjoy these rights without ensuring the health and well-being of each person i believe the government's role is to
set standards for health to enable people to enjoy other rights We can't be happy if we can't enjoy good health Number one I am four weeks in recovering
from complete left hips replacement And my surgeon followed the safety standard set by Joseph Listister in 1865 to ensure that his patients would
not die from infections It took 20 years for American doctors to support his beliefs And I'm sure that Commissioner Constantine's mother is happy that she's recovered
with no infection I'm recovering with no infection That's medical science And I do not want us to go back to the dark ages So let's don't make a knee-jerk decision about fluoride If you're concerned about chemicals in your
water read a book called Tomato Land You will never eat another tomato grown in the state of Florida They fumigate the soil before the the plants in They continue to fumigate the plants after they're growing so they
come out bright and red So don't get me started on the food issue Uh in any case um I am concerned that we are starting to move back into the dark ages when it
comes to medical science and our health And the fluoride issue somebody has already mentioned I believe is an issue for the halves and the have knots People who can't afford to go to a
dentist for fluoride treatments those those people the teeth will rot out right people who can afford to go to the tennis they can preserve their pearly whites Ma'am if you could wrap it up And thank you Uh I am for keeping fluoride
I'm 83 years old My generation benefited from fluoride in the water Thank you Hope the dentist will get Jessica Tilman Tara Miles and Cindy Holler Okay
Y'all would come forward and please try to be cognizant of the threeminut rule We thought that was Good afternoon commissioners My name is Jessica Tilman I reside at 124 Rock Lake Road in Longwood Um I am against Florida
fidating our water systems I I am a mother of four school age children Three of them were born in this county We've lived in this county for over 10 years now Um and we would prefer to have informed consent to fluidate my children
and myself and husband We travel all over the district or the county and we want safe water for our children anywhere we go Um I will add in I used to be a rep for an office supply company
and one of my clients was a prison system and he called me one day wanting he needed small tubes of toothpaste I can't remember the size It was a long time ago but he needed a specific size
of toothpaste because the prisoners will eat the toothpaste as a way to kill themselves So it's a neurotoxin It needs to be removed from our water systems And I'll leave it at that Thank you Thank you
Tara Miles Yeah I find better ra way to do it And her beautiful child Hello commissioners Uh my name is Tara Miles I'm here representing uh Semino Countyy's littlest activist This is
Micah Jude and we are strongly opposed to fluidation of the water sources We would really appreciate it if everyone did their due diligence and learned about the neurotoxicity uh so that we can have a bright future for the uh future generation of our
country Thank you Thank you beautiful child Thank you Cindy Holler Miss Holler And who follows Miss Holler robin Jonas um M Evans and Celeste Terry
Hi I hope you can understand me today I I work with patients so I picked up a little bug unfortunately Um so Cindy Holler 1731 Beacon Drive live in Sanford We actually my family actually has our water from a well Um and we do not add
fluoride Um I personally am against uh fluoride in county water and I would prefer not to use it in you know not to be exposed to it in restaurants and different places I am actually going to read a letter from a local dentist So um
this actually is uh Dr David Edwards and um so here it goes Um I am a dentist practicing in Sanford since 2007 the same practice that my dad started in Sanford in 1969 I have long been wearied of the risk of water flidation and
strongly oppose its presence in our water community in our excuse me in our community water supply I had hoped to be able to attend the meeting in person but it falls during patient hours So I'm sending my thoughts and concerns to you by email So he said he did email it to the board and county manager yesterday I
believe or a couple days ago Um below is an excerpt from the recent US federal court ruling against the EPA where water fluidation was deemed an unreasonable risk to the health of children to which the EPA will be forced to regulate as such The court finds that fluidation of
water at 7 milligs per liter the level presently considered optimal in the US poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children The court finds there is an unreasonable risk of such injury a risk sufficient to require the EPA to engage
with a regulatory response One thing the EPA cannot do however in the face of this court's finding is to ignore that risk Furthermore the Cochran Collaboration a globally respected organization for evidence-based reviews recently published a comprehensive
review that found no significant difference in cavity reduction between fluidated and non-flloridated water systems This undermines the long-standing claim that fluidation is an essential measure for improve excuse me for improving dental health
Additionally over the past two decades at least 10 studies funded by the National Institute of Health have demonstrated a concerning link between fluoride exposure and reduced IQ in children These studies further validate growing concerns about the neurotoxic effects of fluoride especially on young
developing brains I believe the evidence strongly supports ending fluidation of our water supply The US federal court ruling on its toxicity in children should be sufficient cause alone The Cochran collaboration review shows questionable efficacy and it is a
significant expense to the county when it is widely and inexpensively available in topical forms should people choose to use it However people should be allowed to make that choice for them for their health themselves And I just wanted to add that I've been listening to all the comments I find this a very interesting
discussion So thank you for your time Thank you Robin Jonas How many more speaker forms do we have more than 15 minutes A little over extended Okay Well we're going to have to I'm going to make it
really quick Ask people to try to make it as quick as possible because we're running up on about a 15 20 minute deadline before we're going to end this Yes ma'am I'll make it quick My name is Robin Jonas I reside at 765 Whoopi Crane Court in Sanford Florida And we use Seol's Water I'm here today for myself my family and people that don't have a
voice Um I want you guys to really reconsider having this in our water because well for a lot of reasons Um but it's not an essential nutrient Our kids do not have to get it through our drinking water They can get it um and
like you were saying through the dentistry and we do have the um health department if kids need a place to go to get dental care So I think that we should be sending them there and not making everybody get that in their water
if they so choose You also made um Mr Hark you made the comment about um reverse osmosis and yes it does take it out but it is a very expensive um option and some people can afford that Um one of the things that I've been hearing are human sizes where you live how much you
ingest and none of that we can be sure of when we are drinking our water or when we're putting it in our water You don't know what the household looks like You don't know how much they're consuming or what age they are And I think there is enough evidence and I think all scientific research at this
point should be looked at who's funded the study where is it coming from not just believe every study that's been put out there Um one of the things you know the FDA doesn't approve fluoride for ingestion which obviously the toothpaste So if you
can't ingest it then why are we swallowing it in water like that doesn't make sense to me Um and then lastly with what this gentleman said about saving the 500,000 the 100,000 that really could be put to good use to to better
our food system for our kids here in the county So that's all I everything else was already said that I was going to say So thank you very much Please do not please remove it from our drinking water Thank you Thank you It may be helpful as each of you come up just after you've given us your name and address and
whether you're a water customer of our water utility Just tell us whether you're in favor of flidation or not Um if you want to add more that's fine but we're going to run out of time for some of these speakers So please come ahead Who's next
hi I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to speak I am Celeste Terry I am um I live at 7718 Scottwood Drive in New Orleans Louisiana And my water supply is Orleans Parish Um it is
flidated I have benefited from water flidation for over 50 years Orleans um actually started fluidating our water in 1974 So I have had the benefit of seeing
um the benefit not only in myself but in my children and in my grandchildren And I'm also a dental hygienist So I have seen the benefit of uh fluoridation in the water within the patients that I
serve as well as in communities that don't have um um community water flidation The question was asked earlier today what the data showed from the health department in Florida And what I
was able to locate while I was here in this room today that based on the Florida health department in 2017 to 2018 24% of the children in Head Start um ages 3 to six had um tooth decay I
also looked at the water fluidation that has been supplied in semino county and you have over 80% of the individuals receiving fluoridated water um and then
another 60% that are receiving adjusted water supply Why is this important because the data in your county is also showing that 45% of the children that are from 3 to 6 years of age have tooth
decay and those in historic had um incidence of decay at 32% As a hygienist we are prevention oriented which means every patient that sits in my chair I'm educating them on
the importance of oral hygiene at home which includes brushing with a fluoridated toothpaste and also regular visits to the dentist But my experience as a hygienist for over 50 years has shown me not everyone goes to the
dentist as recommended Not everyone brushes like they should and not everyone can afford toothpaste We do community outreach events constantly and I can't tell you how many people come to
our table to get a tube of toothpaste some dental floss and a toothbrush And it is 2025 We are in a position where our voices need to speak to the ones that have the
least And that's where I I hope to be delivering that message today and I appreciate the opportunity to speak before you today Thank you So and I'm in favor of keeping fluoride in the water Thank you So I'm going to say this as
kindly as I possibly can I would sincerely appreciate out of respect for the speakers that have yet to come if you can shorten it up and tell us exactly whether you're in favor not in favor and if there's some study that you want us to know
about that we haven't heard about today tell us and try to make it short because I want everybody to have the opportunity to speak So please go ahead Mr Evans 848 Leopard Trail Winter Springs uh we don't have fluoride in our water I move I vote
for getting rid of the fluoride in our water At the same time I think we should make the effort to make sure that as people have mentioned that people get toothpaste and toothbrush We can figure out a way to do that with
$500,000 I'm sure we can Thank you very much gentlemen for your courtesy and all the speakers have both pro and con have brought up a lot of good Thank you Douglas Cross Gail Brown and Steven Slott And while we're waiting th for
those to come up just just so we're aware I've heard a lot about the the health concerns in Semino County Semino County is currently the second healthiest county in the state of Florida behind St John's County
Please sir let's let's move it along Uh Doug Cross uh 6221 Cal Caldwell Drive New Orleans Louisiana I'm uh and I want to ask you to wrap it up as quick as you possibly can I'm a community health dentist I'm a dental director for a community health
center I've worked in uh public health for 43 years I have a lot of patients from u different uh sections some that have gr fluoridated water other uh communities that don't have fluoridated
water and there is a significant difference in the amount of cavities in those patients My patients are all pretty much all low income They like Celeste said they have difficulty in even buying toothpaste
Um Louisiana is at the bottom of oral health You know sir I'm going to ask you to to wrap up directly what we're doing in our community not necessarily what's happening What I'm going to say is we're at the bottom of oral health and we have one of the lowest fluidation rates in
the country If you want to be that way remove fluidation and you will see an increase in decay I can guarantee that and you'll end up spending more money to take care of that decay than you would to fluoridate the water Thank
you Thank you So we're going to switch gears here real quick How many speaker forms do you have left 13 Okay We're going to prioritize Semino County citizens first and foremost So if you'd call the
names call them out And if you're a seminal county resident I'm going to ask you to line up over here against this wall if you're one of the speakers and then we will get to the rest if we have time If you'd call those out Dominic real quick ma'am are you a Seino County resident i
am not And I will be short How short i promise you Uh 15 seconds Can I have a minute and 30 okay stand by We're not going to go there Um Mr Chairman I only have two that are residents Pardon me 13 that live here Yes sir Only two Those
two first Let's take those two first Call their names May I just step back just step back Yes Justin Harvey and Sher Johnson Mr Harvey and Miss Johnson Good afternoon Thank you all for having me Uh my name is Justin Harvey 1025 Hamlet Semino County resident I'm a
little shocked at how many people are here but not from here But either way um I think enough risk has been illustrated here Thank you all so much for your comments Common sense personal choice personal freedom That is the way to go So thank you so much for that Um let's
see Let's just skip all this Uh people think there's dental benefits Great Think there's benefits to aspirin We can't force it on people End of story Um risks to the whole body If it's good for your teeth great But we've got brain
thyroid kidney and bone problems The Florida Department of Health and the Health and Human Services has advised against water flidation calling it public health malpractice and quote "Insane." We now have the CDC has announced they are going to be recommending um no longer promoting water fluidation with the EPA also going
to reassess their guidelines Uh 30% of the state was on wellwater for decades So I just like to point that out The sky is not going to fall folks if we stop Sky didn't fall in Winter Springs and Castleberry is doing great Uh in closing I do just want to read something from the Castleberry website and an email
from the Winter Springs city employee On the Castleberry website it read "No the city of Castlebury does not add fluoride to drinking water There have been many studies on the effects of fluoride some good and some bad Too much can lead to discolored teeth bone brittleless and even cancer." They go on to talk about how there's many other ways to get it
from flu toothpaste and mouthwash and primarily the topical benefits are where it's at We shouldn't be ingesting it Um Winter Springs employee told me "There has always been a lot of public opposition to fluidation." And the consensus was that the public would rather have a choice of consuming this
product in their dental products rather than have it blanketly added to water Uh we don't have to make this about teeth or even fluoride Like I said this is personal freedom Um thank you for not deferring to the state Thank you for willing being willing to make a decision uh quickly and thank you and let's
remove water flation Thank you Miss Johnson Thank you I am from Lake Mary uh resident since 1987 Semino County And your address please um 172 Williams Road Lake Mary 32746 Thank you Go ahead Sure
I'm Sher Johnson and I'm a certified functional nutrition and lifestyle practitioner Fluoride is not fluoride is not fluoride is not fluoride There are three main sources of fluoride The fluoride added to drinking water is fluorosyic acid or the compound
H2S F6 or FSA which is a byproduct of phosphate fertilizer production uh which we know from an extensive article from the Ohio State University outlining where this came from FSA is the most common due to its cost effectiveness and
ease of use in large-scale water treatment It is a waste product that is so toxic it is not allowed to be dumped into the landfills or released into the air but is okay to be added to your water supply Number two the most common types of fluoride used in toothpaste
mouthwashes and by dentists is sodium fluoride or compound NAF NAF Number three fluoride naturally present in groundwater is typically in the form of calcium fluoride or the compound
CF2 This occurs when fluoride minerals dissolve into water from rocks and soil As you can see there are many types of fluoride The most toxic is FSA which is added to our water supply If dentists use the same fluoride on their patients they would have to apply it to people's
teeth wearing eye face skin and respiratory protection Their patients would need the same protection Yes it's that toxic OSHA warns that exposure to florosyic acid or FSA can cause severe lung damage and burns and and
excruciating pain There is a skull and crossbones on the packaging for fluoride Are you aware that anything placed in the mouth especially under the tongue or in the cheek can be absorbed directly into the bloodstream through the mucous membranes this is called sublingual or
buckle absorption And it's faster than digestion because it bypasses the GI tract and liver metabolism More fluoride is not better It is obvious fluoride is toxic There's no informed consent to add it to our water supply and people are
not deficient in fluoride Thank you so much for the conversation and for uh your agreement and in getting rid of it I appreciate it Thank you Dominique are there any more Semino County residents on any of this for No sir Not in this Okay this lady is here
Come on up You will be our last speaker for this Oh boy the pressure I thank you Um my name is Gail Brown I live at 17 Liberty Street in conquered New Hampshire My water system is the city of conquered where I drink awardwinning
um water that is fluidated and wins an award every year from the Centers for Disease Control Um I also drink your water when I have the pleasure to be here visiting So um just remember a lot of us do come and also embibe in that
water I'm going to make just three short statements I promised him and I will live up to that Number one um I know you all know fluoride is naturally occurring We don't agree on what that means The reason I'm saying that is because
naturally occurring fluoride comes from bodies of water And so I've heard a lot of people talking about being on wells today and seem they seem to think that it's flip a switch the fluoride's on flip a switch the fluoride's off That's
not how it works So I can tell you if you're on a well and you haven't had your water tested you don't know what your fluoride level is but you got one Okay if you are on a a community water system that does not optimize you are
drinking fluoride in there you don't know how much Well you might if you read your water statement it's on there So um other than the fact if you're on a community water system that optimizes you do know your level and it's going to be right around 7 Okay that's one point
but you're all drinking fluoride of some level in the water Um number two uh dental disease is caused by bacteria Sugar that's a part of the story but it's bacteria And we pass that bacteria
from mouth to mouth to mouth saliva sharing is what we call it Kissing sharing spoons with a baby um drinking from a bottle It comes from bacteria Okay so it's not about bad behavior and not brushing enough and whatever You
cannot brush away dental decay rotted teeth You can't brush it away no matter how hard you try Okay that's um statement number two And um I think actually oh there was one
more thing I wanted to say We talked about whether people can access toothpaste And I like to point out that someone did say you can buy it for a dollar a tube That's important But I can tell you I come from New Hampshire We have a very small population Our
hygienists tell me about families that share a toothbrush These are families that can't buy a second toothbrush or a third toothbrush at the dollar store Okay so um if that happens in my state I promise
you it's happening in your county So that's all I wanted to say It's not what I came to say but it's what I wanted to say and I appreciate it Thank you Thank you Yeah Mr Chairman Okay Yes We have a request for a representative from the Florida Dental Association to speak
Would you entertain that yes Go ahead Come on up Please limit it to six minutes max Try to get me in it too Less than that Yes sir Less than six for sure Uh Dr Johnny Johnson I am a pediatric dentist and I am here speaking
on behalf of the Florida Dental Association 8000 dentist strong I rise in favor of keeping water fluidation in place I am a pediatric dentist There's been questions about how fluidation how fluoride works and I will tell you that
fluoride works in two separate ways One is topically meaning every time you use it you drink fluoridated water it gets into your cheeks there's plaque on our teeth Whether we like you to have plaque on your teeth or not it's there Plaque
concentrates fluoride next to your tooth Makes a little sandwich there Helps prevent cavities from happening If they start shves fluoride in the tooth and makes it stronger to to uh more resistant to cavities The second way it works is by drinking it Children under
the age of eight years old are developing their permanent teeth When they drink fluoridated water it gets into those developing permanent teeth and it makes them form stronger Just like I was saying they remmineralize in your mouth with fluoride in it It forms
a crystal called fluorapatite which is much more resistant to cavities In fact the chewing surfaces of your tooth are much more resistant to cavities by having it during the time the teeth develop You can never get that once the teeth come in So it works in both ways
When you use fluoridated toothpaste you get about a 25% cavity reduction When you add fluoridated water on top of that you get an additional 25% I'll tell you as a clinician it's more like 60 to 80% reductions in cavities I have children I
didn't used to brush my teeth until I could scrape it off my teeth with my thumbnail I had about I've had a mouth full of crowns and root canals My children have almost nothing You'll get less cavities and less severe cavities with fluoridated water plus fluoride
toothpaste Now I was born in 56 so I remember we had a little grocery store so I remember when I was old enough that brush your teeth with Pepsi in because it keeps yellow away or something Um just to briefly go through a few things and I won't repeat what
others have said Um fluoride in water and toothpaste benefits everyone morally more so for adults than it does children which sounds kind of unusual because we talk about the kids all the time but we're adults longer than we are children
People who have this mouthful of cramps and my mouth is dry as can be from medications I'm on I am much more susceptible to cavities I live out in the middle of Chief on a well My well has been tested I have zero I use a 5,000 part per million fluoride varnish
on my teeth or toothpaste to try and prevent cavities I'm at high risk of getting them I used to live in Penllis County Florida Penelis County I was in great shape but I still had a ton of problems I had almost two to 300 patient visits during my practice time 40 years
I've been pediatric dentist It's just something that absolutely we need to keep And one last thing I'll finish up with is that no country first of all we're a bad business model We're asking for less business and that's no business
does that So it is that important But no country in the world is stopping water flidation over the court case over the national toxicology program or the Cochran reviews Nobody Because those things do not rise to the level of
science that we need to make decisions upon Please keep fluid nation in your water for the health of everyone and this bodily health of everyone Please do I'll be happy to see you and answer any questions that you have as well Thank
you so much for hearing me out Thank you All righty We will close the public hearing portion of this Say something really quick No ma'am No ma'am Please sit down Ma'am ma'am ma'am you've already spoken I don't want to have you
removed Please sit down Please respect the process You may not agree We all may not agree I just want you left a meeting to come here to educate us The people that are not ma'am a medical meeting to be here
That's all I wanted you to know I think we did Thank you We get it There was a theme Thank you Mr Chairman So now I will close the public hearing go to board direction Mr Chairman um Commissioner Constantine
please Well since I was the only one that didn't speak before about whether for against all I'm going to say is you know we've got 10 people I don't care whether they came from a meeting or not If they're educated and they want to inform us I I'm I'm more than happy to
sit here until the cows come back but we're only talking about 10 people in a half an hour And I think they have the right to speak Okay And that's all I'm going to say I hope that you all would I hope that you all would allow them to do that Folks please
What's the flavor of the board commissioner Her I am the one I'll own it that leaned over and said we need to prioritize our citizens opinions as opposed to people from out of the out of the state I really struggle with the notion that it becomes activist related
and I realize that the this situation is uh contentious because everything in today's society is contentious Um but I I I will tell you you could speak for three more hours You're probably not going to change my mind I'll be honest
about that Um and so I have no interest in hearing folks from out of town regardless We've heard from experts within the state of Florida and the experts disagree That's the issue The issue is the experts disagree And absent
of true answers we need to take the most cautious perspective And the most cautious perspective from my position is do I want kids with cavities or or do I want kids that have negative impacts for the rest of their life to potential other vital organs including their brain
that's what the decision is for me Yeah I I I'm not interested in hearing anymore I mean I've I've had phone calls I've had emails I've had conversations with folks I've had dentists call me I've called dentists I've called orthodontists And I got to be quite
honest with you even the dental community themselves are divided Which way some are yeah you got to do it And others are like no it's no Again we could fill a room full of people that could give you all kind of scientific
tests of why it should be fluidated And you could fill the same room with the same manner of people that would say why it shouldn't be flidated But again for me it's once again we had flidation that started in
the 50s and in 2015 there's a reason why it was dropped from the level it was originally to the level it is today and I bet you if you waited 10 15 years 20 years
it would drop even more Um so I I have no need in in hearing more about this Okay look I'm going to I'm going to ask y'all one time and one time only Please be courteous You don't yell out You don't scream out or I will have you
removed from the chambers We're just trying to get through this Mr Chairman we know there's a lot of people that are very passionate on one side or the other Please respect the process M commissioner please wait just one moment The public hearing portion has been
closed The debate is amongst the commission Please let us do our job So Mr Mr Delari did you have something it was Commissioner Constantine Mr Constantine Thank you sir Um I'm I'm going to make this as quick as possible
I think the 10 people that are here whether they came from outside of the country or outside of the state or outside of the city um have you know I I believe that most of them are um educated uh individuals that um Dennis I
I heard that they were coming I was waiting to hear from everybody and I think it's rude of us not to hear from everybody But I'm so I'm but since we're not going to do that I'm just going to say that I'm old school I you know I
came when we uh you know you talked about 1949 It was a little bit after that that I was born But uh not much right not much Not much But the fact of the matter is that I can see the benefits of fluidation in our in our
systems that we've had and and you know I've heard anecdotal evidence and I've heard dentists who teach at the University of Florida Go Gators and other places that have come and said you know the the benefits of it
I have seen the FDA strongly endorse fluidation I see the chapter of American Academy of of Pediatric Medicine strongly endorse fluidation in our system I see 3,000 studies United States
and abroad as compared to other studies that you know may or may not have scientific benefit saying of the safety and the benefits of fluidation There are a lot of things that the people in the United States and the
state of Florida say that you for the protection of the citizens make you do Let's talk about texting and driving Let's talk about back seats for children The fact of the matter is is that the state and federal government are talking
about it I understand that our surgeon general has come out against it I understand that Robert Kennedy has come out and against it Great Um Florida ranks last in the nation for the percentage of children
who see a doctor in the past year Last I will heir on the side of what I think is the best safety and health for the citizens And I will tell you that I will go with science over I will go with antidotal evidence And I I'm I'm saying
this because you've all have said something I think the vote's going to be 4 to one But at the same time I don't believe we should be voting today because I don't think that as our attorney has said um based upon the sunshine we did not say we're going to vote We were say we're going to have a
report But if you are are inclined to vote I will vote no from taking it out of the of our system Commissioner Lock I think you had your hand up Yeah Um gosh this is so eerily reminiscent of
CO and um everybody truly has their science on their side and um I am I am a personal responsibility person I'm also a let's do what we can
to help the kids who need to get access to the dental care that they aren't getting from their families which may or may not have anything to do with fluoride being in their water Because I will tell you that there are a lot of other variables involved in dental care speaking to a room full of dentists um
whether it's how often you suck on a lollipop as a kid or the kinds of treats you're eating or how many goldfish you're putting down as a toddler or there's a lot of other things involved in that baby bottle What's in that baby bottle um I remember a family member in Indiana who used
to do up Kool-Aid and put it in the bottle Red Kool-Aid Oh he loves it Oh great Um and and whether or not there was fluoride in that kid's water I don't know But I'm pretty sure sucking on the Kool-Aid in that bottle wasn't helpful Um so there are a lot of other variables
involved in health and wellness and I do believe in personal responsibility first and having the ability to say grace over what that means to you and your family Um I am very interested in talking to the health department locally and finding out what our local needs are and
if there is a gap seeing how we can help fill that gap I do not want to do harm to any additional children than than what we think may happen from removing fluoride from the water Although I really genuinely am serious about having
a very direct uh compare and contrast opportunity right here in our own community between Lincoln Heights and Midway I would love to see if we can work with the health department on that data because those are two very similar demographic
communities one with and one without within miles of one another And for me if something were to come back and we were to say "Wow the teeth of the people and the children in Midway are fabulous and the
teeth of the kids in Lincoln Heights are rotten Everything else being equal the difference is the fluoride in the water If they were to come back with that disparity I would be willing to have this conversation again But all of these other studies and everybody else talking
about stuff happening in God bless you whatever state you came from We are seinal county commissioners We have been elected by seinal county citizens and we are making decisions for our community And that's what's the most important thing to me today So I'm sorry if you
came here from another state for a convention and you wanted to speak and weigh in on on what's happening here but um we'll just have to disappoint you Commissioner her chairman I'm prepared to make a motion to remove fluidation from the seminal county waters second
motion second any further discussion seeing none all those in favor I oppose like sign I passes 4 to one thank thank you all for being here today chairman can we take a small recess please
five minutes for a break let's take a quick 10-minute Hey [Music]
[Music] [Applause]
[Music]
Heat Heat [Music]
Heat Heat [Music] Heat Heat Heat [Music] Heat [Music]
Yeah Okay Heat [Music] Heat Heat Heat N Heat Heat
[Music] Hello [Music]
Hello Heat Heat [Music] Heat Heat Heat [Music]
Heat Heat Heat [Music] [Music]
[Music]
Oh hey [Music]
[Music] [Music]
[Music] Heat Heat [Music]
[Applause] [Music] Heat Hey heat Hey heat make our way back to the das Thank you We appreciate it Good luck One of my favorite places by the way I mean nowhere's internet for now Yeah Johnny
It's only a matter of time I'm with you I drive through there 27 years So I would drive up That's how I I would drive up My last name was 2010 But I go up there I'm president And I go there all the time Go
through there all the time In fact I um what's his name commissioner Commissioner Delari District Reports Sure You're up sir Thank you Mr Chairman Talk to you later
[Music] Bye guys Gloria you're up Thank you Uh Mr Chairman like to make a motion to approve and appoint Charles Davis to as the representative to the Sim County
Port Authority for term of uh January 2025 through December 31st 2028 Second Motion and second Any further discussion seeing none all those in favor all right Wait a minute I just
have a question for my own edification I think we changed the process Darren and I had this conversation during live stream I knew this was going to come up So and perhaps I'm confused So set us all straight So uh
this is a district appointment Clarify Miss Dominic Yes sir So the district So we are actually re we're re rewriting and ensuring that everyone has the same process and procedures One of the things we're looking at into and I was going to visit
with each of your offices We have three types of appointments as I know it Dominique corres me correct me if I'm wrong We have district appointments that a district commissioner will recommend someone for their district and then we'll bring it to the board for a vote We have board appointments that that's
the one that I understood that you all wanted it before it made it to the agenda so you could review what these uh what the board appointments were and had the applications and qualifications And then the third one we have chairman appointments Um and so we are ensuring
that we have policy the procedures for each We are writing those We're we're getting those together now We're going to visit with each of your offices to make sure it is all everyone understands it or if there's any changes that the board wants to make to it So this one as
I believe is a district uh appointment Mr Chairman as a district appointment I'd like to make a motion to appoint Charles Davis as representing district 1 in seminal county port of authority for term of January 2025 to December 31st
2028 And there was a second on that second There was still discussion I think taking place over here Yeah there was still discussion The discussion is not about the appointment Commissioner Delari that's not the question The discussion was because this is the only
time we all get to talk That discussion sounded different from the initiated conversation that started I heard which could be me that didn't matter whether it was a board or a district or or uh whatever
the third one is chairman chairman's thank you I'm sorry but that it would all be socialized the same way and so I'm asking for clarification around that before it gets all discombobulated as it flows through
this system So my opinion on that because I've seen this and I'm just going to rip the band-aid off If it's my appointment and I'm the district commissioner and make that appointment there may be people that
have differences of political opinions on this board with that individual or have had some personal runin with that individual that should not come to bear on that district commissioner's appointment If that district commissioner believes that's the individual they want representing their
district I'm not even sure why we need a second and a motion to vote on this That's just me speaking rawly Um Commissioner Lockheart Well aside from any personal issues there are
qualifications that have to be met for certain appointments And I've what I've noticed is sometimes a commissioner will just appoint someone regardless of their qualification For instance if the
appointment is for a general contractor or if the appointment is for a citizen a a consumer on the contractor licensing board and the commissioner it is a commissioner appointment appoints a contractor to the consumer
seat somebody's got to catch that Now if staff doesn't catch it and one of us sees that this person if I was a commissioner I would want someone to say to me ahead of time hey just so you know that person isn't actually a consumer
They are a licensed contractor Now if you're saying as a commissioner I don't give a rip if they're qualified and meet the qualification or not I'm appointing who I want That's a different conversation we need to have about whether because these boards are this board's
board not your board or my board So that's why we vote on them because these are boards representing the entire board even though we have individual appointments to them And chairman and go ahead I'd like to respond to that
Okay If that's the case and that's the sentiment then I would advocate let's not have district appointments Let's have board appointments only because that's really what it is And who's going to set the bar for who and their
qualifications what you believe are the right qualifications may be different than what I believe the right qualifications are Well you're either a consumer or you're a contractor And you can be both No Why not because the whole point of having a consumer on that board is that
they are not a licensed professional regulating themselves But you're assuming that contractor what you're really saying is that contractor has the inability to separate their professional beliefs from their consumer beliefs
There's a reason they're consumers Okay Yeah that will that would be definitely a difference a philosophical difference of opinion on what the purpose of that board is then I don't think that was so I have my hand up again Yes Well an example that I have I know you did getting into specific
commission I think that you're not going So I think that debate is a debate as to what is meant on that specific board to do that Just I was just using that as one example of
a I know I understand I was just trying to wait until I actually did have the floor Um that's a debate on that specific board I will tell you that I I do look at it a little bit differently I actually welcome this board's input not
and I don't think I would get input with regard to the political affiliations and all of that stuff but I don't know all these people that are coming through the pipeline I can do superficial research on them you all may know them I may know people in the
health care space that you all don't know I think that the benefit of that without have to to be able to do that and say you know through the team that move it forward or it's going to be
up for discussion in a public setting That's a different that's a different environment I think there's work to be done on this I just wanted to point it out I have no problem with this candidate It's just that so I was trying to do it do it before you made the motion Commissioner Tari It's not about
the candidate it's about the process Um and I still feel like we're not aligned even on what the task is that you have And can go ahead Thank you chairman And so one of the takeaways uh that I received from the retreat was to take
all of those procedures rewrite them visit with your offices um and then ensure that we have one seamless process that we have And that's what Dominique myself uh Trisha uh and Melanie are are doing at at this time We're going through all that and we'll be meeting
with you all all soon Godspeed and I'll call the question So I'm not quite done speaking about this Oh my Should I remove the question from the table no no no You got a motion in a second Let's keep that Um so as
part of that I would very much be interested on the application process and the question was called I think out of respect for the candidate how about we vote on the candidate and
then we continue the discussion Second on the floor Any further discussion which we were having but we're stopping because the question was called and now we are going to take a vote All those in favor opposed like sign seeing none Okay
Anything else commissioner large Uh yes if I can continue Mr Chairman uh this is the month of April I know you all know that And month of April is also child abuse awareness month And uh I
just want to let everybody know that one in five children will be abused by the age of 18 That's the one reason why I paint that one fingernail blue Excuse me I didn't I'm just one in five will be
abused by the China 18 That's the reason why every April I take the liberty of painting one fingernail blue every month that'll come off the first day of May I just want everybody to be aware of that And uh if you do uh spread the word greatly
appreciate it I know we all will never tolerate anything like that but uh want to make sure that everyone is aware that April is child abuse awareness month one and five Please do something about it God bless you all End of my report Mr Chairman Commissioner Lockar District 4
Um so I'm I'm going to phone a friend and ask for some assistance in in giving my district report because there are some um financial details related to the Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission where I represent this board And I'd like for Lori Bailey Brown to um to come
up and talk a little bit about the tenative budget that the CFCRC just approved at our last meeting our board will have an opportunity to say grace over that budget at our next board meeting And so I think it's really important for me representing this board
to make sure that you all have information that you know that you are you feel well informed before our vote at the next board meeting So Lori could you just kind of bring us up to speed on where we are right now
thank you Commissioner Lockhart I'm Lori Bailey Brown the chief financial officer for Simol County and director of resource management Uh beginning of the end of last year the five chief financial officers from the local funding partners Orange Oyola Simol
Valuchia and the city of Orlando came together to help the CFCRC develop a bank account and protocols for banking With that we were reviewing the current year budget uh to put in place and helping with those allocations collecting the funds from the funding partners and distributing to uh FDOT in
accordance with the locally funded agreement In our bi-weekly meetings uh and in that evaluation um as of last March it became time to prepare the next year's budget for the CFCRC So that group worked together to pull the
information provided from DOT to prepare the FY26 tentative budget Uh that budget is based on the revenues expenditures and um operating details provided and it totals 63.4 million Simol County share
is 11 a.5 million uh there there is a slight increase from the second year as laid out in the funding agreement primarily uh attributable to a $2 million contingency that's added in I presented that tenative budget to the CFCRC last Wednesday at their board
meeting and questions were uh discussed from Oyola and Simol counties regarding the contingency as well as carry forward and insurance Uh we're preparing the agenda item for the April 22nd meeting on that tenative budget and I'll be meeting with each of you to go over the
details and answer your questions in preparation It it is really important to me um personally that I know that you all are fully informed um about next steps because I this is
the first year's budget that the CFCRC is taking the full responsibility for setting the budget and um moving toward the eventual transfer of operations of the system So I sort of feel like we're going to be setting the tone this first
year and um all sorts of train analogies like a runaway train or stay on the right track or all of this kind of terrible puns have been coming to my mind about this
Um but one of the things that is going to be a challenge and will probably involve renegotiating the local funding agreement for next year not even this year's that we have yet to approve but or that we have all yet to approve is
that our fiscal years are not aligned with DOT The local funding agreement is not aligned with fiscal year So we have essentially our fiscal year DOT's fiscal year and the local funding agreement all
having three different renewal times and that is going to cause a little bit of a hiccup moving forward I don't blame anybody for that We've just not done this before We're kind of building the plane as we're flying it But that's something that we've identified as a potential problem
What do has committed to Secretary Tyler did commit to which I think is going to be very helpful is that that when they finish their fiscal year June 30 they will find hopefully as they have in all prior years they have not expended all
of their budgeted funds So we are hopeful that there will be a carry forward and some unspent funds that might negate the need for this additional $2 million contingency that's being added But they won't know that
until July 1st We have to approve this before July 1st Our budget isn't till October one So they so they're he's committed to coming back um for a trueup for us to let us know how they finished up so that we can in each of our budgets
moving forward as we do our budgeting in September our public hearings and what have you account for that um difference So I I'm laying all that out because if you're paying really close attention you're going to see that the numbers are going to change and I don't want
somebody to say "Well wait a minute It changed What happened why?" because we're we're trying to get it right So um it's not because of anything shady or shifty It's not because it was miscalculated We're just not all chewed
up at the same time Is that any Does that make sense anybody want clarification on that that sounds good to me I'm I'm looking for Mr Chairman if I may ask the commissioner a question Sure I like your explanation on board with it but what is the increase from this year
till next year i guess I didn't hear the I mean I heard the number but it was quick Yeah So the the main difference is a $2 million additional contingency that is being recommended that we put into the budget Is that each funding partner or total total Okay Total Um there's
also an $250,000 for um insurance that they're suggesting that we add Um you know this is DO's recommendation kind of to us and what they think we're going to need to run the system And one of the things that was explained and please feel free
to jump up Lori and correct me or chime in Um for the last 10 years contingency has been the really large pocketbook of the Florida Department of Transportation If there's been a problem with the system if there's been a hurricane a wash out
something that's required um some type of major you know DOT would cover it and we're we as our our small little group who has just opened up our first bank account um don't have a contingency fund So that's
their argument for that Um we have some really good robust debate back and forth whether or not that's necessary at this point but we'll be able to determine that better July 1st There was also an increase in um
uh contracted support and we're getting an some more clarification from DOT about what exactly is being added in that one particular line item Um and we're getting some more reporting on the 10 million that the partners put into
um escrow for catastrophic events Um so we're still getting some more details That's one of the reasons it was pulled from the agenda this last week And again Commissioner I'm not trying to put you on the spot but from you've been working on this more directly than the rest of the four office have So in your opinion
this is in line I would like to see some additional modifications Okay Um we've communicated that to DOT Could you let us know in the future what those modifications could be yes absolutely I I've I'm thinking that 1.6 six is going to come down and I'm
hopeful that we're going to see this modification of at the end of their fiscal year and I think the 250 for insurance might be able to come out but we'll we'll see Okay And they're right All five of us have to agree right that's the other challenge with this
board This type of vote has to be unanimous Got to be unanimous So and so Lori just to make sure you're going to give each of us a full briefing on this That's what I'm looking forward to Good Including the question was just
asked by Commissioner Delari Yes Okay Good I wanted to bring it to you all publicly so that people know that we're talking about it That's fine So thank you very much Thank you That's all I have Okay Commissioner Constantine Thank
you sir Um I want to start maybe in a little bit of a happier mood that we've had the last couple of minutes And just on March 29th you can go ahead and put the picture up if you will On March the 29th a young
man that many of us have you know were not all of us actually all of us agreed um to for his Eagle Scout uh award that we would allow him to work on a Medal of
Honor memorial um memorial pit uh project and put it at the criminal justice center I wanted to congratulate Melanie who worked with him directly but this young man was remarkable There was
over Commissioner Delorey was there There was over 200 people there Both of the immediate families had at least nine or 10 representatives easily easily Uh there were people from the annex of the Navy annex of the University of Central
Florida military army military that spoke on behalf of both of them that were actually in or around the actions that these two Medal of Honor winners
um during the the the the action the event that allowed them to win it In fact and this is I think is remarkable if you think about since the the Iran slash Iraq slash um Afghanistan
since 2001 the wars there have been less I think it's 20 or 21 Medal of Honor winners two of them are from Semino County one of them is African-American and one of them is white Both of them
gave their life for this country And this young man made it his point along with his family to raise the money to work with Melanie to to get it correct And you can see it's beautiful It is
beautiful And everybody there you know when you take on a project let's you all have taken on projects and you know that you always upset somebody Nobody was upset Everybody loved it And and I wanted to give him and I was
hoping he could make it here but he's not And his father is but I I just wanted to you all to know what a great job And of course there was a number of Eagle Scouts um and um and Girl Scouts and others that were all there And I will tell you that this young man has
applied to the US Military Academy Naval Academy Naval Academy Military Academy Army Okay and and I am for one am going to you know to our senators send a personal letter but I think it would be
um I think he would be very much appreciative and I know I I would if we all did we all did as a board sent a a letter a medal of uh you know to this young man so that um potentially he
could get into the US military campaign I and I I just want you to know that it really was uplifting to see a young man like that He was the moderator He was he was the one that brought everybody up He put the whole organized got made sure that the
families he even called the families prior to doing this to get their approval And so Mr William Watts is um is someone that I think is is is exemplary and uh as I said personally
I'm going to do it but if you all could um be with me and we could send one letter as a county commission I would appreciate it Is that a motion that is a motion Yes Second it All those in favor I post like sign carries unanimously Mr
Chairman I would like to uh talk about this for a little bit longer if you don't mind Uh Commissioner Constine the two individuals that received the Medal of Honor uh the stories obviously is truly amazing uh in
the future if there is a a potential to do a a road naming we should try to uh recognize those two individuals with with the ability to use their names on a road in appropriate location Mr Chairman
Okay So you want to ask staff to look at the current protocol for that and bring it back to us and some kind of process to get it done Absolutely Mr Chairman I would suggest that we look for roads in
the area that they grew up Sure Okay The family would really appreciate it I also would say at the time I think there was our our own veterans department was there and there was a concern about one of the grave sites and things about
putting the Medal of Honor and they are working on it um for one of the candidates that did not have the proper identification on his um on his grave site So I know that they're doing that too Secondly and again uh this is a
little bit more interesting or another interesting thing Um all of you tease me sometimes but uh about things but I had the occasion to speak to a bunch of Girl Scouts first to
fourth grade Um I will tell you they they took me through the ringer but that was a goodie bag that they all received that our department has And if you haven't seen those bags they're nice canvas bags with all seven cities of the
of of Semino County on it They loved it But what they loved even more and and Gee and the others put also some goodie bags with it But Beatatric my aid put together this coloring book that I suggest all of you might want to look at
and use if you go out to children's um small children first second third grade They they loved it Um they also love those little sprays that we give u I got sprayed twice you know during the whole thing But they love that too But this
coloring book I'll pass it around It wasn't our can was it can we all have one but I will tell you no it was hand sanitizer It was but I will I would I would suggest to you that you look at it They really they they liked it And the
pictures are in here Yeah Yeah They loved it And I I gave them tests you know like which district goes with which commissioner and the one that did the best job got a little stuffed animal that I had brought with me And you know so they they really loved it a lot And
uh just who runs your county look at whose picture is it on the page Board of directors Who did that actually oops Actually no Darren Darren approved it before we sent it out You did You just didn't know you
did on there You approved the first you approved I saw it I saw it I did I did I saw it Okay So I just wanted to let y'all know they were out of Waka Cove That's adorable Great job B Thank you Um also I did want to let you know that uh
at the counto meeting all of the commissioners were in fully support of many of our legislative issues They're the same and have the same concerns And it was good to see that we were all aligned with our great other cities or with our cities in that um I I was I had
the privilege of attending the 12th annual East Altoont Unity Day and I know that Commissioner uh Lockhart I think you did that last year Wonderful event Um one of the you know lot of people attending One of the things that I thought was really exciting is one of
the young men that came here to add his um support was a uh Lake Brantley graduate who also happened to be an all-American uh at Lake Brantley a linebacker who's now playing for the University of Central Florida in football And he was there and he was he
was running a lot of the shows and everything And he had to leave to go to the to spring practice Oh but he went there for that in the morning and and early afternoon Um if we don't know PBA is having a meeting tomorrow with all of
the um all of the uh u city managers Uh tomorrow also the MO is having the trans the 2045 transportation plan work session that um Commissioner Delorei will be running and I think that you know anybody that would like to attend I
think it's very important um that they come out but it will be a work session Um and I think our county manager mentioned the citizens academy We have one on the 12th for the fire department I believe we also have one later on on
um uh economic development and then the next one is going to be in the next couple of weeks environmental and utilities Um we've talked about this before but the German American Society is having its springfest this Saturday and the Central Florida Zoo is doing the
bruise around the zoo and everybody knows how much fun that is and can be Lots of good food and other things Um bruise Bruise Bruise and other things Yeah bruise I'm not going to start trying to go through all of the liquor
stores Sure I loggers Um in addition I I just wanted to also mention that we um Where are you on this i'm sorry that Career Source is having a meeting uh next week and that our own art committee
has now narrowed the n to nine different projects that they are going that they're going through the analysis of and will be bringing forward to us And you know I mean the the the level of of information and uh and content that they
are putting together I think is extremely um um professional and uh and exciting for us And with that Mr Chairman just want to wish everybody a a wonderful tax day
and an Easter Sunday and uh and coming up in other um uh other for all of our citizens and um also I think it's Passover for our Jewish friends Yes And so with that my meeting I'm finished
Thank you commissioner commissioner her district 5 All right On uh the 4th of April I attended the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness Leadership Council retreat It's the first time that I've attended that It's this a new board assignment
And there were a couple of interesting facts that came out of it Some lively discussion generated by a seminal county commissioner Shocking I think they're all now getting used to it Yeah Right uh 1,000 seniors are in
Semino County are one rent increase away from unaffordability And the fastest growing uh folks that are vulnerable to not being housed are uh young parents often two inome
households that have a child and then cannot afford to pay for child care lose the income and then become um housing vulnerable So I thought those were two interesting facts Um I did raise the issue that those were
wonderful facts but nothing that we did in that day was going to address this specifically So I thought I would bring this back here This definitely the thousand relates to our community I think there's probably things that we can just focus on locally just to put that in your awareness I'm not asking
for anything Don't don't no one panic Uh Rescue Outreach Mission did have Rescue on the River this past Saturday night It was sold out uh sponsorships were uh I think all sold They had 119 guests which is the number of people that are typically housed on a night That was the
limit of the event and it was at the old Wolfies which I don't know the name of the place I didn't even know the thing was open but it was a beautiful venue for event I would tell you it was a great place to be and a very successful event And um that is all I'm going to talk
about I told you I'd be quick Okay great Had to make up some ground here Amen Well I'm going to take a little more than But anyway um the sheriff's office has reached out and asked me to ask the
board uh to authorize me to write a letter of support on behalf of the sheriff's office for a grant appropriation request for therapist services for the juvenile mobile crisis program which was
previously funded by ARPA dollars Um it's time sensitive They've got to have it by this by the end of this week Move to approve Mr F All those in favor i Opposed carries unanimously Thank you I'll get that done I'll work with staff
on that Um the CFX Sanford airport extension meeting uh was April 2nd Well attended A lot of good comments Um as Commissioner Herur will tell you they've they've paired it down to two um two and 2A access points and there'll
be upcoming meetings to further sort that out and so forth That was fairly well attended A lot of the same concerns were voiced It's been voiced since the beginning of all that Uh April 5th at the mosque was the Orlando Halal Eats Food Festival Bazaar
and Food Vendors Um great event well attended a lot of folks there a lot of different types of foods ethnic ethnic type foods that um quite frankly I don't eat most of them but I was able to pick through some of them that I would eat but a pretty
pretty neat event Uh and the 2045 transportation mobility plan public meeting that was held on April 7th 6 p.m was fairly well attended Uh and of course reminder April 10th it'll be held again at the Ovito Mall in the community
room there Um also it was already brought up the Citizen Semino County Citizens Academy Fire Department being held on April 12th at 10:00 a.m at station 11 in Alamont Springs April 24th is my sponsored fundraiser for the Boy
Scout uh Golden Eagle dinner at the West and Lake Mary at 5:30 p.m that again I would encourage you to attend if you're able to When is it april 24th 5:30 p.m at the Weston Lake Mary
Uh city of Oto 100year celebration uh is going to be celebrated on April 26th at 299 Center Lake Lane Oido from 300 p.m to 9:30 p.m And there's going to be a lot of activities including
fireworks laser show and all kinds of things that they're going to be doing to celebrate their 100th uh anniversary Most of you or all of you should have got an invitation to your office Um it looks like that If you haven't seen it ask your aid It came through
Um and then a very very neat um program happened in my district at the watermark Vista Will of Winter Springs which was called a dreams come true for uh seniors that are in assisted living and a uh
elderly woman one of her dreams was she had a dream to ride in an antique Volkswagen Beetle And so one of the car clubs made arrangements to go over pick her up and take her for a ride She was thrilled to death Um so we've
communicated to them if if they have seniors that just have something that is on their bucket list they'd want to do then we can help them to let my office know and then I'll populate it and see if anybody in the community can can help them as well Um outside of that the only
thing I want to rehash was on the board appointments district appointments Um I think that's going to be an ongoing conversation that we need to have and I think we need to determine are we going
to what is the vetting process and how deep is that vetting process going to go are we doing background searches are we doing uh business recommendations uh are we doing background searches on their employment
um and my fear is and I'm not necessarily saying any of that is necessarily bad but as you all know we have enough trouble finding candidates to volunteer for these boards Um and discussion that Commissioner
Lockheart and I was having I'm not a fan of of automatically disqualifying somebody because they have worked or are working in a particular industry um albeit some people are unable to separate their personal from their
business etc etc Uh so I think we need to really dig down into that and I I want to know more about that because if I'm going to appoint somebody by examples of citizens to a contractor's board I would want somebody that would have some kind of contractor's information or background
who arguably is uh somebody that's consumer as well Um so if we're going to go down that path I think we're going to have to develop some consistency of what is the vetting process and what's going to happen Uh
from that aspect So as you dig into that that'd be mer The final thing is I would like um as I look around at the business community and some of the things that are going on I would like to understand
the business tax receipt uh situation It has now been done away with in several of our sister counties I would like to see consideration of us looking at what it's really costing this county to collect that and consider doing away
with it as well If if I can ask staff to get that information available for me and and share it with the fellow commissioners Has the statute changed on that because the last time we asked for that the county the former county attorney
applined that that was not something legislatively possible Yeah it's been done Valuchia has done away with it Lakes's done away with it but the state still holds but gives us a discretion is sure what I I read it to say Yeah I can I can check into all that and the legal
aspects of it Good Outside of that that's all I have Um thank you all very much Commissioner Lockhart I do think we need to revisit the situation with the appointments and just so that you know I want to make sure
that I communicated clearly not trying to dictate a commissioner's choice of an individual's profession on a particular board The board I was referencing specifies a contractor a pool contractor
a plumber an electrician So all of those professions are accounted for on that board This was supposed to be a specific consumer seat So I just don't want anyone members of the public who are watching to think that you know I don't want professionals on the board The
board has those seats accounted for Um I'm sure you were being hyperbolic in talking about background checks and and what have you but um I do think that there's some merit to
having an opportunity for each of us to see who plans who is going to be coming before us and not be surprised because as we have learned recently there are things that we may be aware of about a
particular candidate that may not be the best time for them to be in a particular position And I think it is more courteous and professional for us to share those messages through our staff and give time to get back to a commissioner rather than airing those
things publicly and not necessarily shedding the best light on those involved So so my my concern is not to um thwart what someone wants to do just
for kicks and giggles but to preserve the integrity of the boards and preserve the integrity of this board because they are representatives of us And so that's whatever we can do to help in that scenario That's my desire Not because I
have a particular beef with anyone but um I just and that's why I I want to understand what the betting process is going to be if we're going to develop one What what is it going to be so we all understand that But I'm also not in the same school and train of thought if
we want to use the contractor's board by example Just because all the quote professions on the board have already been filled in my mind does not exclude a pool contractor who also would hire an electrician or somebody else as a
citizen not being able to sit as a citizen um that can be viewed in in several lenses but I have a firm belief that people are the right people are capable of discerning their personal versus
their business expertise and some can't That that committee hasn't met in 12 years So let's use that We're going to get the band back together That's a whole use that we're going to get the band back together waste my time Let's just get something done All right So
let's try to move to our non-aggenda portion of of the agenda We are going to open up for public comment on items not on the agenda today Do we have anybody here to speak on non-aggenda items no sir we do
not They're all long gone Wow The bus left yes Amazing Fantastic Okay Anything else for the good of the order seeing none we will You got your last popcorn Dismissed this meeting Thank you all very much We got one more popcorn
folks [Music] [Music] [Applause] Oh hallelujah [Music]