We're together too. Ladies and gentlemen, it is 9:30. I see that we are on the air. So, I'll ask Commissioner Delari to join us on the DAS. >> And hello, young lady. Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
>> Yeah, timing. >> All right, commissioners, if we are ready, we are going to have the invocation and the pledge uh by Robert Bradley with Bread of Life Christian Church. Please rise. >> Good morning.
>> Morning. >> Let us pray. Eternal God, our father, we thank you for this day. Uh we realize fully that this day is a gift that's filled with grace and mercy. We thank you that we are here today to put our hearts and our
minds together uh pertaining to the finances of this great county. We understand that we are in a time now that's filled with challenges, financial challenges, emotional challenges, political challenges, but we believe God
that you have strength provided for us that will allow us to rise above it all. So God, we pray today for your divine wisdom uh for your direction for these commissioners and for these department directors and that we set our hearts and our minds towards doing what's for the
good of the county. And so as we invite you in, we ask your blessings upon us. We ask your approval upon us and we ask all these things to be considered done in Christ Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> Amen. >> I pledge algiance 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 so much, sir. County Manager, would you like to kick us off?
>> Absolutely. Thank you, Madam Chair and Commissioners. And by the way, Commissioner Lockhart is almost here. >> She's right there. >> Oh, is she? Oh, there she is. >> But thank you for calling it out. I'm sure she appreciates that. >> So much for speaking.
>> You know, you every speaker out here, right? U so thank you for yesterday. Uh yesterday, as you know, we focused on our constitutional offices and any of our outside agencies that were requesting funding uh from from the board. So this morning, uh we're going to focus on our departments. We're going
to kick it off with our uh public safety and then our uh operating departments with utilities and environmental services. Um Judge, Chief Judge Chase has notified me this morning that she will not be here this morning, but Judge Galos will be here. Um, so as soon as
that if you want to uh do the same courtesy when the judge comes in, we can uh wrap theirs up. There's not not much. Um, also >> place we can cut. >> Also, we uh so I believe that we can be finished by 12 or 1:00 uh today. Um, if
you all want to work work through lunch if depending on the questions you have, of course, we're here all day if you need us to be here all day. Uh, but that is up I'll leave that up to the board if you want to take a lunch break or or not. >> Jay's taking care of his dog. >> We are here and he has the chocolate already, the the chocolate the basket.
So if anyone needs some snacks. >> So with that, uh, Madam Chairman, I'd like to turn it back over to you and we can start with our emergency management department with Mr. Harris. >> Mr. Harris, I'll turn it to you and your entire team that's sitting behind you ready to defend you should you need it.
>> Thank you. I do have an armed force behind me. So, thank you. Uh Alan Harris, uh director of emergency management, public safety uh department was our previous name. We are of course the public safety uh background for uh
Simino County. We have five operating or sorry, five uh accounting divisions, four operating divisions in emergency management. Uh we have addressing uh we address for all unincorporated Simino County as well as Lake Mary and Longwood. Uh we run the E911 enhanced
911 uh center. That's our first division. Uh we have a uh colllocated consolidated weed dispatch of course for all municipal law enforcement and fire law enforcement. And we have two 91 centers. Uh the primary one and then the
backup uh in Westlake Mary. Uh our second division is animal services. Uh and since 2016, animal services has been a no kill shelter. Uh we have not had to euthanize any animals due to space, breed, or length of stay. And that is
due to an incredible amount of work uh from you all as well as uh the staff over at animal services. Uh our third division is emergency management. Emergency management is consistently ranked one of the number one emergency management agencies in the state of Florida. It is only it is one of only
two jurisdictions in the entire country to be accredited and never have one finding at all. So that's a pretty pretty impressive uh thing. US and Los Vegas County, what is it called? Henderson >> Henderson. >> Henderson County in uh as part of Las
Vegas. We're the only two jurisdictions in the entire nation including states. State of Florida has had findings, but we've never had a finding from uh our assessments. So, it's rare that we get to use the word never in a positive
light. So, we have never had a finding. That's amazing. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Our fourth division is emergency telecommunications. We run a fully interoperable telecommunications system here in Semino County uh supporting uh all different agencies,
government, uh police, fire, and all channels are the same. So you hear a lot of times in other counties uh and states and parishes across the nation that folks can't talk to each other. That is not the case here in Simino County. Every police officer, deputy,
firefighter, government worker has the same bank of channels and we can we are fully interoperable. We can communicate with everybody. >> The total proposed budget request for the department is 22.9 million. 54% is funded through advalorum revenues in the general fund that supports emergency
management, our EOCC, animal services, and emergency telecommunication. Then we have E911 revenues which are fees collected on wireless and non-wireless services. This funds 30% of the department budgets. Penny sales tax funds are proposed to pay for the construction of a communication tower in
Ovido and special revenues include animal services donation and other grants. Department has 73 full-time positions with no changes in the proposed budget. The budget request is increasing 13 from 13.8 million to 22.9 million. This increase reflects one-time
investments in public safety infrastructure which had been deferred in previous years. A majority of the project increase is funded through special dedicated revenues in the E911 fund and penny sales tax fund with no impact on the county's general fund. Total base budget increase for all
personnel and operating is 4.8%. our capital improvements for FY27. Uh the first one is the crematory service. Of course, that's something that has to be done at animal services. We're high volume. Uh we we pick up dead animals on the side of the road. We pick
up very sick animals. We have sick animals that are dropped to us. This crematory is high volume used every single week, multiple times, sometimes a week. Uh we are needing to replace that and we're needing to actually replace that a little bit faster than we anticipated. We uh were we had deferred
this a couple years and uh this year we've gotten to a point we're just going to have to do it a little bit before budget. So even though it's in the budget, we're looking to actually replace it before the budget even starts on in October. Uh next year we will be doing a replacement of the entire E91
system that is all paid by E911 funds uh that are you know part of your uh funds that you pay from cellular uh services. Um we are paying for the recorder. So we record of course every 911 call as well as every under 800 meghertz
transmission. Uh so we're going to pay a portion of out of that uh from general fund and we're going to pay a portion from 911 funds. Uh AI technology integration. So we uh do translation services right now. So if you text to 911 in your native language, it'll automatically translate to English and
the dispatcher can respond in English and translates directly back to the native language. We're looking at enhancing AI in other areas of the 911 system where you can actually speak speak your native language. It translates the dispatcher hears English
uh speaks back and translates back in the native language. So uh very exciting uh new technology there as well as some other integration uh related to AI. I want to call your attention to the next item because the next item is not in your budget. We are but we are going to be requesting this. The state of Florida
notified us that they will not be paying for web EOCC anymore. This is our uh backup. This is our our system that does everything in the emergency operations center. Uh we were notified that at the second special >> Excuse me. Can you repeat that please? >> Sure. We were notified by the state of
Florida on Memorial Day weekend that they would not be paying for web EOC. We right now they pay for the counties to have web EOCC. In fact, on Saturday of Memorial Day, the state I called the state director personally and he said,
"Not only will we not be paying for that, but you are going to have to pay for accounts to access our system. So, if we want to request something during a hurricane, we would have to pay for the accounts that would enter in those requests. pumps, urban search and
rescue teams, uh SWAT teams, whatever we would need, uh dams, barrier, temporary dams for flooding, all of those things we would have to pay for the account to access their system. So, uh they did find some residual funds uh to pay for web EOC until October because all the
county emergency managers said, "We don't have any money from June to October. You've never told us this." Uh so, this is a new item that I will be asked. I've asked the county manager and we agreed that we would ask you all to make that request to you to add this to the budget even though it's not in your
budget packet. I need to add that for for next year's. >> And if we could add that to the mandate column. >> Yes. Absolutely. >> And how much funds are we talking about? >> It's $75,000. So $75,000 would be for our system. If we have to pay for uh
accounts on the state system, it runs about three 400 >> per account per account. then we would need probably five or six accounts. So, it's not that huge, but still money that we would have to pay. >> So, when you say 3 400, we're talking hundreds of thousands. >> 100 per account. Per account
>> about 80,000. >> It's a playground. >> Couple thousand. >> Yeah, it's roughly $80,000 in total, >> right? >> That is a surprise. It >> is. >> That is happening midy year right after budget cuts at the state level >> during hurricane season. >> During hurricane season. Yeah. Let's
let's just throw that in there. So >> the the emergency managers of the state were not happy. >> Remember when the >> and was this I mean what was the decision-making tree on this? Was this legislated? Was this >> Yeah, this was part of the budget process when they went back to session
to pass the budget. Uh the thought was from my understanding and speaking to some of the representatives was that fiscally constrained counties they'll they'd be willing to pay for them but anyone that's not fiscally constrained they can pay for their own webc and they can pay for the accounts to use our
system. >> Yes. >> Mhm. >> So I told myself this morning that I was just going to listen and not talk and you see how long that lasted. >> Sorry. >> It's okay. I I think it, you know, we need to be keeping a very uh
>> accurate >> an accurate running list of these things as they come up in our conversations because no more than two weeks ago, I had a conversation with one of our legislators and they and I explained to them my concerns about some of the things that
were being done and they said, "Well, listen, if the state's been able to cut our budget, there's no reason why you can't cut yours." And I said very ref reflexively, well, it's easy for you to cut your budget because you are just making us provide the services. And so
this and of course they didn't like that response, but um but this is the perfect example of how this happens time and time again where members of of the state can stand up there and say, "Hey, we cut our budget or we reduced costs or we
didn't exceed add as much." and and yet they don't they don't say the rest of the story which is and we did it because we are now telling the counties that they will be responsible for those for delivering those services. It is
absolutely disingenuous and um very frustrating. >> Well, it's the counties, the cities, whatever other entities, the school districts, whatever it may be. Um this may be the quote I regret forever, but
stuff runs downhill and I really had to clean that up, but stuff runs downhill and now it's just funding requirements run downhill and we're downhill. We're the first place downhill and and that's uh it is it is this is it's just interesting. This is only
$75,000, but it's it's the the tip of the iceberg and how many of those are coming that we don't know about. Yep. Madam Chair, >> whatever. >> You were technically first. Commissioner Constantine, go for it. Madam came out
before the hand went up. >> Which I swore to my mother I would never be called that either. >> I don't want to call you Mr. Chair. >> It does. IT FREAKS ME OUT every time you say it. Uh, I you know what, Commissioner
Lockheart and yourself said it um best, but I I just wanted to say one thing. I have never seen the state of legislature in all the years I was in it or now to this point cut themselves.
They always cut the local governments or the the the management uh uh you know the the the the river water management districts, the special districts, they cut everybody but themselves, but they always say and look at the tax cuts that
I just gave you. And all it is is a shift. Commissioner Zimbo, >> I think the real disingenuous um activity that is occurring at the state level is not only what's already been indicated by my fellow commissioners, but then go on press conferences and
talk about the huge surplus that the state has that that I tells you everything right there. Um I don't know of a single county that can brag they've got a huge surplus. Why? because it's government closest to
the people. Our constituents hold us accountable for doing what's right and efficient and conservative in the budget process. That necessarily does not happen at Tallahassee. Uh and it's easy for for that to be shifted off to us.
And if it continues down this path, it's nothing more than an attempt to centralize government in Tallahassee, which then will make all counties and city beholden to the state. And anything that needs to be done in the counties or cities, we'll have to go to the state to get their permission. That's not what
the state of Florida nor the constitution of this country was founded upon. >> Like Oliver, please, sir, can I have some more? So I'll close that commentary with a positive note and that and that is that I hold out hope that the citizens of the
state will uh share their opinions with their elected officials including us around their intentions after becoming well informed about how this is working. that and I do hold out hope that those that
are elected even in Tallahassee as we said today uh will be responsive to the needs of our community. Um and I think it's our job to continue to uh ask and expect it's not just an ask but expect them to do the right thing and expect
ourselves to do the right thing as well. So Alan, I'll turn it back over to you. Hopefully you don't have any more surprises in here that get us down that rabbit hole. >> Yeah, no worries. Um, the Ovito tower is not a surprise. The Ovito Tower, I think we briefed each one of you on this. The We all of our towers except for the
Ovito tower. This is our 800 megahertz uh portable and mobile radio transmission system. The when we did our microwave project a couple years ago, we identified that the rented tower, the space where we rent, uh it is structurally not sound to put our microwaves on it. So, it did not have
any more capacity to do anything else at all. So we are not able to stay on that tower and and be at the level that we need to and the level that we are at every other tower. Plus the tower is so uh structurally not able to handle
things that we are concerned that during a hurricane that that system may not work just because the amount of stuff that's on it. So uh our ask is that uh we we build an a tower uh within close proximity about a half a mile from that
location. and we've identified a space uh partnering with the city of Ovido. Uh this would be a sales tax uh item. So this is when we looked at the pigraph that's where that comes from. Uh the next couple items are related to as uh buildings are built now repeaters are
put inside of the building and we're getting interference from this. So this is to identify where that interference is taking place. We just had an issue in Altabon Springs with that fire units responding to things, law enforcement and they were getting feedback and interference from things. This will help us triangulate where that's coming from
and immediately go to the location to work with the uh building owner to fix that. Uh this the la second to last is a trailer. So when we do h lose a tower because of whatever the situation is, we can bring this out to that location, pop
it up and uh provide uh good communications in that location. Uh we used to have one of these. Uh we actually took it to Lady Lake after the Groundhog Day tornado in Lake County in Lake County and we were able to transmit for them fire and EMS calls. They could
they had no transmission before we got there. When we got there, we set up the antenna and they were able to communicate with fire law enforcement uh and police when they were responding to that back in 2007. Uh and then the uh the the last is uh we have a phased UPS and HVAC replacement for all of our
towers. So that is our final ask for uh FY27. We're as we go into the capital improvement plan. Uh just want to go over uh first animal services. Animal services has five bureaus. Uh medical services uh the front office, animal shelter operations, field services, and
our special programs which is our adoptions, volunteers, and fosters. So uh these are the items that uh we are looking at doing over the next three years. Uh some of these you may have seen uh in previous budgets. We've deferred a few of those. Uh the first
one is a pretty high tag uh item and that is for HVAC for all of the kennel space. Right now we bring in temporary HVACs as you know uh to cool down the buildings during the hot summer month. It's it seemed to get hotter and hotter. Uh just this morning coming in I heard a couple of y'all say gosh the summer's
back. Uh and uh so we we need to keep that not only for the animals but for our volunteers and our staff and everything that work in there as well. Uh replacement of some laundry equipment. Uh we have some drainage issues on the property and that's just years and years of being in the same
spot and and the the water's coming down and rains and things like that. So we got some work to do there. I know this is a weird word. I'm sorry that this word is the word, but this is the word. It is the guillotine doors. This is the little door that keeps the dog on inside
or outside. And they call it guillotine. I don't like that word. I think we should >> change it, Chris. But um >> yeah, we'll >> come up with something >> something. Uh but we do need to replace all those doors. As you can imagine, the dogs running around in there, beating up against the doors, things like that over
time, they don't go up and down easily, so they need to be replaced. Uh fencing just around just like your fence. Our fences are old, so those need to be replaced. kennel door replacements. That's the human doors, uh, where people are going in and out, as you can imagine. Uh, we're cleaning shelters all
the time, water, bleach, things like that. Formula uh, starts to rust outdoors. This is a phased in project. We've already started to do a few. We're going to continue to do those. Kennel gate replacement. This is the replacement on the front of the gate. So, when you're looking, you're walking down and you're looking at the dogs,
these are the replacements of the gates. Those haven't been done uh, replaced in a long, long time. uh kennel replace uh repair and resurfacing. Uh the dogs of course in their runs jump on the the concrete on the side and uh myself and and Chad went uh and walked the building
and there's amazing how many little holes there are and concrete things that are falling down because the dogs paws continue to hit the same spot and and it's just time for us to resurface that. And then uh we have multiple enrichment yards. I will say this is a seinal
moment. uh the uh the enrichment yards have all been done with no taxpayer dollars at all. That's real important. All partnerships, all partnerships, so private public partnerships, they look amazing. Uh but we will need to
eventually replace the shade covers. If we can get those done, we're I know Chris Trunko is working on that. The division manager, I didn't say y'all's names, I'm sorry, but uh Chris is working on that. Uh so uh if we can get partner partners to to do that we certainly will but uh we wanted to put
it in our budget uh for our capital improvement plan. This is looking out uh the next three years and this is where they all lay. So the the initial powerpoints just simply the total cost and then this is how we break it out.
E91 addressing um is uh Dena Walker is our division manager there. We have a couple things that we're going to be doing. Uh thankfully all of these are funded by uh E91 funds. So no general funds at all here. Uh we are looking at
doing a map update on our E91 system. Uh doing some uh recording technology upgrades. Uh as I mentioned earlier, we're going to continue with our AI upgrades. So uh the sheriff's office is looking at some QA AI. Uh so call taking uh you know quality improvement. Uh so
that's something that we're looking at. We also are looking at call taking AI and we're not going to be not going to be for next year or the following but a little ways out but we're continuing to look at how AI is improving non-emergency calls and uh and how we
can improve those. Um we need to do some upgrades to our backup 911 center which is in Westlake Mary. Uh as well as this is the high ticket item. Uh we have to replace our 91 consulates. Those are the consoles that are at every 911 uh dispatcher station. Uh so we're looking
to do that in FY29 and this that's going to be split funded uh between emergency telecommunications which is general fund uh and then uh E91 paying a portion of that because they utilize some of that system. This is how it looks for the next three years.
Office of Emergency Management of course responsible Steven Learner is the division manager there responsible for preparedness, response, recovery, mitigation and resiliency for any type of disaster including earthquakes. So uh we respond to all types of hazards. Uh
we got 911 calls for it. So we did uh respond to a couple buildings uh the other day from the earthquake. So uh the rumblings of the earthquake. So, um, uh, for Office of Emergency Management, we're looking at a couple different upgrades. Uh, first, the renovation of
tables and chairs. We haven't done that since, uh, we built the thing in 1998. So, uh, you know, they're getting old. They're starting to crinkle and crackle and all that stuff. So, uh, replacement of our persons with special needs shelter equipment. Uh this is the CS, the medical CS, the the wheelchairs, the
IV poles, all the stuff that uh that make that that we use to open an emergency special need shelter. Replacement of the audiovisisual system in the EOC and replacement of one 500 KW generator. We have three 500KW generators that fully uh power
elementary schools. We have three elementary schools. We have three 500KW generators. This will be to replace one of those that's one of our oldest ones. All of those have been uh obtained through grants. We're continuing to look for grants uh for the possibility of getting another replacement. So uh but
we wanted to put in the budget to show you that this is something that we will be needing. This is how that looks in the next three years. And then emergency telecommunications my last division. Uh we are going to continue uh with the Hback tower uh
replace the Hback replacement on the towers. Uh we have uh wave technology. Wave technology is utilizing your portable I'm sorry your cell phone like a portable radio. So this is a cost savings. So this this portable radio cell phone right here is actually my
portable radio as well. So not that I should be doing it, but I can be in London and listen to engine 32 at a fire and actually talk to them if I needed to. I won't be doing that, but um I've been going to London, but uh if I am, I'm still not going to be doing that.
So, but you could. So, if the fire chief though wants to hear his call and he's out of town at a conference or whatever, he can uh tune in and listen to what's going on no matter where he is. Um we'll be uh we're looking at doing a radio test analyzer. So, this uh is we're
we're real blessed here. We have two uh technicians that can fix portable and mobile radios. So, if they break, we don't have to send them out. We fix them internally. Uh so, that's really cool. uh that a lot of counties don't have that and we actually do it for our
municipalities as well as well as UCF just because we're so good uh and some other ones. So uh they and they we >> charge them for that >> and we do charge them for that. So that's revenue that comes back into uh into seminal county. >> I want to be transparent about let's not
do to others what is being done to us. So let's be truth about if we do something for somebody and we charge them then we are really >> doing it together not for them. >> Right. Right. >> Um so this is the high ticket item and I'm sorry I'm sorry to all my fellow
directors. I hope that this doesn't upset anyone, but we are going to have to replace the port portable and mobile radios for all the deputy vehicles, fire trucks, government vehicles, code enforcement, animal services, and uh parks and recreation, anyone else that
has uh portable radios. We haven't done this in a while. Uh portable radios, just like your cell phone, eventually have to be changed out. It is a high ticket item. Uh, as you know, we've we've uh deferred this a couple years uh and it will it does look really big and
that's because that's the entire project. I'm not proposing at all that that go in one year that we phase this in and we could push it out years and Darren and I've talked about that quite a bit. Uh but this is in the the next slide you're going to see how that
looks. Uh the way we currently have it we're very flexible in how we do it. Now it is end of life for some of those. So good. >> Oh, no. I was just going to comment when you were finished. >> Um, and Mr. Harris and I and Trisha have
talked about this a lot um over the last couple years. We know they're not going to be supported anymore. Um, and so we know that date is come is looming. And so what I had asked um actually we started this probably two years ago is for Allan to put together his five-year
plan on how we're going to get those replaced. We are looking at federal appropriations. Yes, we're going to go back to the state and see if we could get any some other surplus dollars for this. So, we are putting together a plan for that uh $33.9 million project, but that actually
is going to have to be done by what fiscal year 30. >> Um, and so we're already working on that now, how we can get outside funding to help support that. Mr. Zimbau, >> just want to ask this is the same upgrade we've been discussing at this budget meeting for probably at least
three years. >> Yes. >> Okay. Just want to make sure. Thank you. >> Yes. Will parts of this four $34 million be charged back to each department or is it all coming how is how is that being handled internally?
>> We've always funded it for all of the agents. So the agencies that we do are Simino County Board of County Commissioners and the sheriff's office. >> Cities buy their own uh using their funds. The school board buys theirs for the school buses on their own. Uh we
program them, but they they buy them. So they when they buy them, they work with us to make sure that the radios are the exact same that make, model, all that stuff. Uh we maintain them. Uh but uh and we program them. But um and Tommy
Oliver, our division manager, I'll just come up here if there's any specific questions. >> He's the technology. >> Yeah. No, I'm I I think it's great that we do it and that we are the ones we're the hub of the wheel for that because it's very important. I'm just curious how it would be reflected in budget
documents. So when we're looking at this, do we see it reflected in other departments as chart as as inner fund transfers or how is this happening? >> Sure. It it would be centralized through Allen's department through emergency management, but some of that is for the fire department that would be charged to the fire fund. Okay. Um public works has
a few uh radios as well that will be charged to their funds. Um a lot of the this is in the general fund. The sheriff has paid through our general fund um as well as post balance department. >> So, so when we see potentially in the sheriff's budget a would we see I should
phrase it as a question. Would we see in the sheriff's budget his portion of these radios? We will not. >> No, this this would be paid for through Allen's budget. However, um we do have other support besides the sheriff's transfer um in the sheriff's budget document. If you look, there's there's
not just his transfer. There's additional support um including uh facilities maintenance at the jail. So, this would be one of those other items. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate that. And just a a one follow-up question, and I believe you said it, but I want to hear it again, and that is that this
three-year cycle does take us through the end of life structure for the materials that we're replacing. So, there is no kicking this can down the road without jeopardizing >> safety based on them not servicing the equipment that we have waited this long
to replace. >> Can you go to the next slide? So this looked a lot better a couple years ago because it was spread out. Now it doesn't look good at all because the next three years look but we understand we were in the budget crisis. So I mean
we we pushed things and pushed things as much as we could. So um the 91 center consulates already mentioned those. Uh that's the split funded uh between 911 and emergency telecommunications. And the last is our prime virtual prime site. This is we
have a prime radio uh where it is transmitted out to I'm trying not to give our system away uh but we want to have a virtual prime so if something happens at the location then it can feed all the towers. >> This be it'll be considered Good morning
everyone. Morning commissioners and pull the mic up. >> This would be a geode diversified location as well as virtualized as well. We have one core and if that core was ever to be compromised um there we we have other things in place to go ahead
and mitigate some of that but uh we will be in a dregated state and this would just go ahead and be able to give us the resiliency that we look accustomed to here in Semino being that we um propagate signals for every city and every agency that's governmental within seminal county
>> I would just point out that uh we are taking the responsibility for things for the smaller entities so that the citizens in Semino County are safe regardless of what jurisdiction they live in and the cooperation between the
county and the cities is exemplary and I'll leave it at that. >> Thank you. >> Well done. >> That concludes mine. >> All done Alan. >> All done. >> All done Alan. >> Commissioners, you've asked questions as we went along. I see uh Commissioner
Lockhart. >> Yeah. Um I have a general question for budget that Alan you're just it it's you're poor. You're the first one up and I'm asking it now and then I have a comment. Um re reflecting health
insurance. Um I see each division has a different percentage allocated to them. How has that been determined? >> So uh the health insurance is done by employee. um it's based on the uh the the employees election health insurance
as at at the time we printed the document. So it's possible that an employee changed from employee only to family plan. Um that was something we saw yesterday with guardian um they had a small budget so you saw a much bigger percentage increase. Uh I can tell you um that in the health insurance fund uh
we had initially hoped that the uh rates would go up approximately 7%. Um we're going to be presenting a health insurance forecast. we have now changed that to 10% adjustments. Um, but any variances you're seeing in the percentage on health insurance is likely related to uh either change in positions
or a change in elections because the the rates we applied uh a 10% rate across the board. >> Okay. So just for the record, so health insurance increase the variance for animal services is 16.6% 6% while the
health insurance variance for emergency management E911 is 7%. And so it's it just >> I didn't realize we were down to the granular detail of per employee. >> And I will say on uh animal services I believe we did shift uh positions there. There was a reclass in the middle of the
year to take positions from another place and move it into there. So that's that's another reason you would see that difference. And then my comment is purely um you know when you're out and about and talking to people you get all sorts of feedback people view uh animal services in
particularly everyone through a different lens. And so just sharing um that while we all know that you pick up dead animals on the side of the road and you do an amazing amount of uh work related to public safety related to
animals, dangerous dogs and what have you. I I think we have done such a great job with our social media of promoting adorable kittens and feeding animals and you know the feel-good stuff that a
comment was made by someone in our community. Well, you know what? If you have somewhere where you need to cut, why don't you look at animal services? People should be feeding their own animals. And I said, well, you know, that's not exactly what animal services does. And so we had a protracted
conversation about the work that you all actually do. And while it may be distasteful in some to some people, I think the real work of what you do and the hard work of the ugliness of the job that your folks
do is important for our community to know what they are funding. um because it is it's some of what you do is brutal and and it is truly public safety oriented and that's why you're in public safety. But um so just
my two cents for whatever it's worth, it's okay to share um some of the ugly side because that's what you're doing. We average about 1,400 calls for service for field service folks with eight
officers. And uh those calls are uh animal neglect, animal cruelty, bites, loose dogs, loose cats, um very very uh tragic scenes, hoarding calls. Uh the things the officer sees uh people I have
seen and people shouldn't see if they're an animal lover. uh it is not just the pretty adoption thing. So I really really appreciate you bringing that up because the things that our medical team sees and has and has to deal with uh is very very sad
>> sometimes. >> Any other comments? >> Thank you, Alan. >> Sure. I'm sorry. We're going to be saying this most of the day because I really believe that it's for all county employees. You all do a phenomenal job on so many different
levels and Commissioner Locka just you just touched the tip of the iceberg so to speak and we could talk about all the departments in that great detail and even greater detail. >> So uh you know we may miss one or two things during the budget hearing by
saying not saying thank you. So, please remember you all do a phenomenal job on so many different levels and uh you know there are some interesting times coming up especially in November. uh just be patient and uh I'm sure the public will understand it as we're starting to
figure out what's happening uh as it's rolling down as we just found out today because things are changing >> and uh I think that we can all get through this but remember you all do a phenomenal job and uh we have a lot to be thankful here in Semino County because it is a great place not just to
work but to live and we hear about it in so many different levels all of us and so to say thank you a lot of times doesn't go deep enough. So stay tuned. Thank you. >> Before you close out, would you introduce your whole team? >> Sure. Uh first of course, Tom Oliver
right here. He's our division manager for emergency telecommunications. Steven Lerner is the division manager for the division of emergency management. Dena Walker, E91 and addressing. And uh Chris Dono is our animal services division
manager. >> Awesome. Thank you all for being here. Commissioner Zimbo was waving at me that I >> um this is probably more for Darren and Tim and I'll just make a standard blanket request to the rest of the budget.
It's not lost on me and it was just reminded with Allen's presentation some of the services that we provide for the cities. Now of course all the cities are taxpayers here in the county. There's always that you know understanding. So what I'm about to say is in no way,
shape or form an indictment on what we are doing for the cities who are a separate government entity. But I would like to know the actual cost and value of services that we're providing here at the county on behalf of the cities that
the cities otherwise would have to undertake themselves. That would be animal services, mosquito control. We know radios, communication, and and I understand there is contracts with communication. But there's some other
things that I think that have slipped through the cracks through the decades because we just always did things to help our neighbors and our fellow cities. And I'm not advocating we shouldn't do that, but I think we should put a value on that in understanding.
Another item which is a point and placeholder that we know >> what's being provided for the entire county and by jurisdiction. >> Yeah. And if that's possible. >> Yeah. Thanks uh commissioner for bringing that up. In fact, Commissioner Delari brought this up last year. If you remember during our budget work
sessions, we have that list together. So, uh, we'll definitely, you know, the plan, and I was going to say this at the end, but the plan is to bring back at the July 14th meeting a, you know, strategy on property tax reform. Um, and then I'll ensure that that is on that
list as well. So, you know, what we do provide to other, uh, to our municipalities and the school board to that to >> correct them. Absolutely. No, I appreciate that very much. I'm not so sure that even management knows
perhaps everything that's being done >> because we are good neighbors, >> right? >> And and when something happens, we just okay. Yeah, we're happy to help. We'll do it, blah, blah, blah. Um, so I think it may inquire, you know, some interrogation of directors to really understand those oneoffs, two offs are
being done. Correct. And again, I'm not advocating we don't do that, but it needs to be quantified clearly and shared with our partners so they understand. >> And now just also let you know we um all the city managers are meeting already.
We already scheduled that meeting. Uh we all talked last week when all this hit, you know, I don't want to go with commissioner her or the chair miss be careful what I say, but when all this came uh to fruition about what the impact or what impacts were going to be to the the cities and to the county, we
immediately got together and uh we're going to do a an afternoon session with all the city managers and myself to see, you know, continue to see what services could be uh cut, but also what we can share together um and help each other
out. So, we're we're going through that that uh scenario as well. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Constantine had his hand up, but before we move off of that topic, I would just like to make sure that when we have that list that it does uh disclose whether the cities are funding
the expense for us to provide the service or not as well. And I think that was your request last year. Y >> um but if it doesn't, let's get that together now. Commissioner Constantine, >> as a city resident as well as a county resident and one of
half of the county um lives in a city, I'm putting this into context. They pay the same amount of county taxes as non city residents. So what they pay in this
city is above and beyond. So they should be treated equally and fairly as everybody. So it's really not we're doing it for the city, we're doing for the citizen who happens to live in the city. So I just want that to be put into
the proper context. >> Yeah, that's good. >> It's very good contextual information. All right, with that, Alan, you are now officially done again and we'll call up uh Chief Matt Henley. Kenley Henley.
Commissioner Henley is channeling through me. >> Good afternoon. For for the record, Matt Kinley, fire chief of the SE County Fire Department. So our department is broken up into four cost centers uh for budgetary purposes. We have emergency communications uh
which is where we take in the 911 calls, EMS fire administration, uh the operations side of the department which is where all the trucks and everything are come out of and fire prevention um our most unsung hero.
>> The total proposed budget request for the fire department is $131.5 million. 96% of this is through the fire ad valorum and fire fee revenues. Just under 4% is funded through the general fund to support emergency communications. The department has 581
full-time positions with no proposed changes. The fire department's total budget increase is 4.6% from 125.8 million to 131.5 million. Base budget increases are primarily attributable to existing personnel which include changes to the
state retirement rates for special risk employees. The department's capital budget is 28.7 million which is an increase of 1.1%. And uh following up on something the sheriff mentioned yesterday, the final state retirement rates were approved after this budget was published and
include addition of future colas for retirement which is increasing the current cost more than we had anticipated in the budget. We are still calculating the budget impact that will be presented as a at a as a public hearing adjustment later this summer. >> I would like to point out the the 4.6
six at the end um does include out of the $440,000 increases $187,000 of that is related to uh transport billing in PMT. Uh so revenue generating so there is an offset um a huge offset if you take those off
the top we're just under 3% increase in our costs. Uh before I move on any further, I would just like to introduce uh to my left uh deputy chief of administration Matt Hetler and to my right uh Ryan Schwitzer are uh are Tim JS
could not do any of this without these two. Uh the spreadsheets that he is able to create to for us to be able to funnel down and find where we can find cost savings is just tremendous. So as you know uh a month ago I already gave a CIP presentation to the board quite lengthy.
Uh I'm going to try to hit the highlights of a lot of that. Uh just what is in this next year's budget. Starting off with facilities. Uh the first one, station 23, uh a new build, uh out in the how branch area, our oldest station. It's was built in 1970.
Uh very old station. Uh it's been added on to a couple of times. It just does not meet our needs anymore. U the bathroom situation, lots of things that need to be uh upgraded. So, we have already bought the the property right across the street. Uh
hopefully there's going to be some cost savings there and using sign signalization that's already in place. Uh and we've had the first few meetings for design for that station. Uh the request for next year is $4.5 million. Next station, station 24 in Winter
Springs. This is one of our merged stations uh with the with the city of Winter Springs. Uh built in 1975. We call this the house of doors. Uh this used to be not only their fire station but also their administrative uh building. So there's doors everywhere.
Uh crews are spread out amongst the the entire footprint of the station. Uh one of the biggest issues is we really only have one shower and that becomes complicated when people are trying to come back and decon uh and also with our our fire department makeup. Uh next
year's request is to add a million dollars to that budget. Uh the next station, station 36 out in the Lake Mary area, end of Lake Mary Boulevard and Markhamm Woods Road, uh built in 1985, is in dire need of a new
roof. Uh we've held off on that with the idea of expanding that facility. Uh talking to Chief Kaiser, the founding fire chief, uh he when we he built this building, uh built it so that a third bay could be added on. We would like to add on a third bay along with increasing
the living area for everyone. Uh again, we have a budget already in place looking to add a million dollars to that station 42 out in Geneva. This one we're looking to transition from a renovate to a new build. Uh this
station uh becomes the hub of operations for anything that's happening out in the rural area. Uh there's we have an engine, a rescue, a tanker, airboat, uh a UTV, burn trailer. This is where our the first place that our high water vehicles go as we know that this this
floods anytime we get the a lot of rain, especially when you've had rain and then hurricanes. So, the we've looked at doing the renovate. It just there's not enough land and the building's old uh with cast iron pipes. It just it it needs to be a new build. Uh and we're
looking to add $9.6 6 million to the what we currently had for a renovate so that we can build a new a new station. We are currently looking for land. Have a couple of leads on that. Um hopefully one in particular works out. Uh it would
make for a very good transition of operations. So I talked quite a bit in the CIP presentation about apparatus. I talked about uh our rescues and how we transitioned to the brawn rescue with the idea of in the future that we would
be able to do remounts. Uh so take the box off the back and put it onto a new chassis and come up with savings. I said then that we had planned on doing that in fiscal year 28. Uh some things have changed uh for the positive. Uh Braw has
taken back into uh the fold their remount. They were subbing it out to a third party. uh longer lead times uh made things a little more complicated. Now the lead times are going to be six to eight months. Uh we are looking to reduce our current ask in the first
public hearing by $300,000. Uh we're going to take three of the five trucks that we're ordering and do a a rem a rechassee remount instead of buying a new truck. That saves us $300 at minimum um right out of the gate for this this upcoming budget. So, we'll be looking in
the first public hearing to reduce our requests by $100,000 on three rescues. Another opportunity, um, cardiac monitors. So, the piece of equipment and technology that is on our trucks that really makes us a mobile
emergency room, um, is our cardiac monitor. Uh, this is where we, uh, see if people are having heart attacks. Um, we can actually help identify strokes with what their heart's doing, all these different things. Um, our current product is at end of life. Um, much like
radios, uh, the company has switched to a new model. Are no longer going to be servicing uh, the old model. Once parts run out, um, we're not going to be able to replace the the pieces and parts. Uh, this has been known. We we've known this and have
had this budgeted in the past. We already have $1.6 $.6 million that are budgeted. This product, the new product, we tested it out. Um, and it did not perform to our liking. So, we've held off. Uh, they said that they were going to fix the certain things that were having wrong
with it. That has not come to fruition. There are departments across the country that have invested millions of dollars into this product um and have since pulled them off their trucks um and switched to a different product. We've looked at the new product. Um, we believe it's going to meet all of our
needs and then some. We will actually be putting two of them on one of our on two of our trucks next week uh as loaners from from the the provider. Uh we've talked to the fire departments that have uh put this on their trucks and they have nothing but glowing uh remarks
about it. So challenge, it's a different type of product. So instead of doing the uh the strategic implementation of a new product which was very similar to the old one uh we're going to be looking to
do a wholesale replacement uh this upcoming budget year. To do that we will are requesting in the next budget in the first public hearing to add $1.2 million to what we already have budgeted. That will accomplish two things. Uh, one, it
gets all of our trucks to have the same product. Uh, there isn't any confusion amongst our providers, our EMTs and paramedics having to switch back and forth between two technologies. The second part is if we do that in the aggregate, we'll have a $400,000 in s
$400,000 in savings. So, moving up next year's request to this year to combine uh will save us over the next two years $400,000. Again, that will be a first public hearing um request.
>> So, can you just reconcile the slide that says cost savings of 250? I suspect that's >> So, this was built last week. This was built last week. We just got our quote on Mon this past Monday. So, it's now an increase in what the savings are going to be. This is what we were estimating
two weeks ago, a week ago. Uh we now have a hard quote that is good all the way into October of this up this upcoming October and then the aggregate is now $400,000 in savings. We were estimating what it was going to be. >> But the net impact to this year's budget
for this item alone is an additional 1.2 >> 1.2. Correct. >> Okay. >> And I guess we should give you credit for the 300,000 that you took off earlier in the presentation. So it's not lost on >> net 900. You're at a net plus 900. Well, and as we move into the future, you go
into the next year budget, not not this year, but the following year budget, there will be some savings in uh in service of the of the units because included in the total price is a bumper-to-bumper warranty for for 3 years.
So, I would I would just like to close um and point out you're going to hear a lot of budget presentations uh today. And I would be remissed if I did not point out for the fire department that is public safety. For emergency management, that is public safety. You
have fleets, you have facilities, you have public works, you have roads. All of these things we utilize. We don't put down roads to get to the calls. Roads does. We do not put in fire hydrants. Public works does. If we don't have our
bullets to fight these fires, uh we can't put these fires out. There's all of these different things. I mean, human resources, legal, everything that is under the umbrella of the se of seminal county has a public safety aspect to it. Without them, we could not do what we
do. And I just want to thank them for all of their help throughout the the year and the years and going into the future. Um they truly are a part of public safety. Thank you. >> That couldn't have been better said. And I would tell you that we should clip that.
>> I know you hate public speaking. >> We should clip that >> and use it over and over again because quite honestly, how many how many times have you told me you can't put speed bumps in there? You can't put speed bumps in there. It impacts public safety. Um, but that that was really
well said and certainly forefront in the forefront of our minds as we're going through the process for planning for the future. Commissioner Zimbau, >> very well said. Um, it'd be surprising maybe to the average citizen that may
not realize that during hurricane events, emergency, natural emergencies. It doesn't matter where our employees are dispatched and posted to in which department, they're all helping and and providing services on behalf of the
citizens. even if it's not in their typical line of profession, they're backfilling the voids in public safety. Uh, and I don't think the average citizen realizes that that, you know, th those people are doing work on behalf of
the citizens that they're typically not doing during the week. But the question on 42, and of course, this occurred this past week. you all were in Mims um area fighting a brush fire. What further conversation is happening
with Valuchia County in light of we're servicing that whole southoutheastern corridor of their county out of 42. I know we've got a an agreement >> which is a financial agreement and and I thank Chief for a couple years ago
getting that to the level it should be or something that makes sense. Do we intend on having any discussion with them with this station as a prop share that they may want to help pay for this infrastructure
versus they build their own in the Lake Carney area? >> I think it's a fair and valid question we should be asking Valuchia County. Yes, you're paying X amount of dollars to do these calls, >> but otherwise they have no firefighting in that whole corridor. >> Right. Right. And I have had
communication with their county uh manager as well when we actually increased their contribution to us because as you know they were not paying uh much um and they are they do not have plans to put a fire station out in that
in the southeast uh part of the county. >> So Chief and I had a conversation on this last week actually. We talked about station uh 42. So we are actually putting some numbers together and we are planning to go and talk to Valuchia. Now whether that is >> to contribute to the station or to
contribute to the overall uh cost of what what they're paying now on an annual basis that um for for the calls for services that that will increase. So either way we're looking at that um to see as we start you know moving forward with that u we'll continue the dialogue with Falia County.
>> Great. Yeah I think they should have more skin in the game. Um, you know, our taxpayers are paying for the the infrastructure. Uh, yes, we are charging them >> what we believe is a fair schedule or close to thereabouts. >> But when we're getting ready to put new
infrastructure, I think we need to have a very candid conversation on what that increase would be, whether it's increase annually, >> right, >> or a one-time payment towards the asset. >> I think we need to have that conver. The other thing is after when we put that new fee in place with Valuchi County and
what uh uh Chief Kinley and the team, Ryan probably does it more than anybody. We go back and look at the calls for service that we actually did. So we true it all up. So when we look at next year's, you know, budget, if it has changed in any way, um we we change that accordingly to the actual experience
that happened the year prior. So great. Well, um so and Mr. Jackson and I have had a conversation about that too. there. We may add that extra piece of the capital improvement piece uh to their >> great because what concerns me is they already have plans for additional
development out in that corridor. >> So what is happening today will be far different than what's happening 5 years from today. >> Right? So, and if they don't want to put the money up themselves to build a station at the cost stations are now, um, you
know, maybe they want to kick in 25, 40%, whatever that number might be, uh, or do it in an annual payment. >> Right. Right. Again, another cost that we're helping our neighbors with that. >> Correct. >> We just need to be made aware of, >> right? We need to be like the good neighbor insurance company. We'll be a good neighbor, but you got to pay your
way. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> There is a lot of empty land. That's the continuation of the empty land on the East Lake Mary Boulevard corridor. And it it it's the same thing is happening across the border that's happening on our side of the border probably more so.
>> All right. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll say on on behalf of all of us, thank you for everything you all do, the entire department. Um, but I will also throw in there that uh it is not lost on us that we all received a letter from the union recently that is
that's going to play into the budget as well. I we'll have no further discussion on that, but just for uh public awareness, we know that uh more to come. So, we appreciate you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, gentlemen.
>> All right, that takes us to utilities. Johnny Edwards, come on down. >> I think we need walk-on music next year. We actually talked about that. >> Where's Chad? Chad gives us the music.
>> We talk about that. >> We struggle with technology. >> You can't get out of sitting at that table. Nice try, though. >> Nice try. Welcome, Johnny. Take it away. >> All right. Uh, good morning, chairman and commissioners. I appreciate the
opportunity to present to you this morning. I'm Johnny Edwards, the utilities director. Uh, with me I have Carrie Grind, our business office division manager, and Wanda Wilson, our financial manager. Financial manager. Um, in utilities, we have four divisions. Uh, the business office that
Carrie heads up. Uh, we have two operating divisions. One is out in the field away from the plants and the other is uh inside the plants running the treatment plants. Uh and finally we have our engineering and construction division. And I will dive uh deeper into those uh each of those divisions later
in the presentation. The utilities department total proposed budget request is $94.8 million 100% funded through the water and sewer fees as expected for an enterprise fund. Department currently has 154.5 full-time positions.
The half FTE increase is related to a position that is currently splitf funded with solid waste and will now be fully allocated to water and sewer. There's a corresponding decrease in the solid waste fund. The utilities department total budget increase is 4.6% from 90.6
million to 94.8 million. The base budget variance of 3.6% includes increases to our wholesale water and sewer agreements. The capital project budget of 35.6 6 million includes necessary improvements and maintenance to the county's water and sewer system.
>> All right, thank you. Um, so this is a budget presentation, but largely I want to keep uh the presentation qualitative uh rather than quantitative, but I do want to start off with a couple numbers here. Uh, Tim mentioned in the chart previous uh that there was a $1.6
million increase uh to our operating expenses exclusive of personnel. Uh just wanted to shed a little light on that specifically. It's actually in three program areas we're increasing by $1.7 million and the majority of that is wholesale fees which on the chart to the
right I've broken into two slices. One is for water wholesale fees, the other is for wastewater wholesale fees. Uh we have uh satellites and uh consecutive systems uh that we manage where we buy water uh and distribute to our customers and it's not connected to one of our
water plants. So we'll buy water from other utilities uh and conversely we receive waste water in certain areas and send that to other utilities treatment plants. So those wholesale fees which are actually uh about onethird of our operating budget uh represent the
majority of this increase. Um a couple other areas uh treatment plant uh repair and maintenance for our plants. You know we went through a series of uh work sessions uh leading up to the master plan uh utilities master plan development. We talked about the need uh for increased investment in repair,
maintenance, and renewal and replacement in our plants. Uh lastly, uh backflow prevention. Uh $200,000. This is a federal and state requirement uh for water systems to have backflow prevention. Uh we this is a contracted service for us to provide this service
for our residential customers. Uh where we inspect and maintain those backflow preventers. And this is right sizing the budget with the contracted expenses for that service. Uh so those are the three main areas that are increasing and everything else that we do uh in terms
of operating expense expense. Uh I'd like to uh give kudos to Carrie and and the rest of our team that managed to find efficiencies uh reduce the budget and they actually have a net reduction of $100,000 across everything else that
we do um in terms of operating expense. um programs and projects. I want to focus in on another number um that was in Tim's um table up front. Uh 29 million a little over $29 million uh for projects. A couple months ago, the board
approved the uh utilities master plan. Um and it included uh programs and projects and I'll touch on these briefly um just highlights renewal and replacement. Uh as I said before, we need to uh increase the investment in our treatment plants. um our distribution and collection systems
outside of the plants. Uh that includes pump stations. We have about 350 pump stations uh that move sewage. Um and if one of them isn't working, there's going to be a sewage spill somewhere. And we want to make sure we avoid that. Uh fire hydrants. We actually have about 4,000
fire hydrants that we inspect, uh maintain, and replace as needed. um within our system. Uh we have programs uh that provide information and help uh uh prevent uh problems in the system. Uh CCTV of gravity sewer where we do
literally have stuff flowing downhill um to uh help maintain the gravity sewers. Uh unidirectional flushing. Um this is a program to help uh clean the pipes um and maintain water quality within our systems. Hydraulic modeling helps us
diagnose uh issues and understand uh what changes in the system such as new development may cause um within the um sewer and water systems. And then leak detection uh help us look for leaks in the system that we can fix uh and conserve water. Uh the last section
there under the programs, a couple smaller um opportunities and responsibilities, I'll call them oversizing and extension where with new development, we look for opportunities to find efficiencies. Uh and minor relocations when there are other
projects in the right ofway such as road or storm water projects, we might have to move our mains to accommodate those projects. Um some projects that we have upcoming in 27. Uh just to highlight real quickly, uh Timacoin uh master pump
station. Um this is one of a couple projects that will help us redirect wastewater that is currently going to Greenwood Lakes wastewater plant to the Yankee Lake wastewater plant where we have more capacity. Uh Lutheran Haven is a pretty large project out on Chapman
Road uh that we need. um a force man uh from Greenwood uh to Greenwood Lakes uh that will help us accommodate growth uh near the Reagan Center area. Uh a couple distribution improvement projects uh Meredith Manor in Apple Valley. Um
Oregon Street, this is in the northwest part of the county. Uh we have water in Force Main under an I4 onramp that we want to move into um the Oregon Street right ofway uh to make it more accessible. Um and then lastly, a couple
new small water manes uh near the Reagan Center to accommodate growth in that area. Um full disclosure on this slide, $29 million and projects is a little bit smaller uh than what was presented and approved in the master plan for fiscal year 27. Uh we are ramping up our
delivery of programs and projects and we wanted to um program in for FY27 what we know we can deliver. And as designs get more mature and we're ready for additional funds, we'll come back to the board uh when the time is appropriate um
to um launch additional projects. Um some ongoing projects. I just want to touch on these quickly. Um the Greenwood Lakes uh water reclamation facility. We talked about this a couple times in the master plan presentations. Uh the plant uh needs some work to meet class one
reliability requirements. We're out on the street currently uh to get an engineer for a project that uh exceeds CCNA uh limitations. Um we also got some state funding um to help fund this project and a couple other sewer
projects. Uh Hampton Master and How Estates pump stations, a couple larger pump station projects that we separate out from our normal RNR u pump station upgrade program. We have 350 pump stations. uh we can't do them all at
once. So, we lay out year after year um investing money and renewing these pump stations, the pumps, the wet well lining, the pump rails, the hardware, the the um the control panels, excuse me. Um just
reinvesting to keep these uh pump stations operating. Reinhardt Road valves and meter. We're putting in a sewer meter, a wastewater meter, and some valves again that will help us redirect flow. um towards the Yankee Lake uh wastewater plant where we have
more capacity. Highland Pines pipelining um small community off of uh near Oxford Road. Uh we're wrapping up a project where we've lined pipes to reduce infiltration and inflow which we talked about has an impact on the sewer collection system. Uh Caroline
relocations. We have a uh force man and a water man that are installed um under the little Econ River. Um this helps service the Carolon area um through years of natural uh river meandering and maybe some uh hurricane related erosion.
Um the pipes have become exposed. So we're going to redrill those pipes um to ensure that they're safe. Uh Rolling Hills uh and working with parks and public works, you know, we have a small component of that project uh to improve the water distribution system in that
area. Uh and we have large uh renewal and replacement projects going on currently at Yankee Lake and Greenwood Lakes water reclamation facilities. And lastly, this utility owns about 20% of the capacity at Orlando's Ironbridge uh wastewater plant. So we help fund
projects uh at their plant for renewal and replacement. um diving into each of our four divisions and I'll try to keep this brief here but um the business office again that Carrie heads up is responsible for accounting uh billing
customer service and onetop permitting uh which is uh one of our lines of communication with new development onestop permitting um some recent notable efforts uh working with the comproller and administrative services our uh municipal bonds uh have been refunded for a cost savings uh to our
customer um we're updating the billing platform uh to to modernize um our billing system, you know, to improve the customer experience. That will help uh provide our customers more information, give them more options, and give our staff uh more options for data analysis
about water use and expense. Uh we're looking for efficiencies with artificial intelligence to help ramp up this new platform. um you know populate the data, look for billing errors uh and maybe meter configuration errors as we move this data over. Uh and then lastly, some
administrative code updates will be coming forward in the near future to modernize some of our business processes. Uh engineering and construction is responsible for our large uh CIP um capital improvements plan program uh engineering development review and
inspection and cross connection control. Um we have increased the delivery of our CIP projects and I look to see that increase further in the future. Uh we've updated our engineering standards uh our standards that we send to um new development to keep um um to keep
standards um to keep our components um standard. Uh utilities GIS I apologize uh utilities GIS our geographic information system. This is the system that we use uh to locate our assets out in the field. Pipes are buried. uh don't always know what they are, where they
are, except for the GIS system. Um, and not unique to our utility. You know, sometimes there's a little bit of a disconnect between what's in the computer and what's actually out in the field. Uh, so we've gone through a pretty large effort of reviewing decades of asbuilt drawings to make sure that we
have the best information possible from those drawings in our GIS system uh to improve accuracy. And the next step will be field verification of that data to improve our GIS system. Uh talked previously about prioritization of pump stations uh which which ones are the
oldest, which ones need um RNR projects sooner rather than later to help us uh invest wiser uh in those uh pump stations. Lastly, permit renewals. Uh in the not tooistant past, we renewed both of our water reclamation or wastewater facility permits with the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection. And in the near future, we'll have to renew our consumptive use permits with St. John's uh for surface and groundwater withdrawals. Um one of our operating divisions is the treatment plants. are responsible for
five drinking water plants, two water reclamation facilities, which again is wastewater uh where we turn it into reclaimed water uh and a surface water treatment plant for reclaimed augmentation. Uh they're responsible for the operations uh the inspection,
monitoring, and reporting for permit compliance. Uh they also run our supervisory control and data acquisition which is kind of our brain center of um monitoring all of our assets at the plants and out in the field. Um and they're also responsible for maintaining
the plants, the facilities at the plants uh and the grounds on which they're located and managing the contractors that help us achieve that. Uh recent notable efforts uh we have we're ramping up a new asset management system uh open gov also known as cardigraph um to help
us identify list and create proactive maintenance plans for assets in our system. Um we're also improving our proactive maintenance initiatives uh and we're looking for opportunities uh for efficiencies that uh AI can help us identify just in discussions with staff.
there's probably more uh fruit that we can find out in the field rather than at the plants through AI. Um but we're having these conversations um with experts. And lastly, field operations. Uh their responsibilities include water
distribution, both for portable and reclaimed water, uh wastewater collection and transmission. Uh they manage the meters out in the system and they are also identified in Florida statutes as first responders. um recent notable efforts, emergency response, uh
my hats off to these guys that have to respond in the middle of the night, weekends, holidays, whenever to main breaks um that happen, um they are ready at a moment's notice to go out and fix the problems. Um, in the wake of Hurricane Milton, they pointed out that
over the years of um, acquiring assets, there's a variety of connections between our portable generators and the uh, pump station panels um, which under normal conditions is not a problem, but in uh, responding to widespread power outage
um, standardizing those plugs um, improves our response time. So they took it uh on themselves to um standardize, acquire the plugs and install them. So we have that in place now. Uh and lastly, they are uh converting the
infrastructure for meters uh to an advanced metering infrastructure. They've got about 20% uh of our meters installed already. Um, this is the new generation of meters that will help provide us uh real-time data at headquarters and we can give an app to
our customers so they can see real-time water use uh and possibly an alert to help them identify when they have a water leak at home. Uh last slide here wanted to talk a little bit about uh collaboration. I talked about wholesale fees uh early in
the presentation. These are derived from our interlocal agreements with partnering utilities. Uh we are updating these agreements. Longwood has a draft currently that they're reviewing from us. Uh we have a meeting next week with Thito to talk about uh a request from their utility and uh updating all of our
we have several uh interlocal agreements with the city. Um there's a draft in the county attorney's office currently for the city of Castlebury and and then we will work towards Lake Mary, Sanford and all the other utilities in the area making sure that uh those agreements are
current. um University of Central Florida. We have one of our staff engineers uh in utilities is a uh recently accepted as a doctoral candidate at UCF. So, we're very proud of him. Uh we're going to have a meeting next week to brainstorm with his professor, a pretty well-known professor
about uh research um that will um one help our utility and two help uh him get his dissertation. Um and you know, we're kind of leaning towards the arena of emerging contaminants in utilities. um what type of research will help us all. Uh program management uh we have
consultants in house that have helped us uh achieve a variety of objectives. One strengthening regulatory compliance assurance uh two utilitywide key performance indicators so we can measure our own performance year after year and compare to other utilities in the region. Uh they're supporting us with
design and development review. uh one designs um generated by our contract uh engineers uh for our system and then development review for new development. Um and then they're also mentoring and supporting some of our uh younger project managers to help ramp up again
our project delivery. Uh Central Florida Water Initiative with environmental services. for participating in that and the board knows that's a coalition of Central Florida utilities, state agencies, and other stakeholders uh looking at solving problems like potential overping of the Florida
aquifer where water conservation is definitely key. Uh but we're staying tuned in uh and involved in in those meetings. Uh lastly, we're also um working with communications to increase our communications out to the public. Uh, do we have projects in your
neighborhood that we'd like you to know about and keep you informed about? Um, and other uh general utilities functions like hydrant flushing, smoke testing, um, flushable wipes, not so flushable. Um, just general uh, utilities information to help us all maintain a
functional uh, utility um, from which we all benefit. So, that concludes the presentation. I'm happy to answer questions. >> Mr. Edwards, I just want to point out it is not lost, I'm sure, on any of us how far we have come >> under your leadership. >> Amen.
>> It is absolutely remarkable. Um, we it it's just remarkable. I'll leave it at that to you and your entire team. Um, I know you brought the rock stars with you and there's a whole list of other rock stars uh that were glad to
not be here today. Uh, but we appreciate your leadership. We appreciate the department and all the work that's been done to bring us to this point. Commissioners, anything with regard to the budget? >> Commissioner Constantine, >> thank you very much. Um
Johnny, last week I um attended uh Alto Springs Pollution Power and they are actually you know um making bioolids into energy and are
going to fuel their wastewater treatment plant a large portion of it. with that. Um, talking about collaboration, have we worked with I know we had some staff there, but are we working with them and
and trying to coordinate that and see if we can do that also? >> Um, that is something we're looking into. Um, we've talked to several utilities over the years going back a couple years. Uh, I know John Slott led up an effort um with Orlando and other utilities including Altoont to look for
opportunities um along those lines. This is a a more recent initiative uh from a a pretty large consulting firm in conjunction with Altoont. I think what they're doing is testing a newer technology in Altoont. We're excited to see the results. Uh and and if it makes
sense, you know, love to partner with them. >> Well, it is with D and AECOM. >> Yes, sir. >> D being state, we should be able to get cooperation with them. And AECOM, we have used them and continue to use them on a number of different consultants.
So, I just thought it it's natural and that would be a a great feather in our cap if it >> and we we're making sure we're present at those. Um um Frank and I talk frequently and so we want to ensure that we're a part of the >> the the program.
>> Those look great, you know, when you're doing that. >> Commissioner Zimbau, >> I've got nothing in the interest of saving time. I see the good judge is here for his presentation. >> Anything further? All right. Thank you. Thank you to the entire team. The honorable uh Judge
Galuzo is here in place of Chief Judge Melanie Chase who is is I think in the courtroom today. >> Now we're going to see how proficient our staff is. Did they have a name tag switch? >> That's what he I bet you that's what he just said.
>> I know what Tim just said. >> Doesn't seem so. Good morning everyone and thank you for allowing me to appear on behalf of Joe Chashi's um unfortunately could not be here this morning and as you may know I'm in the middle of a murder trial so I had to switch from yesterday when we were supposed to be here because we had
a medical examiner from out of state who used to be our chief medical examiner who's now in I think Colorado and he could only appear yesterday uh by team so it became a little bit of a logistical nightmare >> we're always happy to work with you >> thank you very much um madam chairman
and and uh board members as well as Mr. Gray. Miss Latory, am I pronouncing that right? We have Thank you. I thank you for allowing us to appear here today. If you have any specific questions, I'm going to direct you to ask uh Mr. Giannis, who's with me, who
is our court administrator. He knows much more about this budget, but I will say a few things that I've often told you in the past when I appeared here as chief judge and as the administrative judge of the county. Um the county here um is so um helpful to us and I say that
quite honestly. I've been in a lot of circuits around the state as chief judge and uh the fights continue. Um we don't seem to have those here uh because you've always been so good to us. Um we try not to ask for anything more than what we specifically need. The
courthouse con reconstruction is going around well very well. Um the contractor is very professional, very responsible. Um in the course of this trial, I've heard a few bangings, but not very much. Um and and but they're not disruptive
and the jury are very complimentary of the fact that it doesn't seem to be d disruptive to them. So we appreciate that and everything that you're doing for us. Um I will um end my short brief presentation on a quick personal note. One is I'm retiring at the end of this
year after 20 years and uh my wife has already told me this morning she has a plan for my future. Um I'm now wondering whether I should have retired or not, but we'll figure that one out. The second thing is on behalf of um the Woodard family, I want to thank you
again for the proclamation that you held last year for Judge Woodard. Sadly, he passed away this year and u uh he was a great man, a wonderful judge. She started our mental health court and our veterans court process and his widow has asked me to express to you her desire if
you can on J um June 26th from 11 to uh 1:30 she'll be holding a memorial service for him a celebration of life um there will be some food there some um refreshments there will be very little speeches um she wants everyone to come together to
celebrate him uh and the uh the what he's done for all of us um over the course of his years as on the bench. So with that, if you have any questions um I'm going to go ahead and refer to the presentation and then hopefully Mr. Yannis can answer your questions for you. >> The judicial department's proposed
budget request is $1.9 million. 21% comes from grant agreements in support of the adult drug court program and the drug lab. Article 5 fees pay for 12% of the program and general funds support 66%. There are eight county full-time positions in judicial with no changes
for fiscal 27. The total budget variance is 5.9% from 1.8 million to 1.9 million, primarily related to salary, benefit, and health insurance for existing staff. The capital line includes $15,000 for a one-time replacement of a network
server. >> Commissioners, uh, >> that was easy. >> Yeah, that was easy. I actually do have a question and and this doesn't necessarily have to be answered now, but one of the things that we uh would appreciate from the judiciary is
feedback with regard to the technology that's supplied by the clerk's office. We do continue to hear uh from the clerk's perspective, which is very valuable. Um, but we would also like to hear from you all so that we understand that what we're delivering through the
clerk's office, through the budgeting process is what you need and up to speed, etc. >> I could touch on that a little bit, but I think that u Mr. Yiannis could probably do more from the my perspective. Um, you know, some years ago, Miran Morris started a process for
electronic signing and filing and uh everything I do today that I used to do by paper is on a computer. Uh we have an ICMS system that can be complicated at times. Um but she started it and built it herself at that point in time um to
try and accommodate us for electronic uh signatures. When I was chief judge, I was able to implement some of it in Bvard County because we were having trouble there as well. And I think it was the eighth circuit um that lent us some of their uh software as much as
what they did with our e-wear system as well to help us build this system. um we could not process as much information as we do today. I could not handle the files. I I'm in I handle five different divisions. I handle probate, mental
health, um guardianship, also delinquency and dependency. I couldn't do all of those. I probably signed a hundred different orders a day. So, I'm reviewing a hundred different files and I can do it so much faster electronically. That's all in credit to the clerk's office. They build the
system. um they maintain it for us. Um it it cuts down on their need for personnel, I think, but it also makes us so much more efficient. I don't leave my office at any day, excuse me, if I haven't cleared out my viewer of all the orders I have. And uh I even get um
messages sometimes from lawyers and say, "Why did you sign this on Christmas?" Because it was it was there because I think I owe service to the public. And I think the clerk's office goes a long way to help us with that. I know the technology costs are extensive um and just keeping up with the system, but the
service to the community is so much better, I think, because we have it. >> Thank you. Thank you, commissioners. Any further comments? >> No, ma'am. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you for being here to you and your entire team. >> Thank you.
>> All right, that brings us to fleet and facilities. So, we're bringing up Chad Wilski right after the compliments on the courthouse renovations. That worked out nicely for you, Chad. >> Lunch will be later. >> The uh next presentation was
environmental services, but we'll jump ahead to fleet and facilities. >> Keep anything Chad wants, we'll bring. >> Was it really? >> Yeah. environmental services. >> We'll let Chad take the lead. No, no. Go ahead, Chad. Kim's good. >> I have adopted. >> My apologies.
>> We're just keeping everybody on their toes. >> It's all good. >> Good morning, chairman and uh commissioners and uh thank you for the opportunity to uh present the uh the good work of our fleet facilities department. So, in fleet facilities, we have uh
three divisions. We have facilities development, facilities maintenance, and uh fleet maintenance. >> The total proposed budget for the department is 33.5 million with 96% of the funding centralized in the general fund for fleet management, facilities,
maintenance, and countywide fuel. A small portion of the revenues uh comes from the water and sewer and solid waste fund uh including $500,000 in budgets transferred from environmental services starting in fiscal 27. The department has 79 full-time positions with no requested changes.
The department's total proposed budget increase is 2.5% from 32 2.7 million to 33.5 million. The base budget increase of 4% is primarily attributed to changes in existing employee benefits and incre increases to operating contracts for custodial and security services. The
capital budget of $5.1 million is primarily for countywide HVAC and roof replacements. All right. So, good morning again. Uh, this morning we are going to focus more on the facilities maintenance um part of the operation. Um, over the last couple
years, uh, the commission has made some some great investments on the facilities maintenance. I want to share what we what we've been doing and how we're going to use that information going forward. So couple years ago on the facilities maintenance side, we truly didn't have
facilities maintenance programs in place. Uh it was very everything's reactive, reactive, reactive um as as things came up. So, in the last couple years, we've been um conducting uh facilities condition assessments um of several of our facilities, fire stations
and the fire training center, um a couple of our water treatment facilities, all of our libraries, uh three of our parks and recreation sport facilities, uh the public works administration building there on County Home Road, and then the uh the buildings at the central transfer station.
um upcoming um condition assessments. Uh we have the public safety building, the juvenile justice center, the juvenile detention center, the juvenile assessment center, and then also the John E. Pulk um correctional facility. And on these assessments, the the areas of focus that we were looking at the
kind of the generalized large areas of focus is the roof, the building envelope, uh the fire panels, the electric panels, the building generator, all of the HVAC systems, and also um the elevators and those buildings that have elevators as well. So, here we are
collecting all of this data and you know, typically in the past, we would put it into a spreadsheet, which Mr. objects loves um but the the the commission was gracious enough to provide the uh the resources for our
capital asset um software solution. So we are in the process of the assessments that have been completed is putting that information into the software solution um for us to again um um to plan out um our capital assets. So what does it do?
So forecast asset health um predict asset life balance needs and budgets through scenario comparisons and develop smarter budgets. So again from being proactive being proactive also what this solution
will do is allow us I mean allows us to plan out in the future create a strategy something we do not have in place now when we talk about strategies when it comes to the budget and we know that uh the resources are are finite um allow it
will allow us to determine if if we do this expect this if we don't do this, expect this. So when there are items that we have to defer, we'll be able to understand what is the true cost of that deferment. Um not just if the the equipment fails and the comfort and how
it impacts operations, but the cost of that deferment um as well. So we're looking forward to getting this fully implemented and um utilizing it for uh next year's budget process. So, when I come to Tim and the county manager and
then ultimately to y'all for a budget request, it's about having all the data that goes along with that request. And it's just not of we think um we know these are what we can expect. Along with that is our energy
management, our utility tracking. So just a few years ago, we really didn't have a good grasp um of our our electrical accounts. Um and actually we have a little over,300 accounts with FPL and um Duke Energy. So
we've centralized all of this. Um and so with the energy management uh solution, we can now track all utilities in one centralized location. We can track and compare usage across buildings, view and compare actual energy spend compared to
what we should be uh spending for that building type and then we can identify the anomalies and utility usage. Now I will say we are in just the beginning stages. We've captured the data. It's been challenging getting the data into the system um taking again a paper
process and digitizing um um from that perspective. But I can tell you what we've already um come across um now is what we've been focusing on simple things. Are we being build at the correct rates? So over those 1300 accounts, amazingly
we had same building types but being charged at different structured rates. Um small things but add up you know across the system when it comes to dollars. One thing we also looked at is on the commercial side is demand rates.
So what's a demand rate on is when all of our systems kind of hit the system at one time sends a message to the power company that oo they need this much energy. We're going to charge them a rate now on that demand. So what we're doing and we'll discuss this on the next
slide a little bit is through our building automation is looking at when do does our systems hit the grid. So instead of having this peak demand and getting charged a high rate, we can now level off that demand um through the day
let a lower rate. Um so again, things that in the past questions that just weren't asked and we didn't have the ability um to look at going forward. All right, energy ma management, building automation. And again, thanks to the commission for making the
investments into our HVAC systems and to our control systems. I know there's still a great deal of work to do and um but the key is is just we could I could be provided our team could be provided endless amount of money and we could
spend it but the key is the what I said is we want to make sure that we're not doing a bane day job we're actually fixing the problem and it needs to be strategic in what we do this is through the help of a contracted services through building automation so we can identify equipment not
in using more or or andor using more energy than it should be. Provide recommendations and strategies for repairs. Optimize equipment runtime schedules. So I I'll stop here. We have systems running 247 in our buildings.
Not needed. Um, and so what we also are working on is developing a system to where let's say after we have a certain schedule that our systems are going to run before they go into nonoccupancy mode. If you have a meeting, a training or something happening after hours,
you'll be able to request that time into the system. We can make sure that the system is turned on um during that time for your after hours meeting. We can extend the equipment lifespan. we can minimize emergency repairs and equipment downtown or downtime and then improve
overall employee um comfort with the building automation as well. It gives us insight into how the buildings are performing. And the interesting thing the the our highest user of energy you
would think it would be the jail because it's 247 operation. it was act is actually right now our criminal justice center. Um so it starts we can start asking question does it make sense right helps
us so with this data with this information we can start asking questions why how does that compare um this building here compared to the square footage uses a great amount of energy compared to other buildings
within our um our makeup as well. So with that again, data that we didn't have access to before, now we're getting access to. Now we're being able to see what equipment is somewhat working, not working, making those repairs, making the strategic repair that actually fixes
the pop problem, doesn't bandaid the problem um as well. All right, transitioning to our um our fleet operation. So about a year ago, um the commission approved us being a
Ford uh warranty service provider program and I wanted to give you a kind of an update on that. So since that time, we performed 87 warranty repairs and recalls um from our fleet division. We have 42 claims in progress now. They're just awaiting uh Ford approval.
And just as a reminder, all the work that we do for these recalls or warranties, we are reimbursed by Ford at Ford's rate for parts and labor for these things. But I tell you, the the the biggest savings is in staff downtime
because when a vehicle comes in, for us to take it to a dealership takes two people. We drive it to a dealership. We let it sit. It It's in a you know, it can sit for days for however how long until again we're not
the only customer. When it's ready, then we go two people pick it up and so forth. So really the the the savings and just downtime um of our staff is has been instrumental. Additionally with this program has provided additional training for um our staff uh which has
been um extremely helpful. And then through this we're looking at providing uh ASC additional ASC certification training for staff as well. When I arrived a couple years ago um on our on our fleet side the operation
management system we had uh it wasn't built for fleet. It was a a a onesize software solution that was meant for a very very large department that had a lot of divisions and groups in it. Uh recognized very quickly we needed to to
make an adjustment. And so again I appreciate the investment of a new u management solution for that. What it does for us it gives us again real transparency, real visibility into our assets. um allows us to manage our vehicles, equipment, parts, and
maintenance from one platform. Um as well, we have improved maintenance management. We can track all of our inspections, repairs, warranties, and our parts inventory. It gives us better um control of our maintenance costs and our inventory. And then again, our
reporting and analytics um in the past was a lot of manual um processes. Now we have the automatic reports um through the systems. The nice thing with our new fleet management solution too um it will help us in our life cycle management um
as well and and looking at um when we do replacements fleet telematics. So this is another um investment made and there's a lot of questions about what is telematics on a on a vehicle? Well, it's onboard vehicle
diagnostics. Well, what does that mean? Well, that means when the these days vehicles are way more technical technologydriven than my vehicle, uh they give alerts, they give off codes that something's happening. In the past, we relied on the driver to say, "Oh, the
engine light is on. Sometimes they see it, sometimes they don't." Um so th that information is in real time shared with our our fleet um division um from the all thing things
with the engine from the braking system you name it if the if it's covered in the computer we're now getting those diagnostics um communicated to this it's wireless tele telecommunications and then we have the vehicle location services as part of the telematic system
again the the benefits the strategic operational visibility. Think about this. So when we we we know Allan and his team, especially Allan, loves to respond to emergencies. Now, now he can >> disagrees with you from the back. No,
Alan has to respond. >> Thanks you for taking all of our uh all the money's all the budget money, too. Uh so appreciate that. the uh but now he can look at a map and we can we can be proactive and look at where we have
assets stage for deployment. We can know where during a storm where assets are. Before it would be, hey, where's that spreadsheet? I know Tim must love spreadsheets. Where's that spreadsheet that has everything listed? And then we remember that it was moved. Oh, I forgot to to do that. So, this is real time
knowing where our assets are from that standpoint. Proactive maintenance and asset reli again reliability. Again, real-time diagnostics. We're getting alerts when it's time for, you know, the preventive maintenance oil change, the the uh you know, whoever that vehicle is
assigned to, the primary person, they're getting an email. Their supervisor is getting an email. Um it's not a someone in an office now that has to send this information out. U we can automatically res uh schedule things out, reduce downtime, extend asset life. Uh now we
have the ability to really fuel usage. Um, and and it's key because fuel usage in the past has been when someone goes to the pump, they plug in the mileage at the pump. Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes it's not, sometimes we forget.
We we put in a number. Um, now we have real um we can determine real fuel usage, idle time. And this is something that, you know, we'll be working in the future on the idle time is that idle time is one, it burns fuel. Fuel is not cheap today. to it's hard on engines as
well. So it's going having an understanding where we have idle time and how that impacts the operation. Is it needed? Um are the things u operationally we can do differently? Um greater organizational efficiency and
accountability. Um again automated reporting real data on location in a sense hey I'm broken down I'm breaking up. Well, what road you I'm not on a road. I'm in the woods somewhere. Oh, we
can find you. We know where to go. Um when we do have storms, um the system also will capture the data that we need um if we're able to um you know for reimbursement in the future as well. Another great tool of this is that we
have this in this um system on our I say our major generators. And so now we can look at when generators are running, when they're not running. We also have the ability um to know the fuel levels of generators at certain locations. In the past, we sent someone around driving
around, check the fuel, check the fuel, check the fuel. Now, now again, we have information. We can do I need to send somebody there to check the fuel um instead of just driving around checking the fuel. All right. Fleet replacement strategy. Our current
replacement criteria has been agebased in mileage hours. Makes sense. As we go move forward for future replacement with our systems now with the data that we're going to have access to now, now we can look at reliability. And it doesn't mean that the oldest always is the one that
needs to roll off the books first. And we see this in today's time that there's certain certain years certain models where for some whatever reason a tweak was made in the transmission and the transmissions are just trash now and
those replacement of transmissions are very costly. So it's looking at the reliability and the life cycle cost life cycle cost of the vehicles that we have looking at safety issues. Looking at operational uptime looking at fuel efficiency of our vehicles and then also
comparing that to resale. Realize there is a there is a a point in time that from an operational standpoint cost and then the resale value that that is when you want to unload your vehicle. And it's not the same for every make
um and and every year and that's typically how we have all done it is it's a certain year certain amount of mileage it rolls off the books but we need to look at again when's the best resale and then how do we ensure we get that best resale value as well. So
things that we have to work out. I mean we we still utilize age based in mileage um and hours but there's a whole list of other data points that will be incorporated into that replacement program as well.
And then that's all I have. >> I have I've never seen anybody as excited about fleet. >> Possibly Mr. Zimbau down here. We all know that. but uh particularly technology with regards to fleet. So that was a a fantastic presentation. We
appreciate that questions. I'm sure there are some >> I just >> Yep. >> I'm thrilled. >> Yep. Maybe I know Commissioner Delari is aware of it, but I've been here seven years and probably 12 years ago and it
was Commissioner Delari and >> we've been talking about this for >> Commissioner um um >> it was Carrie. >> Yeah, Carrie, Commissioner Kerry reached out to me as a private businessman, asked me to come review the entire fleet
service program, which I spent nine months going through document after document after document to determine we had a problem or the county had a problem. Um so this is great news that
this is finally taking place. Um, and under your leadership, it obviously is is moving along quite well. And I think the commission has facilitated the assets that were necessary that weren't
being provided years ago. Um, which was being conservative to your own demise, if you will. Uh, keeping vehicles 15 years, 12 years, way beyond their useful life expectancy. and in many cases
three and four and $5,000 a year being spent on the same vehicle year after year um made no no financial sense whatsoever. The telmatics um one portion that that you omitted and
hopefully we're using it which is the benefit to the safety of our employees as well as the general motoring public. With the telematics, we have the ability to understand if somebody's driving habits are hazardous in nature. Um, and
get those alerts centralized coming into your office saying, "Hey, car 2578 has slammed on the brakes three times in the last 15 minutes." That's when you pick up the phone or call and go, "What's happening?" Um, so, so that's a benefit
as well. But the overall management of the fleet now is far superior to it ever was. Likewise, getting the in-house service and repair capability through Ford, which the majority of our vehicles were
Ford vehicles, is another benefit, as you've well outlined, but the technology that Ford will allow us to accommodate for the technicians servicing it with equipment and all the assets and training that that come to bear on that
are great. But it's also shifting from fleet to these buildings that this countyy's owned. To your point, the electrical cost even in this building to the point what it is.
And the commission through the years was conservative to its own demise in staying in buildings that are costing more to maintain and operate than a completely replaced unit and doing something different. Um, so I applaud
your staff for doing that and and the commission with a commitment to move the county forward uh to supply efficient and modern technologies not only in the fleet but in the building side as well. Good. So, thank you very much. Great work.
>> Very much appreciated. We also appreciate that you came here alone. So, good job. Very brave on your part. >> Well, his team is out there. I see them. I tell you, we have smart enough to sit. They're sitting in the back row. >> The in the back. >> Yeah. Nice job, gentlemen.
>> We have a a fantastic team and that and that's that's the key is um we've been able to to move individuals where they can excel and and really do what they do best. And then also we've attracted very um great talent um from that
perspective. And as the chief said, everything that we do is in partnership. So my my honestly the things that we're able to achieve uh with my fellow directors is it's definitely um a team effort countywide. So that's how it all works. So greatly appreciate >> for Allen
for Allen. >> Thank you for the clarification. >> Commissioner Constantine. >> Thank you very much. Um, this has been said by others and so I didn't want to repeat it, but I'll give a blanket statement now during Chad's presentation
because he's new. Um, basically basically um that that you're you know, this is really I'm I'm so impressed with all the staff and how well you're putting this together. Tim, this has got a lot to do
with you, too. Um, and I'm I'm not gonna be I'm not gonna forget our county manager. He's shaking his head like I was gonna forget him, but you put together a team. You put together >> Okay, I'm not going to give you a compliment.
>> Oh, please do. I'll hear it later. >> You put together a team that has really come together and working very hard. Chad particularly. Um I want to tell you that since you've come, I haven't frozen up here as much. Um I haven't seen Amy
come out with her blanket as much. >> Um and uh you know, and I we could have told you that this room itself uses too much electricity all the time. Nobody's running to that to to fix it. But um thank you very much. This is you. We've
all over the years have said, you know, let's get we got to get control of this uh the fleet and the facilities and and it seems that we're finally making real progress to do that and thank you very much. And again, Darren, it is because of the team you put together. Congratulations,
>> Commissioner Lockhart. >> Well, and in response to the team that you've put together, I haven't heard one of us question what size tires we're buying. >> Yes. >> So, there's that. depends on the application. >> I'm just saying. >> Well,
>> if you know, you know. >> I I think that >> micromanaging. Yeah. part of part of my rap, but I'll add on to what you're saying right now is that we are let's give a little bit of kudos to the five of us because we've moved from
micromanaging and really managing around the CEO of the organization to being of governance which is the role of this body in in our charter and that has facilitated a change partially because
of the way Darren is managing and partially because of the way we responded to it positively to allow experts to be experts and and have us meddle less less less it's not gone I see the faces
out there it's not gone I was purposefully not looking in the audience less >> um so thank you very much >> y thank you >> with that we will move on to environmental services Kim Arberg and I promise I didn't leave you off intentionally but there are multiple
versions of an agenda uh in my hands and you are not on one of them. >> Madam Chairman, if I could real real quick, um one thing that uh Mr. Wilsky did not go over and it was intentional for is our capital uh facilities program
that you know we have a lot of capital projects going on. Uh now I call it the year the next couple years will be the year of the capital uh projects. We are bringing that back to you the first meeting in August uh to do a an in-depth review of all of our capital projects so
you know what's actually funded in next year's budget but the next uh five years you'll actually uh see that list as well. Um and then just a little comment about the uh the meddling. I we actually appreciate that uh as well. I think it's
a check and balance on on myself as well as our directors. So, as you know, I welcome that. Um, and I believe that we have a great the board is is is great. You are allowing me to to manage this this county. Uh, and seek feedback and
um, I just want to tell you that I appreciate that as well because I know it's just not me. We have we have the right people in the right uh, places that good to great book, you know, the having the right people on the bus, but actually having in the right seat on the on the right bus. But I believe U5 along
with myself and our senior leadership team um we it took us a couple couple years but we got the people in the right spot. So I just want to say that appreciation to the board as well. >> But not not micromanaging. >> Mddling is okay. >> Mddling is well
>> whatever adjective you use. >> There's a difference between asking questions which is our role and reaching around and managing through the organization. And we are much better at that today than we were before. >> So we're to the point I'll pick up on the good to great reference. We're to the point where we actually are seeing
the flywheel has started. >> Right. Right. and and we're moving forward at at a pace that we've not moved forward before. >> Um, so it's pretty good. And and the other thing is when I look out, folks are happier because they're making
more progress in their own roles and that's kind of cool. Like that's that's what we want. >> It's a much more efficient machine today than it was >> two, three, four years ago. >> Thank you. >> All right, Miss Orinberg, take us away. >> All right. Um, for the record, I'm Kim
Orinberg. I'm the director of environmental services and I am going to talk to you about a little highlights about our budget. So uh to start with our uh department includes uh solid waste division uh managed by Joe England
which includes landfill operations, the transfer station operations and our solid waste compliance program. We also have the watershed management division managed by Shannon Wetzel which includes mosquito control, lake management and water quality. And last but not least,
we have water policy which is headed by Key Carlton and Carlson, sorry, Key uh holistic which includes holistic water policy plan and implementation, the water conservation program and all of our water related education and
outreach. The department's total proposed budget request is $21.5 million. 83% is funded from the solid waste fund which supports the county's landfill and transfer station. 13% from the general fund is for wershed management to monitor and improve water quality in the county.
Water and sewer fund support the water policy division which is managed by environmental services. The department proposes 104.2 two full-time positions in the budget and you can rece see the removal of the split funded position to water utilities. The department's total budget increase
is 0.9% from 21.3 million to 21.5 million. The base budget increase of 1.5% uh includes increases for personnel and operating. The capital budget of 6.7 million includes necessary fleet replacements and an expansion of the
central transfer station. Okay, so now I'm going to touch on some of our budget highlights, but I do want to make a note that all of the highlights I'm going to talk about are related to solid waste and therefore from the solid waste fund and not the general fund. So this first uh slide
shows our net annual recycling costs. And so this equals the cost of transportation and processing of recycled materials which currently costs us $170 a ton minus the revenue that we get from the recycled materials the
commodity value which can v vary from significantly from month to month and from year to year and we split this revenue with a vendor. So historically, recycling had generated a net positive revenue and um where the commodity
values were greater than the the cost of processing, which is why the tipping fee had originally been set to zero. Our current tipping fee for our regular uh solid waste is $4163 per ton. Um so the graph shows the net
cost over the last six years. Um, and you can see that with the exception of fiscal year 22, recycling has had a net annual cost to us due to the increase in cost of processing and the decrease overall of the revenue or the commodity
values. And over the last three years, you can see that our net costs have been around a million dollars. And if things continue on the way we are tracking this year, uh our projected cost will be actually about $1.7 million.
So if we were to set our recycling fee to the same as a regular solid waste fee, the $4163 a ton, we would generate about $840,850,000 a year and significantly reduce our overall costs. If we decide to do this
in the future, we'd still encourage recycling because the cost of disposal or recycling would be the same. So, the benefits, why is it important to continue to recycle? Well, first, it's required by the state of Florida. But
equally important, there are benefits to continuing our recycling program. Besides the environmental and sustainability, there are fiscal benefits. And this has to do with the lifespan of our landfill. Our current estimates are that our li our landfill
has about 37 years left of air space or lifespan. Um and we are very fortunate to have that amount of time and space because the cost of permitting and constructing land new landfills are very expensive. Based on some uh recent local
data that I found, uh it was costing our one of our neighbors about $1.5 million per acre to permit and construct a new landfill. And our current landfill is about $250 acres. So, if you do simple math, it's about $375 million on that
order to uh to permit and construct a new landfill. At this time, we are also fortunate to have uh the space set aside to construct a new landfill when the time comes on the same property. So, our
airspace and our property situation are not the norm, at least not across the state of Florida. We are fortunate in that. But with that in mind, if we were to stop recycling, we would with with the volumes that we manage, we would lose about four or five years of our
landfill lifespan with by adding these waist streams to the landfill. But if we continue to increase our waste diversion programs like we've been doing by adding textile recycling, our sneaker and shoes
recycling, we're looking at styrofoam recycling and looking at composting. in addition to our traditional curbside recycling, we could potentially extend the life of our landfill another 15 years. So, these are the things that we're working on and we're looking at
and we'll bring this back to you all to consider more in the future. So, next I want to talk about a couple of budget highlights. One being the expansion of the central transfer station, which is a project that's been long time coming.
and we uh we're we're connecting the current transfer station which is on the right hand side of the slide picture um to the adjacent former Toyota David Moss um property which the county purchased several years ago which will allow
trucks to exit via 1792 and will improve safety and traffic flow at the transfer station as well as enhance our capacity at the facility. And we're working together with Chad and his team at facilities on this and on
the renovation of one of the remaining buildings on the David Moss site which will create an environmental services compound and we will all the whole department will be there together. So it'll be great. Um and finally highlighting our solid waste capital
equipment which is typically our the biggest ongoing annual capital expense for the division and the department. Um, this year's request of $3.1 million is actually about two million less than last year. And we're replacing some
larger equipment like a compactor and a dump truck along with a couple of shuttle trucks that transport the the solid waste from the transfer station to the landfill as well as continuing our coste effective trailer refurbishment
program which we've been doing for the last few years. It's saving us about 50% of the cost of purchasing a new one. It's about 60 $65,000 that we're saving and this is working exceptionally well. So, we're very happy with that and we will continue to work with um Fleet on
that. And with that, that concludes my environmental services presentation. So, thank you. >> Thank you so much, uh, Commissioner Delari. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Kim, with your uh recycling program right now, the tipping fee zero, if you did increase
it, what's been the analysis or the uh litmus test in the community with our partners about uh who would we lose as customers and how would that affect it? >> We've been working, you know, we have interlocal agreements with all seven
cities as well as two outside cities, Winter Park and Mland. We've been talking to them about this for for several years now since I've been involved and and they're aware of the costs and and that we're looking to recoup those costs um long term. So I I
as far as I know we won't lose any. >> So you feel with your analysis if we did increase the tipping fees uh it would not have an effect on our customer base because it would have effect on the customer base on the user end because
their rates would have to go up. Um yes because I mean if we were Yes, there will >> get it all gets passed on. >> Yep. >> Correct. >> Okay. Do we know where they are in the market uh projections of the uh users on
those sides of the equation? So in other words, if it was a city now we charge them a tipping fee for recycling. How much would their rates be going up by? that I do not know what their what their residential rates are that we would just be charging a tipping fee at the at the you know at
>> it all gets passed on. So we just I'm just trying to understand how that's going to work or if that's going to happen. >> We have been working like I said with the cities on projecting what those costs would be when we started to implement a cost. So they're they're well aware. I I don't know what um
specific impacts it would have to their residents, but but they're well aware and I I know we've been sharing that information. >> Okay. When you said on the landfill that there was 34 years left, I believe you said >> 37. >> 37. I'm sorry. Uh is that the existing
cell that we're using or is that for the vacant land that we have out there? >> No, that's the existing permitted landfill that we have right now. >> Great. And in that landfill, I know we've been expanding the harvesting of our methane system there. Uh how's that
working out? And has that uh have we been getting more money because utility rates have been going up? Has that been adjusting as well? >> We are we've had to do a major this year uh you all approved for us to do a major expansion and renovation of some of our landfill gas uh collection systems. Um
we are with that we should see more long-term that we should increase our um the the collection and therefore the >> do we know what the projection cost would be for that increase? >> I do not but I can certainly get that and bring it back to you. >> That'd be great. Thank you, Madam Chair.
>> Commissioner Lockhart. >> Yeah. Um good question about the impact to the end user. I think one of the things that makes it probably difficult for you to to determine what it would be is that every city funds their residential differently. Some completely subsidize it or full, you know, mostly
subsidize it with commercial pickup. And so that that every city would have to decide on their own how they want to, you know, pass the cost on or absorb it. Some of some of them may decide to absorb it. That's one of the great things about, you know, that whole local
control thing is we do get to do it how works how it works best for for our organization um or for our city's county. I am so excited about composting, I cannot begin to tell you I when this concept was first um talked about a few
years ago just as a passing like hey we could do I was like yes let's do it. And so how I know it's weird. >> That's that's >> how how far out do you think that vision
really is for coming to fruition? >> Um I know that we've been with Joe at the helm um at Solid Waste and we have Adomir that's really passionate about this. He's been investigating that and I know that's within our five-year plan too. So
>> yeah, >> there are just so many opportunities not just to lengthen the life of the landfill, which is the would be the primary fiscally responsible thing that this board is concerned with, but from an from an ecological and environmental
standpoint to be able to turn people's waste back into >> garden gold for them to take and use in their home. I just think is is such a a progressive small P uh thing for our our
county to be at the helm and um leading the way on that I think would be phenomenal. >> This spoken by a commissioner who I rece I believe received a composter as a birthday gift. >> Yeah. At her request. >> I love my mill and I don't get paid. But
it's a fabulous little machine. You put all your kitchen scraps in it, including chicken bones, and it it cooks it overnight and it grinds everything down and you can use it to feed your chickens treats or um you know, in your garden. So, everybody get to my nerves and make
>> I don't see that in my future. >> In case there are any husbands listening, not a good idea in her household. I just don't think I can do it. Commissioners and >> doesn't that cause like mad cow would that be mad chicken disease if they ate bones of their own >> they were composted
>> chickens chickens are are pretty cannibalistic as it is >> bones would be the least worrisome thing that chickens eat let's just say that >> so shifting gears on the landfill um I think we actually have a pretty
huge opportunity at that landfill with the amount of acreage that we own Um, if if some of you weren't aware, I think it was two years ago, the state tried to pass legislation that would have caused
us to be unable to use that thousand plus acres um because some legislature was upset with what was going on in Dade County. And fortunately, our people intervened and said, "Wait a minute. our our county actually planned for this
landfill and just because there's a residential property within half a mile of it should not preclude us from be able to continue to use it into the future for its tenant purpose. But tire reclamation and recycling is a huge
issue. It's a huge issue not only in the central Florida region but throughout the entire country. Um, with the amount of property that we own, there is a opportunity for private public partnerships to bring an entity in to
not only handle our tire load, but also profit >> for our taxpayers. the ability to use that reclamation for the surrounding counties that otherwise are paying haulers to come in, pick them up, and
haul them to wherever. North Florida, South Georgia, there's a couple of grinder plants in South Carolina. We have the asset right here to do it. >> I would love for us to see look into it to see if we could get somebody here to
do that. Okay. >> So, Commissioner Zenower gets tire grinding composting. >> Well, and I would say we should would I think there's opportunities for public private partnerships with that land that go beyond just tires that are worthy of
exploring. I think discussions may be in place for >> and on the tire issue. Hopefully, since we now have millings going out to the hill, >> Mhm. >> we're not seeing the tire failures of new tires at the rate we were at one
point because we were literally put brand new tires on a truck and 3 days later they would fail. >> And those tires are not $100 tires, they're $600 tires a piece. So good move putting that stuff there and using the
resources that we already have which is mountains of fines >> right >> that can be taken to the landfill be used for that. So it's good good stuff. >> Yep. >> Working with public works and environmental services together. Yep. >> Yep. >> Commissioners, any further questions? >> Thank you. >> Hearing none. Thank you so much for Oh,
I'm sorry. >> Um and the holistic water policy is coming along fab. you didn't say it, so I just But I'm I'm so proud to see all of my environmental commissioners and I I really am. I mean, every and
every budget session, you Commissioner Lockheart brings up her chickens in some form or fashion and every budget session, you know, Jay brings up tires, you know, and I I bring up my worms in the fertilizer. So, I just had to do
that. >> All right. Hearing none. And before this goes down a rabbit hole, we're going to let you go. Thank you for all of the work that you do, your entire department, and all the progress that we've made. >> We appreciate all very much. We appreciate your support. >> All right. Information technology,
unless uh All right, look at us. >> Yeah. And madam chairman, as um I won't I have to think of another word. I can't call you madam anymore now that you have said that to me. So chairman, >> you know what? It reminds me of my mother every time it happens. So it's a pleasure to call me madam. I just as Kim
is uh exiting there with with Joe England as well. He's a great addition to our our our staff. We are working on a solid waste master plan that we're bringing back to the board to incorporate a lot of what the discussion was that you all had today. So look forward to that u and how we're going to
manage that in the future. >> All right. Terrific. With that, we're going to turn it over to Joe and team for uh information technology. And I'll just start this off by saying it has come through multiple presentations today that you are behind the scenes
often in front of the scenes making stuff happen for all of them. So tell us what's happening with your budget. >> Certainly Tim uh so yeah so within information technology uh a couple different areas that we we've uh got here our client
experience um these are our desktop support and uh trainers. Uh this is the group that provides uh you know the the desk side handhelding support um that you all experience. Our enterprise infrastructure administration team this is very much behind the scenes uh group
of individuals here running uh much of our our servers and applications behind the scenes. Uh enterprise software and development. Uh these were were um our dashboarding group PowerBI um comes out of this area our dynamic data analytics. Yes, exactly.
>> First one that said it today. Congrats. >> Do I get a gold star for that as well? >> Um, so that's with our enterp enterprise software and development team um from from that area. Uh, GIS is our geospatial um information systems. Uh,
does a lot of stuff obviously with um emergency management um and as well as the other departments here. Information security. Uh these are that wonderful fish alert bur button that you have in your outlook when you uh think something looks fishy so to speak. Uh it goes to
this team. They validate it, verify it and look at that. So this is our information security team. They're also heavily responsible for that annual uh training that you get as a result of the state mandate. So this group also helps to to uh manage that process for us.
uh network services. These uh this team manages obviously the network layer and the telephone system that not only that we use but also all the constitutional offices that we provide that level of service to. So, and then finally, our project management team. Uh, you know,
this group helps us to identify what it is that we're working on, tracking it, finding out any risk or issues that may be uh coming about um as we're doing the projects, not only for ourselves, but for the for the county departments and everyone.
So, when I first got here, um I was asked to kind of do a a review of the department. Um and one of the things that that I changed was our structure. Uh initially it was just the client experience and enterprise software and development teams that were reporting
directly to the CIO. I wanted to bring information security and project management up to the top so that myself and whomever's in this chair going forward has direct line of sight into the information security um of the organization as well as the project
management. And the project management is critical in the sense that again it's a matter of identifying are we working on the right projects? Is this the right time? Do we have them resourced appropriately? So um those were two of the changes that were made from a structural standpoint.
>> The information technology department's proposed budget is 17.7 million centralized through the general fund. They provide a countywide service and approximately half of their budgets are charged back to departments and 11 other county funds. The department has 64 full-time positions with no requested
changes. The proposed budget increase is 16.9% from 15.2 million to 17.7 million. The operating budget increase of 938,000 includes 400,000 for licenses for the new building department enterprise
software. The capital budget includes 1.2 million for the replacement of computer hardware that supports the county's 911 CAD dispatch system. Exclusive of these two new budgets, the department's overall increase is approximately 6%. >> All right. Thank you, Tim. So, you know,
within the uh 27 budget, these are some highlights that we'll be uh discussing and reviewing. The Asella completion and associated dashboards. Obviously, that project, as Tim mentioned, um is going to be coming to fruition at the end of this fiscal year, but we've got much to
do uh and continuing development uh with relation to that project. and more importantly dashboards right the uh what data is it producing what decisions can we make and what uh how are we hitting our KPIs and so forth associated with that uh we've got several cyber security enhancements uh for the upcoming fiscal
year as well as our network refresh and redesign project uh we've made great strides in this this current fiscal year um but next year we've got continued development in that area and then finally you've heard throughout numerous presentations about artificial intelligence um it is going to be
something key that we'll be looking into um and continue to develop in in the coming fiscal year. So I wanted to touch on just a couple of siminal moments that that uh we've been able to one we've been able to achieve and one that we see great opportunities in. The first one is in uh process automation. We identified this last year
as an opportunity and looking at where are processes that require a significant amount of human intervention and how do we learn to be able to automate that and be able to take that workload off and and um become more efficient in that area. So, one of the examples that uh
that my team came up with that we did, it's a little bit of a eat your own ice cream approach. Um, and that was within our GIS maintenance um plan. This was a process that um took our senior GIS developer traditionally Friday. This was
our Friday work routine. Um working to gather the data from various data points, assimilate it, ensure that it is accurate um and then upload it into the pro various systems. Uh what they were able to do is take this manual process and automate it and essentially gave
themselves back six to eight hours of actual work time back into their daily um uh process. So what we've been able to do now is um take that manual process that literally took an entire business day, automate it and now we've got a
resource that has got an additional basically 20% capacity to put toward other higher value added task. And finally the next one is AI and the call centers. This is an area where um we've got um we see great opportunity in order to be able to leverage AI uh for folks
that are calling in to be able to leverage that aspect to answer commonly uh asked questions or frequently asked questions that hopefully just much like you do at your bank or any other aspects where you can get um data or information um about the county and some of the operations.
Some of the great things here is the ability to uh expand our our um hours of operation because obviously AI doesn't need to take a lunch break. Um it doesn't need to go home, take care of the dogs or anything along those lines. So we've got the potential to expand the hours that our phone systems are
available. And more importantly, it has the ability to meet scale or to scale when demand increases. Uh you know, while we can bring in additional resources, it can take time to scale them up where in AI we have a much greater opportunity to scale.
So the next thing I wanted to to uh identify and as Tim mentioned some of the notable areas of operational increase this year. Um approximately 50% of that is tied to our Asella platform. Um it is what it is so to speak. Um but we are looking that will come online
this fiscal year. So that is a an anticipated cost associated with that. We are at the end of our three-year Microsoft uh agreement. So, um, we've been able to keep that cost, uh, flat for the last three years. Unfortunately,
um, as with any renewal, um, there are cost increases associated with that. And then finally, you've heard Scott, our, uh, our investment adviser, speak basically monthly about AI and its interaction on the workforce and the
economy. This is where we're seeing it in our operations. Um, directly, the cost of computers, laptops, and desktops. We've seen about a 25% increase simply because there's a lack of supplies. Um data centers are consuming a lot of that hardware. We
hear a lot about data centers. Um and we're also seeing that in our networking uh side of the house as well, especially on the networking side. Um when we would get quotes for projects, typically they'd be good for 30 to 60 days or
longer. Um our vendor has let us know that quotes are now good for 14 calendar days. basically about 10 business days. So that's from the time we receive it to the time that we give them a PO that says we are buying this that time that timeline has shrunk dramatically. Um
Laura here has done a phenomenal job um keeping up with the that process um and those purchase orders to ensure that we get those taken care of and that we're not caught by surprise um when the a price increase occurs during that short time frame.
Uh the next thing I wanted to touch on were some notal security enhancements. We talked about that as as some areas. Uh couple of things that we're looking at uh here is an enterprise password management tool. Uh this tool basically is a standardized platform that all of our teams can use. Um it certainly helps
with disaster recovery and business continuity in the sense that we've got a single platform, a single tool that we can all reference and utilize. uh the malware analysis. We talked a little bit about that fishing icon in Outlook. So this um area here, if
there's attachments associated with those emails, it gives us a secure container to be able to open that up, take a look at and find out, okay, is there anything malicious in this um to ensure that obviously we're not uh being compromised in any form. The uh extended
threat analysis um this gets us uh insight into the dark web. What's happening in the dark web? Is there anything associated with say county credentials that maybe might be uh being leaked in indicators of a potential compromise? So this gives us some insight into what's happening in that space.
The multifactor authentication this is going to be a little bit of is is going to be a similar moment for us um in the sense that uh you all have Duo as our two-factor authentication um as part of our Microsoft agreement. We have Microsoft has their own application
called authenticator. It's part of our agreement. there's no additional line item associated with it. If I didn't want to use it or did want to pay for it, I still got to. So, we're going to make the transition um and adopt that and we're going to drop Duo. Um so, that's one of the things that we'll be
doing in this coming fiscal year. And then finally, the Microsoft tenant security policy. So, this is a value ad um aspect in my sense in my mind. Uh we do have as part of our Microsoft agreement obviously we've got Exchange in the cloud we've got these other areas
in the cloud offices in the cloud but we've also got our identity management stack there as well associated with that there are numerous um security uh enhancements and capabilities that Microsoft offers that um we're going to take advantage of and we have been um
one of those was one of the ones with relation to geoloccation and the ability to access our systems from within a defined area. So, we've put some geo fencing in. I think maybe one or two of you have actually experienced that. Um, so some of these are are what we would consider security best practices that
we're we're going to go forth and implement. And there are numerous other u um feature sets that are in this in our in our tenant. Again, there's no additional cost associated with leveraging those. And then finally, wanted to highlight just a couple of the countywide
technology um projects that we've got. Um you mentioned or or Tim mentioned about the fire department here. We've got the hardware that runs their computer aided dispatch is really is significantly outdated. It was initially scheduled to be replaced in 2024. We've
pushed it out a couple of times. Um but unfortunately we've reached the the point where um the vendors no longer supporting some of the underlying infrastructure. Uh we do have a third party um that we've contracted with to provide hardware support. Um,
but no pun intended, we're kind of playing with fire here on this one if we push it out any longer. Um, and then finally, the enduser computer technology replacement and our network equipment refresh programs. Those are continued to go on, continuing to move forward. Um, the insourcing, I
understand that there a couple years ago, several years ago, there was outsourcing on a lot of that. So, we're continuing on our path with relation to the insourcing of the devices and our network equipment u uh plan as well. And then finally, earlier this year, I believe we approved the e- warrants. Um
I heard you the judge mention uh earlier about that. That pro that project is moving along smoothly. Um the sheriff's office uh and and the clerk's office were working diligently with the uh vendor um to get this uh stood up. The latest update that I received was that
they were working closely with the clerk's office to integrate with their systems so that the data is flowing uh seamlessly throughout everything. So um that project is long is moving along very well and with that that concludes my presentation.
>> Commissioners any questions? >> One question. Thank you madam chair. Joe you talked about end users computer with AI it's going to 25% increase due to demand for memory and storage as well as the network could potentially 10%
increase. What's the cost associated with those two percentages? So, from a laptop perspective, uh we ran the numbers on this and it's basically about $250 per device. Um on the on the
networking side, that's a little trickier depending on what type of device we're buying. Um so, I could come back to you with specific numbers associated with that, but on the laptops and desktops, I know we're about right around $250. >> Great. And also with your cyber security
uh how is that going to be integrated with AI for sensitive information because once you start using it anything using AI for now has the potential to be out there >> and so I'm hoping that whatever we're doing with cyber security is looking at
that. >> Correct. And that's >> because that's one of the biggest issues that are out there in the public that people don't realize. >> Correct. and and uh you know we've had an AI policy you know come up a couple different times. We haven't quite been able to get across finish line. I know that's going to be coming back. Obviously some of that is policy is to
okay let's best practices. We don't want to put sensitive information into those tools. Um but also associated with that um in our Microsoft tenant we've got some of those security enhancements around data loss prevention and DLP specifically. So we do have future
engagements with Microsoft to look at what DLP um capabilities that we have at our disposal and looking at configuring those and bringing those to >> because that's one of the biggest issues large companies are looking at sensitivity with cyber security out there for AI and just curious how that's
going to work out. >> Thank you. >> Yes, Commissioner Zimbo. >> The only comment I I have to make is on the AI comment earlier about AI doesn't rest, doesn't need a break. I think as it continues to learn, if it's learning
from the wrong angle, it's going to take a break. >> Oh, yeah. Very true. >> So, I I actually do have a a few questions. One is, is the annual training, cyber security training required for all employees? >> Yes, it is. That is a Florida state
statute. >> Includes us. >> That is correct. >> And all of the constitutionals. >> That is correct. Um, when we do AI in a call center, is there going to be a very easy upfront escape hatch for those of us that don't want to deal with it?
I'm not saying I'm one of them. We I I use it regularly, but but we have a large constituency that isn't going to want to deal with it. >> Correct. Yeah. >> Representative. >> I'm sorry. >> Representative. >> Customer service, please. >> Yes, absolutely. I mean there there will
be a a fail safe if you will that or an opportunity to get out of that loop if you will. So yes >> early on in the process before they hang up and call our offices. >> Just not that we don't want the calls but you don't want the calls coming through us. >> Agreed. Understood.
>> Um 14day bids with board approval. not necessarily problematic for anything that falls within the budget that's able to be purchased, but really problematic for anything that's coming through RFPs. Is that applicable in RFPs as well?
>> RFPs we generally get a little bit longer of a grace period because of the process that's associated with it. Um, I do know that uh my peer at a local uh higher educational institution ran into this process um where the vendor came
back two days before the board approval and said we've got to renegotiate. They were able to work through that um and hold to the current bid. So um I will say it's not out of the norm, but we generally get a little bit greater grace period associated with that. >> Okay. I I do we're seeing it on the
insurance side which is the for the first time in my entire career that this has been a problem but it's a serious problem. >> Um there was some joy at the notion of dropping Duo. We're we're not dropping dual authentication. We're just moving
from Duo. I just want to get this out there for to Microsoft authenticator which is going to feel the same. >> Yeah. It you're still doing it. >> You're still Yes. It's still necessary. >> Yeah. But it's much much more seamless. Yeah. >> Uh and that's it. So, thank you for
everything you've done. Uh dashboards u obviously are a big deal for me. So, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes through the Asella process. The PowerBI uh progress has been remarkable. Um the more we have dashboards to our public,
>> particularly now, uh the better off we are. I'll just leave it at that. Thank you so much for all the work you've done. >> All right. Thank you all. >> Thank you. Thinking about the dashboards, >> if if we if we don't push people to the
dashboards or push the dashboards out >> to the people, >> it's like, you know, bringing bringing a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. I can't tell you how many I mean, we have so much data out there for people, >> so much accessibility and transparency and um and yet we get hammered for not
being transparent and not having the data out there. So yes, the dashboard, but we got to make sure that people are looking at it somehow. >> Well, it's like anything else. For some people, it's just easier to pick up the phone and call our office and go, tell me about this. Well, you know, it's on
our website. Yeah, but I don't want to go there. >> Well, you know, it it's interesting. So, that's the institutionalization of any advancement. And one of the things we should be doing is responding to constituents with the link to the
dashboard and all of like but not I'm not sure we are all thinking of that >> right >> because that gives them the path that they see it's easy now you know where to go they can bookmark it the whole nine yards but but so that should be we should be thinking about that in all
departments all customer service all constituent interactions of how do we link them to the data that's available to them. Really good point. All right, we're gonna move seinal. That's right. >> And we have Tony here to discuss. So,
and and your entire team. >> Yeah, I brought all of our 159 employees. They're all in. >> Thank you um chairman commissioners for having uh us here today. Uh public works
um consists of um five sort of business units. Um the three main ones um are supported here today um in our engineering support. We've got the whiz kid uh Joe Leafaso who's the assistant county
>> engineer. I nicknamed him my young grasshopper and he got a lapel pin that has a grasshopper on it. So um also from roads and stormwater we have Marie Lackey. Um she's doing a fantastic job. And then to my right is Charlie Wetzel.
He's an art traffic engineering division ma manager. We also have our business office which is um sort of makes up of the uh director um as well as our capital projects delivery and I was up here at the end of um April giving you a
pretty detailed report on that. But for the last couple years and prior to me uh moving into this seat, we have been concentrating on right sizing this department. Um and as Tim Tim will mention, we have reduced our um FTE
count this year by five. And we've also consolidated our consultant um services, which you won't see in any numbers, but we've also um moved five um off uh the our consultant services and they're um
gone back to uh work on other projects. Um, so I just want you to know that was part of a big thing that our county manager wanted us to look at. So >> the public works department proposed budget request is 41.7 million. 7.5%
comes from the dedicated road adorum millillage. 19.9% comes from a general fund transfer and 30% comes from gas taxes. Those revenues combined for 58% of the department to pay for road maintenance, traffic control, and engineering. 42% of the funding is from
our penny tax which is dedicated to infrastructure projects on the county's road, bridge, and drainage system. Department currently has 164 full-time positions and is reducing five positions through attrition in this budget. The total budget is decreasing 14.8% from
48.9 million to 41.7 million. The reduction in staffing results in a savings of $1 million in personnel cost in the capital program. The proposed budget includes 17.5 million in penny tax projects, including midway drainage improvements, road resurfacing, and mass
arm replacements. >> Perfect. So, as I mentioned, I was before you at the end of April, um, spending quite a bit of time of talking about all our capital delivery. And when I was found out I had the opportunity to
come before you today or volunte um, I thought, well, what are we doing? What are we delivering? How are we delivering it? And what dollars are we? And so we spent a little bit of time looking at not only the public works department, but the budgets that this
commission spend and this county spends on moving people, our regional transit services. So not only do we have the public works department of $47 million, but we also spend an additional almost $30 million on regional transit
services. Now, when you add that all up and you divide it by the number of people in this county, it's about 150 mil uh $150 per person. Now, you're I'm going to probably sound through the next um phases of my presentation like that
commercial, but wait, there's more. But wait, there's more. >> And so, I wanted to spend a little bit of time just sort of talking about just how we're moving people, who we're moving vehicles. So, the next couple slides will will show that. So, as I
indicated, we've got three transit services that this county is providing funding um sources for. There's Scout, there's Lynx, and there's Sunrail. But did you know that we are moving on an
average week uh daily average day 4,000 riders for those three transit services. We're moving another 2,000 on the weekends. That's 1.3 million people a year. Okay. And really keep in mind for
$150 per person. Okay. So for $30 million we're moving about 1.3 million. Now the real impact of course of any public works department is moving vehicles. Okay. Moving how and how many
vehicles are we moving? Because that's what public works does. It maintains those roads. It maintains that infrastructure. it maintains the traffic signal. So, we started looking at these numbers and and actually Charlie was on vacation. Lucky Charlie, but um his
folks helped me put this together. And on an average day, this county moves about 3 million vehicles on 154 roads. Okay, that that astounded me. I'm like, are you sure? Now, let's just talk about
that a little bit. Okay, those vehicles could include one, two, three, four people, right? So this is not people. These are vehicles, but and also on these roads there may be more than one traffic counter, but this is only 154
roads. We maintain over 2700 roads. So that does not even count all of those other roads that we're not providing vehicle counts on. And then when you add in some of the larger city and state, that number
increases to $7.5 million. 7.5 million vehicles a day. Then now let's add in I4 417 49 429 and that's over 8.8 million vehicles
that are moved around this county. And again, we're not talking about every vehicle, right? because we have 2,700 roads. The state has more roads. Um the cities have more roads. And really this public works department,
people don't care if you're on a state road, a you know, a city road or a county road. And the state roads and the county roads, they affect our drainage system and we affect their drainage system. So, we have to work with our regional partners to make sure that
these vehicles move around this county efficiently. So, and I, you know, it's pick on Allen day, but you know, in thinking about it and working on this, I didn't have any dogs and cats, but we have some cool
equipment and we do move people for his for for for all the departments here in in in the county. So, it's really important as you're talking about $150 per person, how many people and how many
vehicles this department is moving. Next. All right. So, as we indicated before, um the public works uh uh department budget is 41.7 million. Really, the primary um expenditure is
roads and storm water, traffic engineering, and then engineering. So for roads and storm water um this budget supports maintaining over 1,900 lane miles of roads and as I indicated
before this department or division um maintains 2729 roadways including all the storm water ponds. They are constantly um digging out ditches over 130,000 feet of ditches and canals and they don't
wait for a month before hurricane season. This is all throughout the year. They also repair nearly a thousand pot potholes and they maintain over 900 miles of sidewalks.
traffic engineering. Um, so Charlie um um actually maintains 419 traffic signals. Now 302 belong to the county but he maintains and we get additional dollars in from the cities from the
state to maintain because it's really important when you're thinking about moving traffic that all of these traffic signals are um synced with the state system with the city system and all of that. So, it's very very important that
we're looking at this as a regional transportation system, not just pieces and parts of of roads. Um, they also maintain over 32,000 signs. Um, they maintain over 450 miles of fiber optic
cable. Um, they every year they install and work with the school districts for the rapid uh rectangular rapid flash and beacons. And as I indicated in April, we're in a refurbishment or a rebuilding program where we are taking some old uh
signals and um rebuilding them. And so in the budget for next year, uh we're going to be uh begin design on nine and begins construction on four. Now this program, this rebuilding program is over a 12year um cycle. And then they really
do um the traffic engineering do so much in the movement of traffic. They maintain they have a wall of of of um cameras that they're constantly looking at the different signals to make
sure that there's not an accident or they're timed right. And so that's so important because you just can't keep adding lanes onto roadway. You have to be smart about it with CCTVs. Um all the uh signal timing. Um one of
our seinal moments was utilizing signal siren to make sure that our fire um department is able to get out on the roadways, move the signals are timed for them. Um so we didn't have to buy that.
We utilize DOT's system and that was over a $5 million savings to this county. Um we also I mentioned in April uh rolled out our one network to make sure that our citizens know if we have a lane closure um so that uh there could
be rerouting and that's uh pushed out to all the major um GPS uh Apple uh ways Google maps all of that. So that's just really important. The movement of traffic, the movement of vehicles, the
movement of people have all got to be coordinated. And then finally, our engineering department uh for the next year uh we are completing third generations projects. We have about $40 million left, but they've made substantial uh
progress in that within the budget of next year. We are continuing the Midway drainage uh 2C. Uh we've got money to resurface 20 miles uh of arterial collectors and of course we are constantly out there inspecting our
bridge and tunnels. Um one of the other things that this department does and it's so important is that we support all the regional transportation agencies. Um, you know, I was just, um, got an email when I was sitting here, uh,
listening to all of the presentations from DOT wanting to talk to me about the I4 Ultimate North. They want to tell me about the progress on that. Um, I know there was a Metropan Orlando board meeting this morning where they were approving the TIP and the prioritized
project list. Uh, Joe has done some analysis. Uh, he talked to me about it yesterday. we're are our our number of projects has increased um over the last uh cycle. So, we're constantly monitoring that and making sure that
this county gets uh their fair share of projects within the DOT work program within Metro Plan Orlando um which is so important um so we can stretch that local dollar more. So, with that um I
will take any questions. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Very well done, commissioners. Commissioner Lockhart, >> I'm going to blend a little bit of yesterday's conversation into today if you don't mind. I was afraid of that. >> Well, so um several of us attended uh
PBS this morning where uh Ric and Gee Kuna presented did a wonderful job by the way that um private business associates of Seol and um I someone caught me on the way out asking about scouts. They had passed a couple of vehicles on their way to the meeting and
they and so very good question. Can we compare how many people were moving on Semol County roads today with Scout with how many people lynx was moving prior? And I said, "Well, the short answer is
no." >> Right? >> And they looked at me very very perplexed. And so and I think you know from a from a private sector normal comparison are is what you how are you measuring seminal county that what you're doing now is better than what you
were doing before for the dollars that you're spending >> and so in a very you know in a parking lot conversation tried to explain which is really really difficult to do because it just doesn't make sense. Um, if there is a way that your team can
work on helping to succinctly communicate that that that Scout is providing, we're moving more people from more areas to more areas than would
have ever had access before. And until recently, while while we're still saving money, we were saving more money. >> Yes. um just some way that for when we're out there in the public and we are being asked these questions which are
really valid questions to have a a clear and easy way to communicate what is not clear and easy I think would be super helpful. Um that's number one. >> No pressure.
>> Yeah. No pressure. Yeah. Can Yeah. Pull a pull a rabbit out of your hat. I mean, >> yeah, based on I think Commissioner Lockhart's point is it's hard to complete an equation >> if you don't have a numerator or a
denominator. >> It's clear and that's basically what we've dealt with on >> the link side, >> right, >> since you and I arrived here >> 2018. >> It's been a long time more than that. And then a member of the media yesterday asked another very great question and it
was the the trying to wrap their heads around the impact of Lynx's uh the funding formula model change what Seino County would have been paying what we're paying now why we're paying more now
just sort of to be able to tell that story because of course we all we were saying the number was I think it was nine was it $9 million a year we were saving. I think >> originally Yeah. >> Yeah. >> N million was the savings. >> And so the question that the reporter had for me was are you how much are you saving now?
>> And I'm doing quick math in my head and I was like, you know, I got a guy that I'm going to put you in touch with because I don't even know that we are are completely clear on what all that means. So those two things for me, but I
think for all of us would be super helpful to have as we um talk with members of the community. >> And I think if I could follow up on that, it goes directly to the conversation we had yesterday with the links representatives that were here on
the moving of the goalpost since we started it until they decided that punitive or whatever you want to call it. um they decide they're going to charge us more money for less service, right?
>> Um and and and I think it was pretty clear we feel it's disingenuous. Um so finding that answer I think is going to be tough, >> right? except what we already know to a certain extent that this is what it was
goalpost got moved now it's this that was unfortunate >> and commissioners if I don't interrupt great question we'll include that um at the end of our second meeting in July we have scheduled uh Mr. Swinson will come be coming up here to do a full uh scout
uh briefing with with the board about our experience what it has been really you know we started in October but then we went full in in January of this year we will include especially from the conversations yesterday with paratransit and all that we'll include um all that
information um and then finishing up that equation too we'll make sure that is addressed to so we'll be reporting back to you next month on that >> wonderful thank you madam >> chair Yes. to that point. What I can say is, and I probably the
same experience of of all the commissioners, in all the years prior to Scout, I think I fielded maybe half a dozen calls from riders of
lengths that had some kind of complaint of of either they couldn't get the bus or wanted the bus route over here or whatever. Since the inception of Scout, everywhere I go in the community, everybody's like, "That scout's a great thing. It's wonderful. It's fantastic.
You all should have done this a long time ago." In in interacting with other elected officials, they realize and have said, "Wow, we really see that's working great for you all." So, from that perception, I can tell you for
the most part, our public is happy about scout. Uh, Commissioner Constantine. >> Yeah, let's let's going to try to end this. Um, but we we we know we're doing a thousand people a day. There's no way
Lynx is doing a thousand people or we're doing a thousand people a day. And the only indicator that I'm getting other than people saying it's a great idea is that it's taking too long. And that's an indication of success. you know that our
good friend in the green outfit up there is hopefully says he's working on. >> Yeah, >> we do have an upcoming plan that we're going to be that uh Christian will be speaking briefing each of you on about to help those those weight times. Uh he's been working with freebie a lot
about um condensing those weight times especially in the peak times that we've noticed. Um we do say that's a good problem in a way as well moving those folks. So, we do have a possible solution and that's what I love about this board when you gave us that task of okay, let's provide an alternate type of
transportation, public transportation to move folks around the county. We knew and I think one of you said that many times >> be speed bumps. >> It it's there's going to be challenges and there's going to be but that's good good for us because that's the way it will help our system, you know, um really react better to our business
owners and our residents of our community. So, um, so he's excited about doing that. And I told him I needed sunglasses to look at him this morning and that's in that suit. It was a little too early for for it, but where did you buy a suit like that? >> He said there's more available.
>> I'm sure. >> But anyway, that's coming. >> Mr. Delari, >> he's so into it that his team's meetings is inside of a scout van. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Delari. >> Thank you, chairman. Uh, Tony, I like your approach that you talked about. $150 per capita. I like that. But
to be fully transparent, how does that relate to the surrounding counties? That's really the question because people are going to be looking at us and like, okay, great, $150 per capita, but what does that mean? >> You know, the other counties, are they
higher, are they lower? I would think that they're higher, but that's just a guesstimate on my part. And so we really need to be looking at how are we comparing to other areas so that we can show people that you know we are trying to cut the budget we are trying to be more efficient we are trying to find new
ways of doing things i.e. scout. >> You know, there's a lot of different ways of looking at this, but until you show the public, >> that's how we get judged. You know, what are we comparing it to, >> right? >> Good point. >> And and I and I like what you talked
about, you know, by, you know, comparison to, you know, we're doing a good we are doing a great job. That's not the issue. The issue is we got to compare it to something, >> right? >> It has to be an apples to apples comparison and that's going to be different with some of the surrounding counties. >> Well, yeah, for sure. I was just
thinking about like what there was some comparisons of some counties thrown on a piece of paper that was handed to us yesterday and I was like manatees. When do we get compared to manity? >> Why are we picking that one? >> Right. >> We know why he was picking that one. >> I know. Why' you pick Pennsylvania then?
So, I think it's really important that we make sure that as we do comparisons that that we the apples to apples and and be and counties that have access to Sun Rail and um you know, it it it'll be interesting to see what what that looks
like. Um >> well, and that maybe don't have Disney and Universal and they're not moving a bazillion tourists through the corridor. That's that that's an impact and funded through other funding sources. So, >> but then there's that whole idea if someone else is jumping off a cliff, do
we want to be the ones going with them? >> Right. Right. >> Saying, >> yeah. So, I'm I'm going to wrap this up. I on slide 241, page 241, that slide in case it ever gets used external to the presentation without all the verbiage
that you added to it needs to include the footer of what was not included in that or that will become you're only doing this >> and so I' I'd like to prevent that.
>> Good point. Um, I'd also like to go back to the scout conversation and remind everyone that the comparisons on the wait time are being we are being compared against >> a private sector solution called Uber
andyft. And from the very beginning, we said we were not Uber andyft. That's right. >> This is not a replacement to those two or any others that pop out of the private sector. This is the comparison should be to how long it took you to walk from your home or ride your bike
from your home or your electric scooter from your home or all the other new ways that you do this >> to the bus stop to stand there to wait at the bus stop in the weather to get to the next transfer to get to the next. It should be end to end. And that is not the comparison that's being made in
small sectors of the population. It's also not necessarily the comparison that's being made by the media. And so I I just want to say that we are never going to fund this program, I would like to think, to compete with Uber and Lyft.
>> We said originally we were not going to do that. >> Said we were not. and >> and but we are moving more people through our county, getting them out of their homes and into commercial businesses, doctor's offices, potentially jobs that they couldn't take
before because they were not willing to ride the bus. >> And so we've changed the dynamic in the community. We're comparing apples and oranges. Um, I think all is good, but every time we talk about reducing that weight time, I implore us to talk about
wait time from buses to this. >> Correct. Right. >> Good, good point. >> And and you're absolutely right. And full disclosure, we talked about that before we ever went into the scout model, which was we are going to have a lot more people riding this model than than they ever
rode the link system. And that's what we have. We we expected that >> right we expected that it is a good thing just the measurement even in our own conversation needs to be clear. >> Yeah there is a a different level of personal
responsibility with this system that was not necessarily there with a lynx bus on a fixed route. Um, you have to you have to kind of plan ahead a little bit in a different kind of backward on the clock thinking. If I need to be at a doctor's
office by two, then that means I need to plan ahead to call for the ride and maybe I have to sit and wait at the doctor's office because I got there a little bit early. Um, but the ride came and picked me up right at my home and it took me right to the doctor's office. And so depending on, you know, the
member of the community, that that is a true paradigm shift in planning their day. And and that's going to continue to take a little bit more handholding, I think, for some folks than others. But, um, I'm I'm looking forward to our our update because I'm I think some of I've
gotten a little a little hint, a little preview of some of the things that we're talking about doing a freebie, and I think they'll be exceptionally wellreceived. >> All right, with that, thank you. We're going to move on. It is 12:30. We are getting close to wrapping it up. Come on down, Mr. Slot. Talk to us about seinal
moments. >> God, that outfit's horrible. God, that outfit's horrible. >> Good afternoon, Madam Chair, commissioners. And it looks like I have the unenviable between you and lunch position. >> No, there's there's more after you.
>> There's more. >> You don't have to take perfect. All right. Tim's for between us and >> thank you very much for this time today. >> Ready? We're ready. Good. >> Thank you very much for time uh today. >> Pull that mic up a little bit, please.
Sure. >> John Slaugh, the director of uh organizational performance and strategy for the county. Uh thank you all um commissioners for this uh time to give an update on the seminal moments uh program. So, as an efficiency program
that was uh kicked off last year by our county manager, um Darren asked us to as a group all over the employees start to think uh more holistically about efficiency and operational improvements we could do that have a true financial
impact on the county. Um so came together and put an inaugural list together. Um that inaugural list was about $39 million worth of projects. Um, and uh, I'm here to show you a couple of updates to that that even extends it even larger. Uh, and also we've achieved
some of those uh, some of those things in actual real findings. And you've heard a few of those examples um, this morning from the directors that have presented so far. So, as we look at moving this program forward, um, we think of it as as a portfolio of
projects. Things will come on, things will go off. Um, like I said, we had about $39 million worth of projects before. We now have about 60 million, and that's a stabilized five-year estimate of savings. Um, these
initiatives, we actually completed four initiatives so far for $6.5 million worth of realized savings over the 5-year window. Um, in addition, this is one of those activities that takes a village. So, uh, as with everyone else, everyone behind, including the 1500
employees of the county, uh, and yourselves as well as our public, uh, helping to actually make these things happen. This is not a oneperson team. Uh, final part is that uh, we're starting to stabilize that ongoing
rotating potential savings. Um, so looking to try to move the needle even higher uh, with a estimate of 15.8 8 million by 2030 if we continue forward with these types of uh investments as we will. Um finally, we have some top
initiatives we want to highlight. So some notables that and you've been talking about one of them, scout uh and and a couple others. Uh also, not all ideas are equal and not all ideas can actually be done. Um so we've gotten pretty good at saying no to things. So
we had 27 ideas that hit the basement floor. uh and uh they're not gone. We've set them aside. We've not lost them. Um but they don't merit uh effort at this time. So u I think one of those management uh built to last. It's not
what you say yes to, it's what you say no to. Um that's the intent here. So as we looked at the portfolio, uh the first project was kicked off in 2025. You've heard a lot of the realization of those projects. Um so fiscal 26 and then fiscal 27. the overall program um we
first came out we thought was 39 million. When the team started to vet and understand the costs in those projects uh that actually went up to $42.6 million. So sometimes they'll go up, sometimes they'll go down. It's a it's a fluctuating amount. Uh you'll
also see that in uh the 2026 program we added another $17.8 million of potential savings over that 5year window. And we think that's a good way to think about all of these projects, not just as a one-time, but as what is the ongoing
five-year stabilized potential savings. Um, so we can have a little bit of that window. Um, and then this year, you can see that uh we've had an impact of $5.8 million. So, um, as I pointed out, um, prior,
what we really want to see in this in this program is continued and sustained savings. And that's bringing in new ideas, realizing it, and making sure that those ideas become actuality. So, on that $60.3 million of potential savings, you can see the 2026 has a
little bubble, and then we stabilize and continue to grow. We want to continue to see that and we want to realize that benefit not not paper gains but real gains. So as we look at the overall savings distribution
um we you all have talked at length on this one yesterday and today the public transit side and we'll go into those numbers here in a second. Um, also uh between uh Joe and all the teams, so uh Kim's team, Johnny's team, what Chad and
the team are doing, all of these team leaders um in technology and innovation, what are we doing differently that can be better? Uh then of course, uh what Chief Kinley brought up and and Allen um now that uh now that he's been lamb
based all morning long, we'll just leave it right there and just say he's done some really neat ideas as well. and then of course public works and then the environmental services team as we go to the next. So what we're encouraged to see here is that that you know paro
principle exists here top five notable projects are really driving a significant amount 50% of the overall potential savings. Um in that you can see those projects that uh that we've been talking about a little bit. the uh scout program over the five years, $14.9
million even with all of the maturations that we've seen. Um it's still looking like it it's going to realize that type of savings. Um one of the uh projects uh Tonyie mentioned was the um emergency response signal preeemption. I'd like to
pause here. This one uh this is under that takes a village. So this is FDOT created a software that allowed for signal preeemption using new technology actually old technology the the computer aed dispatch and and uh automated
vehicle location that's already in emergency vehicles it's CAD AVL technology so they did that what our team so Charlie um a gentleman by the name of Chad Dixon uh that runs the signal organization figured out how to take that technology and apply it to our
emergency vehicles and preempt signals. So by doing that, they saved the county and Chief Kimbley from having to buy the technology for signal preeemption. So real savings, $5 million worth of Opticon technology that did not have to
be bought. So one time significant savings. And then um finally the chief had some u light duty personnel. They drove every intersection to make sure this technology worked. So, so the team came together, they figured it out, and
they implemented that happened over uh the Christmas uh holiday. So, when when the chief judge was signing, our team was driving signals and making sure that things got done. So, um the uh next one is the um overtime management as well as
the recycling program as you heard this morning. And then finally, um the building and lighting improvements. Some of the things that you heard last year from uh Chad and uh Rick Durr. Um this is LED uh LED replacements at BoomAba. These are those types of savings that
are realized in true cost um to the county. Finally, um I think uh Commissioner Constine, you mentioned a little bit earlier and board, you had a conversation around P3s and where they make sense. Um this is where these could come to to play. So, some of the
activities we're looking at is of course this waste energy concept. Um, can we leverage the landfill? Can we look at the uh MSW all of the different waist streams? Um Joe and his team are looking at what those volumes are and let's convert them to energy instead of just
filling up the landfill. And there's um things like bioreactors, which are really cool. Basically, think of a very super hot uh kiln um that will not only take that uh material, but take that material and create um an a fuel and
therefore be sailable very similar to what this board approved around the uh methane capture from the landfill. So, just taking that to the next level. Um in there also is things like floating solar. How do we use our assets? Can we use that floating solar uh at the
landfill? we have a 20 acre pond, we can most likely put something in it. So on so more to come with those large ideas that are are potentially gamechanging in how we utilize the assets of the county. Um one highlight and uh we we heard some
of your uh uh comments regarding this is so what's the resident impact of AI? So there's um significant technologies around call centers um when done correctly and when done appropriately can be very successful. So if we think
about when we're dealing with um storm events when we have very high call volume, can we get really solid information to the public quickly in an appropriate manner? Um and this could change the way we actually interact and
help our our uh citizens. But um point taken from the board, we have to do it the right way. There has to be an option for representative. Um let's move on to the next. So each of the projects that we're talking about
does one of the four of these. It's either a force multiplier, something that is helping us improve. So Joe talked about how his team's able to do things differently that makes them more productive in their example. Um we have these things these AI agents that are
being built and act actively used within the software we buy as well as the things we may do ourselves. So how do we govern that? How do we make sure it's used appropriately? and how does it become um some an asset that can be utilized uh to
the benefit of the citizens and the county. Um we talked a lot about process automation. So are there things we can truly do differently and save money doing it? And then finally the leapfrog effect. Are there things that we can just do differently? So Scout is an
example of that, right? Um the board made the intention, can you do this differently? uh and county manager asked us all to jump in and here's here's how to do it differently. Um so we have that and then some of these public private partnerships that uh you all have uh
pointed out that we'll continue to analyze. So as we move forward it's a simple framework for process improvement and and continuous improvement. We identify it, we are prioritize it, um we deliver it and we monitor it. So um
without these four activities really you don't realize it. So therefore we have ideas but how do ideas become impact? How do ideas become reality? Um through a simple framework that we can identify here. And again we're going to fail early and often. There's going to be
things that are great the first time you hear it and then that's just going to sink like a stone and and we move on. No harm, no foul and just work on the projects that makes most sense. So next steps. Um so really what we have
here is um we've we've moved and matured seminal moments from an event to a program something that changes and makes real benefit to uh the citizens of Semino County. Um we're trying trying to advance not trying we are advancing high
uh impact projects uh so that they can actually realize value. We will look at the um call centers and uh AI initiatives and come back to this board with information regarding what we're learning in those pilots. Um and then of
course wouldn't be a presentation without a dashboard. We will make a dashboard and sync the moment we have a dashboard um on these seinal moments uh that we'd like to show here. As as you can see,
it's a active web-based dashboard that shows some of the slide information that you have seen in this presentation in an active and interactive uh way. Completed projects. You can see the different projects that we've done and analyzed
how the overall program looks year-over-year and which projects are being reviewed and potential savings. And then the notable projects what what have they done and how are they impacting savings as well as what are
the remaining projects uh and then an overview so by different area so the public transportation the uh technology and innovation fire so on and
then finally the project details so all the information has to foot if it doesn't foot doesn't make sense Um so these are each of the projects that the team um countywide is going through and figuring out and monitoring. So this um
dashboard will be updated quarterly um and will be available on our web page um within the county information >> will be >> or is >> we we have it we just
>> we haven't launched it yet but we were yeah >> we can turn it on imminently. That concludes my presentation. >> Okay, great. >> All right, commissioners. Any questions? >> Great job, Commissioner Zindella.
>> Just just one statement if we could on on the signal preeemption um working with the fire department. I would also note that you're also saving fuel. you're also saving wear and tear on the vehicle from being able to get through
these efficiently. Um, and I'm sure we should be able to quantify that to a certain extent. Um, but there's also a pollution aspect of that as well. The less time spent running and uh our vehicles uh the diesel vehicles are
putting hydrocarbons and nitrites of oxide into the atmosphere, the longer they run. So there should be a a byproduct there to emphasize the green benefits if you want to call them green but um environmental benefits as well.
Just a thought >> pretty significant and tangible uh that is the safety aspect of that. I I will tell you I was personally in a car accident as a result of the signal not changing a ambulance coming through. Car
behind me saw a green light and drove right into me. lifelong injury, $1,000 of damage to my car, which was nothing but lifelong damage to my neck. >> Yep. >> And had the light not been green, >> I wouldn't have been hit.
>> Um, so it it and that was right here in Semino County in 2016. >> So it's that's a huge impact. >> Anything else? >> Yes, chair, if I will. And and the reason I wanted uh before we get to Tim J to wrap up the rest of the I call
administrative uh type departments, I wanted this board to know that you know and you all know this that that saying what gets measured is what gets done. >> This our seminal moments program, our efficiency program, you know, as we launched it uh the last year, I will
tell you that we are on top of it daily. Um I have moved the administration of that into John's office to our strategy office because you you need someone to coordinate the program work with each of the directors. Uh directors are working great with with each other and their and
their teams because now it's drilling down just not to directors and managers. It's actually drilling down to the people who actually know how to get the savings. Um and we all know what we know and we know what we don't know. Um and I would so it this is an exciting program.
appreciate you know John uh leading that that team on that. We also have um our AI ambassador program that we just launched as well. So we have actual folks from across the organization in different levels coming to coming together to actually help us okay how do
we implement this type program when it comes to the board when you actually give us the direction to move forward on on our our new AI policy and how that's really going to affect our performance uh in the county for our residents and our business owners. So, I just want to let you know it doesn't go unnoticed that that you may not see it all the
time, but we are on top of that every day. Uh, looking at how we can deliver services at the at the the best the best way we can deliver service at the at the lowest cost. So, just want to add those two cents in. So, thank And I would only add that it's great to see that's a huge
cultural shift from historically >> um that our employees are are emboldened to speak freely, bring ideas forward. Uh I've always said >> we're not the experts. >> The directors are not always the
experts. It's the men and women in the trenches that are doing those jobs that see those little things that can now speak freely and and will speak speak freely about hey why don't we try this >> right >> this could be saving us 20 minutes every
time we do this right >> um so it's great to see that that I think this board has promoted that your leadership has uh allowed that and I applaud you for doing that because that that's what makes a difference in the organization from the bottom Thank you. Good stuff.
>> And the perfect selection for the role, Mr. Slot. You've done a wonderful job with this of starting it from scratch and turning it into something in very short order with reporting metrics associated with it. So, we appreciate you. >> Thank you. >> With that, thank you.
>> And we will move to Mr. J to bring us home. >> Thank you. Uh, so we have five remaining departments to cover the budgets for. The directors are here for questions. If there's any individual questions, we provided full detail of all departments in your budget document. Um, these
departments are being presented by me because we're maintaining services without material changes to the overall funding for the county. In fact, you'll see budget decreases in many of the departments. Starting with parks and recreation, the department is read by led by director Rick Durr, organized in
the five divisions shown here. The department manages six active parks, 26 passive parks, and 130 miles of trails. The proposed budget is 30.4 million with 81% of the funding from the general fund to support parks and library operations. 6.5% penny tax
funding is proposed for an LED sports lighting replacement project. 2% 2% of special revenues includes grants and donations. 1.5% of the funding is in support of tourism at our active parks. 0.6% 6% is transportation for maintenance uh of trails on the county's
road system. Finally, 7.8% is from the Wakiva Golf Enterprise Fund. This fund is balanced with no proposed transfer from the general fund. The department has 176.9 full-time equivalent staffing positions with a proposed reduction of a
part-time position to 176.6 FTEES. The proposed budget is decreasing by 10.9% from 34 million to 30.4 million. The base budget including personnel and operations is increasing 985,000 and FY27 to to 28.1 million. This
includes an increase in the Wakiva Golf Fund which is fully offset by park revenues. The department's general fund increase is 1.7% and the total uh project budgets are $2.4 million. This includes 2 million for an LED
lighting project at San Lando Park. Additionally, the FY27 proposed budget includes 4.2 million in funding for the seminal forever natural lands ordinance. This will bring reserves in that fund to $15.4 million. Moving to community services is led by
director Allison Thal and organized in the five division shown here. The total proposed budget is $30 million with 45% from state and federal grant agreements to support attainable housing, lowincome assistance, and opioid treatment.
In the general fund, 37% of the revenue support unfunded mandates for Medicaid, medical examiner, and the health department, and 17.6% is for general funded community assistance. The department has 55 full-time staffing positions with no
changes in the proposed budget. The total budget includes personnel and operating it is increasing by 4.2% to $22 million. The grant and aid line includes transfers for our unfunded mandate contributions. The constitutional transfer is a request of
opioid settlement funding from our sheriff and the project increase of $8 million is entirely related to the anticipated state and federal grant agreements. Proposed budget includes annual operating grants which were not included in the FY26 adopted budget but were
added via amendment in in the current fiscal year. Moving to development services. The department is led by director Mike Rhodess, organized in the three divisions shown here. The total proposed budget is 11.75
million with 52% of the funding coming from permit fees to support the county's building department in a dedicated special revenue fund. 45% of the funding is from the general fund to support growth management and planning activities and 1.8% is the fund balance of the county's restricted arbor
violation fund. The department has 96 full-time staffing positions with no changes in the proposed budget. The proposed budget increase is 5.8% from 11.1 million to 11.75. Base personnel and operations are
increasing 1.1% to 11.1 million. The total project budget of 63,000 includes $225,000 for the building department's fee and rate study to address requirements for House Bill 803. The proposed budget
includes $50,000 for body cameras for code enforcement officers and $250,000 for a countywide redevelopment study to review commercial corridors and identify revitalization opportunities. This slide shows a forecast of the
county's building fund. FY27 building permit revenues are projected at $5.6 million with expenditures projected at 6.8 million. This deficit leaves $2.6 million in reserves in the proposed budget, but the ongoing deficit will have to be addressed through fees and
cost control measures. The administr administrative services department is led by Director Lorie Bailey Brown, organized in the seven divisions shown here. Total proposed budget is 48.8 million with 71% from various MSBU programs.
MSBUs are self assessments by taxpayers who have voted to pay for CA the county to manage specific services including lake management, street lighting, and residential garbage pickup. 17% of the department is funded uh through the workers compensation and property
liability self- insurance funds. Finally, 12% of the department comes from the general fund for the purchasing division, print, mail, and business office. Department has 48 full-time staffing positions with no changes in the proposed budget. This chart shows the total department budget variances by
fund. The total budget is increasing 10.3% from 44.2 to 48.4 million. General funded activities are reducing 0.6%. Increases to the department budgets are fully related to self- insurance activities and the county's MSBUs.
Primary increase in the MSBU is 2.3 million for stabilization of the clubhouse at Deer Run Park. Additionally, this budget includes 387,000 that was transferred from the clerk's budget to the county's general fund for the annual lease of the record center. Finally, we have our administration
department, which includes the budgets for the board, county attorney, as well as the five offices led by the county manager, Darren Gray. The total proposed budget is 56.9 million with 70% under the human resources office to fund health
insurance activities. 5.6% of the funding is in support of tourism activities under the Office of Economic Development. The small transportation funding is related to staffing costs to manage the county's microtransit service which are under the oversight of the county manager and 24% of the funding
comes from our general fund. This department has 81 full-time staffing positions with no changes in the proposed budget. The proposed budget increase is 3.4% from 55 to 56.8 million with all the increases in the health insurance fund. Program budgets across all other funds
are reducing in fiscal 27. This is the county's health insurance fund forecast. There's a fairly significant increase in claims starting in fiscal 24. The FY27 proposed budget includes an assumption of 10% increase in premium revenue going
into the fund. Uh even with that increase, we're still forecasting deficits. The fiscal 27 reserve of $10.6 million represents three months of claims. That's not an issue in and of itself, but the deficit is projected to grow. County staff will be coming back to the board at a future meeting to
discuss this fund in more detail. This is our tourism fund forecast. FY27 revenues are projected at 7.3 million with growth assumptions moving forward. Expenditure budgets are 5.8 million with a $1.5 million structural balance. The
FY26 expenditures include $12 million for field replacements and conversions at the Boom Ba Sports Complex. The reduction in FY28 expenditures is related to the payoff of the inner fund loan for the sports complex lighting. The structural balance for this fund is
projected to grow to $1.9 million by fiscal 30. And finally, we have our fourth gen infrastructure penny tax forecast. We're currently collecting around $50 million per year with a sunset date of December 2035. The FY27 forecast matches the proposed budget.
Under the expenditures, you see the annual capital maintenance program managed by public works. Then we have other infrastructure projects which have been presented and discussed with the board. This is a list of the projects included in the in that expenditure forecast. On the left we have projects which are not
expected to have a net effect on county out of Lauren funds. The list on the right includes projects with either new staff or potential net increase in maintenance costs to the county. That concludes my presentation. And so, uh, chairman and commissioners, that's the end of all of our, uh, our
operating, uh, department's budget presentation. I apprec I appreciate you allowing us to condense it just just a little bit to be more efficient. The next step in our plan is to come back at the July 14th uh, meeting. In fact, um the senior leadership team, myself and all the directors, county manager's
office, the directors are meeting tomorrow to start the framework to outline with a a potential property tax reform to bring and also then to meet with each of you all to give us your direction or or comments or input so when we come to that July 14th meeting that we can set out the framework and
the plan on how we would the board would like us uh to move forward. Um and then from from that we have and as you know the trim notices for this budget will go out in August. We have two budget public hearings in September uh that are statutoily required and then this budget
will go to effect um October 1. And oh yes I did forget. Thanks Tim for bringing that slide up there. Um we will approve the uh millage rate um at the last meeting in July. Uh as well one thing to note as uh Mr. Jack mentioned
about the health insurance fund. We are bringing that to the July 14th meeting as well. Um Charles from Alliant and Christina Bernolini from our HR department have collected the information that this board had asked them to go look at and so we'll be reporting that back on July 14th as well
go to go over the health insurance fund for future direction from the board. >> Thank you. I would add to the just the health insurance fund is being discussed at every single municipality that I do business with and so this is not an US
thing. It's uh it's a market dynamic that's happening in Central Florida. >> Commissioners, any final thoughts? Commissioner Constantine, >> it's one perfect. Madam Chair, uh, with the inclusion of Gee and Rick that got to
speak at the PBA today, the only significant person here that hasn't spoken is the Joker over here. >> You know, the Riddler, >> he's coming to you. >> Did you just keep Is this your plan? Is this a plan? >> Actually, actually, he was with He did a
great presentation in Tampa yesterday. That's why he wasn't here with us yesterday on transit and scout. So with a lot of the DOT folks um and he he's great I don't want to burst his uh or take his thunder. So when he comes back to us next month he's going to show tell
us some significant impacts that we have made all over the state actually regarding our new program. Well, in saying that, I just want to say this board has done a great job today to, you know, I mean, like this has been a really good meeting and I I'm so impressed being at so many different
budget hearings, not even not just for us, but others over the years. This this has been one of the better ones. >> Mr. Zimbau, >> no. in that way. >> I I would just say as much as as it's difficult for all of us and and of
course our staff to not be concerned with what legislation is being proposed to go on the ballot in November. I would urge each and every one of us to just take a deep breath. Um this too shall pass. We we have to do our due diligence
and uh we have no need to upset this organization or our community. um just we'll get the facts out. That's not what this workshop was about. This is about this year's budget as we move forward. Um it's on our radar and our staff will
do the due diligence and bring it to this board for consideration so that we will be prepared hopefully when we get to if it ever makes it on the ballot. Number one, and number two, depending what the citizens decide. and and and at least for me, whatever the citizens
decide, my observation, this board will do whatever is necessary to honor the will of those voters um and make the adjustments appropriately and and it will be our job to inform those constituents what that looks like if if it decision is one way or the other. But
I would urge that our staff not get too rattled and and too concerned at this point. Um, you know, and I know there's a lot of chatter about what happens in the future and so forth. And again, just take a deep breath. We'll get through this and uh great work today and I I
look forward to our next, you know, budget hearing. So, thank you all very much. >> Commissioner Lockhart, >> you didn't have a hand up. So, I >> I'm just waiting for you to say talk. >> Commissioner Delari, please.
Commissioner Delari, please talk. talk. >> Thank you, chairman. Uh I know you spoke about us reviewing the fee structure and development services uh at a later date. I would like to get the projections of what that would be as the years project.
>> Yeah. >> Because we've always looked at that in great detail. >> Yes. >> And then I know that uh some of the stuff we've already approved with Boomba uh some things have been getting held up with St. John's with the permitting. If we can just get some more information on that as well. But I do want to uh
piggyback on what uh Commissioner Zimba was talking about. You know, it's easy to overreact. Please don't. Uh there's a lot of things that are happening out there. Uh we need to all take a deep breath to figure out exactly what's going on because it is changing as
Commissioner Zimbabw spoke about. We all spoke about it. It's going to keep on changing. So, we've been through this before and we do what the public wants and because that's who we ultimately work for and uh it's
important that they're educated. Our job is to educate the public and that's what we're going to be doing and uh the big thing right now is take a deep breath. It's going to be okay. Walker. >> Um, it would probably be best for the
sake of time for me to just say ditto, but I but I will say um after reading um one of the articles synopsizing our meeting from yesterday, they used the word alarm. >> Yeah, we didn't do that. >> We did not.
And and I think that's so to to reiterate, we we are being responsible. >> It is we are by state statute required to have a backup budget in a normal year anyway with a 10% reduction. That's
right. >> Um this is just >> it's our it's our job. It's our responsibility to make sure that the citizens of this county and the operations that we maintain for the citizens are are able to be are able to
continue. And and Commissioner Her, I think you said it very well yesterday when you said the sky is not falling and it's not business as usual. It's somewhere in the middle or the best thing since sliced bread. I forget exactly how you said it, but um but I I
think um it is really important, so I'm going to say it even though you all said it as well, that our citizens understand that when we talk about the facts and the numbers and what funds the services that we deliver to our citizens, it's not
sounding an alarm. It is communicating factual information about what it takes for you all to do the jobs that you do every single day serving the citizens of this community. And so if someone chooses to make it sound like we were alarmist that that has to be on them.
But that is not what our board is doing and that's certainly not the direction that we've given you and your team. We are we are being fiscally responsible and responding to the needs of our citizens and we'll figure out what needs to be done when the time comes. So um thank you for that and and thank you
again colleagues for >> well said. >> So I will uh I'll wrap it up by saying yes I agree that there were uh overall the article was nicely written and there were a few um insinuations that may not
have been accurate. um >> imagine that >> I will say that it is our responsibility as leaders of the organization to be as proactive as the people that are running the organization. And uh if you listened all day long
today, there was a whole new cultural shift in this organization to be proactive about thinking about the future, about planning, about executing, about measuring what we've executed and then doing the cycle all over again. And
Mr. Slaugh uh represented it. I'm actually going to steal that slide because I thought that was magical. Okay. um to include the seinal moments becoming a cultural shift that it's it's woven into every department into everything we're thinking about um and
the use of measurement tools. We're doing the same thing with regard to what could potentially happen with a legislative adjustment that's now potentially going to the voters that could make an adjustment for next year. If we weren't
thinking about what would be happening, we would simply not be doing our jobs and we would not be we would be derelict and and that's not who we are. We are not going to overreact. Um but we are not going to stick our head in the sand
and that's the reality of of where we are. Uh we have an obligation to the employees and their families of this organization to do everything we can to sustain the operation um and to be responsible so that there is not a um
impact uh that is earthshattering. We've been through that in 2008. I remember it as sitting in the audience as a consultant. We're not going to go back there. Um, but part of that was because it was an immediate shock and I will give credit where credit is due. There
is a phase in. There's, you know, there's planning that if this does pass, there's opportunities for us to respond nicely. Um, I would also thank all of you for all of the work that was done prior to walking into this room. all of the briefings that you did, all of the
details that you've asked, all of the questions that then got responded to on the spot for most of you that got us to this point. And um I will wrap this up by saying Allan, we love you or we wouldn't make fun of you.
And Tim Jax, you are our rock star of this season of the year. And uh I can't wait until we're done and I find you at that local establishment in downtown Sanford. Um I'm certain it will be the ice cream shop. With that, uh if there's
any further comments, >> I I I would just add just real quick >> to >> You're down there const give give our our executive team credit. We're in a far better place for the
endeavor of work that we're about to undertake >> because this started last year. >> Because we started Yeah, that's right. >> And and your team was wise enough to take what we asked for it. This group asked you last year >> to go find savings.
>> Mhm. >> Here we are. >> Yeah. >> And I think that was >> Well, we we'll say we predicted the future, though, although that's not really the case. But as fate would have it, you're we're in a much better place in this county because of that
>> than many others are going to be in >> cuz you already know the routine. You already know where the nooks and crannies are to go look and it's fresh on it. So >> fantastic. Good for all of us. >> Thank you. >> And we do it anyway. >> Yes, madam. >> Do you have any public comment? >> We have no requests for public comment.
>> We have no requests for public comment. >> A read alert. >> All right. Meeting adjourned. The sad part is to come.