##VIDEO ID:Ez5Nza6OE0o## all right we ready to get started everyone say commission de please father father our mission still the same we thank you again bless you and we love you father remember us we try to make the best decision for all us thank you thank you and than these blessings and all other blessing ask right now in Jesus name I pray [Music] amen flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all mayone to our shop it's Tuesday October 29th 2024 have a to line set up number there is 1 1917 91022 access code 32347 PB this is not a toe number and you may be subject to long distance charges according to your long dist plan when the chair person opens the meeting for public comment please follow the below instruction if you wish to speak please di star five the moderator will unmute your line return to speak and notify you by announcing the last four digits of your telephone number please announce your name and address you will be allowed to speak for 3 minutes any person wishing to address the board regarding an agenda item will be given three minutes for comment a comment may only speak one time for each agenda item this is a workshop won't be any voting just discussion in this meeting so uh we'll move on to item three to discuss Animal [Music] Control guess we just yes got a statement here Taylor County Animal Control Management due to uh I'm looking at a name Jackie CER Jackie Jackie have the podium here work to the board so it's a little different right in front of y'all thank you for your time tonight and the ability to come and share some of our concerns that we have with our animal controls my name is Jackie ker I've lived in this community since 2002 my husband and I retired from the Navy from San Diego and um we've rescued everything from horses to dogs to cats to llamas to pigs and um that's our cat passion we love our animals so and we know we have people in this community that love their animals and so that's why we're here this [Music] even we hope we have H some good discussions about some of our concerns um where we'd like to be how we' like to help um our shelter bring them up to standards um and just be in alignment with what your mission is which is to get these animals moved out of our shelter into homes in with volunteers um I used to work for the board in 2006 um supported buddy humph Jack Brown was on the board at that time and um I've seen the evolution of our shelter it hasn't always been at the front end for Budget planning it hasn't always been at the front end for Staffing um it's been low funded there um and that's been pretty much the evolution of it in 2016 we had University of Florida come and give some good training to our staff and I thought we were on the upward way after listening concerns from the community um from our volunteers from our rescue Partners um we're concerned as Citizens that it's just not operating as good as it could be and we would like to stand up and share our concerns and see where we could go we put together the spreadsheet for you it outlines the concern our proposed remedy um whether there's a budget impact on it and then the benefit that would result from it um would like for you to take them seriously we met over several meetings we've had conversations um and we're ready to to do what needs to be done to help our shelter so I don't know if you have any questions on the concerns or if we need to go over them all we could probably uh meet with County leadership County staff and address these and see if we can't work them out proactively um but we're looking for your blessing basically we've got to I represent the group of concerned citizens that have come together um and we work through issues and then um we have representatives from people who volunteer the shelter parts for HomeTown dogs uh is here so we're just asking you to listen to where our concerns are and then help us find a path where we can get these resolutions solv and give this C working the best it could be working so if you have any questions you just let me know Jackie do you want to go over our concerns or have you all read what we submitted to you or why don't you go over some of your concerns and then we've St answer for some of that or our proposed Solutions also I mean wherever you'd like to start we brought we had the broad spreadsheet that gave you the overall concerns we have and this is the immediate one the most immediate one is when shelters lose support from rescue groups they're vital in the process of transferring animals and when we lose that lose from one of our own rescue groups it's even more concerning because they're there to help us help us move animals they can't move animals until these animals are Ved correctly on the front end just like a business you have your product coming in do you have to do to vet them and then get them to either qualified homes or other shelters that can help them um the quicker you do that the lower the load is on the staff it's less of a budget impact um but when you don't do it effectively you suffer from what we suffer from which is over capacity I mean we only have a little shelter I've seen our shelter go from Highway 98 gosh back in 2006 when we would have TBO over breakes and it was just a horrible situation they moved it to the city shelter where better yes optimal no um it was starting to go on an upturn in 2016 when we had additional partners coming in helping us showing us better practices um showing us current situations that shelters are using uh in Solutions and it helped it seemed like it was really lowering our numbers we had less less Ethan Asia and as of yeah it just seems like we're going in the wrong direction and I think I know we can do better so you all know more in detail the events with um some of the injured dogs so I will let you speak on details but um what about a lot of the suggestions we have here do not show a budget impact it comes down to accountability it comes down to leadership and it comes down to embracing volunteers to help work at your shelter we have minimal volunteers we could have such a huge volunteer base our county loves its animals and it's shown through donations I mean shoot look at the work volunteers have done down at Katon Beach and that's unpaid labor no impact so we're ready to help y'all we just need your blessing to move forward thank you Jackie you're welcome my name is Chris Olen what else do I have to tell you I'm retired from the Taylor County School District and I'm also uh one of the founders of hearts for HomeTown dogs you know I totally understand budgetary problems and I do understand that our county is going to be faced with some very bad budget shortfalls like our school district will be also and to boil it all down I mean there's quite a bit of information here and the things that we would like to see happen and so on but in reality I think I think your staff needs more training number one we need to have some kind of cooperation with volunteers there has been an ad serial relationship with volunteers and I understand that people don't like to have other people coming in and saying hey we want you to do this and that but these minimum standards that we gave you are basically minimum standards for animal control and they're all listed here I don't want to be beager you with all this but you know the intake protocol the vaccination protocol um we have tried to get some information from um what kind of information were you trying to get Jackie from intake outcome reports outcome reports um we we don't have a good uh flow of how information comes and goes um and that's basically what happened in the breakdown where we don't really work with you guys anymore although we'd like to but we feel like the general minimum standards should really you support it and one of the big things is emergency vet care and honestly hearts for HomeTown dogs paid for most of that you know the vaccinations and so on the W has helped with that we just are we're not having any real cooperation with the shelter staff and the volunteers and that's the basic they they don't think we do things right and we don't think they do things right and the right way of doing things is right here it's simple so you know we're talking about sanitation intake protocols what do we do for every animal that comes in there we have the data system you guys use where we can get the information but we need we need our volunteers to be embraced basically I know Lacy thinks we don't do some stuff right and maybe we don't but we're we're basically there for the benefit of the animals we're there to help I mean I think several things could really be really be improved to make it a lot better now that's going to be up to you because honestly there probably will be a budgetary impact I don't know how much I see we have a budget there which I don't know what it was last year but it just seems unfortunate that we cannot have a real sense of transparency and a real sense of collaboration and I do thoroughly believe that leanda has fought this she has tried and tried to get the two groups together the volunteers hearts for HomeTown and the staff the shelter staff and I know she gets she gets a lot of push back from everybody and I think she has done her darnest to try to really make it good for us and I'm fully supportive of her and I know the type of job she has and the type of pressure that there is I guess it's going to be up to you guys like what do you really want to do is it that important to you it's important to a lot of the constituents of this County that they do take care of their animals and in a decent way I'm not going to get into all the all the other stuff I just think that we we need to really concentrate on what makes a shelter good what are the minimum standards minimum protocol and that's basically it you know it's it's like button into a a brick wall a lot of times we want our volunteers to be able to come in we've made some suggestions about maybe additional hours to be open I don't know if that's possible um we need to make easy for people to come in and see animals and we need to have somebody answer the phone we need some extra staff down there would you trust a volunteer to answer the phone I mean we've been volunteering down there for eight years I don't think that we have committed any type of heinous crime not yet but I I don't know I I understand risk I understand the county wanted to not get sued I do I'm a risk manager that's what I did for the school district but I think that we could have a little more leeway streamline our volunteer application did we ever do that probably not probably don't have time I didn't realize it was an issue until the last meeting okay I mean we can but yeah um and and if I if I could just answer the question about the cleaning the sanitation and the telephone calls I believe that I gladly accepted an offer for training of our staff to go over the sanitation procedures back in June or July okay and that did not happen Okay because who did we want to bring in somebody or did we what did we want to I thought you had offered to train our well and I can do that actually but I just wanted it to be clear that I had that that was not a question okay also I have reached out to hars for HomeTown dogs and asked for volunteers to help answer the phones when I knew oh you have I have now does anybody know about that over there who who did you talk to to Ashley ash okay okay well we would like to come in and answer your phone we would like to come in and do input for you take pictures dog tests we'd like to do all that we've cooperated with all that okay I don't know where where's the disconnected who can come up here and say where the disconnect is here's it I can't Lacy said that Andrea could not walk through the gate and Andrea said she won't walk through the gate CU Lacy told her not to walk through the gate so I'm I'm gonna sorry my name is Lacy and I'm the coordinator and the reasoning behind this is we made a shelter schedule because I also had to train my officers when I came back into the facility they were not train properly um I did have to retrain them cuz they didn't know anything they didn't know how to do a citation correctly so when I came back in I did have to train them properly and I told her that we needed to schedule dates temporarily so I can get my officers trained because in reality I needed to make sure the public was safe and if I can do that I got my officers trained properly we could get a schedule set up and it was always oh I can't come that day and I would try to correlate with her but we also had to train the officers and Are the officers trained now they are correct and what is involved in their training just out of curiosity so they need to properly know how to do Wellness checks aggression calls bike hauls things like that okay so this is when you're going out in the field yes out in the field on the property okay and that was a short term and let me say something when with the volunteers and I don't know if the board is aware this there's a list that they're supposed to follow oh the protocols protocols first that's where we had issues at Chris okay and you're aware of that well I'm not too sure I am Gary what exactly are you talking about we had several meetings on no now we're talking about your protocols now Pat went in there and she was cleaning no I'm talking about the volunte p is our volunteer yeah I'm a volunteer there I don't have a problem with okay so when she went in to do something then she said Lacy said I don't want you to do that I want you to do this you had a a list of what needed to be done that day correct and it was not for my officers yeah yes but they said I couldn't do finish doing the cats because I had to do your list my officers was for the volunteers I was saying my officers are responsible for their list that they get daily well you had a list they said for volunteers what you wanted the volunteers to do that day is it off this packet the volunteer packet cuz we have the it's called dog care specialist cat care specialist ground maintenance and laundry so no it was just to go in I was going to go in remember all the cats were sick and I was going to clean everything I don't remember that I'm sorry and they said that um I needed to do something else because because they were going to handle that and that on the list for volunteers I could go in and pick up clean up but I couldn't like I was scooping the cat litter stuff like that they said it wasn't on the volunteer list if Lacy is the director of the Sher then I would think that we would probably follow her lead in what needs to be done she was not there was this when I was on maternity leave no you probably out on a I don't know CU they said I had to leave and I couldn't be there like after I need to speak okay okay I don't think we're going to get very with the way it's going and I understand the frustrations on on both sides right we're a policy making board what what I would suggest is that some of you all meet with key staff and the administrator and just look at these items one by one and say okay what do we need to do how can we fix this show us let go about our policy if our policy needs to be changed let's change that policy L one and try to make it right and but I don't think that this back and forth can is going to like that it's not the right atmosphere I think you gain a lot more to sit down with staff and go through this and then if there's policy changes that need to take place then come back to the board that's fine and Gary I take a little exception to that we have had several meetings with you and Don and Lacy and basically those sessions turn into she said you said and it's we're there we're free we're trying to do what we can but we're getting a lot of resistance from you Gary from you Lac let me add to that okay yeah I'm just doing my job you know we're talking about and cat poop you know I'm just what I'm trying to say is we're following policies and procedures I don't make Chris and that volunteer list you guys know you didn't stand that's the director of and you know that we okay you may be talking about Andrea you guys got I don't want to I don't want to plug all this Andrea has a very strong personality I agree so I am proposing to be a little bit more flexible you know if somebody comes in and says oh I just love those cats can I work in the cat house no you got to go in the dog house you know I mean let us be a little more flexible with the this is Free Labor this is good intentions we don't want to I understand you guys have to do when it affects the staff we have a heart okay so we're offending the staff that's what I'm talking about you're affecting oh okay offending them affecting them so their staff does not like us that's I didn't hear that either well I'm telling you do you like us I do we did I tell you the truth to help how long we've been together man you you know y' got to offer you you all have free labor you have something to offer and this can be a cohesive um situation grown people should be able to work together you've got something to give that we need agree and so here tonight but it needs to and y'all who however both sides needs to listen identify the issues and work it out this could be worked out but you got to want to work it out staff you got to work with these people they're here to help us well theyy has helped me pretty much every time I've went up there she explained stuff I will call her you let me go in and take all those pictures and like I said but then I have to leave by lunch is that when I have to leave or we need some extended hours I don't understand I don't understand that like to understand the reasoning but I have to leave I get there is there a volunteer policy I think there is but but it's a little arbitrary in my opinion you can go in at 10 but you have to leave at 12 you know can't St all done why G well in the past we short of Staff but they went on call they had to leave because there was nobody there you know what we could be in your office answering those phones we're not criminals we're a bunch of old ladies basically employment we're not criminals we're retired people I I just don't get it Mr chair sorry I don't in the past however long it's been I have facilitated I have requested and you have been a peacemaker I give you that okay I have facilitated and requested more than one meeting with hearts for HomeTown dogs where we have all come together and talked through issues but my concern is if I don't hear I've never heard there was an an issue with the application I didn't realize there was an issue with with the volunteer description that you know that could have been brought forward instead of it you know turning into what it is and that's maybe true maybe leanda hasn't really been truly kept in Loop but we do get push back particularly Andrea now Andrea is a tough cookie and she has she's crazy she has a heart for animals and I can understand this but I would like a little more grace be grace on both sides of the yes I totally agree I mean and it's not unreasonable I I agree that is not in that there's there's also a protocol policy that that's not just a choice but there's reasons for the rhyme okay nothing bad has really ever happened there that we have been a part and we don't want it to happen and that's why we have those policies I agree but the policies maybe need to be a little bit more flexible well flexibility can be a slippery slope it then lead doesn't turn into a liability it turns into I understand all of that very well we can be constructive with all sorts of words but let's also enter into the conversation with that openness and and not all of these words that some sometimes are accusatory and and I'm not certain that that that's going to be real productive well I want I want honesty on everyone's who is who I mean what I've heard is it sounds like a lot of communication has come to you these groups who in y groups is communicating to go be effective on your side it sounds like we're communic this is being communicated but then somewhere it's locked in the cuz you don't know nothing about it you're speaking about it but you don't all being talk behind I haven't been down there volunteer since Andrea left if someone right no I said right right if it's being communicated then who on your side is executing and and and pushing through and communicating back I'm not getting that communication do any of you that's what I'm saying she told you who she's talked to who Ashley and it's not going any you and and Andrea I mean there's there's been hundreds of texts back and forth and I you know and maybe it sounds like these folks are trying to talk and collaborate but it it sounds like work Sal I'm sorry really I mean we're just there to help you every time we want to do something no you can only stay there 2 hours and that's a policy well why collaborate with these folks and see they can come up with some different rules I believe that was for I mean I don't think because correct me if I'm wrong but prior to a short period of time volunteers were there all day long multiple days a week well Andrea was okay so that has not been and might shaking the head so so that hasn't been a policy only two hours a day I think is it a policy now do you guys have problems getting in there I don't there except to pick up animals and leave with them I drive now so you're making me look stupid up here so well because I this is what I'm hearing when uh when Danny was there um he was getting a lot of push back saying that they needed to cut my hours back um and there was never any sort of um explanations it was just that oh you know and I don't know it was just oh well you know make it only two days a week and whatever and the thing is that the whole reason for my pushing back on the these limitations is that I drive an hour and a half from Basta and it was close to every day you know and I have pain in the butt short you know I've never disputed that but the good that the good things that I would do when volunteering at the shelter were bi to hearts for HomeTown Dogs mission which has always been to you know get to know these animals do the dog testing get pictures get videos all of these things take time and it takes a lot of time it takes a lot more than two hours and you know as we said in the last meeting the work that we do doesn't stop after we leave the shelter you know this is it takes a lot of dedication to see these things through when you're looking for a rescue to take animals you know you're not just like oh you do your thing and then you go home from the shelter like that's not how it works you know so basically these things take a lot of time so when you're being limited you know your your hands are tied so it's like okay well I don't have information about this animal so therefore it's probably going to be euthanized needlessly because there's nothing to tell the rescue about you know and the whole point of we have been fored truly now you might not believe me but we have well we're still doing rescues okay we're stilling but we have been th thwarted in our efforts you know like the little dog who had the broken leg and we left him in there for a week whatever you know I just want the whole thing to be a little bit more transparent and Cooperative if that's possible I I I understand and I don't believe I've ever been uncooperative you have not okay and so you in particular have not and I said that at the beginning of this you did and and you have not been uncooperative so me no no and so I was somewhat taken AB when we pulled out yes and the way it was done with no communication and I wasn't totally aware of what was going on there either but it was a situation with Andrea and she fought a good fight and one day she just said I'm done every time I turn around there's a problem I can't do this I can't do that I can't take I can't get into the whatever it is but you guys solve that the reports that you needed to get I mean I understand I totally do and it's going to be up to you guys what you really want to do cuz we've done all we can do well I think that that we should welcome you all and work out these issues in a different setting this obviously in other counties it works well it does so why is it that Taylor County I would like to know that I don't why why what is what is the factor that tayor County cannot work with the volunteers or the volunteers can't work with Taylor County whichever way it goes right so I I again and I highly suggest that some of you get with staff and sit down take a day if it takes a day so what were these issues refer to policy and procedure if it needs to be changed if it says that volunteers can only come in from 10 to 12 then that can be changed if it's legal and if it's not going to cause an issue even if you only like you say answer the telephone because that would be be big help it would it would so again let's let's sit down I'll be glad to sit down with y'all too if you like for me to P we're willing we're willing to go around to other area shelters and see what best practices are being put in place what we could glean from that what we could bring to our shelter hey you know we don't know it all we're not in a vacuum here what color their youth rates have plummeted I mean there's other stuff out there that we're not doing that we probably could be doing even given limited staff and limited budgets so what we're willing to take our time and go do that and bring back the information to y'all but if it's not going to go anywhere well she Facebook president she she uh she calls around all the time to all the other sides but also when I came on Lac Lacy when we when I came on our euthanization rate was at 90% right okay as of I haven't checked it R we're down to 8% am I wrong I think we're down pretty good and some of that I give credit to you guys we're down to 8% that's our mission and if anybody can say that we euthanize animals we hold them a long period of time that we we hold them a long long I have been chastised for that well that's basically because of aanda I think because we have talked to her and she goes listen if we have room we'll try to keep them you know so I think that's probably the goal is to try to cut back on euthanizations and it's from 90% to 8% what's the problem well we were here for 8 years doing that that's where but we work hard on it I mean we've done a lot of stuff don't take CR for that now did you say is either is or isn't like it to be and I have been doing this for eight years correct and and so isn't that success demonstrated in the percentages it is but we basically had a breakdown right and how do we get past I don't know I don't know are your can you get past it without [Music] communicating on that W the question is I agree can you get past that without Communications I think without Communications not without Communications we got to communicate I agree I just want our voice to be heard how we feel you got to have a working relationship and that's what I see that's missing here is a working relationship between the two entities and and let me add this Miss Lois I'm going to throw you under a bus here you've been down there all since I've been there when you come to me with an issue or a problem have I ever pushed you away and said no no listen have I ever restricted you in any way do you work at the shelter every day I've never seen you there I passed through I passed you when you were out there when they were doing the newscast I'm there twice a day the newscast that day that was hilarious I I was sitting there watch was terrible yes she said she went by there early in the morning and it was completely different place than it was during the newscast everyone was I see you hauling dogs out of there all the time I was there I've I'm serious I have never seen you well I don't know I'm 6'5 and weigh 300 lb so I should be able to know well anyway thank you for your time I appreciate it thanks for hearing us can I speak I've just got a couple of things long I'm Denise grer and I've been bu all week and she answered a lot and I'm sure she's got with my things were more and the electrical so we have looked at that I don't think there's any need to change it to a 220 service I think if we just add some additional what are they call so we can direct is there room in the panels for that no we would have to everything is functioning you just cannot run the fans and the lights at the same time that's that's fans and lamps so you would run them together anyway well that's what I was going to say I know they were having to Monkey you had a GF you had a GF one that was bad about a month ago that was kicking them out so we replaced them perfect so the electrical is being taken care of and then she told me the floor you no I notic the coating was gone so the dogs are standing in wet water all day long from um being hosed so is the floors being resealed in the kennel or painted um it doesn't dry once that that coing wor off concrete they've been reped okay I haven't been in there three weeks so I guess yall done that since and then the um kennels the doors a lot of them and this should be money that's in the budget you replace them the padlocks on them are they still on there I understand padlocks I understand their locks we sent them in there to see how quick they could open they did all of them in 8 seconds okay cuz I know a lot of shers have those key pads you can and they I I really didn't know how long it' take them so they open them was it 8 seconds Lacy 8 seconds with two people it's I mean we can change to the keep I mean that's not the keep I think you well I think the Environ it may work but they work really well and then everybody's got a code and you don't if there's a fire you don't have to run get we're we're in the process of changing all the locks to get new ones make sure they function right too I I got them ordered yeah and then I know there's issues it is hot in there and it's you want to get this inviting so the public wants to go in there and look and adopt a dog that's the whole point but it's it's bad so you got fans sitting around but there's no cross flow like you need some you know the Big Ass Fan company that has them that go in the wall or the uh ventilation we got we got lber fans in there yeah I saw the fans sitting around but I didn't see any on the side steing you got two on the sides and one in each end lber fans they might have not been running when you they weren't they weren't running that day because all that but I did go in in dead summer and we took a temperature and I think shooting the kennel was 86 degrees in there inside the K get it's hotter than that at RDS my car we actually bought welders there portable AC's and you vent the thing out and then the AC the K too my plan next year and we've got them hooked up their sprinkler system on the roof to do the the midal roof so we're going to try that and see if that help that's all good positive stuff um and then the only other question I have that just come up was like you said y'all have a policy and procedure in place for volunteers is there copies of that we can get and distribute to all of us so everybody knows absolutely and then yeah me but it sounds like that meeting then I think just talking and which we've done but it sounds like if the volunteers are unhappy with the job description or the the you know the application that's a simple that can be fixed I would think so as a citizen before I was getting into this looking on Facebook and seeing hearts for HomeTown dogs load up van full of dogs I miss seeing that because you know they're sitting there or they're going to be put down well how many dogs have gone to rescue since August 26 got your figure so I was looking cleared the whole shelter how many euthanized didn't a lot of them are when you say euthanized there's a reason behind and I know that yeah can't I do have a list of rescues and I have been getting the disposition of the rescues as well one other maintenance thing the cat house oh God which is Beautiful by the way and They Se and I love everything in there exhaust to pull out the we did have one in the window pulling it but let me tell you about the cat house when I came on they had the cats in the kennel and Miss leis was there she remembers I remember that I went to the board to get that building and it was just a strip building and we got we got the inmate crew in there we insulated and did all that and it worked out really well it's nice it is and uh exhaust fan is easy fix yeah we did have a cuz we couldn't stay in there long between the cats and the bleach they just mocked it was clean spotl cats really that's a good I'd like to see the dog C come along like euthanization since October we've had done I'm looking further back but any help y'all would get them to move forward with some maintenance things and getting it I mean we talked to the schools they're all board I like having students adopt a kennel adopt a dog Facebook presence is key if you don't have it you're not going to you're not it's key um as I know just this past week I've gotten three dogs Strays found to owners through Facebook so that's something the high school student and big Ben Tech was really interested in maybe taking pictures and they have to do uh nonprofit stuff for scholarships interested and that was for specific reasons it was not related it was not Rel understand you can't we can't them all and when you get a dog that's you know it's a liability we can't let him go out of it's a buy absolutely not that's where heart was really good too though especially Andrea was working with these dogs testing them with other dogs you got to be able to tell the rescues this dog is good with other dogs is good with children you don't want to just say oh yeah and then it buite a kid and it's good with cats I mean you it's time consent I couldn't do it so you know I really respect anyone who can spend all that time because it is a big job but thank you'all we're gonna try to shorten it yeah I'm Andre am from Georgia and so we have a list of what we said you know minimum standards and changes required in order for hearts for HomeTown dogs to continue a partnership with animal control um as yall know like I was told that I was not able to return which had nothing to do with the training of the staff this was separate um but anyway what I have here is um I believe it was emailed by our volunteer to y'all um and I don't know if you guys have it in front of you it just says C County Animal Control minimum standards changes required if yall have had a chance to read over these things yeah they but I guess I'll go through it so um one of the things is be consult with the Florida animal protection and advocacy Association which was formerly FL Animal Control Association which I did see that count Animal Control did recently become partners with them which is great um we have Emergency Veterinary Care Sick ored animals must be seen by the V compete my understanding is that that's been happening which is great um building electrical upgrades have been talking about that the intake protocols you know there has been issues in the past with that being inconsistent and there's a variety of reasons why that's important and a lot of it has to do with the shelter population as well as any receiving rescues it's important for both things I'm happy to elaborate if you guys are interested but um kenel sanitation again goes back to you know disease prevention and issues like that um we have on here transparency accountability um cameras is what we think would be helpful um because there has been a lot of kind of you know talk over over the years which I've been volunteering at the shelter for about 5 years and a little over five years and you know you hear various accusations flying around and I think that cameras would be very beneficial to the shelter staff um you know so that anything can be cleared up regard regarding rumors and such um question yes does your organization are do they have the ability to help with the purchase of cameras so I believe cameras themselves I mean yeah probably we could probably get cameras themselves donated but you would need to have a data plan or Wi-Fi um at the shelter for them to be connected to um if you were to stream them live um unless you wanted to do like closed circuit but I mean in terms of you know we think it would be a good idea even to have cameras in the kennel building so in the cat house because pardon I'm sorry you can't you can't have cameras in there with inmates helping clean okay I see um this why can't inmates helping clean you can't they won't let you take pictures or none of that at the end can you turn them off when they're not when they're there well they they're through the whole day like they turn them on at night Camas in the prison everywhere that's they don't let you go to the public can't you turn them off when the inmates are in there and then turn them well I'm all day they're there they there most of the day they're pay they're there most of the day open pain St I never saw an inmate there I think one of the things we were talking about was a fire broke out you would have you know some kind of at night when no one's there week um so I guess that discuss later um animal outcome data um Florida statute 82315 which is each public or private animal shelter Humane organization or animal control agency operated by a Humane organization or by County municipality or other Incorporated political subdivision shall prepare and maintain the following records and make them available for public inspection and dissemination for the three preceding years the following data will be available on a monthly basis commencing July 3 1st 2013 the number one the total number of dogs and cats taken in by the animal shelter human organization Animal Control agency divided into species in the following categories a surrendered by owner B stray C impounded D confiscated e transferred from within Florida F transferred into or imported from out of the state and G born in shelter um and then it talks about you know other species recorded as other um and and it says the disposition of all animals taken in by a public or private animal shelter human organization Etc um let's see divided into species the these data must include dispositions by a adoption B Reclamation by owner C death in kennel D euth in Asia at the owner's request e transfer to another public or private animal shelter Humane organization Etc um f euthanasia G released in field trap neuter released T um and it kind of lost in care and ending inventory shelter count at the end of the day of the last month um and I believe that there is a copy of this Statute in the packet but if not um it is referenced on the first page Mr chair person I think we have all those records and we maintain those records unless I'm missing something so I think that like what the kind of point of bringing this one up is for more kind of accountability and transparency for the public um there are several counties that post this on their web pages they just have it so that as you go to I just don't want it to appear that we're not following the statute when we are okay well I mean our recommendation would be to have that posted public I understand that I just want to make it clear we we follow the statute I [Music] believe I mean we can do that but I I just want to make sure that everyone understands were not not following the statute following okay programs in compliance with the state statutes I believe so unless we're missing something okay all right thank so the other thing we have is um you know public notice which is informed the public of disease outbreak or illness in shelter populations um we recently had a very big issue with a pan lucenia outbreak in the shelter which resulted in one of our shelter partner rescue Partners um taking in over 40 cats and kittens which um the vast majority of them ended up dying and resulted in um the shelter having to clean and sanitize the entire cat house um and there was lack of Sanitation protocols which absolutely um exacerbated this outbreak and the public was not made aware of this outbreak which I think is uh irresponsible because if you have people coming in to adopt animals cats right right after youve had a pan Luke outbreak which you know the it the incubation period alone can be up to 21 days right but you know people were allowed back into the kennels and animals were being brought into the kennels they were intaking animals um and then there but there were people coming to the shelter asking about adopting cats when you know if you've got sick cats and you're adop out sick animals and and you don't tell them hey by the way this cat could have been potentially exposed to a deadly disease that's a problem part of the mission statement on the website says you know that tler County Animal Control wants to promote responsible pet ownership how are you doing that it's you know you're potentially adopting out sick animals can you respond to that okay I can it she's right we intake a cat not knowing you don't know it came in with panca and she's right it did do that we washed and cleaned they did it I think Chris was there Lacy did it I did it with inmates and me and we kept the shelter down I think it was four days or five it was five days and we did not have any animals at the because we ended up euthanizing I talked to the betet Dr sap he said two days would be fine so you can ask him okay that's fine so the University of Florida sh medicine would tell you that you know their recommendation would be to quarantine the entire shelter for at least 20 days after a disease outbreak um and we went off him he said two days we went we went five we cleaned it I know at least five to six times and sanitized yeah I I spent many days I did too I went in there cleaned the sealing pulled it all out again but we can inform the public moving forward if if that would be helpful information and we didn't take any intakes did we no we I got three of them she got them were there prior to my house how many cats can you take down there we can house 20 cats and then we have 10 quarantine kennels but that's kening cats together they're all in the same little shed but they're in some of how do we get those CS we don't we don't inate them ourselves I mean we don't whatever you do they're straight animals mostly owner surrender stuff like that the same way yes sir they just come in and people bring them in traps and stuff like that and we sent some of those sick cats to tallah yeah there was multiple they had to shut down the Humane Society correct that's when they went to rescue and we were unaware of the situation because that rescue contacted us saying that these animals had pan Loop and we were unaware of the situation and and I had like 12 kittens die because of it and within a day of each other yeah you know I've been reading this book and this book talking about we go out and walk the dogs you walk dogs in you got many people down there walk do they do it why they're like when they clean the kenel in the morning Mr DS yes they pull them out and walk them then and feed and sometimes like say we have an inmate Squad usually like maybe one or two they'll come in and help clean with a recycle guy and they'll try to walk them and and honestly we could probably walk them more if if we you know we do the best cuz we got to get the gate open by 10 in the morning yeah we clean it takes a while to clean what about that walk area that was in the back for the dogs to just be let loose in y'all don't use that so we do not use that anymore due to the fact that the dogs are digging out and getting to the neighbors yard corner there yeah and they are hard to catch if they get out cuz we don't immediately see them if as long as we if we walk into the kennel that's typically when they get out now if we're out there we can monitor them but with the staff that we have we do try to get them out but we can't leave them out full time because they will escape so the next thing we have on here is um let's see review policies and update them to reflect current Sheltering standards um which asp cc apr.org is a really great resource um I have um learned a lot over the years from reading things off of asbca pro as well as the American Shelter veterinarian guidelines and shelter um current standard guidelines for Sheltering and um that is where that is one of the reasons why we are requesting an outside organization such as you know the Florida animal protection at Association to come so that um you know which ties into staff training um which all of these things like having an outside organization come in who can update the staff about the current standards of care and policies of what works overall because Sheltering has come a long way from just rabies control Animal Control it was in the 1800s versus now where animal control is actually Mo focused more on the Humane care because you have living beings in your care so your staff is responsible for the care of these animals because how can you as an organization pull in animals to you know prosecute somebody for cruelty neglect and then turn around and neglect an animal for example right like that would be problematic so ask a question sure don't you have a fully trained staff we do we have one officer that needs ACO training but she was just hired within the last two weeks and it's hard to get training because where it's mer Mercy you know sure you know we got to catch them when they got an Open Class and they don't do it unless they have 10 or 15 people and and you have to maybe go to Tallahasse or whatever but let let me go back to what she's talking about uh the University of Florida came in they brought in all these bags and showed us and there's probably some updates that we could do and different cleaning stuff like that but Dr sap comes in there I don't know every month or every it just depends on his just depends and I stopped and talked to him last week and I told him I says if you see anything that we need to improve on or do flag me and he said he would do that so he's it's not like we the only set of eyes going in there Dr saff goes in there and I I ain't saying he goes through everything and all that but he's got he's pretty sharp so if he he flagged me I would do it so it ain't like we're not trying to you know get a different set of eyes in so Dr Sapp is I'm sorry can I turn back real quick and respond uh Dr Sapp is is a great bet and so this has nothing against him whatsoever um but you know uh my understanding is that he doesn't kind of specialized in in shelter medicine at least I could be wrong about that but there is a difference between General vetmed and regular in Sheltering shelter medicine so um that would be one of those things where you know as you mentioned you guys had brought in University of Florida and we and we're following their standing right and the woman that set that up is probably in the top three in the world which one are you talking about I am working with UF as well to come back in to update policies and I will say um we have been working on them we are trying to coordinate a date so they can come back in and give proper training to staff but we've had a mass turnover with our staff so when they came in you can all unfollow that protocol and procedure for so long right well the policies and such have also been updated in the last 9 years since they were here and shelter at the shelter comes for Ethan Asia or if I need him to look at an animal to look at an animal I've had him come look at an animal I thought you take them to him typically we do but if he if he's it's a Thursday and I can catch him he will come look at an animal okay I'm sorry how many people you got down there work I have myself which is the coordinator I have two ACO officers and I do have another person from Solid Waste that's answering our phones right now just because so they don't have enough I got back from maternity leave they really don't somebody has to go out on the road I mean they're stretch thin are you back fulltime I am back full time now I didn't know if you were or not and we pushed last time for like an increase in pay and potentially hiring more Animal Control Officers um you say your group had money they like we struggling oh you want a loan from us oh I don't know I don't know if we have money I mean we we get donations Maybe only you about 50 bucks yeah W you get a lot of bills um you know but um but no I mean you know we all are we know that animal control is a tough job there is no question about that they not our animals we take get somebody El's animal we get over the head that's another Point why do we have to take all these animals from people who surrender them I think they should be held responsible make them pay for the animal they don't want to take care of anymore I will say that we do have a policy on owner surrender and we do accept and that's something that we can put forth in policy once we would like to renew them and that is a option yeah and um so also in the packet we have right here which is the FL Animal Control Association and the Florida Association of Animal Welfare organizations best practices for con care and high Li relase program um this whole packet here is essentially just an overview um which kind of reinforces the importance of animal shelters working with Humane organizations such as hearts for HomeTown dogs or any other Humane Society or rescue group um and that was the other thing you know kind of going back to the core function of animal control and is that these are things the focus on live release meaning preventing needless youth in Asia right which all of us understand it happens it has to happen sometimes so you know I would like to think that y'all understand that we're not here saying oh you should you know this should never be happening you know we understand that it has to happen sometimes okay it sucks but that's the reality um but anyways the the focus has shifted over the years in Sheltering to um incorporating life-saving so this is not you know some sort of new or revolutionary thing that we've been trying to do here um but we're just hoping that it will receive um more attention kind of moving forward um because you know with I you know whatever rescue things that they've got going on that's fantastic um you know but I can say with experience that it takes uh years to build relationships with rescues and um you know if you burn that bridge with a rescue you're done um and then they won't pull animals from you and we've had that happen several times um unfortunately and you know we we work very hard all of us did um in har Hometown dogs to get the live release rate up um because you can't just call up a rescue and be like hey can you take this animal for us that's not how it works I mean if you have that kind of relationship with ar rest yeah great go for it you know but when you don't especially right now things are bad and Ry right now um there is overpopulation problems across the US and um it's hard and that's why I was saying earlier that like our job are the volunteers didn't stop once we left the shelter um this takes like hours and hours and hours of time and and so basically we would just like um you know the things outlined here and can see kind of um a reflection of you know the current standards and being reflected in Taylor County because these animals didn't they didn't ask to be at the shelter um they didn't ask to be born they didn't have to be owned by irresponsible people or whatever you know what I mean so so the wear their voice that's really what it boils down to because who else is going to speak up for them and who else is is going to do right by them you know Animal Control has to do right by them and so that's why we're here anybody else let me ask you a question if if you guys know where the problem originates from and where do you where do you think that is stay there have you guys thought about doing fundraisers in them clinics and and getting the public educated and doing cuz we have people come in with owner surrenders that can't they can't keep their animal if we had vouchers or could send them to you guys for food vaccines R shots that would go a long way far as keeping animals not going in the shelter yeah so like again kind of the current thinking which of course you know we believe is that the shelter should be a last resort and you know we are actually hoping to focus on spand neuter effords um it just it takes a lot of time really and we have to connect with the right people in order to um get grants and also um connect with a vet who has the availability to do like essentially high volume SP neuter because that's that's what we need we need to get it done done done you know we can't be waiting months and months waiting for an an to be fixed um and the cost even with a voucher because we have gotten um free vouchers from some of our rescue partners and we still end up having to pay about $80 to $100 per animal afterwards and that's not sustainable for us at this time so we have you know there's just a lot of things that kind of go in and what I'm saying why I'm saying that is a lot of a lot of uh stuff goes is looking at Animal Control we're we're part of the solution we're not part of the problem and when I say that our people they don't go out and drive around pick up animals they get the calls to go get the animals when they get to animal control where're they're trying to do what we can you know to get these animals out of when I look at something I look at the problem I don't look at the solution and we're part of the solution the problem is the people the P some of the public and that's where I would put my main focus at if I was trying to fix if I was going to really address it that's where I would look right so you know we've spoken like we put out there on Facebook multiple times right that the the overpopulation is not problem it's a community problem because that is where these animals are originating it's in the community um however you know I don't know if I necessarily agree you know that animal control is um a solution uh unless you're talking about we got away 26 we're at 8% euthanization we sent out 26 animals I mean were theyan transfers or okay that's great good job um question if I could I believe what I took from from this exchange is is that uh fundraising and efforts of Education would be helpful in respect to offsetting is that is that a fair statement yeah yeah is the county able to um accept donations and like in kind items or like you know things that are or are they able to request things that they need for example like not monetary donations but if for example the shelter needs towels right is the shelter allowed to ask for that I know they're not allowed to ask for an air conditioning I will say that the basic needs so the sanitation the vaccines your basic needs for animal control the county does provide right because it's in our budget we do not ask for towels I will know like most people will come in and bring towels in for donations right it's not something we ask for if we do need them and we need them on a fly I will buy them with a PO okay so I guess my my the reason I was asking for that is because you know there are other shelters that are municipal shelters they're run by counties where they on social media they'll Reach Out um via social media and ask for the things that they need or be like hey you know they'll put up like an Amazon wish list and be like hey we you know could use this is anybody willing to donate this and there isn't any push back from the community because I know that a concern in the past has been well that that'll make us look bad because we're not paying for it but the reality is you know that we understand that the budget is not a great budget the cost to care for Animals is a lot and but these other places they don't run into that issue of the community looking down on them for asking for help I think in in it actually you know it looks better to ask for help when you need help people are willing to help people love to help animals you know so I think that in a lot of ways you know asking for help and involving the community in a lot of ways would really um benefit Animal Control um because there is a lot of um you know you can boost your Public Image because we all know that you know animal control does not they get y'all get we get frowned upon yes and you know and I've seen that over the years you know and but there's so many ways to like engage with the community that would um you know you can build trust within the community and when you have established relationships with folks in the Community it boosts your your image but it also helps right because then you can start you know kind of you know the thing is is that like you know these animals the issues start with the people and so you're kind of looking at you're dealing with the animals but in reality you're dealing with the people as well so you know you have to build good relationships with your community members and I really think that focusing on a more like a I think they call it more of like a a guardian rather than a warrior um mindset when you're dealing with the community like hey how can I help you rather than let me you know sight you into Oblivion right um because you know I think that you know educating the public addressing the public and having a good relationship with the public is a really good place to begin to hopefully start to you know see some changes in the Animal Welfare process um and obviously span neuter needs to be a focus like we would certainly love if somehow the county could be involved in that I don't know how that works but cently working on that right now okay great yeah there any adoption events because I've never seen an adoption event since I've been here so we do not hold adoption vents um I know I've been talking with different Humane Societies to partner with them um a lot of it is just a liability cuz I was thinking like Tractor Supply yeah um but that's a liability due to the highway right there with dogs getting out or things like that so I am working with her main societies to do one at the shelter but it just maybe Walmart I would say it just depends on what the their availability is but we are currently working on that and we are getting vouches for the shelter Tractor Supply does it inside you take the animals inside they're not outside oh I've only seen it outside they them I've seen them way they've been on inside and I say it's something we're going to speak so like young puppies things like that they usually bring them in smaller dogs inside Tractor Supply we need that yeah so basically you know this is like a multifaceted approach and um but like I said our for us like we just want what's best for the animals um and that has to start at animal control because that's where they're at economic Factor help the initiative in account I don't know that anyone from the health department is here I I need to reach out to them and see if we can reschedule for either the next meeting in the [Music] workshop out of board to discuss mobile home inspector position so from what I recall um there was some brief discussion during our budget workshops about transferring this position to the board um I believe originally and I don't want to speak for the tax collector but from what I recall originally there was a thought that maybe this could be um combined with the code enforcement position but I don't know that that's feasible this this position is 100% funded out of solid waste Cod enforcement is funded out of mstu and I don't know that we would really be accomplishing um you know trying to combine those positions um I do think there's could be some collaboration um the tax collector has not um included this in his budget request right Mr clerk he took this out so currently it is not per se a funded position except that I I believe the transfer for this position is in um is in the expenditure budget for solid waste correct so we have the funds for that um it's just a matter of if this should fall under the county or continue to fall under the tax collector position or temporary no this is a full-time position so s like you just suggestion recommendation does it stay well not necessarily my my the only real issue I have with this is real estate um I I especially with what's going on in the building department right now I I don't really have a spot for this person to work out of however if I mean I could discuss with the tax collector and ask if he could continue to house this person in his office at least um until you know some of the permitting issues settle down so discussion or it's been brought to the table so there anything wrong we're just leaving it like it is for this coming year then maybe if we need to break back up in our next next budget do so then maybe have a plan of where the person may be house sure well what would he have to do to amend his budget with the state yeah yeah I'm not sure that's the question yeah I'm not sure what his his process is to do that but then he'd also have to hire someone too correct yes doesn't have anybody on staff right now doing that right so you just want me to to discuss it with the tax collector and see if there's a way we can work together and what he has to do to amend his budget and and then we can bring it back to the board if we need to why would you want to do that do what what I mean is this something that you want to do do you want to take on more responsibility with this person is that is is this something you want to do this is not something I requested but I don't mind working with the tax collector if if you know if it would be helpful I do I do agree that if this person is out in the field and identifies a Code Enforcement issue that that is something that could be reported to the code enforcement officer and we could be more effective so I don't disagree with the concept no I and I agree with him that if if there is a way to to have that communication and and maybe change the job description some that um to to kind of um bring that part into it if there are if there are um code enforcement issues they need to be passed along to the code enforcement officer I don't disagree with that and I do think it could be helpful I'm I'm just struggling now a little bit with um you know where to house this person and and you know it this is not the best time to bring on this this person because we don't have a building official right now but it's not it's not insurmountable um but I I do have some concerns like I said because of real estate and the fact that we don't even have a building official we have a part-time building [Music] official amend this budget and look to hire someone for the position I would say leave where it is and change the job description potentially so that person can report anything that they find right and and make it easy just do that leave him where he is and we don't need that going forward it would would this additional person help in in that department as far as in the building department we have currently I don't well again um I don't know that it would be a hindrance but that would increase the budget for that department so we can't 100% fund a position out of solid waste that has job resp responsibilities out of another fund we have to assign percentages to these jobs that are accurate and reflect that they're pay being paid correctly out of the correct fund so the so if you wanted additional code enforcement for example then um part of that funding would have to come out of the mstu and then it would be decreased in solid waste did I explain that right so so if that be the process going forward is there funding there to to utilize and M you it's not budgeted yeah we didn't budget it we had a surplus of 28,000 that we put in reserves this year so you would have to I mean you would have to go back to the budget and figure out where you're going to get it from yeah so you know some budgeted right now but I think the the whole concept was is that just that that instead of having a solid waste person go down there just funded out of solid waste and then inspector go down there just fund it out of the you know um mstu that that maybe there's an opportunity for some of it to be done by be done by the same person and that person's salary be split based on you know a percentage of what they do for each doll so but but like you know the problem that does present those like wand is explaining it's funded right now out of solid waste and they're doing only Solid Waste work right if they go to do building inspecting work then then we're going to have to come up with a way to identify what percentage of their job is that and funded out at mstu which currently isn't budgeted and Poss Poss might not even have the money in mscu to fund it I see but couldn't you arrive at those figures if you said you were going to do three days in solid ways to two days in code en forcement I mean I think of course that's easy could we also say given all the issues that we just went through there potentially will be the need for that typ staing for code enforcement yes oh I'm not disputing that but we all know what is we all know the concern with the revenue loss that is that is going we are going to have to address so I just hate to intentionally increase the budget unless that's the unless that's what y'all want me to do and and I will say you know I'm already concerned in that department because um you know if we can find a building official I don't know that I've budgeted enough for that position and there will be there may be a training period so I'm already concerned that we may be under budgeted in that department so that that gives me a little bit of pause as well to intentionally increase you know any any positions in the mstu but I'm not saying there wouldn't be a need to I I think yes we are going to have many challenges moving forward due to the storm so so is there a way understanding what I'm what I believe I'm understanding is the the amount of the salaries is funded it's just where you take that percentage from which fund you take that percentage and what you know how do we come down on what that is is that a fair assess so what I would say it is is it is currently funded out of the Solid Waste Department as a full-time position it's always been from what I understand a full-time position now would it not be a full-time position moving forward I have no I I just don't know how to answer that question because I don't know so I don't know that it would go from a full-time to a part-time position just because you know that may I mean we could make it a part-time position but that doesn't answer the concern about how we would fund it the other portion of that salary out of the mstu I your question so I have the same issues in my office with people doing different things and funded out different places and usually they keep a Time log for like a month or two months of what they do and if it's 70% you know one job and 30% another then that's how then that's how it starts out the rest of the year see what I'm saying so there you got an average over have a mechanism in place that over a month this is what you did so that's what we're going to do for the whole year and um and we redo those from time to time to update them so in this this case that's that's that would be that would be the issue is is that it would it would reduce the funding for dis position out of solid waste because they wouldn't be doing solid waste all the time right but is is it so understanding all those things could we as a as a trial basis given the situation we're trying to work through look at if I have no idea how to separate the times I can you know Mr Wiggins may say you could do this three days a week or he may say you could do it two days a week I'm not trying to influence that one way or another but I think we could could understand uh the percentages are going to vary from the the solid waste fund and the mstu fund to come to a certain total as being the total of that salary so it you know I guess for me knowing what I see as far as the scope of work and and the demands that are that on that department be helpful understanding we're going to November and you July will be here in a Flash I I just don't know how to fund it that's my only concern is is no matter I mean I'm not disputing I don't know why it would go from a full-time job to a part-time job no and I'm not saying that I'm saying it would still be a full-time position is that the percentages are going to vary across those funds no I mean the landfill SL Solid Waste inspector has has been a full-time position for many years so I'm not sure what has change that it could be accomplished part-time versus full-time I I don't I don't know I don't I don't know exactly how that would work for me if I recall I believe that's what Mr Wiggins was saying is that there there was the chance it could come to that place now I'm going to speak for the tax yeah I think I think what he was what he was saying was is that instead of sending two people there right you're sending one person they're doing multiple things while they're there they're doing solid Wass and they're doing building inspection or building it's code enforcement right doing code enforcement at the same time and so therefore that's the savings instead of sending two people there at two different times or sending two people there at the same time to do two different things but that's assuming that there's a Code Enforcement issue at that res sometimes it won't be it won't be they won't be mixed sometimes it'll be just solid sometimes it'll be just code enforcements and sometimes it'll be mixed together but no matter what you do if you if any of this becomes code enforcement it has to be allocated out of that budget which is not funded for next year at at any increase than what it is now so and and and I'm afraid that we're already a little under budgeted in that department depending on what happen happens with the building official position the the just the how are our building permits fees how are our permit fees set as far as how do we determine what the fees are because those are used to right to re so we have a fee schedule that that we use that I I I believe it was approved by the board probably some time ago long time ago yes never a good time to to try to increase those fees but um this may be the worst time to try to do that but yes if we if we want to increase the Staffing in that department then yes the permit fees could be increased to help offset that those could be increased or other things reduced right lab wrong if it's a landfill Solid Waste inspector if you want him to be something else that need to be changed does it correct so we would have to change the job description to include code enforcement and right but I I think we're just you had the same person working that same job can you wear two towels at one time yes I believe so okay didn't if both come out of mstu you said that one no so the the the landfill inspector portion of the job would come out of solid waste and has traditionally been funded like full-time salary and benefits in the past say that 10% of this person's job would be code enforcement then then 90% of the you know we would have to change the job description yes 90% would come from Solid Waste 10% would come from MS to you okay well can we just assign that amount of time since we don't know look like that's unknown to me how time you be spent correct that was one of my points I have no idea but um yes it could be assigned but my concern is we didn't budget for that and it may be a minimum impact I I just it's I just don't want to to say yes you know we can do this I'm not and then come back to you and say guess what we're out of money so this just a discussion anyway right yes sir okay just a discussion great but I think even beyond that um what has changed since we started talking about this is that um our that front office which is the only place I know that person could work is very crowded it's very chaotic right now um if this person could be housed um out you know in the same place I'll be happy I mean I don't is that place we going to put this person we going to get the Grant from no those are two totally different positions but he won't be that person won't be in the front office yes that's my concern it's going to get quite crowded up there but I think they'll be so busy they won't be sitting down much I mean we'll just we'll have to figure that out but that would increase the presence in now the inspector would be out in the field quite a bit but the permit Tech would would be there and would provide backup for our for Miss lietta and um and work side by side with her which we desperately [Music] need my suggestion is to things the way they are change the job description so this person can um report any enforcement issues what going about our business we can move we need do we need that you say we need the but again if you're changing the job description to include code enforcement and they're going to be doing code enforcement responsibilities you're going to have to identify some of that some of their expenses for their salary to be charged out of MST if they're doing that work work whatever that percentage turns out to be which I think we can determine job easy the hard part really is just know like take home you know managing another person they wouldn't they wouldn't report to me they would report to the building official when we hire he or she and I can have more discussion with the tax collector I mean to see if we can iron out you know some of these questions that I have I don't I mean I certainly want to help him and and yes if it would help in the long run to have you know to try to you know have that capability for code enforcement and you know it's more eyes out in the county I don't I don't disagree with that I think we all probably like the idea in the beginning so why don't we do that why don't we just talk to you and the tax collector maybe get together and give it another sta okay we go look at that too like maybe come up with a percentage and kind of see what the cost are for each for each one that's he's going to kind of know what the work is on that is our code enforcement person so busy that help I don't and don't they work time they're not they're not going out and qu me wrong they're not going out and looking for any code enforcement they just wait call well I don't know how much waiting they're doing but it complaint driven and that's either from the public or the staff if the staff has issues that we're aware of we will engage the code enforcement officer and um you know um one thing I will do and I now that I'm thinking about it I will and I probably should have already done this but I've been distracted I'll go back and see because we have two part-time Code Enforcement Officers I'm going to I'll go back and see what kind of percentages of time you know they're spending and how many hours and what we budgeted and see if there's any wiggle room at all for right now because um you know this is kind of the off time for our vote ramp person and I mean I'll take another look at that as well I just haven't had I just haven't thought about that until now and see if we're utilizing every hour that's budgeted or not all right move on to item six the board of discuss recommitted action items from Adams and Reese LLP planning Grant report so if you recall um when Miss Laura Della made her presentation to the board there was an executive summary that was provided to us and um Mr Kate um was very helpful and basically put this in a format for us a table um to try to make sure that we remember that there are action items that came out of this environmental assessment so you should all have a copy of this in your in your packet but um basically there are two pages I think of followup items and um I guess really we just I just want to make sure that the board is in agreement with the assignments that are that are on this table um and I think the obvious concern that we have is that the recommendation from Miss Della was that several of these items be assigned to an environmental consultant which we do not have um now one and and we all understand the budget shortfalls that we are going to be facing so something that we could possibly do is we still we still have um a grant that we have not finalized with the Department of Commerce um to to move forward with a an with a plan moving forward um which originally was just from the mill closure now we've had multiple disasters and I think the scope is a little bit larger so as far as as those Grant funds I think that we could do is we could add to the scope of work this monitoring that the environmental consultant would be doing on our behalf and see if Commerce agrees with that scope of work and we can use funds out of that Grant to pay for that um at least for the next little while now what I don't know is how long you know what period of time this this monitoring um will be because the from what I understand and maybe Bob you can help me this this closure period could last for years correct yes it could Oho I'm Bob Kate I believe I've met you all let me just see if I can address that and maybe touch on one more thing would that be okay sure absolutely not trying to take it over I just trying to help you can um you can have it George Pacific announced a shutdown enclosure of the mill and the demolition of the mill and then that all kind of stalled with the running of the tall o plant and everybody's heard about they're going to run the toil plant that think of like one/ two 200th of the mill is going to run that allows them to kind of defer the demolition so where they're at as of last week they have the demolition contractor on site they're doing the asbest assment there's asbest all over that Mill and it's known where it was but for a demolition they have to take the ownership so they have to know where it is and they're canvasing All That So the plan is they're going to run the toll oil plant concurrent with the initiation of Demolition and then when the demolition gets to such there's lots of stuff you can demolish before you hit the toall plant but when you get to the toall plant it'll go down the mill currently the mill manager that's currently there believes that'll be 6 to 12 months from now when the tall oil plant will go down it's probably a 2-year process to demolish the mill so assuming that this starts and they're saying first or second quarter of 2025 we're probably looking at 24 months or first and second quarter of 2027 the monitoring when it finally is down though the closure plan has to have been fulfilled and so the thinking and I support this I didn't come to because you needed a vote but I do support this thought process we have funds for a strategic plan for the county you're the elected officials and I am not but it is strategic for this County that that Geor Pacific site be in a sellable mode when they're through it is not in a sellable mode today yeah and so to me it's a natural and not an expensive piece of this was just monitoring what they're already required by law to do it doesn't mean you're doing it yourself someone's looking over their shoulder checking doing records requests those things but I think it is a piece of this what's the Strategic plan for Taylor County that a little piece of that bucket should go towards this environmental monitoring so that when that Mill is fully down closed demolished and available for sale you as the Commissioners have the confidence that it was done right it's done properly and it's unencumbered when it comes time for it to sell so I want to thank you for asking my opinion and that's probably got more than you wanted to hear no it's perfect and I will say the timing is so first of all when we went through the study um the the environmental piece of this the assessment piece was included in that scope of work and then it was subbed out to um to what is the name of to his firm I forget to his firm and I don't remember I don't remember the name of it but anyway um so that worked out very well for us I don't think I could be wrong but if we incorporate that into the strategic planning portion with the same funding agency um especially since it was part of this the assessment I would hope that that would be something that was approved by Commerce I could be wrong but I think it would be very simple and Mr Kate is more eloquent than I am but I think it would be simple to incorporate that into the scope um and and just move forward with it I agree so um no but it was a small portion of the initial no I don't I don't especially I don't know how long this will have to go on so that does I think we spoke briefly about this I mean it could could this go on for years is it you know the whole the whole shut down process is how many years it's got to be done by the time to through through so I'd say it's 24 months from when they start I'd say that's first or second quarter of 2027 so what I'll I'll have to do is try to get some idea of how to assign a cost to that portion um and I um but that's something that I can work with um Mr Bella on or Mr Cade or even Chad I mean just to get some kind of idea of how to budget for that but I think that's you know that's that's something that we can certainly figure out bring it back okay well what I'll do is I'll work on the scope of work once the grant agreement is complete I'll bring the grant agreement back to the board that will be if if they agree that will be part of that and then I'll ask for approval at that time if that's okay okay thank [Applause] [Music] you discuss the EMS contract so Dan and I have been discussing the EMS contract for several months um and that in January will start the the the the last final year of the contract and so we just wanted to you know get the board's opinion on how to move forward with with EMS operations because originally and things were very different than and and I realized that originally there was some interest from the board in in the county running EMS or running a dual service um I don't know if if if y'all are still interested in that if you are if there's any interest in the county running any part of that service we need to start planning for it now there will be Capital expenses you know we have to figure out if if it's possible to run a dual service or a standalone EMS service I mean there are a lot of moving pieces that we would have to get started on very quickly so we just didn't want too much time to to slip by and then realize that we did not allow ourselves enough time to plan for running an EMS service if that's what the board wishes um we certainly need to know the um projected cost of that and also uh we have to consider the workforce where are you going to get the workforce from that's going to be here stay here that to me is a huge concern and and that was a concern originally um when we when Dan and I were discussing I think the capital investment was a concern I had um and Dan has a tendency to be more optimistic with with running this type of service and of course he has the experience but you know that's still a little bit of a concern is how are we going to recruit dual certified firefighter you know Medics or or whatever and but you know it's not uncommon in rural areas for counties to run their own service um it is certainly more convenient um I will say and maybe more practical for us to contract it out and I think up until the last year generally speaking we've been very happy with with the provider um and I I know the last year you know there has been some dissatisfaction but that is really um The Joy I'll call it of going out for proposals because I would expect more than one service to respond and and you know provide a bid for that um I would expect for it to increase um just because was why wouldn't it um I think the $15 an hour minimum wage had not had not quite gone into effect when we received the original contract or they the price would have been larger than what it is now um Dan has been talking a little bit about you know running you know maybe the county taking over the service and in the South End of the county and trying it that way but that has its own inherent optic I would say and I don't know that we could 100% take over EMS even with a gear to prepare without that Capital expense I mean it would it would be a lot to to take on would say if the board chose that you say that's the direction we want to go is to run our own service I personally I think a phased in approach is the best way to do that um not saying we're going to do it all in that first year saying let's take this one bite at a time to defer out our our Capital cost to limit how many people we have to hire on and then really get our feet underneath us before we would go to that next step make sure our billing everything is secured and ready to go and then it also gives us that safety net of saying if we're not running the entire County and we still have say say we extended the century you know they they're still in County you know it's it's you know both we you know we can we have a safety net both ways if they start slacking up maybe we can pick up on our side where for some reason we had issues you know we have that option there um but that's if the board wanted to go with a county run option I would suggest like said a phased in approach not a not a jumping in with both feet I've got so many concerns about this so many concerns and the organization that we have now has it been perfect no it hasn't been perfect but with everything that's going on with the county right now now I just don't feel like we need to take this on even You' have to somehow know proof to me and I don't know that you could that it would actually save enough of money that it would be worth it in the long run particular when you just don't know where you're going to get these people to uh from to work and stay here and it's just um I I don't think I'm interested in County taking over this responsibility at this time let's get through some of the crises that we're going to be facing and and then perhaps look at it but I I just don't don't want to do this if I can add like I am by no means not trying to sway the board one way or the other the the coming forward is if the board said this is what we want to do we need time to make that happen if you say you know what just go out to contract again you know we're happy let's try to get another 3 years and we'll reev wait I I have no issues with it one way the other I just if you want us to build out a service we can't do it with only six months you know it's going to take every bit of a year to make something some level of that happen and I do think it would take a matter of years to recover um to to I guess make enough money to um to pay back that initial investment it's not impossible but um we may not we may or may not charge as much as if for-profit company but we would have to charge enough to cover our cost and that may be difficult that's it would we be looking at just putting it out for bid or just renewing uh I no I think we need to I my recommendation would be that we put it out for bid and see what's out there and see how many companies um will respond I think we need to put it up for bid as quick as possible I had a lot of issues with the group we have now I've had a lot of complaints and yall probably have too we need to get it out for bid I'm in no way want to take over the county to take am service again I can before yall got here there was some issues me and fam saying and uh I mean there that with this budget crunch we got we don't need to be taken on no more projects I would agree with commissioner M I think it comes down to affordability and I don't think we can afford it that's just bottom line understand I would support an RFP to understand what the process would look like going forward but I certainly would be open to uh the competitive side of other companies seeking out the option but I I don't believe you could recoup your call in the capital expenses in 10 years plus what looking at what today's prices are for the equipment and and the Staffing is a whole another issue of not being able to retain or recruit folks in that condition and and I would say understanding how agencies that serve across the region or across the state can spread those CS in the different markets and to me I think at this point that that makes the most practical sense and the the greatest approach for what we're facing Mr chairperson now I I will say I don't know that another company would be willing to make an investment the same capital investment for only a three-year contract we ran into that last time so we can propose a three-year contract maybe a threeyear with two with two one extensions but I don't I don't they may not I don't want to limit the interest knowing that them knowing that it will take more than 3 years for them to recoup their investment one of the things that Mr midy said is true if you're going to go out for a bid you need to go do it right right away there's another reason and that reason is what if you didn't get any bids you got to have the service that's why you need to do it well we have we have until January of next year well but if you don't get any bids just like the chief just said takes that long to um a long time for the board to be able to take it over you didn't have another option is what you're saying I think so that that's just I was just thinking about that the other thing is and I don't know whether y'all know it or not or or anybody's done any studies but what's uh what's the population of Taylor County now is it gone down yeah and how much has it gone down well why are you asking that it's because if it would be attractive for somebody for some company to um come in and don't forget wasn't Century up for sale it was sold it was so was sold two years ago so you're not dealing with the same folks maybe correct so like I said just keep that in the back of your minds I won't say anything else a couple of things we've already gone through that process of looking at what it would cost us to invest in this and set it up and at that time we were very firm that this was not something that we would be able to do and I don't know that anything has changed for the better since then if anything worse correct and and then the other thing um and yes commissioner Moody I've had calls we've all had calls but I haven't had calls lately but but 99% of the calls that I had was over this a facility transfers and and so you can't fult centy for that because we set it up in the contract that they would follow certain lifesaving criteria and this would be the this 1 2 3 four 5 six whatever it was this this is when you transfer and it's life saved and and a medical doctor is the one that helped with that criteria we that criteria up so you know and I've said before I think that it would be really good if our local hospital would take part of the 25% of the the onet sales tax that we give them and and and buy a van so that they could do these inner facility transfers and these people didn't have to wait so I I can't fault I can't fault centy for following what we set up in a contract other than that I haven't had had any any um I haven't had any cause with complaints I I did early on and that's when we were sharing with mayo and and our anlet would be out taking care of Mayo's business when it should have been here taking care of ours now I understand that when you have trauma and I believe that we should um help one another out but not on a routine basis to help them with their routine transfers we had no business doing that so I I like to keep it the way it is and B it as soon as possible all right I used them this morning they 15 minutes I use C but one of my neighbors there in 15 minutes service I know we all have problems and we all say things we shouldn't say and we all want to do things that we shouldn't do but most of us don't do what we need to do either I'm glad we had tell you right now if you look at the service that is provided now and you compare that commissioner Moody with what was going on before we got C now let breaking down side the road and all that stuff we are way better better off than we were we are better off but when they say they going to furnish a van to care somebody to gainville to Tass and it have to come from Lake City over here you know and the doctor saying this person needs to go to Gainesville the resident doctor out there saying he needs to go to Gainesville Tass the only option they had was to use a helicopter you know and some people couldn't afford the helicopter didn't have isurance well it just didn't that doctor it didn't fit the criteria that was established and and I don't believe it was in the contract that we said they had to have that transport um U vehicle here in town I think we kind of knew that it would be coming from somewhere else especially when it was in a what is named the I'm not a doctor so I do believe DR Floral is continuing to work on having that option I give credit for working forward and getting buiness go soon as possible we got that b up soon as possible on it board discuss permitting hours well as I expressed earlier our um building department our permit Tech our inspector are quite overwhelmed since since the storm and now that the recovery process is moving forward I believe they're issuing about 60 permits a week which is a lot and anytime you walk up front there is a line out the door um and the phone rings constantly which we you've already addressed that with additional help and I appreciate that so one of the issues that we're having now is that people want to be able to utilize an onlet line method to send in their permit applications and to receive their permits electronically which we have done for several years but because of our workload it is almost impossible for us to be able to spend any time during the day working on these online permits because it's not something you where you could interrupted constantly you need to be able to sit down and focus so our potential solution to the board would be to ask if we can close that department at 4:00 every day so we have an the last hour of the day to work only on emails and online permit applications this will keep people from having to travel from you know out of just immediate areas from other state St or other towns or even from Steen Hatchy but we don't feel like that we can effectively do that without having some time and we're suggesting at the end of the day because historically we're not as busy at the end of the day as we are at the beginning of the day I I realize that that this may cause a little bit of angst if people don't know and they come to the building department wanting a permit right then but I don't think we're functioning as effectively as we need to now so my question is if we can get the word out and make sure people know and I'm sure the newspaper will help us however we need to get the word out that at 4:00 that we we close that department to be able to focus on online permitting would you would you be in agreement with that can I make a recommendation that we think about maybe and see instead of doing right now see what difference these additional people are going to make and and and then give it a couple of weeks or so I'm not talking about forever I thought about that my only concern is even if they start advertising the positions tomorrow which they will there is it's still going to take it could take a matter of a couple of weeks if someone if someone applied the next day it still could be a week or two before you know they came to work and I don't know I don't know that how many people will apply I mean we may have applications all over the place the inspector position is more specialized so that may take harder to fill the tech we may get some interest quicker but we'll want to advertise it for at least you know a little bit of time so my only concern is if we don't do something you know pretty quickly that people are going to continue to be be very upset with us because we can't we can't get to we we can't issue these permits electronically or online that's that's my only concern have you have you had um part of the grants uh Department over here working helping with that out didn't you have Jamie over here for a while and maybe that's not recently only because of scheduled time off I mean that is a that's an option as well but but I don't I I don't I don't want to pull her over here any more than we have to because that takes away her time from what she's trying to do I mean and she will I mean she will fill in if I ask her to but then you know if somebody goes by her office and she's not there I mean I just I'm I mean I can do that yes but that is going to be pretty pretty short term did you ever look to see if there was any where here in town that you could place her so that she would be more convenient to help out when needed I have not been able to find another location um have you looked you had time well not a lot of time but I don't think we have I mean most of our locations were kind of at capacity there's and even I had even thought about trying to build an office in the library but they have so many things going on there that they do in that back room I just don't know how helpful that would be what about instead of shutting down an hour early maybe having the person someone to say an hour later well and and that's something that we have looked at but I would say that our staff has obligations to their family that would make that difficult um because we I mean and and I think there has been some of that but um one other possibility I'm open to the option of online permits I think it's I think it should be absolutely moving forward um but could those folks report early instead of saying late if if the issue is is commited so I mean the the I guess the question is is twofold the question is you know what are the effects of the additional hour or whatever that workload looks like and absolutely uh folks don't need to be hindered from going to church but if you if you're able to come in earlier to look at you know when things aren't as busy and you haven't gotten frazzled and all the rest of those things that you can focus on that because the consideration for me comes down to this I think over the next 60 days there's going to be quite a demand for permits and reconstruction and things like that which AR a bad thing you know but the longer that we wait in respect to online and folks are getting into that phase and if you were to close earlier I see that being a real um a real issue because folks are going to be travel a long way travel from wherever and then here we are at 4:00 close so um I think I think the additional time is is warranted and and I would just like to understand if it's possible if staff could take care of that an hour early in those particular days to put the option there so that you can you can process I think that will cause a hardship with getting children to school but I I will ask and see if that's that's a potential he saying is if they get to close our early and work in their office they might speed up the process by taking care of the paperwork and stuff and and we could advertise good enough people to know not that they going to be closed at 4:00 it might speed the process up for them to have time to be in there working on what all the paperwork they got to do to to be able to help people and I mean they can't they can't they can't help anybody they can't understand a lot of stuff and research stuff if they got a line standing in front of them and people Ste the phone rings all the time over there now from from 8:00 in the morning to they walk out the door the phone phone still ringing so if we advertise good enough uh and give them an hour to catch up and get their duction R for the next day and I can accomplish more what I'm saying with that exra hour and we are blessed to even have a building inspector right now we don't want to push him into the situation where he walks out the door and then where we at we have close time I mean we need to give them as much breathing room as we can I mean we taken a chance you know Mr Bobby could say goodbye and then we'd be there we'd be you'd have to hire somebody and it take a while to get somebody contractor and it cost you three times as much money so we better work with them if they need that extra hour to get their paperwork done I'm I'm for doing that myself that's me I just don't know how you get the word out one or two that might come in at or 5 between 4 and 5:00 and don't cause confusion we have Services there and uh I think I think you know maybe we're a little bit short-handed I sure would hate for that to be the an issue to the public I I understand that my only concern is that we can't we just can't accomplish um the on online permitting and permitting in any type of of fashion and I and that's just my concern we are I mean it is studed one permit after the other after the other after the other you know it's it's difficult to take a lunch break or get any type of break I love a lot more people can be more efficient with the online applications and you online permitting for sure right but unfortunately you may have less of those than you have people actually walking in the door and that's a possibility so I me don't want to put any of it on hold but the last thing you want to do is sh the doors for any period of time so the the message that might go out would be that you letting people know that you're you're you may receive faster Services by coming in that the amount of people that we have coming through the door we're not able to get to the online applications as quick as we can if you're in front of us that I don't really want to shut down somebody want to do an online application but maybe let them know that the process could be delayed and I think the I mean we are I think those are I mean I just don't think we can get to them right now because we are processing so many permits one after the other after the other after the other that we can't even get to the online permit or the electronic the email permit applications because there's no there's no breathing room now again that's why I asked for these additional positions but I just think that until we get some relief that somebody's going to have to wait and you know I hate for someone to drive from Jacksonville or Tampa and all the way over here because the waiting period for you know that's online permit is just not acceptable to them of course I mean everyone wants to enter recovery mode and they want to start building back or do whatever they have to do and at some point it will ease up but I just don't think it's going to be anytime soon I certainly consider bringing jeny over and uh put a just put a a note on her door and and she's familiar with the process I would certainly utilize her on a you know not forever but to get you through this Crunch and especially until you get these new people and you may need her even then but um that to me I would rather do that than to have somebody to drive up here from Steen Hatchy or out of town think and we're up until 5 I don't want to get that phone call I understand I mean we were just trying to come up with some some way to accommodate everyone so we'll explore some other options I I understand what you're saying I just I I know that some at this point some people are unhappy because we just can't we just can't get to them efficiently and I've got one other thing and I was going to bring this up at the end but it seems appropriate now um on Thursday Thursday's the 31st right yeah okay so on Thursday is when that time runs out where we're um doing these electrical permits with no fee that was on my list probably one one reason why a lot of people are rushing in here and at being there's no power down there yet so I was going to recommend that we extend uh that deal until maybe December the 1st and you know just extend it where you can still get the permit with no charge and that might help too and and that was actually next on my list to ask about if that's something the board's interested in I can just put it on the next agenda under consent and we can and we can move forward just to extend through the end of November for storm related permit fees okay we just do we do a March meeting after this and go ahead and do that so that people aren't confused that no I think well what we did no we can communicate that and what we did last time was I I authorized it and then came back to the board because it was like a few days and and the board approved it and we were done with it when we meet Monday we meet Monday okay yeah no time lapse folks can still get the way for that's what we did um that's what we did last yeah okay Bo to discuss damaged assets from Hurrican so I really just wanted to we just really wanted to provide the board with the current list of storm damage and what poor Mara is working on with the insurance company and also is going on our our FEMA damage inventory list um really the um this third page is what I want to draw your attention to anything that says TurnKey recovery um and we did this with a Dalia it was very effective but that means that the insurance company is basically taking care of everything everything for us it has been a huge blessing um they obtain any necessary permitting if they need to bring in an engineer or an architect they do that they get quotes they use local labor labor it is an absolute Lifesaver um so there's TurnKey recovery and then there's something called TurnKey member direct so TurnKey member direct is is projects that we don't feel will need the deductible but what Synergy has done has come in and perform mitigation and make that building or that facility um stabilized it so there's no continued leaking or or anything like that or if you know there's something falling down um they take it the rest of the way down whatever they have to do to stabilize that building so um probably on the next agenda I'll be bringing um I'll put on the agenda some some form that need to be signed for this TurnKey recovery because we do have to pay the deductible but we would have to pay it anyway um so really I just wanted to bring it to your attention I think the a couple of the buildings that have the worst damage is the courthouse we do not have that estimate back um I am hoping that the insurance company will put a new roof on the building but it the deductible for the courthouse is I believe half a million dollars so um um we're waiting to see what those assessments come in at um there was some damage to the airport terminal there was some damage out of the sports complex um and then of course our recycled building had considerable damage and we do not have those cost estimates in yet because they are bringing in are they bringing in an engineer an architect I can't remember an engineer um so we're still waiting on that so this is just really informational for the board so you know you know what what kind of Damages we're looking at what the deductible is and what um they feel like the cost of the repairs are and of course we'll you know we will file for FEA reimbursement which is a whole another process um but again I think the majority of the damage from Helen obviously was down at the coast we don't even have those estimates in yet for and then we don't have estimates for property in the open right which is things like fences it's mainly fencing um like gazebos anything that's associated with their location so um our insurance company is working through this process now this is just where we are so so y'all are aware so if y'all if y'all have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out and we'll do the best we can but you know it it's it's going to take I mean we're still working on repairs from Adalia um so it is a process thank you thank you I have one more question um I believe that was the last item um something that and this is not on the agenda but it's just a thought I have at what point now that you know we're a month into recovery from the storm you know we're kind of getting a handle on the damages we're trying to move forward at what point would would the board like to start discussing you know this Revenue loss that we know that we'll be facing and do you want to start scheduling workshops do you want to do it now do you want to wait until you know we tradition we traditionally don't have workshops in November and December but we could I just I just need some feedback we always talked about in the past maybe doing something you know obviously sooner than later but and I think in the past we might not have really met right advance but I would think that uh for sure the first of the year would be we we put it on the schedule than we should like it happen you want to start having planning workshops say in January yeah or or I give you the best information I me more time to gather current losses I mean I think that as we you know as we gather information we can make information available to the board so you know we can certainly provide updates during board meetings or you know some of these some of these figures but um I I don't I just don't want to start a process that um you know we really can't give our full attention to and I know the holidays are a long way away but they'll be here before you know it um I than youone you had some time to build some data right as the recovery process moves on I don't think we have the full picture of of loss of homes down at the coast I mean I know we have a general idea of how many homes were lost what we don't have is homes maybe that have more than 50% and and you know will not be rebuilt that is may take a little bit more time and may give us a better idea we need to include the should do so be part of it yeah I I you know I'm sure that everybody's been getting the same calls that I have um and you know when we talk about tonight how many permits that people are here getting can you do you know what the majority of the permits are for are they for new home construction or pole bars um or what so I think the majority now are probably electrical permits and Roofing permits there are some demolition I would I would expect some permits for demolition because we do require permits for demolition because that's really the way to communicate that information to the Property Appraiser's office so it will be taken off the tax roll um I I I know there's been a lot of discussion at the front counter about Ares and pole barns um and electrical service for those um but I I don't I don't know how many I I would say um the majority of the conversations that I've heard about have been folks saying that once they understand the process to rebuild or once they get information back from their insurance company or if they did not if they were not insured um I think what I'm hearing is um and I don't have numbers to back this up but my general enal sense is a lot of people are stating that they will not be rebuilding that they will you know they will put up a pole bar and they will have an RV now that gets into a whole another realm of full-time you know RV sites versus vacation sites um I think that one of the processes that we need to go through is familiarizing ourselves with with FEMA guidance at the co line um I know there have been some questions about that and how it will be or won't be enforced um so that probably needs to be a discussion that we have you know when we when we go through this right you know the well I've had a lot of people to tell me they're not going to rebuild they either can't most of them can't afford it I can understand by the time you go up 20 21 there's a few people that just they've had enough yes um and then I've had quite a few people to call me I had another call this afternoon of people wanting to know how we're going to make up the revenue shortage and certainly you know before this disaster we we were already so worried about what we were going to do now we have insult on the injury so to speak and and these budget talks that you're talking about I'm just want I'm just wondering if we should have these sooner than later I don't know I'm just asking a question um and I'm so mixed on all of this I mean you know I I'm very mixed um we certainly can't expect a few people to make up that shortfall um and you know there's concerns that uh what the coast will look like and and then you know there's people that well we've lived here our whole life and we own a piece of property there and no we don't want to buy sell that and buy another piece of property down the road so we don't have water access I've got property right there next to a canal and I want to put my boat dock there and you know I'm hearing all kind I know y'all are too you're hearing all kind of stuff but um if we're going to start talking about how we're going to deal with all this I'm just I'm just wondering you know should we should we wait or or should we go ahead and start maybe having meetings just asking I mean I whatever the will of the board is I mean I I said first of the year just give us time to get through some of this recovery and give us a better picture of what maybe maybe even give our property a pra time to give give a better picture on that side of what things may look like but if there's some data out there that makes sense I just don't want to go and just Ram along that's not really have any factual information that we're talking about so I mean if we got factual information that's good for it but if we it's better to give it a little time to gather some data than maybe first of the year would be a good time whatever I anything pretty much I do think you have greater accuracy what the DAT set the frame [Music] Tire you saying I believe it's a greater likelihood that there would be more accurate information if you had the first of the year we'll be worked through the building department as to what is actual not what's a projection it will be time for folks to have removed their debris there's still people put debris by the road and what and what are they going to do they don't they haven't gotten that point because they haven't talk with buildings on them and they haven't heard back from their insurance folks I was in a meeting last night well that's still ongoing so um if it's going to be a productive meeting as far as uh real accurate information I'm certainly not opposed to that but I I just know of a host of folks that that aren't to that place because they're they haven't gotten to that phase and Recovery we we're going to do a meeting in January they G every one time we kind of put out there that we're going to really start the thoughts that people can really start Gathering some pretty concrete data to have by that by that time of the first meeting and we can I'm okay to wait we got something to talk about something and really I I feel like I've lost an entire month or longer with this storm I was shocked when I realized I don't even know what happened to October but you know November is right on top of us so that gives us November and December to have the greatest um the most accurate data and and you know and then maybe it won't feel like it's kneejerk it you know we have some good numbers and some a plan moving forward really kind I've said it years now not just over hurricanes and meal closures but I'm G say it again people really need to be thinking about constitutional officers everybody of what they can cut before we go to ad I just I've just I've said it for two years and there's not really been anything and folks really need to look at what they can cut and not say well we just got to add it to this we just got to uh increase folks taxes and get it from the citizens I think it's going now this is just leanda talking I think it's going to have to come from several sources I think you will have to look at you know revenue from taxes revenue from other sources um we may have to look at the services that are provided um I I think it's going to take all of that to make up the the deficit that we're facing agree but I don't want to go in and increase and not be able to show that we come to I I I agree and I understand I where this a the Dynamics are different yes for sure going to be different I don't think we're going to be able to make it all up what's that I don't think we're going to be able to make up this shortfall not in just cuts but no not in just cuts you're not going to make short his Cuts but something's got something have to go away else you guys in the back you guys I didn't want I see you guys here if here for a reason that maybe we just came to get some information and just F the PO for you doing we're part of IMT here and that's working in the EOC so we just came over today just to hear you know that's a lot of accur right Incident Management team I'm sorry lot of acronyms in our line of work but we're just here helping out in the county and stuff and we just wanted to come and hear this you know where you was going so we can going to help and serve you in working with ELC here in your county and stuff so that was it for us we didn't have anything to add to it at all thank you guys if you guys anything just yes sir thank you got a mandate bring some compensation sir yes sir I muted