WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=oBZnNlRT2oI

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: oBZnNlRT2oI):
- 00:00:15: Pre-Meeting Sounds and Anticipation for Valuchia Council
- 00:09:29: Official Welcome and Meeting Preparation Announcement
- 00:12:42: Instructions for Public Comment and Speaker Introduction
- 00:15:08: Crystal Wells: Request for Dand Little League Support
- 00:19:08: Gregory Renzac: Concerns About Proposed Truck Plaza
- 00:21:48: Connie Colby: Parking, Bathrooms, and Road Improvements
- 00:24:11: Lynn Peterson: Concerns Over Development and Water Usage
- 00:27:16: John Nicholson: Anti-Semitism, Inaccurate Reporting, and Screens
- 00:30:37: Mike Ponyattowski: Danny Wimmer and Ocean Center Success
- 00:32:23: Amy Munisi: Debunking Septic System Upgrade Misinformation
- 00:35:22: Cat Pante: Beach Passes and Vehicle Registration Integration
- 00:36:43: Agenda Approval and Consent Agenda Vote
- 00:38:12: Hurricane Milton CDBGDR and Voluchia Forever Purchase
- 00:40:26: Public Comment on Valuchia Forever Purchase, Riverbend Ranch
- 00:45:20: Opposing Arguments on Spending and Support For Riverbend Ranch
- 00:50:40: Motion Passes for Riverbend Ranch, Staff Congratulations
- 00:52:37: Reasonzoning Quasi-Judicial Hearing A1 to A2
- 00:55:22: Votran Mini Budget Presentation: Service Level Changes
- 01:04:56: Votran Public Input, and A1A Trolley System
- 01:11:56: Paratransit Fare Concerns and Financial Savings Discussion
- 01:23:25: Efficient Operation, Public Transit, and Votran
- 01:31:52: Consensus for a Fair Vote, General Fund Savings
- 01:34:40: Concerns About VoRide Competition With Private Sector
- 01:42:59: Given Changes, Board Siding with Matt Regarding Costs
- 01:49:00: Motion Passes, Followed by Discussion about Next Steps
- 01:49:25: Impact Fees and Accessory Dwelling Units Discussion
- 02:05:29: Discussion on Term Limits for County Advisory Boards
- 02:11:27: Board Term Limits, and the Lack of Volunteers
- 02:18:22: Motion Made to Limit all Board Memberships to 8 Years
- 02:21:45: John Nicholson: Too long on Boards and Affordable Housing
- 02:25:25: Mike Ponyattowski: Creek Crossing, DRC Staff, and Land Preservation
- 02:27:07: Meeting Details, Budget Info, and Ocean Center Concert
- 02:32:03: Questions, Concerns, and Board Member Appreciation


Part: 1

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Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Welcome to the Valuchia. County Council meeting. The meeting will begin in 10 minutes. Hey, hey, hey.

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Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey,

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hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Hey, hey,

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hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Hey

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hey hey, hey, Hey hey hey, hey, Hey hey hey, hey,

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Welcome to the Valuchia County Council meeting. The meeting will begin in 5 minutes. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Yeah.

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Hey. Hey. I believe. Yeah. Hey. Hey. I think it behind you. Baby,

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do it. Welcome to the Valuchia County Council meeting. The meeting will begin in 2 minutes. We have a lot of participation. So, we will ask you to keep to the 3 minutes and you will see a timer on the uh uh

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monitor in front of you and the screen above my head first this morning. And also, if you would just tell us where you live in the county. We don't need to give you a precise address for safety reasons, but let us know what uh uh city or area you're from so that your

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representative up here is aware. First, we have Linda Crystal Wells. You get to go first. Good morning, council members. My name is Crystal Wells. I live in Dand, Florida. I am here representing the Land

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Little League, an organization that is not just a sports program, but a cornerstone of youth development in Valuchia County. Right now, we serve over 640 children, and we expect to have

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over 700 kids this spring alone. That makes us one of, if not the largest and most affordable youth sports program in the entire county. We are a 100% volunteer-run nonprofit organization.

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Every dollar we raise goes right back into providing opportunities for kids, many of whom would not otherwise be able to participate. But despite our growth and impact, we are facing a critical challenge. We do not have a sufficient home. We currently

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operate with only three official fields and are forced to rent additional county fields just to meet basic demand for games. These fields are often spread far apart, 45 minutes between locations on any given night.

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And that distance is doing real damage to families. Parents are being forced to make impossible choices. Which child gets to play that night? Because they simply cannot be in two places at once. Siblings who should both be on the field

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are instead taking turns sitting out. And the financial burden is real as well. In my own family with two boys in the program, we are spending between $120 and $180 every single week as

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volunteer coaches. Not on extras, but simply to rent county fields so our teams have a place to practice. This is a direct cost of not having adequate field space. And it is not just affecting families. It's affecting our

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ability to run the league. Because we rely on volunteer coaches. And when potential coaches see the time, travel, and financial commitment required just to hold a practice, many simply can't say yes. That limits our opportunities for our kids even further. We are at a

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breaking point. We are asking for your help in two key ways. First, help us address the rising cost and access to county field rentals so we can remain accessible and affordable for families across Valuchia County. Second, we more

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importantly, please partner with us to secure land and build a permanent home for Dand Little League. We serve children from across surrounding communities, Deltona, Orange City, Lake Helen, Deleon Springs, and beyond. We host teams from all over Valuchia County

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who otherwise would not get to play. A permanent complex would allow us to bring outside community teams in and make an economic impact for our community. Help us build a home where no family has to choose between their children, where volunteers can say yes without financial

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strain, and where every child has the opportunity to play. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. You have been heard. Um, Gregory Renzac. Good morning. My name is Gregory Renac and I live in the Crest Windland retirement community. Over the last few

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months, several members of our community have addressed this council on various topics related to the proposed truck plaza that will be on East New York Avenue Service Road. Specifically, we have discussed impacts on traffic,

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emergency services, safety, noise, and a few other concerns. In the past, most members of this council have expressed concerns about flooding and wetland protection. Today, I'd like to address the impact on these areas of concern.

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The site for the proposed plaza is in a 100red-year flood plane and is designated as a FEMA flood zone A. It includes both wetlands and forest reserves and sits directly at top the Florida aquifer. To build this truck plaza with the

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extensive amount of imperous surface that would be required, there are two alternatives. the developer could bring in hundreds or thousands of cubic yards of fill followed by acres of paving. This would completely destroy

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the uh wetlands and disrupt the flood plane and would require the inclusion of sufficient compensating storage for flood water for which there is no adequate space outside of the flood plane. Alternatively, the plaza could be

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elevated above the flood flood plane and wetlands. While this would partially mitigate the impact of the flood plane to be sturdy enough to support the weight of potentially hundreds of vehicles, it would still disrupt the natural flow of water in the area. Due

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to the topography in the area, this disruption would could result in flood water spillover into the adjacent Crest Windland community. In addition, with all this elevated pavement above the flood plane, the wetlands flora and

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fauna would still likely die from lack of sunlight. An elev elevated structure like this would require the installation of a large number of pilings in the unstable soils that lie that typically lie beneath flood planes. The weight and vibration from hundreds of semi-truckss

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per day could result in significant risk of structural failure. This is exactly why Mr. Klay Iran, the former Valuia County Director of Growth and Resource Management, indicated during a January 2025 meeting with the county council that the primary goal of the county's

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comprehensive plan is not to build on flood planes. We are not opposed to development, but there needs to be consideration as to whether a specific development will benefit the community or harm it. Thank you for your consideration.

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Thank you. Uh Connie Colby, you will be followed by Lynn Peterson. Good morning, Connie Colby, Orman Beach, District 4. I just have some odds and ends here that are things I've thought about over the time. Um first of all,

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parking here when we come for the meetings on in the morning. Um, is there any way to validate tickets or anything? Because sometimes you go longer. At lunchtime, we get three hours and they strike your give you a ticket if you're

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still parked there. Um, uh, as far as another issue, any extra places around the second floor where you might be able to put in a bathroom. Um, the only bathroom here is downstairs and takes a little time to get down there and back.

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um roads. I wanted to thank the I think his name is Tad. I don't want to slaughter his last name. Um we have had construction on Hand Avenue and Williams Williamsonville Boulevard in the Norman

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Daytona area and we've been very fortunate because traffic has not been interrupted at all while that's been going on. So appreciate that a lot. Um, the only other thing I would like to ask, um, a while ago you're talking

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about Avalon Park and coming into Orman Dayton area on Hand Avenue, long bridge over a lot of wetland that's going to cost the county a lot of money. Um, since then, we have a little stub of

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road going Strickland Range that's going out towards 95. Um, I would like the county to think about using Strickland Range instead of Hand Avenue, which keep the traffic in Daytona rather than up

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towards No, um, Orman Beach. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments, Lynn Peterson. And you'll be followed by John Nicholson. >> Good morning. My name is Lynn Peterson. I live just uh north of the land. So my

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address is the land. Um, Chairman Brower and Councilman, I've already preemptively written to each of you and those also on the zoning board about a proposed 175 house development on an 85 acre

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um parcel um which is partially wooded and um the greater part of it a field west of 15A. There are always real and legitimate objections to enormous dense developments. Light noise, light, light

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pollution, noise pollution, traffic, etc. This 85 acres is surrounded on three sides by two to 10 acre homesteads. Most have been there for decades. The fourth side is 15A. In

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addition to these um um noted objections, I am very concerned about water availability. All of the two to 10 acre homestead beds are on wells. Your council recently declined to embrace toilet to tap as a

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solution in Valuchia County. I get it. But we cannot act and build as if the aquafer is infinite. Even around the the Dand area, I count nearly 800 houses either approved or waiting for approval

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to be built. It feels catastrophic. I am a forester and wildlife biologist by training. Having worked for both the US Forest Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, I know that the loss of our um more wildlands is

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unsustainable. We just cannot pave and concrete over everything. And I know you know that as well. There are 82 trees that measure 10 to 36 in at breast height on one end of the field.

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The sorrow is that none of them are historic by Valuchia County standards which means they will all come down and replaced with houses. That is sorrowful. The other copes of trees is

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larger and more scattered, but there are some historic lie oaks in there with DBH's of 36 in or greater. I don't know what the comprehensive plan has to offer us in the way of growth control, but I am here to ask you to

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value those habitats and trees and regard them as essential, vital. Lastly, I would like to say to you, I know the state has hobbled your county control. What What do you need from us to help

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you retain as much influence as possible? We want our Valuchia County Council to decide what happens here, not the state. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, John Nicholson. John Nicholson, Daytona Beach. Uh, a

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couple of things. Uh, there's three, but I'll hold one till later. Um, Amy uh invited me to the land to the acidic uh community. They had an event for the children uh where they had to come up with a food item and market it. Um,

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walking into that uh, school with all the little rug rats running around really brought a smile to my face cuz it's been years since I taught. But the bad part was when we sat outside after we ate and in the conversation it came

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up that all of them, all the Jewish community was walking around carrying guns. I'm I'm sorry. I I don't comprehend guns. I don't use them. I don't have them. I've been offered them, but I don't. Uh, but to have an entire

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community, men, women, carrying guns just doesn't make sense. And they're saying, uh, that they fear, they have, uh, an overt fear of what's going on. And it just so happened that the day before, two people, two Jewish people walking in London were stabbed for no

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reason. Uh, we've had that in the United States in Washington. Jewish couple walking out of an event got killed. It does happen here. And and uh I had somebody at uh McDonald's when I was reading in the morning turn around and start talking about the Jewish

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conspiracy and how they this that and the other stuff. It it is getting out of hand. When you gave me the post at the library and I read it every day and they every single issue is about anti-semitism and what's going on, I'm like, "Oh yeah, okay." Because New York

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has a lot of Jewish people. Well, Valuchia County doesn't have a lot of Jewish people, but I don't want that kind of garbage happening here. So, I want to make everybody aware that those conversations are and if you ever hear anybody say it, shut it down right away because it it just feeds on itself. It

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really does. Um, secondly, you've seen the articles in the paper. Um, I just say it's it's not accurate. The papers are not accurate. Um the gentleman being fired was written up a

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dozen times. Uh he failed to show up at uh assignments four or five times. And on this event, he knowingly when he had the mandatory meeting, knowingly took an assignment 3 days before that um

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meeting. He knew he wasn't going to make the meeting and then he called up the day before and they tracked him. So he we that's a justifiable uh thing happening. So her thing with that u the televisions that you hear those aren't

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televisions those are monitoring screens state of the art. They pop up with where the location is. They show the house or the building that's on fire. They show a a map how to get there. It's a fantastic screen. We had to have those things. So what you read in the paper is not the

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whole truth. None of what's happened to Pecard the fire department is true. Thank you. Thank you, >> Mike Ponyattowski. Morning council, morning staff, morning citizens. Um, want to talk about something. Well, happy Cinco de Mayo. First and foremost, tomorrow is the 6th of May. What does the 6th of May have

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for Valuchia County? Tomorrow is our first day of Danny Whmer presents at the Ocean Center. Hope it's a big big success. It's the first foray of Danny sponsoring a concert. Blood forb Blood is playing tomorrow as a prelude to Welcome to Rockville. Great event. I've

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been there six times in the past. Um went to buy my tickets today for Blood for Blood. $43 for the cheap seats. $42 service fee. Very expensive. So I think it's going to be a little out of reach for folks because they're paying for that third person to come in service

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fees. But I really want it to be a success and I know you've allocated close to $40 million for ocean center renovations. Very important we get those done. We need to get the trusses beefed up so that we can bring the big shows here like we did way back when. Amy

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Grant, John Denver, Frank Sinatra, uh, Lover Boy, all those popular bands back in the 80s and 90s. We need to bring the popular groups back today. Florence and the Machine would fit in nicely at the Ocean Center. So, we need to support that going forward. And I hope Danny

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Whmer brings success to the Ocean Center. I know we're paying $180,000 a year for that contract over I think it's three years. It's very expensive, but I hope we get a return on the investment. So, let's support the Ocean Center. Buy your tickets for Blood for Blood. It's very important. Buy your tickets for all the events at the Ocean Center like I

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have over the past 40 years. It's been a long time, but thank you for listening. Have a great day. >> Thank you for your comments, Amy Manuzi. Amy Munisi to Leon Springs Community Association. Words matter and what we say matters and when we have a position of authority,

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people tend to listen to us and believe us. At the end of the last county council meeting, Mr. Brower said, quote, "The state is forcing homeowners in DeLeon Springs to spend $40,000 to $60,000 to get new septic systems." Does he know any homeowner in Deleon Springs

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who lives on one acre or less who's been forced to spend $40 to $60,000 to get a new septic system? No, he doesn't. Because an upgrade from a conventional to a pollution reducing septic system doesn't cost $40,000. He stated, quote, "Many people in Deleon

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Springs would just lose their homes if they were forced to completely redo their septic systems and drain fields. Does he know anyone in Deleon Springs who's lost their home from upgrading to a nitrogen reducing septic system?" No, because there aren't any people in

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Deleon Springs who've lost their homes by complying with the state mandate to reduce pollution to our DeLeon Springs springshed by upgrading their septic systems. So, here are the facts. Env environmental management director Ginger Adair has come before the county

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council on three occasions requesting approval for FD grants for Deleon Springs residents. On March 15, 2022, Ginger came before the county council seeking approval to submit an application to FD for a $ 1.1 million

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grant to provide rebates to Deleon Springs homeowners for residential septic system upgrades. Mr. Brower voted against our citizens getting those grants. In 2023, Ginger Adair came before the county council seeking approval to submit an application to FD

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for an additional $1.1 million to provide rebates to our citizens to upgrade their septic systems. That raised the total grant funding to $2.2 million and offered up to $14,000 for our homeowners to offset the upgrade cost.

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This allowed some of our citizens to actually upgrade at no charge. On March 3rd of this year, Gender and her department pursued and received a $375,000 upd FD grant. Additionally, community assistance offers owner occupied housing

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rehab grants of up to $20,000 to assist lowincome homeowners with the repair or replacement of housing components, including septic system upgrades. In the 80s, one of the largest underground fuel plumes in the state of Florida was discovered in Deleon Springs. On March

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15, 2022, water resources director Mike Olrich came before county council request requesting approval for additional grant fundies to construct water and wastewater lines for our commercial quarter. Mr. Brower voted against that. The DSCA, Inc. spent 15

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years working with Felia County FD and FDOT toward clean drinking water for our commercial quarter, pollution reducing measurements, cleanup of the decades old fuel plume, and safety and beautifification measures. >> We want to thank our councilman who vote

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for these things and support our community. Thank you. Cat pante slow the north blue. Um this is real quick, real simple. Our beach uh passes where the residents have to sign up in order to do it online. I was only

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able to do it with one vehicle when I was at the when there were people actually there working it and I find it difficult to do the online system. Our vehicle registrations are registered in Valuchia County. Is there any way that maybe when we register our vehicles each

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year that we're automatically updated with beach passes for Valuchia County residents to the vehicles that we own instead of doing a separate sign in where it can confuse people trying to log in and get a beach pass? And that's just my suggestion. Thank you.

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>> Thank you for your comments. Is there any um George, do you have any success locating our flag? >> Yes. It was moved for an award ceremony and it's on its way back. >> Thank you.

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>> Okay. Item one, approval of the agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? >> Motion to approve. Second. Vice Chair Reinhardt makes a motion to approve the agenda as written. The uh second I believe was from Councilman

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Robbins. >> Any questions? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? And the motion is approved six to zero. We'll check on Don when he gets back. Um item two is the consent agenda. Does any

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council member have an item that they would like to pull for a vote? >> Motion to approve. >> Does any uh any member have a uh item they would like to pull just for discussion after the vote?

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No. And the um consent agenda is voted for approval. The motion by Danny Robbins, second by Vice Chair Reinhardt. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I.

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>> Any opposed? And the consent agenda is approved. 620. Item three is an award of agreement for the CDBGDR implementation of construction services for Hurricane Milton. Motion to approve.

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Second. >> I didn't even see your lips move. Motion to approve uh by Councilman Robbins and second by David Santiago. Any uh discussion, questions for Donna

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Butler? No questions. Um all in favor say I. I. >> Motion is approved. Seven to zero. Thank you, Donna. >> Uh Don, >> that was an I on that last one.

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>> On the last one and the consent agenda as well. >> Yes. >> Approval. Thank you. So, we have seven votes for each item. >> Okay. >> Is Lonnie Irwin here?

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>> Lonnie, >> she said no. Okay. You don't need to speak. >> Okay. Didn't want to overlook you. Okay. Item four is the uh Valuchia Forever purchase of uh almost 1300 acres

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of environmentally sensitive land with 2 miles fronting the St. John's River. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. We have a motion to approve uh by Councilman Robbins

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and the second I believe came >> Okay. Motion to approve by Vice Chair Reinhardt. Second was by Danny Robbins. Um we do have members of the public who would like to speak. There is a motion

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on the floor to uh to approve this. So keep that in in mind. Um, pardon me. >> Talk us out of it. >> No. Uh, first up we have Melissa Thorne.

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>> Good morning, council. Melissa Thorne from Glenwood area of dand unincorporated land. Um, thank you for your approval of this. We need more approval of land through Valuchia forever. I think you would all agree

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land is sacred. It is God's land. He created it and we need to preserve it at all costs. If I had the money to purchase every single piece of property that was for sale, I would do it. But I implore you to continue to do what you

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do and approve it for the people forever. Thank you. >> Thank you, Joe Blog. Hi, I'm Joe Blog. Uh, I am the executive director of Mighty River Recovery. I just wanted to stop in and also uh

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express our organization's um uh thumbs up for the approval of this project. Um, you know, Mighty River Recovery is a nonprofit organization that works on the St. John's River every day. Uh, and we see a lot of issues

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facing the river when it comes to declines and problems uh, with fish and wildlife habitat, problems with flooding. This this, uh, piece of property obviously is also, uh, within an area where flooding has been a major issue. uh Lake Jessup and Lake Herney have have really big water fluctuations,

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especially in recent uh recent years, which has has caused uh residents down there a lot of problems with flooding. So, so we just wanted to come in and also express to you our gratitude for this. Our our organization is is now one of the fastest growing nonprofits in

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Florida. Uh we quickly have already uh uh are approaching 2,000 members and all of them are watching property acquisition when it comes to St. John's River uh flood zones and and water retention areas. So, so please know that we're watching this and we support uh

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your approval and and your support of this project and we couldn't be happier. So, thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Uh Brian White. >> Good morning, council. Brian White, Newra Beach. Uh I'm here to talk you into it. So, I I think we agree on this and I'm really happy to see uh your

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support and approval for Valuchia Forever. And I am here to urge you to approve the $20 million purchase of Riverbend Ranch in Ostein. This is Valuchia Forever doing exactly what it was intended to do. When

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residents approved Valuchia Forever, they made a clear choice to protect our land, to preserve our water, to secure our natural resources in perpetuity before they're gone. Riverbin Ranch is precisely the kind of property this

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program was built for, large, strategic, and irreplaceable. It's responsible governance to approve this. And this isn't about stopping growth. Growth is inevitable. The question is whether we shape it or if we

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let it shape us. Valuchia forever is how we ensure we grow without losing what what makes Valuchia County special to begin with. And there's also a practical reality and that's that land in Valuchia County is not getting any cheaper. Delaying these types of purchases

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doesn't save taxpayers money. It cost us opportunity. And acting now is the fiscally responsible choice. Most importantly, this is about keeping faith with the voters. They entrusted the county with these funds for this exact purpose to act decisively when the

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right opportunity comes along and this is that moment. So, thank you for your support of Luc forever and thank you for your support of purchasing this property. >> Thank you for your comments. Next, we have Sue Burks and you will be followed by John Nicholson and John will be

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followed by Mike Ponyattowski. that you are from Ostein. >> Yes, I am. Do I look familiar? Hi, Danny. I want to thank you all so much um for continuing with this project and

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also for um answering and responding to my emails as um they're not very informative but I appreciate you answering them along with all the Cove uh estate uh residents there. um snowbirds are gone so I don't have much

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support here right today but I wanted to just thank you all and uh appreciate all the hard work you're doing for us and no steam and thank you >> thank you John Nicholson Mike Ponyatowski and then Cat Pante

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John Nicholson Daytona Beach Florida um I would hate to be the only person here who would oppose this. Um, >> don't. >> No, I have to. No, I really don't. Um, $20 million out of our echo funds. How

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much do we raise a year in echo funds? I mean, on release forever funds. Um, it is a big chunk. Now I understand Don's concerns and we've not discussed it yet of whether we have to keep it in house

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or whether we should share the burden with water management and the state etc etc. I'm in the vision of grab as much land as you can, no matter how you can get it because it's not going to last long, especially two miles on the river.

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That doesn't come up often and there is a limited amount of land on our river. So, uh it's it's perfect. It is absolutely perfect property to buy. It is a good price. It sounds like a lot, but it's not. It is a perfect time to

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buy it. It's a perfect location. Everything is perfect except the very first line, evolution forever. Because if we have partners, then that money that we don't spend on this

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property can be used on buying other property. So the idea we can buy this property or we can buy 10 other properties along with this property we eliminate the the other 10 properties that we could have purchased if we don't

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work with other entities. Thank you. >> Thank you Mike Ponyattowski followed by Cat Pante followed by Daryl Cart. >> Good morning again Mike Ponyowaskki Mocha Farms Village. Thanks for your

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eminent approval of this property. Fully in support of the Riverband Ranch Ranch being purchased. It clocks all the right check boxes. Right. No partners. It's a 42page uh contract, not 100 pages. We can stop development in Valuchia County.

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We can prevent probably another thousand homes if it goes on the open market. We're um preserving about 562 acres of wetlands. We're going to allow Ostein to have some breathing room. It's a big chunk of land and it needs to be preserved. Felia Forever, that's what we approved it for to get these chunks of

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land, especially on the river. It's contiguous to other conservation lands that we've already preserved. It's going to give us some huge open spaces in perpetuity. Sorry about that, but uh that's what we need to do because it's blue forever. Thank you. I appreciate you allowing me to comment today and uh

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you're doing great things. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Cat Pante. You're a little short mic. Good morning, council. Katherine Pante, slow the growth blue, and thank you for your pending approval. I'm here in support of the purchase of the Riverbend

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Ranch property. This is a rare, time-sensitive opportunity to protect 1300 acres in Ostein, including 2 miles of St. John's River frontage and over a mile along Deep Creek. The property contains hundreds of acres of wetlands and serves as a vital link in the wildlife c quarter, the Florida wildlife

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quarter. By acquiring Riverbin Ranch, we can connect and expand conserved lands, including its direct adjacency to dearing preserve at Deep Creek. This quarter is essential to Florida's wildlife for black bears, Florida panthers, white-tailed deers, bobcats, and a variety of birds and other species that move safely between habitats. It

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supports migration, breeding, and genetic diversity. Helping our native animals thrive amid growing development pressure. Protecting this land strengthens the entire state network that keeps Florida's biodiversity alive. Valuchia forever exists for this purpose. Voters have twice supported

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this program to safeguard our environmentally sensitive lands, wetlands, and riverfront areas. It honors that promise by preventing future development and preserving this pristine landscape as a legacy of open space, clean water. Once the land is gone, it cannot be replaced. Approving this acquisition now

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will secure this public access for nature-based recreation, protect our waterways, and enhance the quality of life that makes Valuchia County special. I respectfully ask for a yes vote on agenda item four and move forward with this important acquisition. On another note, protecting land purchased for

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conservation through Valuchia Forever is vitally important. When Valuchia residents voted to tax themselves for land acquisition, they intended those lands to remain in conservation in perpetuity, not to be sold, disposed of, or repurposed for other broad public

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uses such as largecale solar farms. I'm asking the county council to bring forward a charter amendment modeled after Elatchua's successful measure that would place strong voter approved protections on Valuchia Forever conservation lands. This would safeguard these taxpayer funded assets from future

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political whims and give residents the confidence that their investment will deliver lasting environmental benefits for generations. Thank you. >> Thank you, Daryl Carter. >> Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the council. Daryl Carter with Mory

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Carter and Associates here on behalf of the land owner. Thank you for your consideration. We'll yield our time. Of course, we're in support. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Uh, we have a a motion and a second to approve the purchase. Is there any uh questions for

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staff? Uh, Don Dempsey. >> No, I just wanted to congratulate uh Brad Burbal and and the team for what they did here. I mean, it's they got this land for 15,000 and some change per

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acre. That's a that's a great price. I mean, we didn't go out and pay 50,000 an acre for it. And this is a one this to me this is exactly what Valuchia Forever is all about. I'm in full support of this. The fact that we own it in fe simple. The fact that there's no partners. The fact that in 500 years if

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the city council finds some emergency need for it, they have that ability to do what they need to do to, you know, take care of whatever the issue at hand might be in the future. I have no problem with it being forever in perpetuity as long as the county owns it

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by themselves when we don't have to get the blessing of 200 other heirs who may have inherited a portion of it. They don't have to get the blessing of the state or the federal agencies. Whatever the future council wants to do with it 500 years from now, a thousand years from now, they can do it without having

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to get the blessings from all these other distant agencies. So, this is perfect. It's a home run and my hats off to the uh the team for what they did here. So, I'm a strong guest for this. Thanks. >> Thank you. Uh any other comments from

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council? Then we do have a motion and a second to purchase the Riverbend Ranch property. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? And purchase is approved 7 to zero. Thank you all for coming in to speak on it.

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Were you in for the vote? Yes. Okay. Okay. Item five, uh, which is a quasi judicial hearing. It's a reasonzoning of 5.44 acres from prime A1 to the rural agriculture A2. Uh, does

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any council member uh have any exparte to declare? >> None for me. Motion to approve any up and down the uh fine. >> Morning council members. Ray Tiner, growth resource management director. This is for a reasonzoning uh from A1 to

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A2. Uh the property is uh located on 2870 Appaloosa Trail just north of uh Deltona. Um this just an aerial of of the property. Uh again on the left hand side the

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existing zoning is A1 and they are proposing to reszone their property to A2 A2. The existing uh zoning of A1 requires a uh minimum lot area of 10 acres and as I previously mentioned it's

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a little over 5 acres for the property. So they are not conforming to the zoning code. It was uh changed in 1984. uh the owner is warning to reszone the property to A2 uh which uh has they would be in compliance uh with that

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zoning standard and helps them with the setbacks too. So it really is um sort of a cleanup item that allows them to have one unit just as they would before and that would be the maximum density on the property. No change from A2 to A2 um as

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far as that goes. Uh the planning and land development regulation um commission voted uh 60 to forward this item into uh county council for for approval and there was no public opposition. >> Okay. Thank you very much. We do have a

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motion to approve. The motion was by uh Councilman Robbins, second by Vice Chair Reinhardt. Any questions for staff? Any comments? I I will just say uh Ry that this this is the kind of reasonzoning I think you're about to see

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full support from the council as as we did from PLLDRC. It's it's just to give the homeowner the property owner the ability to build one house. Um and um so as I strongly support that uh this is

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not a development. It's one home for the owners. All in favor of the resoning, please say I. I >> I >> Anybody opposed? And the motion is approved seven to zero.

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Which brings us to item six, a mini budget presentation of the levels of service or bus services. >> Bobby King, welcome. >> Good morning. Bobby King, transit services director. have a short presentation.

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Okay, great. So, um here today to talk about some service changes that we need to accomplish for various reasons and also uh to help with some budget reductions that we talked about during our mini budget workshop in March. So, we're going to talk about um the routes or Sunday service change that we

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talked about in March. Um and the uh option to go devor ride and that's in the Daytona Beach area only. Routes 3, 4, and 11, which are also in the Daytona Beach area need to be adjusted due to um uh funding scenario with FDOT. And then

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route 33 is in uh Deltona and we need to make a change there as well. And then of course we're going to briefly talk about the required process for all the changes that we need to make here today. So we're going to talk about Sunday service. So when we were here in March, we talked about the ability to maybe

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move this from a fixed route service completely in the Daytona area to a partial um or a full VO ride service. So, we looked at this very closely at the wrership um for this service and we've determined that there are some

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really good ridership on uh the beach side, really good wrership on a route that comes um to the west to the uh jail every hour on the hour. Uh but everywhere else has not as good a wrership. So, what we thought we would

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do here is eliminate the outlier routes um in the Daytona area on Sunday and and fill it in with a few vowide vehicles. So, those vowide vehicles can pick up the individuals that need to get to the the feeder buses um and take uh the

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individuals in those areas to shorter trips if needed. And so that savings uh with the addition of the vow ride, the removal of the fixed route is a total of $77,000. Not a great deal of money, but we do

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still see savings here. the routes 3, 4, and 11 we're having to make adjustments on because we've had a long-standing grant with FDOT of about $830,000 a year for many, many years to increase the frequency from uh 60

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minutes to 30 minutes on these three routes. And that money is is no longer available. Um so we need to go back to the 60 minute frequency. And so in doing so, we have a few other routes that connects to the 3, 4, and 11. These are

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all um uh three four three and four on Ridgwood and 11 is uh meandering through the Daytona area out to uh Tanganger and back. Um and so uh the other routes that connect with them, we had to make some changes there too. So that added a

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little bit more savings to the whole total. Um but in but overall we're only saving $170,000 to general fund because we were funding this with an FDOT grant mostly. So, but it's still savings.

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Um, and route 33 is our lowest ridership route. Has been for a while. We've been watching it. We were hoping that uh Voride would help um feed people more to that route and we would see increased ridership. That hasn't happened. So, we're ready to remove that route. Um, I

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had initially um suggested that we might need another vow ride in that area just to cover the the the ridership that would be lost off of that route, but I'm not 100% sure that that's really what we'll need. We're going to have to um maybe wait and see. Uh it could be an

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option. So, if we don't need that vehicle, then we see another $150,000 in savings here. Uh so, we're going to do that toward the end of the year. Um, Route 33 will go away um, most likely in October and um, we'll watch it very

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closely and bring back any change to that we feel is necessary, but uh, we could see a total of about $336,000 in savings here if um, if our calculations are right for not needing another vow ride.

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And uh so to kind of sum all this up, um we have significant savings, but that savings is a 50/50 split between grants and general fund dollars. Every time we um uh have uh dollars from a grant, we

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have to match it for operating. And so um we we could see a little bit more here, uh if we don't do the vow ride on, uh the Deltona service. So there's potential for increases here. Um this is just a guest minute at this time but we wanted to to bring the changes to you

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for approval uh so we can go forward and this is a long-term plan over the next um 6 to9 months. Uh so the unrealized savings are are the most significant. Um that's losing 10 10 large buses at about

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$900,000 a piece. Um but we also have maintenance costs, parts, tires, fuels. Um all of those things are very expensive as well. Um this is all capital dollars. Capital dollars um are 100% funded by grants. We don't need a

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match. If we use those dollars, which we will now have available um to put into operating or service increases, we do have to have a um local match. So we got to keep that in mind. Um and we would bring that to you if we decided that we

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could find a way to um increase service. But uh we have found a match or we would need a match. We would make sure you would know about that. So um there's a few other options for consideration. When we were here on um in March, we talked about a tiered fair

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for fixed drought. Um and I think that the concept there was to provide a lower rate for uh uh income challenged individuals. And so we've done some research research on that option. um it would take a lot of staffing to manage

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applications for that. Um it's not commonly done in smaller agencies because of that uh because the cost outweighs the benefit and then those in those agencies that do have it in place um really only see a small participation

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rate for it because it does require providing documentation. Some people aren't comfortable with that. Some people don't have it to provide. So there's challenges there. Um, but I did want to tell you that I looked at it. Um, we talked about it last time. Uh,

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paratransit fair increase. Um, we can charge double for a paratransit fair that we do for a base rate for fixed route. So, we do $2 for fixed route. We currently charge 350. Um, so we can

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still increase that by 50 cents. Uh, we have about 190 to 200,000 uh trips a year. that would equate to about $95,000 more in um revenue. That revenue can be used for um match to provide service. So

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that's that would be nice. Um and uh then there's night service. So when we changed night service to uh bowride, we kept the beachside um uh fixed route buses in place because we we we saw the most ridership in those areas. But we

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are not seeing um significant wrership right now and we want to kind of watch it for the next couple of months. But this is an option that we would definitely want to consider uh before the end of the year if we continue to see low ridership on that bus. We would

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we would make it a full VODE um zone. And again, initially feeling that we might need another vehicle for that area um per vowide. um those vehicles are about $150,000 a year to to serve to provide the service. Um not for the

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vehicle, but um so but I feel like right now we need to watch the service that we put in place. It just started in March. Um we could potentially uh service it with the vehicles that we have already in place and we may not need to increase a vowide. We just need

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to watch that. That's how this that's how microransit service works is over time we can see it um building um and then we want to just make sure that we're always pro providing our microtransit service at a a a pretty

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decent met demand rate and that to us is about a 80% met demand at full util full utilization of the service. Um so I have said that we would have about $95,000 in savings here. If we don't add a vowide,

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it would be $150,000 more than that. So, we're we're looking at some significant um potentials for more than the 213,000. Um so, uh we just need to to give it a little bit of time, get your approval to

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move forward with the plans to do it. Um and that's what we're suggesting right now. Um, we'll do that over the next couple of of weeks going out into the public the required process for making changes. Um, and then come back to you on June 16th for the final approval.

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>> Any questions? >> Thank you. Uh, yes. Questions for for Bobby or Janine Jennings? Uh, Troy Kent. >> Thank you, Chairman, Miss King. Um, we've asked for this government to run more efficiently and effectively, and I thank you because I think that's what you're you're bringing forward to us

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again yet today. the last slide about the public input and advertising. Can you explain a little bit about how we as the county do that? How how does that happen?

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Because we've made some pretty seismic changes as far as vot goes, our public transit, and there's more on the horizon here. And I feel like I'm not hearing from the individuals that use Votran.

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Like they're not here today. Maybe because they couldn't get, pun intended, a ride on Votran out here. Um maybe they're working during this day meeting. Maybe they're the same types of people

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that struggle with emails and internet and maybe that's why I'm not hearing from them. It's a concern I have um with these changes that we're making and I just I need to hear from you as to what we are doing to hear from our

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constituents that are riding vot andor voter ride. >> Uh absolutely. I agree with you 100%. the the biggest bang for our buck for getting out sorry >> getting out into the public um is

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actually riding the buses being at the transfer points and and we have multiple um uh times and dates set up to do that. Uh that's where we reach the most people is to actually be on the bus and talk to the people. But we do have public meetings set up. We do send out press

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releases. We send out notifications through our app. Um, we put it on our website. Um, we have comment cars on the bus. Um, we take those comments, you know, for the next month or two and we make sure that we we get everybody's um, opinion heard.

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>> Good. I'm I'm pleased to hear especially about you all are at the transfer stations andor there's something on the buses where they can fill out because going to a public meeting when you're riding public transportation to go to work I don't know that that's top on their

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priority to go to a public meeting and then my last um question I want to know how many of those um you said there were multiple opportunities at the the transfer stations to I guess poll or question uh give people you know an

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opportunity to participate. How many times are we doing that? And then before we got off on before I get off on this completely in the 80s and 90s and maybe early 2000s people loved riding the trolley up and down A1A

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and they did. They loved it. >> And I'd like to know if we could ever bring the trolley back on A1A. Yeah, we're talking about getting rid of all of Votran. So, if that's the case, it's not. But >> it's something that I've had

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constituents ask me about, so I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about it. The trolley was a cool thing, >> and I think only if it runs on A1A, north to south, Orman by the Sea down to Ponds Inlet. >> So, to answer your first question, at least a dozen times um we have set up

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over the next six weeks. At least a dozen. Yes. And at least one of those um actually two of them are virtual meetings. So >> that's 10 more than I thought you were going to say, so I'm impressed. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um and so I w I actually had that in my hands and didn't bring it.

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But um uh the trolley um I wasn't here with the trolley, but I've heard thing I've heard things. Um and I don't know, uh George, do you have a good history of the trolley? Well, I started just before the invention of the car, but um

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uh >> in the last century, >> yeah, in the LA back in the last century when they had the trolley, uh the the difference though uh was I believe and I'll have to check this, but it was a partnership with uh the Beachside either

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the hotel motel association or or the the HAB board. I'll have to do some history, but it was it was uh at least subsidized and I think actually paid for by that group because of some of our restrictions with federal monies and

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stuff. So, we we were chosen to run it because we obviously have the expertise, but I think it was funded a different way through the tourist tax or the tur or the hotel motel association, but I can research that and get that back to you. >> Thank you, George. I appreciate and council I'll just tell you I'm as one of

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seven up here. It's a cool thing that I'd love to see from Ponell to by the sea if we could bring it back and let the hob board pay for it. I like that even more. >> Suzanne, you wanted to add or no? >> I can wait. >> Sure. >> Vice Chair Matt Reinhardt.

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>> I'll let Danny had an answer for that. If I could just for a second yield to Danny. >> M Mr. Ken, a few years ago, someone came before us that had jeeps or um in those trolley carts that were doing a big route up and down A1A in the beach.

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Whatever happened to that? >> That was a private sector proposal and they never decided to move forward. I don't believe the economics worked. >> Okay. I also with a I love the trolley idea and I was asked the same question I

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believe by the same constituent. So, um, and we actually talked about it, uh, to some extent probably about a year or so ago. Um, I know that private industry does compete with ourselves, does compete with the county, but it does provide a service. So, you

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know, what's more important? Um, the other thing is when we talked about the hotel motel, that was true that they did fund a good portion of that, but if you notice a lot of the hotels are not back in the day, they were owned by individuals. Now there are big corporate companies that come in and they just don't have the appetite for it from what

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I was told. Again, what I was told, I still like the idea as well. I really do and I'm looking forward if George can bring back that information. Also, the the other question or thing I wanted to say the public meetings and good questions, Mr. Kent. Um I've actually

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been to a couple um that are advertised and uh there was a fairly good turnout at least the two or three that I went to. So, they are showing up, but I do I did not realize that and I'm glad you asked the question that we do do it at the transfer stations and and on the bus. Who better to ask than the

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individuals riding the bus at the time. So, but I did have one concern. Um, when it talked, if you can go back another slide, I believe other options. Um I do chair the the uh TPO for disadvantaged and I will tell

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you that even the 50% increase in that is we do a grievance meeting before the TPO for disadvantaged and you are going to fill the room with that one. So even 50 cent 50 cents per

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being added to it is going to be a big inconvenience for that that that population that are are living from paycheck to paycheck so to speak. Um a lot of their expenses for their individual disabilities far exceed what they can pay for for transportation. So

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I just want to voice that opinion. I know we're not there yet. That is a potential option, but I would be against that for that very reason. So, thank you, chair. >> Thank you, Councilman Don Dempsey. >> Yeah, Bobby, we talked about this at the meeting last week, but um the last time

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we had a ridership turnout and people kind of in an outcry was the paratransit uh ridership and uh apparently it was brought up that we were kind of the needs were not being met to those riders. I think they had some people

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talking about the needs were like 175 rides a day or something to that nature. We were down below 100 and I know you've made improvements to get that back up but >> so I don't know that we really have a level that um would meet every need. Uh

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we do we're running about 150 a day. That seems to be working well. We're not I don't see many days where we go over 150. Um and so it's kind of a balancing act, but that seems to be working very well. I've looked at um the recent trends over the last couple weeks and

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and just this last week we had a 10% increase um in ridership. We had um uh utilization wise, which is important to me, vehicle utilization per hour. The number of of individuals on each vehicle

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has increased. We're making these um changes, these uh um like process changes so that we can continue to increase that without really costing us more. And we're finding that that's the

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things that we're putting in places are working. Um so currently right now I feel like we have a really good handle on it. Um, we are looking at uh potentially very soon coming back to you with some options for some additional funding that we're we're looking at for

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PART transit. Um, we're just a minute away from being able to tell you about that and and I think that will make an even bigger difference. So, I think we're on the right track. >> So, would you say that we are currently meeting the need of the the handicap?

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>> I I would say that. >> Okay. Now I I want to just emphasize that um you know the two programs that we provide are eligibility only requirement. Um so there is a need beyond that but it's not a need that we

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can provide um in a in public transit. Uh I just I'm I I would think that everybody here would say uh that the disabled has a need beyond our capabilities of being able to provide it. But the the programs that we provide, I feel like we're providing

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what the need is. >> What would those be? Like, can you give me an example of the needs that we can't fulfill? >> Well, individuals that uh don't qualify for our two programs. Um maybe because of income or maybe because they have vehicles available to them, whatever the

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the reason is, um those just those keep them out of our our particular um two programs that we offer. >> Okay. Okay. And I know one of the complaints that I heard when we had the last meeting on that issue, they had

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said that they were unable to reserve u a ride. Like let's say they had a doctor's appointment set three weeks from now at a time certain. That they weren't able to reserve and secure a ride 3 weeks from now at a time certain. Is that still the case? >> So, they do have to preschedu their

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trips. Um there's no, you know, today scheduling for today. Um and and oftent times the the number fills up pretty quickly, but we haven't really been seeing that in the last couple of weeks where if you call and you need a ride three Well, it's not we don't we only

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it's a 7-day window, so you need to call seven days in advance. Not we couldn't book you three weeks out. Um but the 7-day window it seems to be we're seem to be getting the people that need what they what they need. um we do prioritize by medical and by um disabled school

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children needs um and then work and and so on and so forth. So there may be um somebody that might need a shopping trip one day that we have a a full um uh schedule and we would maybe suggest another day for them. Um those seem to

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be working well. So Saturday might be a little busier these days because we're offering different options. I will tell you that Voride is helping a lot. Um I pulled uh information before I came just so the last two months that we've been operating on the east side. Um we've and

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it's broken down by type of uh this is anybody that's done a survey by the way and we've been doing surveying um but we've actually been a been able to provide um

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86 medical trips that we probably would have had to have provided on payer transit. uh educational trips were 46 um and employment were 19. That's just of the 193 people that took the survey. So that is helping a lot as well. And so

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just in the last couple months where we increased bow ride throughout the east side of the county, I think is helping us make a difference in the paratransit openings. So, I think that's that's a win-win for us and that's exactly what it's supposed to do is it can handle

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anybody in a wheelchair, um, able-bodied, you know, whatever. So, it's a it's a nice option to have is and we've been moving people to that service where we feel like they can they can take it. >> Okay. Um, just if I could ask another

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question. Um, so the VORD program in and of itself, and you've heard me express my uh dislike of the program because it competes with the private sector, competes with Uber, Lyft, and the taxi cabs. That's not incomebased. Correct. >> So, ride is not

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>> Donald Trump could come here and take a vow ride and get a ride for $2, which Uber may charge him $15. Is that right? >> That's true. >> So, it's not income limited. >> Right. But now you just said that the paratransit program is income limited. >> Well, one of our programs is Yes.

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>> Okay. So, I guess my concern is and maybe you can correct me or point me in the right direction, but my concern is that we're not limiting income as far as the usage of Oide, but we are limiting the paratransit. And I would think as a council, we'd be more

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concerned about helping the disabled and making sure that they could meet their needs for doctor's appointments and getting places than we are concerned about helping Donald Trump and the wealthy people get $2 rides instead of $12 rides. So, is there a way we could shift some of this money from the void

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program to the uh paratransit program so that we could even further increase their ability to be sure to make their doctor's appointments, to be sure to make their surgeries, to make sure they can attend whatever they can attend, even if it's more than a week out for

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scheduling. Well, I think um what I what I was just talking about it, we actually are in a sense because of Oide can take anybody um in in a uh wheelchair or can take somebody to their medical appointment. And so we're already kind

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of doing that um by providing this service and in in vorride microtransit as it's referred to in the industry um is an alternative fixed route and fixed route does not require um eligibility to ride. And so when we look at it in that

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perspective um just because it's a different style of vehicle um it's still considered the same kind of service where um anybody can ride at their leisure. So they're a choice rider, not a um they're not they don't have to ride, they're a choice rider. So

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microtransit is is considered kind of the same thing. Fixed route microtransit, you're you can choose to ride. Um this is uh important to mention that um when the VO rides are fully utilized like they are here on the west side and they will be on the east side

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before too long. Uh your trip will take much longer um than a Uber and you will be picked up and dropped off along the way with multiple people coming in and going out of the vehicle. And so your choice may still be the Uber if you want to get somewhere quickly um because it

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will take you a lot longer in in a bow ride. But transit users are used to that. They make choices um to ride transit. They know they're going to have to wait. They know they're going to have to adhere to the schedule of the bus and

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where it goes and that's it. Um, so they're used to, you know, sharing a ride, um, or not having it be exactly what they want. Uh, so it it's I I'm not I do not feel like we probably have an

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overabundance of people um like you and I may be using the service um because it really can be challenging still for um even though it's much more efficient. Are are we tracking how many of these vow rides are partnered up with more

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than one rider at a time? >> Oh yes. >> How many? >> Yeah. Well, we we usually see about three an hour three people in a vehicle per hour so we can operate efficiently at that level. >> But do we know that they're actually traveling together? >> It doesn't mean that there's just three people in the vehicle in an hour. It

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just means that utilization requires there to be uh a maximum of of um at least three people um at all times in the vehicle during that hour, >> but they could be three separate trips of single riders. >> Uh no, the No, the way the way we're

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tracking it, um so the way in in transit, we look at um a fully utilized vehicle by the number of people that are that are um serviced in an hour in that vehicle. And so at full utilization, it's three people in a in a vehicle in

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an hour. And so it there's typically always somebody in the vehicle. Um I don't know. Sorry, it's probably harder for me to explain. Um probably not doing a very good job. I was just what percentage of time are there two people in the vehicle as opposed to >> I I think over here on the west side

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it's probably all the entire time all day >> that everybody is pairing up with some like if I wanted to run down to Publix that there'll be somebody most likely picked up going to Publix with you. >> Absolutely. Mhm. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Or at least being dropped off somewhere along the way to Publix. That's how it

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works. It's it's deployed in a manner so that it picks you up. Dropping somebody else along the way. picking somebody else up along the way. That's what it that's how it works best. >> Mhm. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Councilman Jake Johansson.

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>> Hey, Sarah. Um, do we have a motion yet? I I I'd like >> We don't really need a motion. She just needs direction. >> Yeah. I I want to make just a few comments before uh before we move forward. First of all, um you know,

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Bobby, I I know you didn't um under you didn't underscore, but you didn't play off the the savings. Believe me, if you can save $10 a thousand times, it makes a difference, right? So, every every little time you

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said the potential uh savings is, the potential revenue is, um that's important to me. And and you know, you mentioned the grant money. That's not money. That's savings for us,

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but it is because it's still a tax dollar somewhere, right? Maybe not from property taxes. It's very unfortunate that that counties, cities, states when they don't apply or choose to not participate in a

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grant because of our efficient and effective work that we can't get that credit back somehow, right? So, we can say we're we're actually saving our constituents money in a different way.

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So, uh uh I I appreciate that. And as you've seen up here in other programs, we're not keen on ex spending money for the sake of spending money because we can get it. Uh so and and lastly I think

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um uh I think the entire staff does this but you've been very transparent and very uh detailed and how how you're tracking things and how you're adjusting uh on the fly to to make this as

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efficient and effective as possible. And I do appreciate when when you mentioned that that bow ride isn't I'm not saying it doesn't compete with Uber, but it's not the same. I can't walk out of a theater at

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night and call a vow ride and expect to be home in the next 25 minutes. Um uh and and uh they're probably not around much at 2:00 in the morning either. So So uh so that probably helps. Um, so I I

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appreciate all the work you do. Uh, uh, I appreciate meeting us one on- one to educate us on on that stuff to understand it. I don't I don't like asking questions in public because I don't want people to know how hard it is for me to understand stuff, but I

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appreciate everything everything you that that wasn't for you, Don. That was But I just made the connection. I apologize. But uh uh uh having said that, thank you, chairman. Um I guess you I guess

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she needs direction action, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. proceed with with uh my my motion or or my suggestion would be to proceed with the uh with the re recommendation she made and then uh um uh look at some

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of these other options and and give her the um give her and the the the county manager the the approval to experiment with these uh with these other options and and see what we can do.

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>> Thank you. Uh, Deputy County Manager Suzanne Konchin. >> Thank you, Chairman, members of council. Just two comments quickly. First on the trolley. That's when I first put my name up because I've been involved with and probably heard similar comments from constituents. Boy, I wish we had it

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back. I don't believe from what I've heard on the history the county was ever bearing the cost of it. Although we ran it, the vehicle itself, one of the questions that came to my office was, is that trolley still around? if we could resurrect it. It was sold years and

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years ago. So to re uh institute the service, someone would have to have a vehicle for it. My understanding is that the private sector hotel motel not uh very keen in supporting the cost of it like they did back when it ran. Um and

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I'm not sure, but I'll work with council legal counsel on whether haw monies can even be used for that kind of service because it's an advertising marketing restriction. But it has been something we've been involved with and unless the council tells us you want to underwrite

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it because it doesn't qualify for FDOT or FTA grant funding, we've not volunteered that through staff, but I I' seek clarification from council if we've been wrong. >> Since I'm the one that brought it up, I'd love to have it back, but not with

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us having to pay for it. >> Yes, sir. Okay. >> I want somebody else to pay for it, meaning the motel hotel association. Doesn't that sound just like a government official? I want it, but I don't want to pay for it. I want someone else to do it. >> Well, we may be able to partner in some other way, and we do have expertise. So, if we can be a part of the solution,

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we'll be there other than underwriting the cost. >> But again, Suzanne, here you here you come with the answers. And I appreciate it. That way, we're not making you all spin your wheels. >> Very good. Um, and then just a paratransit because um, I want to do kudos to to Bobby and and let council

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know meeting the paratransit needs of our community is utmost priority for us at the staff level. Bobby uh is working very hard with our peer agencies in the state and with uh, representative Traymont and the FDOT to make sure that

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we try to get more funds coming to Valuchia County and other paratransit systems. so we can meet every rider or demand that qualifies for the program. And secondly, looking at FTA who may have another opportunity of funding for us. So, we're trying to bring more funds

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to the table so we can continue to meet the demands uh as I think we have in multiple ways as Bobby's explained, but really want to tout my appreciation to her and her team for always looking for additional monies to bring in to help

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meet the demand and and paratransit being the highest among them. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Um the the trolley as as Councilman Robin said, there was a

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private group that looked at it and um they were going to see if if they could make money on it or at least not lose money. And I believe one of the problems was that they they needed to get all of the beachside involved, the hotels,

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motel, condos, but most of them have restaurants, tiki bars, and they're trying to keep their people there. I don't think they were really excited about giving them a a bus ride to the restaurant down the street. Um, so they

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uh I I think you're right. I would love to see that come back. I would love to see it come back from a private uh company much like uh they do in St. Augustine with a trolley that they keep really busy. Um so uh having the county

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taxpayers pay for it is probably not going to fly. Um do you feel like you've got the information that you need? Some of these things you're bringing you're coming back anyway. You're still investigating the the 50 cent increase for paratransit. that that was my

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biggest concern was not the increase but that just that we were serving uh that clientele especially in Poninlet. We've talked about that that's been resolved I believe. Um so just want to make sure you got what you needed out of this.

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>> I think that's the one piece that I would like to know whether or not we need to to share that with the public if we are going to move forward with that. Um if if that's off the table that could make our discussions with the public >> the 50 cent increase >> the 50 cent increase for the paratres he

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was okay with it. Okay then I think that if there's a >> okay >> okay we'll move forward with that too. >> Is there consensus for I I see I don't think we have consensus on on that. >> I'll say it publicly. I'm okay with the 50 cent increase.

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>> Okay. Okay. uh done. >> Well, no. I I would much rather see an increase in the vorride charge to go from $2 to the same rate as you know what an Uber ride or a lift ride or a cab ride would cost. And I think that

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would jump it up $10 a ride approximately if I'm not wrong. Um as opposed to raising 50 cents on the physically challenged. So I you know again just I've said it before, I'll say it again. I don't like the fact that

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void competes with the private sector. I think we need to let free econ the free market do its thing. Um I would ask that we give her direction. Bobby does a great job. I agree with you, Miss Conson, that she does a wonderful job with whatever task she's given. And I would just like to see us give her the

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task of reducing voide to the greatest extent possible. And so it's not a direct competitor for ver uh voride or sorry lift uh the cabs and all that and put as much money as possible into the paratransit program to make sure that

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their needs are met over and above the minimum standards. So that's what I'd like to see happen today for her direction. But I do like your work ethic, Bobby. You do a great job. Thanks. >> Okay. Uh Vice Chair Matt Reinhardt. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, so do you need a

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vote on that as far as the because I like Don I like where you're thinking. We already made the point the fact that Verride was there. You you pointed out the challenges that the uh paratransit community already has and the reason why the fees are the way they are is because

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they're based on their income. So now you're going to take that basis of income and increase that that ride. I I just cannot get behind that. So if that's you don't have a consensus, I don't think on that be honest with you. I think that needs a that needs a vote if that's that's what it requires. >> So,

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>> I'll make a motion not to increase it. >> May I have a question? >> The uh Bobby, the 50 C increase that's for additional services. Is that just for Beachside at night? >> No, the 50 cent increase would just be

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for our paratransit service countywide. >> Okay. Yeah. I don't know. Can you if you did what John is s what Don is suggesting and in increase the fair for uh general ridership does that

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still bring you in the money that you need? >> You mean for vride? Uh I I personally would would not recommend it. um our our >> the service was put in place to meet the

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demand of the transit users in Baluchia County and if we raise the rate to you know something that they can't afford, we won't the service will fail. Um we won't be able to provide the service. >> What's the current rate?

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>> $2 for a $5 ride. Um a dollar extra for each mile up to 10 miles. So $7 ride at the most for um 10 miles. >> Okay. Vice Chair Reinhardt made a motion not to increase the PAR uh transit fair. Um

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is there a second on that? >> I'll second it. >> And Don Dempsey makes that second. Discussion on it. Uh Councilman Johansson, did you want to speak to that? So, so the questions

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currently really, if you get down to the the base of it, is do we do we want public transit, >> right? >> Right. Cuz this is this is the all Video did was made our buses smaller and give

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us a little bit of flexibility on where it picks people up and drops people off. um buses were too expensive. We got vans and said now that we have these little vans, we can be a little more selective instead of sending people out in the rain a mile and a half to get on a bus.

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Um so if if we want to get out of the public transit business, um then then let's have that conversation. Uh um do we compete with Uber?

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I don't think we do. Um, but but we we definitely make it easier for people that take a $2 or $4 ride than we do a $15 ride. Uh, do I think it's being abused by people that can afford Uber?

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No. I I I don't by and large. maybe um maybe a little bit, but uh if if we want to get out of public transit that that we're definitely not making money on,

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we're doing it as a service. Um uh Volide's just another service and if we don't want to do it, then then let's find out what it takes to not do it and cut that. I mean, the savings will be phenomenal. and then in five or six

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years we'll have the conversation about Sunrail. Um because we're not making money on that either. So the question the the the foundational question is do we want to serve the public on the

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taxpayers's dime with public transit for those who can't afford it? Um because those people aren't going to use Uber. they're either not going to go, they're gonna find a friend, they're going to find a church, they're gonna

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walk. Um, but but that's why that's why we have this right now. So that to me, that's the question. >> Councilman Santiago, >> thank you, Mr. Chair. Jake, I agree with everything you said. Um, but I'm also

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trying to figure out the the the approval for the 50 cents right now. Isn't that something we would generally just do in our budgeting time as we go forward in the next budgeting um cycle? >> It's considered a service change that we have to take to the public and then and do this whole formal process of coming

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back to you with with their input and and >> to get ready for the budget time. >> Um well um we don't we don't have to take it during the budget, but >> Well, you have to have it ahead of time. Right. That's why she's asking now. Remember, this is a budget discussion.

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Yeah. >> Right. Now, >> okay. Um, as far as as far as the 50 cents, I mean, Troy, I think you've said it best my three years here about costs go up and we should do incremental adjustments versus, you know, waiting

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till staff says, "Hey, we're we're bleeding so much money now we got to raise it $2, right?" Um, and there's no argument against the fact that our costs have gone up, right? We've we've talked about our priorities, right? And Jake, I

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agree with with you your your analysis and your thoughts on the topic. Um, but if this is a service that we're going to provide and our costs are going up, we have to act accordingly or we're going to subsidize it what other way. And I know, thank you for clarifying

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that the other fees you think would be detrimental to increase the other side would be detrimental to the system in your opinion. So I I'm okay with the 50 as much as I don't like it, but we have to run the operation properly. Thank you, Mr. Sure. >> Vice Chair Reinhardt,

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>> one quick statement. I think to in defense of what you just said, David, there's no evidence to show that it's gone up. So, a need for that increase. >> I I'm I'm using your word. You just said there was >> How much is a gallon of gas now? And it was a year ago.

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>> I got you, D. I know. I By the way, I want to go where you're going, Matt. >> But I And here's here's the thing, Troy. I respect what you're saying. I really do. I respect your opinion and you're right, but I'm I'm looking at

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>> I'm I'm looking at it from the perspective that I'm in that room with those individuals um that are talking about the fact that they're having a hard time and we talk about taxes. We talk about increasing taxes. We we would talk about how can we help the public and and this and that

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and and here we are saying, "Yeah, we hear you, but by the way, we're going to raise what you can't pay." >> Help me understand, Mr. Chair, if I may. Yeah. >> Um, >> help me understand that a little bit more. I'm movable, but what I mean, let me just ask a question for you. >> Yeah, I'm sorry. >> You mentioned the incomebased piece of

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it. Maybe I need to learn a little bit more about that to to see if it moves me. >> Defer to Bobby. >> So, our transportation disadvantage program, which is one of the two paratransit pro programs um that we have, is uh you your eligibility relies

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on one of two things. being disabled or having an income um barrier. And so right now we have it at 200% of the poverty level, which is still $35,000 I think. Um so yeah, we're that program is

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is could be depending upon your scenario um based on the based on your income, >> but that determines the rate you pay. >> That $35,000 a year income that they have, that 50 cents is going to matter. And like I said, I'm in the room with these people. So the ones you talk about

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public input and and receiving word from individuals that are in that community, the paratransit community, I see them. So they're there and they're it's hard for me to turn around my chair and look at them and say and yeah, I hear you, but we're still going to increase it. >> Does the average person use

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>> No, this is we're talking about the the handicap community >> that >> do they use it daily? Most >> these are Well, a lot of times they're daily for appointments and stuff. They utilize utilize the service to get to the meeting to grieve about it or to have their voices heard about it. So,

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um, these are people that are here. These are you they're they're talking to you. Yeah. They're not here, >> but they're at the meeting where it counts and that's the paratransit meeting that we that we do have on the >> I just have one follow-up question if I may, Mr. Chair. >> Yes. >> Um, in the event we don't increase this 50 cents,

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>> what happens to your budget and what are you what are you considering? Well, right now we had not budgeted an increase in revenue for this. Um, so our budget would stay the way it is, right? Currently proposed for 26 27. >> But your costs are going up, aren't

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they? >> Yeah, they're always going up. >> So where you getting the extra money? >> How's it affect service? >> Yeah. Where do you get the extra money to cover the gap? If you don't if you don't if you don't change your income and your costs are going up, where do you cover this shortfall? Well, in the

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short term for the fiscal year 2627, um our revenues and our expenses average out right at the moment. Um and that that's what's proposed for your budget for this next year. >> All right. Well, given that given that changes, I I'll I'll side with Matt

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>> given that explanation. >> You didn't even you didn't even let me tell you another side of the story. David Councilman Robbins, >> thank you. Uh yeah, Matt, I have no problem um going with you here, but if um fuel and and and everything and

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insurance and the whole kit kaboodleoodle still goes up here in this next fiscal year, we're going to have to uh we're going to have to look at this. But I have no problem dragging our feet at the moment. But uh at some point, it's it's got to >> we have to make a change.

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>> The answer, Mr. Chair, >> let me clarify the answer to that. You're you're of course Mr. Siaga, you've you've touched right on it. The answer is it will come. It's not complete.

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revenue projected from ridership then the the obvious uh gap will then have to come from the general fund. >> I will say this um we have seen increases in wrership in our fixed route

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dramatically in the last couple of months and we're attributing that to potentially fuel. Um, and what's interesting is since we reduced those fixed route on March 1st, it's still increasing. So that's significant. That

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does not account for the microtransit. I haven't um uh looked at the microtransit numbers. Um, but so that's I think that's a telling story that people are moving to transit. They trying to use transit more than ever. Um, but if we

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were to increase any services, which is not what we've been doing over the last couple of years, but if we were looking to increase anywhere, we would need the additional revenue to to make that happen. So, >> okay. Thank you, uh, Councilman Dempsey.

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>> Yeah. Um, so what would how much more money would that generate the 50 cents? >> 90 $95,000 is the expected. >> Okay. because I'm looking through the slides here and I'm seeing all these other modifications in that we're having savings. Uh the Sunday service would be

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a $77,000 savings. Routes 3, 4, and 11 would be $170,000. Route 33 in Deltona would be $186,000 savings. I think the total savings was $433,000 and the general fund savings was 26 $216,000.

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I mean, isn't that enough to offset the uh 50 cent increase in fair so that we don't have to raise the fairs, >> right? I brought this as an option um just because we do still have that ability to to go up to that $4. Um

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we don't have to do it now. We can do it another time if you choose. Um but just want to make sure you knew all the options um as we are moving forward with the challenges that we may be facing. >> Thank you, Councilman Kent.

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>> Thanks, Chairman. I um I was listening to an economist driving into work uh this morning and they were talking about the last time gas was $100 a barrel uh and and gas was nationally the average was $3.20. It's $100 a barrel now and it's $4.20. So they were they were kind of

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questioning that a little bit and they were they were then doing some predictions about when it gets to $150 a barrel, what's going to happen? And then they were really talking about when it gets to $200 a barrel because 20% of the oil worldwide comes through the straight of Hormuz and um you know our government

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can say what they want to say but when that price keeps going up and for me when staff is ringing the bell about next year and Mr. Santiago, you you hit the nail on the head for me whenever you brought up the whole point about small

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incremental increases instead of, you know, over the head hitting people with huge increases. Now, this is one that, you know, we can only uh increase up to up to 50 cents on this. And as much as I don't want to do that, I don't want to be the guy to advocate for that. I'm the guy looking at is this going to come out

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of the general fund? There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. That's where the money is going to come out of. It's going to be pulled from the general fund. So, uh, Mr. Robbins, I I appreciate that you want to get there and stay, uh, currently where it is, but there's only so much money in our

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budgets at home every month. So, if you're going to go out to eat more or if you're going to spend more money at the gas pump or you're you pick whatever you want, you're going to have to do less somewhere else. So, I think George is ringing the bell. We're going to be doing less with somewhere else. And it

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could be pennies on our $ 1.4 $4 billion budget right now, but it's going to turn into dollars, which is why I'm okay with the minimal 50 cent increase. Thanks, >> Councilman Santiago. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, uh, and that's why I love debate, you know, and we have

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some good, you know, organic good points. Matt, he lost me again. Sorry. You know, George George filled me in. You filled the holes that I needed to be filled because it wasn't at that point. >> George, >> it was George. Yeah, it happened right before you. Yeah, Troy wants credit. >> Um, so I I just wanted to, you know,

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it's my friend Matt to to hear my current position based on some more additional information. So I'd be okay with staff repairing with the next level. >> Okay. The motion on the floor is to uh not allow the 50 cent increase for par

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transit. Chris, would you call the role? >> Mr. Dempsey, >> yes. >> Mr. Johansson, >> yes. >> Mr. Kent, >> no. Mr. Reinhardt, >> yes. >> Mr. Robbins, >> yes. >> Mr. Santiago, >> no.

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>> Mr. Brower, >> no. >> And uh Jake, you voted yes. >> I'm in. >> Okay. And the uh the motion is passed four to three. Um,

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what else? Do you think you're good? Okay, >> thank you very much. Item seven, council direction regarding impact fees as they relate to accessory

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dwelling units. >> Hello, council. uh council um recommended that staff we go back and look at our impact fees as it uh relates to assessor dwelling units and we did so

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and we have a a little presentation today and and wanting to get direction if you want us to move forward with with that uh specific proposal. So um first uh how we uh assess the impact fee for a

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ADU currently is that basically this is simplified. If you have a single family lot and you and you put a house on it, you're going to get uh an impact fee based on that tiered of that square footage of of these tiers that we have

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for the lot. So you're going to get get paid an impact fee. and how we address ADUs. If later on, two years later, you want to put an accessory dwelling unit on that lot, you're going to be charged the same amount that you would for that single family home. So, this is just a

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little sample here uh in front of the screen. So, for tier one, uh it's 1,200 square ft or less uh for your total square footage in this tier. and we assess a a a set impact fee for that

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tier. So for the county, if you're building a single family home, you're roughly for unincorporated county, you're going to pay about $10,000 in that tier one. So currently, if you came in for an accessory dwelling unit, you're going to pay that same amount.

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Okay. So, what we looked at um is a potential option is to treat the accessory dwelling units as an expansion of that primary use. Okay? So, you're going to pay that lump

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uh impact fee for that single family home uh based on that tier of where that maximum square footage is. And if you fall under that, you're not going to pay anything. if you if you go to a next tier to a larger um uh amount, you're going to pay the difference of that. So,

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let me show you some examples how this would work. So, this tier um the first one that you're looking at is a a tier 2 and that and that ranges uh uh for your square footage of 1201 to,700. So, you

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know, you build your home and then later you come in for a an accessory dwelling unit. uh 1,500 foot, you're going to go over that tier. So, you're going to pay that difference amount. So, you would pay if you're an unincorporated county,

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you would pay $468 for that accessory dwelling unit based on that square footage. So, the existing what you would pay today would be $9,847 for that tier. So, it really limits that

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that amount. So, if we fall into um example two, if you uh have a 1,750 ft home on that property and you decide to build a 450 ft accessory dwelling unit, your new total is 2,200. You're

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underneath that tier for for that impact fee. Uh today, you would pay $9,847 for a home and an impact and for an accessory dwelling unit. this proposal, this proposal, you would pay nothing because you fall within that single

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family district tier. And then another example, um, uh, for another tier for a single family homes is you got a 1,200, uh, a 2,500 square foot home. You're going to build a larger accessory dwelling unit. that's going to bump you

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up to to another tier and you're just going to pay that dollar amount for the square footage and uh you'll end up paying $552 uh if you're an unincorporated and then a cities you would pay um $454.

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So it really does um uh limit the uh uh the amount of impact fee for these accessory dwelling units. Now, we did um we did talk to our consultant um who does our transportation impact fee because we wanted to make sure that this

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was defensible, that we did not need to go back to our analysis and re redo the analysis and and and we do not have to. However, if you did want to move forward with this proposal, we're going to have to make some changes to section 72 of

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our of our code and we'll have to come back via an ordinance. and we're here for questions and Paulo is here too if you have any other questions. >> Okay. Thank you, Councilman Robbins. Thank you, Chairman. Um Ray, uh thank you for for bringing this back. I know this is something lingering uh that got

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put on you. Uh, but just as I'm going down, if you go to page three where it says single family detach 12,000 square foot or less. Um, are we looking at that's going to be the impact fees for

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the the the standard home plus the ADU that 13272 or is that >> which line are we on? >> The one that's on the packet. >> Oh. I and what I'm and what I'm I'm I'm getting at

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is I if I understand this correctly and I see it going up going up from from from there these impact fees are just um they can get wild and and the whole point um of this Ray can we look up to

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for our ADUs I think we put stipulations on for for elderly and for you know um want to make a little bit more affordable housing for our kids. Do we have the exact verbiage or usage usages that um for ADUs?

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>> You have it handy and can anybody bring it up? >> Mr. Chair, Paul Story, senior assistant county attorney for a regular ADU. We do not have restrictions on who can use it. Okay, >> anyone can use it. Um, so we do have a a separate affordable housing incentive.

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So if you have an ADU and you deed restrict that ADU for affordable housing purposes, um, they don't pay any impact fees. That's that's so that's under our affordable housing program. This is just the standard ADU. Um, it's treated as an accessory dwelling unit. You can have a

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member of the family. You can rent it out for long-term rentals. Um so we don't put a restriction on who can use it. So because we are doing that we have to account for the impact fees somehow because right now we treat the ADU

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regardless of size as a uh separate standalone multif family dwelling unit that you pay regardless you know every single time you want to uh uh construct an ADU. With the proposal we treat the ADU as just an expansion of your primary

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dwelling unit. Um because ADUs are kind of unique in that sometimes they're used as an existing dwelling unit and then if if you did it as a mother-in-law dwelling or granny flat or and that person goes away or you know passes away

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the ADU ceases to be used as an ADU um but you pay the impact fee for it. So treating it as just an expansion of a of your existing primary uh structure kind of um accommodates all those scenarios.

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So you just pay the difference um of impact fees if the addition of the ADU um forces the combined square footage to go up a tier. But we don't currently restrict who can use the ADU. I just want to make sure council that this

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doesn't get away from us here that we keep this affordable uh and and if it was up to me I would treat this as a permit fee only you know we we made this for more affordability uh in unincorporated uh beluchia without subsidizing

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uh and nickel and dimeming people to death you know um we already pay a lot in impact fees we raised them hundreds of percent in the last few years here so just so you guys know where my My mind's at I'm going to need some some some some questions other questions answered probably to hear from y'all before

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I could possibly support any more fees on top. >> Councilman Santiago. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um Danny, I like where you're going and and thank thanks to staff. I know we talked about this a little over a year ago maybe um when we were having much more conversation on affordability and how do

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we remove barriers for people because um you know um I was speaking at a forum not too long ago public comments and um young people I have one of our speakers that comes here often so well not regularly but young people can't afford

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homes right now. There's a lot of people that are struggling and um these are ways that we can make homes more affordable. Um you know, we we've talked a lot about this when we talked about property taxes, right? And how the taxes are even hurting younger people. I know

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I'm kind of going on a different tangent here, but the the overall conversation is the idea behind this is making homes more affordable. Um people doing this in their properties I support. My question to you where Danny

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mentioned at the end there that if we did it as a zero would that trigger the uh revamping the whole system? I what I think I >> you actually can't do that. >> Okay. >> Because you you break the dual rational nexus of your impact vaud

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I mean that being said um I I I think Danny I think they went a long way. I like what's here. Um it's significantly saving a lot of money. So you're talking from paying $8,000 to maybe $500, $600. So

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>> what's the minimum we can charge? >> I don't know. >> So So it depends upon your impact fee study. So the way we are doing it now, you just pay the difference if you're it's the same thing as if you were adding an addition to your house, >> right? So you you have an existing house

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that is uh 1100 square f feet and you wanted to add a 300 foot addition. We don't care if it's an ADU. We don't care if it's another room, but you pay the difference for, you know, if you because you're tripping that threshold. So that's how we are treating it. So it doesn't matter if you like you can

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expand the house or you can expand the house and add an ADU. >> That's a clean way to do it. And then but but Danny, I don't think we should and just to kind of my last comments, I don't think we should determine who lives in and all that stuff. I don't Okay, let's leave that all alone. >> I just want to make it as cheap as possible. >> I agree. I agree. But staff, thank you.

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Um, you know, the legislature has been having a lot of conversation regarding ADUs. Also, I don't think they passed the bill this year, but it's something that continues to move forward. And, you know, I'd like to say that Valuchia County in in many cases, we're ahead of some of the trends. I think this is an

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example of one that we can be ahead of and letting our people know that we got you. Government fees sometimes can get out of control. Thank you, staff. >> Councilman Johansson. >> Thank you, sir. Um, for Paulo, I think you can answer this. Uh you mentioned that um uh if we tag the affordable

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housing to the ADU that no impact fees are are paid. >> Correct. That's that's an existing program. >> And so refresh my memory on how we tag it as affordable because three people have said we need to make this new affordable. So how how do we determine

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it affordable to get these guys to zero? So it to be affordable, you need to meet the the statutory definition for affordable under section 420. Um and then you have to basically the ADU is certified by your community services department. Um and then there's a deed

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restriction that goes on that ADU to make sure that the um it remains affordable for a set period of time. I think it's like 20 or 30 years. So >> then you know the uh the impact fees are deferred and no one has to pay them un

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unless and until that ADU comes market rate or the affordability provisions are removed in which case the impact fees are due. So, so when I build an ADU for mom and she lives in it for five years and and passes and I've done it deed

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restricted for 10, 20 or 30, I have to come back to you or or you note it and come back to me and say it's what are you going to do with it? It's time to pay impact fees unless I give it to another affordable housing. >> That That's correct. As long as it's being used for affordable housing, no

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impact fees are due. But if it stops being used for affordable housing purposes, then um the impact fees would be due. >> Is it safe to say that one of the main reasons it wouldn't be an affordable housing ADU is if I was

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renting it and and getting revenue for it? >> No, not necessarily because you can rent it and as long as the rent meets the affordable housing provisions, that's that's perfectly fine. It's just the the deed restriction is the verification that yes, this is for affordable housing

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and it is restricted to those who meet the income uh qualifications >> yeah percentage of AMI. All right, that's all I have. Thank you, sir. >> Thank you. Uh Deputy County Manager Suzanne Conchin. >> Thank you, Chairman. I I just wanted to add that I think we saw some requests

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for affordable housing relief when because our impact fees were treating the ADU as a duplex basically. Uh if we go to uh the proposal, we treat it as just part of the single family home. I doubt anyone will ask for that because

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it's we're talking either no fees due or just a few hundred. So just something for consideration. >> Motion to approve. Thank you. Second. Uh motion to approve what? >> To prepare the ordinance, right? >> Okay. Because you have to bring back uh

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ordinance for and changes to chapter 72. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. So, the motion then is to give you direction to proceed with that. Uh motion by Councilman Robbins. Second was by Councilman Santiago.

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>> Yes. Uh Danny, did you have anything else to add? Councilman Santiago. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to say this is a big deal. Even though we're not voting on the actual ordinance, this is a big deal for Vutions. Now, while not everybody can build an ADU, they may not have the space to do it, but this is a major step

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forward to addressing the affordability issues that we have throughout this country. So, getting government a little bit out of the way and making it more affordable to do something either whe it's for your families or maybe even a second income for a starting family, it's a big deal. So, um I'm glad this

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council is supporting it. >> And I'll take that a step further. I agree with you. Um but it's also the really the private sector doing it. Instead of us voting for taxpayer money to build affordable housing, it's a private sector doing this. is a big step

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in the right direction to save people uh money that need housing. Um so uh with that said, the motion on the floor is to give Ray direction to proceed. Um all in favor say I. >> I.

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>> Any opposed? And motion passes 7 to zero. Which uh brings us to the final item eight, discussion on term limits for county advisory boards. Chris Ryan. >> Yes, Mr. Chair. So, we uh Chris is going

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to walk you through a presentation uh on kind of an inventory of all your ports. You have a variety of different boards with different terms. Some are established by statute, some you have established. And we have if you do want to proceed with some form of termments,

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we have a recommendation what that could look like. We would need to return back to you with whatever ordinance or resolutions uh to implement that direction. Thank you. >> Good morning council. Chris Ryan, assistant county attorney.

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So the first slide we have here is what the current status is. Now we do have some boards that already do have term limits. the aggraus inter relationship committee, Echko, human service advisory board, ENRACH and Valuchia forever. Most of those are three terms of two years with the exception of Echko which is two

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terms of four years. Now we do have a couple boards that based on the fact that they're created by statutes um can't have term limits. That's the Health Planning Council and then Industrial Development Authority. Statute actually specifically says that people are eligible for reappointment on those boards. So we don't have discretion on that one.

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Now see these here are some of our boards that don't have term limits. These are the ones that have two-year terms. You have uh Affordable Housing Committee, Children and Family Advisory Board, the CLCA Cultural Council, Halifax Area Advertising Authority, Historic Preservation Board, Opioid

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Abatement Board, PLLDRC, the Southeast Valuia Advertising Authority, and the West Faluchia Tourism Advisory Authority. Here are some of the boards alternative terms. Um some of these are made by statute. For example, code enforcement board, state statute uh 16205 says it

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has to be a three-year term. Uh Daytona Beach Racing Authority is four years. Educational facilities authority is five. Growth Management Commission is four. Housing Finance Authority is four. The personnel board is actually governed by our charter. So, if we were to try to change that, I would take actual charter

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amendments. Uh the Spring Hill CRA is four years, the tourist development council is four years, and the value adjustment board is one tax year. Now, there are some uh additional considerations to have when when thinking about adding term limits. Um, some of the boards I advise, code

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enforcement and CLCA, for example, have certain requirements to be on that board. Like the CLCA for example, they want one person with uh plumbing contracting experience, one with electrical contracting, one engineer, things of that nature. So, they're they're very specialized boards with with unique qualities to be on that

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board. And because of that, we often have a hard time getting applicants who uh have the qualifications to be on that board. Thus, we have quorum issues. Another board, the historic preservation opioatement, similar qualifications. Uh many boards have had the same members for a decade or longer, and adding term

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limits would require filling an entirely new board. That's something I've come across in my history. Uh when I was in New Simra, for example, there was a board that had the same membership for over 20 years. We opened it up to new applicants and in 18 months, I think we got one qualified applicant. So that's a difficulty sometimes. Uh some boards are

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created by statute and the statute specifically provides that members can be reappointed. We discussed that. And we do have several boards that have vacancies currently. This is a list of our current vacancies. Uh AHACK has one, Cultural Council's three, CLCA is three.

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Uh uh Growth Management Commission is two. So several of these boards are having a hard time as of right now just getting people to fill them. Now, here are some examples from other local governments. Now, when I did my research, the majority of counties and

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municipalities uh may impose term limits, but not across the board. They'll choose a board here or there that has more coveted membership, for example, and uh put limits on those, recognizing the fact that some of the boards, as I mentioned, are difficult to fill. Bvard County, what they do is they

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uh it says appointees to advisory boards shall serve no more than eight consecutive years or 10 years in a 16-year period, which does leave a little you can be reappointed after you've had a certain amount of time off, provided that you've not uh gone more than 10 years. Within that 16-year period, they also have a provision that

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says a commissioner may request the board or county commissioners to wave the term limits should the commissioner have a difficult time filling an advisory board appointing position. And that would be something to certainly consider. A waiver with the term limits will only be granted if it's a supermajority votes. Another municipality that does a similar thing

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as safety harbor. They set term limits except as provided in this section. No person shall be eligible to hold a position in an advisory board governed by this division for more than three consecutive full terms. And they're not choosing how many years they're doing. They're choosing how many terms. So that's another consideration we would

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have here since our boards have a various amount of years for the term. And again, they have a similar provision that says if the event that no qualified applicants timely file uh filed to fill the position of a term limited member, the city commission may reappoint the term. And that's another consideration

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to keep in mind. They also have a provision that says the above shall only apply to appointments made after June 1st of 2015. So options for direction, we could do a countywide policy like Bvard or Safe Harbor, a settlement on terms, or no more than a specified number of

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consecutive years. We could uh target specific boards only, or we could take no action and options for direction. Uh recommendations if terms are preferred, four two-year terms, three three-year terms, two four-year terms, or two five-year terms if you're looking at

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those individual boards. And avoid limits on boards requiring specialized backgrounds. And I'll be here if you have any questions. Councilman Johansson. >> Questions? um of of those terms for boards without

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limitations. >> Yeah. When I first got on the council, we started talking about what what boards do we want to keep and what boards do we want to get rid of? and and

428
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the ebbing and flowing or the waning of of the uh the will to serve makes me wonder whether we actually need the boards at at all. I I think we do based

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on what I've seen here, but but I'm on Ahack, so so I know that if we got rid of Ahack, a lot of things would go away. So we we have to have it. Is there any

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in this group that we can we can do without? >> I do have a presentation on that that we've prepared for this council in the past. I'd have to refresh my memory. Um >> I know there are some that we have to keep. For example, if we want to keep our status as a certified local government like the historic

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preservation board, >> right? We do need to have the CLCA, PLLDRC, um the opioid abatement board, I believe, was created as part of an interlocal based on a settlements, >> right? >> Um >> how about cultural council? >> Cultural council, I believe, is one that we do not have to have. >> Yep. Okay. That that was the only one I

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was thinking of and and I have no intent of bringing up that argument other than if if the interest w them then maybe it's a consideration that it's lost its importance or at least temporarily. I don't know. Um

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um but I I think that's the only question I have for now. Thanks, Chris. >> Uh Vice Chair Reinhardt. >> Thank you, Chair. Um Chris, real quick, um I know it was brought up before, but just for clarification and and I know that was a topic u Mr. Joe Hansen just

434
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brought up about the cultural council and we had that vote determining that with respect to the um the funding, but we did say during that time, if I'm not mistaken, of the importance of having that board because they do more than just hand out checks. Um could you

435
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expand on that a little bit just as a refresher on on some of the um responsibilities of that board other than the funding avenue? I do not. >> Cultural council has a couple roles. The primary goal is um

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>> making recommendations to you on your cultural grants which you're discontinuing after this year. Um they also are involved in the art and public places program which you've established

437
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by ordinance which basically requires that we be prepared to set aside funding for a county project to buy art subject to your approval. Does not require you to actually spend any money on art but

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sets a goal if you wish to pursue it. And then it also um has a role in uh making spending decisions on the arts license tag. >> That's the state gives. It's a small amount of money. Yeah.

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>> It does not have to be them. >> It could be it could be you. I think it could be another board if you appointed, but right now it's the cultural council makes that decision. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. uh council I think we we

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almost have to dissect this to give him the the information that he that he needs. Um the if go back to the beginning I think it's it's page two or three boards with term limits we've already taken care of those aggra

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business uh echo human services enrak um so the question is do we want to change anything on boards without limits and I'm I'm really I'm very hesitant to uh change to to put term limits on boards

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like PLDRC code enforcement that are extremely busy boards and it's already hard to get people to serve on them. If we have people that that have history and um uh there eyes

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I would be really hesitant to ask them to leave, but is there any on that page three are there any boards that you would like to see uh limits on? Right now, they they have two-year limits. Affordable housing, children and family,

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CLCA, Cultural Council, we just talked about that. Halifax area advertising, historic preservation. Uh, uh, Vice Chair, right? You're good. >> Okay. Opioid abatement, PLLDRC. I I

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would hope we strike that one. Um, anyone there interested in term limits on that? on any of those. Then we'll move on to page four. Boards with alternative terms. Again, code enforcement, Daytona

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Beach Racing, Educational Facilities, Growth Management, Housing Personnel, Spring Hill, TDC, >> uh, Councilman Reinhardt, Vice Chair Reinhardt. Um the you had mentioned Chris if I could ask a question. Um you had you had mentioned the fact that some

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of the boards we can change the requirements >> but code enforcement board can that be I mean it would be beneficial to have somebody from the building background or somebody from the architectural background or somebody from is that >> so the code enforcement board is created

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by uh 16205 um in Florida statutes and it it has recommendations for it says where available they should be someone with a background as an architect a real estate agent, a general contractor. There's there's a number of provision, a number of uh uh professions that they

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say as recommended, but it's not 100%. >> So just recommended, but it is difficult to fill that board. Correct. >> Yes. >> And probably based on those requirements >> and I understand, you know, it's it's beneficial to have it, but at the same time, if it's hard to fill it,

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>> then maybe they also that's something we look at as far as the requirements. Do you want to take that one by one gentleman or I mean or not one by one we don't have to do every single one but I'm that's the first one I mean I was on the code enforcement board for Daytona and I know they struggled as well

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>> I know New Smrna did from working code enforcement news that they struggled as well >> so I don't know >> I'd like to looking back at this now and I apologize chairman I was deep in thought I guess but >> it's okay >> um based on good

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>> breard and and um safe harbor. I'd like to make a motion and propose that we uh limit all boards to 8 years before it has to come to council for a

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waiver and that protects us for the PLRDC's, the code enforcement boards and all those that are hard to find and have wellqualified people. But after two terms, uh the the sitting council can then take a good look at it and

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determine whether those people are the kind of people we want to keep on. >> Second, I'll second that. >> So after two terms for the You're talking about the fouryear board, >> eight years. Two two-year terms, four year terms. >> Okay. So you're combining them. All right. >> Eight years. The only one we might want

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to consider 12 years would be the personnel board because there it's a six-year term. >> Yeah. We can pull that one out if you'd like. >> That that would require a charter change. So, I would pull that out. >> Yeah, let's pull with the exception of the personnel board.

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>> And just to make sure I understand your idea is to not proceed with term limits on those boards that have the occupational qualification requirements. Everything else with the goal of the eight years unless you wave it.

457
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>> Correct. >> Okay. So, we're excluding the personnel board and boards that have requirements for certain um backgrounds. We do have one kind of odd man out board. The educational

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facilities authority is a five-year term. So, they could after five years, we could have to take it back in front of the council for a waiver or we could set that for 10 years. I'm just coming up with options. My thought on that if you're okay I you could do two five years with those peculiar ones cap it at

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10 unless you wave it if so that would put you in a range of having terminal limits of five 8 to 10 years >> that's what I'm shooting for yeah >> okay you're good with that Jake you're making that motion >> yes sir so the motion is uh limited

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eight years without council waiver with the exception of the personnel board and educ educational facilities authority uh with the education facilities authority being 10 years. >> Okay. And vice chair Reinhardt makes the

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second. Any other questions for Chris comment? All in favor favor of the proposed changes, please say I. >> Any opposed? >> Thank you, Jake. That passes seven to zero.

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>> You have a public comment card. And I will also real quick if you don't mind um because some of these boards are created by ordinance and some by resolution, this may have to be handled by the drafting of an ordinance and a resolution depending on come back. >> Get on it.

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>> Okay. Okay. Mr. Nicholson, you want to come up and thank us or scream at us? Okay. Sorry to overlook you. Okay. Uh, public participation.

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>> Should I save this, John? >> Thank you. Uh, John Nicholson, John Nichols in Daytona Beach, Florida. On that last one, I just want to say that in Daytona Beach, we have uh probably a half a dozen that have been on boards for 20 to 30 years. And 30

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years is way too long. It really is. So capping at 10, you're doing fine. Um secondly, you have a person, actually you have two, but there's a person that comes in all the time. He's running for office and he's constantly coming every meeting

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and speaking. All right? So people get to know him. Uh when Danny ran, I didn't know Danny from hole in the wall. I didn't even know that he was running for office down there. So when he got in, his first public comments were, "Oh my

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god, he's a a right winger. I mean, he he he's not going to do he's going to hold up everything on on the city on the county council." And he didn't. All right. He's turned out to be a really great uh county councilman, but the public as a whole, we are limited on who

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we get to see and who we get to know who's running for this. So, I'm wondering whether you could have a time when those who are running for county council seats because people watch this program. All right. If they could come

469
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up on one particular day and say, "I'm running. this is my qualifications blah blah blah the more we get to see because what happens in the newspaper is not actually what you the person is all right so the better we know the candidates the better it is for us to

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choose so I'm wondering you might just take one day a month out or so before the election to have them present themselves because you all will also have to work with them if they get elected so it's important that you know

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them as well uh secondly um affordable housing. Is there a possibility that you could put because I the idea that affordable housing is just hut housing extended because if you keep the same

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qualifications for affordable housing that you have for hut housing, it's just the same thing. It's just another higher end. And in Daytona Beach, our affordable housing goes through our hutousing. So all the people that are on the HUD housing list go right into the

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affordable housing and it doesn't help the people that need it. There's that little niche between uh you can't qualify for affordable uh for HUD housing but you don't have enough money to afford housing. So that I thought was where that affordable housing was. It

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often mentioned teachers, policemen, firemen. And what we got was none of those. If you remember the Clyde Morris landing, you didn't really do a look at who went into Clyde Morris Landing. You get people that have no money that pay

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no rent. So, I think if we did a bottom to that affordable housing, it would help us. >> Thank you. Uh, Mike Ponyattowowski. >> Thank you once again. So yesterday, not yesterday, last week, about the same time, the citizens of Lush County had a

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great victory when we came before the DRC, uh, Ben Bartlett, Ray Tiner, and Cyrus Callum, and we packed the house with probably close to 200 people, standing room only, and we talked about Creek Crossing, the development that

477
02:25:40.960 --> 02:25:56.960
hasn't come before this group. Uh, hopefully will never come before this group. Um but we had a great victory because we came before the DRC with reasoned conversation facts. We brought our expert experts forward uh and we had

478
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a long conversation and this conversation has been going on for 17 months not just last week. We worked on it for a very long time. We invested a lot of our money, a lot of our blood and treasure. And we were relieved when the DRC listened to us and voted 300 denying

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Creek Crossing, the proposal outright and the waiver to destroy wetlands. So, I want to log those three gentlemen and the county and for you guys hiring those individuals for listening to the citizens with our facts and figures and looking at the overall project and

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denying it where it needed to be denied. And I thank you. Creek Crossing was a great victory not for just the Tamoka Farms village or the Spruce Creek flying but the entire Spruce Creek basin because that land needs to be preserved and that will come before you at another

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time. Thank you and God bless. Have a great week. >> Thank you for your comments. Uh county manager, just a couple things. Uh first off just a reminder to everybody we do have a executive session uh at the end of this

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uh depending on how the time works out uh we can either grab lunch and and go down or we can um go ahead and it won't be long. It won't be as long session. So there's also we could have the session and come back and eat how however you

483
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chose to do that. Uh the next thing I want to I'm going to turn it over to Suzanne. She has some updated info on comments that were were made earlier today. >> Uh thank you, council. And I'm so glad Mr. Ponitowski is still in the house

484
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because he made some comments about the ocean center. And I want to just add some clarity and and and add on to some of those comments. Um, last year the Federal Trade Commission actually passed a new law that requires what in the industry is called all-in pricing. So,

485
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if you buy go onto a site to buy a concert ticket and for Bloodto Blood tomorrow night, the uh least expensive ticket is $42. That's an all-in price. It includes the cost of the ticket plus fees. So, the fees were not added on to it. And and Miss Flanders can maybe go

486
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through the receipts with Mr. Ponittowski. The second uh that just so you know that was a $25 ticket with $17 in fees. So I don't disagree. It's very heavy on fees. Interestingly, the fee percentage goes down as the ticket price

487
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went up. So the next uh price tier was 76.80 for a ticket. Uh $55 ticket, 2180 fees. This is based on an old two things. It's based on an old contract with ticket master and preferential

488
02:28:47.359 --> 02:29:03.600
requests of the promoter in this case Danny Weber presents who is putting on uh this event. The good news is we went out and had an open procurement for ticketing services. Uh it is coming to you for

489
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contract acceptance in the near term. actually ticket master prevailed uh the with the committee and but the terms and the limitations on fees being proposed much more favorable for the ticket buyer uh in what we're going to be bringing to

490
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you. So those fees will go down in the future. So I'll be uh very happy to see that come before council. There was a comment about the rigging points and needs for trussing. Just to uh restate a comment we've made council before, we've

491
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had full engineering assessment um of the arena. It's been reviewed by Danny Danny Whmer presents as well as other consultants. We have a limitation on what improvements can be made without completely rebuilding the roof lo

492
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because of the load of the structure. We are adding rigging points. Uh that is one of the approval projects that council has supported through echo funding. I will say Bloodto Blood gonna have four uh heavy rock bands uh

493
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performing tomorrow night. They've already pre-rigged the arena. Um, we really have never had anyone come in, uh, even with very high-end lighting shows and had problems with our structural rigging, but we're only going to be improving them over time uh, with

494
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the enhancements coming. Um, and lastly, although this is the first Danny Whmer Presents uh event tomorrow night, Danny Whmer was very instrumental in bringing Burke Chryser's full throttle event which was about two months ago to the

495
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Ocean Center right when they were just beginning our work with us. Just as a reminder, Burke Chryser, comedian, produced that show. He put on a comedian, a comedy act. He had Leonard Skinnard uh perform great uh set by

496
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Leonard Skinnard, a country act called Earnest, which is actually very big in the country sector. And then uh they they brought in an EDMcountry DJ, Diplo, which actually mainland High School graduate uh former Daytona Beach

497
02:31:12.479 --> 02:31:28.640
uh youth uh very big nationally and internationally well-known name. So, that brought in about 5,000, maybe 6,000 participants. I consider that really our kickoff to local music lately. It was a good show. I was able to attend. Um, and

498
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we're pressing Danny Whmer's team to bring us as many additional uh acts, whether it is 80s music. Uh, wholly support Florence in the Machine. I would love to get her uh into our

499
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arena. She played Tampa last Tuesday. for those who were following sold out the Tampa Arena about a 17,000 seat facility. Uh fingers crossed we can make that happen. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Uh County Attorney Michael Dyer.

500
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>> Uh nothing at this time. Thank you. >> Okay. County Council uh Don Dempsey, you're up first this time. >> Yeah. Is there any chance I can get an update? We had that lady starting off the meeting tonight talking about the Dand Little League and how how badly

501
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they need uh practice areas in a home field. Um I know we uh looked had Hunden, I believe it was, do a study on doing that location down there off of Veterans Memorial in Orange City. Where do we stand with that project?

502
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>> No pun intended. Brad Burbal, excuse me, director of community services. So, we're working two pathways. Um, we heard you loud and clear when we came in Jan, excuse me, January. One is we are trying to meet the local

503
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demand based on the data that we've shared with you. So, um, Tad and his team are moving forward with constructing two fields on the opposite side with turf grass that will be part of the larger, um, hopefully P3 complex that we will build. Um, so that's that's

504
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moving forward. Um, that micro or astroturf will allow us to increase the field use by hundreds of hours each year. So hopefully meeting some of the local demand while we're simultaneously putting in place um the policy and

505
02:33:32.319 --> 02:33:48.800
procedure needed to accept uh unsolicited proposals from P3 partners. And I believe you voted on that at the last meeting. So two two pathways we're working. One immediate relief, one is long-term uh construction with a P3 partner >> and that's still at the same location on Veterans Memorial.

506
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>> Okay, sir. >> Thank you. that it hit. >> Uh, Councelman Johansson, >> two items f uh first of all, I would like to uh thank staff for their hard

507
02:34:06.080 --> 02:34:23.760
work at the DRC at the DRC with with uh Creek Crossing. I I know that we've we heard a lot and and we've had a couple we've had a couple items that have been not brought to our attention but brought

508
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to us early for decision. Um and and I I kind of equate it to picking a rotten apple before the the apple blossom is even become a blossom yet. uh

509
02:34:41.280 --> 02:34:57.680
it's a little bit too early sometimes for us to comment when we know that the staff will will do the hard work and make this tough decisions. And I think that uh um the the team at the DRC did a good job of fleshing out the good and

510
02:34:57.680 --> 02:35:13.120
the bad parts of that um uh at at the DRC and sent them back to square one. So, uh, I I appreciate staff working hard and I do appreciate the the public,

511
02:35:13.120 --> 02:35:31.200
uh, coming in and and with with science and passion, uh, to let let our DRC and our staff know what they think about about all the uh, uh, developing. But um

512
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you know, you hear a lot about uh and it's campaign season, so you hear a lot about unchecked development. Well, the DRC is is one check on development along the way. Um and and that's part of our

513
02:35:47.760 --> 02:36:03.040
process, right? The end check, I guess, is us, but uh that's the first stop. So, uh, George, thank you to the staff for all they do to, uh, vet these things as they come up through the chain before

514
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they get to us. So, by the time we they do, uh, we're we're about as educated as you can get. Uh, uh, so I I appreciate that. Um, the second thing is, uh, we're fleshing out our next uh, subcommittee

515
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meeting for the flooding subcommittee. Uh that's still ongoing and uh looks like uh May 28th we're going to do that probably out at the airport. Uh that's when we invite all 16 cities, the mayors

516
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or or their representatives to come out. Um, we'll be showing people at that point the interactive map on all the projects going on to the uh uh going on in the county, which I believe will eventually

517
02:36:52.000 --> 02:37:09.680
um be available to the public. Uh, I'll I'll I'll find out before the 28th. But that's that's just one other tool people can have to instead of saying, "I wonder what's going on," they'll be able to take a a look. And if not, it will be on

518
02:37:09.680 --> 02:37:26.319
our web page, the list of of projects in addition to what Donna is doing with transform 386. So what I what I want to do I guess in in that vein is again thank staff and

519
02:37:26.319 --> 02:37:43.280
thank the the cities for participating in the subcommittee and doing everything that it takes to make make it as transparent as possible what's going on. Everybody wonders, especially on on hurricane season,

520
02:37:43.280 --> 02:37:58.720
what is the county and what are the cities doing to protect me? Hopefully, we'll have a a visual representation of that. Um, thanks to the hard work of Ben Bartlett and the team at the county and the cities who who will eventually be

521
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feeding into that. So, uh, May 28th, uh, time will probably be 10:00 at the airport, but we'll get an agenda out here shortly. Uh, that's all I have, sir. >> Thank you, Councilman Kent. >> Thank you, Chairman Brower.

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Um, just a couple of really brief items for the council. You know, I'm preaching to the choir when I tell you gentlemen that elections have consequences. And I was fortunate enough to meet a young, ambitious

523
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David Santiago, state representative, when you first got elected and you represented Valuchia County. And you know, you always treated Valuchia County very well in Orman Beach, and I'll never forget that, and I'm appreciative of those efforts. I say that because, you

524
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know, um Jake, I've told you this uh publicly and privately, but you're going to be our next state senator and and you are you are going to be able to continue to do great things for Valuchia County, and I'm appreciative of that in the

525
02:39:09.120 --> 02:39:25.359
future. That being said, each of us brings a different skill set. And I'm talking about all of this now because I'm going to end with the Ocean Center. We got Lyn Flanders back there. Great director there. But, you know, when I when I first ran for

526
02:39:25.359 --> 02:39:42.399
this seat, I had I had people that I thought liked me laugh at me when I publicly said I was going to get locals driving on the beach at no charge. They laughed at me. Saw them. And uh you know

527
02:39:42.399 --> 02:39:59.359
no one this isn't an an individual sport. You have to get consensus. You have to have ideas that will work. And I wanted to publicly thank you gentlemen because without your support that wouldn't have happened. And we're in year two and it is proving yet again

528
02:39:59.359 --> 02:40:17.040
to be wildly successful. I say that because one of my top four priorities when I got elected was to bring venues back to the Ocean Center. In my opinion, it was a defunct location that just like enough like the

529
02:40:17.040 --> 02:40:33.680
cheerleading and stuff is great. And I'm not kidding. There's a quilting convention. I talked about this when I was campaigning and I'm sure it's wonderful. a quilting convention, but I wanted my to take my wife to something that we wanted to see and I

530
02:40:33.680 --> 02:40:49.040
didn't want to have to drive to St. Augustine or Orlando. And you know, this council approved it. And Suzanne, George and Suzanne, you put the right person at the helm uh with Lynn Flanders to make that happen. And this is just the

531
02:40:49.040 --> 02:41:05.439
beginning of wonderful great things to happen. And so Lynn and George and Suzanne, I just charged you with this was one of my top four. Like cut loose on it, like you know, pedal to the metal. Just make it happen. We need

532
02:41:05.439 --> 02:41:20.720
more of this. That's exactly what we want to have in our community. And I'll end with um those listening online and those that are here. My next district dialogue for residents will be on Monday, May 18th at the Orman Beach

533
02:41:20.720 --> 02:41:38.640
Library from 5 to 6:00 p.m. Um, I usually have between 50 and 100 people show up to these district dialogues. They're wonderful. George, would you just remind the staff? A year ago, they forgot I was coming. It looked good for me because I they all saw me putting

534
02:41:38.640 --> 02:41:55.680
chairs out, but it'd be nice if they were prepared. If you'll just remind them, I'm going to be there 5 to 6 pm on the 18th. Have a great afternoon and this is record time for us at the county. >> Vice Chair Matt Reinhardt. >> Thank you, Chair. Gentlemen, back in

535
02:41:55.680 --> 02:42:11.359
first meeting of January, um I had asked staff for a proposal for something that was very near and dear to my heart. Um I talk about we all board on different shares of where we we participate on different boards other than here. Um,

536
02:42:11.359 --> 02:42:26.800
one of mine that I I did on my own was to sit on the domestic abuse council um because that's an issue that has hit my home uh with my daughter. So, but it has gotten bigger since then. And I brought back in January, just to uh refresh

537
02:42:26.800 --> 02:42:41.920
everybody's memory of the incident that happened in the state of Tennessee where the offduty police officer was killed by her ex-boyfriend. Um, so I know that the state of Tennessee had put up a proposal for a

538
02:42:41.920 --> 02:42:58.720
domestic violence database. Um, and I know that we have passed a threshold to be able to ask for that of our legislation for this year. Um, so I wanted to know if there was something we could do locally. So my apologies is um staff did accommodate and and from my

539
02:42:58.720 --> 02:43:16.160
information that it was the memo was sent uh to each of us uh with what is happening what's happening in Tennessee what we could do here. So um if they would go ahead and put it up on the screen. I prepared this uh the other

540
02:43:16.160 --> 02:43:32.880
night. Um and I'm not going to go through each and everything, but just to give you a little history and I can provide you guys with a copy of that as well, but just to keep in mind and put it in perspective, Valuchia County uh for domestic violence is number four in the state. And I said it before and I'll

541
02:43:32.880 --> 02:43:48.560
say it again, that is not a number to be proud of. So, does this help it? Yes. Does it cure it? No. But it does help. And what I'm asking to do is something simple that at no cost that they could simply extract the information from

542
02:43:48.560 --> 02:44:04.880
what's provided at the clerk's office to where our public would have that transparency to be able to find out who loved ones are seeing. And not just that, I I put in here uh on page two or page three, one of those about the

543
02:44:04.880 --> 02:44:20.800
definition of relationships. It doesn't have to be that. It could be we have an elderly community. I pointed this out before and we bring individuals into our homes because they can't afford to be placed in a nursing facility. So they bring individuals like CNAs and whatnot into the home and we question as to

544
02:44:20.800 --> 02:44:36.800
who's coming into our home. So wouldn't it be nice to have a quick reference? Is it going to give you all the answers? No. But at least it turns the lights on and it it prompts you to gain some more research into who you're bringing into your home. So I did put in this that it

545
02:44:36.800 --> 02:44:53.920
was a ordinance. However, I've been I I it should be a resolution if I'm not mistaken. I know that um uh director of public protection was also working on this um as well and to see how exactly I don't know if uh can you give a little

546
02:44:53.920 --> 02:45:11.840
more insight as to what uh Randa had been able to provide us without me mixing things up too bad? Well, just at the very highest level, we would run it very similar to the animal cruelty registry that the council directed us to do. So, uh, Dr. Matusiaak is working

547
02:45:11.840 --> 02:45:28.720
with our IT team to create a program that would pull those, uh, convictions down from our clerk of the court. It would only involve those that, uh, were sentenced here, found guilty here in Valuchia County. It would not pull from

548
02:45:28.720 --> 02:45:46.560
any other jurisdiction. uh but we're able to do that and then keep it updated automated way uh so that there's not additional staff investment necessary and then make it available to the public like the animal. >> Thank you Suzanne. And I did when I say mimic um the state of Tennessee what I'm

549
02:45:46.560 --> 02:46:04.240
looking at is merely to uh kind of the same thing with two or more convictions um to make it fair. And there are qualifying offenses of domestic violence, domestic assault, aggravated domestic assault, domestic abuse, victim stalking, aggravated stalking, repeated violations of orders of protection. This

550
02:46:04.240 --> 02:46:21.359
all falls under that and Don, you know that very well as far as what falls under that statute. You know as well as I about my situation and what it entails. So, uh, and what goes into that. But also um I have been informed at least I thought Mike that you had

551
02:46:21.359 --> 02:46:39.760
said that we are putting this on our legislative request for 2027. >> Yes. My understanding it is and thank you for that on your >> Thank you very much for that. I appreciate that. So what I'm asking gentlemen is that staff could bring back that resolution that to vote on. U I'll

552
02:46:39.760 --> 02:46:55.520
make that motion. >> Is there a second on his motion to bring this back? >> I'll second. I just have a question. Okay. Uh, Councilman Robbins makes a second. Go ahead and ask your question. >> Uh, Matt, real quick, and it just came to mind. So, we're not duplicating

553
02:46:55.520 --> 02:47:12.160
resources here. How How is this different than clerk.org where you can look up convictions, look up everything in matter of seconds? >> My my understanding is a lot of that information that you get, you can still go to that. We're giving another avenue to increase the transparency. Number one. Number two is that there is no cost

554
02:47:12.160 --> 02:47:28.319
associated with that. Um, I don't know if there's a cost associated to that from the clerk's office or not. >> No, this basically would assemble the information together. >> Together. In other words, when you're pulling up uh information from, as you know, you've looked at criminal

555
02:47:28.319 --> 02:47:43.520
histories before, you looked at information that you get from the clerk's office, you have to read through it to find those offenses. This gives it specific to that offense. So, I don't want to know about their their petty theft. I don't want to know about Well, I may want to know about their petty theft. And that that prompts me to look

556
02:47:43.520 --> 02:47:59.600
at that. But I u I'm there's a purpose behind this is that I'm looking for the domestic issue >> if we need it. >> Narrows it down to just that. >> All right. Thanks. >> Okay. Any other questions for Matt? Can

557
02:47:59.600 --> 02:48:17.680
uh briefly state your motion so we all know exactly what we're voting on? So, the motion is for staff to bring back the resolution uh for the databases in question, which would provide the basic information being extracted from the clerk's office uh on those qualifying

558
02:48:17.680 --> 02:48:34.240
offenses related to domestic violence. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> Um and >> thank you, Danny. >> Councilman Robbins maintains his second. All in favor say I hope before I call for the vote, Councilman Don Dempsey. Yeah, I just um I didn't know if it'd be

559
02:48:34.240 --> 02:48:49.040
better if we just went ahead and put this on an agenda and discussed it. I'd like to look into it some more cuz I mean, are you talking about including the >> That's what we're doing. The staff will bring this back. This is going to come back. This is not grading it right now. It's for staff to bring back the resolution and then we vote on whether

560
02:48:49.040 --> 02:49:05.840
or not we accept the resolution. >> Okay. But I just like to have staff do a full report because I don't know if we're exceeding our limitations as a county government. you know, I don't want to exceed the state's, you know, jurisdiction and, uh, I just want to make sure that whatever we're going to

561
02:49:05.840 --> 02:49:22.080
put into this stuff, if anything, but I want to make sure the the whole story is presented, the the the police report, um, you know, that's >> no, I mean, all again, all this is doing is pro, you know, it's it's extracting the name, the information, just what you

562
02:49:22.080 --> 02:49:38.640
look into Savannah's law, it's it's limited to that. It's not giving the details of the offense. It's not providing the uh 798 or 707, whatever it's called now. It's not providing victim's names. It's not providing any of that. What it does is simply prompts you if you see that that is on that

563
02:49:38.640 --> 02:49:54.960
database. Oh, he's had two convictions of domestic violence or anything that falls under that criteria of domestic violence. And that prompts me to look into it further and getting the information that's already available like Danny pointed out with the clerk's office that you and I could look at right now, which is not overstepping. I

564
02:49:54.960 --> 02:50:09.840
agree with >> So all this does is increase that. Uh but again, we're just bringing back the resolution for for discussion. >> I just maybe the word resolution is kind of I mean I'd like to have it come back for discussion, but I don't want to have it >> be seen as a resolution that we've

565
02:50:09.840 --> 02:50:33.760
already resolved. Motion to put something on the agenda. Right. >> There you go. That's all I want to do is talk about it. explore this. >> The only difference between the two of you is your motion would have us bring back the resolution that you could still reject or approve.

566
02:50:33.760 --> 02:50:49.279
>> What Mr. Dempsey's mentioning maybe is to not have the resolution attached and have a discussion. >> Yeah. So >> my my motion stands as far as the resolution >> which would be open to full discussion and debate and questioning >> as a resolution.

567
02:50:49.279 --> 02:51:05.760
>> So I think you both get >> Yeah. >> what you want. We can deny the resolution. Um >> Don. >> Well, okay. I'm going to be a no just for semantics if nothing. I'd rather just be openly a discussion as opposed to a resolution because there are some

568
02:51:05.760 --> 02:51:21.600
issues that I think I'm going to be a little concerned about. Okay. Thank you. Uh Chrissa, would you call the role in this motion? >> Mr. Dempsey. >> Mr. Johansson? >> Yes. >> Mr. Kent. >> I'd like to hear more of what Don had to

569
02:51:21.600 --> 02:51:38.160
say. So, no. >> Mr. Reinhardt? >> Yes. >> Mr. Robbins? >> Yes. >> Mr. Santiago. Mr. Brower. >> Yes. And the motion carries and we'll fully discuss it and Don will get his um hopefully get his questions answered.

570
02:51:38.160 --> 02:51:55.920
>> And that's all I have. Thank you. >> Okay, Councilman Robbins. Nothing. >> Nothing. >> I'm too uh George and I's birthdays are May 6th. I'll be 41

571
02:51:55.920 --> 02:52:16.640
>> and George be 42. I won't be 41. Good response. Uh, Councilman Santiago. >> Oh, real brief. Uh, Jake, I wanted to pick up where you now you left off, but where you did a great job in thanking our staff, uh, the the the DRC staff

572
02:52:16.640 --> 02:52:31.840
because what happened there is they did their job. They applied our code accordingly based on the the project that was before them and they denied a project based on the code. And that's always what we kind of referencing up here is applying the code to everyone

573
02:52:31.840 --> 02:52:48.560
equally and they did a good job. So I wanted to say that and to Mr. Nichols, you know, your suggestion of that is interesting. You know, I've been doing this a long time and u you know, I'll go on my soap box. When it comes to political uh election season, you see all kinds of candidates coming up here and all of a sudden they got grandiose

574
02:52:48.560 --> 02:53:04.479
ideas for a few months and then they disappear right afterwards. So I'll say it right. You're a participant. our blue shirt folks now have been regular participants and and some of them that speak. So, it's it's all show business. I'll say it.

575
02:53:04.479 --> 02:53:20.479
>> Okay. And just uh two things real quick. I wanted to bring to the public's attention that one of the things we voted on today, it was on consent agenda was a revamping upgrading of our audiovisisual system in here. I frequently during meetings get texts

576
02:53:20.479 --> 02:53:37.359
that we can't hear what's going on. Oddly enough, I didn't get any texts today. So, also we had to you got one. Okay. But that's uh uh that is being taken care of and we will all look forward uh to that. Um, the other thing

577
02:53:37.359 --> 02:53:53.680
I wanted to say since it was brought up at the beginning of the meeting about the septic to sewer uh situation, septic to sewer votes, um, I I will uh, gladly say that yes, when that first came to the council, uh, I voted against it

578
02:53:53.680 --> 02:54:10.720
because it initiated that to force people off of the septic systems onto sewer. I'm not for that. I'm not forcing people off of a septic system. Um, it did include money to help pay for some of that, but it started it and I didn't

579
02:54:10.720 --> 02:54:26.160
want to start it, so I voted against it. Um, once it was in place and it came back when Ginger Adair uh found more money from the state to help people offset the incredibly high price, um, I did vote for that. And I did mention a

580
02:54:26.160 --> 02:54:42.319
price tag of $40,000. Um that's actually a uh now a low price to get a uh nitrogen reduction septic system is extremely expensive. And I went to the meeting. I live in Deleon

581
02:54:42.319 --> 02:54:57.760
Springs where this occurred. I went to the meeting at the church in Dele Springs that uh the speaker this morning put on. The neighbors weren't for it. Um and the reason they weren't for it, they don't want to pollute uh the DeLeon

582
02:54:57.760 --> 02:55:12.399
Springs. They don't want to pollute anything. Most of them aren't because they're in areas that are high that are sand that are made for se septic systems have been around for thousands of years and and they can work really well. Um

583
02:55:12.399 --> 02:55:28.960
and the people were afraid and they voiced their fear that I'm going to lose my home if you force me to spend $40,000, $50,000. You know where I got those prices? From area septic tank companies. I've been working on this for about 10

584
02:55:28.960 --> 02:55:45.920
years. Started in Orman by the sea. It's extremely expensive. It's an it's an infringement on people's uh freedom who don't want to pollute. Um but my whole point of bringing that up last week that she neglected to say that uh I'm

585
02:55:45.920 --> 02:56:02.399
promoting a company called Rioation. I'm promoting their technology that the Indian River Lagoon Council fully supports. And now Stson University fully supports and uh Dr. Anderson has actually agreed to uh do the required

586
02:56:02.399 --> 02:56:20.160
testing for the EPA. Took two years for us to get to this point to where the EPA would even allow this company to test a very inexpensive, very simple system where they don't add anything to the water in the septic system. nothing to

587
02:56:20.160 --> 02:56:36.479
worry about pollution except for oxygen and a uh a a plastic insert that grows filamentas uh algae, bacteria, all the stuff that naturally takes out the pollutants from the water. It works incredibly. They put it in a septic tank

588
02:56:36.479 --> 02:56:52.720
and two weeks later, I don't know if anybody has a septic tank if you've ever seen it. It's not a pretty sight and two weeks later the water in that septic tank is clear. Now, you don't want to drink it, but it it looks like you could. It's clear. So the system works really well. Now they have to go through

589
02:56:52.720 --> 02:57:09.040
this testing. Uh Stson University has agreed to do it at their aquatic center with the homes that live around there. Every one of the homes uh that was asked I I think there's over 10 of them have agreed yes please use us and test this system. That's what I want the public to

590
02:57:09.040 --> 02:57:26.399
know that this is coming out. It would revamp water quality across the state. The Indian River Lagoon Council said we could take these and put them in all the septic systems in the lowlying areas where they don't work, where they shouldn't be, um, but are, and

591
02:57:26.399 --> 02:57:43.840
dramatically reduce the amount of nitrogen where these very expensive nitrogen reducing septic systems reduce it 40 50%. U, this system, uh, they claim to reduce it up to 90%. We'll see.

592
02:57:43.840 --> 02:58:01.600
They're going to be tested. It'll be a a long accurate test. Um, so that's why I brought it up. That's why I have an interest and several other council members here have an interest in the uh in the toilet to aquifer or toilet to

593
02:58:01.600 --> 02:58:17.840
tap problem because the the the problem in our springs, you can't say it's all for septic tanks. Do they contribute? Yeah, there's sept septic tanks that are in the wrong place. Um, but here, while we're we're forcing people to change,

594
02:58:17.840 --> 02:58:35.120
we're still approving septic tanks in Valuchia County all over the state of of Florida. You go to Alexander Springs where I was I was raised camping there with my family. Used to be a beautiful boil full of fish, full of uh uh native

595
02:58:35.120 --> 02:58:50.960
seaggrass. None of it's there anymore. The boil is completely barren. Uh, and it's because the amount of nitrogen is is so high. And the re there is not a septic tank within miles of Alexander Springs. There's nothing there. And yet

596
02:58:50.960 --> 02:59:07.600
the spring is pumping out huge amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus. The reason for that is because much of the state is already depositing their cleaned up sewage water into our aquifer. They say just below it um where it's going to be

597
02:59:07.600 --> 02:59:24.479
confined by the water around it, which defies physics. Water doesn't confine pollution. It just it will dilute it. It all mixes in. Um but that's why it's occurring all around the state. Our springs are pumping out uh uh nitrogen.

598
02:59:24.479 --> 02:59:41.840
South Florida h is is polluted their aquifer and it all that water comes up. So we don't need to add to the problem. We need to um slow the problem down. Uh that's what I was talking about for all of you. Most of you were here for the

599
02:59:41.840 --> 02:59:57.680
beginning of the meeting. I am I am for this lowcost system that really does reduce nitrogen in the water that homeowners can afford and and they don't lose their house for it. I was at the meetings in Deleon Springs. That was a

600
02:59:57.680 --> 03:00:13.200
consensus of the meetings. We don't want this. we can't afford it. We'll have to sell our our home. So, um that's actually the truth of of what happened. And with that, at 11:50, uh we are adjourned and we'll go to our

601
03:00:13.200 --> 03:00:21.880
um executive meeting. And I believe the food is Here.