feel. Hey Heat. Heat. N. Hey, hey, hey. Welcome to the Valuchia County Council meeting. The meeting will begin in 10 minutes. Hey,
hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey. Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Welcome to the Valuchia County Council
meeting. The meeting will begin in 5 minutes. Heat. Heat. Are you ready? Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Wonder it. Baby. Baby.
Hey. Hey. Welcome to the Valuchia County Council meeting. The meeting will begin in 2 minutes. Come on. Oh my god. Let's see. Toy's not here. He wasn't going to
be here. >> Oh, he's not coming. >> I know. >> He's spring break cruise. Okay, if everybody's ready, we will call the March 17th, 2026 Valia County
Council meeting to order at 401 or 02, whatever clock you you believe. Um, it's good to see everybody here. It's always good to see a full house. Um, in just a second I will ask you to stand. We always start our meeting with an
invocation and then the pledge of allegiance and then we'll go right into uh public participation. This morning uh we did not have a a faith group signed up for an invocation. So if you would just stand with me and
we'll have a minute of uh silence. the we're at a point where the country could certainly use prayer. I alian to the Flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Christa, would you call the role, please? >> Mr. Reinhardt, >> here. >> Mr. Robbins, >> here. >> Mr. Santiago, >> here. >> Mr. Dempsey, >> here. >> Mr. Mr. Johansson >> here,
>> Mr. Kent, Mr. Brower >> here. So, we are uh missing one, but we have a a quorum. Do you have any public participation? Okay, there being none.
So, we start the meeting with general public participation where you can uh speak to any item um uh that's that's not being discussed on the agenda. Any you can speak to any county business
that the council might act on in the future. You'll have three minutes uh to speak. if you would tell us what part of the county you're from. You don't need to give your entire address for safety reasons, but just tell us where you're
from so that your representative knows. Uh there will there will be a a timer on the u on the monitor in front of you on the platform here and also on the u uh the screens above my head in the back of the room. So, please stick with three
minutes. We have a lot of people that want to talk and um this uh opening public participation is limited to to one hour. So we want to squeeze everybody in. Um we uh council, I'm
going to ask your u permission. We have the the first speaker is uh uh as a request from Jessica Cal uh Gal. She is the chair of ENRACK and she's supposed to be in court or in some meeting and uh
I had uh told her I would call her first even though she wants to speak on an agenda item if there is um if if everybody would allow that. >> No objection. >> Okay. Jessica Gal three minutes or less.
>> Attorneys are brief. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for this. Um I have a speaking presentation at Stson to talk about if they want to become lawyers. So that would be good. Um so thank you for letting me be a preview to an agenda item on Valuchia Forever. Um I have the privilege of acting as the current Valuchia Forever
chair. Um I am vice chair of ENRAC to clarify u but I am speaking here individually and I I just want to note that I think you have a room full of people who are primed to tell you how much they love this program. I think it takes over 500 pages in the agenda backup to talk about the pros of this
program. Um, you've got an outpouring of support from our local governments as well for Valuchia Forever. Um, and I just want to say that I think there are concerns that have been brought up that are very valid about the program that I think um, don't necessitate looking at the program overall. What I would hate
to see is one of our county's greatest successes be turned into an election topic or an election issue. Um so overall I think we have seen a huge success in this program. Overwhelming public support um huge dedication of public input. We have seen the
conservation in this county grow over the past 5 years from 30% to 40% with no end in sight. Um, the program allows for not only conservation of environmentally sensitive areas for future generations, but it also provides through the forest and farmlands program the opportunity
for our agricultural community to get value for their greatest investment, their land, while allowing them to continue the agricultural operations that have been the backbone of our county for generations. Um, I think that two main issues have come up in the discussion and that's bonding capacity and its partnerships. Um, and I think
overall when it comes to partnerships, I think the concern is valid of local control remaining where it's needed. Um, but I think that with enough foresight from staff and participation on the policy level, that could be handled through specific negotiations. And so when a project comes forward, if the
state wants to expand Bulo Creek State Park, they might be the best management entity for that. When a project comes forward that impacts Felia County, we should be in charge of those management decisions. And I think there are no changes to the program that are required to allow that to proceed with county
staff getting direction for the policy negotiations. Um, and the second is bonding. So when the referendum was adopted, the bonding capacity for the program was permitted. I think that as long as real estate remains a valid investment structure um here in our
county, bonding as long as it is reviewed by this county council for every purchase that goes through for fiscal responsibility um is a valid process that makes a lot of sense when it's used correctly. And so I don't think we spend all of our capacity on day one, but I think that having that
tool in the toolbox as it's ultimately reviewed by this council um continues to show the benefit of the program. It was used in the last iteration and we would love to buy some more land. So, thank you for your continued support. Thank you for letting me speak out of order and I hope you continue your support of this program. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Uh uh Wendy, I'm going to I'm going to call three names so that first one come up and the other two uh is there seats on the front row so we can get that way we'll be able to get through as many
people as possible. Wendy Wazac, Melissa Thorne, and Jan Albert. >> Mr. Chairman, just quick question. Are these for items that are not on the agenda? Just want to make sure. >> Uh, yes. This is for the opening public comment. I'll look at each one and see.
Yeah. >> Okay. I'll let you you'll monitor that, I'm assuming. Okay. >> Yes. >> Go ahead. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Okay. Good afternoon. My name is Wendy Wazac and I am here to go over the potential Duke Energy transmission route
of Hazen and Green Roads. Specifically, I would want to address the 1,400 to,600 plus Hazen Road area, uh, which is very close to the corner of Hazen and Greensair roads. I'm also including in this, excuse me, Greensberry Road. These
properties with homes vary in size from one plus acres to 10 acres. This section of Hazen Road is extremely narrow. For example, when two large trucks are passing each other on the road, we have to scoot over to the edge and kind of go
off the road so we don't hit each other's mirrors. There is also a natural pond that has been there for 50 plus years. There is a significant amount of canopy trees that is home to numerous wildlife, various birds, owls, wild
turkeys, gopher turtles. There are also farm animals on some of these properties, horses, cows, goats, chickens, etc. If Duke Energy chooses the Hazen and Greens dairy road routes, they will have to remove a significant amount of trees. They will need to
invoke eminent domain to those properties that the 120 foot approximately 85 ft above ground transmission poles will go on. This will completely devastate the way this quiet farmlike area looks. Along with the
EMFs, electromagnetic fields, also called EMRs, electromagnetic radiation emitted from the power lines that are known to cause a variety of health issues, including cancers, not to mention the significant reduction of
property values. These are our homes where we raise our children, our grandchildren, and enjoy our later years. We do not want any of this on our residential route. Please help us, all
of us homeowners, to inform Duke Energy to choose one of the other two potential routes, specifically the Spring Garden, which is also known as 15A, the truck route that is commercial, and the transmission poles would blend in
perfectly. Thank you very much for letting me speak. >> Thank you, Melissa Thorne. >> Good afternoon, council. My name is Melissa Thorne. I'm from the unincorporated Glenwood area of Dand. Normally, I'd be up here speaking to you
about toilet to tap and other issues that you all have failed to address. But today, instead, I'm going to give you a blessing of light, an Irish blessing since it's St. Patrick's Day. May the blessing of light be on you, light
without and light within. May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great pea fire so that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it. And may light shine out of the two eyes of you like a candle set in the window of a house bidding the wanderer come in
and out of the storm. And may the blessing of the rain be on you. May it beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean. and leave there a shining pool where the blue of heaven shines and sometimes a star. And may the
blessing of the earth be on you, soft under your feet, and as you pass along the roads, soft under you as you lie out on it, tired at the end of the day. And may it rest easy over you when at last
you lie out under it. May it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be out from under it quickly, up and off and on its way to God. And now may the Lord bless you and bless you kindly. Please do what's best for this county.
Please do what's best for your citizens. They are here speaking to you. Please listen. Jan Albert and Jan following you will be Cat Pante. >> Okay. Good afternoon governing body and
everyone. My name is Jan Albert and I live on Country East Port Orange. I've been a real estate appraiser for 54 years and hydraologist. I want to speak about blackwater infusion which is otherwise nicknamed toilet to tap and
chairman Brower is absolutely correct to triage this issue to the top of what we're dealing with because our aquifer is very finite. It's been millions of years in the making and nothing that's
falling now is has any impact on what will be in there for millions of years more. So there are things that we can do to extend that. For instance, if municipalities would use uh things like water hyasin and uh hemp and uh
hydrillaa, you'll end with a product that isn't toxic. But some of you chose not to let the people have a vote on this. And we really need to get people's uh opinions on how we're going to proceed because we're reaching
the end of totally free as if it was ever free water. And we have to uh decide how we're going to proceed. Of course, it's obvious to do things like stopping data centers, etc. But Elimont
Springs did not have a choice. And now after just less than a year of Blackwater infusion, their cancer rates are significantly up and their fertility rates are significantly down. My husband was a physician here for 50 years and
his colleagues are keeping track of this kind of data. And we're going to have this across everywhere, but especially here. And I understand that you only control 7%, but you are setting the example for the municipalities cuz all
the rest of us have individual wells that will be damaged by injecting Blackwater directly with the toxins in it. So, uh, I don't think you're going to find many people that think that that's a good way to extend our aquifer.
Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Katherine Pante, you'll be followed by Patrick Ley and Patrick will be followed by Andrew Caukins. >> Good evening, council. Before I get into
the details of my request, I want to draw your attention back to item Q on a consent agenda. County staff recognized that the city of Gainesville located in Elatchua County had written a solid, legally binding contract, and they asked for your permission to utilize it. My request to the council is similar. I'm
here to ask you to support placing a charter amendment on the ballot that fully protects what the Valuchia County voters approved in 2020 when they renewed the Valuchia Forever program with 75.6% of the vote. Elatchua County drafted a strong legally binding charter amendment designed to protect the land
they placed in the conservation through their voter approved Elatchua forever program. Valuchia can do exactly what Elatchua did legally, safely, and without conflict. Our proposal follows a model that has stood unchallenged for nearly two decades and is in full compliance with state and federal law as
referenced in section C of the amendment. The key element in Elatchua's amendment appears in section B, which states in part, "Protected public places may not be sold or converted to a use that will result in loss of value or values for which the property was placed on the registry except by a majority
vote of the electors voting in a countywide referendum election. The amendment applies only to lands placed in conservation on the registry where all land purchased for conservation should be. All other county-owned lands such as those used for public works or other purposes could still be sold with
a simple majority vote of the council. While I respect the work done by our charter review commission, the amendment proposed for placement on the ballot falls short. It leaves the door open for sale of conservation land through the vague term public purpose. That phrase is broad and easily manipulated,
weakening the protections voters believed they were funding. For example, one member suggested, "What if we need a fire station?" Or, "What if we need, excuse me, we should not be selling off conservation land for such purposes?"
Solar farms. That's what it was. Solar farms. Solar farms. We should not be selling off conservation land for such purposes. Those needs should be anticipated and funded through the development that created the demand for the additional infrastructure like a fire station. Regrettably, we must
protect Valuchia Forever Conservation Land Program from the political whims of those who wish to repeal or undermine it. At a time when a sitting council member continues to challenge and undermine Valuchia Forever, the need for stronger protections has never been clearer. An Elatchua County style charter amendment would ensure that
conservation land cannot be sold without the direct approval of voters. These lands belong to the people who paid for them. The people of Valuchia County deserve the final say in protecting them. I respectfully ask that you look past the Sarasota red herring. Those two amendments that were overturned were not in compliance with Florida state law and
are not an applesto apples comparison with the Elatchu amendment. Instead, give the residents of Valuchia County the same common sense protection that Elatcha voters enjoy. Thank you for your consideration and the opportunity to speak. >> Thank you. Uh Patrick, are you there? and then
Andrew Caulkins followed by Mike Ponyattowski. >> Uh, good afternoon. Appreciate you all taking the time to listen to us today. My name is Pat Ley. I'm a resident of the unincorporated area of Dand. 24 years ago, I left Miami for several
reasons. Uh, chose Valuchia County also for several reasons, specifically Dand. The primary reason was it didn't have the same reasons I left Miami for. Unfortunately, now we're starting to see some of these issues pop up all too often here and it's concerning to I'm
sure many of us. So, I'm going to talk today about this Duke power line issue or concern that we have. I understand growth is inevitable. It's going to happen. Infrastructure is going to be necessary, but it must be managed thoughtful with thoughtful planning and respect for the people who already live
in the area. I have yet to talk to anyone that received notification from Duke, but I am aware that some people have. I don't know how many. I I I would assume it's not a lot. Common sense tells me the route for these polls, if they have to be put in at all, should go
down 15A. Duke is asking us what our opinion is, but I would ask any folks that have a house, are they are is anyone telling Duke, "Yeah, put one of these nice poles in front of my yard." I highly doubt it. So, I don't understand what Duke's take
is on this. I think I have an idea, but I'm not 100% sure, and I don't want to speculate. I don't know what authority or what ability you have regarding this as a council, but I will ask you all to take a step back, truly consider the cumulative impact of any decision you
have regarding this. Our community deserves thoughtful zoning, reasonable development, and infrastructure planning that protects the neighborhoods we all call home. Please help preserve the character, safety, and quality of life that drew so many of us here in the
first place. That Thank you, and happy St. Patty's Thank you. >> Andrew Caukins and you'll be followed by Mike Paneattowski, followed by Francis uh Gordon. Afternoon. Um my name is Andrew Caukins.
I am also a resident of the unincorporated area of Luchia County. Um my I am a fourth generation Dan resident raising a fifth generation and my family has lived here for more than 100 years. My I'm here today because of the uh deeply concerning project in the neighborhood on Hazen, the large scale
Duke Energy transmission line. Uh my first and foremost immediate issue is taken I've taken up with Duke Energy is the complete lack of transparency is surrounding this project. No one in the neighborhood learned about it through any official notice. I discovered it by complete lack of uh by complete luck only a few weeks ago and after asking
around, no one on the street had heard about this project. a public yet a public meeting was held on February 17th in which attendance was sparse because people just didn't care not because people didn't care but because they just didn't know. Um from that point residents were only given 30 days to respond on an online survey which was
extremely difficult to locate. Um and we began um getting people to provide action. Um apart from that issue, I would like not only speak as a resident but someone who has family has watched the land evolve for generations. Overdevelopment has already reached a point where many long-term residents
feel overwhelmed. And now proposing a transmission line of this magnitude along Hazen Road, an area of where homeowners intentionally sought out space and rural character is unacceptable. These massive industrial grade poles would permanently and dramatically alter the landscape and the quality of our life in our neighborhood.
People invested in these homes specifically to avoid this kind of industrial infrastructure and to impose it on them now is not just disruptive and it's unfair. Many of us have made significant financial sacrifices sacrifices to purchase larger properties and escape the growth and congestion of
the land only to face the issue we have moved away from. Property values will undeniably suffer and large transmission lines adjacent to residential homes reduce the market appeal and create long-term visual and environmental burdens and burdens that we should not have to bear. Um it's not unreasonable
and it's not unreasonable if an alternative doesn't exist. One of these proposed routes follows the Spring Garden Avenue, which is primarily made up of commercial properties. Um, that route would propose far fewer impacts on families and homeowners and appear to have a more reasonable option.
Uh, one of my other uh concerns is the uh uh elementary school that's on the u Hazen Road. Um the construction and heavy machinery and increased traffic I believe would make a uh would put unnecessary burden on the safety of young children especially with the
cranes erecting these 120 foot poles on a residential road with very limited access. Um also in that area there is a main gas line that runs towards Hazen that's also connected to many homes and the school there. Um so underground utilities are also of concern for us on Hazen Road. Um in closing I appreciate
your time and willingness to hear those concerns. Um, home owners in this area areas have endured a wave and wave of a development around us. Um, bringing thousands of new homes and constant construction, but there must be a limit. And when time when it comes to infrastructure of this magnitude placed with directly into established neighborhood, enough is enough. Thank
you for listening and I hope you will uh stand with our residents and simply trying to protect our homes. Thank you. Well done, Mike Ponyowski, followed by Francis Gordon, followed by Sandra Smith.
Good afternoon, Mike Ponyowski to Mocha Farms Village. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Local governments would appear to be in some financial disarray with poor stewardship of our tax dollars. Recently, we've been reading news stories where there are rampid credit card abuses by employees in two local cities that we know of. One which caused
two high-ranking department employees to resign after being notified that they were to be terminated. and one even hired an auditor who was rebuffed by city city staff even though they were given the authority by the city manager of that city. Another important case involves the apparent long-standing payroll errors within Valuchia County
EMS which has caused almost 300 first responders, those who we depend on to have their heads on straight when we call them to our homes to save a loved one's life to be thinking about that, not the fact that they were overpaid by $60,000 and the county is now clawing that money back or they've been
underpaid. And we come to understand that they've been notifying HR, finance, and their leadership that there were payroll errors, but they were notified that, "Nope, you're good. All is good. Your payroll is correct." Turns out they
were not. So now they're going to claw back that money. And again, I don't want the paramedic coming to save my loved one's life, thinking about the dings he's going to get in his paychecks over the next 20 weeks because they got to take $10,000 back that he was overpaid. And there are at least four employees that were overpaid like that. The
$60,000 overpaid employee is a single mother of two who has since left the county. Trust me when I say you want seasoned employees think about nothing but medicine when they come to your house for an emergency. We need to fix this. We need to hold those accountable
accountable. It's not a software error. It's not a glitch. It's not an interface. It's human factors. The oversight needs to be tighter. Please fix this. And now we find out that perhaps 9,000 schoolboard employees, I know you're not over the school board,
9,000 schoolboard employees were paid improperly because of a software glitch. This needs to stop. Who is watching our payroll? Who is watching our tax dollars? We need to fix this. We need to make sure that we are transparent with
how we pay our employees. We need to be transparent about how we have oversight over the way they are paid. and we need to fix the issues and let us know that you fix the issues. Be transparent. Please don't make us fill out a Freedom of Information Act to find out how you fix the problem. And please make sure,
Mr. Recten Wald and the gang up here that we are taking a good look at how our credit card money is being spent because PECards, purchase cards, however you want to call them, people can abuse them very easily. Want to make sure that our money is being spent wisely. Audit
them. Let us know how those audits come back and make sure that you are doing the proper jobs that we elected you to do. We want our leaders to be to lead with honesty and transparency. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Francis Mo Gordon followed by Sandra Smith and Sandra will be followed by Christy Taylor. Good afternoon, members of the council. My name is is Francis B Gordon, the wife of Hugh Gordon, who served as head of
the building and zoning department of Valuchia County for over 24 years. Other than being the oldest person at age 93 to live on Hazen or Greens dairy roads, I am also the longest living
resident at more than 60 years. It brought to my attention that Duke Energy >> Excuse me. C can you hold one second? >> Sure. >> Save her time. Can you pull the This is I want everybody to be able to hear what you're saying. if you'd pull the
microphone down to you. >> This is important. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> It has been brought to my attention that Duke Energy is highly considering the use of Hazen and Greens dairy roads on
which to put massive poles several stories high carrying several high voltage wires on them. Such huge poles and high voltage wires should go down the commercial and industrial road that
Spring Garden Avenue is. Not through our beautiful neighborhoods and by Citrus Grove Elementary School, the largest elementary school in Valuchia County with over 900 students and staff
members. There are studies that show constant exposure to such high voltage can be both physically and mentally damaging. This is not what we want for ourselves,
our families, our neighbors, or the children and staff at this large elementary school. And such a project would ruin the beauty and value of our properties. you of the of the county council. We
know you would not want such a horrendous project built in front of your home or know that hundreds of children and residents could be adversely affected by the terrible wrong placement of these large poles and high voltage
wires. Therefore, we here in this audience ask that the Valuchia County Council write a letter to Duke Energy imploring them not to use Hazen and Greens dairy
roads. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Sandra Smith, >> she chose not to speak. Okay. Uh Christy Taylor
and you will be followed by 10 Ted. Uh is it battlehelder? >> Batch elder. >> That's a C. Batchel. Okay. >> Good afternoon. My name is Christy Taylor and I live on Hazen Road in West
Land. I'm here today to ask the county council to help us as we try to oppose routing Duke Energy's proposed 69 KV transmission lines through residential corridors such as Hazen. Hazen Road is not an industrial corridor. It's a rural
residential area zoned as transitional agriculture A3 with acreage homes, a mature oak canopy, and a diverse wildlife habitat. Many families, including mine, chose this area specifically for those reasons.
Installing large transmission poles through this corridor would permanently alter the rural character of our neighborhood, remove a significant tree canopy, and reduce the property values for all of us homeowners who have invested a lot of time and money in our
properties. In addition, my section of Hazen sits directly across from Citrus Grove Elementary School. Hazen is already a narrow two-lane road that experiences significant congestion during daily school drop off and pickup. Introducing a multi-year transmission
construction project in this area would create create additional traffic and safety concerns for students and parents, not to mention severely severely severely limiting the egress routes that the residents use on this road every day.
Our area is also home to important wildlife. Bald eagles are regularly observed and I personally have photo and video documentation of their activity near my property. As a federally protected species under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the
presence of an eagle habitat should be carefully considered when evaluating these potential transmission routes. Finally, there are clearly other routes in this area that would have far less impact on homes and families. For example, the Spring Garden Avenue route
is a four-lane roadway with existing commercial industrial uses that also provides a far more direct and appropriate route for the infrastructure of this scale. Residents are not asking the county to stop progress or necessary infrastructure. We're simply asking that
residential neighborhoods, schools, and environmentally sensitive areas not bear the burden when there are other alternatives that are better and exist. I respectfully ask the council to help us advocate for these other routes and
avoid the court and avoid corridors, especially Hazen Road to protect our homes, our environment, and our community. Thank you. >> Thank you. and Ted Batch Bachhelder followed by >> Bachelder. You got it. >> Okay.
>> Took me a couple times. >> Ted, just like when the television showed up, I had to follow Christie. She's really highlighted the bulk of what I really am concerned about. Um, my previous background, we had an experience where we wanted to bring
children into an area. And when you bring children into a school, that's a pretty high priority because they spend probably one-third of their awake time with teachers. And I live directly across from uh Cypress
from the school. Let's put it that way. As a result of it, that's our future. And when I think about this route, that's probably more important than my own property because they're going to have to take your place someday. And I'd
rather have known that they weren't near any high voltage wires. I don't care what you say. I've been around them uh in the military and the rest of it. And you're going to have some after effects. And it's been stated earlier by some of
the others. We know for a fact that can happen. And the the benefit I feel of moving that route back to uh from Hazen Road back to Spring Garden, you're going to find that it's probably it's
commercial already. It should be easier to make that transition rather than use the the beautiful part of of our county that we reside in because we're on the west side of Hazen Road. And with that,
I'd ask you to consider that uh definitely the idea of contacting Duke and voicing your concerns for your county where we reside. I thank you very much. Thank you,
>> Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just want to take a moment of personal privilege for the for this first sergeant. Thank you for your service. You don't see too many first sergeants here. So, thank you. >> Natasha Kaine, you'll be followed by Wendy Anderson. And Wendy will be
followed by Oh, he's back. John Nicholson. All right. Good afternoon. My name is Natasha Kane. I'm a resident of Daytona Beach and the owner of One Way Out Bell Bonds and a couple other agencies um bail agencies throughout.
>> Can you make sure you got a mic close that the whole thing comes up? There's a button on your left >> on the side. Put your >> Okay. >> The whole crowd knows where it is.
>> Oh, okay. Oh, there we go. >> Is it all the way up? >> Okay. All right. Can you hear me now? Okay, good. All right. I'll start over. My name is Natasha Kane. I am a resident of Daytona Beach and the owner of One Way Out Bell Bonds. Um, three in total out the state of Florida. I'm here today
um to speak about a growing problem affecting our community and our country. um fraud, specifically bail bond scams. Scammers are using legitimate agencies names and addresses, including mine, to appear credible when con um when contacting victims. This leads us
directly dealing directly with the fallout when people realize they've been scammed. For the past two years, this has affected me, my family, and my business in serious ways. We've had people come into our agency angry, accusing us of taking their money. As a family-owned business, this creates a
real safety concern for me, my children, and my grandchildren. I've had a woman show up with to my office with $10,000 in cash, believing she was helping her son, and there has been many others like her. I've encouraged victims to contact law enforcement, and have collected
numerous police reports, both locally and out of state. I reached out to multiple agencies, including the police chief, the sheriff's office, and the county staff trying to find a solution. But so far no progress. I understand that Florida statute chapter 119 this
information must remain public. However, there is a way to keep it public while better protecting our citizens. Currently, the jail websites allow any allows anyone to click a recent search option and instantly see full names,
ages, and location of newly booked individuals in real time. By simply removing this recent search feature, user users will instead need a specific first and last name to access information. This change will make the
system far less useful to scammers. I will be um it will be a major step in protecting vulnerable population, especially the elderly who are a big part of the population that's being scammed with this and working families trying to help loved ones without
becoming victims. our county um our counties other counties including Flaggler County, St. John's County, and Nassau have already taken actions to address this issue. So, I ask that you consider dis discontinuing this search option or implementing another effective
solution to keep our citizens from being scammed. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Uh Wendy Anderson, followed by John Nicholson. Good afternoon. I'm Wendy Anderson. I
live in unincorporated Dand district 1. I would like to address a real and urgent toilet and tap concern. The county has been managing has been managing a septic upgrade incentive program for residents in the Deleon Springs Basin which has provided up to
$14,000 for property owners who needed to upgrade their septic systems to an enhanced nitrogen reducing advanced treatment unit, also called an ENRAU. The Florida D implemented new regulations last December that require
septic system owners who live in basins with impaired water bodies and that are under the governance of a basin management action plan to upgrade their systems to an ENRAU at the point where their systems need to be repaired or replaced. in Valuchia
County. This applies to any area that is in the Indian River Lagoon Basin, the Gemini Springs Basin, the Blue Spring Basin, and the Deleon Spring Basin. Because I'm a count because I'm a county council candidate, I am now receiving phone calls from residents in district 1
who are sharing with me their horror stories of being surprised by the fact that they now have to replace their septic tanks when they were just calling a contractor for repairs. and they're finding out when they call the county c when they call the county
for support that the only people who can actually receive any kind of financial help with this huge burden um are the people who live in the daily springs basin. So, I'm I'm here to ask if the county government if the environmental
management division is actually currently seeking any funding from the state DP to um to help the residents in the Blue Spring Basin, in the Gemini Springs Basin, and in the IRL basin to help them when these big surprises come.
We're hearing from residents who um have septic who have raw sewage backing up into their homes. We're hearing from people who can't cook or shower or bathe or do their laundry because their septic tanks are failing and they cannot afford to replace them at 15 or 20 or $30,000.
So, I'm asking the county to work and if you need me to help you with this, I'm happy to help. Um, we need to be immediately seeking funds from the state to help out these residents. It's basically an unfunded mandate from the state and the county needs to be doing everything they possibly can to help
these residents. Um, so I I'm here basically to just ask for an update on where we are with that and if it's already underway, great. If it's not, how can I help? Thank you. >> Thank you, John Nicholson,
followed by Mark Dickinson. John Nicholson, Daytona Beachside. Thanks for missing me. Uh, but you will miss me every March, the first weekend in March of every year because I go to North Carolina for my sister's birthday.
So, I will always be gone. So, all of you that worried, don't worry. I'm alive. I'm just in North Carolina. >> You're burning time. >> I don't care. I have the time. Thank you, though. Secondly, um I want to thank you for passing the
uh arts uh while I was gone, but I I wasn't worried about it because when it first came up, you had four, remember Danny, you weren't here. You had four um of your council that was for passing it
and only two that were against it. And how you could end up with a 42 and not pass it. I'll never know. You went back and forth for like an hour trying to get a vote and you never did, but it should have been passed the very first time
because you really only had two people opposing it. And then when Danny got here, I mean, I mean, David got here, you had all the ones you needed. So, um, there are two things on the agenda. ENF, art in public places for the Marine
Center. Again, if you didn't pass that, would you then have turned down this art in public places? We have that art in public places because we or the council previously and the public understood the value of art
to a community. So, I believe you understand that now hopefully and that you will reook at the idea of not funding it in the future. It's not an ironclad. Well, you will never fund Secondly, um the Duke Energy, I wasn't
going to talk about Duke Energy. However, one absolutely look at an alternative. If it can't be found and it has to be on that road, have them do it underground. It will be more costly, but if you take into effect of the
damage that it might do to the kids, is in Miami, they had a the idea of putting a park underneath this line. All right. It was fine. They had all the funding. They could have made this great park with all tennis and all kinds of stuff. And in the end, they decided against it
because the harm that might be to the kids that were using the facilities. So again, if it would be harmful in Miami, it would be harmful to the children at the elementary school. So again, find an alternative. If you can't put it underground, it may be more costly, but
in the long run, the value of those homes will compensate for the loss that it costs them to put it in. If they want it badly enough, they'll pay to put it underground. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mary Dickinson, followed by
Mark Hail, followed by Kim Ward. I'm Mary Dickinson. I live on Marsh Road, as you all well know. And the bridge on Marsh Road is a substandard bridge. And it has a 10 ton weight limit
on it. And you have 40 ton logging trucks using the bridge. The bridge has been compromised and it has had cracks filled with whatever and they paint over it with
white paint to make it look like there's no problem on that bridge. And uh basically we're still in a dilemma because we have these dump
trucks that are 25 tons running down our substandard road that has a weight limit of 10,500BS. And it shakes our homes. It's like thunder under our homes. My driveway has
now cracked all the way to the foundation of my home. The sidewalks are all cracking. And y'all have diverted traffic from Highway 11. All the weight limit signs on
Daltry, Carter, and Marsh Road were taken down to divert that traffic onto Marsh and Carter Road. and they're speeding down Marsh Road at 60 miles an hour.
Here's a picture 51 miles an hour. The next picture is a dump truck 60 m an hour in a 35 mph zone.
No police presence. I've called the police and called them. This is another little problem we have with the dump trucks. This is two bicycle riders. We have a
number of bicycle riders that ride in a pack down Marsh Road. This dump truck is pushing these bicycle riders. They're moving as fast as they can so they don't get run over or run off the road. The
dump truck. This was right in front of my house that happened. The dump truck basically whirled out, crossed over the double yellow line, which is illegal, and
passed these two bikers. And thank God they didn't kill him. The last commission meeting that I was here was in the morning, and I proceeded to go home. And I was on Marsh Road right at Old
Daytona and there's a curve there that you cannot take and get around and I was almost killed on that curve. >> Thank you for coming in. >> Mark Hail
>> and Mark, you'll be followed by Kim Ward. and Kim will be followed by Peggy Abbott. Hello, council members. Um, I'm here to ask for a um a reduction or dismissal of variance
fees on my property. Um, I've been doing this here for probably two and a half years now, fighting with this. I've done everything that everybody's asked of me of this. Um, and any help that I could get from you guys would really be appreciated. Um, I live at an end of a
dirt road and um, there's really no really other issues do I have to get the scene satisfied to get my permits. And with that said, I appreciate any help I can get from you. Thank you, sir. >> Thank you,
>> Kim. >> Yes. Hello. My name is Kim Lock Ward and I'm a resident a resident of Hazen Road. We moved here due to the rural area and the country filling. The infrastructure is not in place for these uh 69 KVA
lines to be run down Greens Dairy and Hazen Road. If you've ever been down that road, you can see that it's very narrow and the type of lines that they are going to be put up is this high. They are huge.
This will directly impact the value of the property. Um, most of these homes are two and a half to 5 acre tracks. They're high-end homes. The impact is going to be substantial, which is also going to impact the taxes that will be
collected from the county. I want to put that point that out. But the bigger concern is the school with the EMF and the magnetic forces that are in place with these high 69 KVI uh KVA lines.
It's going to impact the cancer rates are going to go through the roof especially in the children and the elderly with anybody immune compromised. I would like for the council to think about this and get involved. We have been contacting Duke Power. Um, I've
contacted Ron DeSantis, uh, everybody that we can to speak our concerns, but we are very concerned about this, especially with the financial impact that is going to have happen for all the residents. Altogether, you're looking at about 600 homes that this will impact.
That's a huge amount that we need to consider. Thank you so much. Thank you, Peggy Abbott. And then uh Jeff Hester will close us out. >> Jeff behind
later. >> Okay. So, I'm Peggy Molton Abbott and I'm Kim's neighbor off Hazen Road. Um retired pharmaceutical marketing researcher. You've heard a lot of things already. Want to hit you with a few more data points that I can provide the sources on if you would like to have
them. I'll spare you that now. Just give you the data points. There is an astonishing impact on health and human life and all forms of life involved with these high power lines. We are in an area that is largely zoned A3.
Many of us own animals, farm animals. People are raising them for food. 4 kids are raising them and winning big awards on huge cows. And uh we personally are raising chickens and everyone says our eggs are the best. They get a completely
organic diet and they only free range under supervision. Um we have many protected species in this area. I want to call out to you. A couple of people have already spoken on this. We have seen um Florida panther. We have a lady bear who parades her new
kin every spring across our property. We have bald eagles as been mentioned. all these things. Um, and of course, sand hill cranes, protected species. Um, not to mention many people are keeping bees and high power lines. The radiation causes them to experience colony
collapse disease. Without bees, folks, we're all dead. Sorry, can't help you. Um, astonishing monarch butterflies that transit all the way from South America to us and further north. So, here are the issues that we are facing as a result. My husband and I are cancer
conquerors 13 years out. Did it holistically and uh one of the reasons we were able to do that is reducing as much radiation exposure as possible. We have no Wi-Fi in the house and we don't have a microwave oven and that's really
important because um the 765 KV lines transmission tower at 164 ft you are 100% more likely to develop cancer of any kind and experience increase in your triglycerides. People know what that means. At a third of a mile out, you may
experience abnormal EEGs. Not a good thing. At a half a mile away, you get issues related to decreased calcium flow. Again, people know what that means. And at nearly a mile, you can still have altered bio-ythms leading to a plethora of autoimmune conditions, not
the least of which is ADHD and autism. And we're in a school zone. And even at a mile and a quarter, transmission network power lines can cause stunted growth to all forms of life. Okay, here are practical issues admitted to by major power companies. One of which is Duke, number one in the country.
Increased fire hazards, increased electrocution hazard, increased risk of radiation exposure, constant buzzing noise, has all kinds of side effects. Reselling homes becomes much more difficult in these areas. Reduction in value can be up to 40% for those with the poles on their property. That would
be everybody on Plymouth, Hazen, and Green. Okay? And the rate of abandoned homes in that area couldn't be sold is much, much higher. So Duke's number one, they're Goliath. We're David in my Bible. David wins.
>> Thank you. And Jeff is still not here. I'll hold Jeff Hester till the final closing. And uh just so that that's the end of the uh the public comment period for the beginning. We'll have another one at the
end of the meeting just so that all of you that showed up for this, it's obviously very important uh to you. I know myself, probably Don as well, has already talked to staff about this, maybe other council members. I'm going to ask the uh county manager and the
county attorney just to um comment on this at the end of the meeting and your public comment period. I I know that there's not a lot that we can do. utility companies have a lot of freedom, but if you would just share at the end of the meeting, I want want you to have
time to think about it um of of how we can uh deal with this. I think you're the public will find a lot of um agreement with you in the paths that could be picked and and the path that should not be picked. So, um is that
okay? Thank you. All right. Thank you all for coming in. We are going to uh move to our first item which is the approval of the agenda. Uh Councilman Robbins. >> Motion approve the agenda minus uh
agenda item three. >> Second. >> Councilman Robbins makes a motion to approve the agenda excluding item three. >> And Chairman, if you'd allow me to to comment, I'll follow up with another
motion. Uh yes, everybody's waiting with baited breath I think sitting out here. You David, you made the second. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. >> Uh council um citizenry, the public. Um agenda item
three was the discussion of the forever program. It's why many of you are here today. Uh as you know, it was approved uh not once but twice. Uh total of 26 years, over 75% of the vote. Um, in my district, district three, which is
southeast Felia, Port Orange, all the way down to Mims, uh, north of the border of Mims, uh, and south of Oak Hill, uh, supports this program. Uh, so not just them, and we've received other >> Mr. Chairman, can we hold off for a
minute while the room clears? just the people in the back are having a hard time hearing because of the people leaving and speaking and um okay thank you uh chairman >> eat the mic
>> all right um >> there you go pretty much north to south uh supports this program uh when it comes to conservation environmental protection uh and land ownership rights there's a there's a great balance there Um, and that's why it gets a support from farmers all the way to surfers and
and everybody in between. Um, thank you to those uh folks that sent in the hundreds of emails. Um, the pack chamber, our staff for putting together a a good presentation, something that I encourage everybody uh to familiarize
yourself with uh and study it. uh a lot of us have looked uh known about the program and and have reviewed it already and and especially over the last six years, but it's a uh a testament and a clear indication of how this um program is widely accepted uh and that the
public does understand pretty much what they voted for. Uh but in my opinion and any further discussion in terms of modifications to it uh goes against the will of the people. Um >> with
with with that with that said councel uh I'm going to make a motion to remove agenda item three um which is discussion about possible policy changes uh change considerations uh but included in that that motion will uh also include for
staff to come back at the next agenda uh meeting uh to discuss the bonding uh that is consistent with the forever program. Thank you. If that's a separate motion, Mr. Chair, I'll second that as a separate motion, too. >> Yeah, I think he just amended his motion or do you want to make it a completely
separate motion? Amend it. And at the next meeting with chair, for the record, is that the same is that part of the original motion or is that a second? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. So, that's that's all right. That's at a time certain the uh first meeting
in April. And yes, everybody will have a chance to discuss it. So, we have a That's all right. We have a motion and a second. >> Uh, Councilman Dempsey. >> Yeah, there's uh What's that? >> Does anybody have questions for staff
first? >> Go ahead, Councilman Dempsey. Well, I I can just tell you this needs to go forward. I 100% in support of Valuchia forever. Uh, I've heard a lot of you guys. I've read your emails. I've uh put out some videos to share with you my
thoughts and concerns on it. I love it. It's a great program, but how many of you guys have actually read the whole 100page easement? Because the devil is in the detail. as an attorney, 36 years of practice in
law, graduated honors from law school reading this stuff. We have a problem with flooding in this community, right? We want it to stop. I can I talked to Ben Bartlett this morning and he agreed.
We in these in the small paragraphs which I'm all set to give in a presentation. In these little paragraph or one paragraph, it says you cannot do anything in these conservation easements that affects hydrarology. Now, we bought Lake Moore. Lake Moore is
a wonderful resolution for all the flooding on Taylor Road because we're pumping water into Lake Moore. But we bought Lake Moore outright. It wasn't a conservation easement. If Lake Moore was a conservation easement, we couldn't do
it. That's the concern I have. If you worry about flooding and you want to have all the tools in your toolbox available, so you could possibly address some of the resolutions that are coming through
these 30 plus studies that we spend 20 million on. What if they call for pumping water into some of this conservation easement land? That's 30. That's a third of our county that we are sealing off for possibly pumping some of this storm water into to
stop flooding. You want to just turn a blind eye to the flooding issues? Then toilet to tap. What are we going to do when we run out of fresh water? When in a hundred years when our freshwater aquifer runs out, we're going to have
two choices. the conserved water underneath these easements or toilet to tap. We're partnering with the state of Florida who is pushing toilet to tap.
Wouldn't you like your great great grandchildren to be able to have a choice? Well, maybe our current aquifer is breached. Maybe it dried up. It sure would be nice to access this con this conserved water that we've been conserving for a hundred years. Wouldn't
it be nice? But no, because the small the small print in these easements says you can never ever ever ever put a commercial well in this property. Is that what you want? So that we can never access fresh water after our
current aquifer goes. Are we saving this water for the turtles or for our great great great grandchildren? >> Okay. Well, that's >> Please, we need we need to have order in the in the house, please. >> This this isn't about the development. I
understand why you want to keep >> I >> order in the house. We let you speak. Now it's his turn. >> Right. Solar. When we I've talked about this before. When we run out of fossil fuels, what do we do next? We only have three options. Nuclear, wind, or solar. Do you
want a nuclear reactor in Valuchia County? Do you want We can't do wind because windmills don't withstand hurricanes. So, we only have solar as our less viable our last viable option when fossil fuels run out. But they're saying no. It's in there in these agreements.
Read it. Read it. Then come and protest me and do, you know, take it off to where I can't even discuss it with these people. You guys are so caught up with the tagline forever means forever. I challenge you
to read these easements and you don't even want to talk about it. That's terrible. Councilman Santiago, I'm thinking about what to say, Mr. here cuz
I made the second to the motion and and Don I I I have a lot of respect for you and I don't doubt the things you've said on there by the way. I want you to know that and you know we're here today and and some may not like this too.
We're here today because a frenzy started on social media in some cases that forever was under threat of being eliminated or something of that sense when it was nothing like that. Absolutely nothing like that. I spoke publicly in some forums and shared
that with people. Um, and what occurred was, uh, a council member of this body, which I think certainly any of us have the right to question anything that we vote on in the details, was asking specifics about what certain things mean
in the contracts. You're right. I I think you I think you've been clear to say that. Um, you know, to and I'll say it to to my disappointment in the environment of I've been an attacker of social media.
I've said it several times in social the frenzy begins and it's hard to stop. Don, it it's pick the topic. We've been here several times. Mr. Nichols has seen it all the times when the the the social
media frenzy begins, right? And um I think any contract that we vote for as a body, any of us can question any of the details of it, any detail, whether it's do we want to amend it to allow for water, right? Um do we want to amend it
to allow for X Y and Z? Uh whatever it might be, I think that's due diligence on our part to to to read the details because I think like you said, 99.9% of the people won't read the details. and that's our job. So, I think I think
we're at a crossroads because of the environment we're in, Don. But what I do encourage you to do, because your your knowledge and your experience, it's valuable to this body, when these contracts come before us, and there'll
be some before us. Um, if this motion passes, those are times for us to go into the weeds um with some of the details of these contracts and have a public discussion on whether or not we want to amend it or send our staff in
there to say, you know what, we want to have I'll make it up. I'm just if we're conserving a thousand acres and let's uh set aside, you know, 10% of that for the possibility. I'm just throwing ideas, things that we can discuss for water in the future. Can we put a public well
there in the future or for whatever it might be at the time um for us to consider um so that we don't kind of pin ourselves down with pretty stringent requirements because some of them are very stringent folks and Don has a valid point on on these contracts uh that like
I said most people don't know the details in there. So, I think Don because of the environment we're in, I think the best path forward and I'm not trying to shut you up with my individual vote because I'd love to hear
your details, but we can only do it in public. That's the thing. And um and maybe we can find a way to do that discussion and you can share your concerns without the the the the the
concerns that Valuchia forever is under threat because it was never ever ever under any threat anything up here. So if that's what you heard, I'll apologize to you because maybe as an individual council member, I could have been more clearer. Um, I did hear the the
commentary that we were hearing. I felt it was genuine for details. Um, but I don't think anybody on this body felt that Valuchia Forever was ever under threat. So, um, I'm going to blame Mark Zuckerberg on that one. Okay.
Um, so please don't I would ask you to don't judge my friend here on his commentary because sometimes you have to have people that are visionaries and look for things that may be problematic in the future. I think your intentions are honorable and well for us to
discuss, but where we're at today and how this has taken a path, I think we have to deal with it as we come contract to contract and maybe that points we can learn a little bit what your concerns are when we get the next contract because that we have to discuss when the next contract comes before us. Um, and
I'll share a little tad bit, Mr. Chair, what I learned this past week. I think it would be valuable for the audience. So, I may go a couple seconds over food for thought. Um, in case you don't know, I learned that Valuchia County's conservation lands, we have so much, and I'm not saying we're stopping. I
wouldn't want to start that rumor, right? But we have a lot of conservation land, which is fantastic. I had the privilege of being uh able to see much of that recently from staff, and it was mind-boggling. And I also learned, Mr. Chair, I'll wrap with this. I also learned just for geographical purposes
for you all to know, you can take the entire land area of Seino County, the entire land of Semino County and insert it into what Valuchia County currently has in
conservation and we still have more. So, I want you to know, you should be proud of that, but you should understand, you know, we're on the right path to doing this. So, um with with that, Mr. Chair, thank you. And thank you, Don. and I you have my utmost respect. I want you to know why I'm voting the way I am. Okay.
>> Councilman Johansson, Chairman, I do have a question. If Brad or or >> Yes, >> Brad can come up as as I understand it and I hope I'm not wrong because I' I've thought it this way based on how
I read your your manuals and whatnot. There's there's two ways to get property. One is to buy it fe simple and then the county owns it and there's certain things we can do with it. There's certain things we can't do with
it. And then and then the other way we use the money is a conservation easement of a private land owner's property. >> Yes, sir. >> A private land owner. >> Is that correct,
>> sir? And and is there any time that we do a conservation agent on public property in one instance and that is if a a partner uh transfer the full title to us, we will sign a conservation easement
to protect their investment. So it will have some limitations on it, but if we own it fee simple outright, no, there's no >> Got it. So, have we ever limited oursel when we buy a land, fe simple, have we ever limited oursel
to be able to help with flooding or to get water, put a well in or anything like that? >> You can certainly put wells in. Now, if you were if you were uh altering the hydraology if you wanted to go um
>> you can certainly store the water in its natural state on the property, which is what we do all of the time, >> but if you wanted to build a wastewater treatment plant on it, we would need to get the permission of the the other partner who bought it with us. >> I got it. All right. Got it. Um and and
under no circumstances yet or or by contract when we when we buy a conservation easement from a private citizen, do we put stipulations that that do or
do not allow us to do things on their property? It's still their property and they maintain it in the ways that we've asked them to do so. Right. >> Correct. So through through that easement they are we are giving them boundaries in the easement essentially on what is allowed
and what is not allowed. Um we typically do not reserve rights for ourselves in those easements. Um the the landowner is reserving their rights through negotiation on each contract. >> Right. And and I'll I'll ask the next the next question George because I don't
want to put you on the spot. Do you do you foresee any circumstance where we would tell a person a private land owner who of which we have the conservation easement um that we're going to do something on
that property uh uh that's public good without talking about partnering or eminent domain or something like that. >> I was I would have to defer to legal but I think that would be a taking. I don't think I don't think >> that's what it sounds like to me. >> Right. I I think that again uh Brad said
it, you know, really what you're buying with an easement there is the private owner is agreeing to restrict the use of his property. We're buying those rights to do that, but we don't take stuff that we want to use uh with it typically. So,
>> okay. All right. Um I I based on those questions, I hope that everybody understands where I'm where I'm going here. that that the the the fear of of a of an easement uh
limiting our ability to do something. If we only give easements to people that own their personal property, um I'm not for doing anything against what that personal property owner um above and beyond what he's agreed to.
and he had doesn't agree to anything uh other than to conserve his property in the way that we maintain agriculturally or whatever through the forever program. Um uh so based on that, I know there's work to do tweak, but uh um I'm I'm
pretty convinced I know how I'm going to go on this. Thank you, >> Councilman Robbins. Thank you, Chairman. Uh and and Don, just to um kind of echo what what what David uh said earlier, um
some of these are valid concerns and and you're you're obviously looking into the future as as am I. Um but understand this. I have my whole district uh my cities Ostein
uh of people giving us direction or giving me direction on this and I happen to support them but it looks like there's other ways to skin this cat um when it comes to these these contracts from what I'm hearing. If there's certain modifications that we
would like to make or or that this body they have an opportunity to do that during that contract, that's what it sounds. What's done is done. I think we need to move on from that. What's done is done, whether you agree with it or not. But going forward, if you have
questions, if you want to think tank this in a in a workshop or go over this this thing, which appears to be valid, but we just got it 10 minutes ago or 15 minutes ago, a bill. Uh so, you know, uh
I have to go I have to go with my people in my district on this right now. So, understand that, understand the the uh the viewpoint and the position. Don't don't take it to heart, but I think there's other ways to do this. >> Councilman Dempsey,
>> uh Danny, have you and your constituents actually sat down together collectively and read the easement? read the contract, the 100page contract. Guess not. Let me let me just say this. Um, I'm trying to set policies here or
at least I'm not even trying to set it. It's not about me. It's about having an intelligent discussion about the program because again, the words perpetuity are attached to it. What's done is done is you're right. And what's done is done for the next 5,000 years. It's done.
So, what do we want to do when it comes time when our aquafer runs out? What does it say in there about our ability to access water so that we can ship it out to all the people in the community, your constituents? What does it say?
It says you can't. What does it say when your people are getting flooded and you want to start shipping water off into some of this conservation land like we're doing in Lake Moore because we own it outright without a partner. We gave it to the city but we're not dealing with the state. What does it say? It
says you can't and you guys don't even want to talk about it. Are you really doing your constituents a favor by not even wanting to sit down and read through the contract and talk about it together? I agree with you on one thing.
We need a workshop cuz this thing is pretty big and we need to set policy. The people didn't vote on taking partners with the state. We just fought off Senate Bill 180. We wrote a collective letter. We don't want preeemption.
And then 718, we wrote another letter. We don't even want preeemption on. You know what 718 was? It was the state trying to take over control of all water. You want to put it up there for me, Chris? This is what's going on in Tallahassee
right now. I think it's the bottom one. right here. This was just shot down. We collectively wrote a letter, all of us against this. It says Senate Bill 118. It prohibits counties and municipalities from adopting laws, regulations, rules
or policies relating to water quality, quantity, pollution control, pollutant discharge, prevention or removal or wetlands and preempting such regulation all to the state, giving them everything about our water.
And we come up here and say we want water. We want to protect our water. Water is the new oil. Why do you think Tboon Pickins bought all that water? We're all here for not all of us, but a lot of us are against toilet to tap because we want to protect our water. And I agree. I want to protect our water. I don't want to get rid of
Valuchia forever. I'd love Valuchia forever. But the very people that we're fighting off through these letters that we're sending off and all our objections to Senate Bill 18 because they're trying to take over all our rights, we're giving it to them in every single conservation
easement. We're telling them because we're partnering with them. The same thing Jake was talking about. We're partnering with these people. So here, if we get the right people in in the legislature and we get people in the legislature who like home rule, who want to give us back
our power to the local counties and the cities, we can't even do anything with it when we get it because we're under contract with them. We've contractually gotten into bed with the very people that are who try to take control of our water and we're giving it
to them one easement at a time. And you don't even want to talk about it. This is surreal. This is surreal. I I propose we have a workshop and we sit down and talk about it. But you can't sit here and take a blind eye and put your head in the sand and just say
Valuchia forever. Bring your signs. Everybody bring your signs. That's cool. We all got the same color shirts on. That's cool. Everybody hates Dempsey. That's cool. But man, you better read. The devil is in the detail and you guys are taking
the bait. We need to talk about this. Thank you. Uh Danny, I'm going to support you in this. Not because I don't want to talk about it. I think we've uh I think we've been
talking about it for several months and we've heard from we've heard from a lot of the public. I think I've got as many letters and phone calls on this as I have on uh well I won't mention the other name.
So um and and Don I understand your concern um but it's we we are talking about it. We have talked about it. The the when you just said that every contract we have
prevents us from doing this that that's not exactly true because we don't contract with the state for everything that we do. Sometimes we pull in the state as a partner and and I I agree with that or St. John's Water Management District or somebody else because it
stretches our constituents tax dollars so that we can buy more land. The reason that there's restrictions on those is is to protect our water. It's to it's to keep from pumping more water out of the ground and keeping it in in the ground
where it needs. But you're right, if there was an emergency where we absolutely needed the water, the aquifers uh run dry in some area, maybe where our our well fields are. Um there is no doubt in my mind that we couldn't do
what we're doing right now and discuss it and and and alter it. We are we're not without hope even with a contract with the state or St. John's or or anybody else even if it means we buy them out and that's an option. We could
buy we could buy them. Yes, we could. >> Oh, the states >> in in 20 in 25 years that we've had Valuchia forever, the states never done this. And I agree. We just went through one of the
one of the most uh restrictive legislation seasons that I've ever seen. um potentially dangerous for losing local control, but still in 25 years they've never backed out of a Valuchia Forever contract we have. So, and I
understand why some of the people I got letters from people that said they think the whole program is in danger. Uh I understand how they think that. I mean, you've I I went back and listened to your videos.
Um, you're a really good lawyer and you brought up really good points. Um, but you you clearly stated in there that instead of forever, let's make it a 30 or a 50year time frame on properties
that scares people. I would propose that we do exactly what you did with the echo problem uh program when it came up and that was you said it's a wildly popular program. let's not make any changes to it. Let's just approve it and go along.
And um so I I don't feel endangered or threatened by partnering with the state or St. John's. I think we can in an emergency situation if the aquifer ran
dry. Um nothing in politics is permanent. No con no contract is is permanent. Um, your attorneys have told us that it's forever until it's not. So, um, >> Council Vice Chair Reinhardt,
>> thank you, Chair. Um, hearing this back and forth, Don, you brought something to light that, um, you know, made made us all think when you talk about, uh, the water and whatnot as far as uh, where we're going to get it in the event. But I I I think I agree with everybody in
this room and myself, forever is forever, you know. Um, I looked up, you had me going when you when you brought up about the imperpetuity. You look up the definition of imperpetuity, it is forever. In perpetuity is forever. And, and I know you won't argue that, but I
agree with the chair. Um, I think what we're doing is for the protection of water. And I agree with you also, chair, when we hit, you know, if you guys have paid attention to legislature this year, how preemptive it was on everything, even the stuff that
we tried to fight, which Mr. Dempsey pointed out. We're seeing it and we're going to continue to see it. There are issues that I've dealt with uh for the protection of I sit on the I'm mixing apples and oranges here, but just to make a point, I chair the tourist development council. We thrive on
tourism in this county, and I chaired that. I asked for that committee. I wanted that because on my district is in Daytona and on the beach side and I wanted to make sure that we kept that going and there has been a threat every single year to take that money because
of some counties which I'll leave nameless that are bigger than the Valuchia. So we have to we have to continue that fight. Um when you talk about contra contracts, nobody's going to know better than you, Don, or any of the attorneys. I'm not an attorney. I didn't didn't stay at Holiday in
Express. So, um, but I think that every negotiation that you bring up when we have to approve every single forever purchase when it comes in front of this council, and I think if that's something we want to look out individually, then we do so. But also, I understand that
I'm I'm a property rights guy. So, we're buying the easement, we're buying the development rights, we're telling these individually, they're coming to us. The last big purchase that we did, it was a developer that came to us and said, "I'm a developer. You can have it. He
maintains the property. He has to maintain it. And guess what? He has to continue to pay the taxes on it." That's a good deal. That's what I like about this program when you talk about easements. So, we're we're getting ready, you know, let's talk about the
state legislature again real quick. We're getting ready to discuss a hot issue about property taxes and how we're going to afford to pay for services here in Valuchia County. Keep that in mind when you do away with
if you said we didn't want this. We didn't want these partnerships. We didn't want to worry about easements. So, you know, we're just going to try and buy these properties outright for the purpose of conservation. That's all grand, but that money only lasts so far. You need partnerships. I'm sorry. And I know Don, you disagree. You need
partnerships. You cannot be successful. We will not have enough money in the forever program in order to continue to conserve at the level Valuchia County wants to go. So, but that's the reason for me and I understand, Don. I do respect. >> Councilman Dempsey,
>> it's uh just to kind of quote you chair and and Matt is nothing's a problem until it's a problem. And when we do run out of our current aquifer and our freshwater, just remember that because the very partner that we're in bed with has to give us permission to be able to
hit that conservation aquafer. The the big the big question should be what are we conserving it for? Who are we conserving it for? >> For your kids. Thank you. Well, whenever the kids go to access it in the state says, uh uh
got here that says you can never ever ever ever ever do a commercial well here ever ever, >> Mr. Chairman. >> But here's to point, Mr. Chairman. >> Yes, sir. >> No, hold on one second. Don, what's your point? We've each taken our two bites
and I'd like to get the county or uh get to personal uh public comment on the motion to remove it uh and call a question. >> Okay. We we don't have any public
comment on item one, the approval of the agenda. >> Correct. >> Correct. We just need to vote. Oh. So, follow the question. >> You've you've already spoken for 10 minutes. >> I don't know. I wasn't keeping track.
>> Yeah, >> it's a blur. >> All right. Um, that's why I voted against these rules that you everybody else voted for. >> Uh, well, um, all right. Uh Christa, would you call the role? The the motion
is to ex approve the agenda as written excluding item three, but to bring that back at the next meeting in April for a discussion on bonding >> as it applies to forever. Correct. >> Just the bonding resolution.
>> Bonding resolution. Yep. >> May I say one last thing, Jake? >> Okay. Well, >> yeah. >> Can we if I'm gonna vote against it, but I would like to see a workshop on this. Even Danny said workshop and this is a
very uh important issue at least to hear my side of it and I think because I think everybody out here has expressed at least some interest in what I've had to say and my my concerns and I think a workshop would be a great forum to do this. We can't do it all today, but so
I'd vote no. But I would ask that maybe you guys would consider doing a workshop about pollution forever so we could discuss these things. There's a lot of issues that we should discuss. >> Agreed. Let's bring it up at the end of the meeting. >> So, let's take the v vote and don't
concede yet. We haven't voted and uh and see where it goes. Kissa, please call the role. >> Mr. Reinhardt? >> Yes. >> Mr. Robins? >> Yes. >> Mr. Santiago? >> Yes. Mr. Dempsey, >> no. >> Mr. Johansson, >> yes. >> Mr. Brower,
>> yes. And so the motion uh passes uh five to one. >> Um so thank you all for coming in. There is no item three now for you to speak on, but I think your presence has spoke in
volumes. How you doing? Good to see you. Um, >> Mr. Chairman, Brad, we're gonna wait just a few minutes. >> Second. Come here. Yeah, I need a minute.
I feel Yo, yo. Yeah, We got contact. You still have consent. >> You're fine. Yeah, they're they're abusing it now.
Where is Danny? Okay, >> that's That's what we don't want. actually. Thank you. All right. If everybody wants to find a seat, we need to we need to continue on.
>> All right. Okay, let's uh let's have order in the in the room again. The uh oh, we still got to do consent agenda. Okay. >> All right.
>> We are going to uh move to item two, which is the consent agenda. Uh does any council member have an item they would like to pull for discussion or for a vote? Uh vice chair Matt Reinhardt. >> Um item N for discussion only. N as in
Nancy. >> Okay. And discussion by Matt. Uh, no one else has a an item they'd like to pull. All right, then. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda?
>> Motion to approve consent agenda as written. >> Second. >> Motion to approve by Jake Johansson, second by Matt Reinhardt. Any discussion? Thank you so much. These guys are waiting for me. >> I'm sorry.
>> Okay. All in favor of approving the consent agenda, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Uh, and then for discussion on item N. >> Thank you, chair. Um, item N. Um,
kudos to Ben and Tad. Thank you for explaining that. Um, this is a area in Port Orange. For those of you familiar with the area, um we're getting ready to undertake uh a major construction project um of the widening of Williamson Road from
Beville Road down to Meline. Um one of the things I brought up when we first heard of this when I first got elected, I said, "Well, what about the bridge? You know, it seems like everything's going to bottleneck." And that was a big concern of the individuals in in Port Orange. What this does is we didn't have the money for that and the bridge is going to be very expensive. And I
understand Tad, you can explain it a little bit as far as it how that navigation is going to have to happen. But what this money does or what this money that we got in a grant does is study it for the extension of that to town west, which is the bridge. Correct.
>> Yes, sir. This is a a project in which the department of transportation understanding the uh the need that we have in this area and the effect it'll have on their roads as well. They kicked in half of the money for the design of this project. Uh as you said this runs
from Meline down to town west. We'll have four lanes through the uh entire length of Williamson all the way down to airport and uh the overpass aspect of it. What we'll do is uh we'll keep the existing bridge as it is and we'll either widen it to the outside or we'll
go ahead and build an adjacent structure to it. But uh we would preserve the traffic through that section. Uh there may be some minor delays obviously anytime you have a construction zone, but otherwise we'd keep traffic going and that will stop. >> Just out of curiosity, not to get too much into the weeds, but structurally,
how is that? I mean that bridge isn't that old, but structurally it's >> uh that bridge is in great shape. >> Okay. And that was asked, so that's I know the answer, but I figured I'd ask. Sure. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I think it's important we thank the department too. That was something
that uh um we asked for and they they came through for us. >> Good. All right. Okay. That >> Oh, I just >> I'm sorry. I didn't see your name up. >> Thank >> or Jake's. >> Mine's going to be brief. Thank you, Mr.
Chair. I just wanted to thank Matt for uh giving Tad a reason to come down to the podium because it's been a while. So, it's been a while >> of his Arizona time. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Thank you, >> Councilman Jake Johansson. >> Yes, sir. Um, thank you very much for uh
uh getting this uh up in front of us. Uh, I remember when I first got to Florida in 2015, it was on the 2016 TPO list and I was in Port Orange and Billy Wheeler was had the the red bar where it
was at 110% uh where Williamson Boulevard was at 110% capacity. I think it's gone down a little bit, but it's nice to have this project umh coming up. People often talk
about infrastructure before development. Okay, we're not quite there on Williamson, but but we are because there's more development coming and hopefully uh uh this widening will help diffuse some of that when it comes
online here in the next couple years between Port Orange and and Daytona. So, uh well done. We'll have to send flowers to to District 5 over there. uh uh F dot and and thank uh Secretary Tyler for us.
Thank you very much, Dad. >> That looks like it. Thank you very much, Dan. >> Uh that takes us to item four, uh requesting review and approval of the updated echo direct county expenditure
plan. And Brad and the team comes back. >> Yes, sir. We've included the background information on the echo direct county expenditure which is uh council's prerogative on to spend the echo money so long as it aligns with the ballot initiative. There's four projects
included in the agenda item and you were each individually briefed. I have a presentation if you'd like me to go through otherwise I'm here to answer questions. >> Uh Councilman Robbins >> motion to approve. >> Second. Have a motion to approve uh by Councilman Robbins and the second was by
which one of you wants it? By Jake Johansson makes second. >> Uh any questions for Brad. Uh all in favor of approving the Echo Direct County expenditures, please say I. >> I.
>> Any opposed? And it passes six to zero. That takes us to item five, uh, the votran transit mini budget workshop. >> Can you remind us what we're here to do with this presentation, please? >> That is that is primarily why I'm standing here.
>> Can I have a motion to approve the presentation? >> Yeah. Good evening, council. Ryan Oowski, chief financial officer. This is the third of five of these mini budget workshop presentations. This is um a little bit different because it's just one single division today. Uh but I
still am up here to give you the preface of what we're here today is to go over the service levels uh that that we're providing and to make any suggestions to uh any service level changes you might want to see because if there's certain
bits and pieces that you want to talk about that uh we need to cost out, the idea is to bring those back for a May presentation. So, we're looking for any direction you have to to have any of those like service changes uh costed out so that you can consider them. With
that, I'll turn it over to Bobby King, the uh uh transit services director. >> Good evening, Bobby King, transit services director. Uh so um we're here tonight to talk about talk about our uh services that we
provide to the community and um the tax revenues that um uh help um fund some of our um services. The rest is obviously funded by grant funds. So this year's um tax amount is 11,361.
And so breakdown of um our expenses and our revenue. Um a quick overview real quick is um the first line is our direct county services which is our county staff and our operating um is about $5 million. That includes fuel uh
maintenance of our facilities uh property insurance um things like that. Uh our biggest expense is our operations and maintenance um contractor RPD. our ATP dev provides um our uh employment
for all of our votran drivers uh that provide fixed route service uh paratransit service and um microtransit service as well as uh they bring Uber to the table um as uh something that we can use if we need to throughout the county.
And then we also have thirdparty contracting. Uh this is primarily um two contracts that we uh we contract with two local um uh paratransit contractors uh that help us provide the paratransit services in the community. And that's uh
a total of about $35 million. And so of that $35 million, $23 million of it is um grant funds and or fairs and um marketing revenue from uh bus advertising. The rest of it is general
fund dollars. So, we wanted to kind of show you where we've uh were um before COVID with the general fund subsidy and where we are currently. uh during the COVID years 2020 um we were uh inundated with lots
of COVID relief funds which helped us um uh drop the subsidy dramatically and we did a good job of kind of um uh evening it out over the next couple of years as we started to um utilize those funds and for the last uh two or three years we've
stayed pretty consistent with the $11 million. Um so we haven't asked for any increase. In fact, uh last year we were uh right at the same as we were the year before and this coming year um looks like we'll be doing the same. So no no
increase on the horizon for this next budget year for the general fund subsidy. That's really good news. Um so uh we wanted to kind of give you an idea of where do we get these uh this revenue from? The majority of majority of it is
federal uh grant dollars and um and then the rest is state and um a little bit of fairs of course always very helpful and then our uh advertising on our buses. The other is in investment income income
that's generated from having our revenue in um accounts that generate investment income. This is our uh org chart. And so um our division oversees um the RATP dev contract uh of 300 plus employees, the
$22 million contract, plus the other uh thirdparty subcontractors that we contract with. Um we're a team um very small team uh and we do a lot of work with that small team. So just a quick overview of some of our
services. This fixed route um is our large bus of course. Um on the east side of the county uh we have the majority of our fixed route buses. Uh that's about 16 routes. Um on the west side we have uh between four and five at this time.
So the majority of our um ridership is coming in from the Daytona area. We don't run fixed route in um New Simra at all. Um but we do run almost all day every day uh for 362 days a year.
Fair transit um as you have well known recently is extremely important to our community. Um we operate that in consection with um the fixed route buses. Um and we serve at least 200,000
a year. Um and that's uh for eligible riders only. We have two paratransit programs. we um require eligibility for it's not a private transportation um operation, so you must be eligible to
ride. Um that's very important. Um but it also uh leaves a lot of people out, but we're we do the best with what we have. um with our pair transit um service uh we've been seeing an
extremely good uh improvement on customer service and on-time performance um with some new software that we've purchased that's also making us more efficient um and more effective. Um but we always need more funding for pair transit. So we're always trying to find a way to squeeze every dollar out of our
grants for pair transit as much as possible. We also have microtransit. Um we have been running it on the west side only until just a couple weeks ago. Um we uh serve at least 100,000 people a year on
the west side of the county over the last couple of years. Um and we've now started on the east side. This is a more efficient service to provide um and reaches more people. Uh so um you know
over the last couple of years we've been moving toward more microtransit um because it does actually bring our our budget um uh down and we're able to leverage grant funds um better by having these types of services. Um and it does
also provide uh options for ADA and TD riders as well. So they might come off of um our pair transit service and move on to this service as well. So it's a it's a nice bonus um so to speak. These services are on demand. They are not
prescheduled. So it's you know when you want it which is also very nice to the public. Um so obviously we're benefiting the community, the um writers of our community, you know, use our services for um health care, jobs, education, um
nutrition, for recreation, um but it also help us help helps our employers and businesses as well. These people need to be able to get to their their jobs. And so these large companies here um are seeing the stops in front of
these businesses are seeing the biggest um wrership numbers um by far. And so to get more in the weeds about our operating expenses, um our biggest expense is our operations and maintenance contract. Um and and then in
our thirdparty contractors that we that we work with to provide um the paratransit service. Next is fuel. Um we have been trending down until probably recently. Uh so we don't know where that's going to go, but we
still anticipate um not much of an increase on this depending upon what happens with fuel. Um, and since we taking more big buses out of the the mix, that's why the fuel keeps going down each each year. Um, and then uh and
then all the the property maintenance uh janitorial security services, utilities, and things like that fall into the next um category. And then parts for all the buses, including um tires and things like that are about a million dollars a year. And the rest of it uh is made up
with um uh you know minimal things here and there uh office supplies, office equipment, printing, marketing, things like that. And again another another look at operating revenue. Um the Federal Transit Administration grant funds are
um definitely our biggest uh funer. Um stated uh Department of Transportation is next. Um Bayers etc. We also get money from the state for the transportation disadvantage program. It's very important to us. They fund um
90% of that program. The other 10 is um general fund funded. We we are seeing a a reduction in advertising and um that is because we don't have as many big buses running and so the advertisers having a hard time um uh
keeping the revenue that they promised to us. So, we agreed that that was fair um to bring that down. So, our future challenges um are going to be contractor costs. Um we have a 5-year contract. Um we typically have
five-year contracts that have escalation each year. So, we expect contract costs to go up. um par transit need um is also going to continue to go up as our community um needs us more um as our community
numbers grow, as our um uh transportation disadvantaged individuals grow. Um and then of course we're seeing that reduction advertising revenue, so we have to make that up somewhere. and then trying to keep that general fund
contribution flat as much as we can um could become challenging in the future. Um I don't see that happening for this next year's budget. Um but anytime we lose any revenue in any of our grant dollars, we could be seeing a problem
there and we have seen grant reductions. Um so we get allocations from both federal and state and we never really know what they're going to be. Um we anticipate them being similar each year and they have been,
but um any number of things could create a change in that. Um we did see a change in the Department of Transportation funding this year um which is was significant. Um and we also have been
seeing uh slight decreases in the transit dis transit disadvantaged um fund as well. Um, and if we continue to see trends like this and we're not able to make it up in other grants, then we may need to continue to come back to you with
different service model changes like microtransit or um we're reducing a service um pretty drastically uh like a Sunday service or something like that. Um we we've the changes that we've made and we'll talk about those next have
allowed us to keep this our budget flat with the general fund subsidy. Um we've been preparing for this for years. Um we didn't need a um a property tax reform to to tell us that we needed to make sure we were being very diligent with
our funds. Um so we brought service model changes to you for the last couple years and we've we've done those. Um but anything be beyond what we've done right now could be very painful to the um the the service uh in general and um and so
we've got to kind of be careful about what we do next. Um but because of the changes that we've made, we've been able to reduce fleet. Um those buses are now costing around $900,000 a piece and we reduced um 10 to 12 buses in the last
couple of years. So that money gets to be funneled back into our um operations somewhere that can be used to provide more service. So those are big numbers that um we're very proud of that um accomplishment. Um and that helps us out dramatically. Again, the efficient use
of our resources through our software service um is now helping dramatically as well. Um but we have also been very successful at gaining grants that we were not expected to get. So, we apply for every grant opportunity that comes our way. Um, if funding becomes
available because some other agency wasn't able to draw it down, we immediately jump on it, we've been granted it. This past few years, it's been $1.5 million, and we'll continue to do that. Um, and we're well known for being very successful at snagging those dollars. So, um, as long as we can
continue to do that, we may be able to make up ground on anything that we lose, um, if we lose anything. And again, one more point, we're making sure the general fund subsidy is contained um as much as possible and um uh that's that's
really very beneficial for what you all have to do with your with your decisions. So, um any questions? >> Yes. Uh Vice Chair Reinhardt, you have questions? >> I I do one one question, but I have a
comment, too. Um the question I had knowing the challenges and thank you Bobby great presentation by the way. Um I sit on the TDC or TPO for disadvantaged board as well and chair that board and there was always the
opportunity to try to convey to our state legislation the importance of those dollars for paratransit. um and knowing that's always a shortfall. Um but I noticed this year they eliminated that those uh paratransit days at Tallahassee the opportunity I think Danny and I went one
year uh to try to convey that message to to our state officials and and I don't know if we were just bad luck >> or what because now the next year they're not doing it. Is there any I mean that was I know we can talk to them at any any point in time but it would seem beneficial to have everybody up
there at one time uh to everybody's kind of expressing uh their need. Uh do you do you see that returning or >> I I think you'll be happy to know that um the board that I sit on which is the uh Florida um public transit administration board um includes all of
the directors in the state of Florida. And that um that team has been working with um the state and the and the CTD uh to try to make sure that we continue to have more and more funds in this program. And this year it looks like we
will have about $4 million more. Okay. >> And and that's So you're in the workforce. All right. Appreciate that. >> Yeah. It's very unusual. And um and there so there's a possibility that we could see an increase in that fund. Fingers crossed. Um but they know they've been they've been um working
with that team a lot to try to make sure that they know the importance of those funds um for our state, for all of our transit agencies. The other question, um, living on the east side, we hear more and more, well, they brought it to our attention at whether it be TPO or the TPO for
disadvantage of how certain shopping centers that used to have bus stops actually within the shopping center and the property owners are eliminating those. So, we're having to put them out on the street. Well, some of those individuals that are in need of the paratransit, we can still go in there.
Correct. For that, right? They can't they can't eliminate that. I mean because a person has a disability. Correct. >> Their biggest issue it seems is the the bigger bus the bigger bus um or blocking traffic or something like that. But yes, our our paratransit buses I' I've heard
no issues from >> those um those >> to eliminate Yeah. They can't stop that. And then the last question, um, you hit on it, uh, the challenges being with the federal dollars. Um, and you know, we rely on what, I think you said, a little
over $15 million coming from that. Um I did read that the federal transit operation budget um house resolution 4522 uh discussion for the 2026 budget to cut Amtrak highspeed rail and public
transportation by 22.1 billion >> with a B. That will certainly impact us. Correct. >> Yes. >> And and we're we're already going to see a state reduction of 1.2 million. >> And so here there so that that is a concern. I mean, we're relying on that
money. What's what's I mean, I I kind of put you on the spot here to say, what's our plan? >> Right. The allocations um typically come out about this time of year for federal the federal dollars. Um but for the last couple of years, it's been much later. So, last year it was almost June before
we got it. Um but at any time when the the funds are released for, you know, for everyone to know, um we'll know what our allocations are. But but yeah. >> Yeah, there's three issues. The public transportation, highspeed rail, and Amtrak. That's concerning. So
>> yeah, I mean I don't right now I don't I don't hear that we have anything to fear right at the moment. Um typically our allocations are um or aortionments are created based on the amount of service that we provide. So, which is why I
don't always advocate for taking a service away because if I take a service away, then I'm actually reducing the number of hours or the number of passengers that may be um served and that could potentially snowball into less money for us. But so, when we ask
you to make a change to microtransit, we're asking for not only a less expensive service to provide, but also a way to actually increase those numbers. Um, so it's it's a win-win um for us, but if we have no if we take something
away and don't put something back in its place, it could be detrimental overall in the future. >> And I did have one other question, chair, if I could. I am sorry. This is our time, man. So the mini bud shop workshop is for the uh since starting it's how long have we had um vow ride in
in play? >> Two years. >> Two years. in that time frame. I know it was a concern of of some that we were taken away from private industry as far as have we heard any complaints with respect to that? >> I I mean I haven't >> Uber or anybody because Uber is such a big company. I so but I mean anything as
far as the private industry >> have not. >> Okay. I haven't either. So but I again in all fairness I haven't picked up the phone and called him. So but thank you. All right. Sorry Don. It's it okay. Well, you took too much time, but you you asked all my
questions, so it's it's all going to work out. U Bobby, first I I'll just say that you've already made uh service model changes in anticipation of of fewer funds. So, you're to be commended for that. It's you're heading in the
right direction. On page six of your presentation, I there was about $20 million in grants between the federal and the state, maybe a little bit more with the transportation uh disadvantage. I don't know if that was already included. >> So my question was going to be that's
been reduced. Do you anticipate it being reduced? He already asked it. You you anticipate that. Um, so we're going to have to have a plan eventually, you know, with all the discussions on finance in the in the state. Question that I'm often asked is, you know, our
contractor, I think, has 300 employees. Well, why don't the county just do it in half? And I said, because of 300 employees that would all get retirement, medical benefits, they're on the payroll forever. I'm assuming you use a contractor because it's less expensive.
Well, I I I think we've we've looked at that model and it's similar. Um, but it is ultimately bringing on 300 employees to the county. That is not as easy as it seems. No. >> So, >> so what we're doing is less expensive
than hiring 300 more people. >> Absolutely. And >> thank you. >> And in fact, a lot less liability as well. >> Yes. Okay. >> Right. They are take this company does take the liability off of our our hands as well.
>> Okay. Is it is it ever going to be a necessity that we take the what may be very limited funds in the future and just use those for uh taxi Uber and lift and maybe par transit.
>> We have a lot of um regulations that we have to follow. Um, so, um, it could be difficult to just to narrow it down to like one service or another. Um, it's not quite that easy. Um, when we get collect federal and state dollars, a lot
comes with that that we're required to, you know, provide. So, yeah, it's not as >> if we're getting them, >> right? If we're getting state, >> right? I mean, we may not get as much as we normally do. Um there's no indication of that right at the moment, but um but
yes, we would have to look at service changes. Um >> yeah, for sure. >> And and you are? >> Yes. >> Thank you very much, Councilman Robbins. >> Thank you, Chairman. Um if we were to
look at model changes, what changes would you recommend? >> What would be next? Yeah, these are the painful changes. So, um it would probably be next on the list would be Sunday service. Um we only provide Sunday service um in Daytona area. It's
a limited amount of time on Sunday. So it's not the full you know 5:00 am to a midnight service but um you know when we look at wrership uh for certain services that is would be one big chunk that would be on the next
>> is that something would be a good candidate for vorride for the >> um it could be yes I >> how how are the numbers there do we have a lot is it folks going to church >> yes okay because primarily church and then and beach side that's why we only do it in Daytona is a lot of the the
workers continued to need to be at work on Sunday um in the Daytona area. So yes, it could be >> and in in no in that say just Sunday for instance, are we seeing these um how many how many passengers does one bus hold? >> You know,
>> 30 30 to 35. >> Are we seeing them being full or are we seeing them at 50%, 20%, 5%, 2%. >> Um it depends on the route. Um but primarily in that area um we see pretty full buses um but Sunday is definitely
not as full as every other day of the week. >> Would we have an opportunity to look at those numbers as a board uh to see if you know I'm looking here the only way we're going to reduce or if we're going to tighten this belt if we have to is through fleet reduction and and changing
the models right that I can see. Um maybe on some of those routes we don't need a bus and we can do it with a uh passenger van, you know, 15 person >> put a bike rack on the back or whatever the case. >> So will we have an opportunity to see that or would you need direction from us
to >> We could absolutely bring you options for the next level of cuts if needed. >> Yeah, I'd like to see that. and and two, some of these um longer routes that we have, >> you know, maybe an unincorporated county, uh our fuel's going up, uh
insuranceances continue to go up, maintenance goes up, these buses go up on some of these more rural routes that we do. Are we charging more to kind of offset or or compensate? Can we >> mean for fairs? for fairs.
>> Um we don't charge a different rate um for fairs um because typically those buses are going from maybe non-rule to rule, you know, versus so it might be difficult to try to figure out >> a maximum mileage with, you know, I'm just trying to see how else we can
>> we can look at some different options for sure. Um typically when we raise rates, um which we just did, right? um we lose passengers uh for one reason or another and um and so we want to be kind of careful and we also have title six
requirements that we have to kind of maintain of do we go did we go too far you know is it um reasonable uh increases and things like that so that takes a lot of planning a lot of work um all of these changes take a lot of work
to really vet out and determine what's best um because like I said before I I wouldn't recommend taking something away because I know that in the long term that could be detrimental to our grant fund allocation. Um, so typically we've
been bringing you options that say this probably isn't our most efficient way to provide service here, but this is >> and we can get maybe even more funding in the in the long run for it. >> Okay. Um, so we're always looking at ways to to, you know, leverage our grant
funds and and and make the best um decisions to to reduce our cost or or bring in more money. >> Understood. And I think that'd be beneficial for us to to kind of see that, you know, if there's five people on a bus, we got to skin this cat another way. >> Yeah. Right. And we've
>> if it's possible. And we've we look at those writership numbers all the time, which is how we've pinpointed over the last couple years the routes that needed to to be either eliminated or changed to microtransit was based on writership numbers. >> Okay. Uh
you see um you you hit on vow ride a little bit. I know we we started saving quite a bit of money with that. what what kind of expansions can we look forward to here and and will that reduce the the fleet at any will that also reduce the fleet at the same time? So,
we did just do the uh east side um the east side locations on March 1st. And um if if there was a next section that we would do, it could be um we've allowed uh the fixer out bus to continue on the beach side at night. And we intended to
watch those numbers to see if they either increase or decrease. And then if we needed to, we could switch those out to microransit as well. But we really just want run one bus up and down. uh A1A all night. Um so it's not a lot of
savings there, but one or two buses maybe. Um and then other than that, um >> is that like kind of sun up to sun down or >> so there they could be running just one passenger, two pass, you know, at night? >> We already looked at those numbers, so
we know that's not happening um for the night service on the beach side. Uh we know those are pretty good numbers still. um but they aren't as good as um you know some other routes you know that are full bus. Uh so you know if we're
looking at levels of decision making um the night service on the beach side uh right now is not one that I would recommend but we are watching it and so >> that's why we maintained that one um while we did the microtransit on the
main on the mainland for night service. So, we'll keep we'll keep looking at them and we can always bring you reports on writership whenever you want to how often you want to to look at those things um for decision making going forward. >> Happy to do that.
>> Sounds good. >> Councilman Johansson, >> thank you, sir. Um Bobby, thank you for the brief. Thank you for all the the stuff you're doing to save us a dollar here and a dollar there. Um, one of one of the traps that I I don't
think we should ever get in, and I'm not saying you're there, but I don't want to spend $11 million to make $23 million to keep this going. It's it's 33% of of the budget is coming out of the general
fund. Um, understanding that if we cut something out of the general fund, you're going to lose. That that percentage is probably always going to be the same. we're going to lose some grant money. Um, but
you seem to be um you seem to be willing to discuss other fair options fair options that Danny brought up. Have we ever uh done the the Monte Carlo on
on tiered income fairs? Well, um that would require application, paperwork, um all that kind of stuff for people to um apply. And then I mean that's a that's a lot. Um 1,900 riders a year to do something like
that for um of course they're repeat they're repeat passengers, but could be hundreds of thousands of people that would need to provide us with an application process for eligibility to figure out tiers of their income. Um,
>> so there's there's other there's other federal ways that they've already if they're low income that they've already proven that they're low income. Uh, >> we don't have fairs for low-inccome except for um our transportation disadvantaged program.
>> I'm I'm trying to trying to come up with an alternative way to to make some revenue. So yeah, >> figure them all out and come back. I I um I think there are a lot of ways to skin
this cat and as we start getting into this um this lack of revenue that we might be in in the coming years. Uh we need to pull out all the stops and and give the best service we can. Um, you know, in a in a
perfect world, our cities would all be bunched together and we could take a bus from from Daytona to Port Orange, get out at city center and be able to walk wherever we need to go. Um, uh, uh, and and help the the paratransit people as
as we're able now. Um, and and maybe that's the way we go in the future. We'll get you to the city, but we can't get you around the city. Um, but I I would like to try to look at ways to
decrease the amount of of uh of general fund money we're spending while you can do your best to retain obviously the grant money we get knowing that that's going to go down in the future too. Um
um I know you're good at that so uh uh do the best you can. I think the numbers that Danny mentioned, the the allnight bus route, if you can do that, if if we can, you bring people to church in Daytona,
how do they get to church and to land and New Smyrna and everywhere else? Um uh you know, I I hate to put it on the back of the churches, but every you know, you know how many buses I've bought for the First United Methodist Church in Port Orange. um and and then
try to sell them to uh um so there there's something to be said for for allowing uh nonprofits and the and the public to take care of that if and when it needs be. I it's a thin line between necessity and convenience. I think we
need to really start looking at that. >> I do want to bring up one thing since you mentioned um the reduction in the general fund. Yeah. >> Uh we are we do have requirements from both state and federal grants to match >> match >> a certain amount. So >> we're never going to be able to get away
from that. Um but we do a really good job of leveraging it. So that's why it's not 23 and 23. Um it's 23 and 11 because we've figured out really good ways to leverage that. Um >> but um so we do will have probably
always have a match requirement um for any money that we receive. >> It might have to be five and 10, >> right, for a total of 15 depending on how we go from here. So um I'd appreciate you doing everything you got to come up with innovative ways. Thank
you, >> County Manager George Rectenald. >> Yeah, these all great comments and and great things to look at. Uh I was just going to point out on the Sunday service. I do recall uh you know the
genesis of that definitely was the hotel motel association Bob Davis uh may rest in peace was uh came in uh with a large group and uh really pushed to have the uh that service for all the
hotel workers. So the fact that the people are going to church and other things is a side benefit, but the uh original intent was for uh all the hotel workers that uh they needed it on on on Sunday. But we can still look at that
and we will look at that as we have on the other items. And like I say, she's really good about well, we wouldn't have no service. Maybe we go to a different type of service that still could uh help out with that issue. So this is very good. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you uh Bobby. You have done
a a great job as a manager. You know, I've already said you've changed service models, but we've actually improved service, made it more personal, um more efficient. Nothing is ever without hiccups in the beginning. But so I think what you hear us all asking you to do is
the impossible and as you can get it done as quickly as possible and just uh um we'll hope that there's no big cuts. uh coming up, but they're they're surely coming at some point. >> Okay, sounds good. I'll definitely do
that. >> All right, thank you very much. >> Uh item six, council members and citizens appointments to the affordable housing advisory committee. And um I want to I
have a question for you. I think we need eight people. We have seven applicants and one of those I don't believe is fits into any of the categories. So we really have six applicants. >> Correct. >> But you need them all appointed.
>> Yes. And if you have any other applicants that could fit into one of the categories, um, send them my way >> and I'll help them fill out an application. >> Okay. Yeah, I think we're going to have to any council member that has uh somebody just to contact him, see if
they're interested, email uh Cararissa. I think the six that we have, we could probably >> Can we nominate by general? >> I was going to ask if we can just make a nomination for all the ones that are on that list to appoint them.
>> And you or No, >> I do not want to nominate uh Jay Johansson. If there's a way to unnominate him from that list, that that'd be great. >> You're not on the list. >> I still don't want
I'm just trying to get off a committee, folks. >> Oh, you're talking about the committee. >> No, I'm I'm good. I'm good. Okay. >> Motion approve everybody. That's >> We have Billings, DJ Lebo, Dwight Selby, Susan Clark, and Lauren Vale. All
nominated. Uh >> motion to approve. >> Second, Johansson. >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you for the teamwork. >> I do just want to let you know that um looking at this very quickly, they do have to fit within the c those certain
categories. It looks like one person falls in at least one category. Um so I can make it work and if I can, I'll bring it back to you to make the clarification >> and we'll get you some more nominees. I I hope.
>> Okay, that takes us to item seven, appointments to the contractor licensing and construction appeals board. >> I'll nominate. >> You need seven and we only have four. Correct. >> I was going to do the same. >> Please go ahead and
>> motion to approve the four that are listed. >> J Michael Cole. Michael uh take that name. Watch >> Tuniaak, >> John Melt, >> and Michael McDonald are all nominated.
Is there a U I can't make a motion. >> Motion to approve all four. >> Yes. >> Second. Johansson. >> Second by Johansson. Any questions? >> Danny's out of the room. >> Um Matt made the motion.
All in favor say I. I. >> And they are approved. >> I will also ask of councel. Um for this board we also do need applicants as well. Um they can be two consumer representatives. So they don't have to be within those specific categories. So
they can be any member of the public. >> Okay. Okay. It's a it's a problem. Uh item eight is is important appointment to the fire code board of appeals. And how many do you need here?
>> Um the there's not a number of set members to this board. It's more by position. Um so if we appoint the three members that are in the agenda item, um we will meet the qualifications minus maybe what may have happened on the CLC.
>> Motion to approve those three. So Frank Posa, Alan, Alana Smith, and Carrie Losinger, did you need to tell us something? Good afternoon, council. Chris Ryan, assistant county attorney. I was just going to mention that this is kind of an unusual an unusual board and that the
CLCA itself, which you just appointed members to, actually sits as the fire control board of appeals. However, they have additional members that have added to that membership to serve on this specific board. And these are three of the four categories we need. And as long as we get two of them, we'll have quorum.
>> Okay. >> So, we have three on there. >> Yes. You want to make a motion? >> Motion to approve the three. >> Okay. >> Johansson. >> Okay. We have a motion to appoint uh all three of the applicants by Vice Chair Reinhardt. Second came from Councilman
Johansson. Uh all in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? And that one passes six to zero. Uh Mr. Chair, I think you need Mr. Robins vote for item seven.
>> Ask him right now. If we would go back to item six, Councilman Robbins on we nominated and approved uh all the applicants. So, his vote is affirmative for that. And is it affirmative for item seven,
contractor license? Yes. All right. Gota be John. >> Okay. >> That takes us to public participation. And uh is Jeff Hester back?
You're Jeff. Okay. Well, I'm sorry we uh we ran out of time or you ran out of time in the morning. So, >> my sincere apologies, Councilman. I got here as soon as I could and I frankly left my speech notes at home. Kind of hoping my wife and children would make it, but uh
>> so be it. I forgot to wear green today. It's my excuse. But >> my name is Jeff Hester. I'm a resident of Hazen Road. Um you can probably guess why I'm here. Uh about three weeks ago, I knew absolutely nothing about imminent domain. I still know very little about
it, but I know a whole lot more than I did then. Um, you may tell from my accent, I'm not from Florida originally. We moved here in the end of the world 2020. We relocated my family with my one-year-old son and my three-year-old daughter. I
may be from Mississippi, but my family are we are Floridaidians, excuse me, and we intend to raise our families here. I used to say that our home was like a little slice of heaven. I still believe it is, and I still have hope.
that I plan on staying there for a very long time. And now I'm not so sure that's possible. Our greatest financial investment is our homes for most people at least. That is at risk now. Our equity could be squat. If the line isn't
actually over your property, it's my understanding that some people will lose property value and not be able to recover a scent. That's the cold hard truth that uh that people need to understand. I know we are simply asking you for a letter. Who knows what Duke
will do with it. I will pin it myself if you would like. I am hoping to make some positive change for our community. And regardless of the outcome, I think uh you at the end of the day has brought our neighborhood better uh stronger together than they ever have been
before. Um, Chairman Brower, you know, I can speak quite a bit. My apologies for contacting you guys so much. I'd like I would like to express my appreciation for all your efforts to uh see this matter heard by the public. Councilman
Dempsey, you as well. I'm not intending to disparrage anyone. My apologies, but I would ask for your support just with a simple letter. and hopefully uh the community will be better suited to face the future
challenges that we encounter for lack of a better term. Uh lastly, I would like to thank Mr. Rick Durkin for bringing our neighborhood together. He really got the word out. He could not be here today due to a planned medical procedure, and I'm wishing him and his family prayers and a
swift recovery. And with that, I'm just under three minutes, but uh I'll spare you guys. >> Good job. >> Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Jeff. I think we've learned that you stay up as late as I do. Um if you have time, just have a seat for a while because we are going to discuss it
in just a minute and see what the feeling is. Uh John Nicholson, and I apologize, John, I missed you on one of the items that we blew right past. I wasn't here anyway. I had had to go
downstairs. >> Uh John Nicholson, Daytona Beachside. I gave you all a copy of an article on Sunday's paper. Uh I brought it up to uh George Wetlin all maybe three four months ago and I I told him that we we
needed this and in my view I understand um my credibility is not there with my city. I want this in my city. But um as you know I pushed for uh the idea that Margaritavville was coming to the city
of Daytona Beach and we had to be prepared and my city of course said no it's not coming. We don't need to widen LPGA it's going to be widened in 40 years so why widen it now. All of those kind of things. So I'm hoping to avoid
that with you all on this. Um AI is coming. It's already here. It will change things. Uh people didn't believe the internet would be as drastic as it is. I don't think there's anybody that does anything now that's not connected
to the internet. So this will be as incompensating and we can't be left behind. Um I see us as and someone who is a uh manager of the Hard Rock Hotel made the comment, we are the new Fort
Lauderdale. I see us as the new Miami Dade. Nobody expected Miami Dade to take New York or San Francisco on. When I grew up, there were only 100,000 people in the county of Luc I mean in the county of Miami Dade. There are now
almost four million and there are billionaires moving into the community. What are we going to do when those billionaires, and I'm serious, we only have what, three billionaires in the city now in the county. So, when we get
10 or 20 or maybe 30, we're going to need a data center. I know a location uh on the river, publicly owned that um literally right
next door are throwing into the river every single day four to five million gallons of treated water. How much does and and as you know I don't know the computer from a hole in the wall but any of you who knows Alexa
ask her how much water does a data center use per day if it uses anywhere near 3 to 5 million we're dumping it in and this is the waste water that uh they are all talking about. So instead of using it as drinking water or throwing
it away, use it as something to enhance our community, our employment, a lot of things. I'm asking you to take a look at it. I mean, seriously, take a look at it because it is coming. Margaritavville
did come. The widening of a uh LPGA is coming. This is coming. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, Adam Dovy Council, Adam Dovy, uh, quiet place in the country. Um, been playing the hopscotch back and forth. I got excited to come here about
a week ago when I committed to it. Finally have uh, my life has calmed down a little bit from being in construction, building a new house, new family, and everything. Um, and I've been kind of going back and forth and I found out yesterday about the Valuchia Forever. Obviously, now we're kicking that can down the road a little bit. So, I'll stick to what I was going to originally
talk about, which is really simple. It is flooding and overdevelopment. Um, this is my first county council meeting officially. I've done a lot of city councils with Port Orange and Daytona. Um, I hope it resonates here because you guys have the big overwhelming umbrella
uh control. The traffic, nobody here has to hear about traffic anymore. It's become a nightmare. It's become South Florida, which I can pretty much I feel all the blue guys in the back staring at me all can agree and the red shirts that aren't here this year or this week. It's
become ridiculous. Um I grew up here my entire life, born and raised, so 47 years and 46 yearsish in counting. Um the overdevelopment and the reasonzoning specifically has been amateur hour. That's a nice way to put it. um where
everybody is so eager to please these mysterious developers that are supposed to bring progress and prosperity and they've done nothing more than turn uh Dunlton um New Smyrna Beachside on any weekend nowadays is a nightmare uh Granada into nightmares. It's Fort
Lauderdale. I personally despise Fort Lauderdale. Miami they can keep it but the traffic is insane. The flooding is scary. Um, I've just completed my house. I moved in uh January 1 and I got my first tax bill estimate about three days
ago. Um, it's terrifying the amount of money that I paid that I'm going to be paying, my parents paid for the past 47 years, all the property I own. I have a small business in Port Orange. It seems very narrow-minded that we're so worried about these again mysterious entities
that are coming in to make Valucia County better and all they do is is straight scrape our resources. I tell everybody the story. You put a hundred citizens in the room. Five are going to be excited about development. The builder, the developer,
the attorney, the banker, and then some other cuckoo that thinks they want a virtue signal. the other 95 citizens are going to say, "What are you doing to the city, the county, the land that we love?" All I'm saying is listen to the 95%. Um, I know I'm not supposed to talk about Valuchia forever, but that's a
good example, the 76 or 78% that approves it. We live here. My tax bill, unless anybody wants to chip in, is going to be terrifying. I want to make sure that my voice is heard. But again, uh, to keep it simple, overdevelopment was why I came here originally. I'm excited to come back in April, whatever
the meeting is for Valuchia Forever, and uh and address that when it's here. Thank you, council. >> Thank you for your comments. Um that takes us to the uh closing comments. Uh we'll start with the county manager.
>> Yes, sir. Uh couple of things. Uh earlier today, uh you know, the the lady that's coming in on Marsh Road, I think we have to address this. Uh yes. >> And that the bridge she keeps mentioning
uh we have the inspection report on the bridge. There's no 10 ton limit on it. And in fact the DOT issued a sufficiency rating of 96 and a health rating of it of 99. So out
of a 100 right so the idea the bridge is in excellent condition and there is no 10 ton uh limit on it. Uh the road of course uh uh there's no county effort or anything to divert anybody there. Uh and
if there was weight limit type uh work be to be done uh enforcement that's usually done by uh the FHP uh not by the county. So, um, uh, I just want to let everyone know that that, uh, that's the issue on that
road. And the road is built to a, uh, standard that would allow heavy farm equipment and therefore trucks of that nature, uh, would be on that road. Uh, next up, >> do you have any idea why the traffic is
being de is there a logging company out there or something? >> We've not found anything. We've looked. We don't know of any development uh interest in particular. We do know that people are finding out that are and I even have local people that know that if
they live up in that area, they can go back around that area uh and avoid going down through the land. So there definitely uh people have figured out that if I I'm up on Route 11, that is one way to get around the
land and vice versa. But I don't know of any. We've checked, we've looked. Uh years ago there was a pit out there, but that was actually turned into a ski lake and uh that's no longer an op an active operation. But there are agricultural
interests and stuff out there and people are, you know, using the heavy equipment and stuff on those properties. But yes, I think it's still uh cutth through as well. And and we'll look at that >> if there's speeding or something like that going on. And that is uh something that the sheriff we can talk to and see
if uh he can step up in enforcement for that. Um the other uh uh item that we wanted to talk a little bit about uh the the we are Mr. Anderson
brought up the water quality and the uh fact that we're getting these grants up in Delon Springs. That's from a special D program and our team is poised uh to go after the next round of grants which will be this coming July. Uh so I just
want to let everyone know that we are on top of that. Uh we're also we have a whole water quality report that's been put together that we'll probably be sending out uh maybe as early as the end of this week to council and we can come back uh once you've had a chance to
digest that and talk a little bit further uh about what the challenges are in this area. So we are on top of that and and of course we've been ready to go after grants as you heard from Bobby. Our staff is very well trained, very
cognizant of grants and they go after them all the time. The you know the D um uh is part of the you know equation here. So I mean you know you you had a BMAP up in uh Dillian Springs first I
believe or first one that came on and so therefore that got the attention as these others are coming on then there'll be associated u attention to that. I will say when you get into the blue springs that is a massive basin. It goes
uh from Dand through most of Deltona down into Deerry all through Orange City. So you know Dillian Springs which is was a smaller and maybe a test area but you're going to have a much bigger uh area to work with and probably in
there there'll also be other solutions besides uh high-end septic tanks. you'll have to look at sewer installation and of course like we've been working with uh dear on uh um septic to sewer projects uh that are going to come online as well. So you'll have those
other um other tools, but I think that's better uh to have we have a larger discussion what's going to happen there. Uh the Hazen Road. So uh if it's the council's desire on that, we can
certainly uh send a letter. Uh we have been in contact already with um some of the Duke Energy folks. uh it was a requirement uh that they have to pick and look at alternate routes. Um I think
you know there's a lot uh there's a very good chance that I think they'll pick the state road because of some of the other factors that will make it easier for them and that it is a a larger ride away and uh and probably
easier to fit what they're trying to do. But leaving nothing a chance. If uh council would like to express a desired route, we could come back uh with a letter uh that all of you could uh then sign and send it to uh Duke Energy.
>> Do you need that in the form of a motion? >> What would be best? >> Um so I'll make a motion for staff to write the letter, bring it back to us going for the option of the commercial route. Uh that we would prefer that for >> motion and a second for the letter. Any
questions? All in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Uh, George, is that do we know the I don't know if you need to add this to it, but do we know the exact location of the substation? Aren't they moving that as well? >> They have a prop I could have bad answer to that. He's got some information
that's fresh around it, but we have some information regarding and there's an existing uh if you're familiar with the area, there's a large substation right there on their yard that sits on 15A uh next to uh the rail signing.
Uh yes, Ben Bar County public works director. So, um, up on the screen on the left is a map that Duke Energy has provided with the alternate route or with the routes that they're evaluating. On the right is a map that I made that kind of just to clarify and delineate
what um what they're proposing. Um, this the existing substation is that red square at the south end near the railroad tracks where it meets 15A. and they're proposing a new substation up off of uh ISB just east of 15A. And so the routes that
they're looking at potentially the most direct route would be to go that blue line up 15A directly there. >> Um they also looked at alternate routes. Um the green line um is obviously what a lot of the folks are concerned about. It
runs along the railroad tracks to Hazen and then north potentially going east on Plymouth or going all the way up to Greens Derry and then back south. And then they also show a route potentially going a little ways on Plymouth and then north um through uh kind there's not
even a rideway through there. I would assume they would have to acquire an easement to go through that location as well. So that's what they're evaluating as potential routes. So, um, depending on what, you know, the letter
we could draft would be to stress this council's desire to be use the route along 15A, which is the state road. >> Okay, good. Thank you for being prepared. All of the staff, um, I know you're taking this seriously.
Um, so we will we approve a letter. We'll do what we can. the utilities companies don't have to ask our permission, but we can uh sure uh push the what looks like the
direct route um to us. So, thank you. Uh anyone else? >> George, did you have more? >> Can you clarify who made the second? >> Councilman Robbins. That's it for me.
>> That's it. Okay. Uh, county attorneys. >> Hey, sir. Russ Brown, deputy county attorney, sitting for my boss, Mr. Mike Dyer. Uh, the legislative session just ended last Friday. As you all know, we were initially monitoring about a little over 350 bills. Uh, just a little over a hundred actually were finally enrolled
and sent to the governor. Of those, just a little over 100, really only around a little over 20 we think impact the county. So, we'll be preparing our uh annual um summary of those and getting it out to you at the end of this week uh and to staff. And um that's all I have.
>> Question, Mr. Chair, for the trades. >> Councilman Santiago. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hey, Russ, can you give us a a brief synopsis of uh what occurred uh on well, what's the current status of the court hearing regarding the Senate Bill 180 lawsuits that the cities did?
>> Yes, sir. So, at the end of uh February, um there was a a judge issued a couple orders. Um one for the local government's suit and then one for uh the private parties. And so, uh, essentially, um, the local government
suit, uh, for all the matters that the plaintiffs alleged was dismissed with the exception of, uh, allowed for the unfunded mandate aspect to potentially, um, proceed forward if they're able to state a claim moving forward on that. uh and that would look at and we think uh
you know a court doesn't like to overturn the legislature if there's uh constitutional grounds and and executive grounds for the for the legis for the legislation. So what they do is they just sever the clause that they think is unconstitutional and they take that
little part out from the body and the unfunded mandate aspect regards the requirement in the statute SB180 to uh require like permitting offices and stuff to stay open for 40 hours after a hurricane. So if that's the aspect that
they're looking at that's unfunded from the state and that was what the we believe that the court would carve out if they found that to be unmandated. the other overall subsitive part of SB80 would stand. They did allow the private parties uh to come forward and or to restate their claim again to move
forward on a couple claims uh regarding their own private property because they had a lady in Orange County that was one of the plaintiffs uh and thousand friends of Florida, but to move forward on very limited ground. So, you know, I I wanted to uh my boss and Paulo and Chris, we had previously briefed you
guys on what we thought a lot of the uh legal uh issues could be and that it would be a very hard road for the plaintiffs to to mow with that, if you will, or uh and so it the court's order kind of affirmed that hard work by your
staff and and educating you and kind of the direction and um that this council took to try and try and get the legislature to change the bill. >> Yeah. And and thank thank you for that. And and for that purpose, I I wanted to bring it up because I wanted to thank our legal team um for uh giving us wise
counsel uh not not only did you guys give us precedent on what's occurred in the past and similar types of uh of challenges to the legislature um and how they've normally gone down. And I think you guys hit every point uh as far as
what the judges already ruled on. Um the judges agreed with everything you guys have outlined for us as pitfalls. Um and it's a wise council and we took it as a body. Uh I only wish there all of the valia cities had done the same because it's so
unfortunate we wasted some taxpayer dollars on something and and and made the legislature not uh so much our friend. So, it should be a lesson for us to continue to listen to our wise council and uh for other cities to uh also encouraging them to take the
council because sometimes the Mark Zuckerberg court of opinion and legal schools isn't always right. >> Yes, sir. I appreciate that. Uh I'll let my boss know. I think he's got a very good staff. I'm prejudice to that and uh I think they do a very good job. So,
thank you. I'll let him know. That's it for you. >> Yes, sir. That's >> okay. I thought you were going to introduce your your sidekick that wins a lot of trials for us. >> He's he's a man that needs no introduction, so I didn't think I needed that.
>> Okay. All right. We'll move to uh council members. Uh Vice Chair Reinhardt. >> Thank you, Chair. Um of the bills that were passed that are going to the governor, I was pretty excited about the code enforcement one. Um body cams for code enforcement officers. uh I've been asking for that and so that uh thank you
to Representative Bill Pardington who got that pushed through. >> Is that I I don't >> that's what I was told. >> I'll have to check on that, sir. >> Did you get that from Facebook? >> No, I got it from Bill Pardington. >> If I might, it did actually pass both the House and the Senate, but the
problem is it was never engrossed and enrolled. So, they slightly different versions and it just tripped right in front of the finish line, unfortunately. So, it's going to have to be tried. >> Oh, you just ruined my day. >> I'm so sorry. So that was not ruining my day. You know what's going to happen? It has to be >> it has to go again through the process next year.
>> Oh, you got to be kidding me. >> Oh lord. >> They haven't called a special session unfortunately like this yet. So potentially it could be, but I think it would have to start all over again special. >> I mean it's just ruined my day. Let's just make it the week. Okay. >> I do apologize. That wasn't my >> intention. It just killed me. You just you're sucking the life right out of me.
Oh. All right. So much for that. I was ready to All right. Um in front of you, gentlemen, Carissa have passed out um a copy of a potential proclamation. Uh normally, yes, Jake, we
have a process that we go through and we have it heard. And um I will let you know that uh Roy Johnson is a vice mayor of Holly Hill. Uh former mayor of Holly Hill, city commissioner Holly Hill. Um he is currently in hospice.
um and uh his daughter had u reached out and uh it doesn't look promising. So I knowing what Roy has brought to this community um and what he's done for the Valuchia County, not just the the city of Holly Hill. Amazing man. Uh and
there's quite a history that goes with him. I won't get into all that. Um but uh knowing the time frame, I had asked if uh Pat would uh draft it up and thank you Michael Ryan for your staff and it was done today. Um so therefore that being said, I'd like to make a motion do
thank you >> to have this passed and I my intention is uh chair to u once we get this is to visit the hospice facility and read it to him and then I'd like to make arrangements with the city of Holly Hill to do the same.
I think that's a great idea. Um, if they I don't know how many people they'll allow in, but if they would, I'd love to go. >> Absolutely. Yes, sir. I love that. I'll let everybody know. >> He's a long-term member of the transportation planning organization. >> Yep. >> Loves his city.
>> Yes, he does. He really, really does. And beautiful family. So, >> that's bad news. >> Yes, it is. So, motion second. Thank you. And >> should we vote? Did you make the motion? I made the motion. Jake second it. >> Jake did second it. All in favor of the
proclamation, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? And you're approved. >> Chairman, may may I say something for Matt? >> Please, >> Matt, I I see the uh the seven years in US Air Force. Um can we get a uh also um background on his military if there's
anything we can do? No, we have some veterans. Uh >> Mike's actually shaking his head right now. Absolutely. >> Hall of Fames and something like that. um anything we can do to honor his service as well. >> Yeah, maybe with our veterans group as well, >> you know. Appreciate it. >> Thank you, Mike. Um next thing, um
everybody's aware of um uh some incidents that happened on the east side of the county. Um and uh I believe one over in Deltona, uh VCSO Deputy Jose Rivera, I think that was in Deltona. Uh kind of an unusual incident where he claimed that he called 91 the person who
called 911. uh BCSO responded uh and it saying that there were individuals in his yard. It was a ploy uh kind of ambushed him um and uh the deputy was shot. Um he was released, but uh I've been given permission from the sheriff
to let everyone know that he's in our thoughts and prayers because he's back in the hospital with complications from that shooting. So uh our thoughts and prayers go out to to him and his family. Um, South Daytona Beach or South Daytona police officer Jake Fessendon was also
shot in the line of duty. Uh, I understand he's uh recovering but still in the hospital if I'm not mistaken. I reached out to uh Chief Hall uh as well for that. And then we had a Port Orange officer that was shot at uh fortunately. No, that was the 15 individuals. I
apologize. Um, no injuries uh as a result of that. So that's that's great news. So, a testament to uh be very grateful for what we have in law enforcement and kudos go out to all of our our agencies that protect and serve
and keep us safe. Uh that there um it just goes without saying and and special thanks to our sheriff for handling uh the things he does. So, um and that's all I had. Chair, thank you. >> Thank you. I've got three people on the
the board. I don't know if you want to just wait for your turn or if you wanted to. >> Okay. >> And Michael Dyer. >> Hey sir, real quick. Uh, may a couple on our part. Don't say an attorney can never admit when they're wrong. Turns out the bill was enrolled today, Mr. Reinhardt, on your code enforcement cameras.
>> You just Mr. Pardington was correct. And just >> redeemed yourself. All right. Thank you, Representative Pardington. >> So they can get things done when they want to. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh, Councilman Robbins. >> Thank you, Chairman. Uh, just a quick
update from District 3. Uh, we had our second uh, meeting with the community for uh, with the arts community where we're exploring outside funding. A couple donors uh, came through privately to make up some some gaps that uh that
uh, uh, needed to be filled. Uh, big shout out to Debbie with the advertising authority. Um, couple things that we talked about in this meeting and and uh, Mayor Fred Cleveland was there. We had at the chambers uh, at 9:30 yesterday morning. Um, staff, this is more more
directed at you and I'll I'll kind of kind of read and feed from here. Um, can we get anything with the NSB advertising authority and events uh, or a kiosk in our airport since a lot of people do fly in Daytona? And then I think that's been
something she she had mentioned that was been talked about in the past. That's something we can uh look at for tourism in Southeast Valuchia. Um also something um that we talked about too was if we
have any um uh utility service bills that go out or uh in our tax bills to help out the arts community. if we can have any if we're allowed to put or see what the cost is to put in a flyer in with that to promote uh some of the
events in Southeast Valuchia uh and any of these notices that that go out, you know, an extra piece of paper or or whatnot. And also too, we had talked about uh additional signs on 95 at 44. you'll see uh Atlantic Center for the
Arts sign, which just pretty much shows um them, but there's so much more uh to the to the arts and culture community. I don't know if we can get with the state uh whoever to maybe look get a a bigger
sign that has uh or that can showcase uh that part of the community uh in the city. So other than that, uh one last thing, I went to the uh opening day baseball event uh for the Oakhill Sports Program, which is now the Indian River
Lagoon Sports Program. Uh a few years ago, two, three years ago, they started off with 17 kids. It's blown up to over 200 in a short time. They're now utilizing and thankful for the um the Echo grants that that we awarded for Oakill. And because of that, uh, it
grew. They're pulling people from our section of Mims. They're pulling people from, uh, Oakill overflow from New Simra and Edgewater. So, they're using Edgewater fields. Those Edgewater fields need work. And I know it's been a, um,
there's been consensus on council uh, to improve outdoor recreation. They need help with the their scoreboards. if we can get uh Brad and our staff to to maybe reach out to them to see how we can help them possibly with an echo
grant uh or that process. I I've already briefed uh uh uh Joe Mahoney and and uh he uh was enthusiastic about it. So other than that uh I like the water quality updates uh that you had mentioned. I think they'll be very helpful especially, you know, every year
we have this drought period. uh some folks kind of exploit that as if it's something not natural uh and that's been happening since the beginning of time. Um as much data that we can get to put out to our constituents would be would
be great uh for that. And um that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilman Santiago. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Um if if staff could the lady that spoke about the uh bail bonds issue and originally I was thinking that it was a state uh issue
but when she mentioned some other counties had done some some policies to help prevent some of the fraud it perked my interest. So if we can look into >> there was a change on the county site. >> Yeah I I didn't quite get it all but if there's something that we can do because bail bonds is usually I think a
state-run stuff but I don't know if there's something we can do there is okay. >> Yeah we we'll look into that. I mean it >> people are being scammed. I'm concerned with that. >> Not sure how again the tie but >> I do know of course we process bonds because to get them out of jail so I
I'll find out if there's something. >> Okay. Yeah. I don't know if there's a legitimate that the scam is happening based on something that we can try to prevent. I don't know. >> Um and the last I have is this is this a community group that been watching and they've come out a few times. So I just want to say thank you for staying through this. It's I know it could be
painful. It could be painful at sometimes. Have you filed a run yet? >> Run away from the place. Right. So, >> yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to say thank you for for staying through the whole meeting. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Uh, Councilman Dempsey. >> Yeah. Um, boy, I wish Troy was here
today because the one thing I'll say about Troy is he always says, "If it's important to you, it's important to me so we can talk about it." And unfortunately, I didn't even get that courtesy today. So, I'm going to ask that we be able to have a workshop so I
can get that courtesy. To to gag me, to not even present the stuff that I've been studying for nearly a year, uh, I think is wrong. I think it's a disservice to the community. I know it's an election year. I know it's not the politically correct,
uh, way to talk about Valuchia forever, but it's something that needs to be talked about. I think a workshop would be the best place to do it. I understand it's a uh divided issue. In fact, there's a bill before the US House right
now talking about the issues with conservation easements. It's backed by um 11 different US senators all and congressmen all Republican because it's definitely a partisan issue. There's in Montana
Senate Bill 209 uh this past year, seven uh representatives are all sponsoring it or in favor of it, all Republican limiting it to 40 years. Uh Wyoming has the same bill introduced last year, eight all Republicans,
26 Republicans. This wasn't my idea to discuss this. This is going on, you know, throughout the country. issues with the conservation easements. I'm not talk I'm not talking about doing away with conservation easement. That's the furthest thing. I love Valuchia Forever.
I love what it stands for. We need to stop the development. I get it. Nobody likes to see urban sprawl and I understand protecting the the aquafer. I get it. But you got to ask yourself, what are we protecting it for? Our children, our grandchildren, so they can access it someday or are we doing it
just for the turtles and the squirrels? And that's my concern as among many other concerns that I don't have time to speak about today and I don't want to bore these guys with it. But it's it's a huge issue. I've given every member up here the bill that's right now before
the US House of Representatives. This is also supported by the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, supported by the North Dakota Corn Groer Corn Growers Association. True farmers. We're not talking about little
5 acre, you know, backyard farmers. We're talking about true farming operations. The people who we say were really trying to protect the farmers. Well, these are the true farmers. The North the North Dakota corn growers, the Minnesota corn growers, those are the farmers and they're against it the way
it's being implemented. I'm not saying do away with conservation, but it's a divided issue. All these are Republicans. It's a Republican issue. no support from the Democrats in the House or the Senate. Ask yourself why so
divided and all I want to do is talk about it. So, I'm going to make a motion that we have a workshop on this and we can discuss this because there's a lot of issues. I don't know if you heard everything I said today, but there's issues within these easements about how
we can you this is the it's been said that the goal is half the county to be under these some sort of conservation restraints. It's already 37%. A third of our county. What do we want to do when there's
hydrarology? We can't even affect the hydraology under this. So when we have storm water runoff, when we want to stop flooding, what are we going to do? We need to talk about this stuff, when the aquifer fails and we don't want toilet to tap as our only alternative.
Are we preserving all this water just for the turtles? Is this people over fish or fish over people? I feel like I'm amongst a bunch of Gavin Newsomes out here. This isn't California, guys. This is a Republicanled
state and county and I understand it's a partisan issue, but all these Republicans and all these bills and you don't even want to have to hear what they have to say. Man, I wish Troy was here. So, I'm going to I'm making a motion that we have a
workshop on Valuchia Forever so we can discuss all these issues. Okay? And I'm not saying to do away with Valuchia Forever. I think it's a great program. We should keep funding it. We can keep doing what they're doing. They do a great job. But all these restrictions, all the minutia, you can't
ever access it for a well. You can't ever put solar on it. When we run out of fossil fuels, what are we going to do? What what are our great great great grandchildren? This isn't the problem is it's all nice and comfortable here, but in 200 years from now when Mad Max when they're
filming Mad Max here in Valuchia because we're out of petroleum, what are we going to do? That's what we need to discuss. We can't look this far in front of our face and say everything's cool. Donna. Okay, Don. That's what I'm going
to do. I'm going to second your motion, but I I am going to do it and give you some caution as a colleague. Uh insulting or lecturing colleagues is not a good way to get support.
>> Okay, >> is not either. >> Listen, this is within the parliamentary procedure. If you don't like parliamentary procedure, change it. But to date, we haven't had any policy. We've been
hearing a lot of this stuff which I'd like to hear but we've been hearing it for months Don respectively. No policy discuss no policy uh recommendations have been made. This has all been with all due respect. The world's coming
to an end. It is not. There is things that we can do going forward and I want to give you the respect in doing that. So just keep in mind the same policies that you are arguing against,
you have voted for during your tenure as I have, but now you're against them. So keep that in mind before we start launching shells over the bow. I want to help you the best I can.
I understand where you're coming from. So, give us the respect. You'll have the respect. I'll be more than happy to talk to this in a in a workshop. But if you're going to talk about something, bring forward policy
because right now you're putting this council out there dry. >> Okay. We have a motion on the floor from Don Dempsey uh to have a workshop on Valuchia forever. Um, no set date. >> No. Can I respond to that?
>> Yes. As soon as we get to make let's make sure we have a motion. We have a second by, uh, Councilman Robbins. >> Um, so uh, yeah, you can either, um, uh, well, we have a bunch of people that
want to talk. Um, but yeah, we're in a debate period now. Comment. So, if you want to comment on what just >> Danny, I'm not asking you to agree with me, but hear me out. You've never even heard what I have to say. You shut me
down right at the beginning of the meeting. You've made up your mind without hearing my side of it. You haven't even read I don't believe you've read the conservation easement, especially through the eyes of an attorney.
And I I I just think not even wanting to hear my side of it is so disrespectful. I like what Troy always says. If it's important to you, it's important to me and I'll hear it. I've never once snuffed out anybody on this dis and said, "I don't even want to hear what
you have to say. My mind's made up." That's I don't know. It's talk about respect. >> I I did what I did because there's other ways to skin this cat, Don, and you're going to see it >> whether you agree with it or not. Let's let's stay in order here. Um, Councilman
Santiago, >> this is why they call it the sausage making, right? >> Part of it, I guess. >> And me and Don are actually great friends. Okay. >> You know, since you say that, what I've enjoyed, I'm going to get on my soap box for a second. What I've enjoyed about this council folks that are watching is
that we usually have often have good strong debate and we can break bread right afterwards. And and that's what it's about. And the debate is not only healthy for us, but it's healthy for the public. Otherwise, you get accused of rubber stamping everything, right? Um, but I I wanna I want to support you,
Don. But what I want to do is I want to clean up this motion, guys, because this motion is way too vague. I want to support you. I think I know. And I made the comments of why I wanted you to do have your time be heard. I don't want the I'm the one that attacks social
media the most because I'm not a fan of it. I don't want the wildfire to go out again and saying that we're looking to kill Valuchia forever. That's not it. I think what Mr. Dempsey wants to do, and I think I support him, is to let's get
in the weeds and start learning about what are the details in these contracts that are pretty thick. You're saying that there's federal legislation that is also concerned about this and there's movement in the federal world regarding your exact concerns, right? And the and
states. Correct. So I think the approach to this gentlemen is more to to a workshop to discuss conservation easement contracts. I'm just going to wing this conservation easement contracts trends that are happening
throughout the country federally and learn uh the effects of that and the capabilities of a council when we negotiate what we can negotiate and not in there. And I know it's a two-party thing, but I think that gets you there.
Don, can we change your motion for that for the reasons I first started with? >> It's an educational session. >> That's what it is. It's an educational session on those those items within that. And then you can tell us all about that. Staff can come prepared, give us
the the background of what's happening. But this is not a workshop to overhaulia forever. That may come in the future. We never know because things could always come up. But not a eliminate the program workshop
>> if you're asking. Yeah. I want to keep pollution forever. I have nothing against it. It's just like we're talking about the bonding. >> Yeah. >> You know, that's >> I'm just cleaning up the motion for us, Don. >> That's fine. That's fine. Okay. So, >> I've done this before. We we need to nail down the motion then because the
motion on the floor was for a workshop on volu forever. It was it was very broad. So are you you're willing to amend your motion to make it an educational workshop on and you said uh conservation easements. I I think he
wants to talk more about more than conservation ements. >> Well, I mean you heard Jessica Gal the first person to comment on it. She had she had pointed out some issues with it. She wants to keep local control. We've all written we've joined in a letter 70
to stop preeemption by the state. I mean, I think we need to have a healthy discussion about are we really um trying to avoid state preeemption because it's happening in these easements. Yeah. We're being preempted. >> Yeah. I I think what you're saying, Mr. Chair, is that is not just conservation
easements. It's any of the land buying that we're doing, any of those details, what those details are in the contracts. Yeah, that's right. >> It's a educational session and then whatever >> educational session. Sure. >> Okay. >> Okay.
>> I think George wants to chime in, Mr. Chair. I think >> second was by Danny Robbins on the first motion. Do we have your second on on this motion? >> What? >> Okay. Uh, County Manager George Rectenald.
Well, I was getting on the train there with uh with with Santiago was saying, I I think we can do a better job if it's more narrow. I mean, basically what you just said, you just opened it right back up to the whole thing. And that's what gets the people upset. I think if you
could narrow it to the contract of the easements, which I hear 90% of the discussion today has been about easements and the contract of the easements. >> Yeah. And I may have said it wrong, but yes, that's I think that's the goal. Well, uh, if you want to go into the the rest of it, then you've just opened it
right back to the to the entire thing. >> Yeah. >> So, I mean, I know there's partnerships with easements. >> Well, we do actually. >> Um, we do. So, we have partnership easements and we have our own e our own. So,
>> so you prefer that we change it, George? I'm just saying if you want to keep it narrow to what the point you were trying to make I think of keeping the uh concern in the community down a little bit I would keep it on on one thing at a time. Now if if in that discussion maybe
some other stuff comes up that you want to further explore. Maybe you take bites at a time but but when you bring the whole thing I think that it it brings the impression that you are trying to overhaul. point >> and we can get very I think uh he had a
lot of great paperwork and a lot of great stuff to uh to look at the trends look at what our contract says and what we're willing to go on an easement here in in this particular county and it may mean the effect of that may mean we don't have partners depending on what
you guys decide you want in that contract or not because I think the state has certain rules on what they want in theirs and we just decide look this property is very valuable to us and we're going to keep that right here in in our control and then maybe there's some piece of property or some other
thing that down the road we do partner if that's what they decide but it will be done on an individual basis and I do think that's important also for everyone to remember everything does come here uh to this body but I think if we start with start with the conservation easement and the rules and the contract
and and the national trends and maybe I can even find out if a partner would come in I don't know if they will or not but Maybe I could see if there's a a willing uh speaker from the from one of our partners. >> And if George, if I could supplement that, if I could just David to make you
uh maybe to get into your court a little bit. I don't want to I don't want to see Valuchia forever done away with or defunded in any way. I want it to keep going full steam ahead. But if you examine the ballot, the
ballot gave it there's two ways to fund a business. either through stock issuance, taking on a partner, or borrowing, which is issuing issuing bonds and taking on
debt. You know, you can either take on a partner and that's how you get your money or you can borrow money. That's how you get your money. One of two ways on the ballot. I don't know if we want to get into I can show it to you. It's on the ballot. The ballot doesn't say partnerships. Don't fund
this fee. Partnerships. The ballot says through bonding in the millillage only. >> That's what the people voted for. I'm not looking to chant. There's nothing on here about it's not Valuchia preempted forever. It's not Valuchia in partnership with the state of Florida forever. It's Valuchia forever to be
funded through the existing millillage with a $60 million cap on the bonds. They want it by debt, not to be in bed with any other entity that now we have to be subservient to their wishes. We want to fund it the way the voters
put it on the ballot. And that's what they voted for because I want Valuchia County and only Valuchia County to decide someday, hey, we need to put storm water in that cons conservation easement to prevent flooding in this neighborhood. That should be in their wheelhouse. We shouldn't have the state
coming in from Tallahassee saying uh uh uh >> I I think we get that, Don. We get that. I think those are all topics for the workshop. So So can we amend them? You accept the amended motion based on the direction that George gave. Is that okay? What are we discussing? >> That's fine. Okay. And the second
>> you okay with that? >> I think those will all be discussions at the workshop. >> That's fine. >> Okay. Councilman Johansson, >> I'd like to ask staff the the motion I I agree with, but I'd like to ask staff to clearly delineate the responsibilities
of the borrowers um are the granters for both private county owned property and what our rights are and
personal property and the rights of the property owners that are getting into these agreements. We keep talking about the agreements as in the county is getting in the agreements. I may be seeing it wrong, but I see it when we when we allow a conservation
aidsment, it's with the private citizen and forever and the private citizen and the state. And if I'm wrong, I I I want clarification on that in the in the uh in the workshop. Thank you.
>> And I think we could do that is a way of introducing that would be to define what a conservation easement is and what it's not. And I think that could be part of uh what we're going to say in the education. >> Okay.
Um, yeah, I I think you're right, Jake, on that. And I've thought that throughout these discussions is that we when we talk about property rights, this is a willing seller program and the the seller of the property comes to us and tells us what
they want to do and and I So, are we going to tell them no? Now, so we'll take a a vote on this. I I've I I'm not comfortable with it because we
just told the public we're not going to touch it. We're going to leave it alone and now we're bringing it back again. David tried to save it by saying it's an educational program or conversation. Um I'm afraid
it from everything I just heard that it opens everything right back up to where we were. >> Mr. Mr. Chairman, I think we narrowed it back down though. That was the point that >> we didn't really because we said George and and um Don just said, "Well,
yeah, we can add we can talk about these other things." So, >> yeah, I don't think he had any either. >> Okay. >> I Well, I I want to make sure there's no divide here or miscommunication. The purpose, I think, for the workshop is to get education on the easements and
understand the trends that are happening nationally. And then George said, "But other things might come up." >> No, but he's saying that this council could do anything in the future. That's always the case. But that's always the case regardless. >> I mean, that that that is not changing that factor. This could come up in two months by any individual.
>> First, call the role, please. >> I just don't want the public to be misinformed. That's why my comments are >> Mr. Reinhardt. >> Yes. >> Mr. Robbins. Mr. Santiago. >> Yes. Mr. Dempsey,
>> yes. >> Mr. Johansson, >> yes. >> Mr. Kent, Mr. Brower, >> can I vote for Troy? >> Uh, yes. Against my my better judgment. I'm I'm I'm always
willing to hear you started this off. I wish Troy was here because he said if it's important to you, it's important to me. Um, but I think we just I think this vote does open up the can of worms again with the with the public. Um, but the
vote passes and um who are we on? Don. >> Okay. >> When I called Ben, he was like right on top of it and well prepared and he he just did a good job on it. >> He did. And Carol McFarland, she's not
here, but she did a great job last night, too, at that community meeting up in Pearson. She uh she was right on top of it and kept it in control, and she did she did really well. Thanks, guys. >> Councilman Johansson. >> Thank you, sir. Um,
I was able to go last week to a cyber security advisory committee meeting for the state and uh glean some some pretty interesting little tidbits about cyber security part
of uh part of public safety. Um, I had a brief conversation with uh Ryan and Mr. Bailey from the IT department. And yeah, I I've come to the the the
conclusion I think um that that Valuchia County might be in better shape than than the state when it comes to cyber security. At least that's the feeling I get. Um uh and and I'll continue to go quarterly to these meetings and and
report back to them the the tidbits that I learned. But uh um it's it's pretty important for our county and our cities to stay as plugged in as possible to the state when it comes to cyber security because they're really not in a in a
great position to push information as quick as we may need it uh to to take the necessary actions to defend. Um I don't I don't think you're ever on the offense when it comes to cyber security.
So, um, uh, the good news is is I I think Felicia County knows who's connected to them and how they're connected and and is ready to pull the plug in a heartbeat, uh, if people start probing. Um so um my job will be to get
the information back to the team here and uh uh we'll work on this advisory committee I'm on to to make the state uh the best they can be as well within Tallahassee and outside as they as they
work on the they call it the whole state concept. So I think that goes all the way down to the cities. I'm hoping that doesn't mean mandates that you buy their software protection systems, but uh we'll see how that goes. Um other than
that, we have a few uh East Central Florida meetings coming up and whatnot, but um onward and upward having a good time. Thank you very much, chairman. >> Thank you. Um I've I've just got two things and there
one of them we've discussed a little bit. Um, I appreciate the fact that I had six of them here and they all came from comments from the public that got dealt with either by the county manager or or one of the council members here. And I I'm really was really pleased to
see that. I just want to give you a little bit more information on the woman that came in about the bail bonds. Um, you're going to look into it, but I I I want to read what she wrote. It might help you know where to look. She's talking about bail bond cameras and
request for slight al alteration of the county sites um recent feature and I'm not sure if Michael or anybody knows about a recent addition to our site on bailbots. Okay. Seeing affirmative. So now you just I'm just trying to give you
a better idea where she was going. The last thing uh the last public comment I'm assuming you you are all aware of it but this uh request for a waiver on a variance fees was that new news to you.
All right. I'm going to I'm just going to make sure request that you make sure that the uh Suzanne and George get this from I'm not going to say his name again. uh is in Edgewater seeking a a waiver of variance fees.
>> Yes, sir. And just for for the council's uh understanding, I and and I don't think Mr. Tiner, I don't know if Rey, you have any better explanation, but I was briefed that that property has had a series of code enforcement violations
that they've been working to resolve, but to ultimately resolve and keep some structure that they built without permits is in a setback. they need a variance and they are asking for the council to not have to pay fees for their request to be heard for their
>> so it's something you're very familiar with. >> Yes sir. And and unfortunately C staff has no authority to wave our fee schedule. It helps offset our costs and um from time to time but very rarely
council has taken this issue up. That's why they're seeking your help, too. Okay. >> That That's it. I don't have much to add, but um you know, Carol and I have been um kind of communicating and that that's exactly what it is is that they
had some code violations that they took care of and now they have to go through a variance process and with that fee, um it's just not affordable to them. We had kind of talked to them about maybe doing a um
some sort of payment fee, but you know uh pay us after the variance and behold, but that still would not work for them. So, this is the the only avenue that they would have if that would come to council to wave the fee because we can't. >> All right. While you're here, the the
last thing I was going to say was that were you involved in the Harper Road discussion? >> Okay. Carol went. So when you mentioned her, I thought maybe she she grabbed you by the ears, too. But I just wanted to say thank you to staff that, you know, I
had I went and met with the neighborhood, then talked to Carol about a situation in the a very rural neighborhood that could change the rural nature of it and was really impressed with how she has handled it. And I think D >> Yeah, she Yeah, she she went last night
um to to the hearing said it went really well. >> Good. just that's it's just nice to see things handled that way and they really appreciate it. >> Yeah, >> they feel like their neighborhood is uh >> is in jeopardy. So, thank you uh Councilman Robbins. Thank you, Chair. Um
Ray, may I ask you, have we explored or or can we do Listen, stuff happens, right? uh with these with these cases, have we ever done like a lean on the property to get them over the finish line where they can pay this thing off
or upon the sale of their property, the county is made whole for uh the the fees and all that stuff. >> That's that's something for our attorney. That's a that's a great idea, >> you know, and and and it it can be a payment plan. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> We're going to get our money, you know,
uh to pay for the staff time and the technical >> Yeah. I'm not making, you know, suggesting we we we do that, but maybe explore that if it's remotely an option. >> I think Gray has said he's offered a payment plan and maybe we try to work
that out with them a second time if the property is homesteaded. The lean ideal is not permissive, >> right? There's difficulties with that. We could look at other options maybe put something escrow up on a sale, but that that's difficult to enforce. >> Sounds good. Thanks. Thank you very much
for and with that we are adjourned at 7:26 and I hope to see you all back for your next left.