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Minutes 01/24/2013 January 24,2013 MAR 0 2013 MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE COLLIE COUNTY HISPANIC AFFAIRS ADVIRbRY•BOARD Naples, Florida, January 24, 2013 LET IT BE REMEMBERED that the Collier County Hispanic Affairs Advisory Board, in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 6:00 PM in REGULAR SESSION in Building "F," 3rd floor, of the Government Complex, Naples, Florida, with the following Members present: District I p / District 2 District 3 District 4 ✓' Chairman: Manuel Gonzalez District 5 Valaree D. Maxwell Albert Batista (excused) Zetty Y. Rivera ALSO PRESENT: Marlene Serrano, Staff Liaison Misc. Corres: Date: Item#: Copies to: 1 January 24,2013 I. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Chairman Manny Gonzalez at 6:10 pm and a quorum was established. II. Approve the Meeting Agenda: Valaree moved to approve the Agenda, seconded by Zetty. Carried unanimously, 3-0. III. Approval of Minutes from the Meeting of January 24, 2013: Valaree motioned to approve the minutes, Zetty seconded. Carried unanimously, 3-0. IV. Guest Speaker: District 5 Commissioner Tim Nance: The Commissioner gave a background about himself, professional accomplishments and his family. He stated that due to his father's influence to do the right thing and help the community he believes in doing the same thing. Commissioner Nance Graduate studies in Agro Business made him respect the people in that kind of business. He is a big advocate from people that work in that field. The Commissioner expects that the people in District 5 will be majority Spanish and that all the growth will be at his district. He is concerned with the residents that have kids graduating in Naples and can't find jobs in town. He is interested in growing jobs in the county because if the people stay in town working, they will spend the money in town. Commissioner Nance stated that this Board was not interested in growing Immokalee when the big growth took place. His job is to fight for the people in Immokalee and Ave Maria and stimulate the economy. Manny asked the public if they had any questions for Commissioner Nance. Mr. David Weeks stated that a lot of kids get out of high school but can't afford to attend college. There are beautiful technical schools but when kids finish they can't find jobs here. Commissioner Nance stated that this community has beautiful places but is not business friendly. The government sector has analysis paralysis. What the county needs is to have the business community stand out and speak up what is on their mind and we can take that information and analyze it. Collier County is not competitive; we need to mirror what other communities have already done to attract businesses. Mr. Weeks stated that Commissioner Nance gave him some hope tonight during this meeting. Commissioner Nance said that he was happy to hear his comment. 2 � R January 24, 2013 Zetty asked about immigration and what his thoughts are. Commissioner Nance stated that he doesn't understand how we don't have a program to fix the immigration problem. Valaree stated that she can't imagine the kids in her school going to Immokalee to work picking up crops. Commissioner Nance spoke about the new Economic Development Director coming on board with the County. Commissioner Nance stated that he is optimistic that he will be very influential with the development of the county. Manny proposed to invite the EDC to next month's HAAB meeting. Manny asked Commissioner Nance how does Ave Maria and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce fit into his district plans? Commissioner Nance said that he doesn't know that Ave Maria is a very special community where people chose to live there because they have certain common interests. He stated that the government needs to respect that and recognize it. He said that people often ask him what he thought about Jackson Laboratories. The Commissioner said that he felt it was not a good fit for the county and he did find peculiar that the government said publicly that they were in favor of embryonic cell research and they were going to support that they were going to move next to Ave Maria where they knew people had a moral issue with that kind of research. In reference to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, he stated that he has been involved with the Immokalee Chamber and would like to be involved with the Hispanic Chamber; he doesn't believe that he has received communication from that agency yet. Valaree stated that she is planning on bringing back the Naples Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She stated that she was approached by the Naples Chamber of Commerce and was asked to bring the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at the same location. Manny stated that he was involved with Mr. Weeks on the Golden Apple Award this year and had the good fortune of meeting great teachers at Lorenzo Walker Institute. He was impressed with the way they approach their students and how they train them to be future professionals. He was wondering if Commissioner Nance has met the principal at Lorenzo Walker. Commissioner Nance stated that he has and he feels that the biggest challenge that the Hispanic and Haitian youth has in our schools is that they are all English language learners. If the student can't read, that will be a big challenge because you can't do anything else. When these students take standardize tests they have a challenge because these tests are developed by English speaking individuals and the English language learners have a disadvantage when they take the tests. Manny spoke about his recent trip to a Human Trafficking seminar in Sarasota and the people at the seminar told him that he should move to Sarasota. Manny stated that he thinks Sarasota is a place that borrows the best of Collier County and rejects what doesn't work. 3 January 24,2013 Commissioner Nance said that he didn't agree that the same people that work in Collier County work in Palmetto,North Carolina, Georgia; as far as the migrant labor, everyone should know that the large farms companies do a great job with the labors. He said that the large corporate companies do a great job registering the people, that the smallest companies are the companies that have a problem with trafficking and exploding migrant workers. Manny also spoke about the BCC's comments a couple of months ago about the advisory boards and that they didn't have the staff to handle all of them. He stated that there was some conversation about merging the minority groups; he asked Commissioner Nance if he heard anything in that regard. Commissioner Nance stated that he has not heard anything in regards to the advisory boards, but he was a new commissioner and that he reviews the board meeting minutes and there are very large piles of paperwork to review. At the moment, he is reviewing the minutes from the meetings that took place in October, 2012. He asked how many advisory committees do the county has, and he was told 53 advisory boards. He stated that everyone wants community input, but if no one is paying attention to the Boards, there has to be another way to get the input. He stated that the BCC doesn't have Hearing Officers, any boards or any layers for people to bring their issues forward and people make the argument and say that they can always go to the BCC directly and express their concerns. Commissioner Nance stated that some builders may bring items to the BCC that those types of communication should be brought to other venues because some commissioners including him don't have the expertise in the field. He can do the research on those topics but he can't catch up with people that perform that type of work day in and day out. He would like to have Hearing Officers and other groups that could be handling these issues, that don't mean the BCC will not hear the topics previously mentioned. The Commissioner stated that he doesn't mean that advisory committees are bad, but there are too many of them. Valaree stated that under the HAAB normal agenda has an action item that says "Action Item(s) to Board of County Commissioners (if any)". She stated that this Board has no input in that sense, that they can't go and write a letter to the BCC on any particular item because they would get red flagged. Commissioner asked by whom? Manny stated that they can't express their concern about anything. That they were told it has to do with any civil right issue. The Commissioner asked who is telling them that they can't because he didn't like it. Manny stated that they submitted an item in relation to South Winds Mobile Park, where the management company is taking advantage of people because they are undocumented. Manny provided Commissioner Nance with a copy of the response to the Issue Alert. He stated that the Issue Alert was concerning Commissioner Nance proceeded to read the response and asked if the folio number was provided by code Enforcement? Who addressed the issue alert? 4 January 24, 2013 Marlene Serrano the HAAB Staff Liaison stated that she forwarded the Issue Alert to Mike Sheffield and he forwarded to the Public Utilities because it was concerning water bills issues and they provided the response that he was reading. Manny stated that the response doesn't address the issue there. The residents are receiving water monthly bills of about $400 in a trailer, also tow trucks come in the evening and tow their vehicles. Valaree stated that a lot of the people that resides at that location are undocumented and they have friends that buy the vehicles that they drive. She has been working very closely to a lady named Veronica that resides at the park and was the person that brought this issue to the HAAB. Valaree stated that they had a meeting there last week since a lot of people there that don't have a high school diploma and they asked her to help them with the situation. Albert Batista that is an attorney and member of this Board asked them to provide documentation that proof on the alleged charges on their water bills. Another issue is that the streets in the park are absolutely dark; they have one street light in the entire place. There is a street that goes thru the park, San Marco Blvd., which connects to another development in the back and there is consistent drug trafficking going on. She stated that people there pay those outrageous bills because they need a place to stay and that place is all they have. Commissioner Nance stated that it seems that Valaree has experience dealing with undocumented people and he is aware that people that are illegal or have a family member that it is illegal, do not call law enforcement to report any illegal activities, sexual abuse, drug trafficking issues, because of their status since they are afraid because their residency status. It is a very difficult situation. Maybe this can address with a Social Activist Group or social service institution. Sometimes the people involved are not breaking the law, they are just taking advantage of the situation. Manny stated that the Sheriffs Office and Code Enforcement responded to this situation, and they both found that there were no violations. My question is why this people have to be living in this situation and not provided lighting, speed bumps, stop signs and why the management office has the right to tow their cars. Manny asked which county entity oversees this type of Management Company. Commissioner Nance responded that they first need to find out what laws are violated. If the roads in this complex are privately owned, the county would not get involved. If they get public right of ways, the sheriffs office will start policing the roads. Commissioner Nance stated that law enforcement would need to find out which laws are violated to bring the violators to prosecution. If the CCSO conducts a criminal investigation and they find something, but the people that live there needs to provide the documentation. If Collier Utilities billed a company and that company bills the resident, there should be some kind of regulation against gouging. Who is the resident of the local representative? Manny stated that the Property manager is in Turkey. 5 January 24, 2013 Valaree stated that the residents have not provided the bills to anyone where it shows the amount of money they were billed. The response to the Issue Alert was provided from Public Utilities. Manny thanked Commissioner Nance for coming to the meeting and stated that it was very refreshing to hear his concerns about the community. Commissioner Nance requested that the HAAB continues to communicate with him in regards to the issue involving South Winds Mobile Home Park. V. Old Business: South Winds Trailer Park: Lt. Gonzalez visited South Winds with a deputy from East Naples CCSO. The Trailer Park manager told Lt. Gonzalez that some of the residents were not happy with the rules in the park. Lt. Gonzalez told the residents that it was a civil issue unless they can provide documentation on the allegations brought forward. New Business: None VI. Member and Staff Comments: VII. Adjourn Manny motioned to adjourn, Valaree seconded. Carried unanimously, 3-0. Meeting adjourned at 8:15 pm. Next Meeting: February 28, 2013. 1 c. Chairman Date 6