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BCC Minutes 05/01/2001 W (w/EDC re:Economic Development)May 1, 2001 REGULAR MEETING OF MAY 1, 2001 OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of County Commissioners in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such special districts as have been created according to law and having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9 a.m. In WORKSHOP SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: CHAIRMAN: VICE-CHAIRMAN: JAMES D. CARTER, PH.D PAMELA S. MAC'KIE JIM COLETTA DONNA FIALA TOM HENNING ALSO PRESENT: TOM OLLIFF, COUNTY MANAGER GREG MIHALIC, DIRECTOR OF HOUSING AND URBAN IMPROVEMENT JOHN DUNNUCK, INTERIM ADMINISTRATOR, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL Page 1 May 1, 2001 SERVICES ALAN REYNOLDS, CHAIRMAN, EDC ROBERT E. DOYLE, ESQ., CHAIRMAN ELECT SUSAN PAREIGIS, PRESIDENT, EDC JOHN PASSIDOMO, ESQ. Page 2 2000-2001 Board of Directors Chairman Alan Reynolds President & CEO WilsonMiller, Inc. Immediate Past Chairman Colleen M. Kvetko President & CEO Fifth Third Bank, Florida Chairman Elect Robert E. Doyle, Jr. Partner Quarles & Brady LLP President Susan E. Pareigis Economic Development Council of Collier County, Inc. Vice Presidents Nell Dorrill President Dorrill Management Group Gerri Moll President Bank of America, South'vest Florida Adria Parsons Gulf Coast Regional President First Union National Bank Directors Michael S. Battaglia President & CEO SmortDisk Corporation Brad Boaz Chief Financial Officer Barron Collier Companies Buddy W. Brunker Public Affairs Manager Sprint Laura H. Dixon Chief Executive Officer Haynes Corporation Tom Flood Chief Executive Officer Collier Enterprises Harry K. Moon, M.D. Chief Executive Officer Cleveland Clinic Florida Richard Pegnetter Dean of College of Business Florida Gulf Coast University Fred Pezeshkan President & CEO Kraft Construction Company, Inc. Stephen L. Price President & CEO Florida Community Bank Thomas Riley President & Owner Artisans' Guild of Naples, Inc. Michel Saadeh President & CEO Vineyards Development Corporation Thomas M. Taylor President & CEO Hole, Montes & Associates, Inc. James Warnken Chief Financial Officer NCH Healthcare System, Inc. 9am 9:05 9:10 9:15 9:30 Dr. James Carter Chairman, BCC Economic Development Workshop May 1,2001 Public/Private Partnership Agenda Tom Olliff, County Manager ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL OF COLLIER COUNTY NAI~LES, EVERGLADES CITY. IMMOIqAI~F CITY OF MARCO ISLAF~JD & GOLDfI~4 GA~ FLORIDA 3050 North Horseshoe Drive, Suite 120 Naples, Florida 34104, USA 941-263-8989 Welcoming Remarks Fax: 941-263-6021 http://swflorida business.cam hltp://silicon beachflorida.com email: edc@swfloridabusiness.com Opening Remarks John Dunnuck, Interim Administrator Community Development and Envirbnmental Services Al Reynolds Chairman, EDC Hank Fishkind Fishkind & Associates Hank Fishkind Introduction Al Reynolds Chairman, EDC Economic Overview John Passidomo Chairman, 1995 - 1997 Immediate Past Chairman, 1998 Public/Private Partnership Presentation Greg Mihalic Director, Housing & Urban Improvement Susan Pareigis President, EDC Robin Doyle Chairman Elect, EDC 10:25 Al Reynolds Chairman, EDC Closing Remarks 10:30 - 11:30 Q & A May 1, 2001 COMMISSIONER CARTER: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the economic development workshop. If the cameras are rolling, we are live from the Board of County Commissioners's room with the Economic Development Council. If you all will stand for the pledge of allegiance. (The pledge of allegiance was recited in unison.) COMMISSIONER CARTER: Mr. Olliff, I will turn the meeting over to you, and you can direct staff, and the EDC takes forward, please. MR. OLLIFF: Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, thanks again for taking the time to come and spend a morning dealing with a particular subject. This morning we're talking about economic development. We look around and see that the Economic Development Council members, most of them who are here, are flexible to understand that jackets are -- are optional here at our workshops. I'm glad to see you got comfortable. MR. DOYLE: I'll get mine off right away. MR. OLLIFF: Robin can't help it. He wears a sports coat at night at home. Historically the county has participated at a limited extent in terms of economic development, primarily in -- in the way of providing some funding to the EDC for some of their annual ongoing efforts. And, frankly, that's probably more of a recent phenomenon than it was a historical trend. If you look, however, at communities around the country, I think you will see that economic development in a lot of communities plays a very important part in a local government's strategic planning. The local government is very, very much involved in what economic development goals and -- and efforts are going on throughout the community. I think they are much more of a partner in a lot of cases than in Collier County has been in years past. And I think a lot of that's just strictly a result of, frankly, the luxury of this Page 3 May 1, 2001 economy and the growth rate and things that we have and almost take for granted that this -- this economy chugs along without a lot of hands-on work from -- from your local government. But as you've heard us say before, I think development, which is one of the mainstays of -- of this economy is something that you can see in -- in the distant future changing, and Economic Development Council, I think, recognizes that in order to be more than just a service economy, there's probably some proactive steps that need to be taken. And one of the things especially for the new commissioners we wanted you to know is that this is a very aggressive EDC and that they have done a lot of tremendous work with very little in -- in terms of resource support from the county. But I would like for you to get from this workshop an idea of what's happened historically, what the EDC is -- is currently doing, and what their plans are for the future and then hopefully some idea of what county government's role in -- in all of that is as we go forward. Be free to -- to ask questions as we go along because I know that the people who are here in this room can answer those questions for you. And just in a little housekeeping matter, if there are members of the public here who want to speak, we have some speaker slips out in the hallway. Greg's holding one up. If you'll fill one of those out and give that to Greg Mihalic, the fella here in the light gray suit who just held up that speaker slip, we'll have an opportunity for public speakers at the end of the workshop. With that, Mr. Chairman, I'll turn it over to Greg. MR. MIHALIC: Well, good morning, Commissioners. We certainly are pleased to have you here and to talk about economic development. Obviously we are one of the fastest- growing areas in the country. And our economic development and economic diversity are very important. And we do this in Page 4 May 1, 2001 partnership with the EDC. We think this is a well-working partnership. We hope to show you this morning what's been accomplished over the first three years in this program. Al? Al Reynolds, the chairman of the EDC. MR. REYNOLDS: Thanks. I -- I have the pleasure of serving this year as the chairman of the EDC. On behalf of the entire board, I want to thank the county commission for -- and Tom Olliff for having the leadership to organize the workshop. We have been partners in economic development for about three and a half years, and this is the first time that we've had the opportunity to meet with the board in a workshop setting, and it's a real privilege for us, and we appreciate it very much. I also want to start out by thanking Greg Mihalic because Greg is our liaison, our staff liaison, with Collier County. And Greg is a -- is a true professional. He understands economic development. He's a pleasure to work with, and he is -- he's a -- a great resource for Collier County and for us. And so I want to express appreciation to the board for having someone of Greg's caliber as a -- as a staff liaison with us. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I just have to jump in there and say and leave him alone. We like him working for the county. MS. PAREIGIS: We do too. MR. REYNOLDS: I want to introduce -- we have several members of our board of directors and of the staff of the Economic Development Council, and I just want to introduce them very quickly so that you know who is here in the audience. And I will -- the people who are going to be part of the -- of the discussion today from the EDC we'll -- we'll save till last. But I want to identify in the audience, we have board members. We have Steve Price who is -- who is with us, Steve. We have Jim Warnken -- Jim, thank you for coming -- Brad Boaz, he's a member of the board of directors; Dr. Richard Pegnetter from Florida Gulf Page 5 May 1, 2001 Coast University; and -- Neil. Oh, Neil, I didn't see you behind there, Neil Dorrill. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Forgive my ignorance. Will you tell us the businesses, organizations these other board members represent? I just don't know. MR. REYNOLDS: Yes. Jim Warnken is with the Naples Community Hospital Foundation. Steve Price is with Community Bank in Immokalee; Richard Pegnetter with Florida Gulf Coast University; Brad Boaz is the chief financial officer for the Barron Collier Company; and Neil is with Dorrill Management Services. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Thank you. MR. REYNOLDS: And then as part of the board members that are going to be part of the discussion today, Robin Doyle, who is the chair elect of the Economic Development Council, is here. Robin is an attorney with Quarles & Brady. We have John Passidomo, who is a past chair, no longer on the board. I'm sure he's appreciative of that but served -- served for a number of years as part of the EDC's board, and he's going to talk a little bit about the inception of public-private partnership, so we appreciate you being here. And we also have as part of the staff as the EDC Robbin Koch. Robbin, Tammy McEIroy, Joe Greenfield, Jesse Hensen, and Susan Pareigis, who is the president. So I wanted to introduce those folks. We have a Powerpoint presentation, and -- and what the presentation will do is walk through a little bit of the background of Collier County's place in the economy, some of the rationale for why economic development is -- is important to Collier County. We're going to talk a little bit about how the inception of the EDC and the public-private partnership was started, and then we're going to talk at the end about the strategic direction in the future and some of the important initiatives that we see. So Ken -- and I failed to mention Ken Sneeding (phonetic). Page 6 May 1, 2001 Ken has -- I shouldn't have overlooked Ken. He has also helped us tremendously with putting together the information that -- that you're going to see today. Thanks, Ken. Just start out with a real -- what is the essence, we think, of economic development. And we think the part of what makes economic development work is that the mission is very clear. Economic development is about high-wage job creation and retention. That is the fundamental message and the fundamental importance of economic development. And it's accomplished through a public-private partnership between Collier County and the private sector via the EDC. We all know about the historical growth in Collier County, I think it's -- again, it's important to understand that -- that -- that the things that have driven Collier County's growth over the past several decades have been quality of life, climate, recreational opportunities, the environmental amenities, the advantages that we have, the cultural amentities. Basically Collier County is a fantastic place to live; it's an attractive place to live. It has a tremendous reputation. And those are the things that have driven population growth, but they are also our key assets in trying to diversify our economy and make it attractive to -- to businesses that are looking to grow in Collier County. Collier County's economic base is -- is unique to a large degree in part because of the demographics of Collier County. But we have what we call is a two-tiered economy. And the two- tiered economy is that there are two fundamental pieces of our economic strength in -- related to personal income. And if you look at the total personal income on the slide here, you'll see that we have a very high level of personal income. But you'll also note that wages and salaries are a small component of that and disproportionately small component. The reason for that, if we can go to the next slide -- and you'll see here on the statistics -- Page 7 May 1, 2001 this -- this identifies personal income in Collier County by the source. You'll see in the upper left-hand side that dividends, interest, and rent, basically investment income, is nearly half of the total income in Collier County. Wages and salaries, on the other hand, is 42 percent, and then the remainder is made up by - - by things such as social security. If you compare that to Florida as a comparison, you're going to see that Florida and most other parts of the country, wages and salaries are the predominant component of personal income. Collier County has the highest median family income in the State of Florida. But, again, we have great diversity in Collier County. And what this -- what this shows is that our median family income in Collier County, which is just over $50,000, we have taken various communities within Collier County and shown you the median family income by community. And what you can see, again, is that there is a broad range depending on the part of Collier County that you're looking at. Again, this is driven predominantly by the fact that the passive income is a substantial component of the economy. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Do you have a slide that's going to show us that with earned income as opposed to passive income? I've been so curious to know what the average earned income is in Collier County as opposed to the average income. MR. MIHALIC: Wages will be coming up. MR. REYNOLDS: We'll have that. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Do we get a slide of this? This is pretty interesting. MR. MIHALIC: In your book. All the slides are in your book. MR. REYNOLDS: Yeah. The entire presentation will be -- is part of your book. You will have all of this information. And there is certainly a lot of data that -- that stands behind this so that if there are other kinds of information that you'd like that Page 8 May 1, 2001 gets in more detail, we have a great data source that we put together. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Ellen, what really is critical here is that Jim and I, Jim Coletta and I, being in Tallahassee, is that the confusion in the governor's office is that they look at these high numbers and say why can't a wealthy county take care of their own services. That's not the issue here. It is what is really what you earn here is the number, and that is one of our ma]or challenges, to get people to understand the real life is around twenty-six or twenty-seven thousand dollars, not seventy-two thousand. COMMISSIONER FIALA: And, of course -- COMMISSIONER CARTER: That's a major problem for us. COMMISSIONER FIALA: And, of course, our -- our rents for our -- our wage earners are based upon average income rather than wage. And I -- that's been my -- I've been lucky enough to -- to be able to head that for our commissioner group, the affordable housing or work-force housing in our community. And it's one of the things I would like to see if we can get a special dispensation or something because I feel it's a -- it's -- it's not a fair reflection of what these people earn to be -- to have their housing -- the housing rents based upon average income so -- MR. REYNOLDS: Yeah. And you're going to see that some of these statistics that we're sharing with you drive a number of trends as they relate to both economic development and -- and some of the larger issues that Collier County faces like work- force housing. Let's go to the next -- so now we -- if -- if we take the -- the wages and salary component, basically the earned income, what you'll know probably by intuition is borne out by fact, and that is that the four largest private-sector industries that we have in Collier County are construction, services, retail, and agriculture. Page 9 May 1, 2001 And if you look at this, you'll see the average annual wage in those industries. So our four largest are also our four lowest paying. And eight out of every ten people that work in Collier County work in one of these four existing private industries. I think this really drives home the point about the importance of high-wage ]ob creation. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Al, can you tell us what's in the transportation element, what kind of jobs are in that? Taxi? MR. REYNOLDS: Yeah. That includes -- that includes aerospace, airport, anything to do with trans -- taxis. I don't know. Robbin, do you know off -- MS. KOCH: Trucking. MR. REYNOLDS: Trucking. Yeah. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: So those are -- those are jobs that pay well which we have very few of in Collier County. MR. REYNOLDS: That's right. Yeah. And -- and -- again, the 4 top average annual wage categories represent only 17 percent of our entire private-sector economy. Next. This -- this slide probably is both the good news -bad news slide. The good news is that we have enjoyed a fairly high employment growth in Collier County, and we've given you just a couple comparisons over a five-year period. You can see that on a percentage basis and a total number of job basis, we have created more lobs in Collier County than in Lee County, for example, which has a substantially larger population base. The good news -- or that's the good news. The bad news is, again, that predominantly the ]ob creation that we're experiencing is in the lower-wage segments of the economy. Next. So all this leads to, I think, the question of why is economic development and diversification of the economy important. And what we've done is identified what we think are the five key reasons why we should strive for -- for strong Page 10 May 1, 2001 economic development. The first is that -- that Collier County in particular relies very heavily on its residential tax base for funding its services and facilities. The more that you grow high- wage jobs, the more you're able to shift some of that burden over to the business side of the -- the equation. COMMISSIONER CARTER: We could now have our screen out there as one of those questions. What percentage of the ad valorem tax rate is paid by the -- by the residents versus the industrial base? You know, we can put it right out there and later answer that question. MR. REYNOLDS: That's right. COMMISSIONER CARTER: The listening audience would absolutely die. MR. REYNOLDS: Yeah. COMMISSIONER CARTER: You could hit that at the end. MR. REYNOLDS: Actually, we'll hit it sooner than the end because I think we have a slide right after this that's going to show that. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Ask and you shall receive. MR. REYNOLDS: I think we may have a slide on each one of these -- on each one of these issues. The second one is the seasonal -- seasonality of our economy in Collier County. And, again, it's -- it's no secret that we experience a fairly dramatic seasonal shift, again, because so many of our jobs are driven by -- by construction and tourism which has a seasonal swing. The third is we need to be creating better-paying jobs so that our children and our grandchildren can enjoy a higher earned income. They don't have the benefit of creating their wealth through investments. You know, investment income is imported wealth, if you will. So we need to have opportunities for our kids and our grandkids. And this is an issue in Collier County. It's an Page 11 May 1, 2001 issue state-wide. The next bullet is -- is vitally important, and that is, we have to reduce our dependence on population-driven jobs. Population growth has been driving our economy for a long time. Population growth is going to start to level out. And, again, what we're looking for are jobs that do not rely on a population growth to create now jobs, new opportunities. And if you take those and -- and combine them, I think, from our point of view, the -- the answer is it's really about improving the quality of life for everybody in the county, because if we can have a stronger, more diversified economic base with greater opportunities, less reliant on population-driven jobs and construction, we -- we improve the entire foundation for Collier County. Go to the next. Here's the -- the slide that shows what -- what Commissioner Carter was pointing out, and that is 83 percent of our taxable value is in residential. That is a substantial difference from, for example, Florida as a whole, which is less than 3/4, about 74 percent. And even that percentage -- you know, that's 9 percent, may not seem significant. But I will tell you it's a huge, huge difference. And you'll see, too, that in -- in agriculture, we're pretty much consistent with the state in terms of our tax base, about 2 percent. But our commercial, nonresidential tax base is substantially less than -- than the state as a whole. Next. Here's the -- here's what shows the -- really, two things. No. I is this shows the seasonality of employment in Collier County. But we thought it was important to show a comparison because, again, this is a good news slide, to a certain extent. And that is, in 1996 we had a -- a very dramatic seasonal swing. We have been creating more high-wage jobs in Collier County in the last four years. And the economy has been improving. So the result of those two things is that we have been reducing the Page 12 May 1, 2001 unemployment rates to the point where, for example, in 2000, in the summer, our -- our unemployment rate was below 6 percent. That's -- that's good. But you'll see, too, that the U.S., which is the red line that runs through the slide, which shows the U.S. As an average, doesn't have that swing. So, again, we're reducing the unemployment rate. We're flattening out the curve, but we certainly have a long ways to go before we have reached a stable year-round economy. Now, this shows ]ob creation based on average annual wage. And, again, we compare Collier County; we show Florida; then we show the United States. The first obvious is that the average wage in Collier County is substantially below both Florida and the U.S. Again, that's because of the dependence on the Iow-wage economy. But you'll also notice that -- that since the start of the public-private partnership, we have had a -- a fairly dramatic increase, and we're closing the gap on -- on Florida. So you'll see that all of the trim lines are certainly upwards. But we think that the good news here is that we're starting to get ourselves much closer to the average annual wage base in the State of Florida as a whole. Now, what this shows is the average annual wage in -- in absolute dollars. And, again, we go back to 1996, which the average annual wage was 23,000. That has risen in 1999 to $27,500. That is still below the state average. But, again, we're - - we're making improvements. In that four-year period, I think that represents about an 18 percent increase in average annual wage. I'm sorry, in a three-year period. COMMISSIONER CARTER: What is important for the Collier County commissioners is if you see us taking place here, why we did our paid plan adjustment as Commissioner Mac'Kie and I supported last year, this brought county government into a competitive role of the private sector in this county. So you will Page 13 May 1, 2001 see the second piece of that in this budget cycle along with the pay for performance. So it's -- it's -- remember, it's there. You're going to get that spike again. It's just going to level off, if I'm correct. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Alan, could I ask you, being that we're still lower than Florida average wage, where are we in the cost of living as far as Florida and Collier County? MR. REYNOLDS: I don't know if we have a -- do we have a slide -- MR. MIHALIC: No. There's no slide. But we're higher than the state average, Commissioner. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah. I could have bet on that one, but I just wanted to hear it. Okay. MR. REYNOLDS: Of course, housing costs are dramatically higher, and that's one of the primary components, I think. In other segments, we are -- we tend to be much closer to state averages. But housing costs are dramatically higher. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I was wondering if we could ever get a figure like that. MR. MIHALIC: Sure. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: You know what would be most helpful, you know, is we'd ever get a map that would show something as far as the diversity of employment wages by sections of the county rather than just label it Golden Gate or Immokalee -- . MR. REYNOLDS: Uh-huh. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: -- possibly something in the way with belts on it that could follow through. I can -- I'd be very interested to be able to see that. MR. REYNOLDS: Well, I think we can generate that because we have some good -- good data sources, and it's questionable what -- what information would be helpful, so I think we can Page 14 May 1, 2001 generate -- · COMMISSIONER COLETTA: It would be very nice to see it. I got a feeling when you get close to the coast, this is no longer a problem. COMMISSIONER FIALA: You know, now that you mention that and you're talking about good sources for demographics, one of the problems that -- that we had over -- when I used to work for the hospital, we had a -- we had a new guy come into town, and he was getting his demographics from New York. And so he wanted to figure out where we needed new facilities and so forth. And he was coming up with his demographics from a New York firm who was figuring the City of Naples to have the ZIP codes of-- one of them included 34112, which is -- of course, is East Naples. And he figured East Naples as having a ZIP Code of 34116 and 34117, which was Golden Gate. And I felt that unless you have somebody close to town like a Chuck Mohlke, for instance, who actually knows the area and knows how to divide that, I don't think you ever really get true demographics for this area. So I -- I would guess the EDC is using somebody locally rather than out of state; right ? MS. PAREIGIS: We use many sources. We use Claratoss (phonetic). Yeah, we use Bureau of Economic and Research at the University of Florida. We use census data. We use all kinds of information. Again, Commissioner Fiala, it's really important when you're looking at the specific statistic that you're looking for that you use an appropriate resource for that. So as you look at our -- our handouts, in the market facts you will see that there are many different sources that we use for different data. But we can definitely get you cost of living, and we can also show you by different types of data how that's broken down, whether it's by ZIP, whether it's by census track, or what the methodology is. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah, I'm -- I'm concerned with that. Page 15 May 1, 2001 One of the -- the last times I got a figure from you for demographics was for East Naples in particular, and it showed that 52 percent of our -- of our residents were actually retired. I think that surprised the daylights out of me, and I know it did for other people as well, because most people felt that East Naples was comprised mostly of the work force. So I was wondering how that comes out again, but I want a true demographic source, not somebody from New York who really doesn't know the area. Okay. Thank you. MR. MIHALIC: Commissioner, the new -- a lot of the private demographic information sources are using 1990 census as a primary part of their data. With the new census now taken, that should be out in a couple of years, and that will give us really good primary data up to that date for now what Collier County looks like. COMMISSIONER FIALA: You can have primary data, but if you don't put it into the computer properly, if you put the wrong ZIPs into the wrong area, that primary data doesn't do you any good at all. MR. REYNOLDS: Well, Commissioner -- and I'll just point out that -- that we have on staff Robbin Koch who happens to be the one that analyzes a lot of this data and puts it in an intelligent form for us. COMMISSIONER FIALA: She knows where they go. MR. REYNOLDS: She knows both the sources -- COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. MR. REYNOLDS: -- and how to ground truth it, if you will, to -- to Collier County. So that's one of the important resources we've got. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you, Alan. MR. REYNOLDS: I'm going to turn now to John who is -- is going to lead us through the formation of the public-private Page 16 May 1, 2001 partnership. John. MR. PASSIDOMO: Thanks, Alan. Good morning, Commissioners. Alan and Susan asked me to share an historical perspective, and I'd be happy to do it and a privilege to loin you this morning. As the slide indicates, the 1996 action agenda, some 5 years ago of the Board of County Commissioners identified a diversified economy with expanding ]ob opportunities as one of the primary objectives for Collier County. And that objective was borne of the recognition that an economy based primarily on industries who had to do construction, services, tourism, and retail had several things in common: Low-paying jobs, seasonality, vulnerability to fluctuations in global economic trends over which we had no control, and, most significantly -- and Alan alluded to it -- there are population-driven industries, economy based exclusively on driving more and more people into Collier County to sustain the quality of life that we come to enjoy. And that Board of County Commissioners and the EDC recognized that we could not sustain an economy based on population-driven industries. Faced with this challenge, the Board of County Commissioners appointed a council of economic advisors. And among that group -- with Jim Loskill as its chair and Commissioner Jim Carter as its vice-chair. And they worked for an extended period of time. And the results of that work was based on several basic principles. First is that -- Alan alluded to this statistic too, and you-all knew-- know it intuitively, that although we have the highest median income in the State of Florida, we have an average wage below even the average wage in the State of Florida. It is an extraordinary gap in Collier County between the haves and the have-nots. There's little opportunity for upward mobility for working people. There's little Page 17 May 1, 2001 opportunity for talented young people to come home to Collier County after completing their education elsewhere. And very little of that unearned income is invested locally. Very little of it is put back into the local economy. So although we had a very high average wage, it was a misleading statistic because the community and the public and the people that you serve, to a great extent, didn't enjoy that very high wage. The Council of Economic Advisors also realized -- and Alan has alluded to it -- that the tax burden was shared disproportionately by homeowners. And it projected that if that trend continued that there be either an increase in taxes, a reduction in services, or compromise our quality of life, one of the three, none of which are appealing. And so on October 1st, 1997, a partnership was formed between the Economic Development Council and the Board of County Commissioners. And that partnership reflects the long- term commitment on behalf of the public and private sectors in Collier County for an economy based on high-wage job generation. And, in fact, it's reflected in the EDC mission statement which was adopted a year or two before to be an effective force in improving the quality of life for all people in Collier County by diversifying the economy; creating high-wage value-added jobs; increasing the average wage; facilitating capital formation; importantly, preserving and enhancing the natural environment; and, finally, enabling all county residents to have a meaningful opportunity for upward mobility, in effect building the economy based on quality and not quantity. The Board of County Commissioners, driven by the Council of Economic Advisors also recognized that, that there are distinct roles and responsibilities for the private and public sectors. They recognized a public sector responsibility to identify the policy objective, high-wage job creation, how many, Page 18 May 1, 2001 where, and to invest significantly towards that policy objective. It recognized that there was a private sector role and responsibility to provide the means to achieve the policy objectives through marketing, through business research, through business assistance but to provide the means through the private sector, and also for the private sector to make a significant economic contribution toward achieving the public sector policy objective. It also identified the EDC as the central focal point to lead that effort. And the three-year return on investment has been a significant one. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Oh, please, let there be a headline that shows this. Of all the things we haven't done well over the past three years, but, boy, here is a winner. Thank you very much, EDC, for the partnership. MR. PASSIDOMO: Well, Commissioner-- and Commissioner Mac'Kie was on the Board of County Commissioners and a driving force four and five years ago when the policy objectives and the investment was made to the units. I think the entire Board of County Commissioners, Commissioner Mac'Kie, Commissioner Carter, because of the roles they played, from the privates -- from the public sector, deserve the credit for what we think is a commendable and envious return on your investment. And, Commissioner Mac'Kie, with your indulgence, I'll read it. For every $1 invested by the county, $139 was added directly to the local economy through wages and capital investment. We've got some background information to help you understand how that information was derived, which this is a three-year statistic; indicates that total jobs created -- these are high-wage jobs created. Focal point of the partnership, the focal part of the EDC mission, is the creation of high-wage jobs. Some 1,573 high-wage jobs to some 33 different expansion and relocation projects created an average wage of some $34,000 Page 19 May 1, 2001 resulting in a direct earnings impact of over 53 million dollars and capital investment of almost 50 million dollars for the direct economic impact of 103.3 million dollars over the last 3 years as a re-ult -- result of the partnership. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Yeah, that's a nice one. MR. PASSIDOMO: Yeah, that is a nice one. That one shows a public sector investment over 3 years of some $744,000 with a resulting return on investment of $103,292,153. A pretty good return. COMMISSIONER CARTER: How do we really communicate this to everyone in the community? You know, I -- I -- we understand it. We know what a tremendous impact that it's made. We know all the national trends that were taking place in the very competitive marketplaces, and we have a lot of obstacles to overcome here. But if I'm out there listening this morning, you know, what -- what does that mean in terms of what's in it for me. I'm always back to that. For the person walking around out there sitting in an engineering office, in a law office, or at home or whatever they're doing, we've got to find some better ways to translate what is a huge return of putting some money into something and getting more back into something that the people day-to-day can relate to, and I'd like to have the answer to that this morning. We need to go there. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Well, Commissioner, I think one of the things that will provide some of that information is what you asked for earlier, which is how has the tax base diversified and come -- how has our reliance on property taxes been reduced as a result of this economic development? And -- because that's a pocketbook issue. And that's -- bottom line, what people want to know is, okay, you spent $750,000. It helped the economy. Now show me, you know, how it reduced my taxes. That's what they want to know. And it -- I think we should be able to show Page 20 May 1, 2001 that. I think that that -- as -- as John said, was one of the -- well, it was the first goal. MR. PASSIDOMO: Uh-huh. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: As we talked about starting the partnership to eliminate or to reduce the reliance on property taxes so -- COMMISSIONER CARTER: Maybe when we started, John, a number 87 percent sticks in my head somewhere. If we brought it down 5 percent -- we may -- if we're showing, of course, your assessed valuation takes the tax rate up, but if you wouldn't have done this, it would have been a nice comparison to say, suppose we wouldn't have accomplished this. Let me show you what it would have been out of your pocketbook. MR. PASSIDOMO: Commissioner-- COMMISSIONER CARTER: If we can start communicating those things, I think it's a far bigger impact than -- I mean, this is great. But we need to take it the next step, show average homeowners, bang, this is what it did for you. MR. PASSIDOMO: I think, as Commissioner Mac'Kie indicated, reflecting on the original objectives for the private- public partnership are probably the place to start. We're looking to shift the tax burden from the homeowner. We're looking to create opportunities for upward mobility for average folks. We're looking to increase the average wage. We're looking to create capital formation to make sure that people who live here earn passive income invest here. There is enormous resources in this community that we don't capture. And so reflecting on why the partnership was formed in the first place, what the problem statements were, and how we're attempting to address those problem statements, they're indicating, Mr. Chairman, really are the way to make these statistics meaningful to average folks because, frankly, we're Page 21 May 1, 2001 talking about public sector objectives and public sector dollars. But when we're talking about public sector dollars, you should recognize that although the public sector contributed some $744,000, which let me suggest is an amount that I don't believe was equivalent to the amount of occupational tax dollars paid by the business community over the same period of time, so basically you have $744,000 from the public sector but, with all due respect, paid by local businesses. In addition to that -- COMMISSIONER CARTER: Very key point, John. Very key point. Not one ad valorem tax dollar was ever spent to get this movement for you. MR. PASSIDOMO: That's correct, Commissioner. And that -- and that's -- that was what the Council of Economic Advisors and the EDC proposed at that time, that we think that this -- this kind of thing makes good economic sense, this is the kind of investment we should be making but have the private sector side, local businesses through the occupational license tax they pay for which, with all due respect, they receive no benefit whatsoever and have that invested in creating ]ob opportunities for average folks to create opportunities for upward mobility for them and for their families, create a better sense of community, create a better quality of life. In addition to that, the EDC investment was some $1,129,000, so the difference, in addition to the broad-based contribution from the entire business community of three- quarters of a million dollars, the EDC through its membership contributed over a million one hundred thousand dollars. So you see the -- the contribution is some $2 million, but we respectfully suggest it as all coming out of the business community, either through dues payers at the EDC or through occupational license taxes. We're off to a good start. Working together we built a Page 22 May 1,200'1 solid foundation for economic prosperity. We're looking forward to working, continuing to work with you and building an economy based on quality and not quantity. Thanks very much. MR. MIHALIC: Well, you know, Commissioners, we set up this private-public partnership, and it really has worked well. And we really have to compare it to one of our neighbors, Lee County, to see how well it is working. And Lee County spends over $2 million in direct ad valorem taxes for the economic development effort, and it runs out of their county. And they essentially have about 15 employees, county employees, running their economic development program where the EDC has 6, and we have one on the public sector side. And yet we are much more effective in the number of jobs we've created and retained than they have been. And it's because of the public-private model that's been set up. I think that's important. COMMISSIONER CARTER: And I think even if our structuring, Greg, as you're talking, if we begin to shift any ad valorem taxes into our equation, if -- I say that with a big if -- we would -- we have a model that would get us more than what they're getting for theirs. And that would be key, because they are substantially ahead of us in a lot of these factors in terms of what they're able to do and in terms of tracking business. And I know of affiliation with the EDC in the years that I've worked with them, that's the case. But we're -- we have made tremendous strides with what we've done with our model. MR. MIHALIC: Yes. COMMISSIONER CARTER: I would look -- and I know I'm way ahead of this. I'm looking to enhance our model, keep stepping it forward so that they really know that we are a competitor here, and we have an awful lot to offer in Collier County. MR. MIHALIC: A pro business attitude by the public sector is very important in making this work. The private sector investor Page 23 May 1, 2001 has to feel that they have the public sector behind them to help them accomplish what they need to accomplish, and that's important. Do you want to -- Susan, do you want to take the target industries? MS. PAREIGIS: Yeah. The target industries for Collier County include aviation, aerospace, health technology, information technology, and light manufacturing. I will share with you that these industries are among the fastest-growing and highest-paying industries in Collier County. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Susan, what is our opportunities at the airport in Immokalee towards the aviation? MS. PAREIGIS: I will also share with you that in those targeted areas are corporate headquarters research and development and also wholesale trade and distribution which we think is very appropriate for the Immokalee corridor. We have spent the last couple of years doing a lot of legwork in getting a lot of designations, if you will, for that Immokalee airport. And we think now that we have the foreign trade zone designation, we have the Florida entrepreneurial investment zone, we also have the empowerment alliance, if you will. But it's really focused on how can we get the infrastructure at that site. We do have labor in the market there in Immokalee. We have hard- working labor, good, strong work ethic. The need is now that we will have a bonded customs facility on site there to clear cargo, if you will, on site in Immokalee. We also think that that foreign trade zone benefit will be of special significance to the Immokalee airport in that Tampa is landlocked and the Miami airport is landlocked. We see that geography of Immokalee being central to expansion in that corridor. So we see a lot of promise in the Immokalee area in the enterprise zone. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Is that going to happen overnight, or is it going to be a long period of time ? Page 24 May 1, 2001 MS. PAREIGIS.' We would think -- and we would want to share with you from the beginning that all of this that we're talking about today is long term. Economic development, in its very essence and nature, is a long-term commitment to the market. This is not turning it on a dime. This is long-term commitment to make sure that we have systematic change in the diversification of the economic base. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Susan, can I ask you a question, please, concerning Immokalee? Have you factored in what the difference would make to Immokalee if Immokalee Road was four laned all the way to Immokalee? Would that have a dramatic impact on the community? MS. PAREIGIS: We believe that that is a vital part of how are we going to connect Immokalee with the rest of the world. One of the criteria for us in citing with specific clients is the criteria of the ability to move goods and services to market. So the ability to move goods to and from that Immokalee area is absolutely vital, Commissioner, to making sure that we have sustainable economic diversification in that market. So, yes, it is absolutely vital that we have a healthy network of not only just roads but air service as well. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you. MR. MIHALIC: And, Commissioner, the Immokalee airport industrial park is the biggest bargain in Southwest Florida. At 10 cents a square foot, you can't find improved industrial land with utilities anywhere in Southwest Florida for that kind of price. But the market has to move there. We have to find industries that can use the amenities and the values that the Immokalee community has. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: And willing to be able to travel across a two-lane road to get there. MR. MIHALIC: And that's part of it, Commissioners. Those Page 25 May 1, 2001 are certainly opportunities that have to be addressed. COMMISSIONER CARTER: And we have north/south network working up out of Immokalee, Commissioner, that Southwest Regional Planning Council is focusing on. MR. MIHALIC: Yes, they are. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Because we need to build that interconnectivity with Lee County and to the roadways to the north so we can get the freight service. We're even looking to see if we could get back our railroad right-of-ways out there at one time to see if freight services in and out of there that we would have that opportunity, although severely criticized by one of our favorite publications. When I suggested that they were only helping the growers in Immokalee and why weren't they paying for it, I think the whole point was missed that we were looking at building the airport out there and the industrial business space in order to accomplish that. So we've got a lot of things in the works there. But you're right, it is very long term, and we don't to want give up anything in the process. MR. MIHALIC: That's right. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Two things that I may share with you. One, if they develop the roads to Lee County before we develop in Collier County, the impact to the economy of Collier County will suffer because the business will naturally gravitate towards Fort Myers. So we have to be proactive and make sure we're going to be the ones to be there first. And, No. 2, if we're ever going to come up with a concurrency plan to make sure that we're -- have the roads in place that they'll support industry and growth, Immokalee better be very careful on what it's planning because I assure you the commission is going to reach a point where they're going to say we're not going to permit it unless the road's there. So my suggestion is that the Economic Development Council get behind the four laning of Immokalee Page 26 May 1, 2001 Road sooner than later. Did I say that right, Mr. Carter? COMMISSIONER CARTER: Oh, Mr. Coletta, you said it very well, which would lead to an ultimate where I hope at the end of the day we will consider making economic development a part of our growth management plan, because when you do that, that -- that enhances this whole process in terms of looking funny everywhere as I understand that we may be able to find federal and state dollars for a lot of these projects to assist in that four laning of Immokalee if we get all of the pieces together correctly. So right now Economic Development Council along -- initially trying to do this what -- so we really have to keep pushing that. And if we do, then I think we'll get there sooner rather than later and be more competitive. MR. MIHALIC: Go to the next slide. Let's go to the next one. We've already talked about the other parts of targeted industries that we're focusing. Commissioners, we've broken down the job creation and retention that we've had over the last three years in this program. You'll see that it ranges from a high of light manufacturing at 461 jobs, and even in the Immokalee enterprise zone there have been 77 jobs created and retained. We feel this is a positive accomplishment and shows the diversity of high- wage job creation that can be brought into Collier County, and we think this program is working well. Next slide. Susan. MS. PAREIGIS: Sure. The 3-year average of all the jobs created and retained, again, within this public-private partnership was $34,089. This is close to one-third higher than the three- year private sector average for Collier, which is $26,440, which is shown as the dotted line across the chart. Aviation and aerospace was the highest paying of these targeted industries with an average wage close to 60 percent higher than Collier Page 27 May 1, 2001 County's private sector three-year average. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Susan, will you tell us -- I know if you know them, and if you don't, I apologize for putting you on the spot -- but the names of some of these companies. MS. PAREIGIS.' Absolutely. I'd love to share some of them with you. I think our primary example in this particular industry is Shaw Companies, which is comprised of two companies, one company which was here and that Shaw Arrow Development had 30 jobs and then Shaw Arrow Devices which was in Lee County and had about a hundred jobs at that time. We currently have about 284 aerospace engineering jobs that are now in Collier County that but for a year and a half ago we did not have. So that's one example in this particular industry. We also have some really neat aviation-related firms revolving around jet engines. So we have a little, small industry base or cjuster that we're starting within the local market here. And we have seen that in discussions with aviation-related firms. Again, that nexus to the Immokalee airport is very significant in making sure that we grow this particular cjuster. We think it's appropriate for the local market. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And the same thing on information tech. I would just like to know -- is that mostly Allen Systems and -- MS. PAREIGIS: Allen Systems. I would share with you also that we have some other firms that are looking for expansion as we speak, Smart Disc Corporation which has real -- joint venture relationships with Toshiba and Fuji and some really interesting technology of Flash Path on a memory stick, if you will. We also have, as you described, Allen Systems which underwent a huge expansion, is also contemplating another expansion within the local market. And I will share with you that particular example, we have Hawaii calling this particular CEO on a weekly basis Page 28 May 1, 2001 trying to get them to move that firm out of the local market. So it is a very competitive market, and you can't take for granted the ones that we do have here. We want to make sure that about 80 percent of the effort at the EDC is focused on expansion of existing high-wage firms, and then we augment that by targeting specific companies to come and really assist in that diversification of the base. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Speaking of Allen Systems, we would love to have them come to the county since the city has put a restriction in so they can't do another tower there. That's part of the dilemma that Allen Systems' in. And I would welcome the opportunity to find a place that we can create a double tower for them and do everything that they want and keep them in this county. I think that they are just a cornerstone of what we want and need here. So I'm looking for any way that we can do that. MS. PAREIGIS: Absolutely. And I'm glad you bring the Allen Systems example up. When they built their current expansion site, an information technology firm really looks at, you know, being in the State of Florida being prone to maybe weather hazards such as a hurricane or fire. When Mr. Allen built his building, he built it to withstand a category 5 hurricane. He also put the parking garage underneath so if it flooded, the IT equipment would be above that. So that height restriction is -- is a central issue for that I team cjuster in that they have to have that equipment above the first floor, if you will, as a minimum. MR. REYNOLDS: Another thing to remember is that by and large the targeted industries that we have are the same targets that the nation has. Everybody that competes in economic development is -- is looking at -- at these kinds of businesses. And in Collier County these tend to be small companies, entrepreneurial companies, highly mobile companies, companies that can locate virtually anywhere that they want. So we have to Page 29 May 1, 2001 reinforce our competitive advantages to, you know, track or retain and let those companies grow. And that's why a lot of the -- really the predominant effort here is finding these entrepreneurial companies and assisting them for growth within the market as opposed to trying to import Sony or some big hitter into the market. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And just because this may be relevant, something I was thinking about talking about today is I know that one of the positives we've offered is the fast-track permitting and that that is working well. What I'm wondering is if we need to be going to the next step and having some fast-track zoning or some fast-track comp. Plan amendments or, you know, something if a company like Allen Systems is looking for opportunities in the county, fast-track permitting is good as long as there is some zoned and comp. Planned land appropriate for the years. But maybe it's time to talk about fast-track zoning for some of these uses. COMMISSIONER CARTER: That's great. And because I've had an opportunity to sit on our strategic planning process, that's -- that's something that I know Susan and the EDC board wants to address with us. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Because we're talking smart parks. We're talking getting this on what I would call -- we have what we would call the urban boundary line, but if you have along that line if you can identify and work with some land masses where you can build smart parks, what you do is draw your population of people coming and in working there, and you have people going from the city or in from the more rural areas and working in these parks which usually then are supported by shopping and even -- even if you do the right kind of thing, you get people living where they can walk to work. So there's -- Page 30 May 1, 2001 they're a vision here, some of the things that they want to share with us today. It gets right back to what you're saying, Commissioner Mac'Kie, fast tracking and setting up where the best places to put land versus the scattered stuff that we have all over the place, some of which is not appropriate anymore and finding better ways to do this. I guess we're way ahead of where you-all want to be, but I promise I'll be quiet. COMMISSIONER FIALA: No, no, no, don't be quiet. You have good things to say. One of the things you did say was, everybody looks at it as what it -- what's in it for me, so this is now what's in it for me. And I'm talking about our East Naples community. And I noticed you -- you attract the industries. And these are wonderful industries. One of the problems we have is we can't even attract a new restaurant and -- and we have some gorgeous developments out there who are trying to get restaurants. We all have to go up to the north end where they're all kind of jammed in together in order to eat. And we were wondering how do we even attract a great restaurant so just what's in it for me -- COMMISSIONER CARTER: Build the high-tech park, and they will come. MS. PAREIGIS: I will share with you, Commissioner Fiala, that in looking at different industries, they're driven by different criteria. And one of the criteria that restaurants, per se, in this particular category look at is the population, populations to sustain enough volume for the restaurant. We are really looking at every other industry but for those population-driven industries. We're really trying to augment the economic base here through the types of businesses and the industries that we don't naturally have in the local market, those -- those industries that are sustained and come but for the population and the market, we feel that being the second fastest-growing MSA in the United States of America since 1980. Page 31 May 1, 2001 COMMISSIONER FIALA: MSA. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Municipal services. MS. PAREIGIS: Metropolitan statistical area. We're looking at tremendous population growth. And, in fact, the types of industries such as restaurants and service-related industries come based on just that population. Our predicate at the board, at the EDC are those are going to come for the population. The industries that will not come but for the assistance are really the ones that we need to focus on with such a limited effort that we have locally. COMMISSIONER HENNING.' And those businesses such as restaurants is a seasonal-type job, and that's why we really don't need to attract. We need to stay away from that, because then you get the affordable housing issues and all the other elements that go along with this, and that's another burden on the taxpayer. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Well, our 44,000 people have to impact the roads, though, in order to get up to the north end, excuse me, and -- and eat our dinners and come back. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Excuse me, Commissioner Fiala. You're doing a great job on Bayshore, and I look forward to what's -- what's going to happen in that redevelopment area. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah, you're right. We'll get them yet. COMMISSIONER HENNING.' yourselves for that. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: You should champion Possibly for the viewers out there on Channel 54 we can put this simply to them: What we are looking for is to diversify the economy and that right now we've been mainly driven by tourism and construction. And when those two giants take a back seat for a moment or two during the recession, we suffer greatly. In the last ten years we've been Page 32 May 1, 2001 very successful as far as the economy goes, and regrettably your efforts have not been appreciated. But I think the time is coming when people are going to come to you and say, '~Nhy aren't we doing more?" so that's what we're going to have to start doing, make sure we have a base in there that will offset some of the losses that we may be suffering. MR. MIHALIC: Well, Commissioners, you know the other half of this is how much capital investment did we have from these industries that we personally assisted. I guess I should say that there's been a much larger amount of high-wage ]ob creation than the ones that have been personally assisted by EDC. This creates a synergism. This positive business attitudes brings other people here who may not use the services of EDC or our fast tracking but still locate here, and that's really not reflected in these numbers. And you can see that over 3 years you have almost $50 million of capital investment by the particular businesses that were assisted by EDC in the partnership. I should also mention that we're using very conservative statistics here. Generally, if you look at the economic development models that are out there, you take all the wages that a business is going to pay over the next three or five years, and you use that. You also take all the capital investment, and usually you multiply it by a factor, like 3 1/2 times, to show how much synergism and how much multiplier effect that has in the community. We haven't done that here. We've taken only one year of wages and the direct capital investment. MS. PAREIGIS: Period. MR. MIHALIC: So in normal economic models, you would see numbers that are five or six times this amount traditionally. So we've taken the most conservative way we can look at these - - at these numbers and try to show you what it has been in this market over the last three years. Page 33 May 1, 2001 COMMISSIONER COLETTA'. When the money comes into the community, it usually remains here and spent five to seven times before it-- MR. MIHALIC: Well, the multiplier effect is normally 3 1/2 times. But normally you don't take only one year of wages for a business; you take three to five years of wages, because you know that business is going to be operating over that time period. That's normally the way you do it. This is a very conservative republican way to do things. Next slide. MS. PAREIGIS: We have advertised in many different forms and fashions over the years. And we thought we would just show you a brief synopsis of a couple of the campaigns. The call for advertising campaign with Enterprise Florida includes an image building campaign and a site selection campaign. The image campaign targets top-level executives and high-tech entrepreneurs in Chief Executive magazine and Fast Company magazine. The image campaign presents stories of successful Florida-based companies. There are a series of full-page ads with testimonials. Again, in our research with our chief executives in the local market, they have identified that testimonials are probably the most effective source of referral for the local market. The site selection campaign, that runs in Business Facilities, Expansion Management, and Site Selection magazine. And the site selection market is a key target for economic development to influence decisions regarding business relo -- relocation and investment. An estimated half of the readers of these publications are CEO chairmens, presidents, owners, and partners. The objective of the campaign is to build exposure and awareness of Collier County as a business destination and to generate leads from qualified site selection decision makers. The program consists Page 34 May 1, 2001 of two double-page ads, each running three times in each publication and will include business testimonials that market Collier County as an entrepreneurial community with a fast- growing IT sector and a highly desirable quality of life. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Susan, are these magazines -- obviously you don't buy those at Publix. I would love to see them. I'd love to see the publications themselves sometime if there's something you have available just to see how ours plays next to the rest of the market. MS. PAREIGIS: We had actually anticipated having the actual magazines for you here with the ads in them. Enterprise Florida was a little late in their rollout. They will be in this summer, and as we get those, we will actually send you a copy of the actual magazine so you can see the placement and the editorial we have extracted along with the advertisements. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE.' Excellent. Thank you. MS. PAREIGIS: Next. This year the EDC has expanded its marketing efforts. And I will share with you that when we formed the public-private partnership in '97 we thought it was really important to get out and know the existing industry. So we spent a lot of time working on existing industries and their expansions. We're really now, we feel for the first time, ready to launch this recruitment side of economic development. And this year we've expanded the marketing to include targeted industry trade shows, direct mail campaigns to IT firms, as well as to our V -- visiting and seasonal CEOs. We think that we have a real resource and asset in Collier County that a lot of communities don't, and that is a lot of the CEOs come to our local market here. So we plan to take full advantage of that, and we're working with some of our resort hotels to get that qualified message to qualified individuals saying, "Would you like a site tour while you're here, would you like to talk to a county Page 35 May 1, 2001 commissioner while you're here, would you like to talk to a peer in your industry that is actually operating in Naples now.". And this is just a list of some of the things that we're actively doing. We do site selection consultant visits in Chicago, New York, and Atlanta. And we also have the website that we'll briefly show you at the ends of this, just a brief presentation in case you haven't gone on line and seen it yet. But we market it through ENaplesFIorida.com, SiliconbeachFIorida.com, as well as SWFIoridabusiness.com. MR. MIHALIC: Robin. MR. DOYLE: Commissioners, I have the pleasure of talking to you about the future shared vision, the strategic plan for economic development. As John Passidomo told you, first written in '94, it took a very major step forward this year when we updated our strategic plan, a plan that continues the shared vision of high-paying jobs in the economy. The importance of this vision to the members of the EDC board, I think, is demonstrated by the fact that -- the number of the board members are here today because they feel that what you are doing and what we are doing as the public-private partnership is very important. In fact, since we started, Michael Saadeh from the Vineyards has come in, is also here with the other board members that you were introduced to earlier. The updated strategic plan, which I would describe really as a more mature plan from what we started with, was developed by the -- by an EDC committee with assistance from Commissioner Carter who sat on the strategic planning committee, members of the EDC board. From the business committee, John Passidomo and Jeff Fridkin were involved. Representatives of all of the universities and colleges in this area sat on this strategic planning committee looking toward the future to what we're calling here this shared vision of a competitive diversified Page 36 May 1, 2001 economy in the county that looks for what the objectives are that are necessary for us to be successful. Looking next to some of our strategic partners, because we realize that our partnerships are important, we have both local and regional economic development groups and other groups that we think are a critical part of our strategy. This is a partial list of our strategic partners that you're seeing here. We continue to work with groups such as Enterprise Florida, Florida Gulf Coast University, and the county's own airport authority. Today cities around the world are competing for the same talent and for the same investment. And creating high-value jobs and diversified economic activity is going to require strategy and vision. Now, despite what you may have heard about the rise and fall of the dot coms and the new economy, today's economy, I think probably the word "new economy" is overused, but today's economy is really a knowledge- and idea-based economy. The -- I think it's an economy where the keys to high-paying job creation are the extent to which ideas, innovation, and technology are all embedded in all sectors of the economy. So the EDC wants to be an effective force in improving quality of life through this type of - - of economic development. The strategic plan has identified three important capacity issues that divine -- define economic development success in this new economy: Investments in physical infrastructure that you see here, in work force training, and in access to capital accrues to the broader community and remain in the community. Now, in looking at these capacities, we are forcing a more strategic view of economic development, one that takes into account investments in physical infrastructure, investments in education and capital investments which will provide the building blocks for a good business climate. Page 37 May 1, 2001 If we look next to a slide on the work force infrastructure, I think we have to realize that in the -- in today's economy a competitive advantage is based primarily on the education and the skills of the work force. Employee training and work-force housing are major challenges facing Collier County. But many of our talented young people leave our area after they receive an education looking for high-paying jobs. As a parent of children who grew up here, I want to see them come back, and I want to see us develop the type of economy that gives our children and our grandchildren an opportunity to locate here to have the quality of life that we have enjoyed and yet have the job opportunities that have not been enjoyed here. Back in the summer of '99 we had the Wadley Donavon group do an extensive labor market study, and we learned a lot of things through that study. While we have a fast-growing labor market -- and I think you saw a slide, and there's information in the -- in the business essentials booklet that you have there about the growth of our labor force, I think sixth fastest growing in the State of Florida. But the study done by Wadley Donavon determined that the county's primary challenge is to provide an aggressive training opportunity to the residents to meet the needs of employers in the new economy. Now, I realize that some of the things that we talk about in terms of these capacities are beyond the scope of what the county commission has control over. You don't control education in our community. But I think it's important for us to paint the whole picture because you are trying to coordinate the economic development. We looked to another area, to -- to capital infrastructure. Now, there's been a heightened interest in venture capital throughout Florida in the last few years. But Florida still ranks tenth among all states in venture capital dollars and -- in venture Page 38 May 1, 2001 capital dollars invested. And we've only captured about 2 percent of the total venture capital nationwide. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Robin, does that include real estate development, venture capital -- · MR. DOYLE: No, venture capital would not. If you look, commercial lending has been primarily real estate based. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Okay. MR. DOYLE: In some areas, commercial lending includes industrial and business lending. Here commercial lending has been primarily real estate based. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: What I was thinking about was is all of the limited partnerships that exist that, you know, purchase land that eventually become a real estate development project. Is that factored in? I was just surprised to hear that venture capital isn't a higher number. I understand that it wouldn't be for, you know, manufacturing and the kind of businesses that we're talking about, but there's a lot of-- MR. DOYLE: Again, I think that certainly there are people -- COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Uh-huh. MR. DOYLE: -- who take risks with development, in real estate development. But, again, real estate development is a population-driven -- COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: There you go. MR. DOYLE: -- exercise. And the type of venture capital we're looking for in the capital infrastructure needs and the capacity needs is the type of venture capital that would assist a high-wage industry in locating and developing their business here. And-- COMMISSIONER CARTER: I think, Robin, though, a part of, going to Commissioner Mac'Kie's question, is that a person or a family or a company owning a tract of land might be a player in this because they may own what's under the structure, and as Page 39 May 1, 2001 much as Barron Collier Company did in Phoenix, they owned the - - I want to say they owned the dirt, but somebody else built the buildings. So they become partners in this process. But they're not going to provide the capital formation for what goes above the ground. Their role is to own what's underneath that structure. And we have some opportunities, I think, here in Collier to work with some people I think that are very interested in doing that. MR. DOYLE: I think that's true. And we also have an opportunity -- somebody mentioned earlier that we have a great deal of unearned income here, wage -- nonwage income. We have a lot of people here who have investments that they take their investment dollars elsewhere. So one possibility is the creation of an angel network, a group of investors who wouldn't be like your traditional venture capital investor who would come in and take an active role in the development of a business but who would provide a source of funds, particularly for small entrepreneurial businesses. And so this is one of the areas that we hope to be able to develop in meeting this capital infrastructure capacity needs. COMMISSIONER FIALA: That's -- that's an interesting subject that you bring up. When we were taking the census, one of the problems they said we had in Florida was, as far as getting the census, many of these people claim their home state -- even though they might live here six or seven months a year, they feel that their home state was where they wanted to issue as their domicile. So we don't get their tax dollars. Their home state does, although we provide the roads and infrastructure for those same people. Does that become a problem? MR. MIHALIC.' You're absolutely right, Commissioner. When people have multiple homes in the census, they should have filled out their census where they were on April 1st; that was in Page 40 May 1, 2001 Collier County last year. in Pennsylvania or wherever. traditional. me. But some did chose -- choose to deal -- They felt their roots were more COMMISSIONER FIALA: Even though they were here. MR. MIHALIC: Absolutely. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I had many of them mention that to MR. MIHALIC: Yes. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I was truly surprised, Because you would think that being that they're traveling on our roads and stay here so many months of the year, but then again -- MR. MIHALIC: Only 54 percent of the people in Collier County filled out their census forms at all. Very Iow, below the state and federal average. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thanks, Greg. Excuse me. I'm sorry. MR. DOYLE: Well, and -- and one of the things that we're looking at is to create the attitude that this is home. This is where we want to invest. This is where we want to not just be, not just go to the beach, but this is where we want to do our business also. And so that -- so that the people who are saying -- who are sending their dollars back to Indiana or Michigan for investment purposes are willing to see opportunities here that are attractive to them from a financial perspective and attractive to them because this is home. One of the things that we've done is small business assistance with the micro loan program, a loan program for prequalified businesses that the EDC administers with loans up to $7500. And, of course, industrial revenue bonds are available for manufacturing or industrial plants, for research and development parks, with a minimum project size of a million dollars. The EDC also administers that program. Page 41 May 1, 2001 That brings us to a discussion of what the board can do and realizing, as I said, not everything that we are involved in in the EDC is an issue for this board. There are some things that are challenges that we believe that the board can directly help us with. And I'd like to talk about those. First is the preparation of a growth management plan amendment to create smart parks in -- in Collier County. And I think that as we talk -- and we're going to talk about telecommunications infrastructure also, but this type of infrastructure is essential, not just to high-tech businesses but to all high-value industries because those industries increasingly use technology. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Robin, are you going to tell us at some point what are the elements of a smart park? It's not a phrase I'm familiar with. MR. DOYLE: I think Susan -- MS. PAREIGIS: If I could -- MR. DOYLE: Certainly. MS. PAREIGIS: -- at this venture, it's basically a commerce park that has a redundant strong fiberoptic band width -- band width capacity. It also has flexible uses such that you have maybe daycare centers around the perimeter so that it supplements what's in the park there. It becomes a destination in and of itself. I will share with you that in my recent research, Michigan as a state is looking at what you had suggested, actually smart zones. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Uh-huh. MS. PAREIGIS: So that you have complimentary-type businesses that facilitate those high-wage jobs being in the market there. So it really is a campus-style commerce park with a very strong redundant telecommunications backbone. Page 42 May 1,200t COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And one of the frustrations that I have is the inability of the county commission to have much of an effect on the hotel and communications industry and the infrastructure that's available for it. You know, I don't know how we get the PFC to do more. But, you know, I wish that the county had some authority there because we could try to provide some leadership. At least if there's some lobbying efforts going on with the PFC and this board could help with that, I think that's one of our weakest links, is the pitiful -- forgive me, Sprint -- but the pitiful telecommunications and that infrastructure. COMMISSIONER HENNING: And I think the EDC can help hold the board members individually in to make those happen. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Yeah. Let us help where we can. MR. DOYLE: Well, these are the two things: the -- the beginning of this list, preparing the growth management plan amendment and preparing the Land Development Code amendment to provide zoning for the smart parks. COMMISSIONER HENNING: And I totally support that. How we need to get there is by amendment of the growth management plan, the LDC to help assist these smart parks to be created here in Collier County. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I -- I agree. I'm curious what the buy-right corresponding percentage of C-5 zoning, what that means. MR. REYNOLDS: Let me speak to that very briefly, is that if you think about it, what smart parks are are a prospective use. In other words, we have to -- we don't have a -- a tremendous number of existing users for sort of the large tracts with a smart park. What we do have is a very, very strong demand for small, start-up types of sites that you might find in some of the more traditional parks that we have right now, the Trade Center Ways. So in order to create enough economic basis to get the Page 43 May 1, 2001 investment into a smart park, there has to be an immediate marketability to some portion of the park. So what we're talking about is blending both sites that can accommodate existing businesses that are ready to go with the prospective uses and doing that in a high-quality park. And that's the idea behind the buy-right inclusion of a C-5 component within a smart park. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: So the idea would be within the -- in the growth management plan amendment you would include -- MR. DUNNUCK: Land development? COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I don't understand. MR. REYNOLDS: The growth management plan amendment would establish the basic framework and the policy for the smart parks. It would really be the Land Development Code that would establish the specific parameters of-- of what types of zoning, what types of uses, what kinds of standards that would be required. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And wouldn't we do that just by rezoning land to C-5 ? MR. REYNOLDS: That's one way to do it. But what we're talking about here is trying to create a blending so that -- so that the C-5 compliments basically the prospective market that is really being targeted. I'll use an example that I thought about when Dawn was talking about East Naples. You might recall about, I'm going to say, 15 years ago there was zoning put in place for the Lely R and D park. Okay. Now, there was a prospect -- I mean, that was -- that was that year's version of -- of a smart park. It sat there for a number of years with no -- no uses, you know, so there was never an ability to even get the basic infrastructure in place because there was nobody there to use it. So it went away. But -- but it was -- you know, it was available. So, you know, in order to get the up- front infrastructure invested so that you can have something Page 44 May 1, 2001 ready to go for the targeted industries, you've got to cater to that COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: What you're saying is in the Lely example, we put a C-5 or some designation on a map but never put in the road, the water, the sewer. MR. MIHALIC: C-5 designation. MR. REYNOLDS: And the zoning that was put in place was strictly limited only to these prospective targets, so there was no opportunity to cater to any existing business in Collier County. You essentially had to go out and recruit the business users to that park and, guess what, you can't recruit them and show them appeal and show them here's your future site. MR. MIHALIC: There's a cross issue, too, Commissioner. Industrial land is not always the highest and best use. Residential golf course property may be. So you need to provide some financial incentives to that developer by the C-5, higher, more profitable zoning to allow him to be cost competitive and still develop that smart park. You know, our land is almost twice as expensive as Lee County's for the same type of land. We have to be competitive. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: If I may, on the smart park theory, are we talking probably the 951 corridor, probably Immokalee, maybe Immokalee Road and some locations, or are we talking about retrofitting, redevelopment of some other areas in Collier County like Pine Ridge or Airport Road? Is this what we're thinking about? MR. DOYLE: We've actually made a conscious effort to try to stay out of site-specific recommendations. What we're trying to do is say, this type of development is important the growth of high-wage jobs. The economy is going to drive, I think, where they are located. And all of us can -- can point to areas that we say this is probably where this would be developed. But I -- I Page 45 May 1, 2001 think that what we're looking for here, at least initially, is to say, we recognize that there's a need here. The need is for the smart parks. And we also recognize that we have to make them work. We can't just say, oh, let's have a smart park, and that's the reason for the C-5 corresponding percentage of the zoning. We're trying to create something that will really be successful. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I understand what you're saying. I'm having a hard time visualizing how you're going to have all of these amenities in the more developing area. In other words, the area hasn't been developed yet. How are you going to be able to do the whole picture? And if you try and transplant this into the area that's already been developed, you're going to have one heck of a fight. COMMISSIONER CARTER: If I might, let me, Commissioner -- may I just share an example of one that might be an opportunity? You mentioned Pine Ridge and Airport. On the northwest corner, I believe, if we look at all of that -- you know where Costco is; you know where Lowes' is. There's a huge tract of land there in that there's been some conversation between the EDC and that property owner. There's a large-enough area where you could do a smart park on the remaining parcel. And if you look at everything else that is developed in there, it really augments and serves that and is a nice attractive point for people to communicate -- to commute into that -- that area. So I think part of-- we don't want to be site specific, but if we can find a model that incorporates what we're asking to do here, taking a look at your Dover, Kohl study and some of the suggestions and ideas that they had, bring that together -- we need a framework, if I'm understanding of zoning and policy and direction that says when identified, the Board of County Commissioners, along with the recommendations from the Economic Development Council, can identify and look at these to Page 46 May 1, 2001 make sure it fits all the criteria of everything we're trying to do in growth management. We don't want to violate anything here. And we don't want to send false messages to the public on this. But we're trying to find this area which it -- in the end can be very attractive, create the high wage jobs, be a feeder system for people out of existing development areas to drive into so that you're not promoting an urban sprawl kind of situation. Now, you could take and lift that same model and put it in other places in the county, whether it's Immokalee or whether it's some other area that's in the -- I'm going to say close to the fringe, if we identify and we can meet all the criteria but if you get site specific then just invokes a lot of public -- well, I'm going to say a lot of public criticism that you're going to take an area and you're going to do something, and you're going to start expanding services and you're going to start doing this, this, and this, and we lose sight of the vision. So I think that's why we're trying to establish this framework. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I think I'm finally getting it here that what we're talking about is a growth plan amendment that would create the concept of smart parks. Then we have an LDC amendment that basically would create an SP zoning district or category of smart park zoning. And smart park zoning would include a percentage of entitlement to C-5 intensity of uses -- MR. DOYLE: And once we've done that, we believe that an entrepreneur will come to you and say, zone my land -- COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: SP. MR. DOYLE: -- SP and go out and work with the assistance of the EDC to bring in the type of industry that we're trying to attract. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And -- MR. DOYLE: Now, one of the problems -- and Susan is the best one to tell you about this. One of the problems is we're Page 47 May 1, 2001 talking to an industry, and they say, "Well, where can I have 140,000 square feet?" and it's very hard to find. And what -- so what we're trying to do is create this infrastructure that she can say, "Oh, well, right here.". COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And it needs -- that's where this fast-track zoning needs to be a part of the smart park zoning category. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Our county manager needs to get a word in here. MR. OLLIFF: In essence, the way I see it, it's almost like a -- provides the flexibility of a PUD in that it has some mixed uses within it, and the developer has the opportunity to be able to let the market dictate to a certain extent what types of uses are going to be in there, but it becomes a standard zoning category. So rather than going through, you know, a PUD process, it is an allowed use. But one of the things you continue to hear and a lot of these issues that come up is this issue of buy-right zoning and uses. And it's something that we've hesitated a lot at this board level and wanted to hold on to every decision in terms of what the actual uses are going to be. And if you're going to provide some entrepreneurial opportunity out there, you've got to provide some of this buy use idea as part of this zoning category. I think it makes a lot of sense. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I think unless -- unless we do it on a fast-track basis then Susan's still going to be bringing people into town and all we're going to have changed is we've got this category of zoning, we'll take this piece of dirt. It's got to be something that goes to the top of the pile. COMMISSIONER HENNING: I think we can accomplish that through one of the documents of saying the purpose and intent of fast tracking would be to create high-wage ]obs. And I think what I would like to do here is give some direction to our staff to Page 48 May 1, 2001 amend the growth management plan to create smart parks in Collier County and also amend the LDC to make it that affordable element with the -- the zoning of C-5, which is very valuable here in Collier County. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: As far as I'm concerned -- COMMISSIONER CARTER: Well, I see the nods around the room. I said, as I jumped way ahead about 30 -- about an hour ago, there's where I wanted to be. Thank you for your support on that, Commissioner Henning, because I really believe that's where we can take this. I wished I could beam us up to Denver right now and put you down in a smart park that exists with your structures, high tech, surrounded by-- residential communities surrounded by services to that of shopping and restaurants and everything. And it's awesome because people do not have to travel very far because they could if they wanted to literally walk to work or walk over to a shopping plaza or bicycle, and they would never have to get out on the road system. I won't say that they don't do that there, because maybe the people that live in the residential and they're working outside of Denver -- . COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I'll check my calendar and see when -- COMMISSIONER CARTER: All we have to do is get the technology, and we'll beam ourselves out there. COMMISSIONER HENNING.' I -- I think we need to thank Commissioner Carter for working with the EDC over the years to try to bring economic development into Collier County. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Well, I'm glad he's our lead agent there, too, aren't you? And -- and maybe we can have Susan come in sometime and just sit down with us and give us an idea of what smart parks are and -- and maybe -- so that we come -- become more familiar with them as we work towards fast tracking. Page 49 May 1, 2001 COMMISSIONER COLETTA.' Let's make sure this isn't just another good idea that goes by the wayside. I'd like to hear something in the way of a time frame when we could expect something to come back to us. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Sounds good to me. COMMISSIONER CARTER: I will turn that over to the county manager to let us know the time line. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Look at Tom. COMMISSIONER CARTER: The time line is to look at the actions that are recommend -- recommended this morning giving staff direction to look at this and how that would go through the process and get into the -- to become part of our growth management plan. MR. OLLIFF: As -- it's a good segue, an opportunity for me to try and summarize not only some of the recommendations that I think the group here has made this morning, but there are some others. And I think one of the things that -- that you continue to hear is that they're looking for a partnership out of -- out of county government. And it is more than just a financial partnership; it is much more. In fact, I think county government can provide a lot more in terms of helping economic development in this community that are nonfinan¢ial than, frankly, that are financial. One of the things that I think is going to be a driving commitment for us is to understand that infrastructure and a commitment for us to maintain schedules that are aggressive in providing adequate infrastructure are important for economic development. You heard this morning Immokalee Road, north/south corridors and all of those things that are government's responsibility. But it was encouraging also to hear that there are infrastructure issues that are out there that are not strictly Page 50 May 1,200t county government's. But having a county commission that is attentive enough to understand that those other infrastructure issues are important for economic development and wants to know where are we as a community with those issues and is willing to get involved with the economic development community if and when we need to go get into somebody else's foray for telecommunications0type issues. Zoning continues to be one of the ma]or issues that we hear about. But, frankly, we haven't done a lot in terms of aggressively looking at where are those other opportunities out there and providing some incentives to provide industrial and/or higher use commercial zoning opportunities for economic development. And I think we will bring back as a result of this, like we will with each of these workshops, what we're doing is a summary implementation plan, if you will, with some target dates and some assigned responsibilities. And, in fact, you should get all of the previous workshop summaries within the next week that will show you all of those schedules. And then this one will follow within about a couple of weeks. Lastly, I think there's a -- a quality of life issue. And I think if you ask these people what has been our competitive advantage in a number of cases, it is the quality of life that we have been able to offer and -- and CEOs who have the flexibility to move their businesses anywhere in the country want to live someplace where it's nice to live. So I think we need to recognize that, and we need to recognize that we've got an obligation upon the part of county government to maintain that quality that brings them here. And, lastly, I'll tell you that philosophically I think to have a board that is engaged in economic development -- Greg started out by saying that the private side needs to know that the public side supports them. Page 51 May 1, 2001 MR. MIHALIC.' Yeah. MR. OLLIFF: And I think the only support that I can remember historically here is the annual opportunity when the EDC comes and asks for financial support for the public-private partnership. And I think through those committees that this board agreed to create, which we are -- are starting to term horizon committees at our staff level, we are supposed to be bringing back to you resolutions at your second meeting in May to create those committees. But there are standing committees in some cases that will serve. And I think the Economic Development Council already has a standing committee that involves most of the local educational institutions, businesses in the area. And, Commissioner Carter, I -- it's going to be our recommendation as a staff that rather than creating a separate committee that we simply have the commission Chairman Carter serve as the county's liaison to that committee and then provide a reporting mechanism back to the county on a regular basis so that we are engaged in a regular way that -- . COMMISSIONER CARTER: I think you just reversed delegation. He's very good. MR. OLLIFF: You were supposed to let me run right through that one. You weren't supposed to catch that. But I -- I think, unless I -- I hear differently, I think I -- I sense from this board that there is a -- a higher level of interest in terms of economic development than this board's involvement in it. And as part of our implementation plan back to you from this workshop, we would like to bring you a number of those things that I just covered that they were sort of above and beyond not only what you heard here as requests from the EDC. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah, we can also take it a step further, if you'd like. I, in our community of Golden Gate, looking at Exit 15, Shaw Arrow, and that area, the county owns 300 Page 52 May 1, 2001 acres in that area. We can even take that a step further to create a smart park in that area. We got a great transportation element there. That is where the work force is. The infrastructure is available in the area. I'll just throw that out there. MR. PASSIDOMO: Mr. Chair, I think Commissioner Henning may have put a finger on a very important part of the infrastructure that Robin alluded to that we may want to spend some time talking about. We talked about the physical infrastructure, the contexts, the recommendations. We talked about the capital infrastructure which is more generated out of the private sector. But we haven't spent a lot of talking about human infrastructure. And an historical perspective gives you a couple of benefits. You realize that on -- you may have seen some things before, and you may realize that you're no longer accountable for speaking on behalf of an organization. But when the council of economic advisors made their recommendations, they recognized that two principle deficiencies we had in the marketplace were we didn't call smart park, but we realized a physical infrastructure and work-force development, training, affordable housing. There are clearly things that government can and, with all respect, should do in both of those areas: Local incentives for investing in local people to provide work-force development skills focused on target industries. We understand who the targeted industries are. We understand we have a quality of life here that will allow us to attract these industries that can go anywhere in the world. If we have a physical infrastructure -- we know we have capital in this community, if it's directed properly. But without work- force development, without work-force housing, we're not going to make a meaningful step positively in that direction. And in terms of incentive, the professionals I believe will tell Page 53 May 1, 2001 us that there's no better investment than investing in local people because they stay here. They don't take their company and leave with investment dollars. So what I believe you may want to consider are human infrastructure, work-force housing, work-force development, incentives for training for those targeted industries to get them here, to keep them here, and to retain the ones that you want to keep here. But looking at only physical infrastructure without looking at the human element I think may miss the advantage that Commissioner Fiala was talking about: What does this mean for me? What it means for you is that you're creating opportunities for upward mobility for your constituents. You're creating lobs for your constituents. You're creating futures for them and for their families, and that's a very meaningful part of public responsibility that only the Board of County Commissioners can exercise. MR. DOYLE: John -- John is correct about the human infrastructure. And you notice on the BCC action list that we have here, there's nothing mentioned about work-force housing. This is not an oversight on our part. It's just that it is such a large issue that it, I think, in talking to Greg, deserves its own workshop. MR. MIHALIC: In two weeks. COMMISSIONER CARTER: We're going to do that. MR. DOYLE: And you need to address that. And -- and so I want to make sure that you understand we're not overlooking that. We think that is a very, very big issue and a very important part of this capacity, this work-force capacity that we're talking about. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: The other really important issue - - and I -- if we haven't diverted you, you'd be on it by now -- is the mapping of this telecommunications infrastructure. How can the Page 54 May 1, 2001 county participate in that? MR. DOYLE: If the -- nice segue. Thank you. If the commission would instruct staff to prepare this communication -- telecommunications infrastructure analysis for inclusion as a GIS overlay, we would have a very important tool for our use in economic development. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Is -- don't you think -- I mean, again, just going on gut feeling that what we're going to find, there's some very thin little lines drawn on a map with not much infrastructure, I mean-- . MS. PAREIGIS: It all comes down to the last mile of copper is really what the issue becomes very quickly. MR. DOYLE: It -- it is. And -- and to emphasize the importance of this to high-wage jobs and the diversified economy, we just have to look at yesterday afternoon. The EDC is not a high-tech business, although we use technology. Robbin Koch had documents she wanted to give to me, and she wanted to e-mail it to me, but her DSL line was down all day. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: That's how it is. MR. DOYLE: And she was not -- and so I got in the car and drove to the EDC office and got my document. Now, we got it and everything was done, but to be -- for a business to have to do that is not productive. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I gave up on DSL even at home. It's so -- but here -- this is my second -- the most important part I think of this is once we map it, then who -- who has the authority to require that the infrastructure be improved? Is that only PSC, and is -- do they -- can they require it, or is that a private industry? I don't -- I don't know where we go after we get the map, and I'm curious to know that. COMMISSIONER CARTER: I think there's a couple of pieces. We need the map. It's interesting. Yesterday Tom Olliff and I Page 55 May 1, 2001 spent a couple of hours up at Gulf Coast University and had lunch with Dr. Merwin. We were talking about this whole business of getting what we need here as far as the copper. And we are pretty much reaching the conclusion that we know that Sprint United is -- we know that this area is a cash cow. And if you sit in the corporate headquarters in Phoenix or wherever they're located and you see a great bottom line, unless that community goes out there and sets down with the CEO or -- and says, look, you know, we're put -- you're getting a lot of money here, but we're not getting what we need here, how can you help us, how does he know? He doesn't know. So I think that we are going to have to get outside of Collier County, go to those sources, set down as teams and say, look, here's our problem. How can you help us because it is going to even be a better bottom line for you if you get it done sooner. But if no one goes there and does it, they're going to keep taking the money, why not? MR. REYNOLDS: And you have to bring them a specific solution that you're looking for. That's where what we're saying is, you know, I would challenge anybody today to say what do we have in Collier County, and where is the primary need. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Okay. MR. REYNOLDS: That's what we have to do first. Then you can go and say this is what we want and you can be an effective advocate. MR. OLLIFF: I think that's what we're looking for, the EDC's committee with Commissioner Carter to serve on to come back. And once we have where are we, where do we need to be, and what needs to be done to get us there, then we have a plan on -- on -- and going out to wherever it is to talk to somebody with something specific in hand. MR. REYNOLDS: Yeah. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And assuming then that -- Page 56 May 1, 2001 because I can count the nods -- you're not going to have any problem getting the word to give that instruction to staff, how long does that process take, the mapping? MS. PAREIGIS: Six months? Six to eight. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Okay. So it's not forever. MR. REYNOLDS: No. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: We can get it done in six to eight months. MR. MIHALIC: It may require some specialized talent -- MS. PAREIGIS: Right. MR. MIHALIC: -- to bring in someone who specialized in this to augment what we have. MR. REYNOLDS: You know, I don't know if any of you saw the recent NewsWeek article, but it's devoted to new technology and basically these businesses. And they went through communities that are being affected. There were two measures that were identified: venture capital and telecommunications infrastructure investment. That was how they were measuring the success of the folks that are doing it. So, you know, rest assured, that is what these businesses are looking for. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: And we can work on, A, God knows the money is here, and I love that angel network idea. And -- and then once we know what we don't have on the second piece, then we know where to go to ask for it and -- and get me on an airplane because it's very frustrating. MR. DOYLE: Well, and that -- that really is -- you know, we talked about smart parks. We talked about this telecommunications infrastructure analysis. And that really takes us to the last thing that I hear all of you say we don't have COMMISSIONER CARTER: Well, before we do that, I have a request from our recorder that she would like to rest her magic Page 57 May 1, 2001 fingers for five minutes. MR. DOYLE: Okay. COMMISSIONER CARTER: So could we take a five-minute break? MR. DOYLE: Well, actually, what we're saying there is we are simply looking for the support that you are talking about to go with us to see that executive to get that done. But let's let Barb rest and Alan -- COMMISSIONER CARTER: We can do that, and then we have public comment. MR. MIHALIC: No one's signed up. Has anyone from the public come? COMMISSIONER CARTER: We have one. MR. MIHALIC: We just have one? COMMISSIONER CARTER: Okay. Is there any others out there going to speak? There's two. Let's give our recorder just a quick break. We'll come back and take public comment and wrap it up. (A short break was held.) MR. MIHALIC: Go ahead. I'll have you sit at a chair up here. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Okay. We've got everybody back. Is Dr. Fishkind still here? MR. REYNOLDS: Yeah, I think he is. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Okay. MS. PAREIGIS: We can do that at lunch. MR. REYNOLDS: We got just two closers. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Okay. Fine. Then we will take your two closers -- well, let me do this: I have not had an opportunity to get public input. That might be appropriate to do at this time. So if we could have public input speakers, we'll let you then do a wrap. And at least I would like to introduce, for those who don't know him Dr. Henry Fishkind, who is here at this Page 58 May 1, 2001 workshop and will be addressing the Economic Development Council at 12:30 at the Naples Beach -- Beach and Hotel; right? MS. PAREIGIS: Correct. COMMISSIONER CARTER: All right. Thank you. MR. MIHALIC: Mr. Krasowski, would you like to -- COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Come sit by me, Bob. MR. KRASOWSKI: Okay. Just getting so comfortable here. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: That's the idea. MR. KRASOWSKI: Well, hello. My name's Bob Krasowski for the record, and I would like to as a private citizen compliment and congratulate the county commissioners and the staff and the Economic Development Council for having this workshop. I gain a lot from these things. I know others do, others here in the audience. And people get to watch these things broadcast on Channel 54. I've -- I've assembled a montage of ideas and -- and comments in regards to what you presented. So if I kind of jump all over the place, as -- in regards to your presentation, forgive me. But this seems to work for me. Let's see. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Bob's like I am; I can't read my own writing. MR. KRASOWSKI: Yeah. You should see this thing. But I -- I think that Miss -- Mrs. Fiala made a good point when she wanted to include local people in the knowledge base. And I'll take that as a segue to my comments, that also local people should be included, and businesses should be included in this -- this expansion that the EDC is monitoring and -- and encouraging, to a certain degree. I feel that this community is growing at such a fast rate and those of who -- of us who live here like to enjoy and maintain the quality of living that we've come to know and experience. And it's my perception that maybe things are moving ahead a little too fast. But then I would -- I'd like to Page 59 May 1, 2001 continue to monitor the developments and -- and what's happening. I noticed you made -- had the position that the environment and natural resources would be a major concern while you invite in industry to come here. And I hope that as one element of that you actually recognize what by-products or waste products are -- are the result of certain industries so that you don't negatively impact what is fairly clean waste stream, in particular, our -- our sewage, but when that's processed it has a certain class identification as to its components, as well as our solid waste. One of the main elements of the community that I've been interested in lately is the solid waste issue which -- which the county is addressing now. And I would love to -- if there is anyone in the EDC that's addressing that issue, I'd love to be able to talk with them. As -- a zero waste effort, which is a group that I've been aligning myself with as far as holding similar positions, nationally and internationally, identifies in their plan something like a smart park that -- that is built up around a resource recovery facility. I'm not talking burning waste. I'm talking recovering the resources and turning them back into the -- into the manufacturing stream and supporting local -- but we have an infrastructure. It's amazing in my research how I've identified in Florida and in Collier County all the elements and components of the business infrastructure to handle the -- these elements and we're just wasting them. I mean, we've done a dismal job up to now in handling these things. I'd love to see the EDC at your level of insight and investigation to join in the public interest effort to identify systems and to accommodate a meaningful resource recovery in this department. And then as Commissioner Henning has said, we have land around the landfill now adjacent to the landfill that could be used to change the landfill into a re -- resource recovery location. Page 60 May 1, 2001 COMMISSIONER HENNING: That isn't what I said. MR. KRASOWSKI: Oh, you said there was land -- COMMISSIONER HENNING: I said the partnership with economic development for a smart park. MR. KRASOWSKI: Okay. And -- and you used the example -- COMMISSIONER HENNING: I appreciate -- MR. KRASOWSKI: -- of Golden Gate as having workers and -- excuse me, Golden Gate as having workers and not have -- I took it as an opportunity to integrate it into what I see as another opportunity to redirect the waste stream at that location. In -- in this book I'm reading here, Natural Capital -- this was recommended to me by a gentleman -- there's a very interesting thing, and I'll end with this. I don't want to take too much time. But it -- it mentions this guy named Einstein who I think is pretty good as far as, like, you know, a person with insights and problem solving. But he says that problems can't be solved within the mindset that created them. Okay. The first step to any comprehensive economic and ecological change is to understand the mental model that forms the basis of the present economic thinking, the mindset of the present capitalist system, and they're suggesting a natural capitalism, not a -- you know, do away with capitalism, might be summarized as follows. And they describe various things here. My point is, is let's make sure that the Economic Development Council isn't just a continuum of old-world thinking. There's -- as things go on now, we're using up resources at a pace that can't be sustained. And when other international interests like China or other growing economies try to emulate our standard of living materialistically, it's just not there. Okay? So we have to give great consideration to sustainability. Show me your suggestions in regard to sustainability, and I'll -- I'll be on board. Page 61 May 1, 2001 Efficiency, we have to be efficient, okay. And where environmental interests versus development interests, we have to choose the environment, for the most part, because that's what sustains us. We cannot survive without the environment, and we can't be putting off always, you know, the -- what we need to -- to do. Economic progress can be -- can best occur in the free-market system of production and distribution where reinvested profits make laboring capital increasingly productive. Most people would agree to that, but when you step outside the box and evaluate that thinking in terms of what limited resources are involved in -- in growing this economic machine, we have to rethink what we've been doing. Competitive advantage is gained when bigger and more efficient plants manufacture more products for sale to expending -- expanding markets. Okay, great. But when your resources are limited and when they're -- we're having such an impact around the globe with what we do, it's something we have to consider. The people in North America use 25 percent of the natural resources. And we do a lot of good things with that. I'm not putting down our -- our -- our system, right. I think it needs to be refined. We're 5 percent of the people. And we use 25 percent of the -- of the materials, and we waste tons of it, okay. I mean, it's a resource at the end of the production system. It's a back end of the GNP. We can make that part of our economy and be responsible, you know. So, you know, anybody that's interested in joining -- or joining -- in sharing information along these lines, I'd love to talk to you. And, once again, you know, thanks for this opportunity. I think you're doing great things in this regard. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: For the listening audience, why don't you give them your telephone number. They may have an interest in your organization. MR. KRASOWSKI: Okay. Well, I can be reached at 434-0786. Page 62 May 1, 2001 COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I'll just say for members of the EDC board and otherwise, I found Bob's thought -- his work to be thoughtful, thorough. He's not a zealous -- he's a well-spoken -- and he does his research. And he's really a good, good resource. He has been for me. It wouldn't be a waste of your time. MR. KRASOWSKI: Well, I appreciate that endorsement. MS. PAREIGIS: Actually, I would -- I would just add, for the board's sake, that we concur with what you said. We see also that in the manufacturing -- maybe an example that I would love to share with you and I actually have you tour is -- Hellermann Tyton which is across from Collier's Reserve is what is called a closed system so that anything that is used in the process is reused in the process. MR. KRASOWSKI: Excellent. Excellent. MS. PAREIGIS: There is actually no by-products at the end of -- of the process. In addition, I think our board is very sensitive to -- it can't be either/or; it can't be economy or environment. It absolutely has to be Iockstepped together and must be balanced. The companies that we're talking about with the smart parks are looking for a green community. They're looking for a livable community. They're looking for a walkable community as well. So we actually see, if you look in Section 2, we actually have some partnership letters in there, one of which is from The Conservancy which actually says the mission of The Conservancy and the mission of the EDC are complimentary to each other, that, in fact, we are not looking at those population- driven development jobs but, in fact, those knowledge-based jobs which really do support a healthy environment. And we think that's absolutely essential. MR. KRASOWSKI: That's great. And I'm glad to hear your-- you have environmental interests as part of your involvement -- Page 63 May 1, 2001 MS. PAREIGIS: Commitment, I would say. MR. KRASOWSKI: Commitment. Good. But--and The Conservancy as an environmental institution, which I have great regard and respect for, but represents one element of the environmental community. Let's expand this to make sure everybody is involved. The shirts and the ties and the blue collar as well, they're the people that will handle, you know, recycling. And composting operations are an important element in the community. I hope that the EDC will have someone here on June 11th for the -- the solid waste or the materials reco -- the workshop that's going to deal with various aspects of the -- that the commissioners so wisely decided. MS. PAREIGIS: If we're not in the room, we'll definitely be watching it word for word. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Is that the Waste the Energy workshop? MR. KRASOWSKI: I didn't recall that, although it is billed on that by your solid waste manager. I think it was a little general -- general workshop. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Thank you very much, Bob. We have another speaker. MR. MIHALIC: Mr. -- Mr. Bauer. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Thank you. MR. OLLIFF: Any more? MR. MIHALIC: That's it. MR. BAUER: Well, good morning. I'm Mike Bauer, Audubon of Florida's Southwest policy director. Susan and Bob have -- have really stolen my thunder. I'm going to echo some of the things they've said. I've heard some very interesting things here this morning. I do think it's time for some partnerships between the environmental community, the business community, and the development community centered Page 64 May 1, 2001 around this concept that we all share, the idea of quality of life. I think this kind -- these kinds of partnerships are going to become very important when we start talking about site-specific recommendations, things that you didn't want to get into yet at this point. And Commissioner Carter's concept that he's talking about, walk to work, I think, is just fascinating. I think that's something we really have to explore more and more. But I wanted to let you know that along this idea of partnerships -- later on this month Dennis Gilkey of Bonita Beach, Mark Strain of Fiddler's Creek, Rick Barber, Bob Mulhere, Michael Simonik, and I are going to be sitting down and forming the basis for a smart growth task force. And after this first meeting when we figure out what we're going to do and how we're going to proceed, we're going to open this up and start asking other people to join us, people like Susan and -- and others in the community. But we're -- we're going to start developing these kinds of partnerships with respect to these ideas that you've been talking about today. I wanted to let you know, give you a heads up. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Okay. Just a suggestion that you talk to Dean Pegnetter and also John Fitch, if he's not already in your loop, because he's been doing a lot of work on green -- the green building and green development. He would be a really good resource. COMMISSIONER CARTER: I also would encourage you to draw on International College locally and have them be a part of that discussion. MR. BAUER: I will do that. appreciate it. COMMISSIONER CARTER: business? MR. MIHALIC: Great. Thank you very much. I Okay. Thank you, sir. Any other Al, did you want to make some closing Page 65 May 1, 2001 statements or-- MR. REYNOLDS: Are you ready for me? COMMISSIONER CARTER: We're ready for you. MR. REYNOLDS: We can wrap up, quickly. Just a couple of things. First, in going through this, we tried to boil down what we thought were the ingredients of success. You know, this is a -- a fairly young effort. The public-private partnership is 3 1/2 years old. We knew that -- that the -- the first stage was really building the ability to tackle economic development in a meaningful way. What we've done is we've identified what we feel have been our ingredients for making this work. And they're not necessarily in order, but certainly the first is -- is a clear mission. We can -- we can say what the mission is in economic development in one sentence, and that's the creation of high- wage, value-added ]obs. We also recognize that -- that in starting this up, we've had limited resources, and that's -- that's understandable, and so that's why we've put such an emphasis on strategic partnerships. There are a tremendous number of organizations in this community that we are able to leverage this effort through those partnerships. And when you look at our program of action, you're going to see that a substantial portion of what we do is in partnership not only with the county but with a lot of other organizations to try to maximize the -- the net effect. Applied expertise, we have Susan Pareigis, who, by my estimation, is -- is the best economic development professional in the State of Florida. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Not just yours. A lot of people agree. MR. REYNOLDS: And she has assembled -- . COMMISSIONER CARTER: You better raise your salary, right, Susan? Page 66 May 1, 2001 MS. PAREIGIS: Oh, yeah. MR. REYNOLDS: But it really takes that effort and the expertise of your staff and Greg and the assistance has -- really allows us to be effective. Being very focused on what we're doing, everything that we do we bring back to our mission statement, say is this consistent with what we're trying to do. And if it's not, it doesn't mean it's not important; it just means it's not part of our mission, it's not part of what we're focused on. I think the measurable results -- and we talked about the fact that we do measure our results, and we do it in a way that is very conservative because we want to make sure we can defend and show that what we are doing is producing a result in one that can be measured and action oriented that in, you know, the proof is in the doing. And -- and we believe that very strongly. None of us in this county have excess time. So it's important that when we're doing things we're doing them in a way that results in an action. I think effective communications was talked about, and I heard that -- that we need to do more in communications. And I think that's a -- that's very good comment is that we need to get the word out. We need to keep making sure that people understand what economic development means to us and how to accomplish it. And I think with that is the idea of a positive image. And several people mentioned the fact that what we have in Collier County that gives our competitive advantage is our quality of life. And notwithstanding issues that we're dealing with, we still have the best quality of life in Florida, and it's very important that we keep projecting that image to the world, that that is what we're about -- that's what we want to keep, and I will assure that you that's something that I think you'll see in all of our information that we put out there that the quality is always the defining -- you know, the defining parameter. Page 67 May 1, 2001 And so that's what we feel is resulting in -- in achieving what we're trying to do at the Economic Development Council. And I guess the -- the closers, I really want to thank Commissioner Carter. I want to thank the board, Tom and John and Greg and -- and everybody that's working on this because this really is a great example of -- of a true partnership effort, and we think it's producing results, and we're very, very encouraged that the board is supportive of it and recognizing that this is a long-term effort. This is something that -- that we will measure the results and the success 10 years from now or 15 years from now as to whether we really accomplished our mission. So we thank you for your time. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Thank you, sir. Comments from the commissioners? COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I'd just like to thank you, Alan, Susan, for everything you've done, the rest of your committee. The staff-- I can see some very positive results going forward on this. I'm a little bit concerned we don't have representatives here today from the environmental community. I am sure that they will give us their input as we go into this process further. I would suggest that at further workshops that maybe we get the word out to them what the subject matter is going to be. COMMISSIONER HENNING: I have nothing. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Well, my only comment is a question, and that is -- I know the hour's late and I don't want to open up a whole other can of worms, but we have been talking a little bit at the county commission level about the airport authority. And I wonder if it is something that is within the mission of the EDC to help us measure the economic development consequences of the Immokalee airport's existence because I think as we start looking, we're going to ask the productivity committee to give us a report on the efficiencies and Page 68 May 1, 2001 the -- and the financial status of the Collier County Airport Authority and perhaps other issues too. One of the things that I'm wondering about is if there's a measurable way to determine - - like you told us, we give you a dollar, you give us $139. Is there a way to measure the economic impact to Collier County of the Immokalee airport's incubator and other facilities? I think that that might be an appropriate thing to begin to look at on the issue of whether or not -- or to what extent the airport authority pays back the investment that the county commission has made that we have called its loans for many years and are, in fact, its loans. But I wonder if it is measurable, No. 1; No. 2, if it is something -- I know that you say, Alan, that you measure everything against your mission statement. Is it something we could look to the EDC for some help with in trying to measure the economic impact of the Immokalee airport? MS. PAREIGIS: I would just say, generally speaking, from the private sector side, we always want to have performance measurements in whatever that we do so we know we're being successful or not. I think that performance measurements can be crafted for the airport authority. But, again, you know, our measurement is job creation. You need to determine at the airport what it -- what the mission of that airport authority is. You know, grant writing is maybe part and parcel of that, getting customs on site, maybe part and parcel of those performance measurements as well. And Greg may want to speak to the issue. But I do believe that there are some industry standards within aviation aerospace and actually airports. I know that the Southwest Florida International Airport we now have Jeff Fridkin on that as well. He may be a liaison for us as well to look at some of their performance measurements that they're using. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I just expect, going again from a - - from a gut reaction, that we are going to find that this is an Page 69 May 1, 2001 investment, likewise, that's paid substantial benefits and has potential to pay extremely substantial returns in the future. And I don't want to ignore that repayment that's coming to the community. That's -- and I'm looking for a way to measure it. MS. PAREIGIS: That's -- it's an investment. MR. REYNOLDS: I -- I would say that but for the decision to create the airport authority and what's happened out there, our economic development efforts would be a two-legged stool because airports maybe we failed to mention in the same breath as infrastructure is probably the defining differential in most economic development efforts. And, you know, I think it's noteworthy that prior to the creation of the public-private partnership, one of the things that occupied a tremendous amount of the EDC's time was the recommendation of the establishment of the Collier County airport. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: That's true. MR. REYNOLDS: And recognizing that that was an indispensable piece of the puzzle for us to have any kind of a meaningful economic development effort here. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Well, I don't know if the rest of the board is interested even in having that analysis undertaken, and I -- you know, I am interested in it, and it may be something I can pursue individually if it's not something that the board as a whole is interested in. But I'd like to have some measurement of the return on investment so far at the airport and, you know, a projection of anticipated return from an economic development standpoint as opposed to from a dollar, paid-back-for-dollar- loaned standpoint. COMMISSIONER CARTER: For -- before when we kind of wrap that part up, Commissioner Fiala, let me get your comments, and then I'd like to go back to Commissioner Mac'Kie. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you. Two comments. First Page 70 May 1, 2001 of all, I was wondering, Tom, somebody mentioned about the workshop agendas and how many people maybe could be here or watched. Is there a way that you could, number one, run a workshop -- I know we have a whole list of all the workshops that are coming up in the next few months -- if we could run it on Channel 54 periodically and, secondly, if we could run it in the Nal~les Daily News, the whole list, not just the one coming up, but the whole list, once a week or something so people might be able to loin us. And that was just a comment. I don't know that it can be done or not, but please look into it. And then secondly, Commissioner Carter, being that you're our liaison with the EDC, I would love to have you call upon each one of us whenever you need us, because we're going to back you up on this to include the things that we're the liaison for like the environment. For instance, Pam's the liaison for environment, and I'm the work-force housing or the redevelopment. Jim's the roads. I -- I can't even remember, Tom, what you are. But, anyway, we'd love to be a support system for you. COMMISSIONER HENNING: Carter's at bathroom. So just remember that. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. Yes, sir. MR. PASSIDOMO: That could be important. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Considering our sewage problems lately, you know, that's an important ]ob. COMMISSIONER FIALA: So thank you. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Thank you. And there's no question we can integrate all of this, and we need to because each are a part of this that been discussed here this morning, you must -- the focus on quality of life which is -- and has the other stool economic feasibility and environmental sensitivity, you always got that three-legged stool to fold everything in. And Page 71 May 1, 2001 what's encouraging to me when the Audubon Society sits there and says we want to work collectively at the table. And that's where we haven't been in the past. We have not been collectively at the table. People have been doing what I'm going to call our own agendas instead of melding the agendas together for the all -- good of the community, which comes back to the subject that Commissioner Mac'Kie brought up about the airport authority. The airport authority to me is one that needs to be integrated into this process as a part of our economic development tool. And maybe we're not using the right measurements. Maybe when they said to us we're trying to repay loans to you may not be the direction we need to go. We got to look at a bigger picture with that. What is it we want to measure? What is the contributions of an airport authority? And they really have been operating with their advisory board on their own because no one was really paying whole lot of attention to them but other than giving them -- and, rightly so, they give them a lot of at-a-boys because they have been doing a great job out there and doing. But if we don't integrate that into our total process, then we're missing opportunities, because John Drury and his group to me is a vital player in everything that we're trying to accomplish. So I think, yes, it needs to be measured. I wholeheartedly support that. So we need an integration of what it is and how it works and where it goes in the total picture because they may not be sharing the same vision as we are or their visions -- our visions are parallel, but we're not doing a good job with communicating with each other on that aspect. So we want to work on that and draw that in, because I don't want the airport authority in my judgment ever feel that we're not supportive of them, that we don't value what they're doing, because they are Page 72 May 1, 2001 very, very important to us, as well as the Naples Airport Authority, which is not our jurisdiction. But if you look at the millions of dollars that generates in this community, it -- it cannot be left out of this -- this equation because they are players, and we just need to do a better job of making sure that we're going there. So I think it's -- it's a right direction, Commissioner Mac'Kie, that we need to get the integration with the EDC, with the Board of County Commissioners to make sure that we're going where we want to go and doing what we need to do. MR. OLLIFF: Mr. Chairman, in closing and sort of -- the EDC members will have to excuse me. I don't get this opportunity too often where I -- I've got them altogether and I can talk to them. I distributed a memo that provides a proposed schedule of workshops for the balance of the fiscal year. And I've tried to make notes as we've gone along through the first four months, the new commission, about the issues that I think have been of interest and issues that I think could benefit us as -- as a board and county government the most. So just take the time when you get a chance and look over that. And if there are some things, perhaps, that you think that we need to cover or that aren't on that list or that we haven't already covered, by all means, bring it up perhaps in our communications on the May 8th meeting and let me know, and we can work on that. In the meantime, we're going to be working with your schedules to try and to schedule these items. In closing, on -- on that list, though, you will notice the airport authority is a scheduled workshop following the productivity committee's review and recommendations. And we've already begun that process. John, in fact, initiated it, I believe, same day, on that Tuesday, asking the productivity committee to get aggressive and start working with them. Page 73 May 1, 2001 But just -- the only other thing I will leave you with on -- on that point is I think historically we have always looked at the airport strictly as an investment return issue in terms of dollars and cash. And John Drury, myself, and the -- the director of the airport advisory board met the other day. And I'm not sure that as a philosophy we haven't taken the wrong road. And -- and when we come back, I think John and -- and the board is going to at least talk to you about the idea of the airport's already public infrastructure facility a lot like your roads, your waters, and your sewers. And I'm not sure that you -- you need to always look at the airports as some business return where we're strictly looking at it from that -- that perspective. Granted, I think that they do return a great deal more than a lot of your other public infrastructures, but I think that there is a need and a public benefit to simply having airports that are growing to meet -- match the demands of the community's growth, and I think you'll see that as part of your budget presentation and probably as part of that workshop that we have later on this year. COMMISSIONER HENNING: And I think Commissioner Mac'Kie made a great point. What is the payback of the airports? And it would be great for the community to take a look at. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I agree. COMMISSIONER CARTER: We're all on the same page. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: It can happen. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Because we can't get together, we -- we get together, and we always like to take opportunities just to share a couple of quick things. As you know, Commissioner Coletta and I were in Tallahassee for two days last week. We worked with a lobbyist up there that was under contract with our public utilities group, Bleu Wallace. He really helped us a great deal working at the particularly identified bills Page 74 May '1~ 200'1 and issues. We got to a lot -- we got to our own delegation, not always to the representatives because they're on the floor and with some of the senators, including our own senator, Burt Saunders, and were able to make our presentations in terms of what we were trying to accomplish in the areas, whether it was environment, whether it was transportation, whether it was healthcare, whether it was the eminent domain issues, whether it was telecommunications. We don't know how we're going to end up at the end of the session, but I will tell you if we weren't there and we didn't make that effort, we would not have been as successful in this effort. It is pointed out to us, we as a county must make an effort. We must work regionally. And Dr. Merwin yesterday in our meeting said, you know, they want to host the review in June. They want to host the next regional meeting. You collectively find Southwest Florida is going to make a major effort to work on the delegation -- work on the legislature, because that's the only way we're going to have any opportunity to get flow funding -- funding over here in the future, because if we don't do it, it's -- all the burden is going to fall locally. We don't want to be there. So instead of working as independent entities, we're going to look collectively going there and presenting those cases. We also were able to accomplish some other issue-related subjects in terms of where we're trying to go with Lely Barefoot Beach, also with the gatehouse at Lely Barefoot and just let you know that we were able to move some pieces forward just by being there and having the opportunity to discuss that with the appropriate people. I had a conversation with Secretary Seibert and let him know that we're making ongoing progress in all of the areas, explained to him where we were on Mirasol. He appreciated the update. Again, he commends Collier County for us working diligently through our committees and doing Page 75 May 1, 2001 everything we're trying to do, and they believe that we will be a model for the State of Florida and looking for a lot of our efforts to pay big dividends. And they know that it is a difficult assignment. They know that everything we do isn't always accepted well everywhere by everyone. But on the aggregate, they are proud of this board who may not have all the answers, but we sure as heck are asking the right questions. And so we're getting kudos from Tallahassee, from DCA, and that, I think, is important for us. So that's, I think, kind of a quick update. Commissioner Colettea? COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I just wanted to add to that. I think we need to be a little more proactive next year to start with the legislation delegation before they get here to identify our needs and the areas concerned and start a whole process from the very beginning where we can track it and send representatives up there on a regular basis. And I suggest we always involve the private community to go up at their own expenses. And I talked to a number of people that have an interest in this for the good of the county to go up there, because the more represent -- representatives we have to represent the county, the better off we'll be in the long run. It will be a process where we need to follow up with letters afterwards and be able to track the bills of interest to the county. I'm sure if we do this correctly there will be millions of dollars in savings, and cost benefits will come back to the county. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: I'm going to continue to beat this drum too. I think we need to continue professional lobbying efforts. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: proactive ourselves. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: COMMISSIONER CARTER: Yeah, In addition to us being Both. You need a quarterback up there. Page 76 May 1, 2001 COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Right. COMMISSIONER CARTER: And that's your lobbyist to do that. They really know the system. They know how to get around. They'll save you a huge amount of time. So it was -- I think Jim and I would say it was a very interesting learning curve. COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: factory? COMMISSIONER CARTER: Didn't you call it the sausage Yeah. That would probably be the politest term I can call it, but it's -- it -- it really is something. But I would tell you, we should be extremely proud of the people who represent us, Senator Saunders and Representative Goodlette. And Dudley Goodlette does a job on that house floor; it is absolutely awesome. And he is the talk of Tallahassee. So I believe that we are just truly blessed to have him there to be working for us and -- COMMISSIONER MAC'KIE: Make a awfully good speaker, I think. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Oh, he is something else. I'm going to tell you, he is great. So that's kind of it. Thank you-all for being here. I believe, if nothing else, we stand -- MR. MIHALIC: I think they want to preview the website. COMMISSIONER CARTER: Oh, I'm sorry. Greg, I'm sorry. I apologize. MS. PAREIGIS: That's all right. We're good to go. We're going to call it a day. MR. MIHALIC: Well, they can look on the way up. MS. PAREIGIS: I will -- I will share with you, we have a post- legislative luncheon on May 31st at the Vineyards at 11:30. We'll have the delegation there as well if you would like to come join LIS, COMMISSIONER CARTER: Thank you. Page 77 May 1, 2001 have the delegation there as well if you would like to come join US, COMMISSIONER CARTER: Thank you. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: If you would send us a memo our way on that, I'd appreciate it. MS. PAREIGIS: Got it. There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 11:40 a.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL ATTEST:* .DWIGHT*.E' BROCK, CLERK These minutes approved by the Board on ~-~/ as presented ~ or as corrected Page 78 May 1, 2001 TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF DONOVAN COURT REPORTING, INC., BY BARBARA A. DONOVAN, RMR, CRR Page 79