DSAC Minutes 01/02/2002 RJanuary 2, 2002
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Naples, Florida, January 2, 2002
LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Development Services
Advisory Committee, in and for the County of Collier, having
conducted business herein, met on this date at 3:40 p.m.
in REGULAR SESSION, in Conference Room "E", 2800 North
Horseshoe Drive, Naples, Florida, with the following
members present:
CHAIRPERSON: Tom Masters, P.E.
Charles M. Abbott
R. Bruce Anderson, Esq.
Dalas D. Disney, A.I.A.
Robert L. Duane, A.I.C.P.
Marco A. Espinar, P.E.
Blair A. Foley, P.E.
Dino J. Longo
Thomas R. Peek, P.E.
Herbert R. Savage, A.I.A.
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January 2, 2002
ALSO PRESENT:
John Dunnuck, Assistant County Manager
Commissioner Jim Coletta
Patrick White, Assistant County Attorney
Denny Baker, Development Services
Business Manager
Joyceanna J. Rautio, Chairman
Collier County Planning Commission
Edward Perico
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DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE
AGENDA
January 2, 2002
3:30 p.m.
II1.
IV.
Approval of Agenda
Approval of Minutes - December 5, 2001- Regular Meeting
November 14, 2001- Special Meeting
Staff Announcements
A. AUIR Update- Discussion Only
B. Resumes for Development Services Advisory Committee Member
vacancies
Old Business
A. FEMA Update-Discussion Only
Subcommittee Reports A. Land Development Regulation (Bob Duane)
B. Construction Code (Dino Longo)
C. Utility Code (Tom Masters)
D. Ad Hoc Committee on Fees
VI. New Business
VII. Committee Member Comments
January 2, 2002
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay. Let's go ahead and call the
meeting to order. Do we have a quorum? Anybody have anything
they'd like to add to the agenda?
John, we all set?
MR. DUNNUCK: I think we're all set on our side.
MR. SAVAGE: I ask a question, Mr. Chairman --
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Yes.
MR. SAVAGE: -- if I were a member of the committee, do we
have elections for the new officers today for the first meeting of the
year?
MR. ABBOTT: Not officers -- members. I take that back.
MR. DUNNUCK: I think we're going to do it -- until we get the
new members on board, we'll do it next month.
MR. SAVAGE: Do you know who the old members are?
MR. DUNNUCK: We're verifying that right now.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay. With that, anybody like to
make a motion to approve the agenda?
MR. PEEK: I move the agenda be approved.
MR. SAVAGE: Second.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Seconded by Herb Savage. All in
favor.
(Unanimous response.)
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Any opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay. The agenda is approved.
Okay. Let's go ahead and have a look at our minutes from the
December 5th meeting. Anybody have any comments on that?
MR. DUNNUCK: I have one correction that it has me moving
the agenda for approval on that meeting, and I don't think it was me
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January 2, 2002
that probably recommended approval of that agenda for December
5th.
MR. ANDERSON: You probably just orchestrated it.
MR. DUNNUCK: Probably.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: It also has you listed as a member on
the list.
MR. DUNNUCK: So I think we make those corrections.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Any other corrections?
Okay. And did anybody have any comments on the November 14th
special meeting?
MR. SAVAGE: Yes.
COURT REPORTER:
I wasn't here.
Please identify yourself.
MR. SAVAGE: Herb Savage.
COURT REPORTER: I need you to identify yourselves for a
few minutes when you speak.
MR. SAVAGE: Herb Savage. I'm trying to figure out whether
or not if I'm still a member.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Until we have a replacement, they're
still members; correct?
MR. ABBOTT: Yes. Hold it up and waive it.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay. With no comments on either
meeting minutes, anybody care to make a motion?
MR. FOLEY: Blair Foley, I'll make motion for approval of the
minutes of the two meetings mentioned. MR. PEEK: I'll second.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: All in favor.
(Unanimous response.)
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Any opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay. Motion approved. Now
move on to staff announcements.
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January 2, 2002
MR. DUNNUCK: Yeah. I want to keep you-all posted on, you
know, some of the things that have been going on, you know, outside
of this committee, and there's been a few things recently.
Starting with the AUIR, you probably -- if you follow the
newspaper -- are aware that we presented the beginning of the AUIR
study with the Board of County Commissioners earlier this month.
There was lots of discussion regarding some transportation issues
relative to how we've gone about and handled the concurrency in the
past, and long story short the Board of County Commissioners is
recommending that we look at options because right now we have
two options in our comp plan for the most part, and that's approval of
the AUIR or moratorium, and the moratorium puts the constraint on
the roads of approximately three miles if it's a major collector road.
The board -- we have some roads that historically the board has
considered politically constrained but we've never set up the
parameters of what those road segments are. So the board gave us
direction on a segment of Davis Boulevard, a segment of U.S. 41 and
the third segment is -- I'm drawing a blank right now, Bruce. Can
you help me out? Do you remember which one it was -- oh,
Vanderbilt Beach, that they historically said is a constrained road
between 41 and, actually, Gulf Shore Boulevard -- to go back and
actually define what those boundaries are and not do it as a three-mile
radius, but rather do it as, you know, something that we can control
the growth on those areas but that, you know, we can work with,
obviously, development -- redevelopment in those areas.
Along those lines, too, the board had some discussion on kind of
AUIR and what it really means and it's transportation and staffs
recommendation that we take a hard look at exactly how we look at
the AUIR as being the annual update. You know, it's -- right now, I
think, in the code it's designated to be two things. One, it defines that
it's -- it defines, you know, our annual update of what our inventory is
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January 2, 2002
in the county, and the second thing is it's supposed to provide a level
of comfort for concurrency for the entire following year.
They are looking at that second option really hard as being is that
the definition of AUIR and, actually, looking to proposed
amendments in this current Land Development Code cycle to restrict
or to change that definition, to make it the annual report to tell the
community here's where we are as far as the inventory, but to look
towards a checkbook type of concurrency management program
which is, you know, as permits come in or as plats or site
development plans come in, that's where we would look to see where
the triggers are whether we can continue to allow permits to be issued
or not so that we're looking at more of a concurrent basis as opposed
to looking at it from an annual basis.
And staff is busy right now drafting some of those amendment
languages for-- for the Board of County Commissioners, but I
wanted to alert you-all because it's something that hasn't come
through the DSAC. It's something that's been directed but -- we
would not adopt it at the second Land Development Code hearing
next Wednesday, but we would initiate it as that would be the first
part, and we would have another hearing two weeks after that.
January 23rd would actually be the adoption. So that's in the mix
right now. I wanted to alert you-all.
There's a third piece of the puzzle that was assigned separate from
the land development-- that became part of the Land Development
Code during the board meeting of the first hearing, and that was this
issue of how we treat reviews. In the Land Development Code and
then PUDs, there's usually one last sentence -- when it's defining the
allowable uses, it says, "Or other type similar uses." And it's
typically been the planner's discretion to decide to determine
ultimately if something is being proposed actually is similar to those
uses. It's kind of that catch-all phrase in case you figure in codes
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January 2, 2002
you're going to miss something.
The Board of County Commissioners has directed staff to bring
back an amendment that makes all those type of uses conditional uses
so that they will go to the Board of County Commissioners for
ultimate approval and not be done at the staff level. We had
recommended it be done as an official interpretation; that way we can
do it somewhat administratively, but the board recommended
conditional use.
So those are some of the major changes that have been kind of
added on to this -- this cycle of the Land Development Code, and I
wanted to bring you-all up to speed because there are some major
issues.
MR. LONGO: So, John, what you're telling us that what you
got -- your actions on the direction of the county commission on your
AUIR reports are not going to come before DSAC --
MR. DUNNUCK: Well, what I would recommend is we hold a
special meeting between January 9th and January 23rd so that at the
very least the Development Services Advisory Committee gets the
opportunity to review it. We're setting up a special meeting with the
Planning Commission right now in between those two meetings, but
certainly that's -- that's the gist of it, and that's why I wanted to bring
it to your attention.
MR. LONGO: And the second question I have is, what
happened to our mediator? Would he or she handle those type of
issues that you're talking about making conditional uses now?
MR. DUNNUCK: Well, the hearing examiner -- as a matter of
fact, I'm finalizing the draft on who -- the board gave me direction to
-- because it's a position that works specifically for the board, so it's
not something that we hire administratively. I'm handling it similar
to how we handle the community development administrator
position, though, and then I'm recommending to the board that we
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January 2, 2002
have a subcommittee set up to interview hearing-examiner candidates
that will be comprised of a member of the Board of County
Commissioners, a member of the Planning Commission, a member of
the Development Services Advisory Committee, a member of the
Environmental Advisory Committee and then one staff member
appointed by the county manager to sit on a subcommittee to make
that recommendation on who the hearing examiner would be.
But to answer your question, we're probably about four to six
months away from having the hearing examiner put together, you
know, having him in place. And the way the board has currently
constructed the hearing examiner process, conditional uses, the
hearing would be with the hearing examiner, but it would be a
recommendation to the board on conditional uses. The hearing
examiner would not make the final determination at this point in
time.
MR. SAVAGE' Mr. Chairman, Herb Savage. It's my feeling
that the commission just doesn't trust the judgment of staff; is that
correct? You don't have to answer that. That's my feeling about that.
I think they probably want to take the blame themselves instead of
pointing the finger, "You did it wrong." You know, it's amazing to
me they have such little confidence in their staff, and I'd like to tell
them so one of these days, and I will tell you so.
(Laughter.)
MR. SAVAGE: I think it's ridiculous that we don't allow
ourselves to have a staff that can use good judgment, and they do --
they do. And I'll tell Mr. Coletta that and anybody else in the county
commission.
MR. ANDERSON' About the hearing officer, when that was
approved, it's my recollection that the commission did not want to
assign him any more responsibilities until they had fixed the Land
Development Code. This is the third set of Land Development Code
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January 2, 2002
amendments in the last 12 months. Is the fix in now so that more
responsibility can be given to the hearing examiner?
MR. DUNNUCK: I believe -- well, I believe to a greater degree
what the board committed -- I brought the funding of the hearing
examiner to the Board of County Commissioners about a month and
a half ago, and I gave them the option of whether they wanted to do it
on a contractual basis and have somebody from the outside because
recognizing that if you only had the hearing examiner doing
variances and conditional uses, he wasn't going to be spending a lot
of time, you know, and it wouldn't justify a full-time position. As
part of that executive summary, I reported to the board that I --
looking at the big picture, I thought transition-wise it would be much
better to have a full-time hearing examiner because the board has
indicated that if we make those fixes we will go to a more
progressive program which would be final decisions on conditional
uses and -- and, you know, whether we've got the board to commit to
the PUD type of program right now where the hearing examiner
would be hearing PUDs as well, I'm not sure. I think they want to see
it in place for a little while, but certainly we need to get that hearing
examiner hired and up and running, and that's why I'm bringing this
executive summary forward to the committee so we can-- we can
begin the advertisement and selection of the person.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Anything else?
MR. DUNNUCK: That's it on that one.
The next one is resumes for Development Service Advisory
Committee members. There's four resumes and four positions
available. You know if the committee wants to review and make a
recommendation to the board, it's certainly their option.
MR. LONGO: John, do you know the categories they're
supposed to be filling?
MR. DUNNUCK: Well, the categories, I believe, are
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January 2, 2002
engineering, you know, construction, what is vacant right now. You
know, it's never a specific category. It's all a recommendation of the
actual ordinance itself. So I kind of looked at this as you've got four
positions available, you've got four people who have applied.
Historically the commission has always appointed those four people
that have applied if there's only -- if there's four positions available.
MR. SAVAGE: Mr. Chairman, Herb Savage. Who sent the
letters out? I think I'm at the end of my term, but I never received a
request whether I was interested in renewing. I don't have to be
appointed again, but I -- I should have gotten a letter.
MR. DUNNUCK: It's handled by the county commissioner's
office, and I'll verify those because, as I said, we were -- we were
provided a list of the resumes, and that was about the amount of the
detail we received.
MR. ABBOTT: Sue Filson called me about it and said she was
handling it, and the only one I think she said at the time, you know,
that everybody reapplied or did not. Bruce didn't want to.
MR. ANDERSON: No. I applied.
MR. ABBOTT: Okay.
MR. ANDERSON: And I said if another-- because they didn't
have enough applicants and that if another attorney applied for the
attorney position then to remove my application. That's what
happened.
MR. ABBOTT: Okay.
MR. ESP1NAR: Mr. Chairman, Marco Espinar. Which of the
four that are vacating right now? Charlie's one. Bruce is another.
Who are the other two?
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: David Correa.
MR. ABBOTT: David Correa was the other one. David Correa
told me that he would not reapply. He had other fish to fry.
MR. ESPINAR: So you're one. Bruce is another. Dave is the
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January 2, 2002
third and Herb's the fourth?
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Well, we haven't been able to
confirm.
MR. DUNNUCK: I've got it right here.
MR. SAVAGE: Mr. Chairman, Herb Savage. Is that shown
that a letter was sent off to Herb Savage there?
MR. DUNNUCK: This does not, no. This is only my list that
we dug out of the file.
MR. SAVAGE: They probably knew who it was and sent it to
him because Itm in the City of Marco Island.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Well, I mean, is there anything that
would preclude us doing Herb as a write-in at the end -- so we could
recommend Herb over one of these other applicants if we so desired?
Okay.
MS. RAUTIO: Point of order, since he didn't apply, you may
want to make it very abundantly clear that he didn't get his
notification because, technically, he has to apply to be recommended.
Joyceanna Rautio, former member and Planning Commission person.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Thank you.
MR. ESPINAR: Mr. Chairman, Marco Espinar, are we voting
for new members today?
CHAIRMAN MASTERS:
recommendations.
I think we're looking for
MR. ESPINAR: Recommendations. I'd like to make a
recommendation that we accept some of the incumbents and then
take it from there and see who else is left, and then we can vote from
there.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay. Well, we have two
incumbants that have expressed a desire to return.
MR. ABBOTT: Two and a half.
MR. SAVAGE: One and a half.
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January 2, 2002
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Anyway --
MR. SAVAGE: No respect.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: So we have Charlie Abbott and Herb
Savage as desiring to come back.
Tom?
MR. PEEK: Tom Peek, the other two positions -- I would -- I
know Tony Pires. He's got a lot of experience.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Right. And that would fill Bruce
Anderson's spot as the other attorney.
MR. PEEK: I would like to recommend Justin Martin. Justin
has been on our utilities subcommittee for a number of years and
been the mainstay of getting a lot of the utility and code work done in
the last year and a half or two years and has been greatly involved in
that and would make an excellent member of this committee,
particularly as a liaison with the utility subcommittee. So I would
like to recommend Justin Martin.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Do we have a second on that?
MR. ESPINAR: I'll second.
MR. SAVAGE: I'll second.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: That's the start of your motion.
MR. ESPINAR: That's right.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Amended by Tom.
MR. ESPINAR: That's right.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay. All in favor of those
recommendations say aye.
(Unanimous response.)
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Any opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay.
Next order of business is our-- actually, do we have a particular
item that you'd like to get --
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COMMISSIONER COLETTA: No. No. I'm just sitting here to
witness what's taking place. I'm very proud of you-all. You, too, Mr.
Savage.
MR. SAVAGE: You know I'm very quiet about my opinion.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: With that, let's -- let's go ahead and
move on to a FEMA update then.
MR. LONGO: Mr. Chairman, I sat down with Bob Devland and
Patrick White last week, and we sent off the final appeal for whatever
we had to send off last week to make the final appeal, and our 90-day
process was up I believe last -- on the 28th. We don't have a
response yet from FEMA, so we don't know where we are. All's we
know is that we have a packet of about an inch and a half thick with
rebuttals to their wave setup, and from what we're being told by the
consultant, if his numbers are correct the proposed FEMA maps
would go back to nearly what they are today, which means the
proposed increases are anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 feet in some
sections, B Zones to B-E Zones. With new calculations on the
transects and wave setup, we're projecting, if we win, that the FEMA
maps will go back to where they nearly are right now.
They will probably accept the Golden Gate study and assign
some numbers to Golden Gate. That doesn't mean that those
residents out in Golden Gate Estates are going to get tagged up to --
upwardly to $1,200 per unit flood insurance that currently don't pay
flood insurance right now. We don't know what our -- what our
response is going to be until we get something back from FEMA. At
that point they can either say it goes to mediation or they just dismiss
it promptly and tell us an effective date for the maps to go into effect.
At that point Patrick and Bob Devland and Gene Chartrand
would go before the county commission and ask them whether they
want to go to litigation or take it to the Court.
The politics of things is we've opened a huge can of worms
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nationwide because their wave setup and their modules that they're
using -- models that they're using could be flawed which means that
everything they do on the coast could be flawed across the nation.
There's big bucks involved in this, so we'll see how the politics play
out. You know, we spent three years on this, and I hope our hard
work pays off, but we're the David against the Goliath right now
trying to get that slingshot going. We'll see what happens.
MR. DUNNUCK: What I've been told is that we asked for the
procedures on the transect zone on what -- on what their
methodology was, and on every case that we challenged it and sent
our surveyors out there and followed their procedures they were off;
that they had incorrectly done the individual studies in every case and
that they were also supposed to procedurally do other measurements
that they did not do as part of the study. So that's -- from our
perspective it seems like we have a pretty strong case.
MR. LONGO: We were pretty well stonewalled by FEMA.
The FEMA office when called -- we asked for their backup to their
calculations and stuff. They responded by telling us it would be
$19,000 in documentation. We responded by saying, "Let us come
up there and pull the documents we need, and we'll pay for those,"
and they would not let us. So Patrick had been on that. I don't know
quite what the response was back and forth legally on that, but we did
mention that in our letter, and we documented chronologically the
request for information and the no answers or the noninformation that
we didn't get back. So we can only make three-quarters of our case
based on scientific fact because we didn't have some of the backup to
go against, so to speak.
(Mr. White joined meeting.)
MR. ABBOTT: Say it again since he just walked in.
MR. LONGO: Oh, Patrick can probably enlighten us as to
where it went. I was just telling them about the FEMA response,
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January 2, 2002
Patrick, and where it was going.
MR. WHITE: Patrick White, assistant county attorney. It was
timely filed. We'll have the board ratify that action next Tuesday.
MR. LONGO: And then we're just waiting to hear?
MR. WHITE: Yes. And we're contemplating the need to
expend perhaps another $4,500 that may or may not already be out
there for the purpose of getting some Freedom of Information Act
information that we've been requesting for about three months and
the Feds have been kind of back and forth with us on it trying to
isolate specifically what we need.
MR. LONGO: Nineteen thousand went to forty-five hundred
based on the information we could truly say we needed, and we think
we have some monies left over. Gene's not here today and-- in the
original budget that was budgeted and allowed for by the consultant,
so we may have up to $6,000 left in there. If not we'd have to go
back before the board and ask for a little bit more money.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Thank you.
MR. SAVAGE: Mr. Chairman, Herb Savage. I just want to say
that, you know, did we ever sit and say thank you to Dino or Dalas
who's on that committee?
Who else is with you on that group?
MR. LONGO: Charlie.
MR. SAVAGE: It just amazes me how great it is that somebody
small as they might seem stands up to the big -- which is it -- Goliath
or the other one? MR. ABBOTT:
MR. SAVAGE:
Goliath. It's not like Marco Island.
But it is wonderful, and I just compliment them
tremendously for that. And also John Dunnuck and this whole staff
to sit up and say, "Hey, you big Goliath, you know, this is it." And I
think we ought to put up the $4,500 and we ought to take litigation
and encourage Marco and Naples and all of us to do that.
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January 2, 2002
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Thank you, Herb. I think we all
agree.
Subcommittee reports. Bob, I don't believe we've had a
meeting. No land development construction code?
MR. LONGO: The only thing I'm concerned with -- and I need
to ask Ed Perico -- is how we've come along on our administrative
ordinance to enact the --
MR. PERICO: The ordinance.
MR. LONGO: -- okay, I'm not sure that we need to see that. I
think we probably should.
MR. ABBOTT: See a copy of it.
MR. LONGO: Yeah. It's the proposed -- what's going to
happen is your construction ordinance is going to be deleted and your
new one administrative ordinance is going to come out, because the
new code takes place of our construction ordinance basically. The
only thing we add or staff has to change is the administrative code
and they need to enact that and it has to be passed by the county
commission in order for him to enact the new code or put the new
code into effect and that's now March l st?
MR. PERICO: Correction. The code doesn't have to be adopted
by the board. That's mandated with or without the board's approval.
It's just the administrative portion of the code which is done which is
strictly, you know, department policies is what it boils down to. It
has nothing to do with the building codes in any way, shape, or form.
MR. LONGO: Correct me if I'm wrong. I thought you had to
pass the administrative ordinance in order for us to enact the code?
MR. PERICO: No.
MR. WHITE: No.
MR. ABBOTT: So what's happening the 9th?
MR. LONGO: The 9th they're going to -- what they're going to
do is they're going to go before the board and show them the new
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January 2, 2002
administrative ordinance, and they're going to vote on it. MR. WHITE: Mr. Chairman--
MR. PERICO: Wind-borne debris maps.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Mr. White.
MR. WHITE: That's correct. The primary reason for bringing it
forward on the 9th of January is so that will timely meet the deadline
essentially of March 1 because of a rule change that -- I'm not sure it
was a rule change or statutory change. I'm more correct to say a
statutory change -- the legislature and special session last month
published or promulgated, more correctly, and as a result in order to
be timely with our wind-speed maps we needed to get them in as
soon as possible, the January 9th date being that for us. And by way
of doing it in one combined effort we put in the administrative code
Chapter 1 provisions of the Florida Building Code changes to parallel
those that were in the prior construction code. We will bring it back
to you so you can review it. If you have anything that you'd like to
make as further suggestions or comments, we'd be happy to look at
those. Essentially we went back and replicated what was in Chapter
! amendments to the SPC to put them into the FBC and adopt the
maps.
MR. LONGO: I'd like to see the wind-borne debris maps before
they go before the county commission just so we have a chance to
look at them.
MR. PERICO: Those -- those have been on the web. They have
been publicized.
MR. ABBOTT: Are those the same ones?
MR. PERICO: The same ones that I had here, the ones before
the committee. Nothing has changed on them other than we've taken
and really fine-tuned them to one-wind-mile increments instead of a
ten-mile wind increment which really is a fine line, you know, more
detail showing them. We brought it before our committee which
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January 2, 2002
there was a member from the Florida Building Commission who
made the comment at which we didn't know he was at this
commission. We got sandbagged. And he said if anybody in the
state had done it-- had done it and there would be no problem with
the wind-borne debris maps.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay.
MR. PEEK: Question -- Tom Peek. What is the
implementation-- implementation date of the code now?
MR. PERICO: Right now March 1st.
MR. SAVAGE: Maybe.
MR. PERICO: That's why I said right now it's March 1st.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay. I don't believe we had a
utility code meeting and ad hoc committee on fees.
MR. LONGO: Ad hoc committee on fees. We kind of didn't
have a meeting last week. We're still working on that. We're
working on getting the planning side with the level of service. I think
that's going to come into play a whole lot more this -- this first
quarter with a little bit of reorganization that's going on in the
planning department, but our intent still is to come back to this
committee on a recommendation of what we're going to do on the
planning side as far as charging fees. We need to develop a level of
service that's -- that's comparable and acceptable to everybody, and at
that point we can start taking a look at time frames of getting permits
out. No matter what they are we're looking at overlapping from the
permitting side to the planning side and getting some stuff out of the
planning side that doesn't need to be there that's sitting on people's
desks and shouldn't be reviewed by the planning side and so forth and
so on.
I would assume, Denny, that we will have another meeting this
month yet. We need to get on it. And we need to make a
recommendation within the next 30 to 60 days, so if-- I don't think
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January 2, 2002
we can get it done in one meeting, but we're close. We've developed
pretty much the levels of service that we think we can handle and
then we'll get with staff to come back and tell us where we need to
be.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay. Thank you. With nothing
under new business --
MR. BAKER: Mr. Chairman, Denny Baker. Dino -- Dino, I
think you're right on target. I would add to that that we should
consider looking at the process as well in terms of what are the
requirements for current planning, for example. Why does current
planning need to see paint specs, for example -- MR. LONGO: Exactly.
MR. BAKER: -- and those kinds of things? We need to
examine those along with turnaround times.
MR. LONGO: The current incoming president of CBIA, Todd
Gates, is -- one of his goals this year is to get a subcommittee to work
on that, because he's primarily in the commercial building business.
There are a lot of crossovers and faux pas between planning and
permitting to where you can't get a PUD or an STP unless you get a
building permit in some cases, and it has nothing to do when you're
going horizontal.
So those type of issues we need to work out between us, staff,
and Denny. Right now we're trying to get that, and I believe we're
going on a tracking system similar to the permitting side that once it
goes into a department, say, it's architecture review on the planning
side, we'll be able to track when it went in, when it came out, how
many letters went out for a rejection, so forth and so on, the
timeliness of a contractor or developer in getting this information
back. So when someone says, "It took 40 days to get a permit out,"
we find out it really was the developer not getting his information
back or was staff on vacation or whatever. We'll be able to tell that
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January 2, 2002
MR. ABBOTT: Right now they're doing that all by hand.
MR. BAKER: Add one other idea. I prepared an executive
summary with John's assistance to go forward to an upcoming
meeting to the board that is asking for $220,000 to Fund 113 to pay
for wireless technology for the inspectors. And some of you fellas
have probably heard about this. What we wanted to do is provide the
30 inspectors with handheld PCs that dial the computer here realtime
constantly during the day, updating constantly whenever an
inspection is being made, providing the history, providing the
reasons, the final notes. This is -- according to Ed and his staff we
will pick up an hour and a half per day of productivity per inspector.
For 30 inspectors that's obviously 45 hours per day pick up, and most
of that will come from the inspectors not coming in using the office
in the morning. They won't come in in the morning to pick up their
trucks and also not returning their trucks in the afternoon, taking their
trucks home.
So this is a very huge impact -- productivity pickup with a
payback in less than one year. I want you guys to know that because
we're going to go forward with this unless someone has --
MR. LONGO: I guess my concern would be to take a look at it.
We're talking a 3 percent reduction across the board in development
services, and now you're going to come back and ask for a $220,000
line item somewhere.
MR. DUNNUCK: Well -- and I think from our perspective we
had mentioned this to you in a presentation we did on technology
about six months ago. But from our perspective -- and I think Denny
hit the key point -- it pays for itself real quick. And through
efficiency and quality of inspections and I think that's what we were
gearing towards and that's how we have structured the executive
summary to show the return is within a year for the board and that
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January 2, 2002
certainly we do have the reserve money, and we think this is a good,
viable project for them to move forward with. CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay.
MR. ABBOTT: One comment on that. The back half of Tom --
or the second paragraph of Tom's letter here, that sign sounds just
fine and good, and I applaud your thinking and all that kind of stuff,
but you also cheerfully blow us off on other things. The way we did
the quick push on the utility impact fees and we asked for
information, and that's the second time in my service on this
committee that I've seen the commission and staff just run right
across us, and I just think that they hear you-all come and just tell us
we're just going to do it.
MR. DUNNUCK: Which letter is that?
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Yeah. I was going to address that
under member comments.
MR. ABBOTT: You-all don't need to treat us quite so
cavalierly. You know, we spend a lot time doing what we do.
MR. DUNNUCK: Well, I'll tell you I didn't bring it as a copy,
but I will tell you that I have submitted a memo to the county
manager expressing how the process, in my opinion, failed during the
utility impact fee issue and what we need to do better, and he has
verbally concurred that we're going to go ahead. One of the major
things we had, frankly, was that Phil Tindel, the impact fee
coordinator, was not involved in the process of coordinating the
effort. And I had a major concern about that and, Dino, when Ed's
got to gear his people up to be able to handle these things and, I
mean, it has a significant impact when we go through here.
Procedurally we are working on a set of stringent procedures that we
are going to bring back to you-all, but I think it's what you're looking
for, and I think -- I don't think it went unnoticed what your
recommendation was --
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January2,2002
MR. ABBOTT: That's twice now. When we did road impact
fees, at one time we had a couple of quickie meetings and, bam, it
made no difference. We asked for the data. We had no problem on
approving fees or impact fees or whatever. We certainly like the
ability to be treated as grown people and have the information
presented to us so we make intelligent decisions and still it might
happen. But the contemptuousness of the process here alarmed me
big time, enough to make a political issue over it.
MR. LONGO: We're not trying to point fingers, John, but we've
expressed this concern before that this committee is charged by
ordinance to review everything that affects the industry, and when
we're not allowed to do our job fingers get pointed. And they can get
pointed at county, get pointed at developers, and get pointed at this
committee, but the whole -- the whole idea of this committee by law
is for us to be able to take a look at that, and I'm still adamant and
still want to see two oversight committees on transportation and
utilities and besides the AUIR reports every year because we know
they've been skewed.
We know they -- with no offense to anybody sitting in this room
-- that things have not happened right in the last couple of years, and
we are behind -- and people getting that are getting blamed that
shouldn't be blamed. Growth shouldn't be blamed for not paying for
growth because growth does pay for growth if it's done efficiently
and on a timely basis. If the school system can do it and they can put
up four or five hundred million dollars based on the taxes that they're
getting, certainly we can do it with roads and sewers. But if we don't
know what's going on and we don't know how -- who's accountable
for not making the decision or making the wrong decisions, then
these committees are kind of useless.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: That's what I tried to tell John a little
bit in this letter, and I -- and I look forward to anybody that can give
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January 2, 2002
me any additional points that might -- maybe added or something to
clarify that letter then I'll go ahead and send it off to the board. Go ahead, Joyce.
MS. RAUTIO: Joyceanna Rautio. I just would like to observe
that for the amount of time that I was on this committee one of the
difficulties we did encounter is not having a good interface with
public works. We talked to each other. We had a technical
committee that I was in charge of, but not having the physical
presence in this room the public works leaves you at a disadvantage,
and apparently it hasn't completely improved. There may be some
things on the utilities subcommittee, but you truly need to find some
way to make sure that a representative or somebody is talking to you-
all from public works, which is the impact fees that went through. I
got a lot of those e-mails, and I appreciate staying in the loop.
And the same issue with transportation.
And as an observation about the two new people in charge of
transportation, they have come from the state level, and they have a
different environment in which they have worked. I don't think they
are sensitive yet to the value of this committee and the value of the
input that the industry gives and other contributions that are made.
So, you, as a committee, need to make an effort possibly through the
chair to make sure you have somebody that's talking to you from
transportation and from public works.
MR. LONGO: And we discussed that before.
MS. RAUTIO: We have. I've been here a long time. I spent
years of my life in this particular set of meetings. I really want to
encourage you again to keep that open dialogue and if you can find a
new creative way to do it do it, because I recognize that you-all were
left out of the loop dramatically with the public works issue and
impact fees.
And I know exactly your frustration. A number of people talked
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January 2, 2002
to me about it. I want to encourage you to keep doing that. And
whether or not -- as I spoke to Mr. Dunnuck on Monday when I got
on my soapbox about certain issues, truly you need his office to try to
coordinate to make sure public works has a presence here and
transportation has a presence.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: All right. I would just add I think --
over this last process with public works, I think the utilities
department, anyway, seems to understand a little bit better that they
need an active role with our subcommittee especially. MS. RAUTIO: That's encouraging.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: So there is forward progress being
made.
MR. ELLIS: Mr. Chairman, I'm David Ellis. I would concur,
and I would encourage you-all to stick to that. I think once they
discover it's not punitive to come to you-all -- it seems like they
almost feel like they have to come here, and it's like a penalty for
doing what they want to do, and I think they'll find that with your
help and then your support that those efforts will go forward much
better. And I concur with what Mr. Longo said in terms of oversight.
You know, we live in a county that went several years without
building roads, and no group got together to say, "What about those
roads?" And we had a sewer spill on the north end of town that
potentially could have paralyzed this industry that you-all are
stewards over. Time and again I applaud the commissioner while
he's here for the proactive things they did to work through that and
the staff to work through that.
But there was nobody looking over their shoulder going, "Aren't
we getting kind of near the top on this plant?" Somehow or another
we need to have a better oversight. There's so many brilliant people
in this community that understand those processes that would
willfully and freely give their input, and I think the county does itself
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January 2, 2002
a disservice by not really trying to draw that information out either
through this committee or through another group. It doesn't really
matter to me, but I think -- you know, again, I say that knowing that
our county has tons of committees and oversight groups, but I tell
you on those two big areas we're doing ourselves a huge disservice
when no group is working with the county staff and augmenting their
efforts, and maybe you-all can sort out a way in the future on how we
could do better there. We got to do better.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: If I may add and tell you for a
fact the commission does appreciate your efforts. I'm sorry we don't
follow your advice 100 percent of the time, but believe me, the
thought process that goes into it helps us greatly to make our
decisions. I do read the minutes from your meeting. Sometimes I got
to admit they're kind of boring.
MR. ABBOTT: Only when Herb's talking.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: But, no, your work is
appreciated. It wouldn't hurt occasionally if you have something
profound coming up where you want to weigh in possibly if you have
the chair from your committee make an appointment with the
different commissioners to visit them or divide up the commissioners
and just make an appointment to see them. They can individually
question you and get into your mind to see where you're coming
from.
I regret I can't make every one of your meetings. I hope I can
make them at least three or four times a year to get a feel for where
you're going. Whatever you do, don't give up what you're doing. My
God, keep your opinions even if ours don't seem to be going along
the same direction. Bring the facts up and everything. I assure you
that even though we're not reaching the same conclusion you are your
opinion is weighted in our decision very heavily. In other words,
keep working for nothing; we'll double your salary next year.
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January 2, 2002
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: We appreciate the fact that you're
here. It goes a long way toward making me feel better, at least I
think, about our efforts. And with that we can lead into any other
member comments. Tom.
MR. PEEK: I have one. Back to John Dunnuck's report earlier
about the hearing officer, the process and the selection committee and
the composition of that committee. I think you informed us that
perhaps there be at least one member of the Development Services
Advisory Committee.
MR. DUNNUCK: That's my recommendation to the board.
MR. PEEK: I would like to recommend Bruce Anderson,
because I think Bruce -- although Bruce may not be a member of our
committee at the time that committee functions -- Bruce has probably
got the best qualifications of any of us sitting here to be on that
selection committee since he's been a member of our body for eons
and he is a practicing attorney. He knows the codes and he has to
deal with this judicial area that we're getting into for the approval. So
I'd like to recommend Bruce as our representative on that committee.
MR. SAVAGE: Herb Savage. You're talking about the hearing
officer selection committee? MR. PEEK: Yes.
MR. SAVAGE: I agree with you 100 percent.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: So we have that based in the form of
a motion?
MR. SAVAGE: Second.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: All in favor of recommending Bruce
for that?
MR. ABBOTT: Wait. Ask him.
MR. PEEK: Craft an approval without giving him the
opportunity to back out.
MR. ABBOTT: It's only fair that he speaks.
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January 2, 2002
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Get Bruce to leave the room.
MR. PEEK: Would you serve?
MR. ABBOTT: We'll take that for yes.
MR. ANDERSON: Yeah. I'm interested in that we get
somebody qualified and good, yeah. So I'd be willing to do it if you
guys get a shot at putting somebody on there so ...
MR. DISNEY: Great. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS:
recommendation.
(Unanimous response.)
CHAIRMAN MASTERS:
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN MASTERS:
With that, all in favor of that
Any opposed?
We're all in agreement.
MR. PEEK: I have a second question. Earlier
Mr. Dunnuck also said we, perhaps, need a special meeting between
January 9th and January 23rd. Do we want to pick the date for that
meeting at this point?
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: I'm wide open.
MR. DUNNUCK: You want me to do a poll of all the members
to find out, or do you want me to do it here right now?
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Here now.
MR. DUNNUCK: Okay.
MR. PEEK: Two weeks from today is the 16th.
MR. SAVAGE: How about one week from today is the 9th.
MR. PEEK: He said between those dates.
MR. DUNNUCK: We could do it on the 9th. I mean, we can
work on that date.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Will we have the information to
actually --
MR. DUNNUCK: Yeah, because it'll be going to the Board of
County Commissioners.
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January 2, 2002
MR. BAKER: The sooner the better.
MR. WHITE: And at 5:05 there will be the second of the two
LDC public hearings.
MR. LONGO: Right. We need to set the code -- construction
code meeting for three o'clock next Wednesday which is the 9th.
Okay. And then set your meeting for the 16th.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: At 3:30?
MR. DUNNUCK: Sure.
MR. ABBOTT: So it's the 16th.
MR. DUNNUCK: I will let Mr. Schmidt know.
MR. SAVAGE: Mr. Chairman, Herb Savage. John Dunnuck, I
have not read and remember the details of the definition of the -- this
Development Services Committee. Does it say in the code in that
ordinance, whatever it is, that we work with -- other departments of
this county work with us, or does it say anything about that?
MR. DUNNUCK: I think it says you represent the development
community and that we need to work with you. It doesn't specifically
say by department.
MR. SAVAGE: They work with us.
MR. DUNNUCK: Exactly. And I will take your
recommendation to make sure we have representation from the public
works utilities and the transportation section.
MR. SAVAGE: Do they have an advisory committee, as we
have, of interested builders and developers?
MR. LONGO: We talked about that, and I thought the
definition last year when we talked about this that they fell under this
DSAC.
MR. DUNNUCK: I agree.
MR. LONGO: They're supposed to have representation here
reporting to this committee just like you guys do on the development
services side. They should be coming to us on a monthly basis and
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January 2, 2002
telling us what's going on.
MR. DUNNUCK: I will work with the county manager's office
to make that happen.
MS. RAUTIO: Point of question here, did we not at one point
in time say we were going to change the agenda to always have a
member of public works on here? And that was when Mr. Cautero
was still here, and then Mr. Dunnuck is here, so maybe you-all could
agree one more time if put an item on the agenda maybe someone
from public works will start showing up. That's a solution we tried.
I've been off this meeting -- commission now for, what, two years
and two months or three months, and it's not on this agenda that I'm
looking at.
MR. SAVAGE:
MS. RAUTIO:
Why don't you come back?
I'm having too much fun at the Planning
Commission, thank you.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay. Charlie.
MR. ABBOTT: The committee doesn't represent the
development industry. I don't think we were quite set up that way,
were we? We have several other members around that are not
development oriented for that purpose to temper us as a group. So I
wouldn't say we represent the development community.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Pat is going to enlighten us here.
MR. WHITE: Patrick White, assistant county attorney. Section
2-1037, function, powers, and duties of the DSAC, to serve as
primary communication link between the community development
services division and the development industry which includes
environmentalists, designers, developers, and contractors involved in
both --
COURT REPORTER: I'm sorry. Would you slow down.
MR. WHITE: I'll pick up from "development industry, which
includes environmentalists, designers, developers and contractors
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January 2, 2002
involved in both site work and building construction." That's one of
13 separately enumerated functions, powers, and duties, but I think
it's the broadest brush.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Thank you. Anybody else have any
comments? Mr. Anderson.
MR. ANDERSON: I just want to thank you-all for serving with
you for the last eight years. I've enjoyed it. My two terms were up. I
was appointed to another committee. I feel it's time for some new
blood, and thank you-all. Keep up the good work and keep me on the
mailing list.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: We will. We appreciate all your
efforts. Thank you.
MR. DUNNUCK: Similarly I would like to say the same thing.
It's been a great experience for last 16 months for me, and this is my
last meeting at DSAC, and I'd like to thank you-all too. I think it's
been a good experience for me, and I really learned a lot from you-
all.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Now, are you going to stay on a
certain period during transition time?
MR. DUNNUCK: Yeah. I'm going to help Joe, obviously, with
the transition, but-- you know, as I was advised in coming from a
military background, I'm supposed to give him the keys and walk out
into the sunset for the most part.
MR. SAVAGE: That's his military background. How about
yours?
MR. DUNNUCK: Mine's over in parks and rec.
MR. SAVAGE: Mr. Chairman, when is our new director
coming?
MR. DUNNUCK: Monday.
MR. ELLIS: David Ellis. In that vein, on the 16th John and I
tentatively scheduled -- I say tentatively scheduled because we
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January 2, 2002
haven't, I guess, heard from Mr. Schmidt yet, but Mr. Schmidt is
going to come to a meeting of our CBIA office since our normal
governmental affairs meeting is Wednesday the 16th at noon. It
would be an opportunity for many of you that would like to, perhaps,
meet with him and ask questions. It's pretty open and candid.
It would be a good opportunity to, perhaps, to express concerns
you expressed today. It would be an appropriate time to get that ball
rolling with him and begin to discuss things with him, at the same
time hear his vision for the department. By then he'll have at least
found his way to the restroom and know his way around the office.
He'll be able to speak a little bit about his vision. Again, so if you
want to tentatively write that down, the 16th, and maybe check with
me on Monday or Tuesday of next week and for five bucks, day-old
sandwich and a warm coke.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Any other nonmember comments
before we depart?
MR. WHITE: One point of order, Mr. Chairman. I didn't
understand that Mr. Anderson was at this point kind of concluding his
lengthy and certainly worthwhile service for this committee, but we
just earlier had selected him to do something for you as a member of
the committee. I'm a little confused. If he's part of you-all in your
sending him forth to work on the hearing examiner officer thing,
that's fine with me.
As you-all know I kind of put myself out there as a person who's
going to submit a resume for that position. Regardless, I feel
compelled wearing my assistant county attorney hat to say, if he's
your representative then, fine, do so as a vote of the committee, you
know, with the understanding that he's not part of DSAC but rather as
your representative.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: That was the motion.
MR. WHITE: All right.
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January 2, 2002
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: The motion included the fact that he
would no longer be a member of the committee but because of his
lengthy service and understanding of the operations -- MR. WHITE: Thank you.
MR. DISNEY: I guess it's a question more than a comment. I
was reading the newspaper over the last week, and I saw the article
about the temporary parking lot here for development services and
the fact that that had not been permitted. Is that an accurate
statement? I take into question anything that shows up in the Daily
News, but I just wondered what our status was and whether I could
be enlightened on what the issues might be.
MR. DUNNUCK: The transportation division, obviously,
you're aware we're planning on doing a building expansion and
parking garage. One of the things we had negotiated with this park
was that we would have property set aside so that while we were
building it we could build them both simultaneously and have a
staging area and move our vehicles out of the way. Transportation
division started. They had a pre-op meeting, and I think they just got
a little bit ahead of themselves as far as making sure the permits were
-- you know, they had their ducks in a row there, you know. We
caught it and, you know, we notified them and talked to them and
said, "Let's make sure that we're doing it correctly like everybody
else is." So that's where it is.
MR. DISNEY: So a submission has been made and drawings
are in here for review and they're running the normal course and the
normal process and six weeks from now a permit will be issued?
(Laughter.)
MR. DISNEY: Is that where it's going?
MR. DUNNUCK: I think I got baited into this one. Something
along those lines.
MR. DISNEY: Something along those lines, or will we as -- as
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January 2, 2002
a county project accelerate this so that it is so much quicker than the
general public could get?
MR. WHITE: Economic development.
MR. DUNNUCK: I think that--
MR. SAVAGE: As public works.
MR. DUNNUCK: I think we probably will accelerate it. I
mean, I don't think there's any question about that.
MR. DISNEY: But it's going to run through the normal course,
and we're going to have architectural review on the parking lot and
all of the plans.
MR. DUNNUCK: Well, the holdup was the landscaping.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: That is normal.
MR. SAVAGE: I have a rubber stamp.
MR. LONGO: I would like to thank Bruce for his efforts, and
you're outstanding. You always say your peace. You always are
professional, and I appreciate your input, and I learned a lot from
you. John, I appreciate what you've done in the last year. You
worked real hard in turning things around. It's been a pleasure.
MR. SAVAGE: Mr. Chairman, one final question that I might
say -- Herb Savage -- asking Dino, when we talked about $4,500 a
while ago, the monies that are available still from the City of Naples,
City of Marco Island and the county, do we still need to make an
appeal to them for additional funds?
MR. LONGO: I don't have that answer. Gene Chartrand would
be able to tell us that unless John has that answer, but there's an
accounting of monies already spent. There's $100,000. Patrick has
that answer?
MR. WHITE: I don't have a precise answer. I can tell you how
we're going to address it. We're going to look and see when the final
bills come in from Thomas Elliot Consultant Engineers or the filing
of the appeal and get that last set of bills in, we're going to look at
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January 2, 2002
what monies were originally allocated versus what's been expended
from the county side and see how much is left and do the same thing
from the city side. The city had originally committed to $50,000 to
this. I don't know to what degree they may have revised it, but I can
assure you that if we need to ask for more money we're going to
assuming, of course, that we hear on next Tuesday that the board
actually wanted us to file the appeal that we filed -- assuming that to
be true -- and take it from there.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Okay. With that entertain a motion
to adjourn.
MR. ABBOTT: I'll make the motion.
MR. ANDERSON: Second.
MR. SAVAGE: Last final action.
CHAIRMAN MASTERS: Seconded by Bruce. All in favor.
(Unanimous response.)
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 4:3 5 p.m.
DEVELOPMENT SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE
TOM MASTERS, P.E., CHAIRMAN
Page 34
January 2, 2002
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF DONOVAN COURT
REPORTING, INC., BY CAROLYN J. FORD
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