Productivity Committee Minutes 12/17/2008 COLLIER COUNTY GOVERNMENT
PRODUCTIVITY COMMITTEE
Minutes — December 17, 2008, 2 p.m.
Members Present: Larry Baytos, John Barlow, Syd Blum, Brad Boaz, Gina
Downs, Doug Fee, Jim Gibson, Michele Harrison, Steve Harrison, Joe Swaja and
Janet Vasey.
BCC Liaison: Commissioner Fiala was in attendance.
Staff Present: Amy Patterson, Impact Fee Manager; Paula Fleishman, Impact
Fee Coordinator; Nick Casalanguida, Director Transportation Planning; Crystal
Kinzel, Clerk of Courts; Michael Sheffield, Assistant to the County Manager;
Barbetta Hutchinson, Office of Management and Budget.
Others Present: P. Thomas Abraham, Philip Brougham, Leanne Graziani,
Shannon Wayne Holland, James Hoppenstedt, Larry Magel, William J.
O'Connor, Frank Zhou.
Call to Order: Larry Baytos called the meeting to order at 2:04.
General Announcements: Larry Baytos thanked Commissioner Fiala for her
attendance at this year's meetings as advisor to this group. He also informed the
group that Mike Sheffield has taken on additional responsibilities and the group
should take that into consideration so as not to give him more work than
necessary. Janet Vasey will also be honored for her 10 years of service as a
volunteer to the county on January 13th.
Approval of the 11/19/08 Productivity Committee Meeting Minutes. Joe
Swaja motioned to approve the minutes, Jim Gibson seconded and the group
unanimously approved.
Acceptance of the December 3, 2008 Sub-committee meeting minutes to
Consider and Recommend Possible Alternative Policy Approaches for
Impact Fees. John Barlow motioned to accept the minutes, Joe Swaja
seconded and the group unanimously approved.
OLD BUSINESS:
Follow-up from the Subcommittee to Consider/Recommend Possible
Alternative Policy Approaches for Impact Fees. Larry Baytos recapped the
meeting held on December 3rd. He sent out a read-ahead (included in the packet
— item IIA). The main recommendation is that the full committee should decide
whether to recommend keeping the fees as they are or provide temporary relief
for fees. Janet Vasey re-worded and requested changes be made in section one
of the memo and reviewed her suggestions with the group. She listed several
reasons for keeping the current fee policy. John Barlow suggested that the
group reduce impact fees at least temporarily. Steve Harrison suggested that we
invite a land development manager to look at the problem and give his opinion
and maybe we should suspend fees for a year or two until the economy comes
back. Amy Patterson stated the BCC instructed staff to research the subject and
give them the results of the study. Commissioner Fiala stated that sales tax was
suggested, but it didn't work. Collier County has kept people working — so impact
fees have been very helpful. Syd Blum said that people are willing to pay impact
fees because they want to be here. What would happen if we cut the fees
temporarily? It would give the perception that the county is doing something to
make things better, care about the unemployment rate and care about the people
of Collier County. Brad Boaz asked the other committee members what they
thought about the impact fees not going down when the cost per lane mile went
down? Nick Casalanguida said that all other studies until the current one have
used lane miles west of 951. In the past we have used an artificially low trip
length. Our current trip length studies are in line with all other counties in Florida.
He suggested that alternative funding sources be considered.
An executive summary is going to the board in January to ask for adoption of the
study that has been done. He recommends going back to the 2007 rate for one
year and see what happens. Gina Downs asked that since Collier County has
projects ready to go, how will the money be used? Nick said that the projects will
be prioritized by the Board. Commissioner Fiala said that we may have the
highest impact fees in the state, but we have no county sales tax and a low
property tax. Michele Harrison said that reducing impact fees will make a huge
statement. Brad said that the committee needs to see a long term plan.
Gina made a motion to make a recommendation to rollback the impact fees to
the December 31, 2007 level for one year except for roads. Syd Blum
seconded. Janet asked how much would it be per home if we rolled back to this
level. Amy said it is not a significant dollar amount. The motion failed with a
vote 4 (Syd, Gina, Jim and John) to 7 (Larry, Joe, Steve, Brad, Michele, Doug
and Janet). Brad proposed a motion to roll back to December 31, 2007, prior to
the indexing, for all categories for a minimum of 2 years. Joe Swaja seconded.
Motion passed with the vote of 8 (Syd, Jim, John, Larry, Steve, Brad, Michele
and Joe) to 3 (Janet, Doug and Gina). Larry will write the letter and include
Janet's suggestions as stated. Gina asked the letter be sent out for review
before it is sent. Mike Sheffield said that because of the Sunshine Law, he
recommended against sending it out for all members to review and comment
back. Therefore, Larry made a motion that the Chairman be granted authority to
draft a memo to give to the BCC for their action on January 13th. Second by Syd
Blum. All were in favor with the exception of Gina Downs.
Discussion Regarding the Productivity Committee Impact Fee Indexing
Methodology Study. The general feeling is that the committee will hold off on
their recommendation until after the meeting on January 13th. This will be the
meeting that will give direction to where the board is going. John asked how
much we spend on indexing studies. Amy answered about $70,000 per study.
She also told the group that Tindale-Oliver is very available to us and is very
supportive of our needs. Once we see what happens in January, the number of
studies may be revisited. At the next meeting the group will determine their
direction.
NEW BUSINESS:
Recommendations for Appointment of members to the Productivity
Committee: Larry recapped those applying for re-appointment. Mike passed
out a ballot containing each application. Each member will mark 5 applicants
that they would like appointed. All candidates appear to be qualified to hold a
position on the committee. Janet Vasey asked Lenne Graziani about the letter
that she included with her application regarding a pending legal matter with the
county. Leanne said it was still pending. Mike Sheffield said that if the
committee chooses her to be in the top five, that the BCC would determine
whether or not it there is a conflict of interest. Janet and Mike agreed that this
legal matter need not be taken into consideration by the Productivity Committee.
A list will be given to the commissioners of those who received the largest
number of votes in January. Each candidate in attendance was given an
opportunity to speak to the group, those being: P. Thomas Abraham, Philip
Brougham, Leanne Graziani, Shannon Wayne Holland, James Hoppenstedt,
Larry Magel, William O'Connor, and Frank Zhou. Current members who applied
were also given the opportunity to speak. The committee members were asked
to choose 5 names on their ballots, the votes were recapped and the following
individuals received the largest number of votes: Barlow-9, Baytos-8, Downs-8,
Holland-5, O'Connor-5, Zhou-4, Hoppenstedt-4, Magel-4, Blum-3, Abraham-1,
Graziani-1, Brougham-1, and Fay-0.
Joe motioned to send the top five names to the Board of County Commissioners.
Larry seconded and the group voted unanimously.
Public Comment: Larry Magel indicated that he is a member of the Coastal
Advisory Committee; he spoke regarding consultant fees and his disagreement
with an opinion of an employee of the Purchasing Department. Mike will inform
the Purchasing Department of Mr. Magel's concern. Commissioner Fiala
suggested that studies be done in house where possible and keep people
working.
Adjournment: Joe Swaja motioned to adjourn the meeting, Syd Blum seconded
and the group unanimously approved. The meeting was adjourned at 4:07 p.m.
Next Meeting: The next regular meeting of the Productivity Committee Meeting
will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 21, 2009. This meeting will be
held in the County Manager's Front Conference Room on the 2nd Floor of the W.
Harmon Turner Building (Administration Building F).
Approved by 'roductivit, hair, Larry Baytos