BCC Minutes 06/22/2006 B (Budget Workshop)
June 22, 2006
BUDGET MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, FL
June 22, 2006
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 9:00 a.m. in BUDGET
WORKSHOP SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex,
East Naples, Florida, with the following members present:
CHAIRMAN:
Frank Halas
Jim Coletta
Tom Henning
Donna Fiala
Fred Coyle
ALSO PRESENT:
Jim Mudd, County Administrator
David C. Weigel, County Attorney
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NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
Notice is hereby given that the Board of County Commissioners of Collier
County will conduct Budget Workshops on Thursday, June 22, 2006, Friday,
June 23, 2006 and Mondal' June 26, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. Workshops will be
held in the Boardroom, 3r Floor, W. Harmon Turner Building, Collier
County Government Center, 330 I East Tamiami Trail, Naples, Florida to
hear the following:
COLLIER COUNTY GOVERNMENT
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
FY 2007 BUDGET WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Thursday, June 22, 2006 - 9:00 a.m.
General Overview
Courts and Related Agencies (State Attorney and Public Defender)
Airport Authority
Administrative Services
Transportation Services
Public Utilities
Public Services
Community Development
Debt Service
Management Offices (Pelican Bay)
County Attorney
BCC
Friday, June 23, 2006 - 9:00 a.m.
Constitutional Officers:
Elections
Property Appraiser
Clerk of Courts
Sheriff
Preliminary UFR Discussion
1 :00 p.m. Public Comment
Monday, June 26, 2006 - 9:00 a.m.
Wrap-up (if required)
June 22, 2006
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much, County Manager,
and we'll be in session here shortly with the budget workshop for this
year.
If everybody would rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was said in unison.)
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much. At this time I'll
turn this proceedings over to the county manager in regards to our
county commissioners' budget workshop budget schedule for today
and what we're going to be addressing.
GENERAL OVERVIEW
MR. MUDD: Mr. Chairman, commissioners, on your overhead
or in your display, and for the other people in the room on your
visualizers over there in the corners on the sides of the room, you will
see a proposed agenda for this particular workshop. Today we'll start
with a general overview then go to Court-related agencies, go to the
Airport Authority, go to Admin. Services, Transportation and Public
Utilities, Public Services, Community Developments. Mike
Smykowski will talk about Debt Service, Management Offices
including Pelican Bay, go to County Attorney, and then finally for the
day, you'll talk about your particular budget and your particular office.
On Friday we'll try to get to the Constitutional Officers:
Supervisor of Elections, Property Appraiser, Clerk of Courts, Sheriff
and then talk about a preliminary UFR discussion and, just so that you
know, at 1 :00 p.m. on Friday it's open for public comment. As we
mentioned yesterday during the Board of County Comissioners'
meetings, the Expressway Authority wants to come in and talk to you
about some budget needs for the '07 budget, and we've put some time
to that. And we've also advertised for this public comment period.
Without further ado on the agenda I'll go to an overview of the
budget. And I'll start with the budget guidance and let you know how
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June 22, 2006
well we did or didn't do on a particular budget.
First item is general fund millage. Part of the budget guidance
was to recommend everything above the 16 percent increase assessed
value would be rolled back as far as -- increase in taxable value would
be rolled back. What does that relate to -- and it's basically on the
third column on that page -- the rollback above 16 percent increase
equates to a $22 million tax savings or return to taxes to the taxpayers.
The taxable value, the millage would be set at -- could potentially be
set at 3.5912 mils, and that's a savings $28.60 per hundred thousand
dollars of taxable value.
Also on your list is $20.2 million on the unfinanced requirement
fund available list. It is approximately -- there is about a million
dollars difference in what you have on your sheet versus that $20.2
million, and I'll talk about that in a little bit because some things have
been approved since the time the books were done, so -- and we keep
an itemized roll on that as things progress. Why don't I just turn to that
right now.
In your books it says the unfinanced requirement funding amount
is $21.3 million. It's less for additional EMS units, which were
$469,756 that was approved by the Board of County Commissioners
on the 9th of May. Facilities management emergency generator fund
was $383,000. That was approved by the board on 6/6, the 6th of June.
Airport Authority Immokalee PUD master plan was approved by the
board yesterday for 50,000. And this $177,000 was continued from
yesterday's agenda, if you remember, to the 25th, and that's a potential
reduction. And that would bring us down to that $20.2 million.
So I just want to make sure you knew that that was a change of
work, where those changes had come from.
We'll go to the next item, which is MSTD general fund millage,
and that's the unincorporated millage rate. That millage rate is set at
.8069 mils. Things are budgeted, and on your UFR list you have $7.2
million of unfinanced money for unfinanced requirements that are
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June 22, 2006
available.
On the general fund capital millage it's a third of a mil, and this
budget submission that you have in front of you basically has it at a
third of a mil.
Stormwater millage is .15 mils. Your budget represents .15 mil
equivalent in that, in your budget document.
We go to the next item in your budget guidance, limit new
positions on the county manager to 25 new positions. This budget
submission to you has 24.5, and there are positions on the unfinanced
requirement list that didn't fit within my 25 new position limit.
The next item is agency general fund budget increases. The
board adopted a budget policy limiting the '07 agency budgets to 12
percent. The agency programs are listed on the third column. BCC
came in at 6.4; County Attorney 8.6; County Manager 11.1; Courts
and Related down 24.5, that has a whole lot to do with the Article 5
financial instruments that have been put in position, and we're doing
quite well with the help of Mark Middlebrook and his able staff along
with all the ladies and gentlemen on the court side today in the
audience that you'll hear from in just a couple of minutes.
The Airport Authority is at 21 percent. I will tell you they have
had a large increase in their property insurance allocation, and I think
a whole lot of that had to do with damage from the air force because
of the last hurricane, Wilma. And your Airport Authority director
Theresa Cook will talk about that today.
The Clerk of Courts is at 5 percent, Sheriff is at 11.6, the
Property Appraiser is 2.7 percent, Tax Collector you don't get his
particular budget until 1 August, and Supervisor of Elections is at 10.9
percent.
Adherence to the general fund budget allocation. The board also
put in their budget guidance that -- this is what I call a piece of the pie,
is what you call a piece of the pie -- basically take a look at a
percentage of their budget from FY '04, making sure that everybody
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June 22, 2006
stayed within that '04 percentage allocation. And you can see that
everybody did except for three particular items, road subsidy -- the
road subsidy in '04 was building from zero to a $24 million subsidy
that it has today, so that percentage has gone up and it is locked in at
$24 million now.
Your Stormwater, that utility general fund allocation was not
allocated at that particular time so that's out in your reserves. It has a
lot to do with what you have in unfinanced requirements and what you
have as far as additional funds that you can put against particular
projects or return to the taxpayer, whichever this board decides to do.
But that has a lot to do with that particular item.
Brings us to our next issue, which is provide budget metrics. '05,
and again, in your budget guidance in '07 you basically said, let's
compare particular agencies against other counties within the state that
are comparable in size or -- basically in size, and those are Sarasota
County, Lee County, Manatee, Charlotte and Marion. And we've
done that for the county manager, sheriff, the elections. Tax collector,
clerk and property appraiser have not produced metrics, and the
reasons are stated below in an asterisk underneath that particular
column.
Last but not least, overtime. Your overtime in your allocation for
the '07 budget guidance was basically schedule a 2 percent attrition
rate in your overtime, try to limit it to two times 2 percent. The
agencies that had problems meeting that particular guidance were
EMS and fire districts, domestic animal services, water, wastewater,
fleet management, facilities management, building review and
permitting, traffic operations, Pelican Bay and the sheriffs office.
So to let you know on the overtime who was able to get it in. I
will tell you that the agencies that are on the right are normally in a lot
of cases 24-hour agencies that get called up on different things, and
that has a tendency to skew their overtime particular projections.
As far as metrics are concerned for the county manager, for the
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June 22, 2006
county manager we've taken a look at those particular counties. This
particular metric has to do with employees per thousand population in
unincorporated parts of the counties. Collier County has about 6.49
employees per thousand population. You can see how if relates up to
the other counties. The only county that has less employees per
thousand population is Marion County.
The other particular sophistic (sic) that we measure our budget
against, the county manager's agency, is the adjusted budget per
capita, how much money per person in the unincorporated area do we
spend in Collier County. It's $1,356 a year. You can see in Lee,
Manatee, Charlotte and in Sarasota they all beat us as far as adjusted
budget per capita in unincorporated. The only county to have a lesser
amount budgeted per capita is Marion county.
What those two statistics basically tell you is we try to be as
frugal as we possibly can, try to provide the services that we can for
this particular county and hold down the amount of the cost that it
costs in order to provide those particular services.
On page two, if you look under general text overview of your
particular -- if you'll look past the county logo to go past to the second
page you'll see the macro breakdown on this particular budget for the
county, including all the people that will brief you today and all the
staff that will brief you today.
The county budget, and I'm down at the very bottom line of the
next county budget, the budget that we're presenting to you is
$1,188,351,000. That represents a 20.7 percent increase over the
adopted budget in '06. As you also go up into the capital budget you
will also see that the majority of that increase, the significant part that
puts us over that 12 percent item that you talked about has to do with
capital programs.
And if you go up from the bottom line and you go up about five
you'll see grand total capital projects, that's $592,000,000, a 23 percent
increase over the '06 adopted budget for capital programs.
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June 22, 2006
And I want you to go back up a little bit and about the middle of
the page -- I think I'm just going to put it up on the overhead, it will be
easier. Commissioners, I had originally talked about the budget
number that we're going in with at 20.7 percent. I'll try to break down
where that increase comes from. If you go up to the grand total capital
budget, or capital projects, you'll see $992, 000,000 -- excuse me,
$592,000,000, thank you, sir, which is a 23 percent increase.
If you go up the page just a tad more you'll take a look at grand
total operating and you'll see the grand total operating is
$662,000,000, and that's a 9.4 percent increase. If you take a look at
those two sections, you add the numbers together, you come up with
the $1.1 billion budget, and you average those numbers in their
respective categories and you get a 20.7 percent increase.
On the next page of your budget you'll notice that we talk about
revenues and we will also talk about position counts. And that's
broken out in pretty good detail so that you can see where those
particular positions have increased and it what particular departments
they've been so.
I will also bring to your attention that on Page 5 of your packet if
you go into -- on Page 4 you have a breakdown as far as everything
above the 16 percent and what the rollback would be and then how
much money it would be and then it breaks it down in detail. And
then you have on Page 5 the proposed tax rates based on the budget
guidance. And it's a bit of an eye chart on the overhead but it gives
you an idea based on -- and the proposed millage rates on that
particular chart have to do with what the board approved for budget
guidance, and you can see those particular numbers. They are on Page
5 of your agenda book.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Just a couple questions, Jim, the
$1.1 billion budget is made up of lots of things, impact fees, revenue
from enterprise funds that don't include property taxes.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir.
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June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER COYLE: And consequently they won't be
affected by any decisions with respect to the millage rate. So what I'm
wondering is, do you have a breakdown of property tax general fund
revenue in the same categories we just went through?
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. I was going to get to that.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, wait a minute, don't do that
yet.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: We're -- you've made a
recommendation, as I understand it, that the proposed millage rate be
reduced from last -- this past year, this current fiscal year, to 3.5912.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner--
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Is that what you're saying, it's a
proposed budget millage rate?
MR. MUDD: Based on your budget guidance that you gave me
in March and you approved by this board, yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: And I'm just trying to rationalize
that with the comment in the newspaper that staff thinks we're going
to keep the same millage rate. Where did that -- would that staff
member please stand up?
MR. MUDD: I know Mr. Smykowski pretty well, and Mr.
Smykowski would never say that, okay. And I looked at him today
and he said, not my words.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay. I just wanted to make sure
we were all reading off the same page here.
MR. MUDD: They also stated in the thing that we're only
talking about a $21 million reduction. And you read everything that I
just presented to you, what's on the UFR list and what's talking about
everything above that 16 percent, you know, we're talking about
there's $50 million on the table, okay. So the article today and what's
in this budget book are -- the article today was not accurate with all
the figures.
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June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay. Well, hopefully we can
clarify those today. Good. Thank you.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HENNING: I didn't have a chance to talk to a
reporter, so it didn't come from me.
I do want to talk about Page 2 and 3. I had some questions.
Debt transfers, public utilities transfer to other funds, I'm
assuming that's to a debt fund that it's paying, going into?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That's not only a debt fund but public
utilities in their operating fund makes transfers, as the header
indicates, debt service and transfers, makes operating transfers from
the county water-sewer district to their water and sewer maintenance
capital funds for projects that are not impact fee elibible.
And we'll have plenty of time to talk about that. Mr. DeLony
and staff will, I'm sure, talk about that in great detail when we talk
about utilities capital proj ects this afternoon.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: That's great. Down below it
says county manager agencies administrative service capital projects,
excluding CO projects. I don't know what CO means.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That's constitutional officer.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Constitutional, okay.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Some of the projects with the
constitutional officers, particularly the sheriff, are managed by the
facilities management staff, but, given that the projects are for the
benefit of the sheriff, we show those under constitutional officers. So
we want to differentiate between the two.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And if we go up one where it
says capital budget, it says, the Board of Commissioners are going up
203 percent, and it looks like it's from the Airport Authority capital
projects.
Now I'm sure we're going to talk about that in detail, I just can't
find that over $11 million capital improvement. What I seen it wase
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like about 900 -- we'll talk about that.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Go to kind of balance it out.
Then the interfund transfer, the second to last line, can you
explain that in a little bit more detail?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Sure, I would be happy to. The example I
gave earlier is one example where there is an interfund transfer from
the county water-sewer district fund 408 to the capital water, capital
fund and the sewer capital fund that are maintenance-oriented.
Probably the best example, though, is within the general fund. We
budget a transfer to the sheriff of $140 plus million dollars. That is an
interfund transfer. The sheriffs expenses are not expended directly
out of the general fund, there is a separate operating fund 040 for the
sheriffs expenses.
So there is an interfund transfer of a 140 million that transfers
that revenue to the sheriff, which is then expended out of his separate
and distinct operating fund.
So what you end up with is some double counting, in essence,
because you have that $140 million budgeted in the general fund on
the transfer side, you receive the transfer in the sheriffs operating fund
and it's actually expended out of the sheriffs operating fund. But
bottom line, that shows in the budget as 140 million in the general
fund and 140 million in the sheriffs budget. It's double counted, 280.
We net out the interfund transfers because obviously that is double
counted, there is only $140 million. It's just moving the money from
the general to that other operating fund.
You have a whole series of those. Between the general fund for
capital, for all of your capital projects you have interfund transfers to
the debt service funds, you have interfund transfers to your Airport
Authority, to the court system -- we'll talk about that in a minute, there
is a whole series of transfers back and forth between the various funds
that were established post Article 5 -- and it goes on and on. There is
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approximately 20 pages when we run a printout. When we think the
budget's balanced we also then run a series of interfund transfer
reports that is about 20 pages long of money going back and forth
between funds, and we need to make sure that those are all in balance
as well to ensure that ultimately the total county budget is in balance.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Just a checks and
balances. Is it appropriate to ask questions about revenues right now
on Page 3?
MR. MUDD: You certainly can.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The gas and sales tax, I'm
assuming you are getting that information from the state, the State of
Florida, what is being proposed and -- that an estimate?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Yes, sir. We do estimates of gas tax and
sales tax. Not only do we monitor what the state LCIR provides, we
monitor gas tax and sales tax on a monthly basis within the Office of
Management and Budget to ensure A, that the current year revenues
are on track, and that also is kind of a launching pad from which we
make estimates for the upcoming year. At this point on the LCIR
website, I checked as recently as yesterday, the sales tax and revenue
sharing estimates just came out within the last two days. The gas tax
estimates from the state are not yet available. So we're relying on our
internal information at that point.
But for sales tax and revenue sharing I was able to validate we're
within a couple hundred thousand dollars of the state estimates, which
is a good check and balance, again, internally. Their economists are
doing their estimations as well as OMB staff, and we're doing our
own, and it's nice when the models mesh pretty closely.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What is LCIR, is that the
legislation inter --
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Legislative Commission on
Intergovernmental Relations. That's a mouthful.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. I went to that page and
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it's quite different than what is in our budget book. But also they have
in there a half cent sales tax which we don't impose. They show the
state's estimates between the gas taxes and the revenue sharing is 65 --
65, almost 65 and a half million dollars. You know, I would be happy
to provide that information to you. I think I do have it here.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Sales tax.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And then I asked the budgeting
department over in the clerk of court, okay, what actually is coming
in. And there is a little bit of a differential -- there is a total of like 6
percent differential, what came in and actually what is, what was
budgeted last year.
Maybe at the break you can maybe help me out with that. I just
want to make sure that we're appropriating at the right level.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That's fine. I would be happy to share that,
and we'll pull up the detail that we use as well. Here is the example I
pulled up off the LCIR website for local government half cent sales
tax. This is 100 percent distribution. The estimate for Collier County
is 35,545,372, and this is as of yesterday that it was posted or two days
ago. What's in the budget for Collier County is 35190 -- 35,190,000,
so we're within $340,000.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. But that is reported for
this -- they are working on their fiscal year, which ends in June, right?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Sir, these estimates are for the year ending
September 30th, 2007, which would be consistent.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So that's --
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That's consistent with the county's fiscal
year.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. That's working within
this present fiscal year that we're working in?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: No, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. Okay.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Our current fiscal year FY '06 will end
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September 30, 2006. This is for the next fiscal year, which will begin
October 1 st, 2006 and end September 30th, 2007. So this is consistent
with the county fiscal year. That's why we're always anxious, in fact,
we have been somewhat critical because typically these items have
come out after the board has adopted their tentative millage in July.
At that point they do you no good if there is a huge variation in the
estimates. So I was thankful that, you know, the estimates are
available at this point in time and they mesh pretty darn close with
what we have in the budget at this point.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. And maybe it's a
different information source within the state that I have versus yours.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Okay. I would be happy to compare,
though, because if we can eek out a little more gas tax revenue in the
budget I'm all for that as long as it's within the realm of reason.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I appreciate that. And I think
projected versus actuals, what we actually get in, if that historical
information will help us get where we need to, then I trust that, that
you'll assist us in that.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Sure. Another example, sir, is county
revenue sharing, which is another key revenue in our general fund.
This was also made available within the last couple of days. The state
estimate for Collier County is $9.2 million. What we have in the
budget at this point is 9,000,056. Again, we're within $150,000 on $9
million. So we're within spitting distance of each other relative to that
revenue estimate as well. So again, they are meshing quite nicely with
the internal estimates that were developed.
And on the gas tax I would be happy to look at that with you and
the sheet that was passed over was for the current fiscal year. That
was through the end -- on the gas tax information was through
September 30th, 2006, so I still don't believe the gas tax estimates for
the subsequent fiscal year '07 that we're dealing with are yet available.
But we will be monitoring that within the next week or so.
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June 22, 2006
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. Let's move on. Commissioner
Coletta.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I still have some more
questions.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Go ahead.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Sorry.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The impact fees reported on the
revenue are going down but yet I think we raised them significantly.
Can you explain how we derived (sic) at that figure?
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, I believe a lot of that has to do
with the 50 percent given to Norman Feder when he first came out
with the particular development where they would pay 50 percent up
and then three years later they would pay the other 50 percent. So
when we had -- we had a big windfall in the 50 percent range on
Norman's side, that's exactly what that particular offering from the
development community and that change to your growth management
plan was designed to do.
And you are seeing a little bit of reduction because you are not
getting that 50 percent in those kind of quantities anymore from those
large PUD developments.
Did I miss anything, Michael? I think that's what it is.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: No, sir. And what I'm having my staff do
is put together a list of each of the impact fees by category: Roads,
parks, libraries, on down the line, what the adopted budget was in '06
and what the proposed is for '07. So then when you talk about the
capital section we'll have that in front of us. We can also look at the
year to date information as well and hedge your bet a little bit.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: If it's coming from the 50
percent paying of impact fees, can you get that number for us?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And also, is that -- I would
imagine that's part of the carryforward on the same revenue side. And
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June 22, 2006
is the carryforward all impact fees or is that unincumbered funds also?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That's unincumbered funds also. That
carryforward number is a summation of all of the operating and capital
funds within the Collier County budget. And you've got a lot of cases,
MSTUs, that are accumulating money for future projects. You've got,
the library trust fund has grown tremendously. Some people
bequeathed money in their wills to the Collier County library system
and restricted it for specific things, so that money has also been
budgeted within the confines of that.
So that's the gamut of the entire county budget, not only impact
fees but every operating fund, the general fund and every little trust
fund and all of the MSTUs and debt service.
MR. MUDD: We can take a look -- and Mr. Schmitt just handed
me this particular page as a back up document on your overhead,
basically talks about the different funds. Notice that the $71,918,400
does not include water and sewer and schools.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. Just one more question.
But going back from the previous year it doesn't seem like it's an
adequate amount compared to last year since we have doubled and
tripled impact fees this year.
MR. MUDD: Sir, we'll bring that forward and we'll break it
down. Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And just one last question.
Where can I find the unincumbered funds in the budget? Details.
Where is the details on those unincumbered funds?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Well, within each fund there's an estimate
of carryforward, which is unobligated, it's the compilation of revenues
and expenses proj ected to carry over --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: -- into the subsequent fiscal year. So the
carryforward number budgeted in fiscal year '07 within each
respective fund is the amount of funds we anticipate to be available for
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June 22, 2006
appropriation in fiscal year '07. So those would be unobligated.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: You're welcome.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Please proceed.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, you'll notice as you go through
your packet -- and this gets to Commissioner Coyle's particular issue
-- on Page 8 and 9 gives you a break-out of the general fund, 00 fund
summary and appropriation that talks just specifically to the general
fund, that gets specifically to the general fund tax millage, a question
that Commissioner Coyle had. And that's broken down in detail to let
folks know.
And the net fund appropriation for the general fund is
$396,785,900, and that's a 12.1 percent -- and I'm on Page 9, very
bottom of the page -- a 12.1 percent increase.
Then if you -- on Page 10 and 11 you get into the unincorporated
general fund, which is fund 111, and you take a look at that particular
item and where it sits, and you'll notice on Page 11 total
appropriations, it's $52,555,200, and that represents a 27.2 percent
increase. And we'll talk about those in specific detail as we go
through the budget dialogue today.
On Page 12 and 13, okay, we have at least listed the unfinanced
requirements that are sitting out in the particular county, highlighted
which ones are reoccurring costs. I want to make sure again that you
note that the total at the top of the page, Page 12, where it says total
21.3 million is 20.2 million. And I showed you how that went down.
So we'll update those sheets for the September time frame and let
you know if anything has changed during the particular year on that.
And behind page -- and then on Page 13 you have the unfunded
-- well, you have 111 underneath on Page 12 on the 001, that's the
MSTD fund, and then you've got available funds on 113, 131 and 408,
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June 22, 2006
which has to do with community developments, planning services and
public utilities on Page 13.
Behind Page 13, all the way to the end of the tab, it is a
description of what those unfinanced requirements are. I have also
provided you a letter that was given to me on the 15th of June from
Mr. Bob Lee, city manager for the City of Naples, asking for
additional funds. And he tells me that on Friday at one o'clock there
will be city staff here to explain those particular items to you.
Mr. Chairman, I'm finished with the general overview and we're
ready to go through the board's -- unless there are other questions -- to
the Courts and Related agency, State Attorney, Public Defender, if
that's the desire of the board. I would ask those ladies and gentlemen
to please step forward -
COURTS AND RELATED AGENCIES (STATE ATTORNEY AND
PUBLIC DEFENDER
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Constitutional officers, please. Excuse
me, Courts and Related Agencies: State Attorney, Public Defender.
JUDGE HAYES: As unaccustomed as we are to speak, we
would, Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for allowing us to make a
presentation to you this morning.
For the record, I'm Judge Hayes. I sit here in Naples in Collier
County, one of the circuit judges. But I'm also serving as the chief
judge for the 20th Judicial Circuit.
On my right is somebody that you don't need to be introduced to,
and you can't have him back, sorry. But Judge Manalich has been
helpful with us in helping us to get our budget set up, to make some
critiques and things like that. We also have our court administrative
staff here.
On my immediate left is probably the only non-government
employee at the table. And I just wanted to introduce Bill Hazzard,
Page 1 7
June 22, 2006
who is the president of the Collier County Bar Association. The rest of
us are speaking to you in our roles as state employees as well. So he's
the only one who's, shall we say, a civilian-oriented person. And you
may find it necessary to ask him a question as an outsider.
But we are pleased to have Bob Jacobs from the public defender's
office and his staff here. Steve Russell was in trial today but he has
his members of his staff here as well to answer any questions for the
state attorney's office.
I just wanted to briefly say to you that we're going through this
year and next year somewhat of a little bit of a hypertensive change in
our system. We're in the transition phase still from Article 5 Provision
7 that was passed by the citizens of the state and through the
legislature, and that seems to be working out very well, actually, from
what we can see. It's not nearly as crisis oriented as we originally
thought it might be.
In particular, though, for this county it's kind of one of those are
you bragging or complaining stories, it's for our whole circuit. We've
undergone a somewhat unique situation in that last year in session B
of the legislature we were able to acquire through the leadership, as
you know, through the leadership, Representative Goodlette and
Kottkamp and Kyle and Senator Saunders and some of the other
individuals that represent our area, and the addition of four new
judges, two of which came to this county and are now working as of
about -- well actually, their first official day of work was about a
month ago, I guess, for us.
That has kind of cut into the, right into the middle of our budget
so we have had to make adjustments. We really appreciate the fact
that Colonel Mudd and his staff have worked with us to make that
transition to now fund two new judges that you didn't have before.
Even though they are state employees and they are staff, their JA is a
state employee, it does require space, it requires a budget, it requires,
you know, an overhead that the counties provide. So we appreciate
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June 22, 2006
that.
With the immediate passage or adjournment of this most recent
legislature on May the 5th of this year, this circuit received nine new
judges. This is my twenty-ninth year in the judiciary, and speaking to
our current chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, no circuit in the
State of Florida that we know of in history has ever received nine new
judges. So we were very fortunate.
And you take those nine plus the four we got in December, we
will have had 13 new judges in this circuit within a 12-month period.
That's really exceptionally good news for us because we now will
have the personnel to adequately address all of the cases that we have.
We have the highest caseload per judge in the state for this circuit.
And I suspect it will drop fairly quickly with that kind of personnel
being added on.
Of those 13, five of them are coming to this county. Two just
came on, and even though the county is now building in the fourth
floor that they had built years ago and we had -- the public defender's
office was in there, and as you know the public defender's office is
now out of the building and leasing space across the street, so that's an
expenditure you're making that's not -- you are not paying yourself
rent, you are paying somebody else.
But even when this fourth floor is completed, we will still be
short. We will not have enough courtrooms for those five judges.
They will be filled immediately. I think we only need one more to fill
it in. That -- it's kind of like when the legislature was meeting, they
kept going up there and we would take judges up there and ask them
to continue to fund us for the necessary judges that we were certified
for by the Florida Supreme Court, and periodically somebody would
say, well, what are you going to do with them when you get them?
Our standard response was, we'll worry about that when we get there.
Historically, you know, it's like, I would rather get them first and
worry about them later. Well, now we're worrying about them later.
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June 22, 2006
We now have them and we're very appreciative of that from the
legislature. But now we need to also look at where we're going to
house them, and that's -- plus we need to house the public defender
and the state attorney.
I probably should tell you that under our formula that the state
uses, for every 1.0 FTE criminal law judge that we use -- and we just
put this figure together for Bob Jacobs and Steve Russell last week,
actually -- but for every 1.0 we generate two state attorneys and one
public defender. That's part of a state formula.
There is a fund that Steve and Bob will draw down on to acquire
those employees. But that's based on what we tell the state the
workload is going to be.
Of these nine new judges that we are receiving we gave you, I
think it was 4.5 -- 4.65 --
MR. JACOBS: That's correct.
JUDGE HAYES: -- is the estimate of the criminal law impact.
That's misdemeanor and felony.
So out of those four, and two of those will be here, that will
generate at least four more state attorneys, assistant state attorneys. It
will generate at least two more public defenders as far as personnel are
concerned.
And then, also, for every three judges that you get from the state
from the Trial Court Budget Commission, you also draw one more
staff attorney as a support staff to do research and handle caseloads.
The point I'm trying to make is it's this trickle down effect.
Drawing nine judges has a tremendous impact down the system. That
creates a need for space. So when I mention to you that even with the
fourth floor being built in we're going to be short probably two judges'
offices, that's really not just two bodies, that's the staff that goes with
them, the state attorneys, the public defenders that are needed to
service them because they are handling this caseload that is generated
not only in Collier County, just like in Lee County.a
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June 22, 2006
I would like to say that even if the economy slows down, that our
caseload would. But that's not true. In fact, when the economy is
good in the business community our experience over the years has
been that they may be willing to let certain accounts go that are
accounts receivable. And quite frankly, I can always tell you it's in
the 25 to $30,000 range. They are so busy making money and they
don't want to take time to go back and do these accounts receivable.
As times get tough, quite frankly, they go back to their
comptrollers and say, go back and look at these accounts and see if we
can get those funds. And if it doesn't get resolved reasonably between
the parties, we end up being the recipients of their dispute.
So I can't tell you that the cases are going to go down even if the
economy slows. I think in fact the statistics would reflect that we may
increase somewhat because there are more disputes out there that need
to be resolved by the courts.
The reason I bring all this up is that -- is obvious, and that is I
know that this commission is considering the -- how much to build as
far as the annex facility to the court system on the land that is what we
-- the old courthouse space, is what I would call it. And it would
appear to me that, based on our current growth and our current space
problems, it -- if you -- I would like to have you consider filling the
building out all the way, not just building, say, seven floors and
funding -- and building in four.
When I was the administrative judge when we built the current
courthouse, I remember at that time Mr. Dorrill had mentioned to me I
believe it was about a million dollars a floor to fill that building in.
And now it's gotten up to about $2 million a floor for these. I don't
think it's going to go down. I would seriously think that we're
probably underestimating our space needs requirements to just go in
with four floors. Now that the public defender has -- depends on
whose view you take here -- but been kicked out of the building, we
have one less person to pick on. And quite frankly, down the road, I
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June 22, 2006
have talked to -- Dwight Brock was here earlier and had to go to
another conference call -- but has agreed that I can speak for him on
this point. He's also fully in agreement to fill the -- he said I could
mention that he would be happy to have ten floors filled in.
But it's going to, I think, down the line probably in about a year
to 15 months or so get a little bit interesting because as we have
greater space requirements we're looking around at fewer and fewer
people that we're going to probably be pushing out of the courthouse
building. And we don't want to push the clerk out. They are a very
integral part of our day-to-day operations. But worse comes to worse,
we would put courtrooms and judges and staff in there ahead of the
clerks. So Dwight and I are clearly in agreement that we don't want to
go there two years from now.
So anyway, those are the things I bring out because I know it
takes time and I know that the building is not going up over there yet
and it takes time to build a building and it's just something I thought I
would bring up while we were here because it's not exactly oriented
towards today's budget. But I don't think we're -- we have been so
successful that now we're going to have to worry about where we're
going to put our staff and our people. And it's not just judges, it
impacts state attorneys, public defenders and a lot of other people.
There is a large impact there.
So thank you. I'll answer any questions, but I'm sure that Bob or
President Hazzard --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Judge, every year we hear from
the Sheriff the crime rate is going down. I would imagine what you
talked about is some civil litigation. Can you provide us the historical
cases of the last five years?
JUDGE HAYES: Sure. That is not a problem. We can give that
to you. I don't have them with me sitting here this morning. I can tell
you that all these cases are recorded through our clerk of courts, both
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June 22, 2006
criminal and civil. They get filtered through the office of state court
administration at the Florida Supreme Court. I started to say, not
surprisingly, but I won't go there.
There are 67 clerks of court. Each clerk of court has a matrix
that they are supposed to use provided by the Supreme Court. But
some of them are different. They have to be put through, in essence, a
filter at OSCA so that they all are in the same -- everybody is counting
those the same way.
So that, those numbers come out of OSCA. Periodically, they
come back even to our county and say your numbers are not jiving, we
need you to do them again. So we argue with them a little but then we
do it. And so that's where those numbers come from.
But for the last, I believe, in fact the number you are picking is
about the last five years, we have been number one in the State of
Florida for caseload per judge as compared to -- there are 20 circuits
in the state, of course we are the 20th circuit. The years that we were
not number one we were number two. It's ironic, but either Orange
County, the 9th circuit, or Orlando or Naples has had the highest
caseload per judge in the state for probably seven or eight years. We
can get those numbers to you and show you what our cases are and
how much they've increased each year.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I have some more questions.
JUDGE HAYES: Sure.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Page 2 in our book. It's division
budget summary, cost summary. It's showing that you are having a
reserve contingency increase of a 166 percent with --
JUDGE HAYES: Let's see, because I have part of these
documents. I'm not showing --
MR. MIDDLEBROOK: Mark Middlebrook, senior deputy court
administrator assigned here as chief of operations in Collier. Many of
these reserves are Article 5-induced money that is collected through a
$65 fee, a $15 fee and a $2 fee, and they can only be spent on certain
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June 22, 2006
items. Weare in an unfortunate area, I believe, where we're not
spending as much as we're bringing in and we continue to carry over.
How this year's budget differs from last years is, and we went down a
significant number, percentage number, is that through the guidance of
the chief judge and Colonel Mudd we have attacked those fees that we
collect and attached as much as we can out of our budget that was
formally paid for out of the general fund. Those items are now being
paid for out of these contingencies.
So that's why we carry a fairly high number. We're still working
on utilizing all of that available money.
JUDGE HAYES: I'll give you an example. Last year, that's the
Florida Statute 939, there are four subparts to that as to how -- and
each one gets 25 percent. But last year we used some of that money to
fund an additional state attorney and an additional public defender and
a paralegal, I think, for each one of them in order to attack the
caseload that the number of people that are in jail, that we might be
able to process them through faster. So that we could save that,
depending on what number you use, I just picked one that's commonly
used, $55 a day, $65 a day to house someone in the jail system.
So what we did was to use some of that account's funds to hire
these additional staff to focus on trying to get these people through the
jail faster. If we can get them out of jail then we save the county
money on a daily basis.
And quite frankly, it did work pretty well. We brought that up in
front of the public safety council meeting the other day. Part of that is
working on the federal government to get people over to -- if they
belong at Krome Avenue to take them and get them over to Krome. I
wouldn't say you should expect this normally, but I think our jail
population actually went down from one month too by a hundred
people. From what I recollect, Commissioner Coyle was there at the
meeting. But that's fairly rare, actually.
We, in all of the counties that we work in, the coastal counties,
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June 22, 2006
there are the haves and have not counties, quite frankly, but Charlotte,
Lee and Collier, each one of these is -- we're working with trying to
use some of these funds to hire people to go in and reduce jail
populations.
We're doing different kinds of things to do that. At pretrial, at
intake, diversion programs. Lee County is very big in using this. And
they are still implementing it, in the process of implementing this now
where when these people come in we'll shoot them out to a drug rehab
program or a mental health court or something like that, things that we
have not had in Collier County with regard to mental health work,
things we have not had here because we didn't have the staff to
actually run it. We had people ask. We talked among our judges and
we said we just don't have the staff to do it, even if we could have the
funds.
Now we're going to have the staff and I think next year you'll see
us going with a mental health court like Lee County has and Charlotte
County has. Those counties funded that just independently on their
own. They didn't wait for the legislature, and just said it's more
important, we go without them. That kind of fund is where those --
we could use some of those monies for.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Two more questions.
What part of the -- where is your fund that comes back to the Board of
Commissioners?
MR. MIDDLEBROOK: Where's our -- I'm not sure I
understand.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I mean your--
MR. MIDDLEBROOK: We have our probation fund that returns
approximately $175,000 back to the county, more than you spend on
the probation department. I don't know if you are talking fine and
forfeiture fees or -- Mike? We really don't handle that aspect of the
funding.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: That's in the clerk of court's
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June 22, 2006
side.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That would be under the clerk of court's
section, yes. We basically go out and get the money but we turn it
over -- in that capacity the clerk of courts --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: -- is truly working as the clerk of the
courts and that's their responsibility to you.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I understand.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, I will tell you before Article 5 it
was significant. We were talking six to $9 million, and I can't
remember, it's in that range --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I'll get that number later.
MR. MUDD: It used to come back because of Article 5.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: We need to get through this. I
apologize to my colleagues for the questions but I just need answers
about the budget.
JUDGE HAYES: Dwight would have that for sure.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you. And your carrying
forward a lot in your funding sources.
JUDGE HAYES: Actually -- and you are correct, and the--
that's been brought to our attention actually by staff. And because of
that we are looking at other ways. Subparagraph 1 of that statute,
basically you get down to Paragraph 4 and if you haven't used it for
four it throws it back into one. And then at that point it's kind of like
if the court recommends or the chief judge recommends and the
county agrees, it has to be with the approval of the county, then you
can spend it for what they call, I don't know what the word innovative
actually means, but it says innovative supplemental programs that
otherwise would be provided by the state under Chapter 29.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
JUDGE HAYES: So what we did last year was in dipping into
that fund was to say, well, I don't know how innovative it is but it is
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June 22, 2006
supplemental to the state's requirement to help us out, so let's use that
money to hire a state attorney or public defender and let's attack some
of the people who come through the court system and try to process
them out faster. And it seems to work pretty well.
But we're looking now at other areas that we can use that. The
law library will probably increase in the future, I think. If they got a
little more space I'm sure they will as well. But part of that is juvenile.
They get funded by two different statutes. If you pick one side of the
statute you can't pick the other. I think it's 38. If you use 38 you can't
use 939. It's built into the law. And we do use that for the juvenile
assessment center, that fund.
But the point you raise is still the same point and that is that there
are some extra funds in there that we can use, and we're going to try to
figure out how to do that because we don't want to give them back to
the state, quite frankly. I believe that those are funds that don't get
thrown back to the county, they get thrown back into the state's
internal revenue and we would prefer not to do that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: My question that I have before I turn this
over to Commissioner Coyle is that each judge, about what is their
head count per staff member?
JUDGE HAYES: Each judge has a judicial assistant slash
secretary .
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
JUDGE HAYES: And that's the only one that the state provides
to them. Based on the -- every three judges, the trial court budget
commission, which is still the state's money, provides you with a staff
attorney. Most of those are used for criminal appeals, what we call
3.850s. We don't really get to use them for research. They do mainly
the pro se criminal appeals from prisoners, state prisoners who claim
that either they didn't get a fair trial or they didn't have a good lawyer
or whatever. So most of them are used in that area. But as far as
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June 22, 2006
actual staff that's it. We've used -- we have a --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: What I'm trying to do is just get a head
count of what it is going to take to come up with the space that's
available to house everybody. So that's what I need to know.
JUDGE HAYES : We'll be glad to get that to you, because, like I
say, for every 1.0 felony or criminal judge we generate two state
attorneys and one public defender. And then they generate their own
staff. But we can get you a number as to what that would increase.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I think that's something that we really
need up here to figure out the total staff. Not the cost, just we want to
know what the staff is as far as housing them, what it's going to take.
JUDGE HAYES: It's a real swag. I would say with five new
judges that are coming to this county you are probably going to
generate ten per judge. I would say 50 bodies.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Fifty bodies.
JUDGE HAYES: I would say. And that's just, that's a real swag.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I haven't heard that term since I worked
at Ford, swag.
Commissioner Coyle.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: What does that mean? I'll tell you,
I've never heard that term before.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Something you pull a curtain back
with.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Just a brief clarification, Judge.
You touched upon it in some detail but since I can't talk independently
to my colleagues here, it's a good time, I think, to make them aware
that there is a public safety coordinating council which consists of
almost most of the people here and the state law enforcement, I mean
the sheriffs agency, representatives from the David Lawrence Center,
of course the public defender. And these people are working together
to find ways to do things more efficiently and at lower cost.
And there are a number of ways, as Judge Hayes has suggested,
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June 22, 2006
where increases in their staffing and their budget will result in
corresponding decreases in other areas. For example the sheriffs
budget. Anything that the judiciary can do with respect to processing
people who are awaiting trial or to divert them from jail reduces the
needs for jail capacity. That reduce the needs for staffing and staffing
growth in the sheriffs department.
So we have a committee established in the coordinating council
that will report to us on the anticipated savings resulting from some of
these recommendations. And as soon as those reports are delivered
and we have some experience with that, I'll be happy to report the
results to the board in a public meeting.
But I just wanted you to understand that although we're talking
about cost increases in the judiciary, these are cost increases that are in
most cases very productive from the standpoint of reducing burdens
somewhere else in the government. And so with that I just thought I
would try to clarify them.
And since I've got the mic., Mr. Hazzard, as a representative of
the bar maybe you could share with us, since we're coming up to an
election, which judges you think should be retained.
MR. HAZZARD: Perhaps we'll do that on the break as well.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: All of them.
JUDGE HAYES: Luckily, none of them here at the table are in
that situation. This one, he just got reelected with no opposition.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: That's the way it should be. Thank
you very much.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Just a couple of fast questions.
When you have judges and you don't have a courtroom for them, then
what do you do?
JUDGE HAYES: Well, we basically kind of play musical chairs.
It's not the first time we're being in this situation. I think you'll
remember, actually, when we had the old courthouse we had that
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June 22, 2006
situation occur once in a while, and I remember Judge Carlton actually
holding a trial out here in the shade outside of this building. And I
don't think the jury was really excited about that.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Did they have the gallows there too?
JUDGE HAYES: Yes. I don't recollect whether he was trying to
make a point or not. He really just needed the space and so he said,
let's just hold it out in the sunshine. And that truly turned out to be the
case. There were a lot of very hot people.
(Commissioner Henning has left the room.)
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So you --
JUDGE HAYES: In a lot of different capacities. We just kind of
rotate everybody around. It's a very tough system to manage in a way
because everybody starts heavy in the beginning of the week and then
as the day of reckoning occurs you don't ever know when Bob's guys
are going to cut a deal or not, you know, with the state attorney. And
so you may have set up for a trial for three or four days and then on
the day of trial it goes away. So then your space is empty but you're
having to plan on a weekly basis.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And just one last question. I don't
mean to interrupt you but, to move it along, why haven't they started
the annex yet? If you need this space so desperately do you know
what --
JUDGE HAYES: I think it's really kind of, we're underway. I
think the question is how -- I think at this point though the county is
only looking at maybe funding the first four floors.
MR. MUDD: We have one item before we finally get our permit
to go horizontal -- excuse me, go vertical, and it has to do with the fire
issue, okay, and we're trying to resolve that, depending on the
definition of what you call it. And that could determine if we have to
put more money in a particular proj ect, they have to sprinkle more
area. It has to do with the little atrium that you have on the side and
how that interconnects with the annex.
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June 22, 2006
(Commissioner Henning has returned to the room.)
MR. MUDD: But right now in the budget we only have a
seven-story building with only four floors finished out. There are still
three floors to be finished. And you have an unfinanced requirement
item on those three remaining floors, and I believe that the price tag
runs about $8 million.
You also have to -- we also moved folks from the courthouse and
over as -- the courthouse as it stands today in your master plan is to be
all judges' suites, deliberation rooms and courtrooms. So the
administrative function of the courthouse for the most part will be
taken out of that courthouse and moved into the annex.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
JUDGE HAYES: The state attorney and public defender would
move into the annex as well. And, of course, at this point the public
defender is now in private leases. The state attorney is actually here.
By getting them into that building -- we're not the only one growing,
we understand that, and the county's staff needs space as well, but this
would actually free up some degree of space if the state attorney
moves out of here and into this building as well.
But right now that building would primarily be housing state
attorneys, public defenders, clerk of courts. And so we -- we all are
impacting each other. We all cause each other to increase in size. But
it, of course, is to provide a public -- a service to the public, which is
to get their cases tried in a timely manner as well as the law
enforcement concepts of keeping people off the streets.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: So the bottom line is we're building this
building to seven stories and you are asking us to finish the whole
building out because of the impact that is going to be put upon us here
in Collier County.
JUDGE HAYES: Right. I think as history has shown we're
going to need that space faster than any of us have anticipated. And I
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June 22, 2006
don't think that our need is going to go down and I'm concerned that,
of course, eventually the cost will go up. I was here when a former
county commission decided to build the current courthouse with the
fourth floor being empty and I've always said that I believe that was
one of the smartest and most economical things they ever did because
I just don't know how easy it is to build floors on top of already
existing buildings without getting a lot of leaks, and it's always more
.. .
expenSive In my expenence.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. We appreciate your time.
Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Judge, the caseloads that you
have today is the caseloads that you have today.
JUDGE HAYES: Right.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You have to move those
through. That's going to be, I would imagine, go up whatever amount
for next year. So you are still processing the same caseload, basically.
JUDGE HAYES: True. We run about on, I would say, on
average about a caseload of about, in circuit court, of about 2,000
cases per person per year, that's what you are looking at. The state
recommended average until we get these new judges, the state
recommended average is 1250, that's what the Supreme Court says
you need, you need a caseload of 1250 per judge in order to do justice.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: That's fine.
JUDGE HAYES: It's never really been that way.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But it's the same number of
caseloads, so you are going to have more judges to move those
caseloads but yet I would guess those individual courtrooms are going
to be used less, so why -- no.
JUDGE HAYES: No, no. My guess is with these new judges
we'll probably drop our -- the caseload for a county judge is 7,500
cases per year. Circuit is, like I say, we're running about 2000 cases
per judge per year. I'm guessing that this increase in our judiciary will
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June 22, 2006
drop us down to somewhere around 1650 to 1700 cases per year, still
above the 1250 that the Supreme Court recommends.
The thing that we'll be able to do, and, I mean it's -- I hate to say
it because we're being recorded, but this is the way it is. We get
accused of having to -- we know with the same bodies we have, we
have some of the best judges in this state -- and I not only say that
because our chief justice says that as well -- we'll take on whatever is
up there. And the problem is, is when you get into bringing people
into the courtroom, especially in county court, which is most clearly
always known as the people's court, that's where most of the
population, if they ever see a judge, it's going to be in county court,
traffic court, things like that. It gets to be, quite frankly, a cattle call.
And that's what the lawyers call it. It's a cattle call. We're still trying
to process as many bodies as we can as fast as we can and the people
are getting short-changed. There is no doubt about it. We've got good
guys that give the best --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You are saying you want to
spend more time looking at each case --
JUDGE HAYES: We want to provide better quality.
MR. MIDDLEBROOK: We also have a backlog of cases.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, now I'm starting to
understand.
JUDGE HAYES: Yes. This theory of 1250 per judge is not, you
know -- I mean, they did studies to come up with this number as to
how much time it takes, it should take a judge to dispose of a case,
giving it the time it deserves, listening to the public come in front of
you and make their case. We -- I don't know if I would want to do one
of these exit polls with them and say, did you feel like you got a fair
shake, a fair hearing in front of the judge in this case because it's --
(snapping fingers) -- that's how fast we're moving. It's like --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I understand where you are
coming from.
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June 22, 2006
JUDGE HAYES: So it's a matter, truly, of providing a true
public service as well as administering the law of the State of Florida.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you.
MR. MIDDLEBROOK: I would just add to that that we do have
a backlog. We just did a statistical run where the county judges
cleared 220 percent of the cases. So for every hundred cases that were
coming in they were knocking out 220 cases. We're hustling but we
can't keep up with the numbers.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I understand. I understand.
JUDGE HAYES: It's quality --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other --
JUDGE HAYES: It's a matter of real quality.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other questions from your
commissioners? I want to thank you very much for your time --
JUDGE HAYES: Okay. No problem.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: -- and all of your input. I think we all
learned a great lesson here today. Thank you.
JUDGE HAYES: Thank you.
MR. JACOBS: Thank you.
AIRPORT AUTHORITY
MR. MUDD: Your next item is the Airport Authority.
Commissioners, I'm going to try to get you in the right place in
the book. It's under Board Of County Commissioner's tab and it starts
on Page 19.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much, County Manager.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. Theresa Cook, your director of the
Airport Authority is here to present the budget.
MS. COOK: Commissioners, we're here to present our 2007
budget. I want to point out a few things. Our operating budget has
stayed pretty stagnant over the last three. Unfortunately, our indirect
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June 22, 2006
costs, our insurance has gone up over 100,000 for our administration
at three airports.
We've increased our revenue at Immokalee approximately
100,000 but the insurance there has gone up 75 and we had hurricane
damage loss of revenue about 30,000.
We also have been hit by the economy. Our fuel sales -- our fuel
costs have increased. Our fuel sales have been reduced, because of
the cost of fuel we have less jet traffic into the Marco airport.
We also have additional fleet maintenance costs because of the
increase in fuel and our equipment getting older but we're replacing
some of those to improve that maintenance cost.
I would like to move on to the capital budget if there is no
questions on the operating budget.
MR. MUDD: And that, if you look behind your -- it's a salmon
color, it says Airport Authority capital. That starts on Page 32.
MS. COOK: Our project expenses for the capital budget are
approximately, on the county map, $126,000, that's to match a $1.747
million capital expenses that we have in place in our projected over
the next year. We have an additional $750,000 in county grant,
county match money that we've set aside for anticipated grants to
match approximately 30 million over the next four years but
approximately 1.5 million over fiscal year 2007.
MR. MUDD: If I may interject, that's the $750,000 a year for
four years that the board set aside during the workshop with the
Airport Authority, directed staff in order to do that. This is the first
year, the $750,000. But what Theresa is obligated to do is to basically
show where that match could go against improvements to her
particular Airport Authority.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I don't see any of that on the page
we're looking at.
MS. COOK: If you look at Page 35 I believe it gives you a good
breakdown of how our capital project requests and expenditures are
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June 22, 2006
going to layout over fiscal year '07.
As you'll see in the '07 496 fund, we're putting out 126,000 plus
an increase from reserve of 172 to match approximately $1.5 million
in grant funding. And then the -- I'm tasked to try and find some grant
funding to, over the next four years, to increase the development of
the Immokalee airport, the runway extension and air traffic control
tower, and move forward on an environmental study and land
acquisition for that runway extension.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Coletta, do you have a
question?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes, I do. A couple of things.
One, compared to last year, Everglades City airport, what is it we need
to do to subsidize it this year?
MS. COOK: Our insurance costs have gone up. I believe last
year it was about 96,000. Excuse me, last year we were at about
160,000. This year 186,000.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I'm sorry, one more time,
please.
MS. COOK: Last year we were at 186,700 and this year we're at
196.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: That's the amount of money
over and above operating revenues coming in that has to be subsidized
for that airport?
MS. COOK: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Is there -- some time ago the
commission tasked you with working with Everglades City to see
about them assuming the responsibility for the airport. How is that
going?
MS. COOK: We have had contact from their attorney requesting
documents for the Everglades airport, historical documents looking at
the operating expenses and what their responsibilities would be. I
believe they received those documents right before Hurricane Wilma
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June 22, 2006
and we have not had any contact from them since Hurricane Wilma.
So I believe that that put a lot of difficulties on their intention of
taking over the Everglades airport if that was going to be the outcome.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: In other words, it's not the
Airport Authority, it's Everglades City that hasn't been following
through on this?
MS. COOK: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Okay. The other thing I would
like to know is this panther mitigation, $175,000. Is this for
something outside the fenced part of the airport?
MS. COOK: Technically speaking, the airport houses wild boar,
wild pigs and other wildlife that are the panthers' food chain, they
provide the panthers' dinner. So even though the airport is fenced in
and we believe the panther habitat is outside the airport, what the
airport rules is a part of the panther habitat's existence.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: In other words, we supply them
dinner and have to pay for it too.
MS. COOK: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: The reason I'm bringing that up
is that we're going, we're going to be inviting Fish and Wildlife to
come before this commission in a workshop to talk about panther
mitigation. And I sure hope that your schedule will permit you to be
here at that time.
MS. COOK: I'll make sure I'll be here.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Theresa, looking at your
operational budget, I'm only seeing it going up 7.4 percent but yet I'm
hearing a lot of increase in insurance costs. I can't find it.
MS. COOK: We -- the airport operations actually went up 21
percent over all three airports. We have, we increased our revenue a
hundred thousand plus. Unfortunately we also increased our costs in
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June 22, 2006
Insurance.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Maybe what is in our book is
different than what you have.
MS. COOK: I think I can -- on Pages 23, 25 and 27, the
comments at the bottom of the page address the cost increases in
insurance. But for each airport broken down you'll see that we have
an 8 percent increase for the administration, we have a -- Marco had a
7 percent increase and Immokalee had a 7 percent increase and so did
Everglades approximately.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: On Page 20, the way the book is
laid out, everything as far as operational is on the front page. Maybe I
was looking at the wrong page when I was studying this.
MS. COOK: Debi will comment on that.
MS. MUELLER: The insurance increases combined with our
expected revenue increase from the sod farming out in Immokalee
produced the 7.4 percent increase.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Put your name on the record for us.
MS. MUELLER: I'm Debi Mueller. I'm the office manager for
the authority.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay, that's fine. But if you go
down to the appropriation it shows where the monies are going. The
appropriation by department. I'm seeing that you have a budget of
3.3. What's being proposed? That's it?
MS. COOK: That's our total budget. Then we have a general
match fund from that. But that is our total budget, 3.3.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. I was just trying to figure
out where the, I think, $11 million --
MS. COOK: That's our --
MS. MUELLER: The million--
MS. COOK: That's our capital budget for capital projects.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Coming from the general fund?
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June 22, 2006
MS. COOK: Actually, the match, that's match -- a million
dollars is for our grant money that we receive. The general fund
match is about $126,000. That helps us get that million dollars.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Theresa, I think we can help you out too
there. On Page 31 is the summary. The 21 percent that Mr. Mudd
spoke of in his opening remarks would be general fund transfer or
subsidy of the Airport Authority operation, of that fund. And that
went up 21 percent. And that was -- the magnitude of that increase,
that spike was driven by the increase in the property insurance.
Overall their expenditures are up seven, 8 percent but the general
fund transfer is up 21 percent.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. That still doesn't explain
the $11 million in the capital fund.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: We will do that. On Pages 33 and 34 at
the very bottom, you have total appropriations on Page 33 and Airport
Authority capital fund of 1,747,900. And then on Page 34 bottom line
total, which is a separate fund, we wanted to segregate that money,
especially the 750,000, with the matching grant reimbursements that's
$9.4 million and the sum of the two.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So where is the grants on
the revenue side of it? If you are using -- if you are including grant
fund in the capital improvements, where is it on the revenue?
MS. COOK: The grant reimbursements are shown underneath
the capital fund, not in our revenue operating budget.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I'm sorry, Theresa, this is going
back to our summary page. We have a different kind of funding
revenues but I don't see grants. Actually, there are a lot of grants that I
have identified where they are coming from or where they are
appropriated on the commissioners' summary sheet.
MS. COOK: Page 20, is that the page?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No, it's on the very front of the
book. And Mr. Smykowski can probably explain it to me.
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June 22, 2006
MR. SMYKOWSKI: First of all there is a segregation between
the operating budget, which begins on Page 20, I believe it was, for
Airport Authority and the Airport Authority capital budget. You had
asked a specific question about the grant reimbursements.
In fund 497, the $750,000 county contribution, there are grants of
approximately 8.7 million. And on Page 33 you've got a general fund
transfer of 172,900 and grant reimbursements of approximately $1.3
million.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: That still doesn't answer the
question. In the front of our book we have the revenues. We have
some of the things that we talked about as gas taxes, sales tax, well,
property taxes, you know, permit fines and fees, intergovernmental
service charges. Where is the grants on there?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: On Page --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: It should be on Page 3.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Yes, sir, under -- it's probably under
intergovernmental. These are macro categories that total up a whole
series of revenue codes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: It's probably under there?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can I get a breakdown of all of
those in that?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Of what is included within each of those
header categories, yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can we get one?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Coyle.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yes, I do. Let's go back to this
panther mitigation thing. We've got hundreds of thousands of dollars
we're spending on panther mitigation inside a fenced airport. Are the
panthers coming in there to get their dinner?
MS. COOK: Sir, I can't really respond whether they are actually
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June 22, 2006
coming into the airport property to get their dinner or whether their
food is migrating across airport property going into the panther area.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: And how does a wild boar climb
a 10-foot fence?
MS. COOK: I think it probably goes underneath the outer
perimeter fence in the back. Four or five hundred acres are -- it's more
of a cattle-type fence.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Barbed wire or something.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Are you planning on fencing it all
in?
MS. COOK: We did a lot of the fencing around the airport
operations area in-house with employees and saved hundreds of
thousands of dollars, I believe. We put it in our budget but we're
down on manpower. So that's a lot of acreage, that's about probably
700 more, maybe 900 more acres to fence in.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay. Then my concerns are not
as great as they once were. If it's not completely fenced in I can
understand the problem. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Coletta and then we'll
take a 15-minute break.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I would like to go back to the
Everglades airport again, $196,000, what we're subsidizing in that
airport for. Can you tell me how many planes use that airport in a
given year?
MS. COOK: Unfortunately, we don't have a count or even an
estimate that I could derive for you. I have the Immokalee airport
person actually trying to get an estimated count by watching for the
aircraft each day. But we haven't --
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: On a given day do you have
maybe 20 planes a day at Everglades City?
MS. COOK: I would say not. We average 20 planes a day into
Immokalee.
Page 41
June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: No, for Everglades City. You
don't have anything -- it's probably considerably less, right?
MS. COOK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: The thing was, I was looking for
a number that would help me understand what the subsidation (sic) is
that we are doing against that $196,000. In other words, X number of
trips or estimated trips divided into it. What is the subsidy that we're
paying to have each plane land at the airport?
MS. COOK: I would have to get that information for you and
bring it back.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: At some point I would like to
have it. It's not the reason I would ask you to not pay for the airport
but I do think that we as the taxpayers have a right to know what the
subsidy is.
MS. COOK: Let me correct myself on the fact that our operating
budget is about a 186,700 a year at Everglades and we receive from
the general fund approximately 80,000 of that, so we're --
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Oh, it's quite a bit different. I
remember last year I thought it was 60,000 and then all of a sudden
I'm hearing 196. Still, even at that, I'd like to know what it is. It might
end up being five dollars per plane, extremely reasonable. Again, it
might end up being a $150. If that's the case I would like to know it.
MS. COOK: I'll bring that information back to you.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much. We'll take a
15-minute recess and be back.
(A recess was taken.)
CHAIRMAN HALAS: We're back from recess.
MR. MUDD: Mr. Chairman, I just want to make sure for
clarification because I was asked -- ladies and gentlemen, if you could
please keep it down -- I was asked by the director of the Airport
Authority if you were finished with that particular item or do you have
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June 22, 2006
additional questions?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Are there any additional questions from
my commissioners on the Airport Authority?
(No response.)
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, that will bring us to our next item,
which is Admin Services. I also want to make sure that you know that
Admin Services, Transportation Services and Public Utilities, their
particular budgets are being reviewed also by the Productivity
Committee. They chose to take three divisions this year and hopefully
do three divisions -- or two divisions and the remainder of the
separates next year in order to get that done.
So without further ado, Ms. Len Price, your Administrator for
Admin Services Division is here with her team to answer your
questions on this budget. Ms. Price.
MS. PRICE: Good morning, commissioners. I just would like to
give you a brief overview of our budget in regard to budget guidance.
With only a few exceptions the division was able to meet the budget
guidance. Those exceptions include overtime for facilities and fleet
which are required to provide 24-by-seven emergency services for
things such as the buses, the ambulances and work at the jail.
Fuel costs rose way beyond our wildest expectations. Property
and casualty insurance has also gone up by approximately 30 plus
percent. On a division level we still were able to remain very close to
the 12 percent increase.
Our budget is driven primarily by the needs and the demands of
the rest of the agency. And in order to meet current service levels, I
just wanted to give you a brief idea of what that means to us. We have
1350 PCs and laptops, 2700 telephone sets, 3100 radios, 93 servers, 80
networked sites, 600 plus buildings.
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June 22, 2006
We're working on 23 major construction projects plus 19
remodeling projects. We negotiate at least 130 contracts each year
and monitor 50 to 60 of them weekly. Process 15,000 purchase
orders. We have 1500 pieces of equipment and vehicles that we
maintain, purchase, et cetera. Weare taking care of over 1 700
employees, attempting to fill or advertise for about a hundred
positions on average each week and have processed 6,000 applications
last year.
Weare taking care of healthcare for over 2000 employees, with
4500 covered lives.
That's just a small taste of what our division takes care of. And
as we add employees throughout the division we're required to take
care of those employees, provide them with the healthcare that they
need, the IT support, purchasing support, et cetera. So to a large
extent our destiny is not really in our own control.
In addition to that certain services show up in our budget but are
also appropriated throughout the rest of the budget, such as fuel and
fleet services. That's appropriated in our budget but that's reimbursed
to us through charge outs. Same goes for health insurance, workers'
compensation insurance and property and casualty. So you see those
in two places throughout the budget.
This year we're asking for three and a half additional positions,
one in IT, one in fleet, one in purchasing, and a part-time individual to
help us take care of our grant administration. We currently have over
58 grants and we apply for at least 30 grants each year. Weare at
approximately 90 percent success rate with the grants that we apply
for.
We need to take care of additional janitorial/ground maintenance
for new buildings that have come on. We need to improve and
increase our computer security, take care of some inventory tracking,
make sure that our systems are updated and upgraded. We're looking
next year at an upgrade to the SAP system as well as the replacement
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June 22, 2006
for CD plus. Those are two of our very mayor processes.
Next year's primary focus is on process improvement, technology
integration, efficiencies in cost containment, employee retention,
records management, opening up our in-house primary care clinic,
safety, customer service and compliance.
The productivity committee did review our budget, and although
you'll see their formal report, I would like to just summarize what they
had to say about our budget. We sent them not only budget dollar
information but also a lot of benchmarking information. And they felt
that we were in the 75 percentile for efficiency in every department,
and so they believed that there was no need to do a minute detail
review of our budget and instead looked at it from an overall
perspective.
They are recommending that we review the department charge
outs to see if those should be increased, look at outsourcing, which is
something that we continually do to see which is more effective, doing
it in-house or outsourcing it. And they had a few recommendations
about the way we report on the budget. And you'll see that in your
final report.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much.
MS. PRICE: At this point, the directors are all here. You can
either listen to each of them or just direct questions.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. I want to hear those reports
before I take questions.
MR. AXELROD: I really don't have much to add. It's hard to
talk about IT without getting too technical. We're dealing with large
growth. We have had a major success story in that we are getting
more and more of the departments which have been operating without
the benefits of automation starting to use IT systems, which accounts
for some of the growth that we're seeing in computers and servers and
things likes that.
However, this is important for the future of the county, as
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June 22, 2006
automation is one of the best levers to pull in order to try to control
head count and scale up services as we grow in the county.
We're also -- have two initiatives that are interesting with the
clerk of courts going on. One, as Len said, is the SAP upgrade project
for next year, and that is one of the recommendations also that was
made by the productivity committee. And we are also in a joint
project with the clerk on a new inventory system which is changing
some business processes on how we account for equipment and
inventory those, get better accountability and -- for the IT assets that
are involved to make sure that we get a longer useful life out of what
we buy, extend the useful life of the equipment, which is one of the
best practices that most government agencies do.
So those things have been difficult process changes for us to
implement. We have been working hard at that for about a year. We
are going to see some fruits from those efforts next year along with
another one of the things the productivity committee brought up,
which is the benefits of the data that we've been collecting. We as an
organization do a tremendous amount of transactions, and the data
goes into our systems and it's been very difficult to get the data out to
actually analyze the data and use it to make our business more
efficient.
We've started to implement what we call data integration where
data from different databases can be viewed in one report or one set of
views, which enables us to do things which are important for things
like concurrency where we're dealing with building permits and
certificates of occupancy that drive issues like traffic counts and road
capacity and utility capacities. So those sort of analyses are going to
be much easier to deal with as we go forward.
And that's about the state of affairs in IT for the agency.
MS. PRICE: Barry, would you just talk quickly about the IT
item.
MR. AXELROD: One of the things that we've been working on
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June 22, 2006
for the last few years is a joint project between the Collier County
School Board, the Transportation Division and the IT department for
the board where we have an extensive fiber project going on where the
School Board is the lead agency, put most of the money into the
project, is fibering every school together basically all over the county,
out to Immokalee. Not quite down to Everglades City but very, very
good coverage for the 951 and west areas and out to Immokalee along
two routes.
We have been taking advantage of the economies of scale there
where they have been, like I said, paying for digging the trenches and
putting the conduit in the ground. In a lot of cases we are being able
to pay about a dollar and a quarter a foot, which is about a nine dollar
a foot cost advantage, by partnering with this, with this work.
Again, it started with the Transportation Division here and their
signalization project and the School Board. So we have already lit
certain sections of the fiber. The new north regional park was the first
facility to come online. So the fiber is already up Livingston Road.
We also have the Davis Boulevard Transportation Facility is online
and Animal Services on Davis Boulevard is online.
The next facility to come online is going to be the south water
plant along Utilities Drive at the intersection of951 and 75. And that
facility, as you know, is a back-up EOC location, it's for hurricane
season. So we expect to have that facility online on fiber in time for
its use this summer. But we're building that out and that will continue
for probably another two years.
Barry Axelrod, the IT director.
MS. PRICE: Commissioners, I would also like to introduce to
you our new records manager. He was hired in March to get our
county on a full-blown records management project. Michael Cox.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Michael, give your name on the mic.
there.
MR. COX: My name is Michael Cox. I'm the new records
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June 22, 2006
manager for Collier County. The focus of the records management
program as we go forward will be primarily in three areas. Number
one is compliance. We want to make sure that we comply with the
Florida Statutes and the Florida Administrative Code.
Number two, we hope to improve customer service. And when
we talk about customer service we're talking about both internal
customers here within the county and the external customers to ensure
that we meet all the Sunshine Law requirements and make information
available to those folks.
And then number three, we're going to focus on costs. We have
some great opportunities as we implement this policy to significantly
reduce storage costs of records that we currently have for external
sites. And as we heard earlier today there is a real premium on
facilities space around here and I think that as we implement a sound
program we will be able to transfer or scan a whole lot of records and
store them electronically and get rid of a lot of paper records that we
currently have on site.
So that will be the three areas of focus moving forward.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much.
MR. COX: Thank you.
MR. CARNELL: For the record, I'm Steve Carnell, your
purchasing director. And we are continuing on a very aggressive and
broad process modernization effort. We, through your insistence, we
have expanded in the area of contract administration support in the last
two years. Weare looking in this coming year to be involved in some
very specific additional modernizations including developing online
bid capability and the ability of vendors and contractors to fully access
bidding documents remotely.
We're also involved in the SAP upgrade project as well and some
modernization in the use of our purchasing targets to generate more
benefits to the county.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you.
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June 22, 2006
MR. CROFT: Sir, I'm Dan Croft, fleet management director.
The fleet management department operates as an internal service fund.
We charge back all of our costs to our using departments and
organizations.
This year our budget increased by about 19 percent, and that's
about $1.15 million. One million dollars of that is for fuel. We
anticipate that the cost of fuel will continue to rise through the next
year and that's what all of the indicators are showing. With that, some
other costs are arising such as parts or transportation in the
manufacture of those parts and whatnot. So the remainder of that
increase basically is for parts and in the cost of those facilities.
Weare involved with all of the maintenance and acquisition of
the vehicles and equipment in the county. I notice that you approved
some expansion of the bus system in the past week, that will have an
impact on us also. Probably see you next year probably asking for
another mechanic or so. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you.
MS. MERRITT: Jean Merritt, HR director. Our big thrust for
the coming year is to retain our employees. We have a serious
problem with retention. Our people are leaving after serving four
years and they are leaving at the average age of 44. So it isn't because
they are retiring, they are moving on somewhere else.
To help do some of the things that we need to be doing we are
implementing a new applicant tracking system which is going to make
the hiring process much more streamlined. We're going to be able to
get reports. We're going to know how long it takes to fill each
position, and it's going to make it easier for our department directors
and managers to hire.
We have outsourced this year the unemployment compensation
claims. We've already saved about three times of what it cost in
unemployment claims. We have a firm in Tallahassee that is very
familiar with the system and can manipulate it much easier than we
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June 22, 2006
could here.
We also are outsourcing the codification of our practices and
procedures. Our staff has spent untold thousands of hours taking care
of this and it's going to be very cost effective for us to do that.
As I said, our major thrust is coming up with new programs. We
have a new employee recognition program which is starting July 1.
We're very excited about that. We think that is going to be a very
significant help in retaining our employees.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much.
MR. WALKER: Good morning. Jeff Walker, risk management
director. I'm responsible for three internal service funds, fund 516,
which is property casualty. You will be hearing a lot about increases
in that fund from myself as well as other departments simply because
of the nature of the market.
I'm responsible for the group health, life, disability, dental.fund.
And I'm also responsible for the workers' compensation fund.
Weare experiencing a tough property insurance market. If you
pick the paper up you are going to see that everywhere. We will
renew our property insurance program on April 1 st of 2007. And right
now what we have done is we have budgeted a 50 percent increase in
that rate.
I will tell you that I am not confident that that will be enough. I
hope it will and I hope I'm wrong. But what we are seeing happening
in the marketplace right now are two issues, increases in the rates and
problems with capacity or availability of coverage. I'm hearing about
public entities who have a billion dollars of insured values who are
being presented with renewals of 70 to 100 million of insurance on
those values. So I'm concerned about the rate and I'm concerned
about the capacity issue.
But we did set our budget. It did go up quite substantially but it
is simply a reflection of what is happening in the marketplace. I will
say this about it as well. We did budget an 8 percent increase for the
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June 22, 2006
inflationary and replacement cost of our property and we did budget
about a $62 million increase in insured values as part of that budget as
well when we were doing our planning.
So, yes, it did go up but we're trying to predict as close as we can
what will happen on April 1 st of 2007.
As far as the health insurance program, we're actually doing very
well. We have built a good reserve level within that fund now. As
you will recall a few years ago we had some problems in our health
insurance fund and we did increase rates significantly in 2004. But
what has occurred is we've seen a moderation in our claims cost. It's
attributable to a few things. Our wellness program is helping us out
quite a lot. Some things that we have done with plan design have
helped out quite a lot. We do a lot of work with the Collier County
healthcare consortium, which is four large employers, including the
sheriff and the schools and the hospital. And we've done quite a lot
with that group.
So what has happened is claims have come in below our
budgeted rates and what we have tried to do, and in the '06 budget we
actually reduced rates about 6 percent. For the '07 budget what we are
recommending is that we hold rates at the level that they are -- and
we're trying to avoid this Ping-Pong effect of having rates go down
and then go way up. And we want to use our reserve levels to offset
potential catastrophic hits or significant future rate increases.
So we're confident that we can hold that rate through '07. And
we're hopeful, we're hopeful if we continue to see this experience that
we will have a very moderate increase in '08. If none, we would like
to have none, one of the things Ms. Price mentioned was the primary
care clinic that we're preparing. We understand we got our permit and
so we're going to start construction on that. That will be on this
campus and will be available to employees. And what that will allow
them to do is to see an on-site clinic for a lot of their primary care
health needs.
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June 22, 2006
That's going to have some huge productivity factors to it. If an
employee can go down and see somebody and be taken care of, that
will reduce the time they're waiting in a doctor's office, driving around
town or -- and hopefully we'll get them back to work more quickly.
So we're excited about that. We hope to have that up and
running by the end of the calendar year, this year.
As far as the workers' compo program, we have not had a
significant rate increase in workers' compo in over three years to speak
of. It's been less than inflation. Our actuary told us that we needed to
look at a rate increase for the '07 budget and we did. We did increase
the rates about 16 percent but with that I will say that the cost of that
program is still about a half a million dollars less than what it would
cost us to go out and buy it in the private market, and that includes
also the overhead costs of the employees in the department are built
into that budget.
So we have -- we actually have a very, very successful workers'
compensation program. Our costs are very, very low when you
compare to the industry norms.
So with that, those are the major issues. We are not increasing
staff. We didn't increase any costs in our discretionary budget. The
things that did increase are things that are pretty market driven or
exposure driven.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much.
MR. CAMP: For the record, Skip Camp, your facilities
management director. In facilities management we acquire, design,
construct, maintain and secure government facilities. We think we do
a pretty good job of it. Most of what we do is contracted out. We
think we have some pretty good contractors, although we don't have
enough.
Some of our program enhancements this year include the new
buildings, providing them with building maintenance and management
services, including grounds and janitorial.
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June 22, 2006
Weare just now recuperating from the hurricane. Everyone
needs to know that. We were 900 work orders that were produced by
the hurricane. We're just now finishing those up. Nine hundred work
orders and 15 FEMA people we entertained for the last six or seven
months.
This year we have for the first time, we have a 301 long-term
building maintenance replacement program. The county manager
pushed us hard. It was not easy. It took a lot of time but it's the first
time we've had one. We're very, very proud of it. This way we'll
know in advance, the commission will know in advance what we're
going to replace, what we are going to do, we will know what we're
going to do long range and we'll have a more stable submission of our
301.
Again, we benchmarked with all the other counties and I hope
you will review that. We do it better and we do it more efficiently and
we're real proud of that. We do it with a great staff, and we appreciate
your review of that. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much.
At this time I'll entertain questions from the commissioners,
starting with Tom Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr.
Walker, thank you for the detail. I do have some information I got off
the web and I want to give to you and see if it's appropriate for the
web.
The carryforward. That carryforward, is that for all levels of
insurance?
MR. WALKER: Yes. Within the three funds that I'm
responsible for we are -- we fund on an accrual basis, meaning that
when we set our rates they anticipate the incurred cost of claims for
the year in which they are incurred. It may take several years. For
example, workers' comp., it may take ten years to pay a claim, to get it
closed. That's very typical. Health is a lot shorter. Typically, it's
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June 22, 2006
incurred and paid quicker. But we do it on an accrual basis and we are
required to carry reserves both from a statutory as well as a GASB
standard, GASB-I0 requires that.
And so when you look at our carryforward numbers as well as
our reserve numbers, the cash is tied to a liability requirement. And
we had actuarial studies performed every fall on all three of those
funds, and as a matter of fact we're updating our health actuarial study
now, but we have that done every year. And we tie our budget into
what those actuarial funding requirements are.
And so to answer your question, yes, those cash carryforward
numbers are tied to a liability requirement or liability reserve
requirement.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you. Ms. Price, I guess
it's not your duty to report the grants received or the anticipated grants
in your budget.
MS. PRICE: No, no. We just help to coordinate them, apply for
them and monitor compliance.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Skip, well, I think we're going
to get that information, correct, where the grants are, anticipated
grants?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Yes. One of my staff members is running
a report that will show the breakdown of the macro, the very highest
level aggregation of data on the revenue side, so you would see the
component pieces of that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. Skip, what was the
increase of impact fees just recently on the governmental buildings?
Wasn't it a hundred percent?
MR. CAMP: Mike, can you address that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Amy Patterson is here.
MS. PATTERSON: Hi. For the record, Amy Patterson. I'm the
impact fee manager. The government buildings impact fee increase is
coming to you on July 25th. And the increase is about over a hundred
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June 22, 2006
percent over all of the land use categories. If you take the schedule
there is over 66 land uses that are contemplated on that rate schedule
but if you average out it is about a hundred and some odd percent
increase. It has not been adopted by the Board of County
Commissioners as of yet.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. Is that anticipated in this
budget? Who does the figures on the year impact fees?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Sue Usher from my staff.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Would that include the
anticipated increase?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: No. We've budgeted '06. The adopted
budget was 2.8 million for impact fees --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: -- government buildings. We forecast 3.5.
The budget next year is reflective of 3.9 million.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: That doesn't include the
anticipated increase, since the board hasn't adopted it?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. When is that coming in?
MS. PATTERSON: July 25th.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Your next board meeting.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. I would imagine that
would reduce the general fund, the need for general fund, because you
are showing an increase.
MS. PRICE: Commissioner, that would be under capital, the
impact fees would be under capital, and it would be for building new
buildings that were required by growth.
What we have our general fund operating request is more for
maintenance of current buildings.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. You anticipate -- you are
going to do -- in here is all kinds of capital improvements, new
buildings. I mean, just to balance it out, I mean, you are going to --
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June 22, 2006
you are using impact fee as a general fund, there is no other source.
MS. PRICE: From the construction side our impact fees increase
for that portion that's applicable then, yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MS. PRICE: But a good portion of our capital projects here are
maintenance projects.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So what is going to
happen when we -- if the board adopts the impact fees? Are you
going to build more buildings or -- since you are saying that they are
not anticipated, they are anticipated on what the current level of
impact fees are now. And if it's going to double are we going to
double the amount of building?
MR. CAMP: The buildings are obviously built only -- it depends
on the funding, and we also have a master plan, so it's not like we're
going to automatically build more buildings if we have more money.
There is a master plan and there is funding. And they are both,
although related, they are totally independent, too.
I'm not sure I understand the question, commissioner.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: There are several projects that
you're going to undertake according to your A UIR.
MR. CAMP: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And as a funding source would
be general fund and impact fees.
MR. CAMP: That's correct, depending on the project.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So if we increase the impact
fees I would assume that the ad valorem dollars would go down
because we're increasing the impact fees.
MS. PRICE: We would have to study that. That might be
correct. Also might mean that we could build a building that we
thought we were not going to be able to build, either move it up --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Within the AUIR.
MS. PRICE: Within the AUIR, correct.
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June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER HENNING: If the board adopted the AUIR
and the -- for the '07, this coming up.
MS. PRICE: Right. A lot of what we've got in the '07 budget,
however, not all of it is impact fee eligible for this particular year. So
we would have to study the impact on the future of the increase in the
impact fees.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I think we just had a request this
morning also with regards to addressing some issues on providing --
MS. PRICE: Yes, we did.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: That's where I was going with
the guy.
MR. SCHMITT: Mr. Chairman, can I add something on impact
fees just so I understand. For the record, Joe Schmitt, administrator,
community development. Commissioner Henning, the impact fees
that we pass go into effect the first of July.
At the end of this month here in a couple of days we will be
inundated with permits. Most of those permits will take -- will
probably sit almost six months before builders pick up. So what I'm
trying to explain is it's not an immediate change, there is going to be a
lot of permits that will come in and the old impact fees will apply.
The new impact fees are gradual. The permit applications will come
in after the first of July, many of those may not be picked up again for
four, five, six months. And it's not an immediate -- it's immediate for
us but it's not immediate as far as collections because it's a gradual --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And you can demonstrate those
in the last two months of the increased request for permits?
MR. SCHMITT: Demonstrate? We can give you actual figures
on what we collected, yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. The numbers of permits.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Joe, I think the commissioner is asking can
you demonstrate in the past when there has been a big spike or a new
impact fee is there typically a run on the bank in terms of --
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June 22, 2006
MR. SCHMITT: Absolutely.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: -- people backing up the bus and dropping
off truckloads of permits applications.
MR. SCHMITT: I expect the 28th, 29th we will be inundated
with permit applications trying to beat the bank, beat the change. Yes.
And we can demonstrate that. I'll get figures to show past impact fees
when they are implemented and the number of permits.
Is that what you are asking?
Prior to the permit going into effect we normally --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: This year.
MR. SCHMITT: -- have a run on the bank.
For this year everything is going in effective July 1st.
MR. MUDD: Except for two.
MR. SCHMITT: Except for two.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Never mind, I guess I'll get it
from the website.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I think a lot of this information you
probably could have asked for prior to the hearing.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I did try to ask a lot of
information and I didn't get responses, okay. And I tried to anticipate
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Are you talking about everyone as far as
the budget?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. I mean, different questions
that it took a while to get a response to. I mean, we were given the
budget about three weeks ago and I did generate some questions. So I
apologize for asking too many questions.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I'm not saying you are asking too many
questions. I just think some of the questions you could have probably
asked prior to the meeting here. We are tying up an awful lot of staff
here trying to get through this process.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And I can tell you that there will
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June 22, 2006
be some more questions because in order for me to vote on the budget
I would like my answers, my questions answered, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I understand. But like I said, I think
some of these might have been asked ahead of time. Continue.
Commissioner Coyle.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Just to try to close that issue out, I
really think that the correct response to the question is if you've got
more impact fees being collected than you've anticipated, you are
going to have some impact on reducing the ad valorem contributions.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I think that's a correct answer to
Commissioner Henning's question. You might not be able to say how
much right now, but you've got them allocated over the library fund,
parks and recreation, Caribbean Gardens, university extension
services. If you get more impact fees, you are going to reduce the
impact on ad valorem property taxes. At least you should.
And so it would be helpful, I think, for everybody if when you
get the new proj ections or you incorporate the new proj ections, you
know they are going to be implemented, why not incorporate the new
projections and then adjust the budget based upon that.
Let's go for a moment to the--
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, let me just -- I understand what
you just said, and it's kind of 50/50 on the thing. What we do now so
that you don't incur a credit, okay, because if you are using ad valorem
money to do general fund or impact fee eligible work, you've now
given them a credit. So what we do is we borrow the shortage, okay,
on that particular fund to be paid back by the impact fee at a future
date, okay. And you will not get that reduction to the ad valorem until
that money is paid back.
Now, if it's instantaneous where you don't have to get the loan,
good, then there is no ad valorem that has been dedicated toward it,
and so that part you'll get the savings too. But in most cases, on the
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June 22, 2006
impact fee side of the house, the impact fees collected do not pay for
everything, as far as impact fee eligible services or growth.
So we try to keep up with it. We try to update them on a yearly
basis. But if you have a spike in construction costs in the middle of
the year that are unanticipated and you have to wait six months before
you get it and you try to keep them up as fast as we can, so you have
some of a little bit of a thing. But it's 50/50.
You are right in what you said but there is just another piece to it
that says, yes, but we're still short and we're taking loans for it. So,
yes, there is some kind of return on the ad valorem but I will tell you
it's not a one for one because you've taken out a loan for it over a
period of time.
MR. SCHMITT: Jim, can I also add as well, commissioner, you
are correct but just so you understand for the record, this board
adopted the government impact fee at 75 percent of the recommended
rate, and it was a gradual implementation. We're coming back finally
at a hundred percent. So there was a conscious decision by this board
to adopt a rate lower than what was deemed needed to fund future
construction, which forces you to then go into the, as Manager Mudd
said, goes into the ad valorem to compensate for that shortfall. So that
was a decision in 2004.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Much of that can be, I think, be
compensated for with respect to schedules. You can adjust schedules
so that you have more time to collect impact fees.
But the other point is, that it is certainly true that we have to
grant credits in the calculation of these but the credits lag a year
behind, the calculation of the credits is a year behind the actual
collection of the impact fees, because the credits are based upon what
we did last year, right, Amy, not what we're going to do in the future.
So when you take into consideration the lag in the credits and the
increased impact fee collections in the future and your ability to adjust
schedules based upon the availability of capital funding monies, then I
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June 22, 2006
think the net result is if you've got an increase in impact fees you
ought to have a decrease in ad valorem property taxes, with the one
caveat that you mentioned, is that these are things that are eligible for
impact fee funding. And I'm sure there are many that are not.
But nevertheless, the concept, I think, and I think that's what
Commissioner Henning was trying to get at was we need to give some
consideration to that.
But let me get to my real issue here, and it has to do with the
reserve for attrition. I think your reserve for attrition is something like
5.2, 5.7. Do you recall what it is?
MR. MUDD: Are you talking about for admin services division,
sir?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yes.
MR. MUDD: I've got it as a -- in this particular chit it's on Page
26 of admin services.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Negative.
MR. MUDD: Under the tab reserve for attrition is $37,100.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: It's 5.3. Okay, 5.3 percent change
from last year.
Now, what -- that reserve, that negative reserve for attrition,
essentially means that you are going to have more costs because of
attrition.
MS. PRICE: It means that we believe we're going to have less
attrition, less open positions.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: How do you arrive at that
conclusion when we're having difficulty hiring people and people are
leaving?
MS. PRICE: I'm going to have to get back to you on that. That
work was done some time ago, and I don't believe that we did a
comparison year to year. We simply looked at what we thought this
year was going to look like. So if I could get back to you on that.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: That would be fine. What I'm
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June 22, 2006
really getting to here, and this applies, Mr. Mudd, to all of the
divisions as well as to some of the constitutions. If you don't
anticipate full staffing for the next fiscal year for the entire year, you
won't achieve the full expenditure for personnel for the entire year.
So my question to you is, what have you done to compensate for
that and what is your figure? You've budgeted for X number of
personnel, you are admitting that you are losing people. We know
that we can't replace people as quickly as we would like. How do you
calculate the net cost so that you can create a budget that accurately
reflects what your personnel costs are likely to be for the next fiscal
year? Do you understand what I'm --
MS. PRICE: I do understand what you are saying. And as a
general rule we don't make those calculations, we have to assume that
if we're down positions, we generally parse out the work either to
temporary employees, sometimes contracted out, depending on the
type of work it is. Or oftentimes we use our current employees on an
overtime basis to try and make sure that all of the services are
provided.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay. Let me use your actual
budget as an example. For example, fiscal 2006 adopted budget is
22.8 million dollars. Your 2006 forecast budget is 21.7. There is a
$1.1 million difference between the two. I have to make the
assumption that it is mostly the result of or at least partly the result of
you not being at full staff for the entire period of time.
MS. PRICE: Could you tell me what page you are looking at.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Page 2 under public services
division, personnel services, top line.
MS. PRICE: This is Administrative Services.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I'm sorry.
MS. PRICE: Our numbers are in the 14 million. That is why you
had me confused. My glasses needed to be changed.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: If you would get me on the right
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June 22, 2006
page we would have this done a lot faster. You should have known
which page I was looking at.
MS. PRICE: Sorry, my ESP went out for lunch.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay. The concept is the same.
So you are not doing that. You're not trying to make a forecast of
what your actual staffing is likely to be next year. You are assuming
it's going to be fully staffed.
MS. PRICE: We budget at full staffing and then Mike helps us
pull out a portion that we believe is going to be unfilled.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: And you do that in the aggregate
for the entire --
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Fund by fund we do it. So in this case, sir,
the 37,100 reserved for attrition on admin services on Page 2 is
actually 2 percent. In this case the only separate fund here is the fleet
fund, and that's 37 -- 37,100 is 2 percent of the fleet personal services
budget.
What we do on an annual basis, maybe to more directly answer
your question, as part of budget policy annually we address -- we take
a look at what personal services expenditures were for the previous
year versus the budget and compare that to the percent attrition rate
we had been using. A couple of years ago we were using 4 percent
and then --
MR. MUDD: With the dialogue with the sheriff we wanted to
have it at 0 percent because at that time he didn't have any attrition
because he had people standing in line to be deputies. We changed it
to 2 percent, and we came up with a common agreement that that
would be okay. Remember, there was some compromise in that. We
retained that 2 percent through this year. Even though we're having
problems recruiting in the county manager's agency, I'm not too sure
that still remains. I mean, it's hard to get them but I'm not too sure the
vacancy rate in the sheriffs department is over that at this particular
juncture, because he has been successful getting people in and training
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June 22, 2006
them.
N ow between the time that he needs to train and certify and the
time to get on the road, that is anywhere from 120 to 180 days, and
you can ask him more about that tomorrow morning.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: For your agency you have taken
into consideration the anticipated attrition and you are not budgeting
for full staffing for the entire year, I presume.
MR. MUDD: That's right, 98 percent.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: A question I have is do you have to
contract people to fill some of those positions that you can't fill and is
that part of this budget too?
MS. PRICE: As a general rule what we contract for is to perform
a function. So if we can't get the function taken care of by our
employees we might contract for the function. Skip does that quite
frequently by hiring a plumbing agency if we can't hire enough
plumbers or electricians, et cetera. Oftentimes we will also go to a job
bank situation where we've got some folks who want to work just on a
temporary basis, and we'll bring in a few job bank folks to handle a
specific function that is labor intensive.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Are you talking about clerical workers?
MS. PRICE: Things like that. Even sometimes in IT we can
bring in some part-time folks.
MR. CAMP: Can I make one comment on that. Skip Camp, for
the record. We have to do that if there is a -- if there is an issue, an
emergency issue we have to have it one way or the other. If I don't
have it in-house I've got to contract it out. Our in-house people may
make 20 to $25 an hour with benefit package and everything included,
the low bid on the contract may be $60 an hour. So it's advantageous
to us to get those positions filled as soon as possible, at least in my
particular situation.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can you tell me where, since a
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June 22, 2006
lot of those positions wasn't filled this year, where the carryforward
for those salaries that wasn't expended, where I could find that. And
also where the unincumbered funds are.
MS. PRICE: For salaries?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes. For salaries and
unincumbered funds in general.
MS. PRICE: Most of my departments are general fund.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MS. PRICE: And so they don't -- any unexpended monies at the
end of the year don't carry over, that just goes back into your general
fund. So we don't have carry over for salaries. The only place that
there is carry over as a general fund balance is in the enterprise fund --
I'm sorry, the internal service funds and the insurance funds, and that's
part of the total carry over, you know, fund balance at the end--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So it's not reported within your
budget, it's just not -- if it's not incumbered then it just stays in the
general fund.
MS. PRICE: Right. And we don't actually encumber salaries,
we simply pay them as payroll goes through. So at the end of the year
any funds that were not expended in salaries simply return to the
general fund.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So we could get those. I thought
the --
MR. SMYKOWSKI: The carryforward in every individual fund
is a function of surplus revenue or unexpended dollars. So the
budgeted FY '07 carryforward fund by fund is a function of the
residual cash in that fund that is available for reappropriation in fiscal
year '07.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. But those are
encumbered and not encumbered.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Those are unincumbered.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Those are all unincumbered?
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June 22, 2006
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So we have a $24 million
unincumbered?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Yes, sir.
MS. PRICE: The carry over in my budget consists of, there were
$66,000 under the Dory Schlossberg grant, that's a pass-through grant
that has been reappropriated in this year. Under fleet management we
have 103,000, that will go back into the fund balance for fleet. There
is $1.4 million in the GAC land trust, that's the land trust for the
Golden Gate Estates properties. There is a small carryforward under
ADA, which is the funding that -- that comes primarily from the
concession?
MR. CAMP: That's true.
MS. PRICE: That goes in, and that is used for, any ADA
compliance issues goes there. There is $4,000 remaining on the --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What page are you --
MS. PRICE: This is a breakdown -- can we make a copy -- this
is a breakdown that Mike made for me that broke out some of these
large dollar totals so that I could answer any questions you might
have. The biggest areas for carryforward include property and casual,
group health and workers' compo And that's --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But those are encumbered,
correct?
MS. PRICE: No, they are not necessarily encumbered but they're
restricted.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: They have been encumbered but they are
restricted for the use in that particular fund. For instance --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: The GAC trust fund, those proceeds can
only be used for improvements within the Golden Gate Estates --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Correct.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: -- pursuant to that agreement. Of the $24.8
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June 22, 2006
million in carryforward within admin services division, 22 million is
within your three self-insurance funds, and that's the reserves for
claims payment and the reserves that the actuaries require for us in
order to be a financially sound self-insurance program. The State of
Florida regulates that and dictates to us the level of reserves that are
required.
So that's something that Jeff analyzes annually and brings
recommendations to the county manager relative to rates as a function
also of the actuaries' recommendations, which is done annually for
each of those programs to ensure that we are keeping an appropriate
level of reserve available to handle future claims.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other questions? Commissioner
Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I was just wondering, Skip, are we
going to be reducing some of the security people that we have around
at times when really they are not needed or after hours when nobody's
in the building?
MR. CAMP: Yes, ma'am. The county manager has already
directed us to do exactly that. Starting Building F was a new, a new
checkpoint for us, a new service. We've kind of tweaked it now . We
were staying open until 11 :00. Because this is a public meeting I feel
a little uncomfortable about going into the details, but the direct
response to your question is yes, absolutely.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you. Is that reflected in the
budget?
MR. CAMP: Yes, it is.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Are there any other questions? Hearing
none, I want to thank you very much for your presentation.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, that would bring us to
transportation services as the next presenter.
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June 22, 2006
TRANSPORTATION SERVICES
CHAIRMAN HALAS: What we've planned to do if we don't get
through the next segment, we'll break at 12:00 and have an hour for a
lunch break.
What we'll do is the same thing we did before, each of you can
give a presentation and then we'll ask questions.
MR. FEDER: Commissioners, for the record, I'm Norm Feder,
the Transportation Administrator. Appreciate the opportunity to be
here. What I'm going to do is give you a quick overview then hit on
some of what our expanded items are, and maybe cover a little bit of
what is in our UFR, both in the operating and in the capital. And of
course open it up for questions. I'm going to be fairly brief. But I will
tell you if you start on Page 2 under transportation, you see a figure
there, of course, we tried to stay within 12 percent. What I need to
point out to you, if you look on Page 18, we had about a 78.1 percent
increase in MSTUs and that equates effectively into 9.5 percent of the
increase you see in the operating budget for the division itself on Page
2.
As you are aware the MSTUs are managed on their own and not
managed by the division in that sense. The reason that they show that
level of increase is essentially they are saving monies up from year to
year for projects in many case, and of course without having reduced
the millage, which was their choice, they are generating significantly
additional revenues. So overall theirs shows about a 78.1 percent
increase in total and it does represent 9.5 percent of the increase you
see on Page 2 in the operating for the division.
If you take out that 9.5 what you're really working with in our
budget is a 4.91 percent increase in operating without the expanded
and an 8.7 percent increase in operating with expanded items. So
we're well within, in spite of fixed costs which went up quite a bit
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June 22, 2006
whether they be electricity, insurance, fleet and other issues, we're
well within the budget provisions.
I will tell you that 3.8 of the 8.7 total operating increase is in
some expanded items. I'll give you a brief overview for that and
would ask that if you have any questions specifically on those let the
directors go through in a little more detail the specifics.
But in road and bridge you've got a new boom truck at $80,000.
That one is coming out essentially of not only the road and bridge but
actually the part of DOT portion of the budget, that happens to be on
Page 44 that I'm referring to and I'm going to go by. And I will jump
pages a little bit but I will tell you what page --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: You have to tell us what page you are
on, yes.
MR. FEDER: Page 44, sir. On Page 44 you see that boom truck
and some definition of that. It is out of the state monies that we've got
from the asset management and it is to do, as the name would imply,
to allow them to reach particularly for sign repairs and other issues.
I'll refer you then over to Page 41 on road and bridge, and you do
have two other items there under our expanded. You've got 115,000
being requested for a road and bridge manager. This is an effort to
provide some assistance to your road and bridge superintendent, Mr.
Vliet.
As we get into expanded programs he's got three programs
particularly noted there. We're getting into a striping program, as our
reflectivity issues indicate from our own efforts at doing roadway
condition management and our performance measures, that we've got
to put some concentration there.
Additionally, we're focusing on an expanded effort that you
provided for us last cycle on limerock road conversion.
And then lastly, another item that is also on Page 48, which is a
bridge study, would be another focus area. And that bridge study is a
recognition that we have not, with all the aggressive programs we
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June 22, 2006
have had, done a lot on our bridges that exist today. They are in good
condition rating but they are going down to the point of needing some
work in some of the bridges. And what we need is a full study to
evaluate what does our program need to be in the future to basically
consider, hopefully, more rehabilitation rather than replacement as
time goes along. But to look at that and to establish a program to
provide that guidance for us and for you in the future.
Also back on Page 41 was two other last items in road and
bridge. One is cartograph work order management system. The effort
out of road and bridge, they are doing a good job with the resources
they have but they have been looking for an automated work order
management system to be able to give them what they really need,
which is an idea of tasking and time so that they can really work with
efficiencies and some of the performance measures they have tried to
implement.
We were going to try to get that out of a modular enhancement;
of course, that didn't come about. Our traffic ops was using a
cartograph, and we've worked with IT very strongly and they are
comfortable with the cartograph. And we're going to bring that with
your approval into the road and bridge as a way to get that automated
work order management system that we need.
The other is GIS on call for 50,000, and that supports, again
through IT, the demands that we have both in being able to identify
our network and the work through, and we've been in a big effort, as
many of you have experienced, and I think unfortunately, with our
efforts on citizen response issues as being able to fully identify
specifically responsibility on roadways, whether they be private or
whether they be county. It sounds like it should be a very easy thing
to know but it's something we've been working very hard to get one
listed fully and reviewed. And it isn't just a case of looking up on the
plat, sometimes there are a lot of other issues and documents you need
to go through to see what intent, what actions were taken over time.
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June 22, 2006
As well, I'll bring you to alternative transportation. If you have
any questions on those let me do that. John Vliet is here and he'll be
happy to respond. There are quite a few but the total is not that large,
but they have the boom truck, Florida DOT, the road and bridge
manager, the bridge study itself, cartograph work order and the GIS on
call. Those are the expanded items that are recommended within the
road and bridge. Again, as I said, 3.81 percent increase is all of the
expanded items proposed, which, along with our others is 8.7 percent,
so well under the 12.
Our emphasis was to identify some issues under unfunded and I'll
go over that in a few minutes. If not what I'll do is jump in alternative
transportation modes. You've got three items on Page 13 . You've got
red route CAT service development, it shows 190,200, of which half
of that or 95,125, actually not quite half I should say, but basically is a
grant. So this is a matching to a grant to provide additional services
on the red route. The red route is basically 41 and Airport, one of our
first and one of our primary very heavily traveled routes.
You have also on Page 13 the Marco Island circulator
continuation. The reason this is shown as expanded, it was previously
a grant. That grant is now out. This is to continue that, to take that on
by the county fully itself.
And then the last I'll identify for you in A TM is an increase to
reserves. That is primarily in the area of the landscaping but
nonetheless there is not a lot of reserves built into here, and there is a
provision for reserves in that area of 174,000.
I will, and that's noted I should say to you on, Page 16, reserves.
If you have any questions, Diane Flagg, your director of alternative
transportation modes I'm sure will be happy to respond.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I would like to go through each of the
presentations.
MR. FEDER: Okay. Well, this is going to be the presentation.
We're trying to make it very brief for you. Then we'll open to
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June 22, 2006
questions and we'll go from there.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. All right.
MR. FEDER: I will note just the others, and I'll try not to
belabor, but I'm trying to make sure you know everything in here
that's shown as an expanded item. Within engineering construction
management we're looking for one vehicle, 18,500, construction
supervisor.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: What page is that on?
MR. FEDER: That is on Page 59. This individual never had a
vehicle that is pre-assigned. His work is much more out in the field
than it originally started out. As the supervisor of the engineering
construction management team he's been using a private vehicle. We
do get him a vehicle and it will be used quite a bit.
On Page 51, going back two pages, we're looking at the largest, if
you will, of these enhanced items is 500,000 for North Belle Meade
corridor study. As you know there was a study done, level of study
done originally to look at a haul route in the North Belle Meade area
that concentrated typically north of I -75. There is a lot of issues
coming forward relative to what is an alternative east of 951 for a
north-south route, a lot of discussion about Ben Field Road. A lot of
questions, though, with environmentally sensitive areas, ability to get
over, traverse the interstate.
So that's a big part of the focus of this is to equate those issues
especially as we see development issues come in, and in some cases
the possibility of providing portions of that corridor, but the question
is, is the overall corridor viable and how would it be structured.
Then further down on Page 37, you have the balance of items and
what we're calling the type two areas and the type three areas. If you
remember we had the unfortunate situation of an individual going off
of one of the dead-end streets in the Estates and going into the canal.
Fortunately, they were fine but we did make improvements at the end
of that street, did do a full study of all of the dead-end canal streets out
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June 22, 2006
in the Estates.
The treatment, as we did in the study and provided over to the
board previously, was to structure, based on how much visibility there
is across the area where we had the most severe problems, which
we've already addressed, essentially as you drove you had no real
obstruction over to the roadway on the other side of the canal, there is
a roadway on the opposite side, and somebody's red lights on the
opposite side may have given the optical illusion that the roadway
continued if someone is unfamiliar with the roadway. Those we've
addressed.
This is to address the others that have some of that level or
feature, and if they have less of that to expand the dead-end streets
signs and the issue of chevrons at the end.
The last item we have that is a modification of the current
program is on Page 67, stormwater, is a request for 100,000 for
Stormview software. It's on Page 67 in the budget. And essentially
this is to work some in their expanded efforts under the GIS and in
establishing asset management for the stormwater section.
So those are the items, as I said, we concentrated our efforts on
keeping well within the 12 percent of what we control. We came in at
8.7 percent even with these expanded items. And then we identified
some items under the unfunded requests that are very significant to us
but we felt we needed to bring to the board in that manner for the
board to decide within resources how to address.
And those unfunded items in operation, would you like me to go
over those now or are there any questions on the operating? Maybe
we can take questions on the operating first.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Coletta.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: My questions are a little over
the -- around a number of different subjects.
MR. FEDER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: What contingency do you have
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June 22, 2006
in your budget for inflation? I know we've seen unbelievable amounts
of inflation over the last couple of years, anywheres from 40 percent
in two years to 60 percent, depending where you're going with it.
MR. FEDER: Really not so much in the operating because of
course that is year to year. If you are asking me over in our capital
program, we keep a five-year work program. Obviously, the way our
issues get budgeted, the way they get paid out isn't year by year. So
that carryforward is being reduced each year -- we've gone through
and done updates based on current recent bids and our understanding
of we're going with the market. At board direction we did increase
our reserves each of the years on an escalating level of increase to the
greater unknown further out, the further we get away from having
plans already in hand, right-of-way already in hand.
So we've done that in capital program. What that in effect does,
though, is we have a very reduced program, almost none in the fifth
year. Four common years became the new five years and a lot of
reduction in the fourth year because obviously costs have gone up.
Revenue stream is going up with impact fees having been raised. Gas
taxes are pretty staid in that we are unable to index them. And our
dollars from ad valorem have been set on an ongoing steady basis of
24 million. So those increases haven't eaten into the expanded in the
outer end of the program.
Did that answer your question?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: It does to a point. But also, too,
you brought to us many times examples of where the state has fallen
back on their plan because of a lack of proper planning for adequate
funds to be available. Also another county, we've seen Lee County
doing it, another county, is the inflation rate has caught up to them to
the point they cannot function so they cut back on the road program
by moving the item some time farther into the future.
MR. FEDER: If I understand your question, our work program
we added a new fifth year, four common years adding a new fifth
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June 22, 2006
year, we do a five-year work program, obviously, for this board. We
didn't add much of anything new in the fifth year. And we had impact
fees that have increased, which the state couldn't have access to.
The state situation was that they basically, their five-year work
program, they took three years, stretched it out to the five, and
eliminated what was their common year, fourth year, as we
unfortunately well know because 15 million was taken out of Davis
Boulevard.
So in answer to your question we fared better because, not
because our costs were so much less than theirs as increased costs over
time, but because our impact fees as we've kept them up to cost have
allowed us to maintain our program with a little bit of this revenue
stream.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Now going back to the state.
You were talking about Davis. Where are we with that particular
program at this time? I know this is mainly a state project.
MR. FEDER: Yes. We're continuing to work with the state.
We've worked with the state and with property owners in the area.
We're trying to get reductions in the design and right-of-way demands
and issues. And we're trying to get the state to bring forward more of
the dollars that were lost, about 30 million of that 50.
That hasn't happened yet but we've managed to reduce the scope
to some degree. We've gotten some commitment to opportunity for
right-of-way and we're doing everything on our end of the county to
try and bring it forward for them to then step forward and fully fund it.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: My question is, is that we know
that this is our number two priority in the county.
MR. FEDER: Actually, it was number one on our priority for
only the last five years.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Number one, excuse me. And it
always seems to slip. Is there a possibility that if we were to lend the
state the money, in other words, to do the job up front to be able to get
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June 22, 2006
it done sooner than later we could get reimbursed from the state and
maybe be able to provide that needed service to our residents rather
than wait until sometime in the distant future?
MR. FEDER: That's a possible option. What you would do is,
the state has a program where they can agree to advance a
reimbursement outside of their five-year work program to a level--
again, do the whole program obviously that way to a level. If that
level is not fully committed out then we could pursue that as a
possibility --
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: So there is a possibility that we
could get it done if we became proactive with the idea that we had a
reserve of money to work with?
MR. FEDER: Yes. Ifwe can't get them to come forward with
the dollars straight out with our efforts.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: What is that rate point in it?
We're talking about time and time is money and time is a lack of
roads. When do we reach that point where the break point comes,
whether they come across to the money or not?
MR. FEDER: Essentially, they had it not scheduled for program
out until 2010. They have got a portion of the right-of-way, and as
we've done things to reduce both the scope and requirements for
right-of-way we're probably somewhat covered there. We still have to
get the right-of-way, so in answer to your question I'm close to about
2009 or 2010 that I would have to have the dollars in hand to get it
accelerated.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Once again, do you have a
reserve that you could tap into at this time?
MR. FEDER: No, we don't.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: The other question if I may is
I'm having -- and I commend this commission and everyone for
stepping forward and moving the road issues forward many times in
the past and making it the number one priority and staying with that.
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June 22, 2006
And I thank you for the fact that we identified the Vanderbilt Beach
corridor. I know that was very, very hard for all of us to do.
Now we're at the point now where we have a program that we
just recently have okayed to be able to go ahead with the advanced
purchases. But that's only up to Wilson; is that correct?
MR. FEDER: When you say advanced purchases, yes. What
we're looking at as our first proj ect is out to Wilson.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I understand.
MR. FEDER: This will allow us to negotiate even in advance of
60 percent design plans, which you can only negotiate at that point for
purchases. Again, using our appropriate right-of-way acquisition
processes, the ones we use in every case, and each one becomes site
specific to that particular site, to that issue.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: For the most part it's a generous
program. I know, I've been through it with my daughter before. But I
have a concern. We have a lot of people to the north of Wilson who
are, excuse me, the east of Wilson who are very concerned. They are
at the point in their life where they are ready to move on for one
reason or another, many of them have homes in there. They are going
to have a taking either of a home or just the property, and this is a real
estate market at the moment that's been overinflated to the point where
home sales are not going at the rate they were a couple of years ago.
And so the market out there is wide open.
The choices are, or the chance of these people selling their land
with a cloud of a road going through one place or the other greatly
diminishes their ability to sell. And we have some people out there
that would be very, very willing sellers if they could come to some
sort of agreement.
I'm not saying that we have to go and raid the kitty to be able to
reach this money now, but let me ask it this way. When would that
funding become available for the other side of Wilson by the normal
occurrence of the money coming in in the budget years?
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June 22, 2006
MR. FEDER: If would be a ways out. What we have
recommended to you as one of our unfunded requests is monies for
advance right-of-way acquisition. This might be an application.
Again, we have a number of people that come to our attention, some
that are on the corridor where we know we'll probably be acquiring
right-of-way but we don't have design plans yet, some that are off the
corridor that probably won't be part of an acquisition program.
But what I will tell you is that we are asking for the advance
right-of-way acquisition dollars out in this program right now because
we have a very different situation with our program as it starts to
move out to the east.
In the past in the urbanized area generally this board was able to
help us secure at least some commitment under PUDs, plats,
developments to reserve right-of-ways that were needed even if we
had to pay for them and get them assessed and pay for them later.
They were basically reserved or maintained for future facilities.
Out in the Estates it's parcel by parcel, and therefore the
advanced acquisition becomes even more important because they are
not developing in a PUD manner.
So I think, to answer your question, we are asking for some
dollars to be able to do that or in other acquisitions along corridors
that are maybe a little bit further out but nonetheless obvious that
we're developing where we know that we need the right-of-way and to
the extent that we need the right-of-way.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I'll come back and ask some
questions later.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I think what we'll do is we'll take a
recess and be back at 1:02.
(Lunch recess was taken.)
MR. MUDD: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd please take your
seats. Mr. Chairman, you have a hot mic.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much. And we're
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June 22, 2006
reconvening here the Collier County fiscal proposed budget for 2007.
And I believe Norm Feder had a few items he wanted to touch on
before we continued our questioning. So, Norm, if you would --
MR. FEDER: Yes. I'll be extremely brief. I just remind you that
our operating budget once you took out 9.5 percent for the MSTUs is
a total of 8.7 percent increase. We went through the expanded items
that were included in that 8.7 which is well under the 12 percent
budget guidance.
I will tell you that as well as we put an emphasis on some areas
of focus that are in your unfunded requests. I know we're not
necessarily going to address those or decide them today, but I'll just
bring it to your attention very briefly that on page 12 in the beginning
of your budget book, the unfunded requests that we're bringing
forward to you, the first is to try and establish a revolving right-of-way
acquisition fund. And in response to a question from Commissioner
Coletta, I covered some of that and some of the reasons why, but
particularly it's important as our program goes out into the estates
where we're not dealing with large landowners for the most part and
individual property owners, so you have that for ten million along
with two acquisition specialists and appraiser to try and get that
program movIng.
Additionally, we're recommending under UFR for your
consideration should funds be available a Sunday service transit,
305,000. Then down under the -- those were in General Fund. Under
111 we're looking at lawn mark conversion program, an additional 5.1
million to allow us to get to what would be the total funding if we
tried to move on that program that way. Hurricane reserve in Fund
112, which is the landscaping, and then lastly a resurfacing of Airport
Road which, although we have a resurfacing program, the doors
(phonetic) not that high. And that facility is about 1.5 million, so
we've identified it as a separate UFR or unfunded request. Particularly
the right-of-way requests in some of these we'd ask you to consider as
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June 22, 2006
they come forward probably later this fall for consideration should
there be budget.
Having said that, we've got our capital program. We've done that
in detail with you in the past. Again, we work on a five-year program.
So we're going to have projects and dollars that are going to
carryforward either because we're saving for a project like, for
instance, saving up impact fees for Oil Well or because we've
committed the dollars to right-of-way but they don't get encumbered
until we actually make a parcel-by-parcel negotiation or enter into the
court or because of construction as payout curves. So that's why you
see some of that from year to year. And that's why our program is
basically brought to you in a five-year work program as opposed to
just concentrating on the percentages here in the budget.
That being said, I and the directors are open for any questions
you have on the capital, the operating or the UFRs.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much.
Commissioner Henning, I believe you have some questions to
ask.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Ms. Flagg, the Golden Gate
beautification MSTU, it's more than -- well, it's 140 or 134 percent.
I'd rather bite the apple one bite at a time instead of once. Can we
bring that down to, like, 15 percent? I'm asking you to bring it down
as 15 percent.
MS. FLAGG: The Golden Gate MSTU is -- their ordinance in
Naples, the advisory committee to make the budgetary decisions. The
advisory committee has requested the funding to fully landscape and
put lighting on Sunshine Boulevard. And that's where that funding is
identified for its -- their main capital project.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You saying we don't have a
say-so in it?
MS. FLAGG: Well, the ordinance that the board enacted for
these MSTUs gives the MSTU Advisory Committee the ability to
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June 22, 2006
make the budgetary decisions and recommendations to the board.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Recommendations to the board?
MS. FLAGG: Correct. So this -- this is the MSTU's
recommendation to the board for use of their funding.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I'm going to recommend
to the Board of Commissioners who makes the decision, you know, at
a 15 percent level, I think it's good enough. And, you know, a lot of
working family out there and a lot of them purchased their homes
recently at double and triple what -- what I consider their true value is,
what the value should be because we all know it's escalated. The--
that's going to be my recommendation.
MS. FLAGG: The only thing I would offer is that their millage
hasn't changed. But, again, when we get to the assessed value and all
the rest of it --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I totally recognize that.
MS. FLAGG: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The other thing is the MSTU for
Radio Road --
MS. FLAGG: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- what was the total capital
improvement for the curbing and alike for Radio Road that we're
getting ready to do?
MS. FLAGG: What -- what we've decided to do there, because
transportation needs to make some revisions to the roadway along
Radio Road as we've broken it out into a phased project, so the Radio
Road MSTU will be curbing generally from the area of Santa Barbara
west to about that first trailer park there. That will be Phase 1. And
then the rest of it as transportation finishes the intersection revisions,
then they'll be curbing the balance of it. So the budget that's in the
budget for this year is for that Phase 1 part of the project.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What's the cost?
MS. FLAGG: They haven't finished the cost yet. It's being
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June 22, 2006
redesigned at this point to accommodate just Phase 1.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: When will that be done?
MS. FLAGG: Probably within the next 60 days.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So before the budget is
adopted?
MS. FLAGG: Yes. The design should be completed before the
budget's adopted, yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And -- okay. So you'll let me
know on that. Well, before I go on I want to ask my colleagues if they
would assist me in -- in bringing that MSTU -- the Golden Gate
MSTU down to a 15 percent increase.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Coletta.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Well, I'd like to respond to
Commissioner Henning. If somebody else would like to, then I can
wait to -- that's okay.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Oh, I thought you were reaching--
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: No. I do have my button on.
But I hear you and I'll be honest with you, when it comes to the
MSTUs, I do have some questions about some other ones too.
Usually I would be empowered -- somebody correcting me on
something? I thought I heard a voice out there. We -- we take the
advice of the committee that comes together for that MSTU. I would
say that we would wait for guidance during tomorrow at one o'clock
when we have the public speakers come. I really would like to hear
from the community. Because, I mean, we have one element of the
community saying, yes, do it. And if we've got another element of the
community that says, no, cut it back. Then I'm more than willing to
do it.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well--
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I just don't -- I want to -- I want
to make sure that we're -- we're doing something that's the will of the
people. I think it's admirable that you're trying to cut back on the cost
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for people on that, but I'm not too sure. That particular effort that
they've been putting forward has been absolutely beautiful for years.
And I don't know if it's going to diminish if we cut back on it or not.
Now, maybe some members of the Civic Association could come
forward and give us their input on it too. I'd feel a little more
comfortable.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I -- I can tell you, Commissioner
Henning, that when you look at possibly like Vanderbilt Beach
MSTU, they've got a general goal in mind. And that is they're trying
to accumulate as much -- many funds as possible so that they can bury
power lines. So, you know, just to let you know up front what that
particular MSTU is doing. Now, I'm not sure what the people in
Golden Gate are planning on doing with their funding.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, Ms. Flagg just stated the
bottom line we are responsible for when the people get their tax bills.
It's not these advisory boards. And they've done some great things out
there in Golden Gate with beautification and been very aggressive of
it. And I just feel that those people -- that people within a taxing
district need a break.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Well, maybe what you ought to do is--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You know, ultimately--
ultimately, I'm responsible when -- when those people go to the polls
whether I made a good decision or not.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: What you need to do is maybe get with
the MSTU group out there and see what their goal is, why they have
that money there. If not, then you're absolutely right, but I would give
them a chance to answer what's going on.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I know what's going on.
They want to put lighting and --
MS. FLAGG: They want to fully landscape Sunshine Boulevard.
So they want to put in curbing which the curbing is going in right
now. And then they have scheduled for the landscaping and the
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June 22, 2006
pedestrian lighting. And that's why their funds -- they're using the
same mileage that they've used in past years, but that's what they're
directing their project dollars towards.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Just -- just on that particular one. Is
the lighting for safety purposes?
MS. FLAGG: Some of it -- it will light Sunshine Boulevard up
more than it currently is. So I guess any additional lighting is helpful.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Right now they have some problems
there; right?
MS. FLAGG: There's minimal lighting on Sunshine currently.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Coletta.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yeah. I'll tell you the reason I
got some misgivings on it. And I'd like to hear from the public.
Recently when we -- we're talking about the library for Golden Gate,
we changed the design and came forward for the initial look being
from something that had a little ambience to it, a curve to it to assign
more functional as we called it. And it sounded like a great idea at the
time, but a number of your constituents came back to me and said,
How could you let it happen? I said, Well, it wasn't -- I -- just going
for what I think the people wanted. Maybe I misunderstood. But it
wasn't one or two. It was a number of people. So, you know, when
those kind of things happen, you start to get a little bit of doubt. Am I
going the right direction on this? Am I meeting the needs of what the
people want?
So when we come up with the public speakers at one o'clock, that
would be a good time for them to weigh in. Then, again, too, this
thing is going to be ongoing for some time and I personally am going
to query some of the people in Golden Gate City to try to get a feeling
for what they want. I got no problem cutting back on something if
that's what the residents want, absolutely none whatsoever.
But going to the other part there since we're on these MSTUs, I
see where Sable Palm Road, who is dormant one time then all of a
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June 22, 2006
sudden it accelerates, it's taken a nice sized jump in the amount of
money that they're looking for to raise this year.
MS. FLAGG: Hang on one second. I think we reduced it.
MR. FEDER: On page 29.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Maybe I'm not reading it right.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: We're on page 7.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Page 7.
MS. FLAGG: Yes. Sable Palm Road was actually a reduction
this year. It's a reduction of $98 per 100,000 in taxable value. We
actually reduced it.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I'm sorry. What's the 98.4
percent change at the far end?
MS. FLAGG: 99.4 is a reduction.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: It doesn't show a minus or in
brackets.
MR. FEDER: Commissioner, can I call your attention to page 29
where that's detailed out in greater detail and I think that may help
you?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Page 29 of transportation?
MR. FEDER: Yes.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: What's on page 7?
MR. FEDER: What?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: What is on page 7 on the overview,
general overview?
MR. FEDER: That's the basic overview. Twenty-nine then goes
into further detail. The numbers will jive in the bottom line, but this
breaks it out more so you can see what's happening.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Okay. What am I looking at on
page 20?
MS. FLAGG: Go -- go down to where it says revenue FY'06-'07
and then you'll see that the mileage is 1.0023 mills which reflects a
reduction of $98.58 per 100,000.
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June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Okay. As long as -- I know that
the forestry has stepped in. That's one of the reasons why I was
getting a little excited. I was looking at the other numbers. The
forestry has stepped in and assumed some responsibility --
MS. FLAGG: Which is why we reduced it.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: -- for some of the roads there.
And I would assume that their cost of doing business there has gone
down considerably.
MS. FLAGG: Correct.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: And I -- I give you a lot of
credit for that. Thank you very much for that.
May I go on with some other questions? Unless somebody else
wants to enter something about MSTUs, I can wait.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Was your question, Commissioner
Henning on -- okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: (Indicating.)
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: On -- going back to it, we
already discussed David -- Davis Boulevard and the projects that's
there. I'd like to talk about a couple more, if I may. And -- and all
these projects are very dear to many, many people's hearts. Everglades
Boulevard interchange and I appreciate very much last year the
commission coming up with the -- was it 750?
MR. FEDER: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars for the feasibility study. By the way, I'm not all that
excited what's coming back so far and I'll share that with you at
another time.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: (Inaudible).
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: We're not. I'm freelancing here.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Just generalities.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
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June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Mr. Feder--
MR. FEDER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: -- the people that I represent,
they -- they have great concerns that this may get lost along the way,
the proj ect for Everglades Boulevard. I know we have nothing
planned in money this year. I do know that this commission has made
it the No. 1 priority of our federal legislation initiatives that we were
looking for. I also know that no money's forthcoming from the
Federal Government this year. Weighing all of that, at what point in
time would we want to see the next step monetarily as far as moving
this to the next level?
MR. FEDER: Okay. First thing, the 750,000 previously
provided by the board is being utilized for two-phased activity. One,
for the feasibility study. And then the second for assuming that
successfully -- the interchange justification request which is the first
thing we have to do to get federal highway even concurring that an
interchange is a viable item to be considered. Those studies done --
when do we expect completion on those?
MR. SCOTT: Well, if you're talking about when would we come
back for -- say we don't get -- first of all, we'll find out this year if we
get federal authorization. We would be asking for money if we don't
get anything in next year's budget for a PD&E, study then.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Okay. And next year's budget
we already have that projected in our five-year plan that we're going to
need that money?
MR. SCOTT: No. If you're -- I'm -- I'm strictly going by timing
at this point.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Okay. So we really don't know
if we're going to need the money or not next year, but if we do, we
don't have a plan in advance to have that money?
MR. SCOTT: We were first going for whatever we could get out
of federal authorization.
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June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Of course. And we also agreed
some time ago in our MPO meetings and everything that if we can
advance projects with some of our own money, that the federal and the
state government pays attention and fess up and helps to move the
project forward that much farther, a local buy-in, as we say. And
we're seeing that more and more throughout the state. Thank you very
much for giving me the experience with the MPOAC. It's something.
That's the new direction it's going. In other words, local community
buys in. State and federal is right behind there. The more you buy in,
the faster you buy in, the faster the project happens. I -- I think that
premise is correct; right?
MR. SCOTT: And I think we're doing a lot that around the
county compared to what we're getting in state and federal funding
too.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: And I understand that. But the
truth of the matter is, we can only work what's there, the funding. If
we wait predicated upon funding for everything that happened at a
certain point in time, then that -- that's the driving influence as far as
the time line goes is when that funding comes in. Meanwhile, like
Davis Boulevard, if we have the opportunity to be able to advance it
and be able to get paid back on another date when the federal and the
state funding comes forward, that gives us a time advantage over any
other scenario that could take place; right?
MR. SCOTT: Yes. And also like we discussed at the MPO
meeting. That locks that money in. We get paid first versus some
other county's project in that given year.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yeah. I want to take a minute
and talk about the Immokalee Bypass 2982 going around the back of
the airport. Something we talked about for a long time and -- and I
praise this commission. I praise our state legislative people and all the
people that got involved in this process and bringing this forward
where we got a strategic and a mobile system. We got a buy-in from
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June 22,2006
Lee County. Things are moving forward, but we're still looking many,
many years out before this thing sees any light before we can get a
traffic reliever from 75 over there north or about even with Fort Myers
down to 29 all the way out to 75.
Is there a possibility that somewheres along the line we might be
able to influence the outcome of this by some local dollars.
MR. SCOTT: Well, at the moment we have a PD&E study that's
-- that FDOT has programmed for next year. But we have an
immediate problem where through EDTM comments there's concerns
about panther impact. And we have to get over that first. I was
actually sitting there this morning I had a message where FDOT and
their consultant wants to get -- get -- to get -- get together some time
in the next three weeks to try to resolve that issue. If we don't resolve
that issue, we can't get the PD&E study going.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Right. But then, again, too,
we're talking about money to make it all work. And if there's a panther
study undoubtedly that's going to cost a lot of money. And judging by
the fact that they're willing to charge -- Fish and Wildlife's willing to
charge Habitat for Humanity, like, $3 million in Immokalee for
panther mitigation. They're probably going to do something to us.
Especially since we already heard this morning that the airport is
considered prime panther habitat. So what I'm saying to you is that --
do we have enough money in our contingency budget to be able to
cover this so that we can move forward when that time does come?
MR. SCOTT: No. I mean, the first -- the first portion of it what
we do have in our priorities and it's in the MPO priorities is a corridor
study in case we can't answer the -- the questions for EDTM and roll
for into the PD&E study. Because FDPT will not -- with questions
hanging out there, will not start their PD&E study and -- and look at
the alternative of the loop bypass. They'll go back to just looking at
29 itself and 29A which is not what we want to do.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I thank you for that one. If I
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may, two more questions or would you rather come back to me?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: No. Just go ahead and finish them up.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes. Thank you. We're talking
about in the UFR list $10 million to be able to do advance purchases
of property for our right-of-way. And that's very humane. And just
approximately how many properties do we have west of Wilson
Boulevard that we're going to be concerned about?
MR. SCOTT: The total parcel county is somewhere around 350.
I guess if you assume it's half and half, it's probably about 150, 175.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: About 100 -- say 150. If there's
150 of them and some of them have homes on it, today a lot that's five
acres with a decent home on it is usually worth pretty close to a
million dollars. How far will $10 million go?
MR. FEDER: Most of those -- most of those are not taking
home, rather taking a portion of land at the back of the property. But,
obviously, if I go to that equation if it's a million dollar home and 10
million that was requested, that's ten. So, obviously, ten million,
while it's a high number, is not going to buy a lot of advance
acquisition, but it does allow us to get into that program aggressively.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes. But when the money runs
out, it runs out?
MR. FEDER: That's one option. The other things we're looking
at is -- is if we did take a home, can we then lease that back. Or if we
take a whole take where it's required to take a whole take, not just
because someone wants us to. But if it's required and we take a whole
take, could we then sell the remainder back including the house
afterwards, replenish that fund for additional right-of-way acquisition?
We're continuing to work with our legal staff right now on the
lease-back issues, on the sell-back options trying to evaluate those to
bring to you whether or not we end up in this program. We're going to
have to address some of those issues as we go out into the estates.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Now, the -- for the lime rock
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conversion, we got down -- you mentioned 5.1. Is that cumulative or
is that just the UFR list?
MR. FEDER: That is the UFR list. Additional dollars in
addition to basically about 1.8 million. There's our current program
based on your actions of prior budget sessions.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: And if we took that money and
we doubled it by having the residents out there, do what they said they
wanted to do at our last community meeting and that's to have a 50/50
match, how many miles of road would that get us done in the estates
next year?
MR. FEDER: We're getting our bids in right now. They're
coming in a little better than we anticipated. We thought up to about
six hundred thousand, maybe a little closer to five. So, obviously, if
each mile, and I've got 97, about 500,000. It depends what we have
for dollars. But that get us another 20 miles. And then if you double
that, we're -- we're moving pretty quick on trying to get the issue
addressed if those funds were available.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you, Mr. Feder. I
appreciate you allowing me to go on.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The -- where -- where's the
County Road 951 grant that was -- is programmed for -- from the State
of Florida?
MR. FEDER: Let's show the grid. We'll get that for you.
MR. SCOTT: It's in the reimbursed.
MR. FEDER: Yes.
MR. SCOTT: If you look at the capital--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What page?
MR. FEDER: Sixty-three.
MR. SCOTT: And you look towards the bottom, it has grants
and reimbursements. Those are by year. Like, the bottom section, it's
right in the middle of the bottom of the section.
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June 22, 2006
MR. FEDER: Page 63.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Wait a minute. I got--
I'm in the capital fund.
MR. FEDER: Yeah. That's what this is, page 63.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Mine goes that way. It says
grants, nothing.
MR. FEDER: Reimbursements. In that case it's a grant, but it's
one we have to payout and then we get reimbursed, so we show it
under reimbursements.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Is it on the visualizer?
MR. FEDER: Do you have it on the visualizer?
MR. SCOTT: Put it on five years.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So that's one page that I
have.
MR. SCOTT: In the middle here, grants reimbursements by
year. So it's $19 million in the -- $19,036,000 in the first year and
then each year after that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other questions, sir?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: That's it.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. Commissioner Coyle.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I didn't really want to get into this
discussion at this point in time, but since we've been talking about
specific projects and how we get them funded, with respect to
something like the Davis Boulevard and the 951 intersection project, I
really don't see any reason why the county taxpayers should advance
that money. If -- if there is a need for that proj ect to proceed more
quickly, it should be done through developer contributions, end of
story. And we ought to specify that up front. And just say, Look, you
want that accelerated, don't expect the taxpayers to bail you out. If
you want it accelerated, then you step up to the counter and you plop
down your money. You advance it. And then when the state
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reimburses it sometime in the future, then -- then that's fine. But we --
we shouldn't burden the taxpayers of Collier County with trying to
accelerate that road in order to accommodate people who want to
develop. And I think we'll find it moves a lot faster that way. It'll get
done faster, but it won't get done with -- on the backs of the Collier
County taxpayers.
MR. FEDER: Commissioner, we agree. As I said, we're
exploring all options. Our first was to try to get it scaled down to meet
its purpose to get right-of-ways provided. The other we've been
looking at that with development community if they want to advance
it.
One thing we're trying to do, though, in both cases is if we can
get those dollars advanced, I'm sure that will come with impact fee
credit issues. So we want to make sure we've got an agreement from
Florida DOT to then provide the monies as early as we can as
reimbursement into our program. So we agree.
And I said, we're exploring all options. And until we get any of
those specified, we have nothing that we've brought to the board, but
we're continuing to work with DOT. We'd like them just to fund it
outright, but that hasn't happened yet.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I think it's useful to accomplish our
ultimate goal is that earlier we get that word out officially, the better
off we are. Because the people are going to think that taxpayers of
Collier County are going to step up, pull the money out of something
somewhere and advance the funds for that proj ect, then they're not
going to be interested in sitting down and talking about a developer
agreement. But if they know that nothing is likely to be approved that
doesn't meet the concurrency system, then -- then I think we'll get
people beginning to look at development agreements.
MR. SCOTT: We are -- we've had those conversations. And
even particularly that corner, as you know, is a lot of vested
development with one of the larger vested developments prepaying
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their impact fees and then we get paid back later on so...
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah. Well, I -- just there's been a
lot of conversation about how the taxpayers up front this thing. And I
just -- I wanted us to get away from that discussion and say, How do
we get somebody else to up front it? It won't change the schedule. It
might improve the schedule doing it that way, but it certainly doesn't
force the taxpayers to -- to take that burden on. And I think we should
use that -- that concept every where we're talking here. And -- and let
me -- let me hasten to add that -- that this is not much different than
proportionate fair share with one exception. If we have a development
agreement, we can also control when that is going to start. So the
development agreement is much preferred as a vehicle than
proportionate fair share.
MR. SCOTT: We've had those discussion with them, too, based
on recent board meetings and discussions.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay. Good. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah. Just on this Golden Gate
beautification MSTU, what is the millage rate we charge on that?
And can you tell me how much that adds up to for a $100,000 house?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: It's half a mill, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Half a mill?
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Half a mill. So it's $50 per 100,000 of
taxable value.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Henning.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Sorry. For the record, Michael
Smykowski on view director.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I just want to expand on what
Commissioner Coyle said which I totally agree with. But that's
actually advance funding to the state if it's -- if it's their project;
correct?
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June 22, 2006
MR. SCOTT: Yeah. But it would still be our -- our share
coming back, our federal and state funds coming back in the future.
So, essentially, if the county enters an agreement with the developer
contribution agreement and then we fund that, we would get paid back
by them. We'd also enter an agreement with the state to get paid back
those funds.
MR. FEDER: And we want to ensure that we have that
agreement with the state as well.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. So if we enter into a
DCA with a developer like Commissioner Coy Ie is saying, advance
funding, we'll get that money back from the state eventually?
MR. SCOTT: Exactly.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And monies like that could be --
possibly to be used what Commissioner Coletta is saying, is the
advance right-of-way acquisition; correct?
MR. FEDER: Only -- only where the state has a project or an
interest in programming. And Davis, obviously, is a state facility.
And whether it's right-of-way or construction where we can we're
trying to create that advancement, but we want to make sure we get
paid back even if it's outside their current five-year work program as I
mentioned.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Correct.
MR. FEDER: If I understand your question is generally in the
advanced right-of-way issues that we're raising around the county, is
that what you're saying on Davis?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No, I'm saying -- I'm saying if
we enter a DCA, it's no money out of our pocket to get that project
done. We end up coming back as in a reimbursement from the state,
we could use those funds for other things. That -- that's what I'm
trying to say. And some of the things that Commissioner Coletta is
concerned about maybe we could fund something like that. And it
was my understanding that there was some interest into a contribution,
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a multitude of -- of property owners for Davis Boulevard and US 41
South.
MR. FEDER: Both -- both areas, yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. So--
MR. FEDER: And, again, we are trying to get those issues
brought forward once we feel that we have something, in fact,
provides a public benefit --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MR. FEDER: -- we bring them to the board and we've done that
in the past and will continue to do so.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. Commissioner Coletta.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yeah. Thank you. I just want
to clear up any misconceptions that I want to build the roads on the
back of the taxpayers to the exception of the developers that are out
there. I personally have interceded through this commission many
times to get the right-of-way for such things as 951, Immokalee Road,
Oil Well Road at no cost to the county. The future roads that are
coming down and we work very closely with everyone and we got this
through. I never would spend a dime of the taxpayers' money when
there's a developer out there that can step forward in doing it.
However, with that said, I'm just concerned that we might not
have enough to be able to cover our end of it. Because the developer's
not going to pay 100 percent for the whole thing. I just don't want to
get to the point we get to in our budget year where we have no way to
be able to recoup and we have to wait for a whole other budget year to
come around to come up with our share to be able to match what's
there with the developer. By all means, look at all the options that are
out there, but always get the money from the developers first. And tell
them if they don't come up with the money now, then they're going to
have to wait another five years. And, of course, they'll come up with
it because they're not going to sit on that property, the investment they
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got. They're going to come up with it sooner than later. But whatever
your shortage is after that point, I don't want to wait one year longer. I
want to make sure that the funds are there to be able to step in and
provide for the taxpayers to what they've been asking us to do for all
these years we've been here.
MR. FEDER: I think I hear a consistent direction. And I think
that's the way we've been seeking to pursue and will continue to.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Are there any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Hearing none. I guess that's it. I want to
thank you very much for your time.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: You understand that our action was
we approved the budget with a 20 percent reduction?
MR. FEDER: Thank you again.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Just in their pay -- in their pay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: That's in administration. Just
kidding.
PUBLIC UTILITIES
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, the next -- the next division will be
Public Utilities Division.
MR. DELONY: For the record, Jim Delony, Public Utilities
Administrator. Good afternoon, Commissioners.
The mission of public utilities is to provide sustainable services
that meet our customers' demands, ensure optimal value and quality.
As a team we have approached that commission by never losing sight
of our ever continuing mission to stay in compliance, meet demand
with sustainable and reliable resources, to serve the customers' needs
with both excellence and humility, consistently building that
collective of empowered, skilled and trained team members that are
going to serve us today and provide for our future. We operate in your
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strict guidance. All that we do is in compliance with the Growth
Management Plan, the Land Development Code, our ordinances and
utilization and inventory report and, finally, your approval of our
master plans.
Now, over the last couple years we've earned a solid reputation
for excellence and I'd like to talk about that a minute, if I might.
Recently we've achieved two national regional level awards for our
operational excellence. We received feedback from peers across the
country with regard to our operations of water and wastewater through
the American Waterworks Association. The Qualisor (phonetic)
report, as you may recall, was very, very complementary of our
operation. We have met demand and sustained compliance in one of
the toughest springs and winters with regard to dryness, lack of
rainfall. And we've not reduced pressures and we've kept potable
water available to all our customers per prescribed service levels. And
I think that we had an exceptional record of service and -- and
response and recovery with regard to the last hurricane season
particularly in our debris removal program, but certainly that's just one
aspect of what this great team was able to do.
And I have an update for you this morning that I'm very proud to
report as well. And a couple of you were on the commission, I
believe, when we received a consent order in the early 2000/2001
period because we had not remained concurrent both in compliance in
meeting demand in our wastewater program. And Dr. Yilmaz has an
update for you at this moment -- moment. Dr. Yilmaz.
DR. YILMAZ: Thank you, sir. I'm pleased to inform our Board
of County Commissioners and our county managers that the -- the
consent order that would be in effect till year 2016, we just had the
confirmation that will be early closed and lifted ten years in advance
due to our continuous process -- progress as well as operational
excellence with the support we have received from the board and our
leadership. So I'm informed yesterday and I'd like to share that good
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news with you. And we thank you for your support.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Congratulations.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much for ajob well
done.
DR. YILMAZ: Thank you.
MR. DELONY: This is historical in some respects to have a
regulatory agency such as the FTEP to take a risk, but I don't think it
really was a risk. I believe we built trust and confidence in them and
as well as our team to stay in cOlnpliance. And I'd just like to tell you
today that we get to run our utility again as opposed to having the state
telling us how to run it. And I appreciate your support. And we are
certainly looking to staying where we are and even getting better.
The division consists of seven departments. They're all
represented here. Let me run those through you for the public. We
have an administration function, a financial operations function, water,
wastewater services, solid waste, pollution control and, of course,
project management engineering. All these services are chartered
either by a state legislation, county ordinances or working under some
state or federal permit.
We also were provide -- provide response and instant command
management for ESF3. That's elnergency support and three. And ten
for the county emergency management function. And we provide
those services as required either as in first response or in recovery.
Public utilities is 100 percent reimbursable through enterprise
funding for all departments within the division with the exception of
our pollution control. In the budget you have before you today finds
the resources required to deliver quality services that are safe,
compliant, that are sustainable in terms of our assets, of our plants and
our collections and network systems. It provides for the planning
construction of facilities to meet the demand per the AUIR. We
provide for collection recycling and disposal of our solid waste as well
as operation of our landfills. And, finally, it provides for revenue
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June 22, 2006
collection, financial and (inaudible) service through our revenue
department.
Now, we prepared this budget from a bottom-up, needs-based
approach, then incorporated your strategic direction, the division's
goals, objectives and the work plans in conjunction with guidance
received from the county manager. And we believe this budget
culminates what has been a cycle of fiscal management activities that
have successfully -- and just this past month allowed for completion of
a master plan that you approved, a rate study which you approved and
an impact-fee study that you approved with the guidance to come back
two years and do it all over again because that's the nature of our
business.
The bottom line throughout that process we have right sized this
budget to ensure we've met your intent. That growth indeed pays for
growth. And our current users do not carry the burdens of
concurrency expansion as prescribed through our Growth
Management Plan and AUIR. Our constant focus is on commodity
product delivery, sustainability ensuring we address the
modernization, replacement and renewal facilities and infrastructure.
We also seek to ensure that our -- that we have the right size in both
the staff and the levels of training that achieve optimal in terms of
service, delivery and compliance.
The division's FY'07 operating budget is about $97.4 million and
represents a 10.3 percent increase over the FY'06 adopted budget,
therefore, meeting the guidelines set down by the board and the
manager to be under 12 percent. The proposed budget also includes
an additional request for in-house personnel resources necessary to
achieve the required mission critical in those inherently governmental
tasks associated with our mission.
And within the budget that you have before you today and before
these additional resources in terms of personnel are approved, we've
got about $1.3 million in contracted services that could be eliminated
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June 22, 2006
from the budget if in-house personnel are approved and, indeed, hired.
In this scenario, the budget, therefore, would be an increase of only
9.6 percent versus 10.3 percent.
With regard -- in regard to our capital budget which will be
briefed as well as our operational budget, currently we've programmed
$97.2 million for new construction starts this year. And we have $225
million for ongoing projects for a total of $322 million in our capital
program.
With regard to the board's guidance on budget, the only area
we're not meeting is in the area of overtime. We have an overtime
budget today that we are presenting of about $932,000 which is
approximately a quarter of a million dollars more than your guidance.
Now, within that amount we have about 56 percent which is budgeted
to respond to after-hour calls many of which are recovered in terms of
cost. For example, should a contractor or someone bump a pipe and
we have to fix it, we charge them to fix it. Yet those costs are
budgeted as overtime. I actually recover a lot of this money back. I
don't have the numbers in front of me here today, but we do budget all
those overtime events, after-hour events as overtime. That's 56
percent of our request. The other 44 percent deal with manning
critical shifts in our plants and other areas to make up for vacation and
absences associated with sick leave and so on. With regard to this
particular overtime target that we've put in this budget, it's about 80
percent below our FY'05 experience and is line with exception of what
we experienced during Wilma for our current '06 execution.
I'm -- have with me today all the public utilities department
directors. And I can tell you without -- with all -- with all
commitment and candor, never a finer bunch of folks I've ever worked
with in my career of over 30 years of public service. They're
professional. They're dedicated and highly talented and committed to
this county's success. They are here today to present in turn an
overview of their individual department budgets and, of course,
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June 22, 2006
prepared to provide any response to questions that you have. I am
prepared for your questions or we can begin with my first director,
Mr. Ray Smith, from pollution control.
Mr. Chair.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: All right. Continue on. I don't see any
questions at this point.
MR. DELONY: Thank you.
MR. SMITH: Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name's Ray
Smith, director of pollution control department, for the record.
The department's proposed FY'07 budget is found on pages 4
through lOin the Public Utility Division section of the budget
document before you. The pollution control and prevention
department is a customer-driven organization. Bottom line, it is our
team's focus is on ensuring that the health, safety and welfare of the
community and our very sensitive environment are protected from
pollutants. The department implements those programs listed on page
5 in accordance with the county's Pollution Control Ordinance 89-20,
the Growth Management Plan, state mandates, sludge disposal and
transportation ordinance and the ground water protection Land
Development Code Section 3.06, all approved by the Board of County
Commissioners. These projects are designed to protect the county's
sensitive water resources that we rely heavily on for our drinking
water and recreational use while also protecting the public's health,
safety and welfare. These programs are not discretionary. They are a
necessity to meet the demands of one of the fastest growing counties
in the state of Florida.
In recent years with the increase in hurricane activity, the
pollution control and prevention department along with my fellow
department -- departments within the division are -- play -- have
played a major role with responding to associated pollutant releases
and/or needs associated with the hurricane events. During these
events, the team works at an emergency operation center twenty-four
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June 22, 2006
hours a day, seven days a week. And also plays a lead role in the first
response and clean up of pollutant releases caused by these events.
The proposed budget is not based on enterprise funding like the
other departments within the public utilities division. The pollution
control and prevention department's budget allows up to one-tenth of a
mill of ad valorem taxes to be levied towards the Water Pollution
Control Fund, Fund 114 in your package.
I will now like to bring your attention to page 4, the proposed net
operating budget for fiscal year '07 is $2,992,100 resulting in a millage
rate reduction from 0.347 to 0.321. There are no requested UFRs
within the proposed pollution control budget, though there are three
requested items that are needed to ensure compliance and to meet our
customers' demands. These items are found towards the middle of
page 8 under expanded FY'06-'07 portion of the write-up. And they
include, one, a $200,000 study to identify sensitive aquifer recharge
areas east of County Road 951. Two, an environmental specialist
position that is needed to bring the department back into compliance
with the state mandated hazardous waste inspections. And, three, a
chemist position that is needed to bring the department back into
compliance with the county's Growth Management Plan which
requires ground water and surface water monitoring to identify and
address pollutant sources. Without the -- without the approval of the
requested two FTEs, the only other remaining option is to spend an
additional $68,000 to maintain compliance and meet the demand.
This $68,000 represents sending an additional $45,000 or spending an
additional $45,000 to send samples to a contracted laboratory and
hiring a technical temporary help, an additional $23,000.
(Phone ringing.)
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: It'll just be a moment.
MR. SMITH: Did I get a vote for me?
MR. DELONY: Is it like that show on TV where you call in and
you vote for your favorite director or is it lifeline? Okay . We just got
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June 22, 2006
a lifeline, Ray.
MR. SMITH: In addition -- in addition the department is
operating within the county manager's overtime use guidelines. The
Water Pollution Grant Fund 116 or 116 begins on page 9. This
represents a cost of implementing the South Florida Water
Management District water quality monitoring contract that is fully
funded by this -- by this contract.
Are there any questions?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Mr. -- Mr. Smith, some of the
performances, the duties that you perform is petroleum gas tank
storages, wastewater treatment compliance and inspection monitoring
of wells, I think it is?
MR. SMITH: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You know, I would like to see if
-- if we can bill those people or actually create a fee for that service
instead of coming out of ad valorem dollars. I mean, gas tanks,
storage tanks, it's very important they don't leak but, you know, the
general taxpayer doesn't create that storage, businesses do.
MR. SMITH: The petroleum storage tank petroleum -- excuse
me, the petroleum storage tank compliance inspection program is
funded by FDEP.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MR. SMITH: We receive funding from that organization to
inspect those facilities.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What about like -- like in Mr.
Delony's case where -- where you're monitoring his wells or
monitoring his waste? No? You're not monitoring water/sewer?
MR. SMITH: No, sir. No, sir.
MR. DELONY: These are others, sir. These are others. These
are others rather than me, rather than the utility that sits here. The
other small package plants in the county.
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June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Somebody's going to be
monitoring?
MR. DELONY: Yes, sir. And that's who -- what Mr. Smith does
and needs to. That's -- that's who does -- who he does, but not this
utility.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Now, you monitor the wells at
the landfill; right?
MR. SMITH: We are paid for those services.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MR. SMITH: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you.
MR. SMITH: You're welcome.
MR. MUDD: Ray?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Continue on.
MR. SMITH: Okay. I will now turn the presentation of the
public utilities division budget over to Mr. Wides, Tom Wides,
director of the public utilities operation department.
MR. WIDES: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Again, for the
record, Tom Wides, operations director for public utilities.
I'd like to take -- start to take you through some of the detail of
the budget that we're submitting to you. If I can ask you to turn to
page 14, we'll talk about the first cost center within the division in
your book. This is the administration cost center. And it is -- it is the
management and oversight for the entire division, operations and
capital programs and administration of all the operations activities.
The budget in this cost center for 19 -- excuse me, for 2007 is
requested at $413,500.
Are there any questions on this, on this cost center?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I don't see any. Continue.
MR. WIDES: At that point, let me take you to page 15. The
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June 22, 2006
mission for the financial operations area which includes my staff and
the staff of the utility billing group is to provide sound fiscal and
operational assessment to division operations, to work with the county
finance committee to provide required external financing for the
division and also, as I mentioned, the billing and code enforcement
functions for the solid waste department.
If I can have you turn to the page 18, this will portray the budget
for this department. Again, the proposed FY'07 operating budget for
this department is $11.9 million, actually, 11,866,900. Of that $11.9
million, 5.7 million or approximately 48 percent of that budget is for
payment in lieu of property taxes for our division operations and the
indirect costs that we give back to the other agents or the other
departments within the county Inanager's agency for their support,
such as the IT department, human resources, purchasing and others.
In addition to that information, I have John Y onkowsky here
today to talk to some of the other changes in the budget that are
related to the utility billing area. Before I turn it over to John, are
there any other questions I may answer?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I don't see any at this time. Continue on.
MR. WIDES: John.
MR. YONKOWSKY: Good afternoon, Commissioners. My
name is John Yonkowsky. I'm the utility billing and customer service
director. The billing and customer service department budget is
imbedded in the financial operations department budget on page 15
through 19 of your budget book.
The mission of the departn1ent is to provide professional
customer service executed with tact, courtesy and respect for all of the
customers of the public utilities division. Services include accurate
and timely billing and receivable management for water, wastewater
and solid waste customers. This Inission statement is closely aligned
to the county and division mission. Utility billing and customer
service currently has a staff of 44 full-time employees and a proposed
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June 22, 2006
operating budget for fiscal '07 of $4,758,200 which you can see the
components on page 16 and 1 7 of your budget book. Division user
fees, interdepartmental charges and charges for services fund this
department. There are no ad valorem taxes associated with it.
The budget's a middle, which includes the addition of one
expanded FTE which is funded in the proposed budget and one FTE
that's on your UFR schedule. Funding this budget will enable the
billing and customer service department to meet the demands from
growth and to continue to provide services at the current level of
services that exist.
The expanded position, which on Chart 1 I want to show you a
graphic of this expanded position. That's the wrong one, Joe. This
chart that you're going to see in just a minute is a request in the
expanded positions for a fiscal tech in the code enforcement or
ordinance enforcement section of the department. Rather than ask for
an additional code enforcement investigator, what we're doing is
asking for a fiscal tech that can take care of the time that the code
enforcement investigator is spending in the office. What we're -- if
you fund this position, we will be able to have that -- those four code
enforcement investigators in the field eight hours a day. Currently,
they're in the field six hours a day. They come into the office and they
process paperwork. So this -- best value approach is to add -- add a
fiscal tech to do the paperwork and keep the investigators in the field.
That's basically the -- the overview of this position.
The second position which is unfunded is shown on Chart 2 is a
request for an automated meter reading -- is a request for an automated
meter reading and repair technician, but--
MR. MUDD: Gentlemen, I got nothing to put up there.
MR. DELONY: Just a second, Jim.
MR. MUDD: Is that it? Okay. Thank you.
MR. YONKOWSKY: And this graph basically shows that we
have not had any increase in the meter readers since we really got into
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June 22, 2006
our automated meter reading program. We actually decreased two of
the meter readers at that time. Since then the bar graph shows that the
increase, which we've had a 25 percent increase in the number of
installed meters in the ground, and we're asking for an -- which is
unfunded -- a position, an auton1atic meter reading position that will
allow us to continue some of the programs. Each one of these -- and
we'll have over 60,000 meters in the ground next year -- each one of
these meters must be visited several times a year. And we just cannot
do that, meet that current service level with the number of meter
readers that we have. So we are asking for one additional meter
reader. If this unfunded position is approved at a total cost of $72,200
annually, contractual services in the amount of$113,000 that are
currently in the operating budget can be subtracted with a net benefit
of $41,400 to the rate payers.
The fiscal year 2007 budget allows the billing and customer
service department to meet the demands from our customers to
continue the current level of service and is consistent with the AUIR
and the master plan. If there are no questions --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I have one question--
MR. YONKOWSKY: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: -- from Commissioner Coletta.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yeah. John, it sounds like the
benefit far outweighs the cost with this extra meter reader. You say
this is on the unfunded list there?
MR. YONKOWSKY: Yes, sir. It's on the unfunded list.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Rather than get into a big
discussion when the list comes around, I, for one, right now am saying
yes. Because, I mean, it makes no sense not to, but it may have to
come up for discussion then. I just thought if we could possibly get
that out of the way now, it would be one less thing to deal with.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: County Manager, do we ever --
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June 22, 2006
when Mr. Delony started this code enforcement system, you were
going to say -- see if it was going to be, I'm not sure if the word is
"profitable"?
MR. MUDD: Well, we want to make sure that there was some
cost savings from it when you're talking about meter readings and
things like that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Not meter, code enforcement.
MR. MUDD: For the code enforce -- are you talking about the
FOG? He had some -- it's oils and grease.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. He's got some people out
there tagging garbage cans because they're out there after hours.
MR. YONKOWSKY: Comlnissioner, that -- we really call it an
ordinance enforcement. This group of staff member enforce all the
ordinances that relate to the public utilities division, not only is it solid
waste which is a part of it, we also do illegal connections for water.
We do FOG, fats, oil and grease, any ordinance, the irrigation
ordinance, for example. So this staff really enforces and provides
investigations and citations only for ordinances that relate to the
public utilities division.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: County Manager, does that
refresh your memory when we hired -- went from one to two to five to
ten or whatever it was?
MR. MUDD: Sure. Especially on last year's -- last year's hires
as far as this is concerned. Mr. Delony was to come back and he has
on a quarterly basis at least two quarter's worth to show that there was
-- that there was a return on the investment from the people that got
added to the list. That's what I -- that's the part that I remember.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MR. DELONY: We're good to go.
MR. MUDD: You will speak to that particular issue?
MR. DELONY: Sure. The -- the -- the area that we wanted to
show the value added in terms of cost benefit was in the fats, oils and
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June 22, 2006
greases in particular. Whereby having staff available to work with
restaurants and other generators -- generators of fats, oils and greases,
we are able to include that reading into our collection and distribution
-- excuse me -- our collection and treatment systems. And we have
reported that up to the county n1anager. And just actually two years
ago we did that, Jim. And we provided that to you over the last -- not
last year but the year before last. All that's still good on the cost
benefit side, sir. It's -- it's a good Inove.
Dr. Yilmaz, I don't know if you have any data here to back up
anything for us today, but we can provide that should you have any
other questions. I think it's a win-win. It has been a win-win as
promised.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: County Manager answered the
question?
MR. DELONY: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I met two of them and they're
great as far as interacting with the public.
MR. DELONY: Yes, sir. Sir, they actually have two missions.
They have an enforcement mission which is actually secondary
through education mission.
MR. MUDD: And I -- and I believe that it is -- it has helped us
to not have plan upset. We got a little bit of a plan upset in the north
end during high season this year. It had to do with the expansion and
some other things. And Commissioner Halas was -- was engaged in
that particular issue because we did get a couple of odor complaints.
But I -- but I will -- from what I've seen as far as the restaurants and
the things that have come in, it's helped us stay in compliance because
we're basically solving that problem before it gets to the sewer plant.
And so to speak we're taking the grease on in digestible doses instead
of having it all of a sudden hit us during high season because nobody
cleaned out their grease trap waste containers prior to the high season.
So they've done a pretty good job in that particular area. So I believe
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June 22, 2006
it saved us in operational expense.
MR. DELONY: Absolutely.
MR. MUDD: Because when -- when you got to bring a plant
back from being upset, you got to add a lot of chemicals and other
materials in order to do that.
MR. DELONY: John?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Questions?
MR. YONKOWSKY: If there are any additional questions?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Continue on, John.
MR. YONKOWSKY: I will -- I will be followed by Mr. Roy
Anderson.
MR. ANDERSON: Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the
record, Roy Anderson, director of engineering for the public utilities
division.
Our mission is that we are responsible for executing the capital
improvement programs of the division and providing necessary
support work to stay in compliance and meet demands. The budget is
found on page -- pages 20 through 23. Turning to page 21, you'll see
that the adopted FY'06 budget is $2,303,500. The recommended
budget for FY'07 is $2,623,900. Overall our efforts are essentially
directed to executing the capital programs that you have approved in
our master plan and through the AUIR.
If there are no further questions, I'd be happy to move on. Are
there any questions?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Not at this time. Go ahead, Roy.
MR. ANDERSON: Thank you.
MR. DELONY: Do you have anything with regard to either
UFRs or expanded positions, Roy?
MR. ANDERSON: I do. I do. We are -- we are requesting two
UFRs in our department. One is for a GIS technician. And the other
is for an engineering inspector. In terms of the first one, which is the
GIS technician, that comes under our planning department. And that
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June 22, 2006
individual is involved with building our GIS layers for utilities. The
present GIS analyst is doing all the work necessary to lead and
implement the GIS effort within utilities. And this requires an
increasing amount of technical and support work that needs to be
completed on a timely basis and takes away from his normal
responsibilities of managing and training people in the program. The
cost of filling this position is $75,900. The work can be farmed out to
a consultant at a cost of $115,000 a year yielding a benefit cost ratio of
1.56. So there's approximately a $40,000 per year saving in that case.
The second case for the engineering inspector, that's related to
our construction programs and checking water and wastewater, the
quality of construction. The increasing workload due to the volume of
repair and replacement work with new water and wastewater plants,
improvements to collection systelns and distribution networks and the
addition of wells and the long-neglected irrigation quality water
system necessitates an additional inspector for construction oversight.
The cost justification of this position is based on the fact that to hire a
new inspector would cost $103,700. And the cost of providing the
inspection services under contract is 145,600 for benefit cost ratio of
1.57 or a savings of approximately $43,000. So that -- that's the extent
of our -- my UFR requests.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. Any questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Go on.
MR. ANDERSON: If there are no further questions, I'd like to
turn it over to Mr. Yilmaz, the director of wastewater.
DR. YILMAZ: Thank you. Thank you, Roy.
Commissioners, for the record, George Yilmaz, wastewater
director. Please refer to Public Utilities, pages 26 through 31, entitled
"Public Utilities Division, County Water/Sewer District Wastewater
Department Summary."
The wastewater department fiscal year '07 budget that we are
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June 22, 2006
presenting today was prepared using a results-oriented, outcome-based
budget and processes to accomplish our mission as stated on page 24.
And, furthermore, represents a budget that is necessary for us to stay
in compliance, meet the demand with reliability in accordance with
the adopted AUIR and the levels of service specified in our Collier
County water/sewer district updated master plans as adopted by the
board.
The wastewater department maintains over 870 miles of
wastewater collection mains with over 3,400 manholes to be
maintained, 800 wastewater pUlnping and lift stations and advance and
out laboratory and 73 miles of reclaimed water mains pumping to over
any reclaimed bulk accounts and customers with over 3,000
residential customers. The total number of wastewater accounts is
over 52,400.
With that briefing, I'd like you to go to page 28 and you will see
the wastewater department is proposing a fiscal year 2007 operating
budget of $21,991,000 including request for expanded services which
total $412,000. The wastewater department requested budget also
includes three additional positions which are, one for wastewater
stakes and locates. Presently we have 27 locates at risk and 1,100 new
requests will be handled by one additional FTE requested. The locates
program is mandated in accordance with the Underground Facility
Damage Prevention and Safety Act, Chapter 556, Florida Statutes.
Other two senior plant operators for the newly expanded North
Collier Wastewater Plant is desperately needed. We have increased
our capacity in North plant from 13.6 million gallon to 24.1 million
gallon. Technically, we have two wastewater plants operating at the
same location. And for us to have the necessary required and
permanent coverage for 24/7, we need to have those two senior
operators for us to operate as we have done so far and continue to
operate in compliance and meet the demand.
Also requested are five unfunded positions, three in collections
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June 22, 2006
and two in pretreatment inspection. This information will be found on
pages 30 and 31, County Water/sewer District UFRs for Wastewater
Department. This request would add a total of $242,900 in personal
and operating costs to our budget while removing $534,100 worth
contractual services for a net decrease and benefit to our proposed
budget of291,200.
The requested positions in very brief summary are two full-time
pretreatment specialists inspector for our oil, grease and industrial
pretreatment. The need for these positions are based on growth,
compliance of industrial pretreatn1ent and all grease programs. Our
required inspections anticipated and estimated to grow from 1,300 to
2,600 for fiscal year '07. This will nearly double our inspections in
order to stay in compliance. And the pretreatment plant inspection
program is mandated in accordance with the CFR 403-A accounting to
the state guidelines set forth in Florida Administrative Code 62625.
Additionally, we have three full-time utility technicians for our
pump stations, lift stations and associated infrastructure. In 1997 the
county served just about 22,000 customer accounts. And we used to
maintain approximately 600 lift stations then. That's about nine to ten
years ago. Using 16 utility techs, we were able to handle this work.
Today we serve over 52,000 customer accounts and close to 800 lift
stations using the same level of service, 16 -- 16 FTEs throughout this
nine- to ten-year period. The objective is to visit at-risk lift stations,
manage our assets more frequently and do a much better job in our
preventive maintenance to avoid failure, backup and maintaining
floats, electrical panels, (inaudible) wells to avoid overflows in our
community waterways and more importantly backups into our
customers' home. And, also, this is intended to make sure we continue
to stay in compliance and we don't receive any consent orders in the
near future and in the future for our wastewater collection and
pretreatment process.
This concludes the wastewater department's presentation. And if
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June 22,2006
there are no questions, I'll be followed by Paul Mattausch, our water
department director.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I have a couple of questions. How does
the additional techs, how does that fit into the SKADUS system that
we're constantly upgrading? Can -- can you answer that for me?
DR. YILMAZ: Yes, sir. That is a very -- that's a very good
question. It gives me opportunity to talk about two things. Our
telemetry system is almost 90 percent complete and we have full
visibility remotely on our utility techs as well as leadership side.
We're able to monitor these stations remotely. And, therefore, there
are a lot of avoided costs and future requests for FTEs. These three
FTEs we're requesting is simply going after what the telemetry system
tells us we need to follow up and fix timely and in advance fashion.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: That's the question. I was trying to tie
that together.
DR. YILMAZ: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: If we're -- if we're upgrading our -- our
telemetry system, why do we need additional people? So you
answered the question.
DR. YILMAZ: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you.
DR. YILMAZ: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other questions?
MR. DELONY: Paul.
MR. MATTAUSCH: Comn1issioners, for the record, Paul
Mattausch, director of the water department. It seems if my memory
serves me, the last time I presented before the board it rained during
my presentation. Given the opening yesterday of the water park and
the rainout, I don't want to be accused of a second rainout in a row so I
will keep this very brief.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: It's already -- clouds are starting to form.
MR. MATTAUSCH: I will be presenting three separate budgets
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June 22, 2006
for your review.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: What page?
MR. MATTAUSCH: Including the water -- water department
operation and maintenance budget, the public utilities operation center
budget and the Goodland Water District budget. These budgets are
found on pages 32 through 42 -- 32 through 42. And if you would
please turn with me to page 34 is where I will start with the water
department operating budget.
Approximately two-thirds of the way down the page you will see
that the water department is subn1itting a fiscal year 2007 proposed net
operating budget of $22,335,100. I want to point out that this
submittal includes the addition of two FTEs that will enable the water
department to remain in compliance and continue to provide current
levels of service. The first of two additional requested FTEs presented
as unfunded requests is for a quality assurance/quality control
specialist for the water laboratory. This position will be responsible
for the oversight and the maintenance of the water quality testing
program to ensure compliance with all federal, state and local
regulations. No staff has been added to the laboratory in over ten
years. During that time period there's been a significant increase in
the number of tests required to be performed on both the treatment
processes and on the water and the distribution system, related both to
growth of the system and population served and the changes that
we've had in regulatory requiren1ents on laboratory testing.
The requirements for laboratory certification now include the
necessity for a dedicated QAQC specialist in order to maintain
laboratory certification. Without the addition of this position, the
water system increases its risk for noncompliance. If the water
laboratory were to lose its certification, all testing would still need to
be performed, but would have to be performed by an outside
contractor. The fully burdened cost to fund this position is $62,500.
Without your approval of this position, the cost of the department and,
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June 22, 2006
therefore, the rate payers would be $161,500 in necessary contractual
services. Leaving a net benefit to the rate payer through approval of
this position of $91,000.
The second and final requested position is for an additional
cross-connection control device and tester. Annual testing of every
device is required by both the Florida Administrative Code 62555360
and by Collier County Ordinance 9733. In the last two years 5,671
cross-connection control devices have been added to the water system.
Quotations were solicited for annual testing of these devices
contractually. And three contractors responded to our solicitation.
The average quoted price was $86 per device. Our testers, our
average cost for internally testing with our own certified
cross-connection control device testers on staff is $9.65 a piece
compared to $86 a piece doing it contractually. The fully burdened
cost to fund this position $70,200. The first year cost of doing the
required inspections and certification of these devices contractually is
$149,400 leaving a net benefit to the rate payer through approval of
this position of $79,200. If these two unfunded requested positions
are approved at a total cost of $132,700, contractual services in the
amount of $310,900 currently included in the budget can be subtracted
from the budget with a net benefit of $178,200 to the rate payers.
The water department operating budget provides effective
management in operation of the county's water district facilities in
order to provide the customers of the Collier County Water District
safe, reliable and cost effective drinking water. The fiscal year 2007
budget is submitted to you today allows the water department to stay
in compliance with all regulations and meet the demand for potable
water from our customers and is consistent with both the AUIR and
the master plan.
Do you have any questions?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I have a question.
MR. MATT AUSCH: Yes, sir.
Page 11 7
June 22, 2006
CHAIRMAN HALAS: The cross-connection technician, why is
there such a big difference when we go on the outside $86, I think you
said, versus $9? What's the big difference here going out?
MR. MATTAUSCH: It's not -- it's not a -- it's not a real nice
kind of job. It's -- it's a job that requires going from location to
location, doing the same repetitive testing over and over again. One--
one of the -- one of the things, that there's a lot of un surety as far as
testing. And -- and the legalities of -- of testing and certifying
back-flow devices, parts available, so contractors -- contractors charge
a fairly high price per device in order to certify each one of the
devices.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: And that's what we're presently using at
this point in time --
MR. MATTAUSCH: No. No. We are currently using in-house
testing.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
MR. MATTAUSCH: Yes, sir. Entirely in-house testing.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
MR. DELONY: And we want to continue that practice if that's
the board's decision with regard to this particular position. I'm not --
I'm not stating that this position's inherently governmental, that it can
only be done by in-house personnel. But the cost benefit is significant
in terms of it being done in-house as opposed to contractual. The
bottom line -- we have to do the mission it appears from the
economics alone and not -- nothing to do with the management of this.
You know, we didn't even calculate those costs that we'd be better off
doing it in-house than out-house.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I'm just amazed that the--
MR. DELONY: Right.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: -- contracting that on the outside versus
doing it in-house, the price differential is unbelievable.
MR. DELONY: Most -- n10st utilities do this in-house, then
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June 22, 2006
there's not a lot of demand for it. That's part of it as well.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. Any other questions?
MR. MUDD: And you just had -- you just had an incident up on
the north side --
MR. DELONY: Yeah, we do.
MR. MUDD: -- in District 2. Okay.
MR. DELONY: We've had some challenges. This is -- this is
one of the most important programs we must sustain is to make sure
we safeguard our distribution system. And installation and testing
these devices is critical to that task.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, for instance, and what I was trying
to get at is and I guess he doesn't want to specify the area or whatever,
okay, but recently within the last two months there was a residence
that -- that had an irrigation person come on and the property --
MR. DELONY: Property firm.
MR. MUDD: -- and hooked their -- and hooked their reclaimed
water line into their potable water. Okay. And they wanted -- and
they called Mr. Delony and wanted to know why their ice cubes were
green. Okay. And so we had to send staff up there to get stuff tested
and get everything done. And then we had to flush their systems and
other things.
MR. DELONY: We flushed the entire area to make sure we
didn't have any cross-connection, not only for that homeowner but
everybody that was on the end of that loop. So this is a very important
program to -- to permit -- provide for the inspection and maintenance
of these devices.
What's our total device count, again, for the district, Paul? Do
you have that.
MR. MATTAUSCH: We have 51 total-- 51,000 total services.
Of that we have about 45,000 cross connects and control devices.
MR. DELONY: And we have to inspect those actually per FAC.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much.
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June 22, 2006
MR. DELONY: Yes, sir. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other questions?
(No response.)
MR. MATTAUSCH: If you will turn with me to page 37, the
public utilities operation center budget. This budget provides for the
operation and maintenance of a consolidated location for utility bill
and customer service and water distribution. And the budget total is
$108,600. There are not -- are no expanded or unfunded requests in
this proposed budget. And I would be glad to take any questions that
you may have.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: It's raining.
MR. MATTAUSCH: It's raining.
MR. DELONY: You're making Marla real unhappy, Paul.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: No questions. Continue, Paul.
MR. MATTAUSCH: Okay. Thank you.
My final budget presentation is the Goodland Water District
budget which you will find on pages 40 through 42. The total
proposed budget is $759,300. There are two things that I would like to
note in this proposed budget. There's a projected increase in the
demand for water which drives projected costs for the purchase of
bulk water from the City of Marco Island. However, that cost is
predominantly offset by projected increase in revenue from the sale of
that water. And, secondly, there's a -- there's a one-time cost to
replace the generator in that facility which we found during Hurricane
Wilma to be unreliable. That -- that one time cost of $88,000 is
included in this budget.
I'd also like to note just one additional thing, that public utilities
division is currently in the middle of a rate study for the Goodland
Water District to confirm an appropriate rate structure for the
Goodland Water District. And I'd be glad to answer any questions that
you may have.
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June 22, 2006
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Are there any questions?
(No response.)
MR. MUDD: Paul.
MR. MATTAUSCH: Thank you. At this time I would like to
turn the presentation over to Dan Rodriguez, solid waste director.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Paul. Good afternoon,
Commissioners. For the record, I am Dan Rodriguez, your solid waste
management department director. I'll be covering the solid waste
management department budget which you'll find on pages 44 through
48.
Solid waste management department is responsible for providing
effective, efficient, reliable and high-quality solid waste collections,
processing and disposal services that are strategically aligned with the
mission of the division and the county. The key programs to achieve
our stated mission are environn1ental compliance, service reliability,
customer focus recycling centers and landfill operation, waste
reduction and recycling and hazardous waste management.
Turning to page 44 and 45, solid waste management overall
budget, you will see the proposed net operating budget for fiscal year
2007 is $34,496,100. There are no expanded position requests from
the solid waste management department budget. Our net operating
budget represents a 7.2 percent increase.
Turning to page 46 for the solid waste disposal fund, you will see
that the proposed net operating budget for fiscal year 2007 is 18,295.
There are no expanded positions request for the solid waste
management budget as mentioned earlier. And our net operating
budget represents a 5.4 percent increase.
Our proposed budget is designed to continue to fulfill
requirements of the AUIR, the Annual Inventory and Utilization
Report, continue to stay in compliance with no complaints through
prudent environmental risk management to meet the demand in our
collection, processing, recycling and disposal infrastructure.
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June 22, 2006
Turning to page 47 for the solid waste landfill closure fund you
will note a 5.9 percent increase. This is due to interest earnings. This
is a closure fund for the current and future closed landfill cells that the
county is responsible for. Managing and maintaining a closed landfill
is an expensive and potentially risky business especially in
environmentally sensitive areas. Therefore, maintaining this current
funding level is prudent to cover any costs associated with managing,
investigating and/or remediation.
Turning to page 48 for the solid waste grants fund, this budget is
shown for illustrative purposes only. Weare working closely with the
grants coordinator's office for identifying opportunities as well as
execution and monitoring of grants-related programs and projects.
Grants and subsequent budget amendments will be submitted to and
approved by the Board of County Commissioners. This is a grant
management fund. And if we succeed in receiving any grants, we will
reflect the funding through budget amendments. The solid waste
management staff currently subscribe to EC Stevits (phonetic), an
online grant notification system through the county. Department staff
are members of and participate in trade associations that provide
information on grant availability on the federal and state level.
If there are no questions --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Fiala has a question.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Just one.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Sure.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I don't really know how it works. I
know that Waste Management goes out and picks it up and we -- we
work out an arrangement whereby we get the lowest rate we possibly
can from Waste Management. Do then they bill us each month and
we pay them for however much --
MR. DELONY: Yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- they weigh in?
MR. DELONY: Yes, ma'am. John, you want to -- John, in fact,
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June 22, 2006
why don't you just let -- we moved John here and let him talk about
the collection contract and that -- that aspect of Dan's budget. And I
think he'll answer your question. But, John, if you'd like to take that
on directly in terms of how the billing's done?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I didn't know where that was
reflected in the budget.
MR. DELONY: Yes, ma'am. It is. Yes, ma'am. John.
MR. YONKOWSKY: Good afternoon, Commissioners, again.
This is John Y onkowsky. I'll answer that question directly before I go
into the general discussion about the rates. We keep a running track of
the number of customers that are collected. We start off with the
special assessment roll. That roll has a number on it. And as each
new single-family residence or resident that has curbside service
comes on line, when they get their C.O., Mr. Schmitt's office collects
a pro rata portion of the fee for them. So we meet -- as every month
we keep up with that. And then we pay Waste Management not what
they ask for, but based on the number of customers that we collected
money from. And we pay them 1/12th of that every month. I don't
know if that answers your question or not, Commissioner Fiala, but --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I just note where I saw -- where it's
reflected in here. Where -- you know, where it says we paid Waste
Management.
MR. YONKOWSKY: If you look on page --
MR. DELONY: Forty-nine.
MR. YONKOWSKY: Forty-nine, 473 budget, it shows there the
program expenses, operating expenses --
MR. DELONY: John, get closer to the mic, please.
MR. YONKOWSKY: The operating expense about in the
middle of the page --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes.
MR. YONKOWSKY: -- is $16,200,300, that's the payments for
Waste Management and Immokalee Disposal. That money is in there.
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June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, I see. Along with everything
else in the operating --
MR. YONKOWSKY: Yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- budget?
MR. YONKOWSKY: Yes, ma'am.
MR. DELONY: All those costs associated with collection, both
the District 1, the Waste Management District, and District 2, which is
the Immokalee Disposal District -- District 1, District 2 are the two
districts that are reflected on page 49, ma'am, all those contracted
costs. Did we answer your question?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to know how
much it actually was.
MR. DELONY: Yes, ma'am. There it is right there. There is the
budgeted amounts now.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Well, that's -- that's imbedded with a
bunch of other things, though.
MR. DELONY: Yes, ma'am. Would you like -- we can give you
the 1/12th. How do you want us to answer your question?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: If you can just send it to me.
MR. DELONY: Yes, ma'am. We can give you what we -- what
we project or what we've done year to date, but we'll get to you -- with
you and get some specifics to you on that. Yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Then I will go ahead and make the -- the
proposed FY 2007 budget for the mandatory trash collection program
on page 49 is $18,222,300. This represents a 13.3 percent increase or
$2,136,900 increase over the budget for FY'06. There -- there are
three key drivers for the increase. Customer growth, 36,000 new -- I
mean, 36,600 new accounts each year. And a consumer price increase
for both of the collection contractors, Waste Management and
Immokalee Disposal. And a consumer price increase that drives an
increase in the landfill tipping fees. Because the rate that people pay
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June 22, 2006
includes a cost for collection and a cost for disposal which is broken
down if you look on page 50 of the budget.
And the other point that I would like to make is that since the --
it's really growth driven, the payn1ents to the property appraiser and
the tax collector for their services which is why we have 100 percent
-- nearly 100 percent collection rate at a very low cost is -- is driven
by growth also. So as each one of those new customers come on-line,
the growth drives up the actual cost of this budget for the
. .
commISSIoners.
The recommended collection rates for the special assessments for
Fiscal Year 2007 are on page 50. And if there are no questions about
the rates, I can turn the discussion back to Mr. Wides.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I don't see any questions. Go ahead,
Tom.
MR. WIDES: Yes. Commissioners, again, Tom Wides, for the
record. Commissioner Fiala, we've had a chance to research your
question on the -- on how much of that is on the franchise. In that
budget which is approximately -- which is approximately $16.2
million of operating expense, Waste Management for collection
purposes is receiving $9.2 million under contract, driven by contract
for what they pick up. In addition to that Immokalee Disposal under
contract is getting approximately point -- or, excuse me, $400,000.
Okay. And that's for collection side.
Now, there's a disposal side, of course, of the landfill that we
have to pay for by contract. That for Waste Management is basically
5.4 million. And in the Immokalee area 300,000. So just quickly
adding those up, we're up around almost -- almost the entire $16
million in that budget.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thanks so much.
MR. WIDES: Okay.
MR. DELONY: And now is -- again, these are all contractual
costs. As you might remember, ma'am, we went through a pretty
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June 22, 2006
extensive negotiation. And this board made a decision to go to
multi-year contracts with those contractors. I believe even with these
rate increases that we're proposing today, we still continue to be a
best-value service provider. I think that we lead the state in terms of
both quality and quantity. And I -- I believe our prices are more than
reasonable in terms of what we provide.
We've got some information, by the way, just to let you know
that's going to come at you in the next month to give you even more
affirmation of your decision to go to the single-stream recycling, the
yellow tops. It continues to be a real winner out there. And we're
very proud of our solid waste program and where we're at. And I'm
very much looking forward to our workshop in the OctoberlNovember
time frame as we set the sails for the next 30 years of our landfills as
well. Tom.
MR. WIDES: Commissioners, if there are no other questions on
the operating side, I'd like to move us towards the capital and
debt-service discussion.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: We'll take a 15-minute break.
MR. DELONY: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Let's take a 15-minute break--
MR. DELONY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: -- and reconvene. Thank you.
(Short recess was taken.)
MR. MUDD: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd please take your
seats. Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, you have a hot mic.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much, County Manager.
We're out of recess. I believe we're with Tom Wides here. Tom.
MR. WIDES: Yes. Commissioners, again, Tom Wides, for the
record. If I at this point can turn you to the Public Utilities section of
the budget on page 52. This is the beginning of the discussion on the
public utilities capital and debt service. Let me take you to the net
operating budget section at the top of the page. The net operating
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June 22, 2006
budget being requested for FY'07 is 1,220,000 -- excuse me, 1 million
-- excuse me, 122,109,200. Of that 103,560,300 is for the capital
outlay, new money for FY'07. And as you look at the debt service
principle and interest, debt service principle is approximately 9.4
million. The debt service interest is $9 million. Those are the funding
pieces for the capital program in the debt service for this year.
Are there any questions that I may respond to on these pages
particularly?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Is there any questions from our
commissioners? Commissioner Henning has some questions for you,
SIr.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: In '06 you had quite a few
grants. And I don't see any -- you don't anticipate any grants?
MR. WIDES: Commissioner, in our -- in our grant program what
we do and, in fact, in '06 we applied for approximately $24 million in
-- in grants. We actually received approximately 4.8 million. And I'll
-- I'll show you where those are at in just a moment here. However, in
'07 we've applied for almost $25 million; however, at this point in time
we have no contracts for any grants received. Once the grant contracts
are received and approved by the board, then we will include them as
part of our budget. But at this point in time, 20 -- almost 25 applied
for, none received.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Does that equal out to
your impact fees what your capital improvements are going to be or
are we going to be short in some of the improvements?
MR. WIDES: No. In fact, what you're seeing in this budget,
both in the capital and operating side is what we put into our master
plans which is reflected in our impact fees and our user fees.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Project No. 708921, in
the AUIR we -- we showed a --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: What page is this on?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, this is page 56.
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June 22, 2006
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Half -- half the way down in the
proj ects you'll see the last three digits 91 -- 92 -- 921. And in the
AUIR that was 12 million MGD for 2007?
MR. WIDES: Commissioner, I'm going to ask Mr. Anderson to
respond to this, but I believe what we -- what I believe what we might
be speaking to is the 12 million plant expansion versus the 20 million
gallon well -- or, excuse me, the 21 -- 20 million gallon well field
expansion. But I'll -- I'll let Mr. Anderson respond to that.
MR. ANDERSON: That is correct, Tom. This project,
Commissioner Henning, is the well field -- is the well field 20 MGD
expansIon.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Correct.
MR. ANDERSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: That wasn't reported as 12
million in the AUIR?
MR. DELONY: No, sir. The plant expansion was reported as 12
million.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Which project number is that?
MR. ANDERSON: That would be up -- a little further up
700971. That's the plant itself, the 12 MGD expansion.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MR. ANDERSON: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Now, on page 57, Capital
Project 750101 through 141, and those are -- those are basically
studies. And I notice that you program those for the wastewater also?
MR. ANDERSON: Yes, that is correct. Yeah. The 750101 is
the evaluation of the existing Orange Tree system that will be
necessary for -- preparatory for us to taking over the system come
2012.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: That's just one study and you're
just splitting it out into --
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June 22, 2006
MR. ANDERSON: Into water and wastewater, that's correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And I'm just -- page 3, am Ion a
different -- that's it. Thank you.
MR. DELONY: Thank you, sir. Tom, anything else?
MR. WIDES: Commissioners, I have nothing else here other
than return the capital discussion to Mr. Anderson unless you have no
further questions on the capital program.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I don't see any further. Go ahead.
MR. ANDERSON: Roy Anderson. The capital program is
covered under -- from pages 56 through 71. We have our four Funds
411 through 414. And this comprises approximately 192 projects.
And, again, these projects are all exactly consistent with what was
approved in the master plan and the rate studies last June 6th of this
year. The -- I'd be happy to answer any questions on any specific
project or anything in general at this -- at this time. If not, I'll turn it
over to Mr. Delony for a final wrap-up.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
MR. DELONY: I'm ready for your questions, sir. The budget we
recommend is contained as outlined. And we hope we've been able to
outline our needs to stay in compliance to meet demand with
reliability, sustainability to serve that customer. And most importantly
or as importantly as those others to build the right team of
professionals to continue to do the great work we've been continued --
been able to do over these last couple years.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much.
MR. DELONY: That concludes our briefing, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much for your staff for
their presentation today.
MR. DELONY: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you. I have a question to the
Board of County Commissioners. Do you want to go till just five or to
six? Five?
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June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Five.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Is that the general consensus, five?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Yeah.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Why don't we get through the
county commissioner's budget today? Can we do that?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I'm going to have to leave at
five to be at an appointment at 5:30.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I've got a 5:30 appointment also, so...
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, if -- let me give you kind of an
idea. We'll go through as much of this list as we can today. And if we
can get through Public Services, Community Development's and then
the other four are -- are minor briefings. And -- and we can get
through those either today or we can do those right after the
constitutionals are done in the morning. And I believe the
constitutionals will be done around ten, ten-thirty as they were last
year. Last year was a little bit more contentious than it is today -- than
this year is as far as they are concerned. So at 10:30 we could pick up
again and move till 12. And then at one o'clock we have public
comments. So I believe -- I believe we can get it accomplished.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. So our game plan is to --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You wanted to try and get the BCC
in today?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, if everybody's cutting out
of here at five, there's no sense in going on.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
PUBLIC SERVICES
MR. MUDD: Commissioners, that brings us to our next
presenter which is Public Services. And Ms. Marla Ramsey, your
Administrator for Public Services, will present.
MS. RAMSEY: Good afternoon, Commissioners. I'm behind
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June 22, 2006
the tab for public services. I'm on page 2 to start with. I just wanted
to just give you a really brief synopsis of what we have and a couple
of the things that we were looking at this fiscal year that we saw as
challenges for 2007.
The first thing is that if you'll see that we've brought in a budget
that's at 10.6 percent for our division under the 12 percent guidance
that was provided to us by the Board of County Commissioners. We
did that even though we know that the North Naples -- North Collier
Regional Park only had six months of analyzed operation cost
associated with it for this fiscal year which is a little over a million
dollars that we added to this budget.
We feel that the budget that we have before you is quite -- deals
with our needs, not necessarily with our wants. There were three
items that we placed on the unfunded request list that we have for your
consideration. There are two positions that we're asking for as well.
And what I would like to do is informally I'm going to pass it down to
my directors to talk about each one of their budgets briefly. The first
one I have is the university extension. This is Robert Hallman. He is
your director.
MR. MUDD: Robert, I'm glad to see you here. You were a little
sick there for a while. You had us all worried.
MR. HALLMAN: My wife worried also. Good evening. My
name is Robert Hallman. I'm the county extension director for the
Collier County Office of the University of Florida Cooperative
Extension.
Over the years Extension has provided programming throughout
the county. And we are still continuing to do that. This year we are
embarking on a more progressive consumer-based diverse programing
scheme. What we would like to do is try to target those audiences that
we have failed in the past to target, those nontraditional audiences.
We have increased our staff with a marine science sea grant agent
which you proposed last year. And he's been -- he came on board in
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March. And he's been very busy in talking with all the county
community groups, the fishery groups, the -- the fishery industries.
And he's been trying to get a handle on exactly where he should be
focusing his program areas. So those are some of the nontraditional
groups that we've worked with. He's also working with Rookery Bay
and that group in trying to provide some of the resources that they
have to the county. So that we are very grateful to have him on board.
We also have in our office our -- our horticulture program which
is both urban and -- and commercial and our family consumer science
group. The agriculture group which I am an agricultural agent with
the University of Florida. And we are trying to provide some
programming with our -- our fast decreasing agricultural group there.
But we want to make sure that we preserve the agriculture in the
county. So I'm working on that also.
So what we want to do is do a more progressive type of
programming with all of these programs that we have within the
system. What I'd like to do is talk to you a little bit about the
enhancements that we're asking for this year. The first being the fact
that we are looking at the purchase of a new vehicle for our office.
We have seven different ag -- we have seven different agents within
our office and only two vehicles there. We're finding that with this
more progressive and outreach system that we have, we have a very
hard time scheduling these vehicles to do this outreach program. We
are looking at a -- the advantages of purchasing such a vehicle. And
some of those are the enhancement of our off-site programming,
transport of our educational programs to other groups. We're doing a
lot of collaboration with groups out there.
We're also looking at a more effective delivery of our programs.
We can do more things within the county if we had the opportunities
to get to those places. And the other thing is, we're looking at the
reduction in reimbursement from using our personal vehicles. We're
finding that this -- this whole idea of the purchase of a new vehicle for
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our programming areas will enhance our outreach efforts.
The second item in our enhancements is our increase in the
disaster preparedness for both our office and for the County EOC. We
are -- this is -- 2005 was the first year we've been involved intimately
in the county's disaster preparedness program. But we found that we
are a partner with DAS in our ESF 17. Weare provide --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Do you have a particular page that you
have all this information on?
MR. HALLMAN: Yes.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: That would be -- that would be -- help us
out a little bit, sir.
MR. HALLMAN: Page 6.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
MR. HALLMAN: Actually, page 9 shows our program
enhancements, talks about the university departmental van, the
disaster response equipment. And I will talk about the palm lethal
yellow inoculations in a second.
Our -- again, as I was saying, 2005 was the first year that
Extension was intimately involved in the EOC. The department is
requesting the purchase of a couple of radios and two GPS hand-held
devices for Extension to contact the EOC. Last year what we found
what we had to do was to drive out to the agricultural community and
then come back to the office. Because as you remember, a lot of the
communications equipment did not work when -- during right after the
storm. So in doing our ag assessments, we found that we had to drive
back and forth. What we'd like to do is use some of this new
communications equipment to bring forth some of the ag assessments
that we're doing out in the ag community.
The other thing is our newly formed sea grant agent is also going
to be a point of contact at the EOC and he will need a radio also. He's
going to be also working with the marine industry Rookery Bay and
some of the fisheries in providing a set damage assessment
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information from the gulf side of things. So I will be out in the -- in
the ag community and he will be over with the marine industries.
In the past the Extension mode for a hurricane, our office was
just to close down shop and go home. What we'd like to do now is not
only prepare ourselves, but prepare our office for the -- any natural
disaster that may occur. This year we have provided homeowner
preparedness workshops in the form of hurricane seminars. And also
we did a hurricane expo at the office. We would like to take some of
our own advice and prepare our office for the -- the -- for a disaster in
case we cannot leave the office. So what we're requesting is to put
together disaster kits where we may do some in-house. If we have to
do in-house sheltering, we would like to do it in-house at our office.
Because we're not here in -- in -- on campus. So we need to put
together some kits in our office. So we're asking for those funds also.
The third enhancement is the palm lethal yellowing. This is a
$20,000 request in that this line item expense -- expense was routinely
in the reserve for the county and we had to come to the board to ask
each year if we could have an emergency declaration for palm lethal
yellow which is a disease that destroys palm trees. And after
discussions with the county attorney, palm lethal yellow disease is a --
we -- we understand that it's an emergency every year. We have been
also inoculating this year for palm lethal yellow. We've done -- we've
spent some $10,000 already inoculating over 1,100 trees. Both on the
Isles of Capri and around the county also. So what we are -- we
would like to do since this declaration hasn't been eliminated, it hasn't
been -- it hasn't been declared that it's not an emergency, but what we
decided to do is put it in our budget as a line item.
We would anticipate more outbreak areas this year simply
because of Hurricane Wilma because the vector has been pushed
around by the winds. Thus, we will probably have to do more palm
lethal yellow inoculations this year. We may have to remove some
trees this year. And so we're asking for these types of enhancements.
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These are the three enhancements that we have for our budget this
year.
MS. RAMSEY: Any questions?
(No response.)
MS. RAMSEY: I will then turn it over to Margo.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I have a couple of questions.
MS. RAMSEY: I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Do you get involved in citrus canker?
MR. HALLMAN: Yes. We have -- we have the -- the
opportunity to have a specialist that is housed over in Hendry County.
He's a multi-county specialist for citrus. And during Wilma he came
over also to help us do some of the ag assessments on the citrus. And,
yes, we do get involved with citrus canker.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: In your budget on page 6 you say a
capital outlay. Is that the vehicle that you're requesting, 22,500? And
I believe it's on page 6.
MR. HALLMAN: Yes.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. Commissioner Coletta.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes. One question. You've
been very receptive in holding meetings there for the public and I
greatly appreciate that. I was wondering if your budget allows for
someone to be able to stay there so you can have the use of the
community room there, the large auditorium that you're building to be
able to be used for community meetings on a regular basis?
MR. HALLMAN: We've -- right now we don't have it in our
budget. But what we have been doing is allowing either the staff that's
there already and/or the agents that are there to remain over, yes.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Well, and I know whenever I
requested it they've done it, but there's a -- the problem is that whole
area of the county there's no place for people to meet --
MR. HALLMAN: Correct.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: -- except for that facility. And
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if it's during the day, that's fine. But I'm talking about in the evening.
People normally like to meet, like, civic associations or whatever, like,
seven o'clock and go to about nine. And that -- that usually entails a
cost. And I was just wondering if that was allowed for in your budget
at this time?
MR. HALLMAN: Actually, it's not. What we've been doing is
just using the generosity of our faculty and staff to do that.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: And I appreciate that.
MR. HALLMAN: We're doing that as a courtesy.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: And thank you. Thank you very
much for that. I -- I know that -- I don't think I heard of anybody
being refused in a long time.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALAS: You may proceed.
MS. RAMSEY: Commissioners, I would like to introduce
Margo Castorena. I do want to compliment Margo and all that has
happened in the domestic animal services since she has been with us
about a year and a half. There has been a lot of improvements in that
particular department. And she has a couple expanded requests she'd
like to share with you.
MS. CASTORENA: For the record, Margo Castorena, Director
of Domestic Animal Services. Good afternoon, Commissioners.
Our budget begins on page 12. And I will be talking from page
15 for the overview. First of all, Domestic Animal Services is tasked
as the ESF 17 for Collier County. As such during Hurricane Wilma
we staffed the EOC 24 hours all the time that it was open. Our facility
was never closed during -- during Wilma. We stayed over with the
animals and provided care for them and services to the community
during the entire time that Wilma came through.
Weare also tasked with enforcement, sheltering, volunteerism
and the caring for the animals of abused and neglect cases.
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Some of the items that we are looking at for the expanded budget
are -- are, indeed, staff positions. One of them is an animal control
officer. We are looking to add an extra animal control officer because
we have just revised our ordinance to be able to use the special master
program. As such our citations are being able to really be enforced.
F or a while we had no teeth to enforce our citations and our notice of
violations. And at this point we can go ahead and make sure that
animals that are consistently running loose are a danger to our
community are -- their owners are cited. And that we pick these
animals up and that the violators are, indeed, held responsible for their
animals.
If you notice on page 13, back -- even going back to FY 2005 we
had a total request for services of 16,464, request for services during
fiscal year 2005. In 2007 we expect 17,300 activities. These are not
always calls about a stray dog or a lost dog. Many times these are
complicated bite cases. Many times they are abuse cases that require
follow up. Many times they are enforcement or seizures of animals
that are used for illegal gaming as well. So as you can tell, our
officers are covering a 2,000 square mile area. At this point, we're
doing it with 13 officers. As traffic patterns and traffic especially in
the high season, you know, stops travel times, we are really looking to
increase our officers and the hours that they are out in the community.
For this reason we are requesting an animal control officer along with
the van that he would need to be utilized in the field.
We're also requesting a shelter technician. Again, if you refer
back to page 13, you will see that the facility visitors going back to
2005 with 30,000 visitors per year. Because of marketing programs
such as Happy Tails, such as off-site adoptions at Pet Smart and
coming soon at Petco, we are having more people visit our facility.
By using the internet properly, we are having people look for their lost
pets and also coming to us as a source of adoptable pets. For this
reason we need to keep our shelter, the sanitation, of course, spotless.
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We also need to also market our animals to these people so that they
become responsible pet owners. They know how to take care of their
pets and what they can expect from each animal that they adopt from
us as well.
Weare requiring more and more of our shelter technicians. No
longer is it just a matter of handling animals and cleaning them,
euthanizing them, but it is a matter of marketing. It is a matter of
computer skills because these animals are now marketed on the
internet. It is a matter of -- of talking to each person that comes in so
that they understand, one, if their animal is with us because it got out,
what they can do to prevent this. And what our laws are here in
Collier County. Or if they are adopting from us, to be sure that it is a
good match as far as the family with the pet.
Our last expanded conversion is a -- is the -- excuse me -- it's the
shelter technician and the animal control officer. Weare also looking
-- as far as our capital budget, we are looking for radios, again, for
communications during the storm. And we are looking to increase our
number of cat-holding cages and to go to stainless steel cages. This
will dramatically decrease the number of workers' comp claims that
we have. Because the cages will be, first of all, more sanitary and
you're not going into a colony environment in which our workers in
the past have had considerable workers' comp claim because you
cannot control 12 or 13 cats in a colony environment. Those are some
of the overviews.
Are there any questions?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Yes. Commissioner Coletta has a
question.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Actually, I have two. Your--
your organization I know for years had a large volunteer work force
come in. And I was wondering, one, if you could update me on that.
MS. CASTORENA: Yes, sir. In fact, referring, again, back to
page 13. If you see at the bottom of the page FY 2006 is really when
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we started actually documenting and getting a consolidated volunteer.
We have now gone from 4,000 to 4,500 volunteer hours per year.
Our -- our volunteer coordinator, Meryl Rorer, has just done an
extraordinary job of coordinating the volunteers, to have them walk
the animals, bathe the animals, groom some of the animals for us.
Again, so that these animals look more presentable to the public.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Did you ever put a dollar value
on this volunteer effort?
MS. CASTORENA: At this point our volunteers are providing
about two FTE -- a little over two FTEs per year that we -- that the
county is not having to provide.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: The other question I have is -- I
hope it's an item that's being worked on -- it has to do with the care of
pets during an emergency such as a hurricane. Is there an active effort
going forward on that to --
MR. MUDD: Sir, I'm going to -- I'm going to answer that
question. Yes, there is. And I'm going to meet Mr. Dan Summers just
a few minutes after five today to discuss this draft plan that I read last
night before I went to bed.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: You need to say no more.
Thank you very much.
MS. CASTORENA: As far as Domestic Animals Services is
concerned, we would be tasked with coordinating the effort of
preparing the pet-friendly shelter. Of course, Mr. Summers would be
tasked and the county manager would be tasked to finding the
location. We have already started training our volunteers. We have
provided a DART course for 20 hours followed by an OSHA course
so that they understand the health risk involved, pet CPR. And the
next one in the series will be pet first aid.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Okay. Thank you.
MS. CASTORENA: You're welcome, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you. What's a DART?
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MS. CASTORENA: DART is Disaster Animal Rescue Training.
MR. MUDD: Yes, ma'am. They had -- they had an opening --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I thought you were going to get a
new dark horse.
MR. MUDD: And, you know, I was -- my initiation was to go
there and talk to them at their opening training. And it was -- it was a
Saturday. It was a Friday night. It started Friday and went Saturday
and Sunday. And I'm going -- I'll probably go out there and there will
be about a half dozen people. There were close to 75 people ready to
join that program, volunteer their time in order to rescue animals, give
first aid to animals. It was absolutely -- I was overwhelmed.
MS. CASTORENA: Ninety-three, sir.
MR. MUDD: How many?
MS. CASTORENA: Ninety-three.
MR. MUDD: Well, 75. I was pretty close. And the room was
packed. And we had federal and state presenters during that training.
It was very comprehensive. My hat's off to folks from this community
that came out and volunteered their time during the weekend and
Friday night in order to receive the training. So it's not a small group
of folks. That's -- that's a very good program there.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: May I make a suggestion that at
some time in the near future we honor them with a proclamation.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: We can do that.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other questions?
(No response.)
MS. RAMSEY: Then, Commissioners, the next department is --
even though Barry is your parks and recreation director today, he is
sitting in the role of human services director since he prepared that
budget. So he will present that budget for you. And sitting next to
him is Marcy Krumbine. And she is your new human resources
director.
MR. WILLIAMS: Good afternoon. For the record, Barry
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Williams, parks and rec director speaking on behalf of the human
services budget.
If I may, direct your attention to pages 18. Eighteen gives the
overall summary of the human service budget. And the budget is just
a little over $6 million. It is a 3.6 percent increase that we're
recommending.
And just to talk briefly about the human services department.
The department is comprised of three main program areas. The social
service program provides help to citizens who need assistance with
medical, prescription medicines. That particular program also handles
all of the mandated social service programs that the county is involved
in. The other program component that comprises the human services
is the RSVP program. And that is a program that works with adults 55
and older and connects them with volunteer opportunities in the
community. And then, finally, the Services For Seniors Program is a
collection of state and federal grants that the county receives to
provide care for elders in our community who are wishing to stay
independent in their home.
So with those programs we have not asked for any expanded
requests this particular fiscal year. We do have one item on the UFR
list, though, I wanted to talk a little bit about. And I have a visual, if I
may. If I may direct your attention to page 20. The unfunded requests
that we're asking consideration for is a program called 211. And on
the visualizer you'll see a map of Florida. And currently in Florida
211 is -- is represented in approximately 47 counties. There are 20
counties that do not have such a system. And Collier County is one of
those counties. 211 simply is a human services information referral
system. It is a process where information referral specialists are
certified in collecting information about human service programs,
resources that are in local communities. And it serves as a
clearinghouse to get people when they call this number to the
appropriate service. The 211 system is similar to other types of
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systems that you may be familiar with. 411. 411 is a general
information system. And it operates in much the same way but, again,
specifically for human services.
The issue that we have in Collier County and throughout the
state, throughout the country, tends to be that human services are
fragmented and it's very difficult for people to find the appropriate
service in a timely way. And often what happens in human services is
you'll call an agency that you think can provide assistance. And
you're told that, no, we don't provide this assistance, but you can call
Agency B. Perhaps they will. And a person who is seeking a service
may go through this process multiple times before they find the
appropriate human service.
This type of system, what it allows is a centralized database that
a person can call a simple number, 211. Easy to remember. And get
the service that they need in a very quick, efficient way. One other
aspect of 211 I just want to mention and one of the things that we're
looking at with this particular proposal is that this is a collaborative
effort. We have a funding partner, Department of Elder Affairs whose
agreed to provide a small amount of money, $10,000, towards this
service. We also have a commitment from the United Way to provide
us with the evening, weekend and holiday service that's necessary.
And these -- with this collaborative -- with this collaboration, what it
allows us to do is to respond to people throughout the year in finding
these services. But what we've also found throughout the last couple
of seasons is that this 211 system in Florida is being tapped to
coordinate a lot of the efforts that occur in terms of getting people
with needed human services during times of natural disaster
specifically the hurricanes.
We're hearing from the 211 network in Florida that they are
tapped. And when there's a scram blaster, an event, to find an
appropriate human service, these systems have been invaluable in
helping get people to the right service and also to articulate to the
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community what services are available. This isn't meant to take the
place of anything that is part of the emergency operation center. But
what we've heard and seen throughout the last couple of seasons as it
becomes an adjunct to the emergency operation and in particular the
recovery efforts.
Our department of human services last year participated in a type
of 211 service, if you will. We had a special needs -- special needs
phone bank that we used volunteers to try to get this information,
process this information and keep track of it and -- and get people to
the right service. In fact, Mr. Halas, your wife, we appreciated her
volunteering and working with our special needs phone bank last year.
But in a lot of communities what we see is that this type of 211
system can take that place and work on an annual basis -- on a regular
basis in knowing what the resources are and helping get -- direct
people at the time of need. So I think I've talked about 211 enough.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Is -- I've got a question--
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: -- before I turn this over to
Commissioner Fiala. Looking at this -- the outline of Florida here, is
the color code -- does it have any significance?
MR. WILLIAMS: The color code reference is in some
communities the 211 net -- network might be comprised of three
counties.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
MR. WILLIAMS: So where it's color -- where there's counties
with several colors around it, that's a regional -- that's a regional 211
servIce.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: So would you -- would we be tied in
with a regional service or would we be by ourselves?
MR. WILLIAMS: At this point this proposal is for just Collier
County.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. Commissioner Fiala.
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COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. Is that a personal service or do
you have to dial a bunch of different numbers or numbers that
sometimes the people are especially are in a very concerned way get
confused?
MR. WILLIAMS: That's a very good question. You would dial
211. We would market it. It would be marketed within the phone
books that are made available to the public. So it would be, we think,
a very easy number for people to know.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. But once they get 211 -- once
they dial 211, then do they have to dial one for animal service, dial
two for -- you know, and when they get dialed, one if you know
somebody in the department or two if you want a different department
or three if you got the wrong number. Sometimes you can sit on the
phone for 15, 20 minutes just picking out numbers before you ever get
to speak to a human being.
MR. WILLIAMS: There's a certification accreditation process
associated with this service. Certainly calling and getting a warm body
is the -- is the optimum. So the goal for this and objective for this
program would not be to go through a series of phone prompts to get
to the right person. It would be to get to an information referral
specialist who would talk to you about what your needs are and direct
you to the appropriate service right away.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So they get somebody that answers
the phone?
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Not the purpose or the need, but
actually they do get somebody on the phone?
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, ma'am. That's the objective.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Say "hello" at the other end?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Everyone says it's the objective. I'm
thinking it, but how does it --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner, are you through?
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COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Coletta.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Does it also work with cell
phones?
MR. WILLIAMS: That is something that is being worked
through. At this point, the 211 doesn't take the cell phone to the -- the
number. The State of Florida, though, with the 211 network, they are
pursuing a contract within the next few months where that will be in
play, but at this point it's not.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: So, in other words, the State of
Florida may have theirs together where you could call them with the
cell phone?
MR. WILLIAMS : Well, this network I'm describing, FLIRS,
Florida Information Referral Professionals, they are seeking to get all
the cell service in Florida to where if -- if you're 211 in Collier
County, you're not going to get Tampa. Nor if you're 211 Tampa,
you're not going to get Collier. But they're looking to collect the cell
so that the 211 works for the cell -- for all the cell services.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you. That's it.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Are there any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much for your
presentation.
MS. RAMSEY: Commissioners, your next director is Marilyn
Matthes from the library.
MS. MATTHES: Good afternoon, Commissioners. I'm Marilyn
Matthes, library director. The library continues to experience heavy
use of all of our facilities even at our smallest location in Everglades
City. The community in Everglades City was extremely happy to
have their library opened again even in a temporary trailer after
Hurricane Wilma closed it for about five months.
When we compare our library system to other library systems in
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Florida, systems that have about a population of 200,000 or better, we
find clearly that our library system stands out. We have the third
highest per capita circulation of any of these libraries. Only Alachua
and V olusia Counties are higher than we are. Even the big systems
like Miami/Dade, Broward, Lee County, Sarasota have a much lower
circulation per capita than we do.
Collier County ranks at the top of circulation per employee. This
shows that our employees work harder than many of the employees at
other library systems. Again, second is V olusia County, Seminole
County . We handle about twice as many circulations per employee as
the Lee County library system.
And in a third area our library system cost per capita are about
average in the state of Florida which is about $24 per capita. This
compares very favorably to the cost per capita in Lee County of $44.
And it shows again that we efficiently and effectively provide library
services to our community.
We've also had some very good growth since fiscal year 2000. In
-- and during that year we had about 4,000 residents visit a library
every day in Collier County. Now, we have about 5,000 residents
visiting a library every day in Collier County. And during that same
period our circulation has increased by 36 percent.
I'd like to also mention the increase in children's services during
that same time period. Children's circulations went up about 30
percent. The attendance at children's programs went up 63 percent.
And our number of cards issued to children increased by about 19
percent. This is directly related to your support of additional
children's programs specialists for our libraries. And brings up our--
one of our UFRs that we're going to be talking about tomorrow.
We're planning for the staff that gets assigned to our new South
Regional Library. And we'd like to start hiring some of these people
during fiscal '07 even though the building doesn't open until fiscal '08.
The only person I would like to hire initially is the children's librarian
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so that person can be working with the community and start
developing programs and relationships in that area.
Currently from our East Naples branch we have a children's
person who is shared with the Marco Island branch library. And we
think that one children's person at least per location does a great deal
to increase usage in that children's program.
Our current budget request show increases due to personnel and
utilities and some increases for library materials other than books.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Can you refer us to the pages that you're
going to be talking about, please.
MS. MATTHES: Okay. That was just mentioned on the
summary on page 29. But I'm going to go to finally the page 57 where
it talks about library capital projects. And we have two construction
projects that we're working on this year; the 17,000 square foot
Golden Gate structure and the 30,000 square foot South Regional
Library. Both library proj ects appear to be on track at the moment.
Weare hustling to get our construction contract for the Golden Gate
project by our deadline of December 23rd of this year.
One final thing I'd like to mention is that both the library and our
Friends of the Library celebrate our 50th anniversary next year. 2007
will mark 50 years of library service by a county facility to the
residents of Collier County.
Can I help with any questions?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Comnlissioner Henning has a question.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: When do you recognize the
grant from the State of Florida for the South Regional Library?
MS. MATTHES: When it's officially awarded to us. They send
out no letters until after July 1 st. I -- in watching the legislative
session this year, it appeared that they passed enough funding to fund
our South Regional grant of $500,000, but I haven't been officially
notified yet.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So that -- that will be in
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June 22, 2006
the final budget?
MS. MATTHES: Hopefully, yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I mean, it was just
reported to us that it was funded.
MS. MATTHES: Good.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Great.
MS. MATTHES: Great. Wonderful news.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you.
MS. MATTHES: You're welcome.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Please continue.
MS. RAMSEY: Okay. Commissioners, your next director, Ron
Jamro with the museum.
MR. JAMRO: Good afternoon, Commissioners. Ron Jamro,
your museum director. The museum has no expanded service requests
for fiscal year 2007. We do have a number of major focus areas that
we are seeking your support for. We would like to in 2007 continue
the video documentary series in partnership with WGCU Public
Broadcasting. We anticipate another three episodes next year.
Probably I think it's Immokalee and the two Naples segments are
expected.
We do need some repair work down at the Museum of the
Everglades. Incidentally, these are listed on page 37.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much.
MR. JAMRO: So there's a roof -- a roof replacement in the
museum in Everglades City. Weare proposing to -- to work even
more closely with the convention and visitors bureau next year to
professionally and aggressively market and promote the museum, all
four locations, to try to keep even greater number of visitors and
residents.
We're also requesting some -- some funds to begin restoring the
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June 22, 2006
museum's native Florida gardens which are pretty much destroyed by
Hurricane Wilma and -- which were always an important feature of
our -- of our educational programs at the museum.
And we're requesting $50,000 to complete the design and
fabrication of new exhibits. Our new exhibit upgrades are almost --
they're almost completed now at the main museum that was a -- about
a three and a half year proj ect.
As you might expect the principal project next year will continue
to be the Naples Depot and the complete restoration of the northern
half of the building. And while the southern half operates as a
preview exhibit center, a museum and also a heritage tourism center.
And I would like to mention that we had -- we had always planned
that the depot would be a hub, an intake valve for the museum system.
And I'm very pleased to report to you, that's exactly what has
happened. We actually tracked fanlilies who visited all the museums.
They stopped at the depot and then visited all the various museums in
the system. So we weren't dreaming. That really does work. It really
is making a difference. And once \ve're -- we're back up and
operational at the depot, I think we'll see some -- some serious
changes and -- and for the good there. It will affect the entire museum
system.
So that -- as always we appreciate your support. And I'd be happy
to answer any questions you might have about museums about your
request.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Comnlissioner Coletta.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes. Right now you were
mentioning about repairing the roofs and some of those projects. Do
you have enough money to take care of the necessary repairs to be
able to at least hold the equipment from getting -- deteriorating along
the way? In other words, if you don't have the roof repaired, you could
have water leaking in. You could have all sorts of dry rot, a
tremendous renovation later.
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June 22, 2006
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Blue tarp?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Well, that works too. Blue tarps
are a wonderful idea.
MR. JAMRO: You mean for the balance of this fiscal year,
Commissioner?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes. Do you have enough to be
able to preserve what you need?
MR. JAMRO: We'll be fine.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: The assets are protected?
MR. JAMRO: Yes, they are.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, I'd also like to in this thing, I just
want to make sure you didn't forget from last year. Remember I said
we were going to take his backlog of over $3 million and we're going
to break it down over a six-year period of time, 500 million (sic). I
would direct your attention to page 65 of your book.
What you have is the Public Services Division Museum
Improvement Fund 314. And you'll notice that there's a transfer from
001 of half a million dollars to be added with the 330 that he's got
from the transfer of 198 to have a capital budget of $830,000. And
you'll see at the bottom of the page those things that's he basically
moving those monies to. And that's in accordance with his plan that
he broke out for me last year. And I promised you that we would get
after it and quit whining about our backlog. And that's by Godford
what we're doing.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yeah. Thank you for that.
The other question is Roberts Ranch. Is there regular hours of
operation now?
MR. JAMRO: Yes, sir, Comn1issioner. Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: What are they?
MR. JAMRO: Nine to five, Monday through Friday.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: You get a pretty good response
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June 22, 2006
from the public now?
MR. JAMRO: It -- it works better by -- by previous
arrangement. You know, they call and make a tour and that's a little
more successful. The drop-in traffic, I don't think they're finding us
out there yet. Hopefully this whole marketing campaign, some new
signs there, but remember we've got one employee holding the fort
there. And so he needs some help -- some volunteers to help him out
there. But -- and I've always said, ] think that's the site we're going to
have to bus visitors to and make a day of it because it's kind of a long
drive from Naples.
So I might add, too, that this is -- the county manager is, indeed,
a man of his word. That's $500,000. And that we -- we augmented
that with 250,000 and another 80,000 from TDC funds to make a real
impact at the Naples Depot to try to get that wrapped up and looking
good. I know there's a lot of impatience in the City of Naples
especially what is -- come on, let's finish it. And then it's back to
Immokalee to finish our projects there. And -- and so the 500,000 will
shift from year. You'll see it track right through from site to site
where the improvements are needed the most.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: And is there anything new as far
as Marco Island Museum coming up to the point where they have it all
paid for and would like to come into our system?
MR. JAMRO: Commissioner, the -- currently they are still
raising the funds for construction. I think they're about a third of the
way there. I'm a little unsure about the final price of the facility. And
you will be seeing an amendment very soon that they want to -- they
want to start construction, but on a different part of the facility. And
they need you to change some of the language if you're amenable to
that, so...
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: This is the one that would be on
our property?
MR. JAMRO: On -- on the -- next to the library. So they're--
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June 22, 2006
they're very serious about that. And I think they have a ways to go
with the fund-raising, but they're determined.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you.
MR. JAMRO: My pleasure.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other questions?
(No response.)
MS. RAMSEY: Good. Conl111issioners, we now have Dr. Colfer
with the Health Department.
DR. COLFER: Great. Good afternoon, Commissioners. I'd like
to direct your attention to pages 48 through 52. I think I'll start -- I'm
going to start from the back and go forward based on your questions.
But if you would look on page 52 in the bottom right-hand corner,
you'll see the entire amount of our budget which is just over $13
million. You'll recall that we are really a state agency plugged into the
county under Marla's direction. I th ink Mr. Mudd said last year we're
the best bargain you're ever going to see.
Your percentage of our budget if you approve our -- our request
this year would be 1.8 million. And you would be contributing 14.1
percent to our overall budget. Included in those dollars is our request
for one additional expanded services person. That's for an operations
manager for our physician led access network. This is a program that
we do through the Collier County Medical Society to help provide
care to the uninsured in the community. We have 200 -- over 200
doctors as part of the program.
All hospitals are part of the program. We are able to do anything
from a simple office -- office visit to major surgical operations in
hospitals here in Collier County couliesy of this program. You
recently recognized the plan when they reached their -- one of their
goals which was for $1 million in donated medical care. So we think
that the request for this one position would be money well spent.
And I would be happy to answer any questions you have.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Make a comment?
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June 22, 2006
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Sure.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Joan, if you would be so kind if
you'd tell the commissioners and the audience exactly what the plan
has saved the community one n10re time. I think this is an important
number. This is a voluntary group of physicians. This is something
that I think this commission set the pace for Inany, many years ago as
far as having the community come forward to pick up on the indigent
health care and the workers care and those people that don't have
insurance, if you would.
DR. COLFER: One million dollars of donated medical care.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Exactly. And the way it works
is the fact that you have many physicians in there. No one carries the
total burden. It's shared by many people across the board. It's an
excellent program. And I appreciate the fact that the county plays a
minor role in it, but we do playa role.
DR. COLFER: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I have a question for you.
DR. COLFER: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I know you were here at a commission
meeting talking about a possibility of a pandemic.
DR. COLFER: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: And how are we going to fund that if
there is such a thing?
DR. COLFER: Well, we actually are lucky -- lucky in having--
you -- you-all are lucky that we're a state agency, I think, because they
are helping us with that.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
DR. COLFER: And so at this point you don't -- you know, you
don't need to. I do have some bio-terrorism funds. We're approaching
panflu as sort of an all-hazards disaster. And so we are able to use
those funds and that staff to work on panflu. Some of those people are
out in the community, you know, speaking to every community group
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June 22, 2006
that will have us. I was with a group of nursing home administrators
yesterday talking about panflu and getting them prepared.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: So we don't -- at this point in time we
don't have to put any reserves in or anything else?
DR. COLFER: Unless you'd like to.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Well, no, Ijust -- I was wondering if it's
a requirement.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, from the state Department of
Health, no.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. Good.
MR. MUDD: But for the county when we get -- if we get -- I
don't even like to talk about it, but Dr. Colfer did mention it isn't if, it's
when. So when it does come, there will be additional costs for county
government that we will have to go into reserves in order to get. And
I have no idea how much that's going to be because I don't know the
magnitude of the problen1. Okay. And once that gets identified, we'll
have emergency meetings with the Board of County Commissioners
and we'll -- we'll get that resolved as we see it.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. Don't mean to be an alertist or
alarmist.
DR. COLFER: Very appropriate comlnent.
MR. MUDD: And all your divisions and all your separate
departments have submitted their pandelnic plans to our -- to the
Bureau of Emergency Services. Dan SUn1ll1erS and crew are basically
going through those to see if there's any holes or disconnects and to
get that done. And once that's done, we'll tie it all together and we'll
have our county plan. And it will -- and it will be tied in with the state
and the federal plans so that they augn1ent each other and -- and we're
in the best shape as we possibly can be.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very much.
MS. RAMSEY: Commissioners, the second to the last
department is parks and recreation. And Mary Ellen Donner, assistant
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June 22, 2006
director, is going to present.
MS. DONNER: Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is
Mary Ellen Donner. I'm the assistant director of Collier County Parks
and Recreation pinch-hitting for n1Y director Barry Williams.
On page 36 of your budget docunlent you will see a summary of
the parks and recreation department's budget. The funds a little bit
down the page if you take a look that we are speaking about are 001,
which are general beach and water regional park type facilities. 111,
which is parks and recreation comlTIunity type facilities. 119, which is
the summer food grant. And 130, which is Golden Gate Community
Center.
Although the overall Public Services Division is within the
directed maximum percent increase, I thought I may perhaps answer a
question that maybe all of you are taking a look at which is the overall
net operating budget is being requested to increase to 14.4 percent. I
thought that rather than -- than not have you in the dark, I'd point that
out. And that, of course, is directly due to the impact that having a
full year of operation of North Colher Regional Park would have. I
believe Ms. Ramsey had mentioned earlier that we had a six-month
phase in. And, of course, next year in 2007 we're looking at a full
year of operation. So that, of course, is the explanation for the
elevated percent for the departnlent.
Additionally, we've got eight expanded requests. And two of
them are in the 001 category. Five of them are in the 111 category.
And one is in the 130 category. And if you would look at your budget
documentation, the 001 progralTI enhancements are outlined on page
37. The 111 program enhanCelTIents are outlined on page 40. And the
130, it has a single program enhancement that we're asking for is on
page 44.
Additionally, we have three unfunded requests that we would like
the commission to consider this year and those you would find on
page 61. There is a City of Naples request frOlTI Collier County to
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June 22, 2006
assist with improvements at Fleischluann Park. There is -- are two
requests from the City of Everglades to inlprove McCloud Park and
the community skating center within McCloud Park down in
Everglades City.
At this time, I'll entertain any questions you may have.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. Are there any questions?
Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Marla, what happened with the
idea of our community parks -- I'n1 sorry -- neighborhood parks
maintenance to be outsourced?
MS. RAMSEY: The neighborhood parks are what we call a
mow-and-go system. All of the neighborhood parks are doing that
currently.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: They're outsourced?
MS. RAMSEY: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: When was that done?
MS. RAMSEY: We started that in, when, in March?
DR. COLFER: Probably February of this past year.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: This past year? Last February?
DR. COLFER: Last February. Dh-huh.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. How many people did
that add to your maintenance on -- on your other parks?
MS. RAMSEY: Well, ren1en1ber, Commissioner, when I came
last year and presented to you a request for 46.1 positions, I told you
that we had done a number of things in order to reduce that number
from almost 63 positions that we \vere originally looking at. And so in
that request last year we had already reduced our number of
requirement based on the fact that \ve vvere contract servicing out the
neighborhood parks.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. I think it was 12; right?
MS. RAMSEY: No. I don't kno\v that it's 12, no.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: T\venty-four?
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June 22, 2006
MS. RAMSEY: No. Far less.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Two? I'm trying to get an
answer here.
MS. RAMSEY: I don't have that specific unless somebody else
in the department has that specific.
MR. MUDD: But you can get that information for him.
MS. DONNER: Are you asking the number of neighborhood
parks that we're currently contracting out? Is that the question?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. The personnel that took
care of those rolled thenl over to the other parks.
MS. DONNER: We can get you that information.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you.
MS. RAMSEY: Probably six vv'ould be nlY guess, but maybe
three.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The -- it was brought up
Monday night at Golden Gate Con1111unity Center about a fencing
crowd control for the outside an1phi theater and that's not being
budgeted, but I see that their budget is zero.
MS. DONNER: Currently that's not budgeted in this year's
proposal. The parks and recreation department has a philosophical
view, if you would like, that we don't llsually fence our parks in. We
like to have them open so that people can access them.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: lZeally? Okay.
MS. DONNER: 1'1TI sorry. Did you --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: \Vell, I'm just -- every park that
I've been to it has fences.
MS. RAMSEY: We have fences on our facilities for health and
safety reasons especially around our playgrounds and some various
elements like that.
MS. DONNER: Pools.
MS. RAMSEY: But if you']] notice that even if there might be a
property line fence between us and another place, our gates are always
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June 22, 2006
open.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: 'vVell, the -- the request was
because there was a lot of temporary fencing going -- going up for
special events. And I don't knovv if you run into that at other parks?
MS. DONNER: Not usually. Just for special events such as
Snowfest or Country J alU --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MS. DONNER: -- those types of things. That's usually all that
we actually bring in.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So that's -- that's just it. I mean,
even though this is a MSTU that they paid for a portion their selves,
they can't use those funds for fencing?
MS. DONNER: I believe the BO;lrd of County Commissioners
can direct us to take any -- any action.
COMMISSIONER HENNI NG: Yeah. And I think probably my
colleagues would want some kine! ofp,:tition from the people that
entrusted me to give you that message.
MS. DONNER: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So I guess we'll have to go that
route.
MS. RAMSEY: Commissioner, j f you want to add it to the
unfunded request for -- for that, I don't know what the exact total of it
is. It was somewhere around thi rty to llfty thousand dollars depending
on what the development departn1ent \\ould have us put up. You could
put up a chain-link fence, then it \:vould be closer to the $30,000. If
we had to go with aluminum picket, it \vas going to be closer to the
$50,000. If you wish us to put that 50,000 on that unfunded request,
I'm sure you can.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: ',Vell, I -- they're meeting
tonight.
MS. DONNER: They are?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: ;\nd I don't lmow how they're
P., ne 15 \.'
. It..... 'I
...')
June 22, 2006
going to proceed to get that message to ll1Y colleagues. Not trusting
that I would --
MS. DONNER: Would you like n1e to confer that message on
your behalf?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Thank you.
MS. DONNER: I shall. You're velcome.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Any other questions?
(N 0 response.)
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Continue.
MS. RAMSEY: Commissj oners, the last thing that I believe that
we have, then, would be on page 61, tll e same page that you're
currently on. There are a number of requests from the parks and
recreation department to do some capital improvements. Rather than
go through that entire list, there a re a n un1ber of them, if you have any
questions, I'd be prepared to ans\ver or ask staff to help.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Yes, COlll111issioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yea]l. Last year you were talking
about the Eagle Lakes Community Parle And you said you only had
enough money to build the start of a couple things. And you said, but
you had to -- you had to complete those. Is that already budgeted?
MS. RAMSEY: Yes, ma'am, it is.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. One more thing. How -- how
is that -- how is the skate park doing over at East Naples Community
Park?
MS. DONNER: Doing very well. We have maintained the hours
that we had presented previously. And, of course, it's very heavily
used during summer as the summer chi ldren are out of school.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So have you expanded the hours
then?
MS. DONNER: We have not exranded the hours. We have
been looking for a volunteer to assist "ith us. And have been unable to
find someone who can consistently COlne so that we can actually
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June 22, 2006
publish those hours as every week on (: specific day or time.
MR. MUDD: C01111uissioner -- C \)n1illissioner, let me ask a
question here real quick. Mary Ellen, you -- you said that in the
summer there's a lot of usage, okay, during that time period versus in
the -- in the wintertime. And I -- I wOllld assume that during the
summertime there might be a daily denland for usage. Okay. And I
believe what you just said is you're tryi ng to find the volunteer issue.
Now, let me ask the question, could -- ,:ould we hire a part-time
employee or use our manpower -- wha1 do you call it, Mike,
manpower pool?
MS. DONNER: Job bank.
MR. MUDD: Okay. The job bank to -- to work that over that
three-month period oftilue so that it can open on a daily basis and
augment when it is on those evenings i:l order to get that done?
MS. DONNER: \\That we're currently doing in the -- the
mornings, we're actuall y having summcr camps utilize that facility on
specific days and times. Additionally, \ ve have somewhat expanded,
not -- not permanently. So, yes, we cou ld possibly look at whether or
not the budget will support hiring a job bank person.
MR. MUDD: Yeah. How about -- how about, Commissioner, I
think that gets at your issue. How about taking a look at that based on
what you have right now, vacancies that you've had down during the
year, Marla, and see if there's -- there's a way to expand those hours
and -- and how about giving me an e-rr:ail back? And then I'll make
sure the commissioner gets it to get that particular idea across.
COMMISSIONER_ FIALA: That's great.
MR. MUDD: But you're not asking for full time. School year it's
not open. You got it locked in when you need to be. It's in the
summertime when -- when the kids are out that they might --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Right. And -- and these kids a lot of
them -- you know, a lot of them are latch-key kids and stuff. It's
located in the heart of a low-income c0111munity. There's nothing
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June 22, 2006
surrounding it but that. And when facilities aren't open in the park and
they can't get to any other park, then so luetimes boredom prompts
them to be doing other things. So the n10re we can give them to do
during the day, and our library doesn't have too, too many programs
either, they would love to, but they haven't been able to either, so the
more we can give children to play with and I think the less problems
we'll have in the neighborhoods. Thank you.
MS. DONNER: Definitely we'll for\vard an e-mail.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I have a question. Last year I went over
and looked at the little league field ove:' there near Naples Park
Elementary School and that field was in pretty bad shape.
MS. DONNER: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Where arc we at in the renovation of that
project?
MS. DONNER: There is actually in your package a request in a
capital improvement for next year to specifically fix the electrical field
house back there. And what we've don e --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: There's a lot of other issues with the
bathrooms and --
MS. DONNER: Absolutely. We spent a little bit of time out
there. And we've actually -- I recall be!:ause you received
photographs of it. We've actually reloc ated where the electrical and
pump system was into the garage systeJ11. So it's not in that little area
that was down -- down. We've actually worked very, very well with
the facilities management and our own staff. We've replaced
bathroom doors. We've re -- you know, we've done probably two
pages worth and have a very good working relationship with North
Naples Little League Bart Zeno and C0l11pany.
MR. JAMRO: Comn1issioner, maybe \ve can take some more
pictures and send to you some of those improvements. We'd be happy
to do that.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Yeah. I'd like to see where we are on
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June 22, 2006
that. Because when I went over there I couldn't believe it was that bad
a shape.
MS. RAMSEY: Con1missioner, p:1rt of that if you look on page
61, there's a drainage issue over there tl1at drains out into the tennis
courts. And we have $125,000 slated next year to help with the
drainage end of it which is, I think, leads to a lot of our problems. We
have a lot of sitting water on those loca tions. It n1akes it very difficult
to grass or keep the infields in place so...
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
MS. RAMSEY: We hope that we'll get some cooperation with
the school system to help us with this project since it sits on an
elementary school site. And we will be requesting them to partner
with us.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. Good. Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah. Just one question. How come
it takes $2 million to build a dog park?
MS. RAMSEY: That's not a dog parle There is a miss there.
That is the manatee park. If you go into the description, it should say
development of n1anatee park in East Naples. There's also a
misstatement on the fourth one down where it says North Naples
Middle School lights. That should say North Naples Elementary
School lights. That's Elen1entary I, the new one that they're building
this next fall and \ve're looking to put S0l11e lights on their outside
field.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So the development of the dog park
isn't really -- tell 111e what that is.
MS. RAMSEY: Welre currently funded for that, Commissioner.
So that is not in this request. This is the next phase.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Is this for the development of the --
of the --
MS. RAMSEY: The second phase of this park.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, and that's the -- that's the --
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June 22, 2006
that's the soccer fi elds in the middle of the retirement community?
MS. RAMSEY: It's a number of different things. And you'll be
seeing that as we come forward.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I don't know that I want to fund that
one yet because] think that that's -- that's a bad news thing. And I
think we ought to be looking at that more closely, quite frankly. Dog
park, yeah, but --
MS. RAMSEY: The dog park is already funded, ma'am.
COMMISSI ()NER FIALA: Good. I like that. The other part
there. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay. Any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I think you answered all of our questions
and I want to than k you very much for your participation.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT & ENVIRONMENTAL
SERVICES
MR. MUDD: Public Services will be followed by Community
Development and Environmental Services Division.
MR. SCHMITT: T\vo-minute stretch break? No?
CHAIRMAN HALAS: No. Just get on with it here. Ifwe can
get this thing through, we can get to Comn1issioner Henning's request
of BCC.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: YOll'1l never make it. This lasts up
to two hours.
CHAIRMAl'J HALAS: I hope not.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: If it's going to be two hours, I don't want
to do that.
MR. SCHMITT: COlTIlTIissioners, good afternoon. For the
record, I'm Joe Schn1itt, your Community Development and
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June 22, 2006
Environmental Services I)ivision Administrator.
I have seven departll1ents in lUY division. With me today, Denny
Baker, my Director of Operations, Support and Housing. Randy
Cohen. Randy, Con1prehensive Planning Department Director; Susan
Murray, Director of the Department of Zoning and Land Development
Review; Bill Lorenz, Environmental Services Department. Sitting in
for my Director of Building Review and Permitting and sitting in for
Bill Hammond is Jim Turner, my Chie [' Plumbing and Mechanical
Inspections; Michelle Anlold, Director of Code Enforcement; Tom
Kuck, Director of Engineering Services Department.
To my left, Ciary Mullee, my Manager of my newly organized
Business Managen1ent and Budget Office. And Lisa is sitting behind
me, Lisa Koehler, Public fnformation Coordinator. She's here because
we're going to be talking ~lbout one position in that organization as
well. Also some other mcn1bers of my staff if you have any specific
questions in regards to issues in the budget.
I'm going to go over a brief introduction. I am not going to have
each of the directors go tllrough their budget. I think it's -- because it's
a very complicated budget. We can w,llk through it if you wish, but I
think I would like to do, given the hour, certainly provide time for
questions. Before you today is a $61 111illion budget that will provide
the needed funding for this county to continue to provide effective,
professional, con1prehensive conu11unity planning and government
oversight and regulatory oversight of development in Collier County.
Also enforcement of the C:ollier County Growth Management Plan,
Land Developn1ent Code the CoIl ier County Code of Laws and
Ordinances and the Florida Building Code.
We also provide county oversight of policies and programs to
preserve and improve -- to preserve and protect wildlife and habitat as
prescribed by fedcra 1, state and local Iel WS. We promote opportunities
for affordable housing as well as inlproving the quality of life of those
less fortunate in our comrnunity through efficient and effective
Page 16if
June 22, 2006
implementation of our -- of our Comm unity Development Block Grant
Program, our CDBG, and our State Housing Initiative Partnership, our
SHIP program.
We also fund for the economic de velopment incentives to
continue to attract new high-wage jobs to Collier County to further
diversify our local econolny and basica lly to reduce the dependence
on tourism and the construction industry. And we also enforce the
collection and we nlanage all impact fc(~s.
I think at this tinle I'd like to -- I \vish to point out that the
preponderance of our funding for this budget comes from fee revenue
and other external sources of tax and gl'ant revenue to fund enterprise
activities and special programs. The principal demand for ad valorem
is to fund code enforcen1ent and the stclte planning compliance
requirements for long-rallge COl11ll1Unity planning activities within the
comprehensive planning department. \.Ve work hard. We worked
hard to ensure that our overall den1and by the division on the general
fund stayed in line \vith last year's figure. In fact, we're only $900 over
last year's figure.
As an overvie\v this budget and t]l e services that it -- it displays is
projected to provide and is predicated en your guidance regarding the
services, progranls and studies identifil d under each of the respective
departments. And it also reflects what 'vVe believe is still ongoing and
consistent strong gro\vth across all the business activities within the --
within the department or within the division. Excuse me.
I also note that this budget is with i n your budget guidance which
capped discretionary spending at 4.7 p Tcent and allowed for a total
increase of 12 percent. Al1d I would s1 "ess -- and I wish to stress and
point that this requires no increase. Tb is budget requires no increase
in existing comn1un i ty devcloplnent fees, the building fees or land
development fees. This budget meets the guidance with net increases
in the following; increases of 3.6 percent in discretionary operating
capital and existing personnel expense, and 6.9 percent increase in
Page 16.
June 22, 2006
adding new personnel. In your budget are 2.5 personnel added as
budgeted new FTE or expanded positions and 10 listed as UFRs, but
in all frankness, they are budgeted. I IY1Ve the money to fund those
positions. They're above budget guidance.
Let me just talk a little bit about increased business activity. I
wish just to make sure you understand, we understand that our
projections run contrary to the popular inlpression that the housing
market has slo\vcd down. It hasn't. I h'.lve charts and figures if, in
fact, you want nle to go through that. ') au saw that in your executive
summary yesterday Of, excuse ll1e, on C 'uesday where we asked for the
additional people in the bui Iding depari 1l1ent. The growth in the
county population celiainly has led to (, large increase in a number of
renovations, improvements and in actu;d ity also the impact of
hurricane response and the pern1its assc ciated with that.
Commercial building activity is a: historical level in this county,
levels higher tha 11 we've seen. And wh' e there is some slowing down
in some construction, we expect at a n1 niluum that we will sustain the
same level. There are a lot of, as you ".fell know, zoned communities
out there with what I would call pent-uD existing zoning and many
units or many con1nlunities with what \ve're building now construction
associated with sales from a year, yearll1d a half ago. So even
considering if th'~re even were a slowdi \'111 this year in sales, just with
the communities that are coming on-lir~ both in the north part of
Collier County, Park 1 ands, Mi rosol, i t~ in fact, they build that, some of
the communities up there. And -- and do\:vn in the southern part of the
county buildout certainly of Verona W,tlk, Fiddler's Creek, Treveso
Bay and some o!' those do\vn there, \ve -- \:vc just anticipate we're
going to have significant demand on -- ,)11 the services we provide.
I -- I would like to no\v just walk :lrough each of the expanded--
I'll call them UFR positions. If you ha'c any questions on -- on the
specific additional personnel that we're asking for and my directors are
prepared to ans\ver 8S to the regards to ~hose personnel and the impact
Page 16<
June 22, 2006
if, in fact, we do not get those personnel. So I -- first page I'd ask you
to open to is page 9 of your budget.
CHAIRMAN I-{ALAS: I have a question.
MR. SCHIvnTT: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER C()LETTA: \'es.
CHAIRMAN I--IALAS: Commissioner Coletta.
COMMISS rONER COLETTA: ] Cound it. Very interesting. Of
course, you knO\V, I think you'll find this con1mission to be extremely
supportive. Any too Is that we can give you to help you with what
you're trying to accolnplish will -- I don't think we're going to refuse
you as long as \ve can see 8, you know. a cost benefit to it. One thing
that gave me concern, \vhy do \ve have positions for your department
on the UFR list competing fro111 the general fund money?
MR. SCHIVlITT: They -- they are not, Con1missioner. None of
those -- none of lhose positions are COIT1pcting for general fund money.
CHAIRMA N ]-[ALAS: I-Ie's got 1 '1e funds.
MR. SCHl'vl ITT: There are geneLll fund positions that are
expanded positions, FTE, that some of which are -- are general fund.
But the ones that are on -- in your bool\ and T -- on the front of your
book --
MR. SMY1~O\VSI(I: It's the general overview, page 13.
MR. SCH1\ 1 ITT': Page 13. Thank you, Mike. There are
positions listed Llat are -- are all Fund 131 \vhich are land use and
permitting fees. These are prinlarily -- they are not building
permitting fees. Those are land use fees.
COMMISS lONER C()LETT A: Just to summarize this for us,
for a lay person.
MR. SCHrvlITT': Yes.
COMMISSrOI<ER C()LETTA: ] f'these positions were granted
to you, what wOlLld he the savings in tilne to the public and the savings
to the county as generally providing Ollr overtime or whatever other
costs would be j ncurrecl? 1)0 you have s0l11ething you can give us an
Page 167
June 22, 2006
idea on that?
MR. SCHl'vUTT: As far as savings fro111 a cost perspective I -- I
-- I don't have a -- I don't have a capture of that. But what I have is
basically I require a level of service of 30 days review time. I have
charged that I can show you now, if you so \vish, that clearly display
we are well with in those 30 days. In fact, in our land use petitions we
are down --
COMMISSIONER C()LETTA: Yeah, Mr. Schmitt, I'm familiar
with that.
MR. SCHMITT: Yea h. We're -- we're down probably below 20
in 20 days.
COMMISSIONER C()LETTA: And the thing is that there's
always a way we can in1prove our perfonl1ances.
MR. SCHMITT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER C()LETTA: I mean, anyone. Even the
commISSIoners --
MR. SCHMITT: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER. C()LETT A: -- have ways they can improve
their performance.
MR. SCHMITT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER C()LETTA: Probably by not having me talk
so much, right, wouldn't you say?
COMMISSIONER C()YLE: That would improve it
tremendously.
COMMISSIONER C()LETT A: \Vhat would this do for the
public? Let's put it that way.
MR. SCHMITT: Can I \valk through each one and make --
COMMISSIONER CC )LETT A: Yeah. That would be fine. I'm
sorry. I didn't mean to get in front of you on that.
MR. SCHMITT: Let :ne -- let me turn the page to page 7, which
is the first one. That is und'~r 1 he administration office. Because I -- I
think I can do it better this '.vay instead of trying to do it in one fell
Page 168
June 22, 2006
swoop. Under the adnlinistration office it's a new planning tech. And
that is a person that worked for Lisa Koehler. You directed a division
to now hold neighborhood information nleetings for all comprehensive
plan amendments. And given the addition for comprehensive plan
amendments, a requirelnent tbat we believe we're going to be dealing
with and dealing with at least the 951 and some of the public interface
we need there plus the nunl bel' of neighborhood information meetings
that one person now does, this person vvill augnlent that staff and
provide that needed infonl1~1tion and an interface for the public out in
the public information office. So that's the -- that's the position on
page 7.
Page -- let me go to pel ge -- page 9 and I'll turn to Tom Kuck.
This is an environmental spc~cialist position that is listed under the
PUD monitoring. We've ta1:(ed about that briefly during the workshop
to assist in PUD monitorinr~, environmental. And, Tom, if you could
address where that person \'/ill help you in -- in your 800 series
inspections.
MR. KUCK: Yes. That person will probably spend 50 percent
of their time under the PUD rronitoring and the remaining 50 percent
helping us in our inspectiol s, "emoval of exotics and things like that
that we are really shorthanc'ecl on novv. So at one time we had an
environmental specialist th; t \vas -- spent half the time with
engineering and half the tinle at that tin1e with zoning. But -- and it
worked out real well, but tllZ1t person retired and then was never
replaced. Tom Kuck.
MR. SCHMITT: COIT111l issioner Colettn, the workload, we have
basically one person, John ). \t1artina, who goes out and does
inspections on site plans, let l1c])caping. This person will assist in doing
final inspections on declica t ,-'d preserves -- preserves that have been
defined. Again, this is to provide service to the developing
community so they can close out their -- their projects quicker and we
can ensure compliance.
Page 169
June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER. C()LETTA: I don't mean to interrupt you,
but I'm just a little bit confused. Y OLl nlentioned that the position went
away one day and the person left. Isn't that a vacant position?
MR. SCHMITT: No, sir. The -- 'vvhat TOln was referring to at
one time we had a half a position that 'vvorked --
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Oh, I see.
MR. SCHMITT: -- in his departn1ent 8nd also worked in Bill
Lorenz and doing plan revi ew. That person left. But basically I rolled
up the FTE into the -- into envirolllllental t\VO years ago because of the
workload in environmental.
The next page referred to on page 11. These are two
management and budget analysts that will be \vorking in Mr. Mullee's
section under the business lna'1agen1ent 8nd budget office. And I'll --
I'll turn it over to Gary, but be fore I do just so you understand, I'm
looking for some assistance to help provide reports that we need to do
and the business analysis that we need to do to improve our processes.
Gary.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: I'nl sorry.
MR. SCHMITT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Forgive me. You probably
explained it, but I just need to ask tile question again. You -- you have
the money in your budget ~~o it doesn't COlllC out of the general
budget?
MR. SCHMITT: Yes. I have -- I have sufficient fees to pay for
all these positions that -- tbat I identified.
COMMISSIONER C()LETTA: So, in other words, this is -- the
county manager is just putt int' this on the cOl111nission to be able to
add this back in to make it sinlple?
MR. SCHMITT: The positions 'vvere identified because they
were above the 25-person limit.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: T see. Okay. Now everything's
coming together.
Page 170
June 22, 2006
MR. SCHMITT: Yes.
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Thank you.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. And if I gave Mr. Schmitt or Mr. Delony
all that they wanted even though they're -- they're an enterprise-funded
position, they would totally devastate -- cither one of them would
totally devastate the 25-position limit. So \vhat -- what I do is I try to
squeeze them, just like I squeeze all the other division administrators
to make sure that they conle forward with the positions that they
absolutely need. And they prioritize those and that's what's in my 24.5
positions that you have today. And then thc ones that don't fit, they --
I give the staff the latitude to come forvv,1rd 2nd bring those to the
board's attention and talk -- talk to you about bringing them back into
the budget.
Commissioner Coletta?
COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Yes, si 1'. Gotcha.
MR. SCHMITT: Areas of the t\VO man~1gement and budget
analyst positions.
MR. MULLEE: Yeah. For the record, Gary Mullee the Budget
Office and CDS. One of the positions, as Joe mentioned, was to go
ahead and consolidate the luanagen1ent reporting within the division
so that we could get some Inatrix in terms of performance. The other
position is to consolidate some financial opcr:ltions of -- of the
business. As we've grown it has become qu i Le the enterprise. And
this would provide some consolidated financ; al oversight. And where
these really kind of benefit our custoluers is that these are services that
-- necessary business services that \ve provide each of the seven
departments. And it gives thenl an opportunity to focus more on their
core activities allowing planners to be planners and that type of thing.
So that's -- that's --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: vVhat page are you referring to here?
MR. SCHMITT: Page 11.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
Page 171
June 22, 2006
MR. SCHMITT: On your page 11 dovvn -- halfway down the
page. Of course, it's the botton1 paragraph on that page. It says "UFR
two management budget analysts, managenlent and budget office."
CHAIRMAN HALAS: All right. Thank you.
MR. SCHMITT: Next one, page 35 and that's under the
Department of Zoning and Land Development Review. And Ms.
Susan Murray Istenes will basically talk about the two positions that
she's asking for.
MS. ISTENES: Susan Murray Istenes. I'm the zoning
department director. And these two positions are primarily to assist
with the Land Development Code an1endment process. And how this
will benefit the public is we've had a goal now for several years after
the recodification of the Land Development Code to actually go
through the Land Development Code and consolidate it and amend it
and make it more user friendly. Right now I have one FTE that
handles the entire Land Development Code process and has very little
secretarial support as well as any assistance with research and things
like that.
We've also developed a prograll1 internally where we're bringing
department representatives together from various county departments,
transportation, utilities, parks and rec, folks from the building
department. And we have a coordinated effort when we develop
amendments to the Land Development Code. So that's a new process
that we started as well and this one individual is responsible for that.
The workload is just tren1endous to keep up and manage. Every time,
as you know, Randy Cohen h8s a change to his Growth Management
Plan, we have to amend the L8nd Developn1ent Code to be consistent.
Anytime the state nlandates any ch8nges, again, we're amending the
Land Development Code. So I think you C8 n see where I'm going
with this. I don't think the work's going to slow down at all, ifnot
increase for the Land Developrnent Code anlendments. And we are
trying to achieve greater effici encies through bringing all the county
Page 1 72
June 22, 2006
departments together to work 011 a cClordinated effort rather than
piecemeal.
MR. SCHMITT: Susan, if I could add also, we're looking at this
person to help us begin to defi 11 e and develop an administrative code.
When we separated some of the administrative criteria out of the
LDC, when we recodified many of the administrative issues, processes
were removed. And \ve're going to -- we've always had a goal to try
to create an administrative code which is more procedural in nature,
again, to provide the road map to any applicant as far as how to
proceed through the process.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I have -- one commissioner has some
questions. Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENl"']ING: Susan, I realize how busy your
__ your staff are. They're working extra hours. But I can't understand
after hiring somebody to fix the code to make it easier, that we have to
fix it again and make it easier.
MS. ISTENES: I think ycu're referring to the recodification
process we went through? No?
COMMISSIONER HENl'<ING: No. We hired a specialist, too.
It was, what, two years ago?
MS. ISTENES: Right. 0:111 E'lzley (phonetic)? Gail Eazley &
Company. That was to --
MR. SCHMITT: ThrouP.:h contract.
"-
MS. ISTENES: Througb contract, correct, to reorganize the
code.
COMMISSIONE~RHENNING: To make it easier. I mean, I
remember sitting there alld he \Vas tllere. And he said, We're going to
make it easier for the average person to follow this code.
MS. ISTENES: Right.
"-
COMMISSIONER I-IENNING: We're going to n1ake it easier or
what?
MS. ISTENES: T hope so,
Page 173
June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, to me it was okay before.
It was easier to follo\v then than it is now.
MS. ISTENES: The changes that we're talking about that we
accomplished through using Contractor Gail Eazley was simply
reorganization, the structure of the code.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. I specifically remember
him saying it \:vould be easier to follow.
MS. ISTENES: There were no regulatory changes as a result of
that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I knO\V there wasn't.
MS. ISTENES: No\:v, we're looking at regulatory changes as far
as eliminating n
COMMISSIONER I-IENNING: Maybe I misunderstood what
you said then.
MS. ISTENES: Okay. 'VeIl, \:ve're trying to eliminate -- we find
a lot of inconsistencies in the code. We find a lot of language that's
duplicative. W c find a lot of 1(1 l1guage that conflicts with other
language. We have some really older provisions in there that have not
been updated in years, our nor,conforming section, nonconforming
uses, properties. There's a lot of confusion every time staff or the
public tries to rcad and unders'and and apply that. And that's what
we're shooting for this tin1e. Iloes tbat help or luake sense?
COMMISSIONER I-IENI"-J1NG: I understand your goals and
that, but that's cxactly what the gentleman said when we were having
that workshop.
CHAIR~1AN H/\LAS: 1 have to agree with Commissioner
Henning. I thought that's \:vh8t \ve \vere trying to do because there was
some language in there that W:1S old and you \vere trying to bring that
up-to-date or \vas I tl1inking 0;' something else?
MS. ISTENES: We renlovcd rcgulatory language from
definitions. That -- that was one thing that, you know, is different
from reorganization, I guess. /\nd, you knO\V, I'm trying to think of
Page 174
June 22, 2006
what else. Perhaps you were thinking -- because at the time I've been
telling you throughout the years no\\, you know, this is kind of our
goal and this is the first process is the reorganization. I hope I didn't --
CHAIRMAN Hi\LAS: I guess what \ve -- I guess where I'm
coming from on this is that I thought this was going to be, like, a
one-time affair. But, obviously, wh8t's happening here, it's an ongoing
situation.
MS. ISTENES: It really is, Conlmissioncr. And I think one
lesson we learned in the recodificatinn was that was an absolutely
humongous project. And I'll be honest with you, we just don't have
the resources -- resources to devote that much time to a
one-fell-swoop project. This is going to be -- I mean, it's ongoing only
from the nature of the beast. I nleanc your comp plan is constantly
changing. Your comn1unity's goals ;lnd objectives are constantly
changing. The cOlnnlunity's desires and wishes are constantly
changing. So there is a forever 111airtenancc requirement of your
LDC. And I'm sorry if -- I didn't mean to 1118ke it, you know, so you
misunderstood or I spoke incorrectly. But our goal the first time
around was not to make any regulate lY changes. It was just to
reorganize to make it casicr to find things, casier to use, but not from a
regulatory perspective, mostly from ln org;ll1izational perspective.
There were sonle -- like I said, \\'e renoved regulatory provisions from
the definitions because that was conI Llsing ~lnd that wasn't the proper
place for them. That \vas on the advice of Gail Eazley, but that was
our goal during tl1at process.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: C01l1m:ssioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER ]-IENNTNG: WelL I -- I remember we want
to take some out and put it in the orcinance.
MS. ISTENES: Right. The -- i he adlllinistration --
COMMISSIONER ]-IENNING: I tOUllly remcn1ber that and that
was stated during the adoption of the new format.
MS. ISTEN RS: lZigl-:t.
l\:ge : 75
June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONE R I-JENNING: But when do we hold people
accountable for \vhat they get paid for?
MR. SCHMITT: Th0Y were -- the contract was specifically--
specifically for Gail Eazlcy was to reorganize the LDC. They did take
a lot of the administrative minutia Ollt of the LDC.
COMMISSIONER lIENNING: Was the contract different than
what we were told at this \vorksllop?
MR. SCHMITT: I believe \ve Inade that very clear. And I
thought Gail did \vhen she briefcd you-all what -- what it was.
Because there was no i ntcnt of changing -- in fact, \ve were prohibited
from making any substantive ch8nges to the --
COMMISSIONER I rENNI~G: I understand that. And I
understand that you "rant to slo\\' do\vn those LDC changes too.
MR. SCHMITT: Yes, we've slowed it down. Last year we had
four LDC amendn1ent cyc les, t\VO ard thcn two intermixed with those
two. So we had four. Th;s year is about a ten-month cycle. Because
it was -- it's just becolTl in~) too cbaoti c.
And the second posi l ion you wcre asking for is the administrative
secretary?
MS. ISTENES: j\drninistn:tive Secretary. Again, we're trying to
reduce some of the adlnin 'strativ8 nLlctions a lot of our principal
planners are performing, .iust sinlple duties like filing, scanning, things
of that nature. We're finding they're spel1ding a lot of their time doing
that type of\vork rather than revjewillg p1ans and reviewing
applications. So we're try ing to clim inate son1e of that.
CHAIRMAN Hl\Ll,S: Wl~at are these people being paid versus
what it would take if you 11ad all :ldn,inistrative aide? Are you telling
us it would be verv cost efective?
MS. ISTENFS: To ,lire -- yes, absolutely.
CHAIRMAN HALl.S: Okay.
MR. SCHMITT: Next position) page 38, under Environmental
Services Departlnent, t\VO UFRs, one environnlental specialist and one
'). ae ~ 76
I c.;::> I
.._..,~~ ._..._~_..~""e.'
June 22, 2006
environmental technician, Bill Lorenz.
MR. LORENZ: Yes. For the record, Bill Lorenz, Environmental
Services Director.
The two positions as Joe indicated, one is an Environmental
Specialist and the other -- other is an Environmental Technician. As
you know that we've been behind in our reviews. I think we just
caught up with tl1C existing con~plerr:ent. We're still looking at about a
10 to 15 percent i 11crease in revi C\VS for next year. So we wanted to
budget the environmental specialist to be another reviewer. That will
take up our anticipated in!~rease ;n the nUluber of reviews that we
expect to have for next year.
In addition, this posi Lion \vculd also allow for us to make some
more inroads into some p:'ocess ;lnprovelnents and also -- also some
customer service cnhancen1ents ::UCll as better checklists for the
reviewers to havc. Currently we have bcen spending our time
catching up, getting -- tak ing C3r'~ of the revie\vs. But I think there's a
lot of process inlproveme:1ts and increased productivities that we can
do as long as \ve 11 ave sorn e adc1 i I. i on ~ll t1111e for staff to be able to work
on those activities. So this incrc':sed enviroll111ental specialist will
help us to take carc of these functions.
The environn1ental t 2chnici' ,11 position \vill be somewhat of a
new slotted pos:tion. We curren'ly Lave eight positions. If you agree
with the envirOl11TIental sreciali~;t, th;lt \vould be nine positions. We
do not have any arlministrative s: 'pport for this section. The
environmental tcchnician \vill be ab1 ~ to take some of those
administrative clut;es off of the c'lvironn1ental specialist, allow them to
focus in on revic~ws, sitting dO\Vl \vith the customer, working on
exactly what necds to be providcJ in -- in thc plans that we are
reviewing. An~1 ;11so be ahle to t'lke carc of general inquiries. Be
trained for sonl'~ :Jctdition~d wor],<ng \vith -- for instance, we get a lot
of inquiries fr01l1110nleowners tl-at Ci)n1C in for \vhat -- what they need
to do for veget2tion removal per'llits, rlaving a person to spend a little
1) 1ge 1 77
June 22, 2006
bit more time with individ uals sllch ~ s this will be helpful with -- with
regard for the environmental technic' an position.
MR. SCHMITT: If I could poillt out -- out Mike Smykowski's
shop, Ms. Kim Grant at the direction of the county ll1anager spent
somewhere around four and a ha If nlJnths doing a process
improvement review speci fically foe Jsed on the environmental staff.
And these are the results, 1 hese t\VO ] ositions \vere the result of -- of
that analysis. These were process in provements that were briefed to
the county mana:cr and identified a~ needed positions in order to
implement those process i 111prOVcnlelts.
CHAIRMAN FfALAS: COr11111;Ssioner fiala, you have a
question.
COMMISSTONER FfALA: D( you have any vacancies in your
department right row, Bill?
MR. LOREl';Z: No, \ve don't.
MR. SCHl\1 fTT: Ma'anl, I h~v ' currently 17 vacancies within
the division. Nine ~:re open position~'. And, of course, you just
approved another 12. So 1'11 be -- I a ,ready directed to start recruiting
for those 12 for n1'.~ building depar' IT:nt.
The next O'lC 1S on page 46 and 'hat's a luanager of plan review
and inspection. T~lis is in my buildilg departlnent and Bill's not here.
I'll speak about 'h;s. This departlre::t has grown to 100 folks. Bill
does not -- Bill 11:'s nve direct repcrt'. He operates the -- manages, of
course, the intakc process in the lobI '{ and A lamar -- oh, on page --
I'm sorry. I lost 111c page there. 0'1: our page -- on my page 46. It's
on -- in the mic1r'1c of the page. It'" t Ie botto1l1 of the page. It says
UFR, one mana~:rr, inspections, b. 'il ling review and permitting.
Currently I 'l'lve three chiefs. I i1ave a chief that oversees the
electrical inspee<c~n'~ and review, t'lt' mechanical and plumbing
electrical-- mec1lanical and phlllll<l1 ~ revie\v and the structural plan
review and insp(>ction. This perso'l ' ,rill basically be a supervisor over
those three. Th" organization is bc'c( lning so large. This will, quite
Pa~)c 178
June 22, 2006
frankly, provide an additional person. Bill Hammond in the last two
years looked back at his calendar. H ~ has had in excess of 800
meetings where he has met with app1 icants, custonlers, resolved
issues, as well as the chiefs and three of -- two of the chiefs are here in
regards to discussing the impact oftl e workload. This person will
basically help reI ieve some of that re ;ponsibility off of Bill so Bill can
do what he's suprosed to do and tl:at is to run that organization. This
will be my deput/ building chicf as \ Tell.
Bill Ham1110nd is 111V buildilv' d : rector and he's also the chief
..; ,
building officia1. This person \vil1 seve as the deputy building
official. A 1 OO-r~erson organizatic 11, [ think it's certainly warranted.
The next -- r -- I \vant to take a 'noment just to point it out. In the
middle of that p~ge as \vell and sircc I'm talking thc building
department. W c're including in th: s: -- identifying $250,000 in the
budget for contr:1ct services. And r l' 'lOW COlumissioner Coletta
mentioned this yesterday about outS( urcing. This is our intent to use a
private provider to augnlcnt my ill"p\ction staff to do those kind of
inspections that zre less technically c'~manding. Of course, this would
be a certified pri vate provider qua 1 ifi ~d as far as the international code
council. And thc'v would do -- \vevc uld have the111 do such less
technical inspec' ;ons as storm shu ~e;'s, HV AC ch1nge-outs,
reroofings, those kine! of inspections. And -- and they would also in
peak periods, \Vc could use then1 a'~ \: 'ell to do plan review. And that
__ that -- that th i~~ is in the budget. Al '~ain, there's no demand at all on
the -- on the -- 0" the 8d valoren1 dol ar. This is -- \vould be paid for
out of developnlent fces or pen11it fet s. In th is case the building
permit fees.
The next and the last one on 1 he UFR list under the engineering
service departnlcnt is the senior engil:eer. And I'll, again, turn over to
Tom Kuck.
MR. KUCl:: Cu:-rently we (111) -- we l-;ave four senior engineers
that are revie\v1l'g in th~ neighborhoc d of 80 subdivjsion plats a year,
PaL ~ 1 79
June 22, 2006
135 -- the 200-site development plans. I have it kind of broken down
that we have one engineer revie\villg the utilities, one the
transportation, one the plats, and one storm\vater n1anagement. And
it's just -- we don't have any backup for those positions. And I -- this
position to provide backup and then to do SOlue coordination between
the plan review and our inspector people out in the field. And that
would be kind of a d1121 purpose for that person.
CHAIRMAN HA r j\S: Are you getting to a point where you're
starting to burnout SOIT1 . ()f these people?
MR. KUCK: I've g )t a very dedicated staff that's been with the
county, most of them 1 5 to 25 years.
MR. SCHMITT: T don't want to lose any of then1. I mean -- you
know, people \va lk. ^ nc1 I think Stan probab ly gets a call a week for
an offer. So that's -- tb'1t'S what we're facing right no\v. And we lost
our surveyor. I do not 1::~: ve a registered professional surveyor. And
we've -- we've had cxtre:,IC difficulty to replace -- fill that position.
MR. KUCK.: Did y,Hl have any questions?
CHAIR1\1AN HALJ\S: It's totally unfair to the \vorkforce there.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Let me just thro\v one --
CHAIRMAN H!\f":\S: Sure.
COMMISSIONS:Z !1'IALA: -- if they've all been there that long,
that says a lot about you. 'rOnl. They stayed there because they must
like your managemen t st: '1 e.
MR. KUCI(: \VelL \ve've got a good te3111 and \ve all work
together pretty close. 'ThJllk you.
MR. ~1UDD: 1\11". Cl1airnlan, I want to -- I got to tell you that
Tom's worked for a lol1~ ~j1ne for this county. He's been a county
engineer. He gets 11P thc"c and I can't tell you ho\v lucky this county's
been to have hilll. ~^, nd, 'olnmissioner Fiala, I'm glad you took the
opportunity to singl(~ hin Clut because he has been a stalwart, pillar--
pillar of excellence for r is COnl1TIUnity for a long time. Thank you.
CHAe:~vfJ\.>J FTAL. \3: Commissioner Coyle.
Page 180
June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah. I would like to go back a
little bit to an earlier con\'l~rsation we had. There's probably been no
other departn1ent affected so heavily by actions of the Board of
County Commissioners over the past several years because we have
been changing lots ofthil1gs. And it's very -- always very difficult to
keep up with changes and develop new regulations and make sure
they're consistent and clc",u'. Even we argue with then1 within weeks
after we've enacted thenl" So it -- it is a difficult thing and I can
appreciate fle \vorkloac1.
But th~ one thing tb'l~ -- that -- and I'm going to wait until the
county manager gets off the telephone before I continue because --
because this is primarily ;()r the benefit of the county manager. This --
this division has -- has an :'111azing scope of activities. And in addition
to all of the things that -- ~'.at you're doing that arc absolutely essential
to -- to approve bllilding n!~ln1its and do reviews and all the things
we've been criticizing YC' 1 :'lbont for not doing on time or doing
quickly or doing efficient l:r, you know, you're also responsible for
affordable housing, sea t!. :'Je 1110nitoring, natural resource grants,
invasive exotic removal, :; ~onomic diversification and development.
What are you guys (!( ing involved in that stvff? CDBG state
housing initiativc~, franc1,: 'C administrations, utility regulations for
privately owned t'tilitie~:. . To\v, this is -- that's crazy. It really is
crazy. And -- and -- anc: [don't know how a division can focus on the
__ the things we really al\.~ conlplaining about a lot of times which is
getting those penuits processed when we've got you pointed in so
many different djrection~'"
CHAIRMAN HAL.\S: Then we have workshops all the time.
COMMTSSI/)NER COYLE: Yeah. Yeah. And then we're
changing things as we g along.
CHAIRMAN HALi\S: I'lU ~luazed you get your work done. I'm
amazed.
COMl\IfISSJONER COYLE: That's right. You can't possibly
Pa oe 181
i:::>
June 22, 2006
spend -- spend anywhere near 50 percent of your time on the job.
You're -- you're here doing something with us a lot of the time. So it
seems to me, County Manager, and I would hope -- I don't know
whether we have guidance from the commission or not to do this, but I
would really like to give some -- have you give some serious
consideration to silnplifying this process and maybe realigning some
of these functions so th:lt --
CHAIRMAN HATJi\.S: I think we've got to break up some of
this organization. It's \\'~lY too much.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah. But that's the county
manager's job. Vol c're 110t going to tell him how to organize and do
this. But I \vould just encourage you to give some thought to it.
Because when people 8rc torn in so many directions, it's almost
impossible f')r thcln to dcal with a lot of the prin1ary problems and to
get those problems sol\'cQ in a timcly way.
So -- so -- ar~ci I br:ng that up now because I am -- it's unfortunate
I wasn't here yestcrday i~)r the discussion on the renovations of the
building and that 50rt of stuff. But I would be very, very reluctant to
spend money doi n g thi n gs like that until we dealt with the
fundamental orgZ1llizaticn of -- of -- of the division to see if there's a
better way to org8nize it so that they could focus on the things we
consider to 1")e of prima 1'y importance. And then at that point in time
start looking at \vays yell might want to invest in capital
improvements wllich n::ght help get the job done better. But -- but
that -- that's lUY purpose for bringing it up at this point in time. I think
it's an almost unr.l'lnagc'lble range of activities and conlplicated with
__ with pressures ,ve've hcen putting on the departlnent and -- and the
problems of retaining pr:'Dple. I don't -- I don't know that you dig
yourself out oftll~:t hole :lnytime soon without doing sOlnething fairly
dramatic.
CHAIRMAN I-IAL/\S: I think we're burning people out.
COM~HSS1 )NEl;>, COYLE: Well, you're certainly burning me
Page 182
June 22, 2006
out.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Commissioner Henning.
COM~1ISSIONER COYLE: It's getting harder and harder to
keep track of all this.
COMMISSIONER I-IENNING: Yeah. I agree. I think you're
burned out.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Huh?
COM~\nSSTONER I-IENNING: I concur. I think that's -- that's a
great suggc~t:ion. It is very busy do\vn there, very diverse. I think Jim
Delony cou~d use a little extra work.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Particularly the utility regulation. I
don't know why he's not involved in utility --
MR. SCHMITT: lIe legally -- he legally cannot.
MR. ~!rUDD: Cannot do it.
COM! ; ISSIONER COYLE: There's a conflict of interest, huh?
MR. SCI-IMITT: That's why \vhen Blue and now Jamie French
runs ads saio bas:c~111y a one and a halfFTE right no\\'.
COM1vHSS10NER COYLE: Give it to Len Price.
MR. SC:T-IMITT: It used to be in the manager's office. It moved.
It --
COM\nSSIONER COYLE: Or to Leo. Leo can do it.
MR. S :r-IMTTT: It's only -- it's one person. And Jamie and --
COM1\1~SS10NER COYLE: In that whole area I count almost
54 people.
MR. SC:HMITT: vVcll, Jamie also nlns my records room and
also works for my emergency management business.
MR. ~!: UDD: \\That r owe -- \vhat I owe this board over the
summer mon ths is we'll get at the organization and we'll scrub it and
come up wi' 11 a rCC0111n1endation in order to get that done. The reason
I'll come bac k wit 11 a recol1lillendation if it requires another division,
I'm going to need ~ 'our concurrence for that. If not, I can blend it and I
will. But 11". _Te's no sense 111aking another division --
Page 183
June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Whatever makes sense, yeah.
MR. MUDD: So I'll -- I'll get that. If that's what the board's
direction -- that's \vhat I would like to do to come back to the board
on.
MR. SCHMITT: And much of it is integrated as \vell. And just
like when I \vorked with other departments --
COM~/:ISSIONER COYLE: That's even worse. \Vhen it's
integrated \,,': th other functions, it clogs up those functions too.
MR. SCHMITT: But I mean as far as the flow process, the SDPs
go through engineering, go through environmental, go through zoning.
And when you move that to another division, it n1ay become more
problematic. I do send th i ngs like the transportation, public utilities,
parks and rcc:, they all review plans as \vell.
So let l~~e -- let me 1110ve on, tben, to the t\VO expanded positions,
page 39 is tl-.~ one expanded position under Environmental Services.
That is the C':1e th8t is listed in Fund 111. Bill, you want to cover that?
However, you can cover ,vhere -- how those funds are covered as
well. Page 39.
MR. LORENZ: Yes. This is the environmental specialist
position wif'in Fllnd 111. Quite -- right now \ve have 8 lnost
immediate 1 ,--ed e5'iccially what we sa\v \vith Hurricane Wilma was
the waterw2~ls program. Part of what we -- what \ve do in the natural
resources sc:tion of -- of the departluent is watenvays ll1anagement
with regard to the posting of the navigational signs, the luanatee signs,
removal of d crelict vessels. We have all of that within that one
section. WI' really need to have -- \ve have one person doing -- doing
that kind of york 81 ong with artificial reefs. We get requests from --
from boatef'~ with r:?gard to navigational signs are do\vn. We really
need to havl' assist:. nee with -- witb an individual that -- and I'm
roughly looking at 8round 40 to 50 percent of that person's time would
be doing th:, ~ kind of \vork to assist our existing position for that.
Longc' term \Ve are also working on gathering dat8 for potential
Page 184
June 22, 2006
revision of the manatee protection plan. You authorized some
contractual services from -- from last -- within this year's budget. We
want to brins back that information and assess that data. That's
another effoti that we would be doing within next year that would --
would work -- would require some 1110re effort froln my staff to work
with, potentially a stakeholders group and work through that effort.
Curren4ly what we do is we have a team approach \vithin our
natural reS011rces section. There's only -- there's 5ix positions within
the section. Two oft]lem are admin. That's myself 8nd an
administrative secretary, and the rest of the work is -- is -- is blended
across the four other positions. Next year we expect to have a
considerable -- a considerable amOllnt of\vork th8t's being generated
through the EAR aluendments. You recall my C01lservation coastal
managemen' element. We're trying to work thr011~11 S01l1e alternative
methods to -- to create some more flexibility for project- -- projects in
terms of en"ironment81 design. Th8t's going to re(~uire a lot of effort
for develop:ng Land Development Code an1endnlcnts to implement
those polici-'s. So I'm going to have a fairly large :J1110l1nt of impact
on my staff 10 -- to -- to work through all of those efforts.
We ha~'e the listed species stakeholders grOll]1 tl18t the advisory
committee flat you h8ve appointed. \Ve're some\v>~!t g ~tting behind in
terms of sta Iring that. They're -- thcy're on track, but -- but we're --
but it's diffJ 'ult to break free my staff to \vork on t'lat ]J1rticular effort
and so we'rl' working through that 8S well.
I'm not sure Joe has mentioned it yet and he tl11Y 1l1ention it as a
UFR, but in ~nticirating the watershed manage1l1ent rl~lns, although
that's not go:ng to be in my section as the lead, \ve \vill have -- need to
be able to provide sonlC support staffing for that \vhole effort. So I see
that as bein~~ a very large effort that's gOillg to come -- come -- come
through.
So looking at 811 of those, that range of activities that I have
within the natural resources section, I just -- we -- we ~1 re starting to
Page 185
June 22, 2006
get overwhelmed and I need to pull on another position to help staff
with those -- those efforts.
MR. SCHMITT: And the last expanded position is on your page
52. That's the one and a half person, one and a halfFTE in code
enforcement. Michelle.
MS. ARNOLD: For the record, Michelle Arnold, code
enforcement director. Both positions are for custon1er service
positions. One would be for the main office. The other one would be
for our Imnlokalee office, a half-time position out there. The -- over
the years we've added programs positions and not rcall y added the
support. We've secn a great backlog in the data entry, the
responsivencss to the public. And \vith the added position we feel like
we can at l~lst try to keep on top of things. When the public calls for
status reports of cases and those types of things, they're -- they're back
__ they're lltc lnd they've not been entered into the systcm. So we
frequently lre unable to provide the public with up-to-<.1ate
information. Thesc positions will help inlprove Up011 t1iat.
In addition to that, we just, as I said, added so 11181lY different
things over t he years and expect for the saIne five personnel to -- to
take on all (I f the \vorkload. And it's put a tremendous strain on -- on
that part of IllY per<::onnel.
MR. SCHMITT: I'd like to just before I turn it over to questions,
two unfunoed reqllirenlents, not personnel but listC(l. C)ne is on page
16 of my pClrtion of the book. And that is a UFR asl~ing the EDC.
And my buc:gct as you \vell know I fund a portion oft11C EDC. That
comes directly out ofnlY budget. And thc EDC is on the UFRs is
asking for 11l additional $160,000 to offset target industry marketing
and promo~:()n. So that -- that is one item. And I kno\\' Ms. Tammie
Nemecek ic:: hcre if you have questions regarding th~lt. And I know
you're goin'T to get to UFRs evenhlally.
The ot 1 ,cr UFR is on page 16. It's not in my blldgcts on -- in your
front portion of the book. And that is dealing with \Vhelt Bill Lorenz
Pag'~ 186
June 22, 2006
mentioned. That's the \vatershed managenlent plan study. That's--
primarily will be an engineering work, Bob Wiley -- Robert Wiley
will be looking at least putting together the RFP if, in fact, you direct
-- if you fund this. This was a directive as part of the EAR-based
amendments. And we'll be looking at trying to meet that date that was
-- you specified as part of the EAR-based amendn1ents and that's listed
as a UFR. And tllat pretty n1uch g')CS over quite a bit ofhighlights.
I'm -- we're 110\V open to your que~,tiol1s. Thank you.
CHAIR1\1AN HALAS: Are there any questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALAS: I guess there's no questions. Outstanding
job.
MR. SCHMTTT: Thank you.
MANAGF~/rENT OFFICES (PEL I CAN BAY)
MR. MUDD: C01111nissioner 1-lalas, if I have tl1e l~oard's
indulgence. We've got eight minutes. You're done, Joe. Thank you.
I'd like to do Pelican Bay because Kyle Lucas sho\ved up, came.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Okay.
MR. MUDD: And instead of have hinl go back --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: See if we can get that out of here.
MR. MUDD: -- conle back to you. I~Ie runs tl1e road crew that's
there. Plus it goes through a series of their advisory bO;lrd. It gets
scrubbed about ten tin1es before you get it. So he's here in order to do
that. And then in the remaining five minutes, we'll try to get at those
three questions tl1at ComnlissionerHenning had this morning about
impact fee deferrals, carry-forward breakdown and revenue
projections as [;11' as sales tax and gas tax. The stafl'ls ly'cn working on
those particular issues. So, Kyle.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: So \ve'll be just running a little bit over
five. Is tl1at okay \vith our court reporter?
Page 187
June 22, 2006
THE COURT REPORTER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: 5:02.
MR. MUDD: Kyle, tell then1 \vhat page you're on, can you?
Can you do that? Page 46 of --
MR. SMYKOWSKI: Of the nlanagement.
MR. MUDD: Okay. If you go to the managelnent office's tab
which is th ird fr01u the back and -- 8nd you go to page 46, Mike; is
that correct?
MR. ~vrYI(OWSKI: Yes, sir.
MR. ~1UDD: If you go to page 46.
CHA1RMAN HALAS: Which tab are we on?
MR. MUDD: We are on management offices, sir.
COl\;f\1TS~IONER COYLE: Okay. Page 46.
MR. MUDD: Page 46.
MR. LTJC^S: Good afternoon, Commissioners. My name is
Kyle Lucas \vith Pelican Bay Services. Pelican Bay Services budget
consists of nperating programs with the water managen1ent,
communit~r be111tific8tion and the strectlighting pr0grall1. In addition
to these ore1':1' il'g progr31us, \ve also have some C~l pital project funds
outlined fcq- t ~le Clam Bay Restoration and also for the irrigation and
landscapin ~ 1 :nprovenlents.
In the In7 budget it is proposed that the funding for the streetlight
program \"it11 reserve funds that have been made 8vailable with the
elimination (1f the security progran1 that had bcen provi ded by the
sheriffs dCYl r' 111ent. Both thc streetl ighting and t1, (~ sec11rity program
are usually r lnded by ad valorem tax levy. All otl1cr programs are
funded thr ". !(~h an aSSCSSlnent which is in this proposed budget to be
formed in $23.80. This is an increase 0f$272 above last year's
assessment which is 111ainly due to the -- to the decision that was made
last year to use our reserve funds tow8rds the '06 budget. And that
was because 01' the Pelican Bay annexation issue ~lt the tlme.
This budget has been revie\ved in detail by t11:-, Pelican Bay
Page 188
June 22, 2006
Budget Committee and the Pelican Bay Services division. A full
board -- it was voted on by the budget committee in Ma y with the
recommendation fron1 the full board to approve this budget at their --
to approve the budget for your consideration at their next meeting.
And if you have any questions I can --
CHAIRMAN HALAS: The only question I have is the citizens
in Pelican Bay realize th:lt you ran the reserves do\v11 and that now are
you going to have a s:)ecial assessment in reg8rds to th8t or not?
MR. LUCAS: The Pelican Bay ~ervices Board h8s decided not
to reestablish those reserves.
CHAIRMAN H/\LAS: Okay.
MR. LUCAS: They were basically in the case of 811 emergency
and they decided not to go ahcad and replenish.
MR. SMYKOWSKI: In regard to that -- for the record, Michael
Smykowski. At the (1181 budget heari:lg last year whet: you were to
set the assessments for Pelican Bay, M r. Chris Sutfen, \vho was, I
believe, the chair oftl1e budget committee was here and spoke before
you adopted their resc 1ution for the special asseSSlllents last year. And
Mr. Mudd was very specific in having him address that very concern
recognizing that the decision to reduce the assessn'ent last year would
have a rebound effect in the -- in the ~., Ibsequent ye8r and --
MR. MUDD: If th(~~ annexation (1 id not transpire. /\nd what they
basically did is they -- tllCY pulled do\v11 their reserve because they
were fearful that ifthl'rc \vas reserve tllere, that it ,"auld go back to the
general fund in the county and they \vouldn't have that lTIOney. So
they pulled it down, got it so it zeroed out. And tn '11 they let the
annexation question ~'o.And \ve all kn)w ho\v that tunled out. So
now they've got themselves vvitll no F .'erve in thcir particular fund
and they need to get it b~1Ck where it needs to be. Did I miss anything,
Kyle?
MR. LUCAS: No. That pretty 1l1uch covers it.
CHAIRMAN HALA.S: COlunl1ss:oner Coyle.
I'age 1, l)
June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER COYLE: 1'111 a little confused. If you go to
page 51 it says revenue FY'06-'07, it says no tax levy is required in
FY'07 due to residual cash being transferred from the Security Fund
110. Now, I suspect we're talking about the same thing. But when
you say no tax levy, that means no increase in the tax levy or no tax
levy whatsoever?
MR. LUCAS: No tax levy.
MR. SMYKOWSI(I: C0111111issioner, if you'll -- let me help you.
For page 50, for street]ighting ~nd sccurity, the security function's
been eliminated due to the change tl~at the sheriff l'l~de with the
policing. If you look under Ad Valorem Taxes on page 50,
Commissioner, the adopted 2006 was 779,800 and current is zero. So
that note is referring to there is no proposed levy.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Tl'c share will volle\' back.
.,I
COMMISSIONER. COYLE: It's only with rc~pect to the Pelican
Bay Streetlighting Fund.
MR. SMYKOWSlCI: Yes, sir. But that's the only ad valorem tax
levy within Pelican Bay. The balance of their budget is funded via
special assessment.
COMMISSIONER. COYLE: I see. I undersl1nd. Okay. Good.
That answers my quest" on. Th8!l k you.
MR. SMYKOWS1(I: You're \velcome.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you very mllc'1. I think we
accomplished that. I appreciate you" indulgence. Thank you.
MR. MUDD: Thanks, Kyle.
CHAIRMAN HA T--IAS : 01 'ay. And we'll a c1 r1 rcss a couple of
items that Commissioll"r Hcnnillg h2d.
MR. MUDD: Ye"~ sir. One of the items that Con1missioner
Henning had this Inonl:ng \vas the iClpact fee diffL"'cncc. And -- and
he basically talked ab011t the i111pact fee difference. And if the impact
-- and it was a velY good question that basically talked -- slide -- on
impacts fees.
P:lge 190
June 22, 2006
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, \ve've go! two minutes.
MR. MUDD: Yeah. I know we do.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, you know, if they're not
interested, I'll stay.
MR. MUDD: No, sir. I believe we'll get to it. The -- and I'm
going to put it up. And, Mike, I'IU going to ask YO' 1 to hand it out or,
Sue, if you would do tl1:1t, that \vQuld be great.
On the -- on the vi~;ualizer you have a breakdown of the
particular issues that Comn1issioner I-Ienning br0113ht up this morning.
Again, very good question. And I also want you to -- to know that we
changed our -- our way of doing the budget this year because we use a
thing called Gov Max \vhich is -- the first year is ~: \vays tough, but it
really did simplify the process fOf us. And we \Ve'lt from hard sheet
spreadsheets to 8 datab:'se \vhere \ve can pull repolis and get the
information Conlmissicl1er I-Ienning had some things about
carryforward. I have al t those dctai 1 (~d reports a nc: I'll pass those out.
And you might \vant to take a look at those this e\'~--'ning. But that's the
-- that's the beauty of Gov }'1ax 8nd \vhat \ve're lIS: 19.
His question this rnorning '''as, well, if -- ify )u had an adopted
budget in '06 of$75 nlillion in in1pact fees, \Vll)' is it going down?
And my response this l1:orning i~ I said, Some of it can be attributed to
the transportation fund. But I d;dn't even Imow tll's morning when I
answered that q11estion that the \vater and waste\v~'ter piece, which
was in the '06 adopted budget, is not in the '07 ac1(y,ted budget, but
rather it is in the service charge piece oftbe bud~t"o
So what you did is you took $31n1illion 011t ,)fthc comparison.
To try to make a comp2rison on '06 adopted to '07, you need to have
that particular item. So to answ\';o C0111missioner l' I,--'nning and you
were -- you were intuitively absolutely correct tll~' it should have
gone up and it should have gone IIp in a large W'lY 8nd it has. It's gone
from $75.9 million to $103.3 n1i111011.
What I also mentioned tbis l110rning ~lbollt n'lds is the fact that,
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June 22, 2006
yes, the adopted '06/'07 is do\vn about $600,000, hut you also know
that on the increased impact fee we're expecting a revenue of 25
million. We don't expect that right otIthe bat. It \vill come in -- it will
come in slowly. And \ve also have that phenonlena that I described
this morning about roads where a lot of the 50 percent pieces are
already in, okay, and we've got a three-year period to find the next 50
percent that COll1CS in. And W~l1.t \V,~ get outside ('fthat are individual
permits for those particular itc1l1S.
But I've a Iso done is I've 10 ken th::l ~ service c l1arge revenue -- you
have to peel it back. Once you get 1:1e service chargc, you go, okay,
it's in service charge. Now, just show ll1C -- sho\v nle the difference in
service charge. Well, in the scrvicc charge picce \vhat \ve had last
year -- last year in your -- in your it"nl on -- on -- on service charges --
and I'm pulling off my -- my rage No.3 under General -- under
GeneraIOvervie\v. If you take ::lloc;~ 0t 111e Ser'/ce Cllarge column
right here, you'll -- see it doesn't shc\v up. No\v it clocs. The service
charge that's right there, you'll notic~ tl.at the lOG 80nptcd was $159
million. And now the '07 total is 204 nlillion. .1\11(1 in tllat -- in those
papers that Ijust gave you with that rol111p, you'll '~ce at the -- almost
the second to last page or the last p( ~~e ill that grol1p, you'll see that the
impact fees from water and sewer af ' c'~fin1tely 1n tll:1t particular
packet and are counted. And that \v:11 ;11so sho\\' YOll that the increase
from 159 million to 204, that $31 nl itlion aCCOt1nt~ I'ilr 'llat large piece
of the increase. Ano I believe that ~_' ets at the i1l1P' t fec question that
Commissioner Henning had this morni:lg. And 1 lve SOlne additional
roll-ups for hilu and some other iss' l','S.
He also asked 111C or asked us te' talk :1b011t C;l1Tvfc1nvard. And--
and so I had Susan Usher go and filn tb ~ carry-fi)r\v1rcl breakdown.
And what I'm going to do instead of go i l1g cvC'r~' r: "C 1 here, but this
basically takes the carryforward and -- and brc;' ks ')\\'11 -- and breaks
down that $205 million total for the '07 bl1dgc~-, S -- so you'll have --
there we go. Yau can -- you can see \vhere -- and \vhat encompasses
Page 1 'X~
June 22, 2006
that 205 versus \vhat was in the 2006 budget. A.11(l ~TOU can basically
get that breakdovvn as far as the carryforward is c(!;cerned.
And -- and I believe the other piece that the Ct111missioner asked
for, Mike, was -- it had to do with revenues. And he wanted to see the
grants from the airports. And that's another report that you have.
Okay? And that has to do with intergovemn1ental revenues. And,
Sue, if you cOlllcl give that to the com1l1issioners,' lld that had to do
with an airport qlJestion. And the packet t11:-,t 've'r ' ;~roviding right
there basically h~lS the recap of that -- of thai 1 artit' .lar item on page 3.
Intergovernmental-- intergovernnlental is $47 llli l;on, And you will
__ you will notice that it's $47 million. The -- thc c' '~ck on the airport
for its -- for its contribution is on the fourth p~gc 0 (' 'hat particular
packet. And ynu -- you'll see the -- thc 1.1 1l1il1iol~ -- or, excuse me,
the $11.1 mill ion in their airport capit'1 in t11c t\\'0 'nds. One point --
almost 1.3 in the 496 Fund and $9.9 n"illion t(~tal i 1 the -- in the 497
Fund.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Not onl~r tl'~I', ~11 the grants are
in there.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir.
COMMl.SSIONER HENNING: That'~ ~;rc~t. -['hank you.
MR. MUDD: Sir, no problenl. That's 11v~ bc 'l Lit of the system
that we have vvith Gov Max. It's good. You C~ln gl't a report pretty
easy versus -- if those questions th~t CommiS5tOne1' Pl>nning asked
today would have taken us all night long tonifTht to " J1110rrOW morning
to work with t~le spreadsheet systems in order to pull it out. So it
would have becn -- it \vould have been Inajor. I .il'C:t \vant to make
sure we got it ~1l1~ carryforward, rcven\'e proj ,(,tin'
Mike, you \\'ant to talk about sales tax ~:; I f':' ~ tax and I believe
that will get at the l~st question tl'8t thc comlvis~'ion 'r 113d?
MR. SMYIZO\VSl(I: Comnlissioner 1-1e'1nin'~ 'lel -- we had
discussed this, the differences bet\veen what i 'b11C1( etcct What the
Collier County e:-)tin13te is verSllS the s'ate e~:j ilTI211',"r both revenue
Pa~~c 193
June 22, 2006
sharing and sales tax. Commissioner I--Ienning had ~ concern relative
to differentials bet\veen this year. This shows poin' , l1cre half-cent
sales tax budgeted at 33 million. The state e~;'inl:lL' for Collier County
last year was 36 -- approximately $36.2 million.
What we do, we track revenue on a monthly basis and have for a
number of years. This provides the historical revenue stream on a
cumulative basis showing what percellt. So t1~roug} -- through April
we typically h:l vc 62.2 percent of the revcnue stn''l' 1 it shows. Based
on the current budgct of 33 million, the budg '1 t1""( ~h April would
have been 20.0 111illion. We're at 21.6. So we ';rc slightly a million
dollars a head 0fpace as illustrated in l'lis gr;Ji 11 th~' shows where
we're at currently relative to -- rel:~tive to budget. f11 take that one up.
What we then do is -- is annualizn the infom""tinn . 1sed on the
year-to-dates to C0111e up with the :1nn'l:Jlized '~S-11:'''1c1 compare to
budget. And it's "anged from a lo'v of 3.1.1 to 3!:) "~d on the most
recent information that was just rc~eivcc1 due 11 1,lC : 19 period in these
sales tax collect ions.
Our budget \vas 33.1 million. 01 " forec8st \V~' . $34 million this
year. It looks like we may do sli?htly better t1l811 t1 t. I hedged our
bet a little bit. Ohviously, there \\"'S :J r1rop in tlli" , '(\nth going from
34.8 to 34.672. So, again, I hedge:l Ill)' het a l;tt'. ". \Ve forecast
$34 million but r:-lative to the initial st'i~ esti 'l:Jll':' \vere at -- we
were at 36.2 Juill ion. So we're not goiJl g to re'lch, 0 )viously, that full
36.2 million. But \ve \vill probably 11:" 'C a 1 itt! e bit 'f 18titude.
Typically wh8t \ve've done in tile past i~ ac1justir~. n the August time
frame we Upc18tC the capital projects' 1~'I/'C'cast. \' T , ' ko update
revenue. Obviously, we only h8ve a1" \ 11' ten f:10" 'vorth of actuals.
Your crystal ball a:ld having to p;'ojc'~)nly t1,e' ;ining two
months is typic811 y a \vhole lot better t;", n it i~ ,,; tl1 'our or five
months ofactual8ctivity. So that ex~" :'lS th:.t diP' "cntial.
There \vas also a question about, "S tax I'd 111 to address. We'll
get rid of this 0'1('. The adopted budg '~ 'vas $20.'! 111illion. Our
Page 1 \ i
June 22, 2006
forecast at this point is $20.5 million. Cnlnmissio'; "oJ-lenning, you
had provided this luorning the state es' iniates frolll l;lSt year were
$20.8 million. So \ve're, you know, 300/)00 apart. .\gain, we're--
we're very close overall. We are fairly conservati' 'I' in that.
Obviously, we'll be updating those estinlates alon~' ' ':\h the impact
fees in the August time frame for Sep:ell~ber. If, ( , ':ously, it shows
that we will be col1ecting more than 20.~, we ',vc'" '~Jjust not only
the forecast revenlle, but also what is 1)1I 1geted Il"" "car
commensurate ,v:th that change. So \'e Jgain, tr:' 1( l1udget
conservatively, but realistically. And Wl' try to 8 . I, \ our estimates
later on in the process to update them ba 'ed Oil 1" 1 ,-:t current
information \ve ll~ve and the most Cl1r:oel t collc,-'~; "ctivity.
I hope tllat ~L 1rlresses your questi )n. sir.
COMMTSSl()NER HENNING: ft loes. It - "'1nk you. The--
what percel't:lgc ()f conservative do y( II -- do Y011 [.K'or in on these--
these funds? I rlC'~n, you don't want to -- you do' " \'~nt to
overestimate it. '!'C1U don't want to say, v J\V, \ve';' .' 'l1g to get -- we
got 20 million tllis year. Next year \vc'rc going' ,,1"13 Inillion. I
mean, there's -- f' '-.'re's a buffering in l11e 'C I W011 (~'lgine; correct?
MR. S1V1YI<" )WSKI: Th8t's COlTCC' . And> ' ;llso provided
some level nf C01~lfort. The state says YClJ C8n 0", . lpropriate 95
cents on the doll"r. That's that negati'Te ) percent '1" Ill' revenue
reserve. So thu: nrovides some built-in f"otecti(1' 'nst overly
aggressIve --
COMMfSS10NER HENNING: Fi"e perc'
MR.8MYKOWST(T: Yes, sir.
COMI'1IS~!ONER HENNING: (J, od.
MR. SV1YI<:OWSKT: Tnank YOll.
MR. }\!lU: I): Commissioner, th:lt':' ~11 \ve 1~: ' ,;\ nd we -- and
thank you fnr your 11 minutes. We will--
CHAr~M!\~ HALAS: Reconvene at nine (' ,'k in the
mornIng.
Page 195
June 22, 2006
MR.1/TUDD: -- at the board's djrection reCOn\'l"1e at nine o'clock
and we'll start \vith the Constitutional Officers. An( '\hen they're
finished, we'll start where we left off today with tile 'ce.
CHAIRMAN HALAS: Thank you.
Page 196
June 22, 2006
*****
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
Budget meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 5:11 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL
~?~1i&r
FRANKHALAS, CHA AN
ATTEST:
DWIGHT E.BROCK, CLERK
~~~~~
$1 ~{; ,~tJ~!'":1i:'
These minutes approve~ by the Board on -::;-1&~t6~
as presented ~ or as corrected
,
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY
COURT REPORTING SERVICE, INC., BY LYNN BROOKS, RPR,
AND CAROLYN J. FORD, RPR
Page 197