CCPC Minutes 11/29/2006 AUIR
November 29, 2006
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
Naples, Florida November 29,2006
LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Collier County Planning
Commission in and for the County of Collier, having conducted
business herein, met on this date at 8:30 a.m. in SPECIAL SESSION
in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida,
with the following members present:
CHAIRMAN: Mark Strain
Larry Baytos
Donna Reed Caron
Tor Kolflat
Robert Murray
Janet Vasey
Robert Vigliotti
ALSO PRESENT:
Ray Bellows, Zoning & Land Dev. Review
Joseph Schmitt, Community Dev. & Env. Services
Marjorie Student-Stirling, Assistant County Attorney
Mike Bosi, Comprehensive Planning Manager
Steve Harrison, Collier County Productivity Committee
Page 1
November 29, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It's 8:30. If everybody could rise for the
Pledge of Allegiance, please.
(Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good morning. And welcome back to
a continuation of the annual update inventory report for 2006,
otherwise known as the AUIR.
First matter of business today is the roll call for those members
in attendance.
Ms. Caron, if you could do that for the Planning Commission.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Vigliotti.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: He's here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Ms. Caron is here.
Mr. Strain is here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Mr. Midney, Mr. Schiffer and
Mr. Tuff are absent.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And Mr. Adelstein.
COMMISSIONER CARON: And Mr. Adelstein. I knew I was
going to miss at least one.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And we have from the Productivity
Committee, Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: Here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Baytos.
MR. BA YTOS: Here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We have a quorum for the
Planning Commission, so we're going to be able to make
Page 2
November 29, 2006
recommendations today by motion.
It's my understanding that the Productivity Sub-committee that's
here today will weigh in on the issues they're here for, and we will go
through the other issues as the day progresses.
We will start today where we left off last time. I think the first
one would be libraries.
Once we finish the balance of the first review of this AUIR,
we're going to go back and respond to staffs responses to us from our
last meeting, which will begin with drainage. Transportation was
finalized at the last meeting.
Some general rules that we need to keep in mind. This is being
recorded by a court recorder. And Kady is desperately over in the
other room trying to move these cameras around when each one of us
speaks, so it's important that we speak slowly so the minutes can be
taken accurately and that each person be recognized in order to speak,
and that we don't talk over one another.
The objective today will be to get through the AUIR and put
forward as many recommendations as we can. There are going to be
circumstances where we and staff may not agree. At that point I
would like staff to tell us how they would prefer to go forward,
whether it be with a recommendation of denial, or a not positive
recommendation, or whether or not there's a possibility of coming
back with some corrected information in the near future on other
dates that we already have possibly scheduled.
I also had hoped for today we would have a clarification to the
population issue, because that has a -- that is a main driving force in
this document. I've been told that Mr.Weeks may not be here today.
If he gets here, we will have that discussion, I hope. If he doesn't,
we'll just have to see how the day proceeds.
With that, Mr. Bosi, I guess we'll turn it over to you.
MR. BOSI: Thank you, Chairman Strain. To begin this
morning's proceedings, Amanda Townsend will be presenting the
Page 3
November 29, 2006
library's portion of the AUIR, which is a Category B facility.
MS. TOWNSEND: Good morning, commission members and
committee members. I'm Amanda Townsend, Operations Analyst
with the Public Services Division.
The 2006 AUIR for libraries looks at two adopted levels of
service in Category B, those being square foot of library building per
population and library collection for population.
I'm guessing that we want to talk about them each individually?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes.
MS. TOWNSEND: Looking at square foot per population, the
level of service standard is .33 square foot per capita. We're using a
unit cost of $343.50 a square foot. That is the unit cost that is adopted
in the current library impact fee study.
In general, we are proposing three projects in the five-year
window, those being an addition to the Marco Island library, the South
County Regional library , an addition to the current Golden Gate
library .
Upon completion of those three projects, your level of service
for libraries will be satisfied through 2014.
It is important to note that the Marco Island proj ect will be
funded entirely through donations. The other two will be funded
through impact fees.
We do not know those hard proj ect costs at the time, which is
why you see the unit costs based on the square foot cost in the impact
fee study. We are expecting that those projects may come in higher.
We are also expecting to finance those proj ects.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any questions on the library
buildings from the committee members?
Mr. Baytos.
MR. BA YTOS: Yes, I have some questions regarding the usage.
I have some charts here based on some data that came out of the
librarian's office during the impact fee studies.
Page 4
November 29,2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does the overhead work so that the
public can see what we're talking about? Maybe we have an extra
copy we could put on the overhead.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Whose document is this?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're going to find out.
MR. BA YTOS: The -- during the discussions on the impact
fees, we got into a little bit of the issue of changing use of libraries as
the internet boom grows and reading habits change and whatever the
issues are that are driving changes in library usage. So rather than just
look at population growth, which as you see during the six-year period
there, the population increased about 33 percent in Collier County
compared with the base year of 2000. However, the door count, that's
how many people are coming through the library doors, really has
increased much less than that during that time period.
Basically then what you get to is the bottom line there is the
annual business per person indicating less reliance on libraries as a
source of information, reading, entertainment or what have you.
My suggestion is that this information be considered as part of
the library planning, rather than just taking the population projections,
which will result in, I believe, overbuilding of libraries and
overbuying of books relative to the actual usage of these items by
county citizens.
I'm all for big libraries and I think we have some great ones. But
as I look at the building program, to me it ignores the issue of
technology and changes in the use in the population.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does staff want to respond to that?
MS. TOWNSEND: When we get to talking about library
collections, we're going to talk about that, changes in technology, and
talk about some different ways that we can measure collections to
perhaps capture some of those trends that you're seeing here.
We don't have at this time I think a case for a strong relationship
between the square footage of a library and the changing in
Page 5
November 29,2006
technological trends.
MR. BAYTOS: Well, I would think the two would be linked. If
you have fewer people using libraries, seems to me that would scale
back the number of square feet that you need to serve the population
and presumably the size of the collection as well.
As I look at the size of some of these proposed libraries, they're
really huge.
MS. MATTHES: Marilyn Matthes, I'm the Library Director.
I'm a little surprised at your chart. From memory, we had about
a 1,500,000 visitors in '05. In the '06 fiscal year that just concluded,
we had about 1.7 million visitors.
A lot of factors influence the number of people who come to our
libraries.
I'm actually a little bit surprised that we went up in visitors, door
counts, in fiscal '06. Libraries were closed in October last year for
Hurricane Wilma. We also lost circulation as people evacuated early
for the storm. And if you remember, the storm took a long time to
come. All those kinds of factors make a difference in our door counts
and in our circulation.
We've also done some renovations of some facilities and we've
removed collections from availability. And if you looked at the same
time period for circulation, you might notice a drop, too.
Currently, for example, at our Naples Regional Library on
Central Avenue, we're doing a major carpeting renovation, and we
packed up 70,000 nonfiction books and stored them.
While they're out, obviously there's no circulation attached. As
people come to the library and unfortunately are somewhat
disappointed, even though we're trying to deliver books from other
locations for them, they're certainly not checking out as many. There
are really a lot of factors that affect circulation, door counts.
We do an actual door count also. It's not an estimated door
count. Some libraries do an estimated one. But we have door
Page 6
November 29, 2006
counters that are read daily and the information is collected and then
reported on yearly.
So we do feel it's fairly accurate. But there just really are a lot of
factors affecting the number of people who come to libraries.
Many of our -- more visitors, are they coming electronically?
Sure. A lot of people are coming electronically. And we're trying to
provide ways that they can get content electronically as well as by
visiting us.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Do you have those door counts
available so that this commission could see copies of them?
MS. MATTHES: I don't, but I can provide that, sure.
MR. BA YTOS: Just to clarify. The chart is based on data that I
believe you gave the Productivity Committee this previous summer.
We did not, obviously, have the 2006 data --
MS. MATTHES: Right.
MR. BA YTOS: -- so we could have added that. But that's the
data that we were given, so it is what it is.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think it would be helpful to the rest of
us to get that same data so that we can see it.
MS. MATTHES: Certainly. I can do it for the fiscal year '06,
comparing it to fiscal 2000 to 2006.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Also, a statement made earlier, your
square footage is based upon population, on door count, right?
MS. MATTHES: Right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Your .33 square foot per capita.
MS. MATTHES: Right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So you are population-based.
MS. MATTHES: Exactly.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And so if you have a change in
door count, regardless -- and visitor count, it's not going to have any
affect on your requirements for square footage, because you've geared
it all around population.
Page 7
November 29, 2006
MS. MATTHES: Correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Go ahead. Ms. Vasey and Mr.
Harrison.
MS. VASEY: I think that's where we're going with it, we want
to see if maybe that is an incorrect or perhaps not a totally
representative measure of level of service standard to be used in the
future.
Maybe there are other things that could be used to kind of
capture some of the other work that you do, but it may not need to be
so much square footage, it may -- if people aren't actually coming to
the library, you still need to support the population, but in other ways,
and that could affect your capital building program.
So is there a possibility you could study the issue and see if
maybe there is a more representative level of service standard?
MS. MATTHES: Certainly. We've been talking internally
about changes, obviously, in technology and in the library world and
how we can continue to provide service to our customers.
Some of the ways are, frankly, going to be electronic. We're
starting some new initiatives shortly. Probably in January you're
going to see some downloadable audio books where you need to make
one visit to us to sign up for the program, and then after that you can
download audio books to your home.
And CDs and audio-book cassettes have been very popular at
libraries. Not -- their popularity has really increased greatly since the
impact fee ordinance for libraries was implemented in the late '90's, or
early '90's, I'm not sure exactly when it was implemented.
There are other ways, other services that libraries are expected
to do that maybe aren't necessarily square footage driven, yet we find
ourselves having to -- having trouble actually holding all of our
collections that we're supposed to have according to the AUIR and
impact fees on shelves. We don't have the physical space to hold that.
A really good example is our reference books. And it relates to
Page 8
November 29, 2006
the cost per book. Our book cost is about $25. If there were no
technology, that book cost probably would have gone up to 75 to $100
each.
Why has it remained pretty much at $25? Because we don't buy
as many of the expensive very reference books that we used to. We've
had whole series of books that we really no longer need because we
have access to them online. So there's a huge change in libraries
because of technology.
We're trying to address that, and certainly some of your thoughts
are of value that we need to really consider for the type of standards
that we use in the future.
I think we're really on the cusp of change on a dramatic scale,
and where libraries have not traditionally been at the forefront of
change. We kind of let technology work itself out and then adopt it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Harrison?
MR. HARRISON: The demographics of who is using the
libraries, do we have any idea what proportion are students?
MS. MATTHES: This has really actually remained pretty much
standard for the last 10 years. About 22 to 25 percent of our usage is
by children, and for children's books.
MR. HARRISON: We've raised the question collocation of
facilities in the Productivity Committee. And I asked about the
demographics because of the possibility of locating them on school
grounds.
MS. MATTHES: In the early '90's, we had some talks with the
Everglades City school system. And the public down there, they
wanted us to collocate in the school, or some of them did. Not
everybody wanted that to happen. There are some social problems
that have risen in recent years about who's welcome on school
grounds, and sometimes the schools are more reluctant to have a
public library there that's open to anybody and everybody. So I kind
of see that trend diminishing a little bit with public schools.
Page 9
November 29, 2006
We did have some talks with Edison College about collocating
with Edison. They had very few resources to put into our South
Regional library and had a lot of expectations of us, that we want to
talk about financing. We have looked at those in some ways.
MR. HARRISON: We made the same recommendation to the
Sheriffs Department.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Excuse me, could you expand
on what you had said about the library and the school is kind of
concerned as to who comes to the library?
MS. MATTHES: Ifa school and a public library are located
together, a public library accepts anybody into the building. To get on
school grounds now, you need to check with the office first. You need
-- sometimes if you're working you need background checks. The
whole issues of sexually -- sexual crimes.
MS. RAMSEY: About two years ago -- Marla Ramsey, public
service administrator. About two years ago or so, the Jennifer
Lunsford Act came into effect at the school systems. And there's a lot
more fingerprinting going on now to get access. There are a lot of
security issues at the systems.
And having a facility that's open to the public, it doesn't matter
about who the public is, but just open to the public who doesn't have a
reason to be on a school ground interacting with our children is a
concern. It's a concern in what you're talking about here today as well
at it is at some of the park facilities that we have and how they secure
their facilities and allow people to come and go off those facilities.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Okay. And if25 percent of
the usage is for children, that means there's quite a few children in our
libraries. Why wouldn't that hold true?
MS. MATTHES: Well, the nature of public libraries is different.
The Jessica Lunsford Act doesn't cover libraries, and the primary
focus isn't children.
Page 10
November 29, 2006
There are some discussion of -- staff-wise of the county of
increasing background checks for those people and volunteers, staff
and volunteers who work directly with children. But the general
public, the purpose of a public library is to be open to anybody
without question.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: Well, we would encourage you to pursue,
you know, how mechanically this might be accomplished, maybe with
an independent building so that there's no compromising of the
security of the school building or whatever. But we have the real
estate, we have the parking lot, and that's where a quarter of the users
are. It would seem like it's worth pursuing.
MS. MATTHES: We'll certainly leave every option open. And
if the opportunity arises, we'll certainly discuss it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I have a couple of questions as
well.
Your required inventory went up last year -- from last year. Can
you explain why?
It went from 148,716 to 161,716.
MS. TOWNSEND: It's a function of population.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. But your proposed AUIR
remain the same, 51,000. So population going up for one year,
wouldn't it have increased the need for future years as it went up also?
MS. TOWNSEND: The proposed work program satisfies the
level of service requirement within the five-year window. In fact, it
satisfies through 2014.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So even though you've increased your
required inventory, the proposed A UIR inventory can remain the same
MS. TOWNSEND: Correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- that's what you're saying.
Page 11
November 29, 2006
Impact fees. Did you get an increase in impact fees last year?
MS. TOWNSEND: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Do you know that the revenue stream
you show here is less than what you showed last year?
MS. TOWNSEND: No, I did not know that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Because if your population increased,
would then the population has to be housed in something, unless my
argument about the housing holds true, and I think that you're helping
me prove that, you should show an increase in impact fees not a
decline.
And I'm just wondering -- last year you showed impact fees at
10,597,405 with the caveat that you were going to anticipate
additional fees beginning in early 2006 because of increases.
Those increases did occur?
MS. TOWNSEND: Those increases did occur. It takes a
considerable amount of time to start to see them, because they're
implemented and then you start to the receive money. There's a delay
there.
However, it's also important to remember that the impact fees;
the full revenue stream is split amongst library buildings and library
collection. So it could be, and I have not looked, but it could be that
you'll see an increase in the impact fees on the collection side.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Between last year's impact fees for the
building side and this year's impact fees for the building side, do you
know why they would be showing a decrease?
MS. TOWNSEND: Probably because more money has been
allocated to collections.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Collections is the next segment?
MS. TOWNSEND: Correct.
MR. BOSI: Commissioner Strain, if you recall on the 20th, the
transportation presentation, you can -- they indicated within three --
year three, four and five of this current five-year capital improvement
Page 12
November 29, 2006
element, that they expected decreases, their impact fee revenue to
decrease within the subsequent years of three, four and five. That may
be that same -- that trend that showed a decrease within impact fees
for transportation I think would be directly in proportionate
relationship to the decrease in impact fees that libraries may be
showing, and that may be the explanation as to why they are showing
less of a revenue stream -- less of an increase than maybe you had
anticipated based upon last year's revenue stream compared to this
year's revenue stream.
That would be my interpretation of why that possibly would be
without another reasonable explanation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are you under the understanding then
that 50 percent of the library impact fees are paid at the time of COA
like they are in transportation, and that was the reason transportation
told us that most likely their impact fee revenues decreased because
they're paid early when people come in the year to prior for their
permitting?
Is that happening in libraries?
MR. BOSI: Not that I'm aware of.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm not sure that your argument then
holds a lot of weight.
I would certainly would like a -- can you tell me to the page
where we may be able to find this change in impact fees?
MS. VASEY: 127.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: 127? Your revenues last year for
impact fees were 3,818,700 for that category. They went up less than
a million dollars.
So this year they decreased about the same in library buildings.
But that means you've got no increase in impact fees figured, even
though you got an increase after the AUIR was issued last year.
Is that a true statement?
MS. TOWNSEND: My quick math between last year's AUIR
Page 13
November 29,2006
and this for impact fees for both collections and square footage shows
an increase of about $500,000.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Let me add them up then. About 14.5
million this year. And you've got about -- well; my little calculator
just isn't what it used to be. You've got 14.1 million this year.
So with the population increases that we've had on that David's
-- using in his statistics, your impact fees are increasing at a much
lower rate. What is your explanation of that?
MS. TOWNSEND: I do not have an explanation for that.
MR. HARRISON: Chairman?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes.
MR. HARRISON: Amy Patterson was in the room a few
minutes ago, who was the administrator of all impact fees.
Are you over there? Maybe you could shed some light.
Is the collection point any different on the library impact fee
than any of the others, or are they all up front?
MS. PATTERSON: Hi. For the record, Amy Patterson, I'm the
impact fee manager at Community Development and Environmental
Services.
The point of collection for library impact fees is issuance of the
building permit.
I missed -- I was out in the hall, so I missed the beginning part of
this conversation, but I can tell you in actual numbers, library
collections are up 3 percent from fiscal year '05 to fiscal year '06.
What it's reflecting is only about two months of the impact fee
increase that was adopted and put into effect of June 12th of this past
fiscal year, June 12th of '06.
So you're not going to see the full effect of that increase for
many more months to come because you have -- it takes time for
applied- for permits to actually be issued. Anything that was applied
for prior to June 12th would be on the old fees. Anything after June
12th would be on the new fees.
Page 14
November 29, 2006
But it's not just the application; you have to wait for that, for the
review process, and for then those building permits to be issued. So
we weren't going to see -- we found that between six and nine months
out is when you start to see the full effect of that impact fee increase.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Just from an estimation (sic), did you
know -- have you calculated what the expected revenue stream is on a
per year basis from this increase in impact fees? Basically how much
did they impact? How much did they increase from, to what?
MS. PATTERSON: I do have those numbers. Not at my
fingertips, but I have my laptop here so I could pull that up and have a
look at it and let you know if you can just give me a couple of
minutes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sure. We'll probably have other
questions. I appreciate that.
MS. PATTERSON: Sure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other questions of Amy
before she digs into her laptop?
MR. HARRISON: I do.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: Looking at the collection page, looking at
the required collection, is this all media, whether it's print media,
electronic media? It's all sorts of media?
MS. TOWNSEND: Right now the collection figures come from
both books and audio-books. Shall we finish with library buildings
first and then move on to collection? Are we done --?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I still have one more question on
library buildings.
Mr. Baytos, go ahead with yours and I'll ask mine.
MR. BA YTOS: My question is regarding the size of the two
proposed libraries, 17,000 square feet in Golden Gate, 30,000 square
feet at South Regional. What is the basis used to, you know, estimate
the size required?
Page 15
November 29,2006
I noticed 30,000 square feet, that's more than the Naples library.
And I believe part of the Orangetree Library is about 15,000 square
foot that's dedicated to the collection.
And I just wondered what are the relative populations that lead
you to go towards this proposed size?
MS. MATTHES: Marilyn Matthes, Library Director.
South Regional, we used an area of five or so miles around the
library building and concluded it was -- the population that we were
figuring on was about 90,000. And that worked out to about .33
square foot, you know, roughly per capita in that area.
I also would like to note that we expect, obviously, the
population in the southern part of the county to grow a lot, and we
made plans to increase that building in -- sometime in the distant
future by another 30,000 square feet to accommodate additional
population in the area.
But that's far beyond the 2015 date. We obviously have no firm
plans, but the building was planned with the ability to add 30,000
square foot to that building.
Golden Gate, we also took the population within the area of
Golden Gate, and off the top of my head I don't remember what that
population was. But we also tried to account for the way the building
is used.
F or example, we have a very nice library out in the Estates, but
people who live west; significantly west of the Estates we find not
using the Estates branch library. They come into town for other
things, so they're often driving by the Golden Gate City library and
that's their main library of use.
So it was a combination of mostly population, but some
recognition of actual usage patterns for that building.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Last year you had a line item
under revenues titled For Prior BCC Policy Directive Pertaining to the
Golden Gate Library Project: $6.9 million.
Page 16
November 29, 2006
What is the status of that in relationship to this year's AUIR?
What was it, where did it go, how did you incorporate it, what's left of
"t?
1 .
MS. MATTHES: I'm sorry, I don't have that. Was it under
buildings?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, ma'am. I have the page here, if it
helps.
MS. TOWNSEND: I'm sorry, just page number?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Page 80 of last year's AUIR.
MS. MATTHES: We were anticipating -- we were anticipating
an impact fee increase, and I think that 6.9 related to that anticipated
impact fee increase.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well then that's another
question then. Last year, instead of that line item pertaining to the
Golden Gate library project, as it seems to be on that line on Page 80,
it really pertains to additional impact fee revenues you're expected to
receive?
MS. MATTHES: Frankly, I'm not sure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Because then where are those
revenues?
You show not that much of an increase in impact fees this year.
MS. MATTHES: 6.9 do sort of match what we anticipate
Golden Gate library costing, or what we did anticipate it costing then.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But I guess if you had it in last year's
AUIR as a revenue stream and you put that forward to the public as a
bona fide source of revenue, what happened to it?
That's kind of where my question is. Whether it's an impact fee
increase anticipated, which then it doesn't fit the impact fee revenues
you're showing.
MS. MATTHES: We think it's bonds, because we borrow
money and pay it back with impact fees, so that probably was bonds.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I would like a better answer. Is
Page 1 7
November 29, 2006
there a way you could research that and give us a better answer?
That's a big number. And if it's kind of floating out there, it would
sure be nice to grab it and put it where it belongs.
MS. MATTHES: We'll check and let you know.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Vigliotti.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I'd like to go back for a
second. You had said the last library you did a five-mile radius and
you took the population within that five-mile radius.
MS. MATTHES: Five to seven for South Regional, yes.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Do you do everyone five to
seven or are you going to have circles inter -- overlap where you count
the population twice?
MS. MATTHES: We try not to count it twice. But we also
know that people use a variety of libraries, they tend not to stick with
a library.
Some people -- usage patterns also dictate what we do. We
know that people who live in the northern -- just south of U.S. 41 on
951, in that area, they're more likely to come into town and use the
East Naples library currently. And we anticipate those people will be
using the South Regional. They're much more likely to do that than
go down, drive to Marco to use that library.
We also know some people bypass a small library and go
directly to a big library. It just -- South Regional is a regional library ,
Golden Gate is a community library, and the focus is slightly different.
There's a large walking population within the Golden Gate area
that already walks to that location. There's other people that, as I said,
that they're coming in from the Estates area. They're not driving out
further east to the Estates library, but they're driving in to the Golden
Gate library.
The regional library , five to seven miles is a good target
population. A neighborhood library is generally much smaller, three
to five miles.
Page 18
November 29, 2006
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: So the five to seven miles
basically is an arbitrary best guess.
MS. MATTHES: Right. And also, we're trying to use our
automation system to actually capture the zip codes of people so that
we know where they're coming from and what libraries they're using
so we that can provide a more targeted service to those people.
For example, many people in Immokalee don't use any other
library. But we have a number of people who live in closer to 951 or
Immokalee Road and the western part of the county that actually
work in Immokalee, so that's their primary library.
There are a lot of demographic variations of what we see.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But, you know, some of the answers to
the questions you've been asked, and I know you're going to be
looking at things between now and some other point in the future,
really lend an lot of credibility to Mr. Baytos' suggestion that we look
at a different means of calculating library usage -- library needs than
strict population.
In fact, your population randomly of pulling people in isn't
consistent with the population statistics; it's consistent with your
knowledge of the use of the area. Door counts or something like that
should, I think, severely be considered for libraries in regards to how
they respond in the future.
We're still on library buildings. Are there any remaining
questions?
Mr. Harrison, did you have a question on that?
MR. HARRISON: I do. Recently I read in the press that our
population is at or approaching 40 percent Hispanic. How does that
figure into our plans for facilities, both location as well as the content
that's there?
MS. MATTHES: I'm trying to think. Ten years ago library staff
did a three-year grant, probably more than 10 years ago, 12 years ago
Page 19
November 29, 2006
we did a library services and technology grant, and we wrote it for a
bilingual librarian in the Immokalee area. And that's when we started
dedicating a person who was bilingual to that kind of service.
But we all know that Spanish-speaking people are not limited to
the Immokalee area. We have large numbers in the East Naples,
visiting the East Naples library, also the Golden Gate library, and also
in the Estates area library.
We have staff -- we prefer to hire bilingual staff members when
we can. And now we do have a number of people who speak Spanish,
and a few Haitian, as well as English, and they're fluent in Spanish,
not just get by Spanish.
And we have collections that are targeted to the reader who
would like to use materials in Spanish at all of our libraries. But
where the population is more concentrated Hispanic we certainly have
more materials appropriate to those populations.
We've also started a literacy program that teaches tutors how to
help people learn to speak English, as well as people to read in
English who don't already read in English. And that's been as very
positive program for the library and for the community.
We do bilingual story hours for kids.
MR. COHEN: Just for the record, Randy Cohen. Just to correct
the 40 percent figure to let the CCPC and the Productivity Committee
know, in 2000 the Hispanic population in Collier County was 19.6.
And at this point in time it would be nowhere near approaching that 40
percent figure. So that source was probably an inaccurate source. But
it is growing.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any other questions on
library buildings?
Mr. Baytos.
MR. BA YTOS: I have one last point. I know we want to get
back to the issue of population assumptions, but there's one, I think,
very relevant point here. The data that 22 to 25 percent of the users
Page 20
November 29, 2006
are children I think is important.
In the newspaper recently, in one of the unending articles about
affordable housing, they talk about the impact on the number of
school children in Collier County. The article says that normally
growth would be about five percent a year in the number of school
children in Collier schools. However, this year the increase was not
five percent but 12 hundredth of one percent.
It looks like the school-age population, if this is any indication
of things to come, will be very different than the kind of projections
used to justify the programs that we have in mind here.
MS. MATTHES: Really, since the mid-'80's, our usage by kids
has remained about 22 to 25 percent because we've -- that's an easy
answer -- because we've targeted our book budget to buy based on
usage and we've traditionally done the 22 to 25 percent children's
materials out of our book budget. And that really has remained very
steady.
In Golden Gate City, that's much higher. It's closer to 30 percent
children instead of 25 percent. But overall for the system, it's 22 to 25
percent for children's materials.
We also have a lot of home-schoolers, parents checking out
children's materials. That's also reflected in the 22 to 25 percent of the
circulation of children's materials.
MR. BA YTOS: That wasn't my question, but I suggest we
move on.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Based on the lack of
information that we have to questions we've asked, I don't believe we
can take a position on this one yet. Is that -- have concurrence with
all, everybody here?
MR. BA YTOS: That would be the same for our committee.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We'll move on to -- yes.
MS. TOWNSEND: I understand that we need clarification on
the summary sheet figures between 2005 and 2006, particularly the
Page 21
November 29,2006
per BCC priority line item on the 2005 AUIR.
Specifically, are there other specific questions that we need to
address?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I had two other notes. Number one, we
asked for a copy of the table referencing your door counts.
Number two, that we suggested that you take a look at any other
types of standards that you might use for calculating your needs in lieu
of population.
Now, maybe that won't have an impact on this year's AUIR, but
it certainly may have an impact as a carry-forward recommendation
from this committee if you come back with something that seems
worthwhile.
Is there anything else?
Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: I raised the question, you recall, of
collocation. If we are going to put forward some others, I would ask
perhaps for a contact with the school district and where their plans
might accommodate collocation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And staff, when they responded to you
with their concerns over security, I don't know if that had settled that
matter. But if it hadn't, we will certainly need to explore it.
MS. TOWNSEND: Is that specially for the three projects you
see proposed in this year's AUIR or for future projects?
MR. HARRISON: No, any new construction. So if we have
any green field construction in mind, where can we use existing land
inventory, whether it's county owned or school district owned.
MS. RAMSEY: If I could clarify then. Marla Ramsey for the
record, Public Services Administrator.
Can I clarify, in the three projects that we currently have
budgeted, designed and ready to go, you want us to look and see --
MR. HARRISON: I didn't realize that's where they are.
MS. RAMSEY: They're already in design and we're bidding
Page 22
November 29, 2006
them as we speak, so --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I would suggest you look at that as
another method of meeting the demand for libraries in the future and
determine the feasibility of it when you come back to us.
MS. RAMSEY: All right, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Will that work? Okay.
With that, let's move on to library book stock, which starts on
Page 127 of this year's AUIR.
Do you have any opening comments?
MS. TOWNSEND: Sure. You'll see that we begin with a
21,000 book deficit as we open this five-year window.
We propose to do away with that deficit through book purchases
over the course of four years. Those will be ad valorem generally.
Replacement books are purchased at a rate of four percent per year.
The replacement book schedule has fallen behind some. That's
pretty much the reason you see the deficits you do. So there's a little
catch-up to do on replacement books that should eliminate that deficit
within the five-year window.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Do you do all your book checking out
and checking in by computer? I would hope you would say yes to
that.
MS. TOWNSEND: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a way you could tabulate--
because you do take door counts, and you do have books coming and
going, mostly going is what would think is most pertinent. But how
many visitors, how many books they take out?
MS. MATTHES: Yes, we do calculate.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If you had a door count table provided
to us and with that a per person book use, you could actually
determine if there's a better way to -- based on library buildings, then
possibly to look at using book counts, book needs based on door
counts, on the number of -- on how many an average person uses.
Page 23
November 29, 2006
Kind of like a persons per household use in population statistics in
Collier County.
Is that something you could explore?
MS. MATTHES: Sure, yes. Without giving you specific
figures, the books per registered borrower checked out in Golden Gate
City is higher than books checked out per person at almost any other
library, because we have a lot more kids at Golden Gate City and they
check out the piles of books, whereas the adults pick the big books
generally and are -- don't take ten or 20 at a time. But certainly, that's
something that we can look at.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's interesting, because that's just
how persons per household work in a population. Immokalee has a
high PPH, whereas the coastal area has a very low PPH. But we use a
standard, sweeping broad PPH of2.39 across the whole county, when
in essence there are very strong differences in different parts of the
county just like there are in library books usage.
MS. MATTHES: Definitely.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, I think -- I don't know if that is
something that could correlate to the library buildings, though.
Mr. Vigliotti.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: My question, does that figure
include audio-books and everything you have to offer or just --
MS. MATTHES: The circulation includes everything. Audio--
books, video cassettes, DVDs, actual books. Yes. We have other
counts for usage of our online data bases that is not reflected in the
circulation at all.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Did you have more, Bob?
MS. TOWNSEND: Let me clarify that just for a second. The
circulation figures do account for all media types. However, for level
of service standard, only print and audio-books are kept.
MS. MATTHES: The quantity.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Okay, thanks.
Page 24
November 29, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: We had a figure last year for a
unit cost for audio, and we don't have one this year. Is there a reason
for that?
MS. TOWNSEND: It was listed last year and then there was a
footnote that said the difference was negligible. So we made the
decision that if the decision was negligible there was no need to
include it in --
COMMISSIONER CARON: And it is still negligible this year?
MS. TOWNSEND: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER CARON: My second question is, when you
go down to revenues, under grants, it's half of what it was last year.
MS. TOWNSEND: That line item is a combined number for
grants and ad valorem.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Which makes it really low then, if
it's also ad valorem on top of that.
MS. TOWNSEND: Last year the four percent replacement book
schedule for ad valorem was included. This year because it's not a
growth related issue, it was not included.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: So last year in terms of revenue
from ad valorem and grants we were up close to two million -- over
two million, 2.4 million and this year in grants and ad valorem we're at
458,000?
MS. TOWNSEND: There is another ad valorem stream that we
will be using this year for that four percent replacement books that's
simply not on this summary sheet because it's not growth-related.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Oh--
MS. TOWNSEND: It was there last year. It wasn't
growth-related then, it's not growth-related now, so we eliminated it
from the summary sheet.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What does it provide?
Page 25
November 29, 2006
MS. TOWNSEND: It provides that four percent replacement of
the collection for books that are lost, damaged and stolen.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So you have, even though the
population grows and you have more books used, it isn't
growth-related, so that means you don't have more books damaged,
lost or stolen, then, right?
MS. TOWNSEND: Well, a rate of four percent of the collection
remains constant. The collection grows. But four percent of the
collection --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You lose more books when you have--
MS. TOWNSEND: More books in quantity, but not more books
in proportion to the collection itself.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You have a standard budget item of
four percent against the ad valorem tax base that is not included in the
AUIR any more.
MS. TOWNSEND: That is correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: I guess that's sort of what's confusing me a little
bit. On Page 128 you're showing a very large deficiency of 21 ,000
plus books. And deficiencies generally can't be made up by impact
fees. So you should be having ad valorem funds to cover that. In that
$25 a book that comes out to $525,000 and you're only showing 458.
So is the collection -- is the deficiency including some of this
replacement but the dollars aren't, or what's the disconnect?
MS. TOWNSEND: I'm not sure exactly I understand your
question, but let me walk you through the chart on 128 and we'll see if
we can get there.
In the fourth column you'll see new books planned in AUIR.
Those are intended to be funded with impact fees.
In the fifth column you'll see additional replacement books.
When we started out I was explaining that we have a deficit
because we've been fallen behind. We haven't been replacing at quite
Page 26
November 29, 2006
at that four percent per year. So those books, that deficiency is
intended to be made up through that ad valorem revenue stream.
Because we've fallen behind in our replacement books, so we'll make
that up.
The growth-related books in column four are a direct response to
those population projections. The books in column five will be funded
through ad valorem and are to make up that deficiency.
MS. VASEY: But your deficiency in the second to last column
is 21,000. And don't you have to make up that deficiency to get to
zero at the end of FY11 on this chart?
MS. TOWNSEND: We do get to zero in FY11.
MS. VASEY: So then you're buying 21,000 books.
MS. TOWNSEND: We're buying in fact almost 200,000 books.
The increase in population each year is then multiplied by the 1.75
books to get to how many books we'll buy with impact fees.
MS. VASEY: Right. No, I'm not concerned about the impact
fee portion, it's the ad valorem. It doesn't look like there's enough ad
valorem money in for the deficiency that you have to make up at $25 a
book. And that can't be -- you can't use impact fees for making up
deficiencies.
MS. TOWNSEND: No, we're not.
MS. VASEY: Okay. So 21,000 times $25 a book is $525,000.
On Page 127, you're showing $458,000 of ad valorem and grant
money.
MS. TOWNSEND: I do see that. However, because the
population proj ections change within the -- we can't make that whole
deficit up in one year. So as we move through the five-year period,
the population projections change also.
MS. VASEY: Right. And those books are being made up with
impact fee money.
MS. TOWNSEND: Correct.
MS. VASEY: Got that. It's the deficiency I'm concerned about.
Page 27
November 29, 2006
MS. TOWNSEND: The deficiency in the end of the five-year
window will be made up with the 18,329 books that will be purchased
with ad valorem. And that translates into the $458,000.
MS. VASEY: Okay, I guess then the problem is why there is a
deficiency of 21 ,000, starting with the AUIR period, and you're
making up that deficiency with 18,000 books?
MS. TOWNSEND: Because the population changes, there are
new book purchases as well. The deficiency -- if we were to purchase
no replacement books, if that fifth column weren't there, the
deficiency would be, in the year 2006 at the top of the column,
21,000.
But because of the changes in population proj ection, that
deficiency would be, at the end of the five-year period, only 18,000.
Because it's a function of the population and the population
projections change each year.
MS. VASEY: But there are no replacement books. Okay, look
at FY '06-'07. There are zero replacement books being taken care of
in this fiscal year. So how are you getting from 21,000 to 18,000?
MS. TOWNSEND: That is a purchase in slight advance of the
deficiency.
MS. VASEY: Say again.
MS. TOWNSEND: That is a purchase in advance of the
deficiency. We're purchasing some surplus books with impact fee
money.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Why wouldn't you show that in the
right year that they're being purchased?
MS. TOWNSEND: I'm sorry, I don't understand that question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You're adding replacement books in
advance of the year shown on here; is that correct?
MS. TOWNSEND: If you look at column four, you'll see that in
2007 we're scheduled to purchase 40,000 books. That's probably a
budget number. That's probably not a function of population, because
Page 28
November 29,2006
we wouldn't have had the population statistic when we prepared the
budget, the new population statistic.
So that 40,000, if you take the difference, if you take the
difference in the collection required, that 40,000 is more than what
would be required for just the one year change in population.
MS. VASEY: So you're making up a deficiency with impact fee
dollars.
Well, if you've got three thousand books you're buying and
you're not using ad valorem dollars in part of your deficiency -- and
you're not using ad valorem dollars, then you're using impact fee
dollars.
MS. RAMSEY: I believe that we're just not reflecting this last
year's replacement books on here. If you go to the second line, under
surplus and deficiency, the second column shows you 18,329 is our
deficiency going into this year. You're looking at 2005-2006
deficiency.
So drop down a line and it's 18,329 is our deficiency going into
this year. And then you go to the replacement books, it's 18,329.
There's our starting point and then our ending point at the end of the
five-year.
So you're looking at last year's numbers. Drop down another
line, and you'll see the numbers that we're looking at this year.
MS. VASEY: So these don't -- on this line this is not a year-end
number, this a year start number? Oh, that's quite confusing. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So the additional replacement books
are purchased with impact fee money or not purchased with impact fee
money?
MS. TOWNSEND: Purchased with ad valorem.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Where are the impact fee money
purchases shown?
MS. TOWNSEND: In column four.
Page 29
November 29, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MS. TOWNSEND: I apologize. I was also confused. That top
line probably should have been deleted from this table moving
forward into the next year, and that's an error.
MS. VASEY: Or maybe just a footnote that says that this is the
start of the year and not the end of the year. Because I just assumed
that it was the end of the year. And that would be the start of next
year. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah, I think that's the point is it
needs to be footnoted, because it's very confusing.
MS. TOWNSEND: I wholeheartedly agree.
COMMISSIONER CARON: It doesn't -- yeah. These are your
numbers and you can't figure them out, so --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: Two related questions, if I might. You're
showing the total number of books in the collection, but it doesn't tell
us how many different titles there are. I'm sure when you're buying
books for ten locations; you're not buying one, your buying ten or
something.
And related to that, Marilyn, you made a comment about the
online resources. Are we going to see much more in the next
five-year period of online collections so that we're not buying as many
paper books?
MS. MATTHES: Marilyn Matthes, Library Director.
How many like reading a book on line on a computer? I don't
see too many hands. The technology to read books on a computer on
a small screen is not very good yet. The book is still the best invented
random access device available, despite technology. And libraries
have really used technology to the max.
Five years ago they tried to sell e-book readers, and six -- four of
the six companies went out of business. And the product of the two
Page 30
November 29, 2006
other companies remaining in business has changed dramatically.
Will that change, will it continue to change? Yes.
You don't see the use of technology reflected in this AUIR at all,
other than audio-books, and that's minor technology. Some of us are
paper-oriented. Some of us still do a lot of computer work, too. But
for many things, a paper book is still the standard.
As I said before, reference books are an exception, there's no
need to buy an expensive reference book for two or three hundred
dollars that somebody can look at online and take out the section that
they need on line. So we're trying to use technology where it makes
sense, and ignore it where it hasn't advanced far enough to make most
of us comfortable in using it.
Does that answer your questions?
MR. HARRISON: How about the number of titles?
MS. MATTHES: Number of titles is not really relevant to the
number of books that we have. Certainly it's a lot lower number of
titles that we have than the number of volumes.
And what -- in a library what difference it makes is how long
somebody needs to wait to get not just the best sellers but JK Lasser's,
Your Income Tax, or travel books to wherever. And we try to
purchase appropriately for what our customers are asking. And the
technology lets us know easily how many people are on a waiting list
for a particular book, whether it be bestseller or children's book or
whatever, and then we purchase more copies as needed.
Some books, some authors we know are going to be wildly
popular, and we try to purchase a great number of books, copies of
those books before they're published so we have the stock that we
could provide. Not just the book in paper, but the audio-book as well.
That's something that's very nice in recent library technologies that
when John Grisham writes a new book, it's out in audio-book almost
at the same time as the paper book.
MR. HARRISON: Is your catalog online such that I can make a
Page 31
November 29, 2006
request --
MS. MATTHES: Yes, it is.
MR. HARRISON: -- and it can be brought to my local branch.
MS. MATTHES: Yes, you can. It's my account. The URL is--
web address is colliergov.net/library and then select catalogue. And
there's my catalogue on there where you can log into your account,
you can keep track of what we've read, if you want, or you can delete
that. You don't have to keep track of what you've read. You can
reserve books and they can be sent to your local branch.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Yes, you mentioned that this particular level of
service standard addresses the books and the audio . Would you
discuss a little bit what are the option are that we could use that would
capture some of this new media count that you're going to and maybe
be more representative.
MS. MATTHES: Sure. Libraries have always changed with the
times. Some slower than others. There was a time when paperback
books were not acceptable in libraries. They're widely available now
and a major part of our service.
Records, the old vinyl records were a problem for some people.
It wasn't traditional library service. Some libraries do a lot of different
things.
With the technology, we've moved into -- actually, we're moving
more away from video cassettes into DVDs. We formerly had really
large collections, and I can't give you a specific number, but we had
significant numbers of video cassettes. And people aren't using them
as much. The newer technology, DVDs, most people have DVD
players, they're pretty cheap.
What's beyond that, I don't know. Something else I'm sure is
coming. There's downloadable movies to your computer or to your
portable device.
The state library, the state Florida Library Association sets
Page 32
November 29,2006
standards of service so that libraries can have something to strive for.
And in Florida, that standard is moving more away from books per
capita, and it's moving towards items per capita. So that would
include not only the books, the paperbacks, the audio cassettes, we
still do have some audio cassettes, music on CD, music -- books on
CD, video cassettes and DVDs. And there's some other minor
multimedia kits available for kids and some adults too.
And that standard is changing statewide and they're talking
about more items per capita and not just books per capita.
I looked at what our -- the Florida Library Association
recommends, and for all items per capita they say that an essential
collection is two items per capita. Our current level is about 1.95 per
capita. But they go a little bit further, they say essential is the first
step. That's what everybody should have.
The second level up would be enhanced services.
And then a third level would be exemplary services.
What it tells you other than a number and how much you need to
spend on a particular collection is an estimate of how many items you
need to provide good service to your user group. The higher your
population doesn't necessarily mean the higher the number is for
exemplary service.
Actually, the smaller populations need more items that they can
get their hands on per capita than the larger populations. Immokalee
in particular is a good example. They're far away from everybody.
Essential service for them might be 2.5 items per capita, because they
don't drive too many other places, generally.
And in a large urban area, two items per capita, because you can
distribute those items across the group easier and have more items
collectively for the audience.
So we are looking at that currently. The impact fee ordinance
says 1.75 books per capita, and .33 square feet per capita for
buildings, and that's something that we need to address through the
Page 33
November 29, 2006
impact fee ordinance first, I think.
Amy is nodding yes.
MS. VASEY: Well, I'm thinking ofa recommendation to have
you look at that as a potential change for the future, so that we do get a
representative number for the level of service standard based on what
you think.
MS . MATTHES: Another point that supports your question and
your thought is that this year the County Clerk's Finance Department
moved our budget figures for audio-visual materials into capital items,
meaning they last more than a year. So that's where books have been
also, in capital. So now all of our material budgets are in the capital
line items except for periodicals and electronic data bases, which are
subscription-driven and not specifically an item.
So that also supports your interest. And we have been starting to
look at that.
MS. VASEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions on library books
before maybe we listen to what Amy may have found on her computer
in the last 30 minutes or so?
MS. PATTERSON: Amy Patterson again, for the record.
The question on the revenue projections associated to the impact
fee increase related to the executive summary that went to the board
on this increase, the revenue projected was about $751,000 per year.
It was about a 35 percent increase.
The caveat on that and what may differ a little bit from the
budget numbers is when they take into account how long it will take
before we start to recognize that revenue. And that was related to the
permitting that we discussed before, at the issuance of the building
permit.
F or the second thing is that our revenue proj ections are based on
historical permitting activities. That's not only number of permits --
this is a residential only fee -- not only number but type and size. So
Page 34
November 29, 2006
variations on the number of permits, the types of permits and then the
size of the homes will have an effect in the future on the revenue,
either up or down.
So if you see larger homes, it may spike up your numbers a little
bit, or if you see smaller homes or less permits. All of those things
may cause a variation in our revenue projection. But we do try to get
historical trends and that's how we project out our revenue.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So your actual historical trends
are not based on population, they're based on housing unit
expectations.
MS. PATTERSON: Housing unit expectations. They're based
on our actual permitting activity, which is what the impact fee is tied
to.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We have pretty good records,
including, you noted the square footages and everything.
MS. PATTERSON: We have the ability to take the information
that we need and utilize it so that it's fairly accurate.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is that 751,000 per year in addition to
the existing impact fee?
MS. PATTERSON: In addition to the existing impact fee.
That's going to get you somewhere in the neighborhood of about $2.6
million per year.
The other thing that you have to recognize is over the five year
period the impact fees are required to be updated every three years
with an indexing in the mid-years. Both of those will create a
variation, or an increase. In the event that we continue to have an
increase in population, there will be an increase of some degree in
each year for the indexing and then in three years.
So you'll see in this five-year period these numbers do not reflect
indexing or a rate increase.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Do you review these summary sheets in
regards to the impact fee allocations that each department uses before
Page 35
November 29, 2006
they're given to us and assembled?
MS. PATTERSON: We review them but not to make them
match our revenue projections, because they match the budget
proj ections, which again can be slightly more conservative than ours.
We make sure that it's reasonable and that nothing jumps out as being
inaccurate.
The number that we give to the board is only if in a perfect -- if
everything happened perfectly, that things are reproduced as they
happened years ago, that that goes into the future.
And that's all explained in the executive summary that these
things may not happen. We've had times when we've had a large
number of large homes built, which spiked up your revenue. But
that's not something that's going to happen necessarily every year. So
we're heavily reliant on the budget numbers and we work closely with
them.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: When you say that you look and see if
these are reasonable, that reasonability goes forward as a revenue
stream or revenue source that then plays into the argument that we
have ample impact fees right now to meet the needs of the revenue
streams that are shown on those AUIR summary sheets. Let me -- and
I know you're going to jump into something here -- you may want to
wait until I finish what I'm saying.
If you totaled two numbers up for books and library buildings,
you're looking at a yearly revenue stream of2.9 million from impact
fees, which is in contrast to the 2.6 that you just stated, which brings
us down over a million dollars shy, which if the board knew that,
might say okay, we need to raise library impact fees to get the
revenues up to where they need to be in order to provide for the
library stream that we're talking about.
And I'm wondering had anybody looked at that reasoning in
regards to this document?
MS. PATTERSON: Raising impact fees?
Page 36
November 29, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No. The values shown--
MS. PATTERSON: -- or that there may be a $300,000
difference between what I might proj ect and what they might have in
the document?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's the quest -- what I was going to
say. But we need to not talk over one another.
MS. PATTERSON: I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: She has to write down what we say.
And you talk fast like I do.
Now that you know the question, maybe you can provide the
answer.
MS. PATTERSON: I guess in part, a couple of things -- and it's
difficult for me, because I know, like I said, that I have indexing
coming up every year, then I have a major increase -- or a major
study, I don't want to say increase, but a major study in three years.
So if their numbers are reasonable compared to mine, a million
dollar shortfall over five years is not something that anything could
cause that. If we saw a major revenue shortfall, certainly that would
be something that would be brought to your attention and to the
board's attention. But also, we have major construction cost increases.
That's something that we regularly make the board aware of. That,
you know, is something that is going to be a policy decision going
forward on whether or not that's something that's got to be covered by
impact fees or by another revenue source. If that's something that the
board wants to continue to push with these impact fees.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You're looking at about a 10 percent
difference in the number that you told us is expected from the revenue
stream based on the new impact fee rates versus what they've used as
this revenue stream shown in the AUIR for both buildings and books.
And that's a million and a half dollars just about; if it's three
million a year times five. That's -- if the board knew that ahead of
time, next time they come up for review of impact fees they might
Page 37
November 29, 2006
realize that this one needs to be adjusted if it's exceeded.
MS. PATTERSON: This one probably already needs to be
adjusted, unfortunately. I mean that's --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Already after last year's?
MS. PATTERSON: Already after last year's. That is a -- you
know -- and that's why I'm saying that this is going to be a policy
decision of the board of how far they want to go with these, if they
want to continue to have to adjust them more frequently, which is
what we talked about the first day, is that we're bringing forward the
most accurate numbers that we can when we adopt these impact fees.
But six months later we're finding that the construction costs have
gone up beyond what we have in the impact fee, and then that's going
to create a shortfall.
This is what we went through last year with the Golden Gate
library. We had done a study a year prior and already our construction
costs were outdated by a huge number, nearly double.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But the other side of the coin is all
these calculations sitting in front of us, including the ones for books
and library buildings are based on population statistics. And all that
might change if we have a different way of calculating need based on
usage, such that roads -- and roads base their stream on usage of the
roads by traffic counts.
You guys have traffic counts on libraries. It might be reasonable
to hear another report on this that might be a better way to go.
MS. PATTERSON: If direction came down for us to review this
using some other methodology, then certainly we would get with the
consultants and the appropriate people to do whatever needs to be
done based on whatever direction that we're given.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other questions on the
library?
Mr. Murray, you've been quiet today.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: When you have nothing to say,
Page 38
November 29, 2006
you say nothing, I hope.
I do have a question for Amy, just for clarification for me.
MS. PATTERSON: I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's not a problem. With
regard to -- you use the term smaller homes and larger homes. A
smaller home is -- how do you consider a smaller home in terms of
population?
MS. PATTERSON: Not in terms of population. That's for the
application of our fee schedule. What we have is a tier grade schedule
that has three different sizes of homes.
Now, a smaller home may have more people in it.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: But that's -- you know, that's not -- I was
only speaking of that if a smaller home has a lower rate, that may
affect your revenue directly.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Is there any documentation
attempt to determine population within homes?
If we're thinking about changing methodology, that may very
well play into it because of the simple fact that in smaller homes
you're likely to have more younger children because people are not as
wealthy as they might be with a larger home.
MS. PATTERSON: And this is a discussion that's come up.
But it almost -- where on one hand it -- you understand there's more
people in a smaller home, and also it's the teachers and the other
people that are buying the smaller homes that then you're going to
push a larger fee onto. Because if you go looking at things by numbers
of persons per household, you may actually have different than what
we have now, which is a higher fee for smaller houses and a lower fee
for bigger houses, which may be more fair. I don't know. It's
something that would have to be reviewed.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And I wanted to bring that out
because that was going through the mind that when we attempt to find
Page 39
November 29, 2006
an alternative means to evaluate, what we get is a circular argument,
and that's a real concern. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: I just wanted to address your comments on the
problems with using the impact fee data. That's been something that's
bothered me through throughout this whole review, because the
impact fees basically are built on prior history. It's not based on any
projections -- I mean, they are increased according to inflation factors
for construction costs and things like that in between the study years.
But the figure that we're using now inmost of these facilities is
based on the construction costs that were sometimes from the last
three years average. So they're really not very representative.
And we're getting into a situation where the costs are
understated. For example, we saw in transportation, the last two
projects have come in almost double the unit cost that was in the
impact fees, which is what is used in the AUIR. So -- and that's
showing up in almost all the other facilities, too, except for the couple
that looks like they didn't use the impact fees rates.
And yet the revenue stream is based on what the impact fee
revenues are expected to be. Now, that's pretty real. I mean, unless
you change your rate, you're going to get that revenue. But the
expenses are very much understated, because we know already that
they're not realistic.
So it seems that the whole process, and I was really going to
talk about it later, but since you brought it up, I think the whole
process has got sort of a disconnect to that effect. And I'm not real
sure how we deal with it. Or maybe we just recognize that it's there.
But it could be very big in terms of the dollars involved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It could be huge. And that's where my
concern has been since we started talking about the statistics we're
using to base everything on. And everything generates from a
statistic, even impact fees. My concern is that we're using maybe not
Page 40
November 29, 2006
the best statistic for the right purpose.
MS. VASEY: I share that concern.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other library book stock
issues?
(N 0 response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Now, as far as taking a position on this
one, the -- staff has indicated, and I'm trying to understand this, that
there may be an adjustment needed for impact fees for libraries and
books. Yet you're looking at revenues to maintain existing level of
servIce, none.
If you're suggesting that the impact fees are insufficient,
wouldn't that be something you'd want to look at as a
recommendation instead of -- you know, basically you're saying by
the words none here your existing level of service is met and the
future level of services for the next number of years are met, and
therefore everything is okay.
I heard someone just contradict that statement by saying that you
will be needing impact fee increases.
Do you want to address that in this AUIR or do you think it
would be a good thing to address?
MS. TOWNSEND: The way that it's currently addressed in this
AUIR is on the summary sheet for library buildings, you'll see the
double asterisk that says that the per square foot value is based on the
impact fee, and that we do expect the constructions costs to be coming
much higher, and that those projects will need to be financed.
The only concern at this point is that if those constructions costs
come in so much higher, that the projects would need to be financed
for a longer period of time and therefore, we would run into trouble
that way. So there's an acknowledgement here.
If it would be the pleasure of the boards to put that in a
recommendation, we'd be happy to do so.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, as far as how to proceed with the
Page 41
November 29, 2006
-- we know on the library buildings, that they're going to come back
with some refinement to that. Do you want to wait and review the
library books at the time the buildings come back or are we ready to
take a position on library books at this time?
Are there any outstanding questions from the panel that may not
have been asked?
We had some statements that were similar to the statements
made for the library buildings but I'm not sure they're going to be
effective in changing anything on library books as far as this AUIR
goes.
Ms. Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I would suggest that we wait and
vote on them together.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's fine with me. I have no
preference either way. Nobody else? Okay, that's what we'll do.
I think that's it till we get back to parks, which we hopefully will
get to today.
And I want to compliment you, I don't know what you do or
what your position is with the county, but you certainly have a wide
range of knowledge over the topics that we've been hitting you with,
and it's good to see. Thank you.
And with that, we're going to be starting a new element next,
which would be the county emergency medical services.
Why don't we take a 15-minute break now for the court reporter
and for Kady. We'll be back here at ten minutes after 10:00. Thank
you.
(A break was taken.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, we'll resume the meeting for the
A UIR. And just so everyone knows, we're going to try to take a lunch
break around a quarter to 12:00. That leaves time for those who must
eat at the place downstairs to be able to get in the line early. But we'll
see how it goes.
Page 42
November 29, 2006
The next item on AUIR today is the Emergency Medical
Services Section.
Chief?
CHIEF PAGE: Good morning. For the record, Jeff Page with
Emergency Medical Services.
The level of service standard is approximately one unit for every
15,000 population. For the numerical figure is 0.000068 per capita.
The unit cost is 3,385,166 per new unit 1,931,348 for a
collocated unit. That's a blended cost for a new unit of 290,560.
Any questions?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, that was quick.
CHIEF PAGE: Just doing my part.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm sure there are going to be a lot of
questions.
Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah, sorry, but I must have
misheard my unit cost. I may have been preoccupied. I apologize. I
have 3,809,785 per new unit.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: There were new sheets issued, Bob?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I missed that, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, there are -- I know there's going
to be a lot of questions, but let's start with the panel. Anybody have
any questions from -- Mr. Baytos.
MR. BA YTOS: Couple of questions. One is we understand
from the papers that there are considerations about different ways to
organize EMS and coordinate with Fire and so forth.
Is there any indication when that study would be done or --
CHIEF PAGE: You're talking about the merger study?
MR. BA YTOS: Right.
CHIEF PAGE: We're continuing to meet each month. I have
another meeting coming up in just a few weeks, I think
mid-December. The last meeting, I believe all of the information has
Page 43
November 29, 2006
been submitted for budgets. Number of apparatus, things of that
nature. The cost analysis is continuing to work through.
It's going to take at least another, I would predict, three or four
months, at least. They're talking about bringing in a facilitator to help
that group work through that.
MR. BA YTOS: I have a question that sort of relates to that. I
know -- I live in the North Naples district, and my neighbors tell me
that sometimes they'll dial 911 and then the fire department shows up
and EMS as well.
Does that kind of overlap and duplication exist in the other fire
districts as well or is that unique to North Naples?
CHIEF PAGE: No, it occurs throughout all of Collier County.
We help train their paramedic firefighters to work -- or work under the
same medical protocol that they do. And there are five units located
throughout the county that actually have our personnel on their fire
trucks to respond as an ALS or advanced life support first response
engIne.
So we do that cross training both with Fire and EMS.
MR. BA YTOS: But -- so in the data that you indicate how
many calls you want to meet within, what is it eight minutes or
something, what was that number?
CHIEF PAGE: Eight minutes travel time.
MR. BA YTOS: It's possible that maybe your team didn't get
there in eight minutes but it's possible the fire department team was
there within eight minutes.
CHIEF PAGE: Their level of service standard is actually four
minutes for the BLS component. But what NFP A recommends, is that
advanced life support arrive on the scene within eight minutes.
MR. BA YTOS: So is there -- in the data that you use, which I
guess are countrywide or provided by some objective association, is it
typical that this kind of -- it's new to my experience, this kind of
duplication. Is that typical, throughout the country they have this?
Page 44
November 29, 2006
CHIEF PAGE: Well, I would have to say that typically
throughout the country EMS is generally handled by a fire service by
itself and a third provider actually provides the transport.
MR. BA YTOS: So we're unique in that we have this overlap.
CHIEF PAGE: That's correct. There's only probably in the
State of Florida just a handful of countywide EMS providers.
MR. BA YTOS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: I'd like to continue with that line of discussion.
You mentioned that there are five units that have the EMS-trained, Dr.
Tober-certified paramedics on them. It would seem that those units at
least are up to the same medical protocols and capabilities as your
units; is that correct?
CHIEF PAGE: There are some equipment differences. In other
words, they're not carrying a 12-1ead EKG machine, they have a
four-lead. They do not have some of the drugs and medications that
typically would be found on a transport unit, generally because they
wouldn't have enough time on scene to start using that. Some of the
narcotics are not there.
It's just based on what the medical director has identified as the
necessary equipment for a first response unit, meaning the LS engine
as opposed to a transport unit that may have some more advanced
equipment like listening to heart sounds, things of that nature, with an
EKG. That's called an auto-core, and it's typically not on a transport
unit -- it is on a transport but not on a first response engine.
Let me just add something else here. When you talk about the
medical director's certified paramedics, there are Dr. Tober-certified
paramedics within the fire districts themselves. They're not all just
with county EMS.
Over the years we've had a number of our personnel go to the
fire districts due to pay increases, things of that nature. So there are
paramedics within North Naples, East Naples. Marco Island has a
Page 45
November 29, 2006
number of firefighters that have been certified through the medical
director.
MS. VASEY: I guess where I'm going with this is that your
level of service standard is one unit per 15,000 population but you
only count the units that Collier -- that are under the Collier County
government EMS. Whereas there -- you mentioned in your AUIR
there are 19 other units that are fire departments provide, five of
which are your own employees on that -- what do you call it, transfer
where you--
CHIEF PAGE: Cross train.
MS. VASEY: Cross train.
So it seems like we have a level of service standard and we have
really exceeded it, because there is a whole lot more EMS service out
there than is being counted as serving the population.
So I'm wondering if there isn't any way -- oh, and by the way,
we need 11 new stations in this AUIR period, and we're under-funded
by $1 7 million.
It just seems like there should be some way that we could count
at least part of the other service that's out there responding to the needs
of the populace that isn't being counted here. Is there some way we
can get at that?
CHIEF PAGE: That's a very good question. I'm going to give
you the Jeff Page answer, and then I'm going to turn it over to my
database administrator, Dave Stedman.
We had first initially when we had gotten with the fire chiefs and
talked with this concept, the concept was that we have 35,000
responses, we're only transporting 21,000. We need to increase our
ALS response capability.
It works out in theory good. But I can tell you that at any point
when there's a fire in any district, and in some cases in a mutual aid
you'll empty out all the districts to go to a fire, all of those ALS
engines are gone, they're not available.
Page 46
November 29, 2006
At the same token, over the years we've collocated stations. And
generally a fire station is built for the fire load capacity for an area
within a five-mile range. That's not necessarily what works best for
EMS. When we collocated the station, we are both responding to the
same car accident, the same heart attack.
Where ideally in concept it should be -- let's say the EMS
transport goes first, I'm holding back the ALS engine to take the
second call in that district. And then they respond out to that call and
then the transport units go in to that second call to provide transport if
it's needed.
That really hasn't -- that mindset hasn't worked. It still continues
to this day where two units working out of the same station are going
to the same call. And so that's part of the problems that I see with this.
But I need to have Dave answer some additional on that.
MS. VASEY: Well, one just follow-up on your comment,
please. If both the ALS unit and the EMS unit have gone to the same
medical emergency and another call comes in, can't one of those peel
off and go to the new one, or do they have to both stay on-site?
CHIEF PAGE: There is -- there are some components of, say, a
car accident where there are hazards there. It would work if a
non-ALS licensed pumper or engine responded to a car accident with
us. Then that pumper is not committed, it can take care of the hazards,
the fuel, whatever it is and work that scene with the medical crew and
still reserve the ALS engine back.
But typically what happens is on an ALS call they're both going,
both ALS units are responding. And we really don't have the control
to tell the fire department, and say no, that's not right, you need to do
this. I mean, I know -- in theory it should work correctly, but it just
hasn't happened to that effect yet.
As I said, on any given day if there's a fire or something along
that line, those ALS units are just not available to be dispatched to a
call.
Page 47
November 29, 2006
MS. VASEY: And Dave had something then to --
CHIEF PAGE: Did you have something to add with--
MR. SUMMERS: Just to elaborate. Good morning, Dan
Summers, Director of the Bureau of Emergency Services.
I think it's real important to make sure, and you all may be aware
of it. Let me make just a little distinguishing comment here. That as
we look at our service as what we call the third service EMS provider,
that is each one of these components that we build into, for example
with the ALS engine response are augments on top of an ALS engine
programs many, many years ago, and I won't tell you how old the gray
hairs are, but will tell you that it was primarily geared to the cardiac
scenario, okay, so that we could get year quicker or have more
defibrillation available to us earlier. And that was years ago, and that
has subsequently evolved and the fire department has been good
partners with us from that.
But all of our service issues and all of our critical care, which is
what Collier County EMS provides, is that critical care within, in a
very large county, very long transport times.
So always consider the care that's administered in the back of the
transport unit as a continuum of care. The fire departments and EMS
arrival are the initiator of care. But that is sort of a building block, if
you will, for what takes place in the back of the ambulance as a
continuum of care and a continuation of advanced care all the way to
delivery of the emergency department.
So I would share with you that one of the things that you always
want to keep in mind is that your service delivery is based on the
transport component and then you augment that with the ALS engine
program. And I just wanted to clarify that for you just for as minute.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: Seems to me that hospitals have this same
issue of, you know, what level of service in an emergency room, and
they use a triage person to say okay, you need this with that. And they
Page 48
November 29, 2006
also ration the capacity of the hospital.
So it seems like where we are is we're almost in a saturation
mode sending out as many possible support services without really
stopping to perform a triage-type function in saying, you know, what
is appropriate, we think for that event or -- maybe it's a liability issue
that makes us do it.
CHIEF PAGE: Well, I think any time you have -- take a car
accident, for example. You have a car accident call come in.
Typically there's not any kind of notification as to whether there's any
injuries. Nobody knows yet. But typically that generates a response
because we know through history that typically people are hurt and
want to be transported.
I think you're correct, you have to respond and hope for the best.
And, you know, if you look at our cardiac arrest save rates. I
mean, last year we had over 38 percent saves. And that's unusually
high for any area. So I think we're doing the right thing by what we
may call over-saturation. But a critical component of that are
response times.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Chief, you have 22.5 units in available
inventory shown this year.
CHIEF PAGE: Correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Last year you had 21.5. You've
increased one unit?
CHIEF PAGE: Actually, are you talking FY '06, correct?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm talking the first line where it says
available inventory 9/30/06, so I guess that's, if that's what you're --
CHIEF PAGE: Yes, it was one unit that was added.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Which unit was it, a relocated unit or a
new unit?
CHIEF PAGE: It was a new unit, but not necessarily a gross
station, per se. It was a station that we went into J eepers Drive, and
also the station that just actually got completed this week on Santa
Page 49
November 29, 2006
Barbara that was in the works for a number of years finally came on
line.
So one of the coexisting stations got branched out where I had
two units working out of there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, the reason I asked is your value
cost of36,913,149 is not much above last year's. And I'm just
wondering, last year you had 35,295,095, which is a million six
increase. But your new unit costs this year went up 21 percent. Your
co-unit cost went up 4.9 percent, but your value cost only went up 4.6
percent.
How can you explain that?
CHIEF PAGE: Okay, the Jeepers Drive station that we went
into this year for FY '06, that was a -- we bought 37 percent of the cost
of the building alone, East Naples owns the actual land. I think our --
it cost us less than a half million dollars for that proj ect.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But the value to the public for the
inventory, because we base everything on the future required
inventory at a value, not whether, what kind of deal you can cut but
what the value is. And the value of the inventory that you have on a
per unit basis, whether it's co-owned or it's a new unit, because it's
there, it has the value of what I would assume one of those values to
be.
Now, let me go a step further. Last year you had 10.5 units of
equipment. This year you got 11.5. Last year you had six owned
stations, this year you have seven. Last year you had four collocated
stations, this year you only have five. Now, that's a net increase of 2.3
million in assets.
I'm just wondering why it isn't reflected in the available
inventory values that way, because that drives the bottom line as far as
ad valorem needs go and as far as dollars. I don't understand why it
didn't come out that way or it didn't come out different than it is right
now.
Page 50
November 29, 2006
CHIEF PAGE: Well, what I have here on the screen is how we
came to this -- the calculation of the inventory. Are you able to read
that or is that too small?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, we all have screens; I think we can
see it.
CHIEF PAGE: That basically is how we came to that figure,
and that's what it's based on.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN : Your equipment last year was a lot
higher, double that number, 889,794. So your -- that explains why
your equipment, the value this year has dropped tremendously.
Maybe last year it was too high?
CHIEF PAGE: Yes, it was based on the impact fee study. And
unfortunately the impact fee study only addresses our owned stations,
not those additional stations. So what happened is it effectively
inflated what the replacement costs would be for equipment and things
of that nature when you're dealing with just 11 stations versus 22.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So the impact fee study is erroneous?
CHIEF PAGE: Well, I can't say that. But what I'm saying is
that for impact fee purposes and the way they're calculated, it's only
on owned stations, not stations that are leased. So although you may
have 22 units, you may only own 11 stations. And if you just base the
numbers or the cost associated into that 11, everything else is inflated.
So for AUIR purposes, we're using the 22.5 figure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I heard what you said. I don't believe I
understand it. Which then brings into a value or cost problem on your
table. And I think Amy is going to have to shed some light on the
impact fee study so I can try to understand what it is that you said.
Where did you lose the collocated unit? Last year you had five,
this year you have four.
CHIEF PAGE: Just a second. I had to check with my
operations analyst on this. But I believe what happened was for the
impact fee study, the Jeepers Drive station probably was considered
Page 51
November 29,2006
an owned station, and for the AUIR, because we own a portion of it.
And for the AUIR, it would be collocated, or vice versa. I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So you're saying in the '05 AUIR, the
Jeepers station was collocated and in the '06 AUIR, it's owned?
CHIEF PAGE: That's what we believe to be the case. It know
for the impact fee study, that was identified, I believe, as an owned
station, because there was a percentage of it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm just trying to figure out how that's
going to factor into your table and your numbers, because it's hard for
me to understand how a value cost could be so minimal an increase
from last year. Or if last year's number was as erroneous in regards to
the equipment you say it was, then the numbers driven from last year
ought to have an impact on this year.
Just sitting here, I can't do that without sitting down with the
table and recalculating it.
But you would have substantially less value than last year. You
would have gained more value this year, which means last year's
revenue stream would have had to have been adjusted to offset that
loss.
Well, maybe --
CHIEF PAGE: Ifwe had -- you know, if you looked at the first
documents we had provided you. If we had continued to do what we
did last year, using the impact fee study, that available inventory
would actually be 46,467 ,000. You can see quite a reduction just
based on the fact that you're using more units instead of the 11 that
would have been used from the impact fee study.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, maybe Amy, would you be
prepared to answer some questions on this particular impact fee issue
in regards to what their impact fee value is today, what the projected
revenues are, and how their impact fee rate differs from the library's
impact fee rate?
MS. PATTERSON: Sure. Amy Patterson, for the record.
Page 52
November 29, 2006
One at a time --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, the library impact fee rate. We
just got done discussing that one. It's a certain value, I don't know
how much it is. You didn't tell us, you just told us what the total
income would be. What is that a per square foot basis?
MS. PATTERSON: It's a per unit, but it's delineated by size of
unit.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And how much is it per unit?
MS. PATTERSON: I don't have the fees schedule in front of
me.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, how does that compare to EMS's
impact fees, above or below?
MS. PATTERSON: It's above but different because EMS is also
charged on commercial construction per square foot. Library is not.
Libraries are residential only fee.
So if you compared a single-family home cost library to EMS,
the library fee is higher. But you can't just make that straight
comparison, because EMS is also charged on commercial
construction.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What do you see for the impact fee
revenues over a five-year period on a yearly basis or a five-year basis
for EMS in the predictions that you provided with the impact fee
study?
MS. PATTERSON: Our last year's collections for EMS were
926,684, and we are estimating an increase which is coming pretty
close to the 1.2 that we're showing on the AUIR. We're showing 1.22
per year.
But again, and this one's even more difficult than -- any time you
add the commercial construction in, it's a little bit more difficult than a
straight residential fee, because you have to take into account the
trends with commercial construction, and things like Wal-Marts and
Targets being built can add unusual spikes into your numbers. So it's
Page 53
November 29, 2006
more difficult to project things like that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN : Well, their net impact fee increase is a
little over $600,000 from last year's. Is that reasonable to expect over
the next five-year period?
MS. PATTERSON: Again, it would depend on the trends for
commercial and residential construction. But the budget office, taking
their number, the impact fees anticipated, it's coming up with a
number of 1.2189 million. And the difference from the '06 926,684,
it's reasonable, assuming that nothing unusual happens with permitting
activity.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, so you're saying your last year's
impact fees were expected to be -- were 926.
MS. PATTERSON: Actual was 926,684.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You're looking at 1.2 this upcoming
year.
MS. PATTERSON: That's a $292,000 increase.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. The Chiefs comment about the
equipment value, can you shed some light on that?
MS. PATTERSON: For the impact fees, we're only allowed to
include in the impact fee as our inventory things that we actually own.
And that's where we get into this issue with the leased stations. We
actually own the equipment that's in those leased stations, so those
things are of value and those have to be accounted for in some way,
the same as the equipment that's in an owned station.
So even though we have 11 owned stations, I think it's 11.
Eleven owned stations, we -- 11 owned stations, we also have
equipment that we own in the rest of the leased stations, so that
equipment does have a value.
And that was addressed in the impact fee study, but we can't
address the leased stations as far as the value for the actual building,
because they're leased and you can't -- we don't own them and
therefore, you can't place that burden onto the fee-payers. We can
Page 54
November 29, 2006
only put in our inventory those things we actually own.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You said 11 owned stations, there's
only seven.
MS. PATTERSON: I thought there were -- is it 11 owned
stations?
CHIEF PAGE: Yes, I believe so.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The impact fee study reflects how
many? But if you can't include the co-owned --
MS. PATTERSON: Co-owned -- can't include the leased. The
co-owned are different. We own a part of the station. Let's say we
own half of a station with a fire district. That portion that we own is
included, because we own it. We paid for it.
And the way that I think about it, there's three different things,
there's things we own completely. That would be stations, only EMS
stations.
There's things that are collocated that we own a part of, say it's
50 percent Collier County's and 50 percent East Naples Fire District.
We take into account on the inventory that portion that we own.
And then there's things, where we just lease them, and those
aren't counted at all, except for the equipment that's in them that we
own.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How many leased stations do we have?
MS. PATTERSON: That would be a question for Jeff.
CHIEF PAGE: Nine in the study is what was reflected there.
There are some stations hat -- nine from the impact fee study is what
Paul was telling me on that.
As far as there are some stations where we actually have no
lease. For example, on Marco Island, we collocate with them. There
is no lease involved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is that under your collocated total of
four, the one on Marco Island?
CHIEF PAGE: Let's see.
Page 55
November 29, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Would that be our missing station?
CHIEF PAGE: Well, I don't know that we would reflect that as
a collocation in the sense that there's any monetary value. We didn't
help build it.
I think for -- what we're identifying as a collocated station is a
station where you take, an example would be Grey Oaks where East
Naples, North Naples and Collier County EMS has pooled funds to
actually build that station. J eepers Drive is a collocated station in my
mind because we contributed the funding to build the station.
A leased station, even though I may be leasing three rooms in a
North Naples station on Pine Ridge, I don't consider that collocated.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, but I think where I'm seeing a
disconnect, my understanding of it is functionality. You need so
many stations. You need so many functional stations. You have 20
functional stations right now, from what I can see. You've got seven
owned, four co-owned and nine leased.
Now, the nine leased, and then one that is in Marco Island, I
don't know where that goes yet. So that means you have a potential of
ten extra stations, and you're saying you need 11 more.
Well, if you're not counting those functional stations, even
though they're leased, no matter how they are, they're there, they
have equipment, they've got personnel, they're there, wouldn't they be
part of the system? Wouldn't they be -- I mean, I understand where
you're going, it would be nice to have all owned stations, but if you
have a functional equivalent of that, isn't that what the public needs?
CHIEF PAGE: Well, I would agree, and that's why it's not
reflected at each unit costing us 3,385,000. We realize that there will
be some collocated stations. We're trying to get away from leasing
stations. Although there are opportunities that come available to us to
where there's no lease involved other than our goodwill.
But there are -- I can give you an example. We purchased
property, or the county has property available for us at Heritage Bay,
Page 56
November 29,2006
951 and Immokalee Road. There's no cost for the land, we're building
the station. North Naples, we've had some discussion with them,
would they like to collocate with us there, and we have to work out
what lease arrangements would be involved, are they going to own
part of the building, things of that nature.
I can't tell you what the future will bring. Sometimes we
typically fall into situations to where another entity is building a
station and we're piggybacking with them to collocate.
So that's why we use a blended rate to get to the cost of what it's
going to cost to build these facilities.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You need the facilities to replace the
leased or collocated stations that you have?
CHIEF PAGE: No, no. These are future growth stations. That
the City of Naples, for example. That's a station where we have down
8th Avenue South and 8th Street. I can't buy any property anywhere
near there. There's just no property available to build a station. That
will always be a leased station with the city.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Go ahead, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: The term blended, okay,
meaning that you're basically pushing all your dollars into one bag
there. Aren't you possibly cheating yourself by considering a
possibility in the future that you may have some benefit that comes
out of someplace that you didn't expect?
Wouldn't you be more effective in your planning if you were to
relate it only to your own projections of need and what those real costs
are?
CHIEF PAGE: Well, I think that you're correct in that we can
predict based on population how many additional stations are going to
be needed and where. But whether we're going to be able to collocate,
there are some properties that are out there right now that are already
platted to be collocated with fire and EMS. Fiddler's Creek is one of
them. That, with some of the other districts where we typically
Page 57
November 29, 2006
historically have collocated, some of the fire and EMS stations, that
we can proj ect out.
But I can't tell you that it will always be that way, because again,
what the fire load need is may not be where an EMS station needs to
go. That's something Lee County has had a similar problem with.
They've tried to collocate, and in some cases it's worked to their
benefit, but not all the time.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I assume that in your planning,
you predict where your needs will be and you have -- maybe you even
have a map and you've located by push pin where you'd like to have a
station. That would be a basis for at least the premise for the cost of
construction, if not for land.
Is that the process that you use to plan your future in the out
years?
CHIEF PAGE: Yes, sir. If you look up here on your monitors
there, these dots actually reflect where we have responses in excess of
ten minutes. Let's look at the four growth stations that we're talking
about this particular year.
This station here is Vanderbilt and Logan. This is the one I
mentioned about in Heritage Bay. This is an area that we're currently
talking to North Naples, both of us have a need to get near Old 41 and
New 41. There's a site here that we've identified about a mile north of
that Old 41-New 41 intersection.
We're also looking at collocating with public works. And
Goodlette Road, just south of Immokalee about a half mile. So we're
trying to saturate in those areas.
You can see this year, here this pocket will be addressed by
these two units. Also, this unit will address this pocket, the need for
up here. So we've mapped these out.
Now, there are a number of fire districts that have their stations
identified out into the future. If we get invited to participate in that,
and typically we do, then we'll try to collocate with them.
Page 58
November 29, 2006
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would make a
recommendation, perhaps, you would see the benefit in it. Perhaps in
the future years you might want to -- or soon you might want to
change that chart to reflect, perhaps using a color coding to reflect
where collocation exists, and where -- set up your legend and qualify
it. Visually we can appreciate perhaps a little bit easier what you're
trying in the abstract to convey. Thank you.
CHIEF PAGE: I appreciate that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Speaking of working with other
stations, soon in this AUIR we have the Ochopee and the Isles of
Capri stations coming up for expansion. Are you relocating those two
locations or those locations today?
CHIEF PAGE: Well, currently we share facilities right now.
We actually lease from both Ochopee and Isles of Capri for our
portion of space in the stations that we're in.
But there has been considerable discussion for the Port of the
Islands area. That's been going on for a number of years. And I think
we're having a meeting within the next week or so with some of the
residents out there of possibly long term lease, land donation. I mean,
that's to be decided down the road.
For the Isles of Capri area and just south of Fiddler's Creek and
the Mainsail Drive area, Chief Rodriguez had had discussions with the
developer there about possibly providing him some land there. And
would EMS be interested in collocating there? Yes, we would, for a
number of factors.
But I don't really make all those decisions, you know that's
something that Mr. Summers would address and the manager and
ultimately the board and our advisory counsel to determine is that the
need for this place and time.
Now, we can run these maps every day if we wanted to, but I
will tell you that although we have projections here in the AUIR of
where the future stations will be, that's going to change, I'm certain of
Page 59
November 29, 2006
it, because it's changed in the past. Historically we make our best
guess of when the land will be available.
Ave Maria, there's property set aside for both fire and EMS.
How soon we have a need to build there, it may not be next year. It
may be the following year. Because there may be more docks in an
area that I need to go on the East Trail and so we're going to build at
Fiddler's Creek beforehand or whatever it is, so --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Iflmay?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: In that vein, I don't mean to be
-- I don't mean to dispute you, but if you had a plan to build an Ave
Maria because of a need, you wouldn't deny that need then go
someplace else, you would have two needs, would you not?
CHIEF PAGE: That's correct. No, the number of stations is
fixed for what the projected need is, but which unit goes up first has a
lot of variables here.
In other words, East Naples, they're getting ready to build a
station. Do I want to collocate? Yes, I'm moving that project forward
a year ahead of time.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So to some degree you have a
crystal ball issue and you're trying desperately to find out where you
can spend your dollars most effectively. That's the way I interpret
that.
CHIEF PAGE: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Yes, on your Page 136, under the revenues,
you're showing your impact fees, commercial paper loan. And then
you have a general fund loan to make the commercial paper debt
service payments. And I see up in expenditures where you're making
that same amount of $7.3 million in payments.
How are you going to repay the general fund since you don't
have the impact fee money for these new stations that are required by
Page 60
November 29, 2006
growth so you're borrowing from the general fund. But it doesn't
really look like you're going to be -- it's going to be possible to make
those repayments out of impact fees. How would you do that?
CHIEF PAGE: That would really be a board decision. These
numbers are provided by budget, and I can't really tell you, other than
drawing from the impact fees over time to repay that money, when
that would occur. My goal is to try and keep everything as cost
effective as possible because I'm hoping that I don't have to build
stand-alone stations. But I can't predict what a fire board may decide
as collocating, things of that nature.
So I think that each year as we review this, we have to look at
the numbers. I mean, I certainly had a cost saving in the four units
that are going up this year. Two of the units, one we bought the
property for, I think, about $260,000 because it was county owned and
we bought it for transportation. It had a pump site. So that was a
savings there over the 900,000 that was expected for what would be
our cost for land.
The Heritage Bay site, I didn't have to spend 900,000 on land
there because it was county owned land.
The site with public works, that's a county owned facility. We're
joining them in building a two-story structure. So that will be a cost
savings both in the cost of the construction and there was no land cost
for us to go there.
The site at Old 41 and New 41, my expectation is North Naples
will join with us in the purchase of that station.
So I'm way ahead of the game for this particular year in the fact
that I did not have to build stand-alone stations.
MS . VASEY: I guess the concern I've got here is, one of the
things we're supposed to be looking at is financial feasibility. And it
seems like that line is sort of an outstanding bill that may actually
belong in the additional revenues required line.
If you don't have a real way to pay that out of the current
Page 61
November 29, 2006
funding that you receive, it seems like maybe that's, you know, more
unfunded than funded, that 7 million.
Maybe we could ask -- you got that from OMB?
CHIEF PAGE: Yes.
MS. VASEY: Maybe we could ask tp.em to discuss that with us
a little bit. Because it -- do you see what I'm concerned about?
CHIEF PAGE: Yes, ma'am.
MS. VASEY: It may be okay, but it just sort of raises a flag
when there's no source of payment identified.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's an item we need to follow-up
with, Chief, so -- and have a -- OMB needs to address that issue to
resolve the matter. That would be important.
MS. VASEY: And I do have one more thing.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, then Mr. Harrison.
MS. VASEY: I can't quickly find what your cost is per acre for
land in the AUIR. Do you recall what that is?
CHIEF PAGE: Do you have it there? 325,000 an acre.
MS. VASEY: 325. Okay.
I'd like to just mention that some of the facilities are showing
costs that agree with the impact fees and some are not. Transportation
does. Almost everything we've seen so far does. There are two
coming up now that don't, and I just want to bring it to your attention.
I don't know if it's right or wrong.
But the impact fee shows 300,000 per acre. And your building
costs you're showing in the AUIR, 400,000 per square -- I'm sorry,
400 per square foot. And the impact fee shows 251, I think, per
square foot.
So I just wanted to bring up at this point that there is a
difference. There's another facility that's going to have the same
thing.
Everyone else is complying pretty much with what the unit costs
are, which has its own problems in understating the actual cost. But I
Page 62
November 29, 2006
wonder about consistency.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I believe last year we discussed the
relationship of the impact fees to the AUIR. And I thought the
resolution on that was they had to be comparable.
And maybe you need to take a look at adjusting your numbers to
the effect of those acreage costs that are in the impact fee study. I
believe that is the study that is a legal basis for level of service
standards.
Amy, do you want to weigh in on what document prevails or
what numbers prevail?
MS. PATTERSON: The impact fee study reflects the best and
most current information at the time of its adoption. However, in the
case of EMS, they have a more recent bid that shows that the actual
construction cost is even more than what is adopted in the impact
study.
We find this happening more and more. I think we talked about
this last year.
N ow some of the other ones maybe don't have formal accepted
bids, or there's other reasons why. Now, we may know that there's
going to be a cost difference, but we may not have actual
documentation of that. That's why you're going to see some that
match the impact fee study because we may not have actually an
estimate or an accepted bid in hand.
And so while we might think that they'll higher, until we actually
have that documentation, we can't say that that's so.
In the case of EMS, I believe they have a higher bid and they're
showing you that while the impact fee study says it's going to cost
this much, this is what real dollars are today.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm trying to recall the discussions from
last year, which we had a lot on impact fees. I think the issue was
more critical if the costs were lower than the impact fee study than if
they were higher.
Page 63
November 29, 2006
MS. PATTERSON: It plays into your level of service. The
impact fee only establishes what you have, what you've paid for and
what's your existing level of service. If you -- and costs and all these
things factor into establishing or creating that level of service.
If all of a sudden everything costs more or even if you just
decide that you want to improve your level of service, there's nothing
that restricts you from doing that except the funding.
But if you were to find that your level of service was actually
lower than what you were charging an impact fee for, that's where
you run into problems, because then you're actually imposing more
onto growth than you've paid for yourself.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Vasey, did you have something
further to follow up with?
MS. VASEY: I can come back later.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Harrison next and Mr. Baytos after
that.
MR. HARRISON: I'm just troubled by the disparity here. If we
look at the available inventory, which didn't cost us 36.9 million, it
cost us less than that, but in any event, that's 1.6 million per unit. And
yet the required inventory we're pricing out that differential, those
next 11 units, at the 3.3.
I'm very impressed with the creative ways you've gone about
collocating or leasing or doubling up with other facilities, because
we're coming in less than the million nine because of the creative
ideas you're injecting, and yet we're building this AUIR on something
that's maybe doubled. The 3.3 million is about double what our actual
IS.
SO -- of course the people up here want to encourage as many of
these creative ideas to continue as possible. And if we can actually
bring them in at, you know, a million six, million nine, whatever the
bargaining on Naples is to do, so much the better. But that, you know,
knocks out the need for the general fund financing component entirely
Page 64
November 29, 2006
if we can get them done for a lot less.
CHIEF PAGE: Well, I think I explained last year when we had
this discussion, for purpose of planning, I have to plan for the worst
case scenario. And this is my worst case scenario. Hopefully we'll be
able to continue to establish these stations in a collocated
environment. But I can't predict that.
MR. HARRISON: But you appreciate, we don't want to tell the
taxpayers that we have to ratchet up the impact fees or the ad valorems
to meet this level if we don't think that's really what's going to happen.
CHIEF PAGE: I understand.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Baytos.
MR. BA YTOS: Yes, one summary comment. The proposed
AUIR for the coming five years, $3,900,000 is 44 percent over the
same figure of last year's AUIR of 22.2 million. At the same time, we
have all these discussions going on as to possible ways to reorganize.
I personally don't see how we could support the kind of capital
expenditures in this AUIR with all these other issues. Even if some
kind of merger doesn't take place, it seems to me that some logical
outcome is an effort to reduce the duplication of effort.
And so I just -- the numbers to me just seem grossly excessive
relative to other things that are going on currently. And I know you
can't predict the outcome of those, but to talk about saying let's start
rolling or planning this program and buying property, to me I just
can't -- I can't justify it.
You know, no disrespect to any of the work put in it. But I
understand, as you said, you're putting the worst case scenario. As the
taxpayer, I'm trying to put on what's the scenario from the taxpayer
point of view.
CHIEF PAGE: Well, I think in defense I would tell you that the
EMS department as a whole is very cost efficient. Ad valorem, the
draw from the ad valorem was .15 for EMS, I think, in '06, FY '06,
where in my district I paid 1.5 for fire services.
Page 65
November 29, 2006
I think from a public safety standpoint, and of course we do take
in revenue to counterbalance that, but we pay more for green space
than we do for the EMS services in this county.
So although I understand that these numbers are certainly
alarming, but again, this is what we predict to be the worst case
scenario. We think we'll come in under that. And certainly we're
hoping that the impact is not as high as is reflected here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Chief -- go ahead.
MR. SUMMERS: Mr. Chairman, may I -- Dan Summers,
director of emergency services.
You bring up a very valid point, sir, in that how we -- our palms
get a little sweaty related to cost.
I think the challenge that we have is that, remember, not only are
we a service provider, but we're a medical provider. So we have the
challenge of construction costs. We have the challenge of facilities
costs. We have apparatus costs. But we're also in the same
environment that medical care is in today with the 26 to 32 percent
annual increase, just because of our medical components, our new
technology and our medical training.
So I wrestle with Jeff on sticker shock, and I support your
concern on sticker shock. But unlike the other traditional
governmental services, the additional component that we have is
medical technology and those costs and that Collier County is
bringing forth a survival rate of far above the national, in the 36 to 48
percent range.
So there is a lot of trade back there and a lot of debate on both
sides of that. But I think when you look at patient outcome and
delivery and the trauma care that's provided by Collier EMS, I think
there's real cost benefit there. Thank you.
MR. BAYTOS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Vasey?
MS. VASEY: Right now your level of service standard is one
Page 66
November 29, 2006
unit per 15,000 population. However, you are currently providing
right now one unit per 17,000 population. And that's because of the
deficit that you have in units.
Why is that not sufficient? Why must we go from where we are
today to one per 15,000? I'd like to -- since that is a lot of money,
maybe if we could understand why that was important, it would help.
CHIEF PAGE: Well, the national standard that we used and
which was approved by the EMS advisory counsel is NFP A 1710,
and it talks about this eight percent travel time, 90 percent of the time.
Right now I believe we're just below 81 percent countywide. If
we were to continue with this level of service, we would effectively
going -- be going back to a permanent weighted calculation -- I'm
sorry, a permanent calculation, instead of the weighted. And we
would remain typically about 80 to 81 percent of meeting that goal or
criteria 90 percent of the time.
That's a decision, you know, the board would have to consider. I
can tell you that when we went to the board after the last A UIR, I
think we had wanted to increase this service level over a longer period
of time. Initially we were going for two units in FY '07.
The board thought it important enough to go ahead and get this
up to speed faster and actually gave us direction to go ahead and put
up four units this year.
So I think from the board's perspective it's important that we
provide this level of service, and in comparison to other cities and
departments and things of that nature, when you're doing those
benchmarks typically it's rated what percentage are you meeting this
90 percent response time.
So that's something we continue to try to -- with the location of
stations, things of that nature. We're continuing to try to meet that
mark. But if we were to keep it at the same level, that's really up to
the board.
MS. VASEY: Well, just to follow on with that, if you have four
Page 67
November 29, 2006
units that are just about ready to come on. And I think you said
somewhere that you had staffing pretty much set for it. What kind of
an improvement do you think you'll get out of those four immediately
in terms of response times? Will it go up -- I'm sure it will go up
higher than 80 percent, but are we going to get a lot closer to the 90
percent with four or --
CHIEF PAGE: I believe we will. And I think next year when
we come back to this meeting, you know, this all will change again,
and maybe that can be looked at.
I think you had mentioned in an e-mail, the possibility of having
another study done to look at that level of service standard to see if the
population factor that we use right now needs to be updated. I think it
does.
In fact the last impact fee study, when it initially was sent out for
the bid included a component that would address looking at that level
of service standard. That particular provider that the county had
contracted with subsequently lost the contract and it went to another
agency, and it did not include that part of the request. So that's
something we need to look at, certainly we're working toward that.
But I understand what you're saying, but I think that these four
units will get us fairly close to that 90 percent. And when we're taking
a look at it next year, some of this may need to be adjusted again.
MS. VASEY: You mean some of these -- let me see if I
understand. You're saying that with the four units we could be getting
close to the 90 percent, eight minute mark. And then, then you'll be
looking at, it might be profitable to look at the connection between
units per population level of service standard and see if that still is
necessary to get you to the eight minutes, 90 percent level, which is
what you're really trying to get to.
CHIEF PAGE: Right.
MS. VASEY: And then so maybe you would need fewer
stations as a result of -- okay, I just wanted to --
Page 68
November 29, 2006
CHIEF PAGE: If you look at Page 138, you see the four units
that are reflected there. And that's still showing a deficit of 1.1 units.
Let's say that these four units come online and we hit above 90
percent. Well, then typically that would say that the level of service
standard should be lower, correct?
So I think that's where I'm trying to get to is that let's take a look
at it next year, see where we are. Historically that one for 15,000
seems to have worked over the years. But there's a lot of variables
there. Traffic and station locations are certainly a major player in that.
MS. VASEY: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Margie, how's your pneumonia today?
MS. STUDENT-STIRLING: It's pretty good, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I'm freezing up here. I'mjust
wondering why -- we could save so much money in this county if we
had reasonable temperatures in our buildings. And maybe if Chris at
facilities management is listening, or someone could call 774-8380,
and ask them not to have us freeze. Thank you.
Mr. Harrison, I'm turning numb up here. Probably that's good
for staffbut maybe -- Mr. Harrison, if you could go forward.
MR. HARRISON: For future thought, kind of an off the wall
idea, the Sheriffs Department permits officers to take their equipment
home if they live in the county. When I look at the dispersion of your
cost of equipment versus real estate, is it conceivable that we could
spend more on equipment and allow the people to take it home with
them and spend a lot less on real estate?
You know, if you're staffed for 24-hour service, I'm saying okay,
you've got one unit of equipment is 470. So we triple it, so
everybody's got their own truck or whatever.
But it's just, you know, for future thought. How could we avoid
spending quite so much on real estate and still have a lot more
equipment to improve the service level.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It would be interesting in your
Page 69
November 29, 2006
neighborhood to drive home in an ambulance and then go shopping
with it the next day.
CHIEF PAGE: Or just don't provide any sleeping quarters. You
just rotate them out.
MR. HARRISON: You wouldn't want to see any boat hitches
on the back.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I was just wondering, last year
some of your problem also was associated with ambulance services for
NCH to transport people. And I believe that ended. Did that give you
much of a boost, availability, change the figures significantly?
CHIEF PAGE: I believe so. And--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Is it reflected here? In a gross
way? I'm not asking you for a specific line item.
CHIEF PAGE: Well, the -- I believe it is, because obviously our
response times have improved, I believe, probably two or three
percent in the urban area. So that probably is a reflection of part of
that.
But they've been in existence now for probably two years. So
they do take a number -- probably three thousand calls of what used to
be inter-facility transports that we were tied up on. They have
removed that from the equation.
But there still be are some requests for Marco Island's health
care facility that they own where our units are being utilized there,
but prevent some response time.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: To some degree they're a
revenue source as well; is that true? I wouldn't think --
CHIEF PAGE: Yes--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: -- it's not intended as a revenue
source but it is a revenue source.
CHIEF PAGE: Yes, it was.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: You use NFPA-1710 as a basis
Page 70
November 29, 2006
for lost level of service standard. You do as well, though, keep an
incidence rate record, do you not?
CHIEF PAGE: Yes. But the 1710 is not really what's based as
to develop that level of service standard. That level of service
standard went back as far as 1986. And back then that standard was
used in the City of Naples at a population of say 18,000. And we
were using at that time a six minute average response time.
Averages are no longer used out there. They go to a fractile
response, which is more accurate because 50 percent is on time and 50
percent isn't.
But that level of service standard also seemed to work back
when we were under permanent population, or weighted population
figures in 2001, I believe it was, worked with the fractile analysis also.
It got us around what the standards should be.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, I guess I'm not really
clear yet on -- you are subscribing to a level of service and you have a
percentage that you're meeting. You say you're up to 90 percent.
Does your incidence rate also -- is that what you're using as your basis
to achieve your 90 percent?
Your incidence rate, what I mean by that, if I'm not clear, is a
call comes in, you respond to the call, action is taken, and you record
that fact. And that's where I'm going with that question.
CHIEF PAGE: Yes, yes. I can have Dave Stedman actually
respond -- he's the one that always coordinates all those numbers. But
if there's a specific question you want to ask him --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: What I'm trying to establish, at
least for my mind anyway, is that you have a level of service
standard, but you also have the reality of the incidence rate of how
frequently you're called and how well you are able to get to the scene,
et cetera, et cetera. And I was just wondering what it is, are you using
as the benchmark. Are you using the incidence rate or are you
comparing that against a level of service standard?
Page 71
November 29, 2006
And you further confused me because you now said that that
NFP A-171 0 is not your basis. So I'm sorry if I'm out of sync with it,
but I'm trying to follow.
CHIEF PAGE: I'm hoping this will help explain a little bit.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: A little dark.
CHIEF PAGE: Dave's going to give you some printed copies.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: You must have anticipated the
question.
CHIEF PAGE: Well, actually, you know, we look at these all
the time, so --
MR. STEDMAN: For the record, Dave Stedman, database
administrator for EMS.
I want to quickly explain what you're looking at here. On the far
left obviously you're looking at the zones. As you go across to the
right, you'll see the percentage -- ignore the columns of numbers
because those are just totals. But the percentage under the headings is
the percentage that we made it there in that amount of time. In other
words, zone one under four minutes, we got there 30 percent of the
time in under four minutes.
Our level of service standards is under nine minutes, because in
this particular document, we're also considering turnout time as well
as travel time, which is how fast they get out of the station and get in
the truck. So that whole standard is nine minutes.
The eight minutes that we've been talking about is actually en
route to arrival, which is an NFPA-1710 standard travel time.
So you'll see that -- and I don't know if this exactly answers your
question, because I was a little confused about the question. But you'll
see that these are the percentages for each of the zones that we're
accomplishing in under nine minutes.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I thank you. And I apologize if
I appeared to confuse. But what I was attempting to do was determine
how -- I know you have to use composite numbers, and I know you
Page 72
November 29,2006
have to get to a certain point. But I was wondering if you were just
using a standard, okay, subscribing to it, or whether proving that
standard against your realities and where that fell.
And this does bring that to it. That brings me to the conclusion I
needed. Thank you.
MR. STEDMAN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Chief, do you charge for your
ambulance services to the public?
CHIEF PAGE: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Where are the revenues for that shown?
Or why are they not shown?
CHIEF PAGE: I guess I would say that the reason that they're
not -- certainly the revenues do not cover all of our costs.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, no, then you wouldn't be here
today. So I realize that. But if it's revenue, it certainly would be nice
to show it, I would think.
Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Aren't you using that against your operating
costs, those revenues?
CHIEF PAGE: Correct.
MS. VASEY: It's not used against the facility cost, I believe,
from our budget reviews.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, find. That would have been an
answer. Thank you.
Currently do you have any general fund revenue going into your
-- on a regular basis going into these funds here, your facility funds?
Some departments have an acknowledgement that every year
they get some ad valorem revenue from the general fund going into
their department. Do you have that in here in regards to facilities?
CHIEF PAGE: Not for capital expenditures of building new, no.
Traditionally that comes out of impact fees.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Your equipment; 11.5 vehicles. You
Page 73
November 29, 2006
have 11 stations, seven owned and four co-owned. Where does this
other .5 vehicle end up?
CHIEF PAGE: Typically we have what we call a seasonal unit
where four to five months of the year we'll put up one to two 12-hour
units to address that seasonal influx.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, to that is -- and basically you
have one vehicle at every station?
CHIEF PAGE: Not necessarily. I do have some -- the four
growth units that are coming on line this year, two of those units may
be housed at a specific station. For example, Golden Gate, reflected
as 70, you can see that even though we have a unit right there in the
middle, there's still a number of calls in excess of ten minutes. That's
because that unit is transporting so often, it's vacated.
One of the additional growth units will be stationed there with
70, so therefore, I don't really need to build a station, it's already there.
And I've just saved some more money.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're talking about units. We do mean
ambulances, is that --
CHIEF PAGE: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, equipment.
CHIEF PAGE: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How many ambulances do you have at
the leased stations? You have nine of those, so I would assume maybe
nine units.
CHIEF PAGE: Oh, yes, there would be one at each station.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Do those show up in the available
inventory anywhere? I can't see where.
CHIEF PAGE: The units themselves?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes.
CHIEF PAGE: Yeah, they're -- of the 22.5 units, they're
reflected in that. The equipment, is that what you're talking about?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, yeah. I'm puzzled then by the
Page 74
November 29, 2006
footnote. I thought the units that you're -- you went by that, not the
footnote, that diagram you showed with the circles on it. I thought
you looked at equipment as another contributor to the value of your
facilities, because you -- and if you did, I'm just wondering why
wouldn't we count equipment that's at the leased facilities.
I understand why you can't count the leased facilities as a value,
because they're not owned --
CHIEF PAGE: We're talking about this one?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes.
CHIEF PAGE: Okay. That's only the equipment that's there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You're going to need to use the mike,
unfortunately. There's a portable there somewhere.
CHIEF PAGE: Okay. That reflects the equipment at a leased
station.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So the seven owned units down
below, the 3,385,166 is not only for the station but for the equipment
that's there as well.
CHIEF PAGE: Correct, all inclusive. And this, again, is the
blended.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's why with the seven and four,
when you added them together, they came so close, I thought the two
were together as far as counts go.
So you have 11.5 units, nine of which are at leased stations and
2.5 are floaters.
CHIEF PAGE: When you say 2.5 are floaters, what--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, if you have nine leased stations
and the 11.5 units of equipment only represents -- is incorporating
those nine leased stations, then you have excess equipment that isn't at
some of those nine leased stations, or is it all in the nine leased
stations?
CHIEF PAGE: I'm not sure I understand his question.
MR. BOSI: He's saying you have 11.5 units within stations that
Page 75
November 29, 2006
are leased, but you only have nine stations indicated that are leased.
So one unit per each station, you have nine stations -- he's wondering,
have they doubled up somewhere?
CHIEF PAGE: Well, we do have stations that are doubled up.
So obviously I'm not counting the two units out of Golden Gate
stations.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I just want to make sure that's what
your -- I understand your earlier statement, so that's fine.
CHIEF PAGE: Immokalee has another station that's doubled up.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I notice on your table that you're
starting out with a surplus deficiency of negative 3.6. Is that a
carry-forward from prior years?
CHIEF PAGE: It's because we went from a permanent
population to a weighted population last year, and that created the
immediate need.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So a restructuring or a different
understanding of the statistics that make up the population would
certainly have an impact on the deficiency or a surplus that you would
show in that column.
CHIEF PAGE: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you. That's all the questions I
have. Anybody else have any questions on the EMS portion?
Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: Forgive me for another stray thought, but
places like NCH have hundreds of people to meet the seasonal peak,
to keep their service level up in season.
Do we do anything along that line here in terms of extra units
ready for meeting seasonal peaks?
CHIEF PAGE: Well, we do put up seasonal units if it meets the
criteria at the point where the number of calls for a given day, let's say
we were over 140 calls. You know, then I'm going to put up a
seasonal unit. But we do not hire -- where NCH may have traveling
Page 76
November 29, 2006
,
nurse s --
MR. HARRISON: They do.
CHIEF PAGE: Okay. We don't have the ability to bring in a
paramedic or even an EMT on a seasonal basis. In fact, there's very
much in the state a shortage of paramedics. We've done quite well in
recruiting. I think right now we have probably 12 field vacancies.
There's a couple going through the process for all of the growth units
that we have.
But there's just a shortage of paramedics out there. And to try
and bring them in on a seasonal basis, we don't do that. What we do
do is allow our own paramedics to work overtime and fill those voids.
MR. HARRISON: You're probably aware they lease hundreds
of apartments to bring people in seasonally to meet their needs.
CHIEF PAGE: Great idea.
MR. HARRISON: After seeing the supply and demand on EMS
people, that's not a possibility.
CHIEF PAGE: No, sir, I just don't see it. There's quite a void
with more fire districts getting involved with the ALS side and getting
away from Fire. They've been drawing quite a few paramedics off
from the EMS providers.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does that wrap up -- Ms. Caron, and
Mr. Kolflat after Ms. Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: On Page 149, EMS replacement
cost. First I'd like to make a comment, and that's that I'm glad to see
that laptops and mobile radios have come down significantly in cost.
We were looking at $7,200 laptops last year, and $8,000 mobile radios
last year. And now we're down to four and 37, so that seems like a
good thing to me.
CHIEF PAGE: Again, that was due to us using the impact fee
numbers, and that's why the equipment costs have come down.
COMMISSIONER CARON: My question is though now, this
year on portable radios, the increase over last year is like 28 percent.
Page 77
November 29, 2006
Is that a real figure, that portable radios have increased that
significantly from year to year?
I mean, I understand -- I mean, everybody's got their cost
increase, but that seems like --
CHIEF PAGE: Are you saying the unit cost has increased 28
percent?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah.
CHIEF PAGE: I'm being told that yes, there is a 28 percent
increase in that line item.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I just find that remarkable, as I did
the laptop price and the mobile radio price last year.
So hopefully next year this will be down as well.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Yeah, Mike, the sheets I have
on this EMS section were apparently the original ones. I don't have
the revised ones. For my file could you get me a copy of the revised?
MR. BOSI: Absolutely, Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And -- if I?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Fascinated with the 28 percent.
If it's -- it seems extraordinary, out of what the norm of inflation
would be required. Therefore, it suggests that there must be some
embellishment, some kind of addition to the radio that would make it
more effective in communication or something.
My question then relates to if it's an increase now and we've
bought, let's say we have a total inventory, for purposes of illustration,
600 radios and we just bought 22 of them that have cost us 22 percent
more because they have some nuances, some little gimmicks, what
does that mean for the future, because now they would be
incompatible with the balance of the inventory?
What does that mean in terms of where we're going?
Page 78
November 29, 2006
What I'm saying, I guess my basic question is, are we really sure
28 percent is real? I find that challenging.
And I think that I would love to have you be more sure than you
appear to be.
CHIEF PAGE: You're requesting I go back and take a look at
that?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would ask you to really find
out why it's 28 percent more. Because what it tells us for the future is,
if there's something that has been bought that is worth 28 percent
more, that means it's going to follow for the rest of the inventory as
you buy new units. So that's just an interesting question, I think.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Chief, while we're on that page, what's
an ALS ambulance, is that your --
CHIEF PAGE: Advanced life support.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. It says 32.
CHIEF PAGE: The reserve and fleet.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah. We're only talking about less
than that, based on 11.5, and at the owned and collocated another, say,
11. That's 22.
Did we miss not counting 10 more ambulances into the
inventory?
MS . BAY: Artie Bay, for the record.
This was all taken from the impact fee study. There's actually
32 ambulances with all the medical and communication equipment
considered in here, but it's divided out. We don't use all of those
ambulances at the same time. There's a reserve fleet. And so if
you're using 20 ambulances, you have 12 other ambulances in
reserve.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I don't doubt what you're saying a
bit, but that's an inventory that is part of the available inventory. So it
becomes an asset to the taxpayers that we should include at the rate
Page 79
November 29,2006
that you utilized it, or at least I would think so. Unless there is a
reason not to.
MS. BAY: It is included as part of the average.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What?
MS. BAY: If you look at the equipment replacement cost form,
the sheet, Page 149. There are 32 ambulances included in the
inventory .
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right, that's -- yeah, that's --
MS. BAY: Maybe I'm not understanding your question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If you have 32 ambulances in your
inventory, each have a value of 477,000. I'm not talking about
replacement costs; I'm talking about the value that's on your available
inventory value. You've only allocated 22.5 to the available
inventory .
By the other sheet you're saying you have 32. So there's ten
approximately units times a half million dollars a unit that should be
apparently in the inventory unless you can tell me why they shouldn't
be.
MS. BAY: It's included as a proportion of the total. And so--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Total?
MR. BA YTOS: The total of the replacement cost, which is the
477,000. The ambulance actually is only something less than 256 --
257,000.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But these are equipped vehicles. So
your equipped vehicle I thought was 477 --
MS. BAY: Well, not -- no, not necessarily. The ambulance is
not necessarily equipped with medical equipment. That's moved. If
you take an ambulance out of the reserve, the equipment moves into
those ambulances. Those aren't fully equipped ambulances.
What you're seeing here is the inventory of all the equipment,
and then we use the cost per station basis, because we had to take into
consideration 32 ambulances, but they're not all in use at one time.
Page 80
November 29, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, I understand what you're saying,
I'm just not sure that I see the reasoning behind the way you used it in
the inventory required of the AUIR.
Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: Just wondering why there's 20 units used as
the denominator in here rather the 22.5. Because it looks like we're
really just spreading this over 20 units, not the 22.5. And the 477 is
overstated. Maybe I don't understand.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I don't either. I'm -- this 32 on that
Page 149 has really put a confusion note into -- a confusing issue into
the whole thing.
Does anybody here -- Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Are these units not rotated in
and out of use?
MS. BAY: Yes, they are.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay, so why would they not
be considered as being part of your standard inventory?
What he's suggesting, if I understand it correctly, and I believe I
do, he's talking about this is an asset in real terms whether you're using
it or not, okay, and needs to be counted for value. And if you have to
go to the -- if you're rotating them, that means for all intents and
purposes, depending on the level of rotation, for all intents and
purposes they are -- should be considered then to be, prepared to go to
respond to a call.
If you're telling me they're out for two and three months at a
time, then you need still to establish the asset value, minus the medical
equipment on board, if that's appropriate, okay.
I don't mean to make your life more complicated, but you're
understating your assets, and that's not a good thing there, the way I
understand it.
MS. BAY: I'm not really certain that we are, because we have to
include them in the inventory, but we're dividing them out by the 20
Page 81
.^ ..."...~ . ..~ . __"",,,_.h".'''.
November 29, 2006
stations.
I understand where you're coming from, but I don't really know a
way to do that. And we kind of follow the format from the impact fee
study. And initially this was all divided by 11 stations, and we felt
that that was inflating our -- because it's our replacement cost. If we
were going to go and replace, it was inflating that by a serious dollar
amount.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I see your problem, I believe.
In terms of usage in the AUIR, you're trying to connect it to the station
it serves. And so perhaps it needs to be fractioned as an incremented
cost. In other words, those extra units that are non-functional need to
be fractioned into the rest of those usable units as a value to get to
where you want to go.
MS . BAY: So are you suggesting that rather than the 20, we
would state it as 22 and a half?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Whatever fraction works. I
didn't work it out. I don't have the calculator with me. But whatever
it is, it seems to me you need to treat it as part of your -- it's available,
it's functional and it needs to be usable, so I think it needs to be stated.
MS. BAY: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other comments on the ambulance
or EMS section of the AUIR?
Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Just one quick question. What percentage of your
calls result in the transport?
CHIEF PAGE: Last time I took a look, I think we were right
about 56 percent.
I can get you a firmer number if you like. Generally it averages
around that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Chief, I think there are some
outstanding issues that through this meeting you need to address.
CHIEF PAGE: Could you help me with that list so I make sure I
Page 82
November 29, 2006
have it.
We talked about the unfunded information from OMB.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right, that's one of the most important
items.
Addressing these reserve units, I certainly would think that if
you're going to have some criteria for reserve units, you may want to
-- if you have included it in your other pricing, that's understandable,
but you've got to have some kind of standard as to how many reserve
units you need for how many full units you have.
THE COURT REPORTER: Mr. Strain, I'm just barely hearing
you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm sorry.
Well, that kind of information coming back to us --
CHIEF PAGE: So you want the unit ratio?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Understood.
CHIEF PAGE: 4.5.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Whatever it is per unit.
A lot of the other questions I think were answered. I'm not sure.
Does anybody else --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: The radio.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The radio issue?
CHIEF PAGE: Yeah, 28 percent more and why.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else recall anything else that
we may have missed. I think that's it.
CHIEF PAGE: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, sir.
The next item on the AUIR is going to be a lengthy discussion. I
think it's -- I believe it's government buildings. Yes. You may want
to take a lunch break now until twenty minutes till 1 :00 and that way
attack the government buildings all in one lump sum.
So with that we will take a one-hour break or one hour and two
minutes, be back here at 12:40. 12:40 for the members of the
Page 83
November 29, 2006
commISSIon. So please. Thank you.
(A lunch recess was taken.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. The time. We were supposed to
have started, so if everybody can please get to their seats, we'll start
with the meeting.
And I think the first line of business ought to be the discussion of
where we intend to go today and take it from here.
We're moving a little bit slower than we may have anticipated;
the issues will be coming a little more in detail. I don't expect us to
get everywhere completed today with -- we'll finish the first reading
but not the second reading that we have originally thought. I don't
think we'll get through all of those.
So that brings us to a point where we need to know where to go
next. We have the room available to us tomorrow. And I understand
we have it available on the 12th and 15th of December.
Is that right, Mike?
MR. BOSI: The 12th and 15th of December we have a room
available, but it's the 609 and 610 CDES. The chambers are occupied
for those dates. Our spillover dates for December were all confined
within 609 and 610 at CDES.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Conference room over at Development
servIces.
MR. BOSI: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. One thing that was asked was if
we could possibly rehear the EMS and library corrections that we
discussed earlier later this afternoon. My thought on that is that not
only does staff need time to digest what we need to discuss with
them, maybe they can get it back to us after a few hours, but we also
would need time to see how their answers the already gave us affect
the tables that we've already got.
So I would rather see us go into a second reading on those at a
point in the future, not tomorrow.
Page 84
November 29, 2006
But I need to poll the board and see what you think about
meeting tomorrow or reconvening where we end up today back on the
12th or the 15th to finish up. Any thoughts?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I'm okay with tomorrow. I'd
rather do it and go through it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Pardon?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I have to look at the --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, okay. Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: December works better for me, as
well as I think it will give us a chance to read through everything.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Bob, does December not work for you,
or are you just --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, I have to--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, I mean, I'm sorry, Bob Vigliotti.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: What date was that in
December?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Twelfth and 15th.
MR. BOSI: Friday and a Tuesday. The 12th is Tuesday--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Actually, I'm good. I have it in
here for the Productivity Committee.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does the Productivity Committee have
any suggestions or ideas on what you'd like?
MR. HARRISON: Tomorrow or the 12th but the not the 15th.
MR. BA YTOS: I prefer the 12th.
MS. VASEY: I'd like to finish up tomorrow.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Tomorrow. Well, we're scheduled for
tomorrow, so I guess if we -- do we have a quorum with the Planning
Commission, though.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I'll be there tomorrow.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron will not--
COMMISSIONER CARON: I cannot be here tomorrow.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I don't know. What we'll have
Page 85
November 29, 2006
to do on break, we're going to call a few of the others and see if we
can get a quorum here for tomorrow. Otherwise, it wouldn't do us
much good, we couldn't take a position on it. Because coming here
tomorrow would be to try to finish up and come to the conclusion of
some of the ones we've already discussed.
Mike, is -- oh, Joe?
MR. SCHMITT: Yeah, just for the record, Joe Schmitt.
Please recognize also that the 12th and 13th of December are
board dates, so there will be a board meeting going on at the same
time. We expect that to be a two-day meeting, so there will be a lot of
staff supporting, basically involved in what's going on between what's
going on with the board plus what will be going on with the respective
committees.
So, in fact I know there's a lot on the agenda with a two-day
board meeting. That was strictly scheduled in belief that it would be
and if needed for carry-over only. But it appears we're going to need
them. And we'll do what we can to certainly support both the board
meeting. I'll have to have principal staff members here, because there
are many of my agenda items on that board meeting.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe, you may be jumping ahead a little
bit. Because if we do -- it looks like we could meet tomorrow,
assuming we have a quorum for the Planning Commission, because
we would have to take a vote on our recommendations tomorrow then.
So if we meet tomorrow, we might be able to finish it up then.
MR. BOSI: And there was one other date that we had originally
allocated in December, and that was December 7th.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's our regular meeting date. We
have a pretty long day that day.
Mr. Harrison, did you have something you want to say.
MR. HARRISON: I'm just finishing up on what we were talking
to EMS about, Pages 151 to 152.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Let's finish this discussion of when
Page 86
November 29, 2006
we're going to meet again. Everybody then is for tomorrow?
Yes.
MS. VASEY: Just a question. When are you supposed to go to
the commissioners with the A UIR?
MR. BOSI: The 24th of January.
MS. VASEY: Oh, okay, so it's not in December.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mike, during the break, is someone
going to be able to contact the other missing CCPC members to see if
one of them could make it? Paul Midney is usually not available, so I
wouldn't even try that. But you might try Commissioner Adelstein.
MR. BOSI: We'll make sure someone is available to be able to
accomplish that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, good. Because that way if we
know before the day is over, we can make a decision on whether we
should continue tomorrow or not.
Okay, with that, Mr. Harrison, do you want to follow up on a
question? Is EMS even here?
MR. BOSI: No, I thought we were --
MR. HARRISON: I never got through Pages 151, 152, but it's a
fleet of vehicles even larger than what they had under replacement.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, well, they're going to have to
come back to us, which more than likely will be tomorrow. We'll
have to bring up that, raise a new issue tomorrow.
With that, we'll move into the government buildings section of
the AUIR.
And I don't know who was responsible for finally getting the
computer to understand this was not a meat locker, but thank you,
because the temperature is much better here today.
Okay. Go ahead, sir.
MR. HOVELL: For the record, I'm Ron Hovell, Principal
Project Manager in the Facilities Management Department, and I'm
sure my boss will take full credit for that, for the facilities, because he
Page 87
November 29,2006
called the shots last time you made that comment. And I saw him in
here working on the thermostat.
Anyway, if I could start backwards with our input, kind of
building up. Pages 162 and 163 provide the inventory of buildings.
You'll note that there's been some changes from last year's, and those
are specially highlighted there at the end with asterisks and whatnot.
Page 161 is the summary of the capital improvement plan, and
there was one change that I don't think you got the page on. It came
out of one of the questions relatively recently. Under the section
projects approved for construction, we had been carrying the Sheriffs
CID building, the 35,000 and some odd square feet, as being a transfer
into government buildings in 2008.
Based on input from the Sheriffs Office and discussions during
their AUIR process earlier, that is apparently not going to happen in
the foreseeable future.
So when you back out those figures, it makes the proposed
five-year CIE 264,567 square feet, which actually had already been
captured in the summary form, just not on that particular page.
And then building up from there, there's the charts and graphs
and whatnot that ultimately are summarized on Page 155 that, this
summary form.
I think the heart of our issue is with the capital improvement
plan. I want to specifically point out that most of the -- most if not all
the projects we're talking about have already been approved, are either
well under construction or are about to start construction. So there's
not a lot of opportunity to change the five-year plan.
The only ones that are proposed as future items are the CAT
operations facility, which the board recently approved the purchase of
the Morande Automobile dealership. It's being paid for with
non-government building impact fees anyway, but it winds up going
on this inventory.
The Ave Maria government building/communications tower.
Page 88
November 29, 2006
You heard earlier, I think it was EMS, explain that we are going to get
some land in that development to build EMS, fire. There's also some
land to build this government center. And one of the reasons we had
to put it within the five-year window is in order to both document and
sort of fulfill our end of the bargain with the developer to make sure
that they do transfer the property to us.
And the last one is the north transportation facility, which is part
of a convoluted land swap deal between what used to be GAC land
trust land, about 47 acres, some school board land adjacent to
Palmetto Ridge High School, and some other county owned lands that
are up there in the Orangetree area, that involve the future northeast
plant for the public utilities division.
And again, that's been kicking around as a -- at least in a land
swap sense, it's been kicking around for about a year and a half. It
only became apparent during this AUIR process that some other
funding mayor may not pay for it. That's yet to be determined
whether it will actually be paid for with government impact fees or
some other source of funding. So you'll see that one says TBD for a
funding source.
I think those are the highlights I wanted to point out. And I'll
open it up for your questions.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Do we have questions from the
panel?
MR. BA YTOS: So just make sure I'm clear on what you've said.
Baytos, for the record.
All of the proj ects in the next five years are pretty much
committed already and they're designed and it's a done deal. Is that--
MR. HOVELL: Yes, sir. If you'd like, I can go down the list
and -- you know, for instance, one of the ones, projects under
construction, and realize this was a snapshot in time. On September
30th, 2006 it was listed as under construction.
We just opened the courthouse annex parking deck on
Page 89
November 29, 2006
November 20th. So next year that will show up just in the inventory.
It will not appear as part of the capital improvement plan because it's
done now.
The courthouse annex that the foundation work is getting ready
to get underway here in the next couple of weeks.
The fleet facility, we just had our contract approved in front of
the board here recently. That will probably get under construction in
December.
The emergency services complex, at the next board meeting I'll
be bringing forward the guaranteed maximum price with Kraft. And
that site work will probably start in December. By the way, that's the
same site as the South Regional library . This will be the site work for
both. Both those projects will be getting underway probably in
December.
So yes, they're all pretty far along.
And I guess I would point out, too, that because of the advanced
stage of all these projects, when I did a summary form, I showed that
the cost I showed as the actual projected cost for each one of those
projects, added them all together, divided by the square footage it
provided, and it came out in this particular case to almost $500 a
square foot.
I'm sure next year when the parking garage drops out, which isn't
really providing any square feet, it's almost like part of the site
development costs for the courthouse annex, that will excuse the
numbers this year, but next year the unit cost will probably go down
significantly because that one will drop off the five-year capital
improvement plan.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: In your list of inventory list of
buildings, where is the City of Naples meeting room and their council
chambers and all that stuff?
MR. HOVELL: They don't belong to Collier County, so they're
not listed.
Page 90
November 29, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I didn't think so. Why then under the
population countywide are you using populations from the cities of
Marco Island, Everglades City and Naples, yet you're not including
MR. HOVELL: Collier County provides services to people in
the City of Naples. We have board meetings regarding EMS as an
example. EMS provides services within the city. General government
services are provided. I know out -- I know there's a government
service center out in Immokalee. I believe -- I don't know if there's
any kind of interlocal agreements where the city collects some fees or
anything related to county things, but I know there's crossovers there.
So, no, right now we don't change the population figures based
on anything less than the full county.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But, then you're looking at the
population from the city as using -- having the same impact on county
facilities as county population does. Yet the city people have all their
own facilities in which to deal with. Very few of them, in fact I don't
know any of them that have ever shown up at a Planning Commission
meeting. They go to their own city council meeting.
MR. HOVELL: Each and every function that we support -- and
we're unlike a lot of other ones you've heard, where maybe a
department director like Jeff Page for EMS or Marilyn Matthes for the
libraries can get up and they can talk about their function, because
they both operate and therefore plan what they need.
We're sort of the cats and dogs of the organization. We provide
support to the clerk the courts, the property appraiser, the tax
collector, the court functions, the public defender, the state attorney,
much less our own internal departments. And each one of those have
their own growth metric who they support, don't support, et cetera.
And from a very vague planning sense, each one of those mayor
may not provide services to people in the cities.
This particular methodology was adopted by the board when the
Page 91
November 29, 2006
government building impact fee was first adopted, and we've just
repeated it. We've not so far attempted to change that methodology.
Sure, we could spend lots of time talking about the details of all
those individual functions, but -- actually, I probably shouldn't say we,
I'm probably not qualified to talk about that. You'd have to get those
from the other departments and entities to get up here and attempt to
defend their particular areas.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN : Well, I guess you've got your position.
Others can have theirs.
Anybody want to ask any questions of the government building?
Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: First I'd like to start with Page 155. I guess I'm
the one that asked the questions about why the unit cost was so high,
because it is higher than the unit cost that's included in the impact fee.
I think that was only $279, instead of nearly 500. And I do understand
that there are some differences.
I'm not sure that I understand why we should include this higher
figure of nearly 500, because as you said, when the parking garage
becomes part of the inventory and is no longer separately identified,
the projects that are remaining will drop down to $425 per square--
yeah, per square foot. And so you're kind of artificially inflating it
this year, and then it will drop back down to a more reasonable level
next year.
And I'm not sure -- you know, that just kind of raises concerns
and perceptions that I don't know if it's useful to go in that direction.
MR. HOVELL: The format of this forum, I must say, causes a
lot of discussion. When I first started doing this, when I switched over
to the facilities department, it about drove me to distraction.
We can fill out this form in a lot of different ways. This top
section where we're doing the available inventory, the required
inventory, the proposed CIE and therefore our deficit, certainly from a
square footage point of view, that's a pretty straightforward
Page 92
November 29, 2006
calculation. The problem always comes into well, how do you value
that?
Well, I can certainly document that our proposed CIE is $131
million. So it would not seem appropriate to artificially say well,
we're building 264,000-plus square feet, but let's only multiply that
number times 425, because that's not the cost of those projects.
But if we wanted to for that section do it a different way, that
would be fine. But when we get down here to the expenditures and
revenues, I absolutely have to show that we're going to spend 131 -- or
at least plan to spend $131 million over the next five years for those
specific projects.
Most of those are already approved and underway, and therefore
I have to show how I'm going to come up with the revenues for those
items.
So if we want to talk about changing the way the form works or
what it's meant to display, I think maybe that top portion, you know,
we could do that, if that's the desire of the folks in charge of these
things. But certainly from an expenditure and revenue point of view, I
think we need to use the projects as we actually understand them to
exist.
MS. VASEY: Well, it's just that next year you will still have the
revenue line, you'll still have the debt service that you're paying for,
for the 2003 and 2005 bonds that include the parking deck. So it's
going to be with you for many years. And I assume those are like 30
year bonds?
MR. HOVELL: I think 20, as far as I know. But there could be
different ones with different lengths.
MS. VASEY: So you're going to have that with you for a long
time. It's just that is seems strange. You know, we were always
looking at unit cost, and that's a pretty major distortion, 70-some
dollars a square foot.
And I certainly understand what you're saying. It's just, you
Page 93
November 29, 2006
know, then it's going to cause all kinds of questions next year. Well,
how did it go down, were we more efficient? Well, no, it's the parking
garage.
MR. HOVELL: As I say, I'm not sure, at least from my point of
view, I'm not sure what the unit cost really tells us or does for us,
except in a very long-range planning sense.
Because, yes, for other functions where maybe you're trying to
plan something ten years out, well, what cost did you use? Well,
okay, for lack for any other good reason, then maybe you use the unit
cost that was developed in the impact fee study.
But once those start to become -- once those start to transition
from long-range planning to project-specific execution, at some point
you have to transition from planning figures to real figures. And in
this particular category, government buildings, almost all our proj ects
are under some phase of design or study and we have more detailed
estimates than the more vague, well, let's just throw 425 square foot as
an example.
So I'm not sure what to do about that transition. I'm not even a
planner by profession. And I understand your point, but I'm not sure
what to do about it.
MS. VASEY: And I'm not sure either. I just raised it because,
you know, people look at that. They look at that number and it causes
questions.
So I'm willing to say that that just needs to be asterisks or
something. Maybe put it in the -- once the parking deck is -- if the
parking deck is excluded because there's no square footage associated
with the 19 million dollars or whatever it is, that would be an average
cost of 425. So we don't lose the reason why it's distorted, at least.
MR. HOVELL: We could certainly add that to the notes down
there at the bottom.
MS. VASEY: And one other thing while we're on this page.
Almost everything we've looked at on the other facilities, there may
Page 94
November 29, 2006
sometimes be a surplus according to the level of service standard,
those first few numbers. But there's usually not a revenue required
associated with it. And here we have sort of a unique situation where
you're programming in a surplus and then you're asking for money,
too.
And I'd like to look a little more closely at the Ave Maria and
the transportation ones, because if you were to eliminate those two,
you could get pretty much into the required level of service over the
five years and not very much additional funding required.
So if you follow that logic, I'm trying to understand why we
need to have those facilities in this five-year AUIR, because you could
be in balance if you didn't put them in.
MR. HOVELL: Well, again, the Ave Maria is put in there
specifically to set aside the land in next year's AUIR. You know
maybe it will be in year five again and maybe the year after that it will
be in year five again. So if we don't show some evidence of planning
to construct on the land, we won't get the land. So beyond that, I'm
not sure what to tell you.
I mean, yes, mathematically it would show without a deficit if
we were to delete it, but then we probably wouldn't get the land. So
I'm not sure how to resolve that.
The north transportation facility, again that's under consideration
for who's going to pay for it and how it's going to be paid for. From
an inventory point of view it's going to get captured in this category.
If some other source of funding pays for it, it will show up as revenue
of whatever that other funding source might be to offset the expense.
It's in motion. We're in discussion with the school board on an
interlocal agreement to do that land swap, and if that land swap goes
through, then I believe transportation will continue to pursue, whether
it's grant funding, that some source of funding that they have at their
disposal and/or asking the board to approve impact fees. So we're just
trying to capture that someplace, that it is an ongoing effort.
Page 95
November 29,2006
MS. VASEY: Well, is it for a growth-related thing, or is it just
moving things around and you're just replacing something that you
should have.
MR. HOVELL: I was looking -- I'm sorry. Yes, I was looking
to see if anybody from transportation was still out.
As far as I know it's growth-related, because right now I think
they run all the road and bridge operations out of the facility there on
Davis Boulevard.
This facility is planned, or at least conceptualized to be up there
by Orangetree, and it would provide them their second place to
operate from to provide the road and bridge services, one of which is
to go out and work on some of those non-paved roads. They spend a
fair amount of time doing that.
So yes, I think it is growth-related, at least from what I've heard
from the transportation division.
MS. VASEY : You're really using a lot of your -- well, you're
getting to have quite a bit of debt service. When you look at what you
have from the bonds and then all the debt service payments using the
commercial paper loans. And you're obligating it for, I imagine, 10
years on the commercial paper and 20-year on the bond. Is that
financially going to cause you any problems?
MR. HOVELL: It's a good question. I believe -- I've talked to
Susan Usher a lot in the budget office about this. And one of the
things about the format of this, the AUIR presentation the way it's
currently structured, is it gives you that five-year window, but what it
doesn't really show you is that yeah, but we've spent this amount of
money and we continue to have a debt service payment for another
ten, 15 years, depending on which bond series we're on and whatnot.
So it doesn't take that long term view to see, for instance, I think
one of these lines says something like -- at least if not in our
category, in some of the other categories, talk about a loan from the
general fund. But it doesn't really tell you when and if they'll ever be
Page 96
November 29, 2006
able to afford to pay that back. Because we only look at a five-year
window, we don't project out 15,20 years and say okay, in year 12
we're going to pay that back.
So I don't know the rest of those details. I know it certainly
concerns me. But again, most of these projects, the budgets and the
loans and whatnot are already in place. So there's not -- it's not like
these are proposed things where we don't have a plan. I'm pretty sure
between the budget office and the things in place, that these items are
already contemplated in their plans to pay for it.
MS. VASEY: Because that was exactly the problem we had
with the EMS. Because when you've got a lot of loans out there and
no foreseeable way to pay them back, then it comes into question
whether it's really financially feasible or not --
MR. HOVELL: I don't -- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
MS. VASEY: No, go ahead.
MR. HOVELL: I don't know to what degree EMS worked with
the budget office. I know ours is, at least in my opinion, a pretty
complicated set of financing schemes going on here. So I have a
specific spreadsheet that shows all the details about the revenues, and
which bond, and when they're coming on line and how much is being
paid. I think it goes out maybe ten years, but it doesn't out to the life
of the loans and whatnot.
So I know the budget office spent a fair amount of time
specifically for this AUIR looking at it and providing these figures.
So I feel fairly confident that they do have a plan for all these.
MR. COHEN: Ms. Vasey, can I add something as well with
respect to the Category B facilities, as we differentiate those from the
Category A's. The Category A's are going to be incorporated into the
CIE, and they have to be financially feasible.
The category B's, the board has a lot more flexibility in being
able to revisit them with respect to financial feasibility. F or example,
if the revenue stream isn't there for a certain project, which is -- had
Page 97
November 29, 2006
been the case, I know, when they looked at government buildings this
last year and they said move certain proj ects back, you have the
ability to revisit the Category B's and move them around a little bit
more.
Where with the Category A's, because we're subject to state
scrutiny, we have to tell DCA, okay, we're moving a project out of,
say, public utilities. The rationale cannot be financial. The rationale
would have to be, for example, our population growth has slowed
down and we're not going to need that water plant in 2015, we going
to need it in 2017 instead as a result of that.
Whereas with the Category B's we have some more flexibility.
And you'll be able to revisit it and the Board of County
Commissioners will be able to revisit it as well. And that's the
advantage with the Category B facilities.
MS. VASEY: I just thought we would be trying to look to help
them see if there is a financial problem when we go through it.
MR. COHEN: If you do see something that's glaring, that really
kind of stands out like that with the Category A's or the Category B's,
definitely point it on out. And if you see something that you think
should be put on off into year six or seven or whatever the case may
be, then I would recommend that accordingly.
MS. VASEY: I have one last.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go right ahead.
MS. VASEY: Could you address the CAT facility? Last year it
was in the AUIR for 2.6 million and you were going to do it on
County Barn. And now it's planned for that car dealership and it's 8.7.
And I was just sort of wondering why that's a better deal.
MR. HOVELL: I'm sorry, I couldn't tell you on that aspect.
Once it became -- once it switched from being at County Barn -- and I
can tell you why it didn't work out at County Barn -- but the
transportation division is managing the rest of that. I really don't
know much about it other than capturing it on the report.
Page 98
November 29, 2006
I do know that almost the whole two years I've been with the
facilities management department, this project -- or the concept of
trying to find CAT a more permanent home has been kicking around. I
know I've been involved in looking at numerous properties all around
the county trying to the figure out where we can buy them some land
and build them a building.
In the end, the one that was captured on last year's A UIR was the
concept that we would somehow acquire the parcels adjacent to
County Barn and expand that overall facility to include CAT. Well,
the property owners were contacted, one being a church, and they
declined to sell to the county. And in the end the board did not seem to
support the idea of doing eminent domain, and so that was not going
to work.
And then the transportation division went back to one of the
many alternatives that had been looked at, which was to buy the old
Morande dealership, and when they took that to the board that did get
approved.
So I'm sorry I can't answer much more than that, but at least that
provides you some history of how that happened.
MS. VASEY: Just one clarification. On the Ave Maria, when
you say that we'll lose the land if we don't put it in the program, is that
if we don't have it in the five-year program we'll lose it, or is there --
what is the risk of slipping it into the fiscal year 12 program instead of
the 11 ?
MR. HOVELL: It was my understanding, and of course
Category B, maybe this doesn't really work out anyway, but it was my
understanding, just second, third-hand type of thing from the
developer through somebody I think in the CDES world, that the best
way to commit to needing the land was to show it. And I think the
word they used was in our capital improvement plan, which I don't
know if we have a term that's exactly like that. Whether it's AUIR or
capital improvement element or if they meant this particular piece of
Page 99
November 29,2006
paper. So I don't know if there would be a difference between the
five-year window or pushing it out into that second five-year window.
And I'm not sure quite who I would have to ask to figure that out.
MS. VASEY: It seems like if it's in there for year 12, it's still in
there.
MR. HOVELL: That could be a possibility.
MS. VASEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, any other questions?
Mr. Baytos.
MR. BA YTOS: One more question. The -- the large number of
projects in the second five years of the ten-year plan have design fees
and so forth been incurred already on those proj ects? At what point,
you know, is there an opportunity to evaluate the plan and the need
and so forth?
MR. HOVELL: All of the ones listed at the bottom under that
category called Planned Projects beyond FY 2011, none of those to
my knowledge have any current activity towards planning or design or
anything like that.
Most of them -- not all of them but most of them are based on
the last master plan that had been done. One or two, for instance, that
first one, the tax collector north office was a specific request from the
tax collector.
But understanding the reluctance to continue to add new proj ects
in the first five years, we just put it in the second five years for now
just as one of those things that's out there --
MR. BA YTOS: So it's a wish list.
MR. HOVELL: At this point I guess I'd have to call it that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: So I just want to confirm, so are
you going to move Ave Maria down to the planned projects beyond
2011 ?
MR. HOVELL: I couldn't tell you one way or the other today. I
Page 100
November 29, 2006
would need to check with somebody to determine what we need to do
to make sure we don't lose the land.
COMMISSIONER CARON: But you would get us that
information, because it would seem to me that Ms. Vasey has a very
good point.
MR. HOVELL: Sure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: On your available inventory, you
dropped from last year, which I looked at your tables, I understand
why you dropped -- I will have questions on each individual item
there. But last year you had approved capital proj ects for fiscal year
'06 and prior years, 218,784 square feet on top of the 604,181 that was
in the available inventory, for a total of 822,965.
What happened to that 218,784?
MR. HOVELL: This year it's captured as part of the proposed
CIE. Last year I tried to split it out to kind of show that it's not on
line, but it's already under construction or pretty far along. There was
a lot of discussion about the format. And to be consistent with the
others, we did break it out that way.
So that 218 less anything that opened, for instance, the North
Collier government services center opened in 2006, so that 16 or so
thousand square feet dropped out because it went onto the inventory,
it's no longer proposed. But the rest of that rolled into what's called
proposed CIE FY '07 to 11.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If the 218,784 was approved as a
capital project in the prior fiscal year and years prior to that, why
wouldn't that money be re-needed to be calculated into this year's
additional revenues required?
Or did this AUIR's additional revenues require that's already
been in there and done and funded.
MR. HOVELL: Well, again, this is that problem between
transitioning from planning to execution. A lot of these projects,
especially, for instance, the courthouse annex parking garage, it was
Page 101
November 29,2006
probably 98 percent complete on September 30th, and yet we're
showing a facility coming on line.
Where do we -- where, how, if do we capture those costs that
have been spent for a facility that's not yet on line? The guidance, to
my understanding, is that the total cost of the proj ect, if it hasn't been
opened, goes as a proposed capital improvement element. And so this
is the way this is reflected.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: My concern is that because of that,
because of the way that you had to reflect it, the additional revenues
required may not be required because they're already funded as part of
the capital proj ects in the prior year that just didn't show up in time in
this document. No?
MR. HOVELL: No.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Could you explain why.
MR. HOVELL: The costs for all those facilities are -- in the
expenditure category, they show up as an expense, and on the revenue
ends of things, they show up as bonds to pay for those expenses. So
they're captured on both sides of the equation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How about the square footage that they
produce, is that -- how is that captured?
If you had a requirement for a square footage that was in a prior
budget and that square footage was already allocated in a prior AUIR,
by repeating it in the proposed -- this proposed CIE, then aren't you
saying we need to refund --
MR. HOVELL: Every year we do a five-year window, so any
project that was perhaps in that first year might drop out. But all those
other four years are always relevant to next year's proposed five-year
window, just one year earlier.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Don't we normally see that as a
carry- forward?
MR. HOVELL: No, I was the only one that did it that way last
year. They're all shown as proposed until they come on line.
Page 102
November 29, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Because last year's expenditures for the
proposed CIE included this year and up to 2010 was only 2.3 million.
It jumped from 2.3 to 131, that's a substantial jump in proposed for a
one-year addition to an AUIR.
MR. HOVELL: Last year also showed the expenses needed for
those FY '06 and prior year projects. And that, again, that rolled
forward as captured in that single line item called proposed CIE for
the five-year window, 2007 to 2011.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: As far as your impact fees goes go, did
you have an impact fee increase since the last A UIR?
MR. HOVELL: Yes. I believe it was adopted May, June, June
of this year.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Because it looks like it's almost
doubled. Is that correct, Amy?
MS. PATTERSON: The new impact fee was adopted on June
25th and didn't go into effect until November 1st. So it was a sizable
increase, but we haven't -- none of that revenue is reflected in -- it
would be reflected in the forecast money in your AUIR, but we're not
receiving that money as of yet.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Thank you. The Ave Maria
issue, by the way, I know that they've not come on -- they got an
FlAM produced when they got approved for their DR!. And they had
certain thresholds they were expected to meet based on production, the
number of units sold and everything built out there.
I would assume that you wouldn't want to build a government
facility out there until the residential area and the residential quantity
in the area justified its use.
MR. HOVELL: Sure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Because I was wondering how
that would go into Ms. Vasey's comment about the delay of the Ave
Maria, because they've been delayed in the production of what they
were going to have on line by now. So I'm assuming that would belay
Page 103
November 29, 2006
the need for a government building out there. That's just a statement
more than anything else.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chair?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I have a question. Does the
county recognize the term substantial completion in contracts?
MR. HOVELL: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: If you're a 98 percent, wouldn't
that constitute substantial completion?
MR. HOVELL: No, sir. At least in my world, substantial
completion means when we can occupy the building for beneficial
use. So the substantial completion for the parking garage was
November 20th, first day we parked in it. It won't be finally
completed until sometime in December, they're still over there
working on it.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I do know, having watched
yesterday, or been here yesterday, I'm aware of the problem that's
associated with the sprinkler system. But that's the glitch on that one,
wasn't it?
MR. HOVELL: Yes, sir. It probably would have been opened
over the summer had it not been for that particular issue.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Now it terms of budget
numbers, when you quote, when a Commissioner would ask you how
much are your construction costs, are you going to use the high
number when you answer them or are you going to use the number
that you know is most current that is estimated?
MR. HOVELL: Construction number for what, a specific
proj ect?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Any project. I'm trying to get a
general -- I'm trying to give you an appreciation of my thinking here.
If the issue before on the AUIR is you have a construction cost
number, right, 497 a square foot or whatever it is, that's not necessarily
Page 104
November 29,2006
a real cost, that's inflated by some other factor. So if you were asked
by a Commissioner, you know, what are current construction numbers
for building such and such kind of building, you would pretty much
have a general idea or could get that? And you wouldn't quote the
AUIR number to them at that time.
MR. HOVELL: No.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: When you budget, will you be
budgeting on the high number knowing full well that that -- okay, that
answered my question.
MR. HOVELL: No, we try and use metrics for various facilities
types. As an example, though, you were talking about libraries a little
earlier, we received bids for the Marco Island library addition of 4,000
square feet. The total proj ect costs, if we accepted that bid, which is
going to the board next meeting to rej ect those bids, but had we
accepted that bid, the project costs would have been 2.5 million, over
$500 a square foot for a single meeting room addition.
Each category of facility we tend to try and estimate based on its
particular issues. Some require a lot more site development than
others, depending -- when we do something here on this site, there's a
lot of infrastructure already built in. When we develop something on
raw land, then we have to plan on bringing in utilities, so to me they're
all different. I don't use one planning figure.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And I agree with you. And the
reason I raised that question is because I didn't think that in going
forward you would use inflated numbers. And I understand you have
to figure somewhere. And I appreciate what you're talking about.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: On your government buildings, I notice
there's been some changes. The agricultural building of 13,361 square
feet, there's a note that it was removed from inventory per consultant's
recommendation. Where did it go?
MR. HOVELL: I don't think it's captured on any other
inventory, as far as I know.
Page 105
November 29, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But it was at one time considered a
government building. So does it not have a value any longer, or how
does it get taken off the books, not accounted for?
MR. HOVELL: I know on the current inventory that's printed
there there's those last number that have the note that says the square
footage is not included in the total, but the value of the facility is
included in the impact fee study calculations. At the recommendation
of the consultant, I believe the recommendation was to remove it from
the inventory entirely. Unless I misunderstood that recommendation
-- yes, to be removed entirely.
So as far as where it goes, I don't know the answer to that
question. I just know it doesn't belong on this one anymore.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, couldn't we -- since the whole
thing that drives the need for government buildings is square foot per
capita, that's a lot of square footage, sir. Can we expect an answer on
that? Someone find out who is utilizing the building. And maybe that
other department could credit itself for the use of that building.
MR. HOVELL: There's no change in use. It was just for
whatever criteria -- well, maybe Amy can explain it better. But
whatever criteria used for government buildings, it was felt perhaps
not to meet that.
MS. PATTERSON: Amy Patterson again for the record.
I guess what we have to understand here is for what can be
utilized in the impact fee study and then what the overall inventory is.
And this is a decision clearly that is not mine of how you want to
address the inventory.
But speaking specifically to the inventory related to the impact
fees, we had outside legal counsel and our consultant working on the
update to this study this past year. The fee was originally adopted in
2004 and the inventory was established. We were then -- we were in
litigation for -- or challenged in the following year by the CBIA.
And because of that, we employed outside counsel, which we do
Page 106
November 29, 2006
normally anyway when we're undertaking an impact fee study, but in
this case he looked at all the components of the study to decide -- and
to make sure that all things were appropriate and that he had another
look from all perspectives on the elements of the study.
And looking through the inventory, there were certain buildings
that he felt would be most appropriate to be removed from that
inventory. Those things were some of the ancillary facilities, the fair
-- some of the fairgrounds facilities, the museums, because he felt that
those square footages were not things that should be utilized under a
general government buildings. You don't need those to ensure your
level of service. A museum is a good thing to have, but it's not
something that's required. And so he tried to draw that line between
office space that's required and office space that's good to have but
doesn't necessarily factor into your level of service.
So that's how those came off of the impact fee inventory. That
was on the advice of our outside legal counsel.
As far as how that plays into the overall inventory, if it should be
added on a separate line to develop an overall inventory and then an
impact fee inventory, I don't know. But that's where it stands as far as
the impact fees.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So -- trying to understand better what
you said, does that mean that there are buildings out there owned by
this government that are not on any inventory anywhere? Calculated
into capital projects or --
MS. PATTERSON: They're not on the impact fee inventory.
As far as other inventories that are kept by the county, they're captured
someplace, we know that we own them. But I can only speak to the
impact fee inventory, which is those buildings that we own, that are
factored to the level of service for the impact fee.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, and I guess from what I can see,
I don't care if the building I'm sitting in here today was paid by an
impact fee or my ad valorem taxes, it's still a government building
Page 107
November 29,2006
that's used by the public.
So I guess my phrasing of my question is where can we find a
list of every government building owned by the public? Is that what
should be appearing in front of us or does that not exist or why are we
not taking that inventory into consideration?
MR. HOVELL: If you don't split hairs over your definition of
government, certainly we have a full inventory of every building that
the county owns. Whether they're libraries or EMS stations or what we
classify for impact fee purposes in government buildings, sure, we
have that list. Does every single building show up on one of the many
AUIR categories? Well, based on what we just talked about,
apparently not.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I guess that goes to the crux of
my question, is if it's a government building paid for with some kind
of dollars supplied by taxpayers, whether it be impact fees or ad
valorem, it would seem to me that that square footage calculation
we're using ought to factor in using that square footage of whatever
building is there.
It's a necessary building -- if it's not necessary, then why are the
taxpayers paying for it? I guess that would be my next conclusion.
Do we have a list of those buildings that may not be allocated to
anybody anywhere?
MR. HOVELL: Someone would have to go through the full
inventory and compare them against all the inventories of all the
various categories and see if there's anything missing. I don't know
offhand.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I have similar questions with other
issues on here. You have the stormwater aquatic plant, 1375 square
feet, that's on County Barn Road but it's down to zero. Again, it's got
another one of those removal things.
And I thought okay, maybe that's some specialty plant that
somebody didn't figure belonged there. But when you go over to the
Page 108
November 29, 2006
next page you've got an 800 megahertz generator building for 238 feet
that certainly is specialized. And I can't see the public going in and
out of that, but yet it's on your list.
MR. HOVELL: Well, but that, you notice the footnote for that
one, though, says that the square footage is not included in the total.
The value of the building is included in the valuation, but not the
square footage.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's what all those little crosses mean
on that page.
What about the airport place tax collector? How come that is
down to, say zero. Again, it was removed by the -- you don't have an
answer for that?
MR. HOVELL: Other than the consultant. And it may have
something to do with how that one was paid for, specifically. But
beyond that, no. I mean, in general, tax collector facilities I think do
show up on here.
And for instance, if we were ever -- right now they're in a fair
amount of leased space. If we were ever to build them a new building,
and get them out of some leased space, then I probably think that
would go on the inventory.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I just have one question on that
page. Building W, general services, we lost 11,000 square feet over
that second floor. What happened? Did we rent it to somebody, did
we --
MR. HOVELL: No, ma'am, it never existed --
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- is it a wedding cake building or
MR. HOVELL: -- for some reason the inventory showed both
the first and second floor had over 20,000 square feet each. The
second floor in fact never was that amount, so it's been corrected to
the actual amount that exists.
Page 109
November 29, 2006
COMMISSIONER CARON: So the first floor is --
MR. HOVELL: 21,782.
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- was 22. And the second floor
of the building is only II.
MR. CAMP: For the record, Skip Camp, Facilities Management
Director.
It's a two-story building, but on the second floor there's a
concrete portion, and then there's some metal mezzanines. Those
were not supposed to be counted. They were considered temporary,
and in fact they're being tom down.
MR. HOVELL: I think it's more than that, though. This is a
warehouse building that doesn't have a full second floor. There are
parts that are floor to ceiling, two stories all, so --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, are there any other -- Mr.
Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Just following up on that, it's
really a teaser, isn't it. So for the purposes of this report, the only
valuation that we're applying, are those that are subject to impact fees?
Although you did say you value the buildings that are not on the
inventory, but you don't include the square footage.
I'm trying to understand. I recognize, for instance, a building
may have a useful life of 30 years. After that theoretically it has no
value in terms of depreciation. But on the other hand it certainly has a
value in the marketplace.
And, you know, I'm just wondering, are we short -- what are we
doing?
MR. HOVELL: I wish I knew, sir. Let me answer from what
little bit I know. The inventory and a lot of those footnotes relate to
the impact fee study. In the impact fee study, although I don't
remember seeing it, I imagine it has notes that exist, even if it's not
documented in the report. They somehow calculated a value for all
the buildings that are on the inventory.
Page 110
November 29, 2006
That particular value, as far as I know, in no way relates to the
value that we've represented on our summary page, in part because we
didn't use the same cost per square foot.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I guess what confuses me is if
we're taking the overall value and we're using it as a basis to relate
against impact fees, yet some of that value is no longer subject to our
inventory as we're using it, there seems to be a disconnect for me.
And I'm not trying to belabor the point, I just wonder whether
we discovered something that is curious, meaningful, I don't know, I'm
just trying to find out.
MR. HOVELL: Well, for instance, two examples, one is this
very first one that has the cross plat that, the megahertz generator
building. And the second one would be the courthouse annex parking
garage that we just opened up.
The value of those improvements will be captured by the impact
fee consultant as money spent to provide the services. But from a
useful square footage point of view, neither one of them provides
useful square feet from which to conduct business. Much like if we
built a new building on raw land, we would have to pay to pave the
parking area. That value is certainly captured. Does it provide useful
square feet, no.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, that's a narrow view of it
because it's an ancillary item to an overall function that serves. And
for my understanding of it, we would in capturing it across the county,
you'd put the totality together. So I'm not sure I agree with that piece.
MR. HOVELL: That's what all these are is ancillary buildings.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: All right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, are there any other questions of
the government buildings portion of the AUIR?
Okay, Mr. Harrison, then Ms. Vasey.
MR. HARRISON: When it comes to office space where a
business is conducted, do we have a standard per employee that we're
Page 111
November 29, 2006
using to compute how much space we need for office activities?
MR. CAMP: The answer is absolutely. We have standard office
space for every major level from the CEO down to a clerical person.
MR. HARRISON: Those are unchanged as we look out over the
ten-year period?
MR. CAMP: We've had them for 15 years and we have no
reason to change them.
MR. HARRISON: Have we ever looked at a concept called
hoteling? Most of your major law firms and accounting firms have
high priced downtown real estate. They do not dedicate any space to a
specific individual because they're rotated in and out.
MR. CAMP: We call it the Australian plan. But, yeah, we have
looked at a number of things. We have -- what we have been doing in
the last, I would say strongly the last nine or ten years is going from
closed offices to open offices. And that has served us well. That has
kept the cost from going up.
The exceptions are when we build buildings -- because we're
very silent. Our buildings can vary greatly. But when we build things
like courthouses, they become very compartmentalized, versus a
general office building like the annex will be much open office,
probably 60 or 70 percent open office, and very few supervisors will
have offices.
We're even trying to get to the point where many supervisors,
and more than supervisors that usually have been assigned in the past
closed offices, we will go more to their function. Because a lot of
supervisors can have the open office, just like in the Milliken
Corporation that builds carpets, their CEO, the director of national
sales has an open office just like everybody else.
So we're going more to function versus position as it relates to
the type of office.
MR. HARRISON: One more, please?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sure.
Page 112
November 29, 2006
MR. HARRISON: On Page 161 down on the planned future
projects where it talks about BDC building with three stars, Building S
and Building R. Have the prior recommendations of productivity that
these office functions be located outside the government center found
their way to you guys?
MR. HOVELL: I don't remember hearing it specifically from
the Productivity Committee. I do know that there's a current jail
master plan study underway, which one of the sort of leading
concepts is that this courthouse complex would become
predominantly a jail and courthouse complex, and then perhaps the
government center might need to be relocated someplace else.
MR. HARRISON: In January of this year, the productivity
recommended to the commissioners to put office function space out
where the affordable housing is expected to be located, rather than
down here in the most expensive part of the county.
MR. CAMP: Let me just elaborate a little bit. Most recently we
know we're going to need more jail beds. And the Not in My
Neighborhood is a very important aspect. If it's important for
churches, if you don't want a church in your neighborhood, jail cells,
pretty much guaranteed we're going to have an issue here.
So what we're looking at right now as we speak, in fact, the
correctional committee is going to see it in early December, one of
the concepts that we're entering very seriously is to make this
complex, since it's been here for 40 years, the correctional and
judicial. Judicial and correctional are very much connected; the courts
and the prisoners. So since the prisoners have been here for a long
time, and we're going to need more jails, why don't we continue to
develop this area as a courts and correctional facility and put
administrative spaces like you're in now into the community more and
more.
N ow we've done that to a limited degree with like North Collier
Government Service Center, where we were able to get all the
Page 113
November 29,2006
constitutional officers in the county, which is pretty unique, on one
sheet of music in one building. And it served the citizens really well.
We can take the general offices -- and we also found out that
there's a legal term called the county seat that we had to deal with.
The County seat is actually spelled out in our case by referendum.
Where you're seated right now is the county seat that the voters
actually voted on to put it here from Everglades.
We got that situation taken care of to the point where now we
can move some of these services out to the community, not just at
what we'll call an annex facility off campus, but actually maybe move,
potentially, the commission or some of the constitutional officers into
the community.
And we also know that the population is changing, and maybe
this isn't the appropriate place for general office space or general
administrative services.
MR. HARRISON: The three projects I noted are 332,000 square
feet. That's a lot of space.
MR. CAMP: To give you an idea, just this building alone is
80,000 square feet. This is one of the buildings; the occupants in this
building could be moved, for instance.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: I'd like to pursue just one more thing on yours,
Mark, talking about the square footage that was left out. Was that in
last year's -- I guess the change that came at the impact fee that we
did just in June, so those -- that square footage was in last year's
AUIR?
MR. HOVELL: Yes.
MS. VASEY: So if you were to adjust -- if you were to go back
and be consistent with how it was counted in the past upon which
your service standard was based, 1.7 square feet per capita was
based, you know, with that whole thing included in the past, that
would increase your five-year surplus from 17,000 square feet to
Page 114
November 29, 2006
31,000.
And I think that the reasons why it was taken out for the impact
fee study are not necessarily relative to having it out in this study. I
think those are two separate things. That was for legal defensibility in
case we were ever challenged. But it is part of our square footage, and
I think it should be in here, or else maybe you should be looking at
changing your level of service standard because it was in there where
that was developed.
Do you follow?
MR. HOVELL: Yes, I do.
MS. VASEY: What do you think about that?
MR. HOVELL: I'm not sure what to say. It should be the right
answer to which things should change. I did note, as you may have
too, that the latest impact fee study came up with a calculation of 1.52
square foot per capita. So either adjust this level of service in the
AUIR, which it takes board approval to adopt that new level of
service, or recapture the square footage on the inventory for this
AUIR report. And as you point out, then it raises the surplus.
MS. VASEY: I did note it was 1.52, but I like you guys so
much that I wasn't going to mention it. No, not really.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: We don't like them.
MS. VASEY: No. I mean, no. I thought that that -- I thought it
was sort of balancing out but you didn't go with the 1.52, you stayed
with the 1.7. And personally, I think it should be included in the
inventory .
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Bob? Amy, did you have something
you wanted to add.
MS. PATTERSON: I was hoping, if you don't mind.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, go right ahead.
MS. PATTERSON: On this inventory issue, I think, like Ms.
Vasey was saying, if you think about the way EMS is structured, there
are things in EMS that can't be included in the impact fee inventory
Page 115
November 29, 2006
because they're leased or for whatever reason. But they're included
for their overall level of service because they clearly add to things that
are benefiting the taxpayer.
Government buildings can be thought about in a similar way.
For various reasons, there are buildings that aren't included in the
impact fee inventory, but it's not that they don't serve a public purpose
or that they're not to the benefit of the taxpayers, it's just the legal
opinion that those buildings should not be included for the purpose of
establishing the impact fee setting the level of service for the impact
fee.
Not that they shouldn't be part of perhaps a greater inventory,
but just that delineation could be made just like it is in EMS that this is
the overall inventory and then these are the buildings that make up the
impact fee inventory . You still are in the position that you are with
EMS where you have a level of service, an overall level of service __
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You need to slow down a little bit.
Cherie is working real hard trying to take every word you say.
MS. PATTERSON: You have an impact -- you have a level of
service for government building space that's established by your
overall inventory, and you have an impact fee level of service
established by the study that's lower. All you're doing is funding that
difference for those other buildings that are being provided to the
public.
So it's not -- it doesn't create any kind of problem for your
impact fee, it's just a policy decision on what you want included, if
you want to capture everything.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, there's a statement on Page 163
that I may have thought this should have been going by, and I'm __
based on some of the comments you all made, I'm wondering now if it
is. It says the general government buildings inventory includes those
facilities not otherwise covered by an impact fee or user fee.
And I'm just wondering, based on what you said earlier, not
Page 116
November 29,2006
everything may be included in here after all. Is that correct?
MS. PATTERSON: Not everything may be included on these
two pages.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. Although that statement seems
to indicate that it would be.
MS. PATTERSON: I don't necessary--
MR. HOVELL: That was my understanding at the time. And I
probably should have taken that out when we were advised to remove
those items by the legal consultant.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You did -- by the way, someone went
to a point to add that this year, because that statement was not in last
year's.
MR. CAMP: We'll fix it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN : You'll fix it by removing it or by telling
us what building that are out there that nobody has?
MR. CAMP: One of the two.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I hope it's the latter.
Cherie', before we go too far, when do you and Ms. Ford need to
switch out?
THE COURT REPORTER: Is she here already? Whenever you
would like. If you want to do it now, just let me know. Are you at a
good point?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Let's see where we're at -- yeah, we'll
get a break point here in a minute or two.
Are there any other questions at this point of the government
facilities?
Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: Just the comment about leasing not affecting
the impact fees.
MS. PATTERSON: Leasing --lease buildings cannot be
included as part of the impact fees.
MR. HARRISON: So if we make a policy decision to lease
Page 11 7
November 29, 2006
more facilities, we don't have to raise the impact fees?
MS. PATTERSON: You have to fund those leases some other
way.
MR. HARRISON: Operations.
MS. PATTERSON: Right, it doesn't--
MS. VASEY: We don't recommend that.
MR. HARRISON: I don't think AICP would go for that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Why don't we take a five minute break
and let the court reporters -- ten minute break and let the court
reporters switch out and we'll finish up our discussion.
We're just going -- you're going to have let us come to a
conclusion once -- these girls need to switch their hands out. Thank
you.
We'll take a 10-minute break until 1:53.
(A break was taken.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. If everybody will resume. We
have a new court reporter, Ms. Ford. Cherie said that when she comes
on board we can all talk fast. We can talk over one another and
nothing changes.
And with that we had left off at final comments and discussions
involving the government buildings. And I -- now, I guess there's no
other questions of staff. Does anybody have any suggestions on
where to go from here with this issue? I can suggest there were some
points raised. We talked about finding where the missing buildings
were, what could possibly be done with the Ave Maria land timing.
The consideration of the LOS going to 1.52 instead of 1.57. And, of
course, I've got a standing concern over the population that probably
won't get resolved. Does anybody have anything else that they were __
now, Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: I -- I agree with the, I guess, the things that I
really would like to see is the footnote explaining the unit cost. And I
feel very strongly that you should include the 13,335 square feet of
Page 118
November 29, 2006
property that was left out. And I guess I'm still leaning towards
thinking that you've got a surplus of inventory. If you -- if you do
what's in your program, there's a surplus of inventory and a -- and a
$13 million un-financed need and they're pretty close to each other. If
you dropped out Ave Maria and the transportation -- not dropped out.
Moved to FYI2, you would have a very nicely balanced program.
And the financial analyst in me thinks that's a really neat thing. If -- if
there's any reason that that is the end of world, I'd like to hear that.
MR. HOVELL: As I say, I'll have to check with -- and, I'm
sorry, Ron Hovell. I'm in the facilities management department.
The -- we'll -- we'll have to check on the Ave Maria thing. That
will only reduce the five-year plan, though, by the $4.35 million. So
we'll still be roughly $9 million.
MS. VASEY: Well, I -- I had mentioned transportation facility
too slipping to 12. That -- that -- that pretty much is your shortfall and
it's also about the same amount as your level of service as -- as you're
over your level-of-service standard. Because that turns out to be about
31,000 that you're over. And then that's about the same square footage
relating to the transportation at Ave Maria.
MR. HOVELL: Right.
MS. VASEY: And it matches up very nicely with the cost that
you --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron then Mr. Harrison.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I was just going to say in -- in
reviewing the square footage that you wanted back in, Ms. Vasey, if
you look back at last year, we were sitting at 604,181 versus this year
of 586,410. So there's a -- it's closer to 18,000 square feet that's
missing between -- from one year to the next. And, again, you'll have
to look at it and tell us what the --
MR. HOVELL: Right.
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- not 13.
MS. VASEY: No. I did -- I did add up those particular items.
Page 119
November 29,2006
COMMISSIONER CARON: Right. You added up what's here,
but not comparing it to last year.
MS. VASEY: Right.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Where -- so there's even more
square footage missing somewhere floating around there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, you can take a look at that and get
back with us on it tomorrow. Tomorrow work for you? I didn't see a
-- I didn't see a no, so I guess a yes is part of it.
MR. HOVELL: No. I was going to -- with the exception of the
fall countywide inventory, I don't know who's going to have time for
that piece of that. All the rest of these are relatively easy things that I
could do. I'm a pretty quick typist. I could probably do them while I
stood here, but I'll do it on my laptop.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MS. VASEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Harrison, did you have any
comments?
MR. HARRISON: I wonder if you could be kind enough to
share what those standards are per employee with us sometime
because --
MR. CAMP: I'm prepared to do that now. It's relatively simple
for a judge or county commissioner, the CEO, it's 350 square feet. For
administrator it's 168. For a director it's 144. For a manager it's 120.
For a -- a position like an analyst, it's between 80 and 100. Clerical is
around 60. And I'm not sure I can recite all the sizes of conference
spaces, but they -- they run between 250 and 600 square feet for
conference space.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So the harder you work the less space
you get?
MR. CAMP: And my -- my clerical staff will tell you that is
normally true.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Satisfied, Mr. Harrison?
Page 120
November 29, 2006
MR. HARRISON: (Indicating.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I think we hit all the points.
Thank you.
MR. HOVELL: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The next section of the AUIR, I saw the
chiefs been patiently waiting. Isles of Capri Fire Control and Rescue
District.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Good afternoon. Emilio Rodriguez,
Chief Isles of Capri Fire and Rescue. This is our first year
participating in the AUIR, but I'm here basically to answer any of your
questions that you have as our AUIR has been submitted.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That was short.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any questions from the panel? Your
impact fees -- you are regulated on the same impact fee rate that the
rest of the fire departments in Collier County are utilizing or different?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: We -- we are regulated with the impact
fees that were just conducted in '05, so we fall under the county.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Does -- I know that the regular
fire departments are a square foot basis. It's $0.30 or $0.15 or
something like that. I'm just wondering how you compared to them.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: I'm -- I'm not sure exactly how we
compare to them, but we're pretty much on that same avenue. Which I
don't know if Amy can help with that.
MS. PATTERSON: Hi. Impact -- Amy Patterson Impact Fee
Manager for the record.
We just went through an update of all of the fire impact fees
which is a cooperative effort between the county and the independent
fire districts. The two dependent fire districts do have their own
independent or separate rates, Ochopee and Isles of Capri. They are
different than the independent fire districts. They are charged per
square foot split between residential and commercial. And since now
Page 121
November 29,2006
we have different rates for all of the different fire districts, as a
comparison they're probably somewhere in the middle. They're--
Isles of Capri residential is $0.41 per square foot under roof. And for
-- that's residential. And for commercial is a $I.08 per square foot.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How much are the -- the independent
fire districts?
MS. PATTERSON: They're -- they're all different. Immokalee,
for example, is $1.11 per square foot for residential and $0.32 for their
commercial. Another example Big Corkscrew is $0.82 per square foot
residential and $0.87 per square foot nonresidential.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's enough. Where I was going with
this is the fire departments that are independent have the ability to
draw funds from an additional ad valorem revenue that the dependent
fire departments do not have. I mean, basically they come under the
county's ad valorem taxes. Whereas, the independent fire districts
have their own millage rate added -- tacked on and they vary from
three -- one-half to one, I believe.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Well, I'd like to answer that. We are not
a general fund department. Weare an MSTU special taxing district.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: So we strictly operate from our 1.5
millage rate. So that is the only funds that we receive. We do not
receive any general funds to subsidize our budget.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Does that MSTU extend
throughout the entire fire district or just the Isles of Capri?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Isles of Capri and Ochopee department
also. We are both dependent, but we're an MSTU.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Now, I mean, what I meant was
that MSTU, does it fall under every piece of land that's within your __
the territory of your fire department?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
Page 122
November 29, 2006
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And my last question was that I notice
under unit cost per own station the $3 million, you've got a very nice
location for your station right now.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, sir. I can't complain.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It's dandy. I can't imagine that that is a
price based on the station's location now or is that on a --
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: I believe it's because of the location of
the land. Because if we were to build in a similar location there, I
don't think we could be able to replace that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN : Your proposed building is on land that's
going to be donated to you or has been?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: It has not been. We are in the works
right now with WCI in just the communication aspects of it where as
soon as they have completed their development off of Mainsail Drive
that they would look at donating the land where the sale center is at
right now which is at the entrance to Mainsail Drive.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Would that have to be for impact fee
credits or is it going to be donated?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: No. No. That would be a donation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I sure wish you had come forward at the
time that they were looking for their PUD approval and requested
something like this.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, I totally agree.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm glad to see that's -- I hope they're
kind enough to realize the importance of your station there and let __
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, sir. They are because it will be a
savings also for all of the residents there with their ISO rating.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Anybody have any other
questions?
Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Yes. When we did the impact fee studies with
Page 123
November 29,2006
you last, I guess, December, we worked off of your master plan.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes.
MS. VASEY: Your master plan did not call for an additional
station. You just had a -- a ladder truck and the equipment that goes
on it. Have you changed your master plan?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: No, ma'am. The reason why the station
was not added because we knew that with the amount of impact fees
that we were not going to be able to collect enough impact fees to
purchase and build a station. So we removed the station from the
impact- fee study knowing that we do not have enough funds out of
impact fees to purchase the new station, but it is in our five-year plan.
MS. VASEY: But if -- if you don't have it in your impact fee,
you won't be collecting any revenue from the new people moving in to
help underwrite the costs of the building for the new station. So that
means it would fall on your ad valorem MSTU payers which then puts
it's the burden of growth on current residents. Is that --
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: We are just about at the build-out in the
district with the exception of a few open lots with -- within the Isles of
Capri. And once we sat down with the impact-fee study, we sat there
and we went back and forth with our initial impact-fee study back in
1989 and '99. I believe we did have it in there, but we knew that we
were not going to be able to collect enough funds if we were to leave
it in there. And it was a decision made from myself as well as the
impact- fee coordinator that we would remove it. Because we were
going to try to look at avenues like the land donation where -- where
we're in the practice where we're actually moving forward with that as
well as a shared station with EMS that would help us cut the cost in
half.
MS. VASEY: Well, if your station costs about $1 million and
that's sort of what we're seeing on shared stations for EMS. So yours
could be more. I -- I don't know. But you only have residents of right
now in 2006 of2,881 people going up to 3,700. If they all have to pay
Page 124
November 29, 2006
for it out of the MSTU, that -- that's going to be somewhat of a
burden, wouldn't you think?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Well, it would come directly from what
they pay for now which is a 1.5 millage rate. So it would come out of
our ad valorem taxes. We would have to finance the fire station just
like we've done in the past. Because we don't have any other avenue
to receive any general fund monies or anything else other than
financing. In 1992 we financed the expansion of our current station.
And that's how we were able to build the station that we currently
have. So we would be doing the exact same thing with the second
station.
MS. VASEY: It just looks like, you know, you are increasing
almost 1,000 people or maybe 900 people over the next five years
which is about 33 percent of your current population. To not include
these costs in impact fees, you're missing out on a pretty good revenue
source for some of the money anyway.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Well, we just don't have the buildings
there to collect those impact fees in that area.
MS. VASEY: Oh, I see. But the population is going up, but the
buildings are already --
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: That is correct.
MS. VASEY: Okay. They've already paid their impact, but--
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: That is correct.
MS. VASEY: Okay. I get it.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: We have three high rises that are in place
now out of a possible five high rises.
MS. VASEY: Okay.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: So the buildings are basically there. And
we've already collected those impact fees so there's very minimal
impact fees that we're going to be collecting within the next five years.
MS. VASEY: Okay. And one last question. Your -- you talk
about maintaining a four-minute response time and that's why you
Page 125
November 29,2006
need to have a station over near Mainsail Drive.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, ma'am.
MS. VASEY: I happened to be in your area. And it only __
driving at the speed limit, it only takes five minutes to get there. So
you're only one minute off of your time from right now, plus the East
Naples Fire District has a station that's only three -- three or four
minutes away from Mainsail. How -- how can you justify a new
station when you have service that's that good?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Well, it's -- it's not really that good yet,
ma'am. Our average response time to Mainsail Drive is six minutes. I
have pulled all of the information for the last year for all of the calls
that we have responded to the Mainsail Drive area as well as the
Fiddler's Creek area where we cover a portion of Fiddler's Creek. And
our average response time to Fiddler's Creek right now is eight
minutes response time. According to NFPA, we need to be at a
four-minute response time.
Where we have that proposed station that will cut that response
time and will allow us to serve the residents of our district. We can't
look at East Naples to serve that area when it falls under our
jurisdiction. And the station on 951 from East Naples, nine times out
of ten they're out on calls of their own or into East Naples for training.
So that cuts a lot of the response time from their area to come into our
area also.
MS. VASEY: How many -- how much of your -- how many of
-- well, what percentage of your calls are to Marco Island?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Percentage of our calls? We run mutual
aid calls to Marco Island, I'd say, about 20 percent.
MS. VASEY: Okay. I thought there -- I thought I saw
something at 40 percent one time, but maybe that was an aberration.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Right. It -- we're -- we are averaging
about 20 to 25 percent at the most to the City of Marco Island right
now.
Page 126
November 29, 2006
MS. VASEY: Because it seems like, you know, the response
time to Marco is in the five- to six-minute range.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, it is.
MS. VASEY: And I guess the bottom line for me is it would be
so much more efficient if all you guys were -- were -- were one. You
know, because the --
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: That's why we're looking at it.
MS. VASEY: -- East Naples station is so close to Fiddler's and
it's close to Mainsail. And, you know, and you're already supporting
each other. It just begs the question of why you can't all be
consolidated.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: But even though we're all looking at that
possibility now, we -- we still have to maintain that level of service
that those residents within our district deserve and that's what they're
paying for. So we have to try to maintain that level of service within
the district.
MS. VASEY: And you think you can do it without increasing
your millage?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: That is correct, yes. Yes, ma'am.
MS. VASEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You also have the city -- the community
of Goodland, don't you?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: No, sir. No. We respond out to
Keywayden Island, but that falls under the Collier County District 1.
And we provide fire and rescue out there. But the only way you could
get out to Keywayden Island is by boat and we do have a fire boat.
And in conjunction with EMS we share a boat.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Because your service area that's shown
on the map that was provided to us goes not only south of Marco, but
about --
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Those are the islands --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
Page 127
November 29, 2006
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: -- that are south of Marco. We provide--
there is nothing there just other than islands, but that's where we
provide -- that falls under the Collier County District 1. And we
provide fire and rescue services for that area even though there's no
structures out there. There's no houses, but we respond out there for a
boating accidents, for search and rescue and those are the areas that
we provide service to.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any other questions for
the Isles of Capri Fire Department?
Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: As far as the EMS component on the
Mainsail Drive proposal, I mean, I live on Gulfshore Boulevard where
the population is so transient. It's between, like, 10 percent occupancy
in the summer and 50 percent at the height of the season. It seems like
you're going to have a pretty small human population out there given
the price level of the units.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: That is correct. But we are looking at it
as also from the direction of the Board of Collier County
Commissioners that every time we build a station to try to build a joint
station to try to cut the cost down. And that is a direction that I would
like to take to try to cut the cost down.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Is there any -- any questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any recommendations how to proceed
that the board would like? I don't know if this one needs to be brought
back to us. It seems unless there's some comments or further thought
any of us want --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would make a recommendation
to go forward to recommend this to the BCC.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: As presented?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes. Under the -- under page
167 the recommended action by staff had put it down. I'll read it if
Page 128
November 29, 2006
you like.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No. I think it's right there. Before we go
into discussion, is there a second on the motion from a member of the
Planning Commission?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat seconded. Okay.
Now, discussion for the entire board.
Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: I -- I think maybe you need a little bit more time
to get your master plan changed and to, you know, make sure
everything is going to work to stay in your millage rate. And, you
know, that you're going to get the donated land. That's a real big piece
of it. You have a lot of uncertainties at this time. I'm not sure that it's
ready to be in the five-year plan. You know, it seems like a lot of
pieces still need to come together.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: That is correct, ma'am. And that's the
beauty of us being an MSTU is that if we don't have the money, we
can't do it. You know, but I have to look at five years. Where are we
going to be at in five years? And -- and I need to show that this is
where we'd like to be in five years. And if we're going -- and if we do
have the money within our MSTU, within our ad valorem, then that is
the avenue that the department would like to -- to take. If we're not
there within five years with the money, then we would have to revisit
it and look at another aspect or -- or another avenue.
And -- and, again, it's all contingent on the donation of the land.
If we do not receive the donation of the land, there's no other place on
Mainsail Drive that we could put a fire station at. So that would
definitely scratch this whole issue here. And we would have to look at
the response time a different way.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So basically you're saying that your
request is contingent upon the funding through the MSTU process and
the land donation from WCI?
Page 129
November 29,2006
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, sir. That is correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. That's what I was trying to
understand.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And any recommendation from this
board would have to include the -- what I think it would include those
stipulations as far as --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would agree with that. And --
and just further on that, do you have a good indicator that the land will
be donated or are you entirely in speculation at this point?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: No. We -- we have a letter of intent.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Now, as far as how far is it going to go,
then it's going to depend on WCI. And then, of course, it has to get
approved through the Board of Collier County Commissioners and so
forth, but we are in the process of continuing the talks. We're looking
at the -- what I've heard now is that WCI is not going to build the last
two high rises. I -- I have not seen anything in writing yet, but that's
what I was advised. So if they do not build the last two high rises,
then that's going to push them out of there a lot sooner.
Does that mean they're going to donate the land a lot sooner for
us? We don't know at this point. Now, until we receive something in
writing from them showing that they're not going to build the last two
high rises on Mainsail Drive.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And just in furtherance of that,
what -- what level of criticality will you reach if you're unable to
secure that land? What would be your alternative if you are obliged to
make service to that community?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: We would have to expand our current
station where we're at to at least house a ladder truck. So we will be
able to purchase a ladder truck that will help us with the NFP A and
also our ISO rating to have that type of level of service. As far as
Page 130
November 29,2006
response time, then that would be something that we would have to go
back and take a look at how we're going to tackle that area once we
get there.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: You would be -- you would be --
well, I'm trying to get a sense from you of the criticality as you see it
as the chief and responsibility for the safety and welfare of the
communities' residents. Right now you don't have a truck, a ladder
truck?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: We don't, no. No, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And you'd like to have one, I'm
sure.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: That is correct.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So you're dependent on East
Naples, I would assume for the moment, although they don't have a
ladder truck.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: No. We -- we have a mutual aid
agreement with the City of Marco Island.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Right.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: That is correct.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes. So and from your point of
view providing for the health, safety and welfare of the residents of
those communities, if the land were not acquired by donation, you
would look strongly, I assume, toward acquisition in some form?
Wouldn't that be a reasonable statement?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes. We would look at other avenues to
acquire some land within that area to --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: The density of population would
require it, would it?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes. Well, see, we don't strictly go by
population alone.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: No. You go by length times.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: We go by response time. With NFPA
Page 131
November 29, 2006
our -- our -- our first arriving unit must arrive there within four
minutes. So the way we have it laid out, which I believe you have on
page 169 and 170, our existing station there, a radius of 1.5 miles
around there, does not cover Mainsail Drive nor the Fiddler's Creek
area --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Right.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: -- there. With the proposed station, we
kind of overlap it a little bit, but it only shows in the black 1,116 units
outside of that radius there which is not bad at all. We have 90
percent of our area within the four-minute response time.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And, finally, the issue of the
residents' ability to secure insurance is impacted, is it not, by the fact
that you would not -- that your response time is in question?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Well, right now -- we recently this year
we had our rating, our ISO rating done. And we were able to reduce
the ISO from a six to a four within the entire Isles of Capri Fire
District. That's Mainsail Drive, a portion of Fiddler's Creek.
What the second station is going to allow me to do is also be able
to reduce the ISO rating once again to a possible two which would
give the residents more savings. So that's also -- my goal is not only
for the response time, but also to save the taxpayers some money
because it's going to allow me to lower the ISO rating once again.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you for your responses.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Yeah. This MSTU has the
flexibility to determine the direction they would like to go for any
solution. It also has the authority for funding that direction. So I think
that we ought to support the motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any other comments?
MS. VASEY: I guess just one other thing.
You -- your millage rate is 1.5.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, ma'am.
Page 132
November 29, 2006
MS. VASEY: And out of that now you want to have a new
station on donated land. You wouldn't need a ladder truck?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, ma'am.
MS. VASEY: Which is, what, another 600,000? You're going to
need people that will all be paid out of that 1.5 mill rate. I -- I really
think you need an analysis of whether your millage rate can -- can
handle all that. Because, frankly, I don't think it can. But I -- you
know, I've not worked the numbers on it. I think you really need to
come and not show us, but -- but you need a plan that demonstrates
that that, in fact, will work financially as well as, you know,
recognition that your ISO should go up when you get a ladder truck -_
I mean, should go down, to be able to support that community and __
and we're only talking a minute or two right now. And then I know
that -- that that's -- your rating is -- your goal is four. But, you know,
you put all that together, it just seems like you need a little more work
before you come in and put this in a program that -- you know, that's
ready to -- to be approved by the County Commission. And that's __
you know, that's -- that's all I -- that's all I'm saying. I -- I don't -- I
don't think it -- I'm not against your doing it. I just can't see that
you're ready for us to recommend that -- that the commissioners
should vote to approve that. And that's the only thing I have concern
about.
MR. SUMMERS: Ma'am, may I comment. Dan Summers,
director of emergency services. You bring up a very good point. One
of the things that is not illustrated here that's kind of standard SOP in
our office if you will, any time you make a ladder truck apparatus type
purchase, you always do a feasibility study on that. It's not illustrated
in this report. It's our intent to do that. So that -- that feasibility in
terms of master planning, the financing, the type of apparatus and the
cost benefit for the ISO rating is -- is an effort that was already
discussed with the county manager's office earlier this year. And we
probably should include that as a footnote. I did that many times in
Page 133
November 29, 2006
Carolina and would not make that type of capital purchase without
some additional external consulting and cost-benefit review.
And if I could, I'd like to clarify for the record this comment
about ISO rating. I want to make sure that everybody knows that in
this particular district and most all of our dependent districts, no
longer is it the case where there is a -- as there is in some parts of
Collier County that they can't get insurance, they're all having no
problem writing insurance. And in this case with Isles of Capri where
they have brought their rate down to a six, their ISO rating to a six __
I'm sorry -- to a four, but the other advantage here is that there is real
cost benefit to WCI in supporting this donation because of the further
decrease. And that doesn't really illustrate well in the narrative. So I
wanted to clarify that that the two incentives, the cost -- the cost
benefit on the apparatus as well as further incentives probably driven
by the community to donate this land put things in our favor. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does anybody know if the MSTU that's
in place has to be approved by the -- I mean, I know an MSTU has to
be approved by the voters when it originally goes into existence. And
its rating is set to whatever it is. If you're going to increase the needs
from the MSTU, does that have to go back to the voters?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: You mean increase the millage?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So -- and I know the Isles of
Capri community pretty well.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I know that that group of people
wouldn't be willing -- if they were willing to go forward with this,
then I don't think there's a problem. And if it has to go back to them,
then they'd be the ones to make the decision. Because what I'm
understanding is you're not here in front of the -- going in front of the
Page 134
November 29, 2006
Board of County Commissioners requesting ad valorem funding.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: No, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You're looking purely at MSTU funding
which is up to the local community to desire if they want that
additional protection.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: That is correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Because under that basis I'm
inclined to recommend approval as well because it does not -- this is
not a population valued statistic, so I'm not -- I don't have my
population concern on it. It's contingent on an MSTU approval and
it's contingent on donated land. So it doesn't affect the ad valorem tax
base and tax payers of this county. That's my understanding. If I'm
wrong, I need someone to tell me so...
MR. SUMMERS: Mr. Chairman, Dan Summers, one additional
comment. This is not a guarantee, but to probably make you feel a
little bit better. One -- one of the things that we've been very
successful, and, again, I want to stress no guarantee, is the ability that
these smaller districts have had with grant funding for apparatus. And
that's one of the reasons that Isles of Capri is in -- in as good a
condition and as modernized as it's been is that it does fit a lot of the
rural grant criteria where we've been fortunate with some grants with
FEMA or even some -- some commercial paper that's sort of couched,
if you will, in the rural financial areas.
So please understand that I look at those as options as well. And
grant opportunities still continue to fit the Capri district as well as the
Ochopee district pretty well. And that -- that is probably -- the grant
opportunities are not reflected in here as well. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron and Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah. And since you brought it
up, that would be my question. In most of the others grants are
included to some degree. Why would you not include them at all?
MR. SUMMERS: They are extremely competitive grants.
Page 135
November 29, 2006
Where some of the other community's -- or some of the other
programs have reoccurring grants, these grants remain highly
competitive. And I will tell you that there is -- there's several funding
strategies. Some are FEMA post disaster. Some are FEMA special
legislation such as the Fire Act. We never know from one year to the
next. And typically when we apply, we're up against about 55,000
jurisdictions that apply.
So we are just gun shy because of the competitive nature, but I
pride ourselves on our team's effort to work towards those grants and
utilize those funding strategies.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: I think this organization has
done an excellent job. And I don't think we ought to micromanage
them. Let them solve their problems.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other questions or
comments from the panel?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. From the Planning Commission's
perspective, the Productivity Committee is going to take their
subcommittee recommendation back to the full committee; is that
correct?
MS. VASEY: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So we will take a position on this one.
There's been a motion made and seconded. I got a request from the
motion maker and the second. Would you consider adding language to
make sure that the additional revenues are contingent on an MSTU
source of funding and the -- it also was contingent on donated land
from the -- from the land in question --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Sure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- that was described? Is that okay with
the second?
(Indicating. )
Page 136
November 29, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. With that all those in favor of the
motion, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion for recommendation carries as
stated in the request from the Chief of the stipulations that we have
made.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, sir.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The next item for today's new
discussion is the Ochopee Fire Control and Rescue District.
CHIEF WILSON: Chief Paul Wilson, for the record, of the
Ochopee Fire Control District.
As you know we -- or you may not know, though, we carry about
53 percent of Collier County in the rural area. We do have some small
localized communities that we provide service for. Our goal in this
A UIR process is to identify and try to develop strategies to provide
service to some of these areas that we do not have at this time.
With that being said, any questions on what we have to go
forward?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I know you heard the stipulations of the
last motion?
CHIEF WILSON: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Can you tell us your sources of -- I
mean, you have a need of almost double what the last gentleman came
in front of us for. Are you expecting that out of county-wide ad
Page 137
November 29, 2006
valorem taxes or do you have a similar funding mechanism in your
area like the chief did?
CHIEF WILSON: We're the same, same MSTU funded source.
Under our recommendations it's the same. If we're able to provide --
you know, if we're able to move forward under our ad valorem
MSTU.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How much land do you have donated or
potentially donated?
CHIEF WILSON : We have 1.9 acres that's possibly going to be
available at Port of the Isles for that station. The 1-75 corridor which
is the second station identified is a state federal land issue. And we
are just currently working with these folks trying to secure the land
that -- again, this is just a goal and strategy planning for us. We don't
know that we're going to be able to get there or not any time soon.
But -- but we do need to identify it and try to figure out how we're
going to get there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does your MSTU require voter
approval in that area for any increases that you would need to put
these stations in?
CHIEF WILSON: We're maxed at 4 mills.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So you've got to go back to the voters to
get that increase?
CHIEF WILSON: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The voters would be right in the
immediate area of that station?
CHIEF WILSON : We're under the same guide. We're under the
Board of County Commissioners. The MSTU is through them. And
the voters initiated -- they -- they developed it, but the board runs it.
The board can raise or lower the ad valorem. But, again, we're maxed.
So they would have to -- we would have to go before the board and
ask them to, you know, raise the cap and that's not going to happen.
We will -- we will operate within our formulas.
Page 138
November 29, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Yes. Here again you didn't have that in your
master plan. Are you revising that?
CHIEF WILSON: For?
MS . VASEY: For -- to add stations. You just had equipment in
the master plan for the next five years.
CHIEF WILSON: It was the same reasons. We weren't sure if
we were going to get the land or how we were going to -- our
negotiations for the land were going to work out with the state. But
the need for the equipment is identified because the building continues
to go on in Port of the Isles. We're getting ready to experience our
actual first high rises. So we will be looking at ladder truck purchases
over the next couple of years too as well.
As far as 1-75 goes I already have that truck in place currently.
That's why you only saw one truck in the impact fee structure
identified. That would be for Port of the Isles. The other truck is
already identified and in service.
MS . VASEY : Your Port of the Isles, they're still building there
now, aren't they?
CHIEF WILSON : Yes. But our build-out in the entire district is
only about 438 units left. So we're getting close.
MS. VASEY: You're -- the same reason why you didn't include
it in the impact fees because it's not going to be that much?
CHIEF WILSON: That's correct.
MS. VASEY: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other comments from any other of
the board?
Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: The 1-75 station, that's out on federal land?
CHIEF WILSON: The 75 corridor what we -- the 63 mile
marker is what we initially proposed. And that is state land. FDOT
runs it. The -- we were looking at them to help us with the land and so
Page 139
November 29, 2006
forth. The -- we received direction to try to get funding through
alternative sources other than the ad valorem area. That's not working
out at this particular point in time. As recently as last week we were --
we did receive a phone call from federal landowner people there that
have now are ready to step up and go forward with us if -- if we
wanted to pursue it to the Bureau of Land Management and possibly
go onto their property.
MR. HARRISON: So who would we be serving out there? Is
this basically for motor vehicle accidents?
CHIEF WILSON: It's basically for motor vehicle accidents
which is almost 50 percent of our call volume. In that area that's
currently averaging between 20- and 45-minute response times.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: May I?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Is the Fed asking for any
particular benefits for themselves concerning areas that they don't
generally cover and fire and the rest of it?
CHIEF WILSON: The only question they've asked me at this
point would be, would we be willing to maintain the grounds-keeping
of the property.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'll be silent in that matter.
That's not an issue -- an issue for me as far as I can tell. So there are
no contingencies by the F eds for the use of that property. Will that be
a lease or will that be a dedication or will you own the property in fee
or what?
CHIEF WILSON: I would imagine it would be under a
lease-type arrangement with them. It's their property. And it will
always be their property.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: But are you at the level where
you know whether it's a 99-year lease or whatever? I mean, is it
long-term?
CHIEF WILSON: Our discussion -- our discussion was for a
Page 140
November 29, 2006
20-year-plus lease.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Twenty year. Okay. That's your
judgment on that one. I won't criticize that certainly. Building -- use
of the life of a building sometimes is considered 30 years in
commercial and that might be something to talk about.
CHIEF WILSON: The land's vacant currently so we would have
to --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: No. What I'm referring to is
when you build a structure, if for some reason they decide in the
nineteenth year that they don't want to keep you there, you know, you
understand my point.
CHIEF WILSON: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: But I think it may not be
significant.
If there are no objections, Mr. Chairman, I -- I would make a
recommendation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think we still have some questions.
Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: Did we hear you say you already have the
vehicle for that unit?
CHIEF WILSON: We're running the vehicle for 1-75, yes. It's
the vehicle that was in the impact-fee structure was for Port of the
Islands.
MR. HARRISON: So you're basically just looking for a
structure to house it and whatever?
CHIEF WILSON: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anything else?
Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: What's your response time to Port of the Islands.
CHIEF WILSON: Currently 14 to 16 minutes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I bet your ISO rating isn't as good?
CHIEF WILSON: We have a split ISO rating in the area that the
Page 141
November 29, 2006
stations are occupied. They are enjoying a six. Port of the Islands is
enjoying a ten if you can call it enjoyment. They are having a hard
time getting insurance in some of the areas there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any other comments,
questions?
By the way, chief, you've got some areas that are new and, who
knows, they may be coming up for changes to their zoning and other
criteria. If they do and there's issues that need to addressed, it would
be good timing to watch those --
CHIEF WILSON: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- and make some suggestions to the
board as they come through the process.
Mr. Murray, did you want to make a motion?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's fine. I thought I might
make a motion based on the recommendation as made on page 175,
the recommended action by the staff. And with -- I think, I'm not sure
we can put the stipulations on here because I didn't get the sense that
you were that close --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: -- but we can if it's the will of
the board.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, let me suggest that we stipulate so
long as the funding falls within the existing maximum millage rate of
the -- of the MSTU. And that keeps it off the county-wide--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, that's correct, yes. And
that would be the only logical way to approach it, yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Correct. Okay. There's been a motion
made. Is there a second?
COMMISSIONER CARON: I'll second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron second on the motion. Now,
is there any discussion? Any concerns from the Productivity
Committee?
Page 142
November 29, 2006
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I'll call for a vote. All those in
favor or the motion signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries with recommendation of
approval subject to the maximum millage rate of the MSTU.
CHIEF WILSON: Thank you, guys.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, sir.
Now, with that we need to -- we'll probably take a break at three
o'clock. We'll probably discontinue our regular review at 4:30 to try
to come to some synopsis that we can draft for tomorrow's meeting.
So we'll continue to tomorrow to whatever we don't get to this
afternoon. And, Gene, you are the next one up, drainage and canals
and structures.
MR. FEDER: Mr. Chairman and members of the Productivity
Committee, for the record I'm Norman Feder, Transportation
Administrator and also the storm-water. I appreciate the discussion
we had the other day and the opportunity to be back here with you.
What I will tell you as Gene hands out some changed pages,
essentially I thought that I nor any of my staff would ever use what I
thought was a bureaucratic cop out. We did it because that's the way
it was always done. But I find myself having to stand in front of you
and admit that, in fact, I have just done that, along with my staff. And
that is as you look at the AUIR we presented to you last time, is the
format that we inherited, that we basically didn't tell we understand,
but it seemed to be whatever everybody utilized. And we just tried to
Page 143
November 29, 2006
update it as best we could. And I'm here to tell you it needs to change.
We started some of that change.
What I want to do is cover very broadly some of the questions
you raised and what we see as implications from that and then ask
Gene to go through what he's provided to you today.
First of all, what you asked is very logically why does it appear
that reconstruction costs the same thing as construction -- new
construction. Well, I asked staff. We went through the details. And
what became painfully obvious was that I was talking about projects
like, for instance, LASIP Phase 1 where I was taking number miles,
but a mile of canal that is ten foot across the top and two feet deep and
going forty feet across the top and six feet deep. So when you go
from one to the other, in effect it's new construction. However,
because the AUIR and the presentation by Milo -- and I'll get to that in
a second -- it's still that same canal mile. So it's shown as
reconstruction because it's not new construction of a new canal mile,
but the costs are essentially the same.
And so I'm going to tell you that the nature of the costs are very
site specific and the nature of scope of project specific. But having
said that, that somewhat answers the question, but what it does is raise
the big question. What's the use of reporting canal miles? Because,
obviously, my ability to convey, store and treat within a forty by six is
far greater than it is in a ten by two.
With that in mind we're going to try to move this whole AUIR to
something in the nature of acre feet to talk about truly what the issue
is. And that is what we have in the ability to convey, to store or to
treat. And so we're not there yet as you're going to see in the
presentation; but it's obvious that while we're still trying to report, one
of the difficulties we had in trying to use that format and respond last
cycle and we felt it wasn't a good fit, but the shoe somehow got on.
And as we reviewed it, you made a good point about our work
program which was you couldn't see what phases we had with the
Page 144
November 29, 2006
dollars. So we have made that change. We felt that that was a good
change, but we still felt it was kind of a tight shoe, if you will.
Well, the reason for that tightness is that we tried to explain to
you on the one side -- and I'll go over structures in a second -- a two
by -- ten by two versus a forty by six are not the same thing even
though it's a one-mile canal. The other thing is on structures. Well,
there's all kinds of different structures. We had a good discussion
about how could our structures numbers change. That was a question
you raised very reasonably so. And, essentially, both on canal miles
which now we do by GIS -- and I feel very comfortable that we've got
a very good indication as opposed to a good estimation -- because the
GIS is much more specific about mileage.
On structures what we realized is we had a number of different
types of structures. And so what we've come to, and I'll share this
with -- with this group here and I'll share with the board after this,
obviously, is we need to identify a structure as something that
manages both the level and the flow. So if I have a culvert or a canal,
that in a way is not a structure. That is a conveyance as a storage. And
I may have a culvert that impedes flow, but it's not designed to do so.
When I'm putting in culverts, they are meant to be sized not to impede
flow of that canal. So we're not considering those structures.
What we are considering structures is weirs. And we have
different types of weirs. At first it was, well, don't put any of the
weirs in that aren't movable, that are fixed because you can't then
regulate flow with them. Well, they definitely regulate flow. They're
a fixed weir. So those are in here and you'll see those reported. You
have movable weirs. We also have pump stations that regulate, again,
volume and flow and levels. And then lastly you have one that sounds
a little strange when we came to that too was you have lakes and
spreader lakes. Where in the system you'll go into an area of retention
and come out, flow one to another in the spreader lakes on out. And
they have a level of capacity and they regulate the flow and height of
Page 145
November 29, 2006
the water and the like.
So what you should see here is going to be a change in numbers,
but we feel pretty comfortable with the inventory based on GIS. We
feel comfortable that we've come to a definitional item. And you may
challenge that and hopefully we'll be able to show you that we thought
it through, but we have an idea of what we're calling a structure.
Now, obviously, the cost of those structures are very different. A
non-movable weir is different than the cost of a fully automated but
along the more mechanical weir that is adjustable. Okay? At the
same time no two adjustable weirs -- there are no two fixed weirs are
the same cost. It depends upon the size and issues that are associated
with it.
So one thing we've done here which you mayor may not
recommend that you concur with is I haven't tried to put a unit cost on
this. What I have done, though, is gone back and looked at our work
program and our basis for estimates and where we have permits and
have an idea we're identifying for you how many of each type of
structure, how many miles of either reconstruction. And mostly
they're miles of reconstruction. And how many miles of new or new
construction canal there will be. And that is provided to you in some
details and attachments. And I think that'll give you the basis from
one time to another to look at it and feel comfortable with that as we
change.
Now, I'll also tell you that in the next five years, I've got some
projects identified for which I don't know yet how many weirs or how
many miles of canal because I haven't gotten it permitted yet. And so
those will be ones that you'll see as we do the next update of the
AUIR. W e'lllist them out and show those. We tried to show them
now with no indication on them. And as we do one, you should see
that go into the inventory. And as we show you the other, you should
see what we add on as to the future inventory.
So I'm going to ask Gene to go through in detail on this, but I did
Page 146
November 29, 2006
want to make sure that you realize that one of the difficulties we're
having was the format. We knew it wasn't a very good fit. We
probably never should have used the old adage of that's how we
always did it, but we tried to squeeze into how it was always done.
And I can tell you it doesn't serve the purpose. And I think this group
did a good job of asking the questions to show that very clearly to us
as we went back and looked at it.
As I mentioned, the cost of reconstruction versus new cost, I
think we've addressed that some. The inventory I'll ask that be
addressed in more detail for you. The specific miles of structures
divided out between secondary, tertiary and title, I hope we've done
that for you as you'll see. And the issue of what we've collected
previously in grants and the like, we've got three years historical that's
in the package. I'm going to let Gene make the presentation to you.
And Gene and I are available for any questions or comments. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
MR. CALVERT: I appreciate it. For the record, Gene Calvert,
Storm-water Management Department Director.
I'd like to just take a few minutes and walk you through some of
the handouts that I provided and do a little bit of storm-water drainage
101 if you will and what we have in this county as far as storm-water
drainage.
While some of this probably will seem repetitious or redundant to
most of you, I think it will lay a ground-work for what we're
proposing in this AUIR. Of course, as you're aware we in this county
or particularly in any county, we operate our -- our storm-water
drainage system in three different tiers, three different categories. We
have our primary drainage system which is typically your rivers,
major canals. And those typically outflow into your tidal basins.
From there upwards you go into your secondary drainage system
which is typically maintained by a municipality or county. In this
Page 147
November 29, 2006
case it's Collier County maintains most of the secondary systems, not
all. And then from there you get into tertiary drainage systems or your
neighborhood drainage systems. Collier County also operates a
number of tertiary systems. Those are our roadside swales, our ponds
that we have alongside of our road -- roadways. We have also some
neighborhood ponds that we've taken over operation of ponds, et
cetera. So we do operate a number of tertiary systems as well as our
secondary systems.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Could I stop you a second?
MR. CALVERT: Yes, please.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Of the secondary drainage
system, I'm looking at this document the -- in that middle panel, there
mayor may not be words there in the pink area. If there are words
there, perhaps you could tell us what they are.
MR. CALVERT: Okay. Right below the main title it says
secondary drainage system. And then right below that it says, local
drainage districts, county or city.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes, sir. I have that. I'm talking
about within this pink section here.
MR. HARRISON: Further down.
MR. CALVERT: Further down the area, it does appear to -- to
have some type of written -- written items on there.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
MR. CALVERT: I don't know exactly what that says.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: At the moment I just realized
you didn't. That's fine. Okay. Thank you.
MR. CALVERT: As we look at the next map, this is the -- the
bigger map that we have out here. We tried to, in this particular
diagram, is illustrate the secondary drainage system that the county
maintains. As I mentioned the primary system is not maintained by the
county. That's maintained by Big Cypress Basin, South Florida Water
Page 148
November 29,2006
Management District, under an agreement with the county. So the
county has an agreement with Big Cypress that they maintain the
system. They also control it.
So as we look into the AUIR and look at our inventories, we
thought it was more prudent to look at our secondary system rather
than the primary system which we have little or no control over. So as
we look at the secondary drainage systems, on this map you'll see a
number of things. The little -- the blue lines that are indicated kind of
a grid pattern, those are our canal systems. These are all of our canal
systems, the secondary as well as the primary. The secondary systems
are indicated by little blue arrows that are on those little blue lines.
Those little blue arrows are indicating our secondary system as
maintained by the county. Many of those secondary systems then
empty into the primary system. Then -- then we also see in through
there some blue triangles. Those blue triangles are -- are adjustable
control structures within our system. These are our weirs that have
gates on them, those that we can operate, raise and lower the level of
the canals. The red triangles are our fixed stage weirs. So we have a
number of those on -- in the system. Those are the nonadjustable
weirs. Those weirs elevations have been set by permit to help restore
the ground water replenishment as well as water quality.
Then below that we've also have indicated a pump station. You'll
see three of these little -- it looks like little hydrants on through there.
These are pump stations that we maintain and operate typically out of
a -- a lake that empties into either the secondary system or the primary
system. As I said, we have actually three pump systems that we
maintain currently.
You'll also notice on the lower section what you see in the main
section is the urban areas around Naples. We also have a number of
secondary systems up around the Immokalee area which is indicated
in the lower left-hand comer. So that's the secondary system. I did
not provide a map of our tertiary system because, as I said, the tertiary
Page 149
November 29, 2006
system is our roadside swales. You can look at any of our road maps.
That's -- we have a tertiary system through there. It also includes
some of the neighborhood systems we have control over, but we did
not include the tertiary systems into our AUIR inventory.
As you look at the next page, this is the little page with
photographs. This little page here indicates or shows some of what
our adjustable weirs look like and our pump systems. So you can see
in through there that they have gates, automatic gates, pump stations.
We've actually got 17 systems around the county as far as our major
facilities. So you can see that some of the structures like this will cost
considerably more than our fixed weirs. That's where we're getting
into the difficulty of -- of what the unit costs are on our -- on our
inventory. The last time we met last week we talked about this
$530,000 per structure. Is that a good number? And the answer is
maybe on the average it's not too bad, but you really can't look at each
one of these structures and say they're only 530,000. We can build
some fixed weir structures for twenty, thirty thousand. We get up to
some of these adjustable weirs, we may be looking at $2 million.
Big Cypress basin is now putting out for contract and recently
put out a contract for the Golden Gate Main No.2 which is -- was--
came in at a cost of 4.2 million. So you've got a range from thirty,
forty thousand up to four point two depending on your complexity.
I'll go over some of those costs in -- in a little bit as well.
As we looked at these last two sheets, the map illustrating all of
our -- our control structures we have in there and all of our -- our
mileage, as Mr. Feder indicated, we track the mileage of our canal
system by use of the GIS system. We began using the GIS system in
-- in 2005 to really get a better handle of what we've got out there as
far as the inventory miles.
From time to time we take on new systems. And time to time we
knock off systems. Just recently, in fact, as late as last Tuesday here,
the Board of County Commissioners vacated a portion of the drainage
Page 150
November 29, 2006
canal because it was no longer needed. There was a previous
agreement with the planned unit development that our secondary
system now goes through their lake system. So there's an agreement
there that they maintain their lake system. Our secondary system goes
through it. It's no longer -- that section is no longer maintained by the
county and that will come and go as time goes along.
Our inventory right now as -- as we look at our GIS system
looking at secondary miles, we're looking at 187 miles on our -- on
our system. Those adjustable weirs, the little blue triangles in through
there. If you count up all those little triangles -- little triangles, you'll
count 14 of those. The fixed weirs are the little red triangles. We
count those up and some of them are fairly close. Sometimes it gets
difficult to see if there's one or two triangles in there, but we have 25
of those. Pump stations we have three. And currently we have zero
treatment lakes on our secondary system.
As you're looking at cost, I said that varies quite a bit from
structure to structure even from canal to canal. If you're looking at a
canal system that we've recently put out for contract is Avalon School
drainage. It's a canal that has got a 28- foot top, about a 10- foot
bottom. It's about three-foot deep. It's going -- it's costing us about
$1.2 million per mile to build that -- that particular canal. It is on our
secondary system. It's 28 feet wide at the top. And it's costing us 1.2
million. That includes all the appurtenances as well, you know, rip rap
and some types of gates in some cases, et cetera.
On the up -- upper end of it which we are putting out a contract
here and re-bidding it here yet in December and then it'll probably be
going to the board for consideration is the Lely main canal which is --
has a 60-foot top width, 6-feet deep. It has a cost of $2.8 million per
mile. That's quite a bit wider, quite a bit bigger. It also has steeper
walls. We've had to do some additional riprap. It's got a lot more
bells and whistles, if you will, because it was confined within an
existing development. Couldn't go out too much further because we'd
Page 151
November 29, 2006
be taking homes. So we have a range even on just our canal system
from I.2 million to 2.8 million.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Do these -- in your costs are
adjacent roadways or abutting roadways, are they included in that?
MR. CALVERT: Pardon me?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Are service roadways, are they
included in that cost?
MR. CALVERT: They are. Particularly the -- the 2.8 actually
has a 10- foot wide service road on top of the one bank. The 1.2
million is actually down to a pathway. It's only an 8-foot service road
on top of the edge bank, but they do include service roads.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And we own the rights-of-way.
MR. CALVERT: We do own the rights-of-way.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. Thank you.
MR. CALVERT: As you look at structures, the adjustable weirs,
since it's mentioned you get on the high end the Golden Gate No.1
which is fairly recently been established by $2.1 million. Golden Gate
No.2 is at 4.2 and then it goes down. We've got an adjustable weir
that we're -- smaller in scale that we're going to be building on the
LASIP project near the Lely Lakes. It's got a value of almost 400,000
-- 393,000's our estimate. So it ranges from 393,000 for an adjustable
weir up to 2 million what we'll be looking at.
Some of our fixed weirs would be depending on -- on the width
of the canals. That certainly can make a difference as well. Looking
at the LASIP project, we have one that we're looking at 197,000. And
then we have another one on Davis Boulevard estimated at 295,000.
So we have a 30 percent difference or 50 percent difference in cost in
just fixed weirs. Again, depending on the width of the canals and other
constraints.
Pump stations, those are fairly consistent. We do have a
Gateway pump station. We estimate that to be at $453,000 for a pump
station. Our treatment lakes and spreader lakes, we have a treatment
Page 152
November 29, 2006
lake in Gateway triangle. We have several. Two in LASIP. We have
three in Gordon River Water Quality Park. It ranges from 586,000.
Just the one we're building in Gateway, 586,000 to 1.6 million in
Sable Bay. And the difference is its size. We've got certainly a bigger
size, bigger spreader dyke, more mitigation issues with the one in
Sable Bay. So even spreader lakes we've got a variation cost. It just
gives you an indication it gets very difficult, then, to decide what a
structure is worth or what a mile of canal is worth.
As Mr. Feder suggested, we want to maybe look at this issue and
try to come up with a better way to report our inventory in the AUIR.
I don't believe we have that luxury to do that this year, but I do believe
that is something that we really need to -- to pursue.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Has this in any way -- with this
new set of glasses that you're wearing, has this changed your view of
how you will plan which structures will be implemented first, which
canals or are you going to stick with the same basic plan that you've
initiated?
MR. CALVERT: Well, what we have in our -- our capital
improvement program includes a number of priorities. Priorities are
set through some basin studies or drainage studies. We try to
determine what the needs are, the level of needs. Certainly as input
from the public comes into play, cost sharing comes into play with
some of these proj ects, some of these may have a high priority to us,
but because of the funding mechanism, we need to wait until we get
the local share attached, the MSTUs, if you will.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: If I understand you what -- what
you're saying is your glasses made it clearer, but you haven't changed
the scene?
MR. CALVERT: It really -- that's a good way to put it. It's
made it clearer. We're still using the same approach.
MR. FEDER: Commissioner, just to make it even clearer. Most
Page 153
November 29, 2006
of the items that you're looking at right now that we have the
specificity for, that's why I mentioned we're starting some starts in the
five-year are the ones we have permits for. In the case of LASIP it
only took us 20 years to get those permits. So the specificity is there
and probably the program is not changing. Those needs are identified
through extensive corridor studies and the like. And we're updating
and doing basin studies. In some cases like the Gordon River, we're
pulling out certain projects. In the case of LASIP we have a full set of
proj ects that we're moving forward on.
So in that sense I don't believe it's changing, but it is helping us
in -- and this process is helping us as we define what new stops we're
doing and how we're going about them.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Sure. Thank you.
MR. CALVERT: If you look at the next handout that I have and
that's the handout that's the revised 2006 AUIR Facility Summary
Form. This is a new form that we revised based on our discussion that
we had last week and based on our discussion we are having today as
far as how we put the inventory together and how we structure the
cost.
As you look through the AUIR form, as I mentioned earlier, what
we wanted to concentrate in is the secondary system. And so when
you look at the inventory, we're looking at the secondary system for
our inventory. Not any changes the -- of the inventory of the tertiary
system, that's not indicated in the A UIR.
What we tried to do, as Mr. Feder indicated, is to eliminate the
unit cost values for our structures and our canals. As I said, we do
want to do that in future AUIRs. I do not believe we have the luxury
to fully evaluate this program within the next few weeks. So what we
listed through there is the inventory and then about halfway down
through there we said the drainage canal cost and looking at what type
of value and cost do we have in our five-year program. We've also
indicated how many use facilities we're going to be building or how
Page 154
November 29, 2006
many reconstructed secondary facilities we're building. And so that
reflects what our future inventory will be in five years out.
MR. FEDER: Gene, if I could. You said a couple of times that
we probably can't show you now the inventories. I think that's the
case. But we are showing you miles. What we want to go is to
something that's much more indicative of the carrying capacity or the
system capacity by acre feet or something to show, which we don't
have right now. But we are showing you the miles and the number of
structures.
MR. CALVERT: One factor that's also not indicated on there
and is certainly a cost consideration in these times is the right-of-way
cost. We look at the inventory cost and a lot of cases for our LASIP
project, we do have inventory or right-of-way cost involved with that
project. However, it's not included in the cost for what our existing
inventory is right now. How many -- how much right-of-way do we
have in our 187 -- 187 miles of pipe? So that's another factor that
probably should be included in the next AUIR. It certainly is a value
that should be considered.
As you look at the next page, it's the legal-sized page that's got
the Excel spreadsheet. It says Attachment "A" up in the comer. This
is a revised Attachment A from the previous meeting we had last
week. What we did in this particular Attachment "A" is separate out
our secondary projects from our tertiary projects from our title
proj ects. So as you look at this page compared to what previously
handed to you, the far left-hand comer that says number, those are the
same numbers and proj ects as just for clarification. But we separated
out which ones are our capital projects, which ones are our tertiary
projects and then, finally, which ones are the title projects. And then
at the bottom of Attachment "A" is -- goes on out to the revenues,
what we anticipate for revenues over the next five years.
MR. FEDER: The other thing, Gene, you might note under
Attachment A under the secondary or capital projects, technically the
Page 155
November 29, 2006
only ones that are in the comp plan that are placed in your capital
improvement element or CIE are those that are shown here with what
their CIE number is. But, obviously, we wanted to show you the full
program here.
MR. CALVERT: Thank you for that. That's a very good point.
Because we do have four projects in our CIE program. That's the
Gordon River Water Quality Park, the Lely Area Stormwater
Improvement Proj ect, the Belle Mead Stormwater Proj ect and the
Gateway Triangle.
The Belle Mead Project I need to point out. It doesn't have a CIE
number identified yet because we don't know for sure what those
particular projects are. This is a study that's being completed right
now by the Big Cypress Basin identifying some of these capital
projects. They have a good indication of what they might be looking
at, the preliminary drawings and preliminary report. But until we get
the final report, we don't know for sure what they'll be out there. But
we do anticipate that report being finalized within -- within the next
year so we can proceed with some of the design and construction.
And that's as you look at the design and construction, it comes in the
out years of the five-year program.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Do you have more to --
MR. CALVERT: Got one more thing.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. CAL VERT: If you look at Attachment B which is the next
one attached to this one. It's all a little spreadsheet. What I tried to do
in here, this particular diagram, is looking at just our secondary
program and what type of facilities are we going to be building. This
is the inventory of -- of additional miles, additional structures,
additional ponds and what projects are tied to. So you utilize these
numbers tied back to that summary form in trying to determine where
those miles are going to be built or where are these structures going to
be built.
Page 156
November 29, 2006
And, finally, as a request from last time, the last -- very last
handout. There's another spreadsheet. And it says Summary of
Stormwater Revenues. These were revenues we received from 2004
to 2005 -- '6, excuse me, of this three-year period of non-county funds.
So these would be grant funds that we received, contributions from
developers, bid documents, any type of revenue that we receive that
went back into our program that was non-county ad valorem tax. The
reason this was brought up previously was the question as far as how
much MSTU money was being brought into the program. As you can
see on this one, there's zero at this point. But there is other local
contributions. And also looking at this years, we look at all these
Issues.
MR. FEDER: Those of those that might not know, bid
documents when somebody comes in and goes to a bid, they pay for a
set of documents. So it's a revenue source. What I'll call your
attention to is the placement property in '04. That's basically
commercial paper that came into buy. That was a revenue stream in.
And then a million a year although that's now going back after that
payment that we're getting from the Big Cypress Basin. And then in
'06 we're very fortunate to get an FTC grant at 5.8. Those are the
major items that come into the program.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Yes, Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Am I reading this correctly if I go down 2005,
everything is a grant there except the $1,681.05 for Graves Brothers
culvert replacement? Is that a contribution from a homeowner or what
is that?
MR. CAL VERT: You're correct in the -- in the fact that it's --
they're all grants except for $1,681 as well as the $49 at the bottom as
far as bid documents. The rest of them are all grants.
The Graves Brothers culvert replacement miscellaneous revenue,
I do not know what that proj ect or revenue source was from, whether
it was a developer or other contribution.
Page 157
,.~_._", _, B' - - '.~.'.'~",-
November 29, 2006
MS. VASEY: Okay. And then looking at 2006, you just got
grant money and bid documents. So there aren't really any
contributions from homeowner associations or developer agreements
or anything like that?
MR. CALVERT: That's correct in 2006. Now, there were some
right-of-way donations, but we just looked at the revenues here. We
didn't provide any other kind of contributions in kind or soft matches.
MS. VASEY: And most of the money in 2006 is that -- what's
the FTC Grant?
MR. CALVERT: That's -- that's correct, 5.8 million was the--
MR. FEDER: Florida Communities Trust -- Florida Community
Trust.
MS. VASEY: Okay. And that's something that's free and clear?
We don't pay that back or anything?
MR. FEDER: No, we do not pay that back. It's from
Department of Community Affairs. It's a grant program for certain
projects around the state. And we're very successful here and we
expect that we'll also be getting one on the other section of
Fleishmann by the Caribbean Gardens.
MR. CALVERT: Yeah. We anticipate getting close to $9
million on that same program, FCT, for the Gordon River Greenway
Park that is on this current year's program.
MS. VASEY: So would it be accurate to say that the one-third
contributions from MSTUs and MSBUs and all that it just isn't
happening?
MR. CALVERT: It would be fair to say that.
MS. VASEY: Okay. And -- and how does it look for the future?
MR. FEDER: Ms. Vasey--
MR. CALVERT: It is difficult. Go ahead.
MR. FEDER: What I -- what I will tell you is what we're looking
at right now, we're trying to pursue that issue also looking at
right-of-way. What we have looked at is under the policy, let's say, on
Page 158
November 29, 2006
a capital project on a secondary system. Let's say LASIP. We've got
a total cost of that project. Based on that total cost, we are not going
to expend more than one-third of that cost in county funds. We will
stop the proj ect utilizing those county funds as we try to pursue from
Big Cypress Basin which they have committed some to that project,
but their one-third. And as we try to pursue basically the MSTU
funding for the other third. Some of what we're looking at, though, is
that we're having to buy right-of-way in that area, is may we look at
the full cost with right-of-way included and establish that one-third
policy. And if the right-of-way is provided to us, then that reduce
what that MSTU demand might be. But under the policy if, for
instance, I got nothing from BCB, which isn't the case, if I got nothing
from MSTU, we would only build the one-third solution. And that's
as far as we could go as a county.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, then if you go to your
summary page, then, I'm a little curious as to why when you go down
under the category of existing and projected revenue sources, MSTUs
still you're putting in more dollars there than you are for South Florida
Water Management District and BCB grants.
MR. CALVERT: That -- that's correct. That's a good
observation. What we're looking at is $25 million over a five-year
program from MSTUs and other identified revenue. And then
compared to 14 million on Big South Florida Water Management
District and Big Cypress Basin.
I might say that the funding that we've indicated here, the 14,750
-- $14,750,000 is funds that we're reasonably sure that we're going to
get. Why I say that is because a good portion of that funds has already
been identified on Big Cypress Basin's five-year program. It's also
additional revenues that we're reasonably sure that we're going to be
getting through EP A grants. So those are -- might say for-sure dollars,
Page 159
November 29,2006
the 14.7 million. There may be additional monies that we'd looking at
down the road. But that's the reason we wanted to indicate the 25
million is unidentified revenue to meet our -- our -- our plan.
MR. FEDER: And, Commissioner Caron, I'll also point out to
you, the funding policy goes over, let's say, for the tertiary system
where it's one-half county, one-halfMSTU. So if you look at it, this is
also assuming the funding as well of the tertiary program and also on
the title with mandatory MSTU s formed after. So that's why you're
seeing that figure in that sense. It's not just for the secondary or the
capital projects. It's also for the tertiary system as well.
MR. CALVERT: We also tried to clarify that in the asterisk on
the second page of that one, the double asterisk that's right beside that
MSTU indicators. On the second page it states and the fact it's based
on the -- the anticipated revenues, but individual projects will be
expanded based on receipt of additional revenues or conversely
reductions will be made should the proj ected funding not materialize.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We are past the three o'clock time for
Ms. Ford and for Katie to have a break. So we'll take a 15-minute
break. And when we get back, we'll resume, finish up storm drainage.
I think we'll be getting into the utilities issue today. At 4:30 we will
probably stop our issues, discuss the conceptual review for tomorrow.
And then at five we'll end for the day. So I don't think we'll get
anything past the utilities today. So for those in the audience who
were interested in what's happening. So we'll take a 15-minute break
and be back here at 3:30.
(Short recess was taken.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Turn us back on, Mike.
MR. BOSI: You have a hot mic, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mic's back on. Mike turned the mic on.
Okay . We had left off with questions for the stormwater section
of this element and drainage. I -- I just want to make an over --
overall statement. Norm, you gave us a lot of information, new sheets
Page 160
November 29, 2006
that are completely different than the old sheets. I've got to sit down
myself and correlate those before I can comment so...
MR. FEDER: Understood.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We'll go through any comments right
now, but from my perspective -- and I'll see where the board wants to
go as we finish -- this is going to have to be finished another day. Ms.
Caron then Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah. First of all, I would agree.
There's an awful lot of information to go over and make comparisons
to. However, I had one that's sort of a carryover here and that would
be on your tertiary systems, No.1, which is your GPS system. And it
was projected last year to be $50,000. And it's now increased to
$140,000 for fiscal year '06/'07. Can you tell me why?
MR. CALVERT: Absolutely. We've actually got a little bit of
carryover from finishing up the proj ect. In fact, the contractor just
finished his last phase of the project up here the last two weeks ago
and we will be making a payment to the tune of 97,000. It's under the
contract we have with him. And so that the carryover, we did have
some carryover from last year into this year's budget so that we could
make that payment.
We also anticipated around $40,000 worth of first-year
maintenance and then thereafter 20 -- $20,000 worth of maintenance
per year. Currently we have about 30 users on the system
representing nine different firms. We are charging them a -- a fee.
And that fee will go to offset the annual maintenance cost. But we --
$20,000 in annual maintenance cost. It may be a little high--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You'll need to pull the mic a little closer
to you, Gene. We having a hard time hearing you.
MR. CALVERT: I'm sorry. I'll do that. So what I'm saying is
that -- those costs will be offset by the user fees in future years. And it
may be less than $20,000, but we want to allow that -- provide that.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Okay. Again, in the 2005 AUIR, it
Page 161
November 29, 2006
was projected out across the board at $50,000 a year. So you're saying
that the 50 is going to come down because of your user fees and --
MR. CALVERT: On -- on the annual basis? I believe we have
this year the annual basis should be $20,000 annual after this current
fiscal year.
COMMISSIONER CARON: After this current -- right.
MR. CALVERT: Right.
COMMISSIONER CARON: But where did the 140 come from?
MR. CALVERT: The 140 is, as I mentioned, we had around
$97,000 worth of contract to finish up getting the system on board.
And then we allowed for around $40,000 for first-year operations
working the bugs out if we need to.
COMMISSIONER CARON: So what was it initially in the
'05/'06 or the 2005 AUIR, just all of that did not get spent? This is
essentially a carry-over situation?
MR. CALVERT: A lot of that is. I didn't bring my spreadsheet
from what was carried over. But, yes, a good chore because --
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, I don't have mine because I
gave you mine last time. That's where I couldn't remember -- couldn't
figure out why mine was gone.
MR. FEDER: Commissioner Caron, my understanding is that
that was rolled. It was encumbered, but it was not spent, so it rolled
and that's why you see the dollars here. Also the concept was changed
some in this GPS. We've now set it up and we're now letting other
people come on and utilize the system and go into a fee basis. That
was reviewed with the board. And this is primarily used by us as we
look at permitting driveways to make sure we've got proper elevation
for positive flow as we permit driveway culverts and other issues of
the sort particularly out in the estates. We didn't have good
monuments in the past to do that from. You had to go shoot the whole
line. Now we do have good monuments. That's a big part of what we
utilize this for and we also have as a service out to others.
Page 162
November 29, 2006
COMMISSIONER CARON: I thought it was just so you could
get home in the fastest manner possible.
MR. FEDER: That's the pre-emption signal. I don't have one of
those either.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Okay. Thanks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Gene, I notice in the footnote or a note
on the bottom talks about the 1.5 mill ( sic) ad valorem securing
funding beginning in '05 for the next 20 years. Now, does that mean
that the board has already acknowledged that you are going to be able
to spend 0.15 millions of ad valorem taxation on this element of
AUIR? Now it's a matter of just figuring what you're spending it on?
MR. CALVERT: Each year the board does have to approve the
budget and does have to approve the ad valorem revenues into them.
This was a resolution that the board passed in 2004, really it set the
funding policy. I don't believe legally it obligated the board to put in
this -- this 0.15 mills for the next 20 years, but rather was a -- an
acknowledgment that this is what that board wanted to do.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, the comment securing
funding is what drove my question. I'm just wondering how secure it
is if it doesn't -- based on what you just said then, it really isn't any
more secure than any other budget item.
MR. CALVERT: That is -- that is my understanding. That is
correct. Because it does have to be approved on an annual basis by
the Board of County Commissioners.
MR. FEDER: Commissioner Strain, it does need to be approved
every year. The board made a strong commitment after years of not
having a specific funding source for stormwater to establish 0.15
mills. Now, that's for operating as well as the capital program. So it
generates some dollars that are also the operating costs. While the
board can obviously reduce that or for that matter provide more, their
provision is a commitment of 0.15 mills. That committed, if you will,
funding source was also seen as something necessary for us to go after
Page 163
November 29,2006
grants and to support grants to bring more into the program. Because it
was understood based on the overall costs and needs the 0.15 mills
would basically address the funding proportions that you have here in
an overall program of 20 years.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Where I'm going with my questioning
was to make sure I understand this. There is a summary in the front of
the AUIR that talks about additional ad valorem impacts. This is not
in that summary. Based on the statement and what you just said it
appears, then, that this is an allocation that is supposed to occur on a
reoccurring basis for 20 years. And that you are not seeking any
additional allocation out of any ad valorem other than what's --
MR. FEDER: That is correct. That is correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So then it does become a matter
now of, okay, this is what the board's policy is. This is what they are
maxed out or allowing you to spend. Your priorities are the next line
of item of where you're going to spend it and how you're going to do
it.
MR. FEDER: And we're seeking grants and the MSTUs and
other issues to be able to fully develop the program.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If -- even if we came up with some
suggestions on how to defer any of the work, it really wouldn't matter
because you're still going to spend the same amount of money either
way it goes.
MR. FEDER: Hopefully we're going to use that money on good
improvements.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, that's a given I would hope.
MR. FEDER: Yeah. Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So, okay, that does take a whole
different level of perspective for this particular element of the AUIR at
least from my viewpoint. And does that millage equal about 9 million
a year? Is that what -- because you've got $9 million under ad
valorem for FY'06, '07. And then under FY'07 to '08 and '10 to '11
Page 164
November 29,2006
you another 45. Was the 45 supposed to be over five years or was it
supposed to be over four years? The reason I'm asking this is because
if it's over four years, it's a little over 11 million a year you should be
allocating. If it's over five years, then nine million of the forty-five is
in the number above.
MR. FEDER: It is over the next four years. And it is going up a
little bit as overall assessed values go up. If you take a standard of
0.15 mills, it generated about 9 million. I think this year it was about
11. Yeah. Each year was showing about an 8 percent increase based
on the fact that we assume the assessed values will go up. And if we
maintain a specific portion of the millage, obviously, that brings a
little more revenue.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. There's no impact fees allocated
at this time for drainage?
MR. FEDER: There is not.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You are making a recommendation at
some point to -- especially when the water shed management plan's
coming to --
MR. FEDER: Not when I'm going out to transportation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any other questions? I
don't think we're going to resolve anything with this issue today other
than make sure we understand it for review again tomorrow.
MR. FEDER: The last thing I will try to point out to the board as
you look at this, obviously, what we've done is we are no longer
identifying what the value -- and I want to make sure that you don't --
don't have anything as not presented to you. Weare no longer
showing a cost for canal costs for an average structure. We went over
why. We're not showing a value of the inventory and what the value
will be afterwards. Because very honestly we found that that was not
a very useful item. What was our cost when we put it in versus what
would be our cost if we put it in today, what's the depreciated value on
the weir that's so many years old. Going through that, it didn't seem to
Page 165
November 29, 2006
make much sense.
What we have done for you hopefully and that's what is for you
to look at and evaluate is we've identified what our revenue streams
are, what our needs are, divided it out by the systems so you get a
better look at that. Showing you from what we have coming in the
next five, what we have permits for, therefore, we have a good
indication of what we're going to be adding in new miles -- upgraded
miles as well as the number of structures by structure type. As I said,
there are some proj ects in this five year we've seen dollars attributed,
but we don't show any structures of miles because we don't know it
yet. As we do that in subsequent A UIRs, we will put that on. You
shouldn't see anything that first year going over into inventory. We
feel comfortable with the inventory at this point. Anything added new
fifth, obviously, in there, but then as others come forward, we'd be
able to identify and you'd see the dollars respective to that.
The last thing is that we are going to probably not this cycle, but
try to move away from just canal miles because it doesn't speak to
basically the capacity or the capability of the system.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any final questions?
Gene.
MR. CAL VERT: One final answer to a question that came up
last time that I forgot to address. And that was a question about the
Australian pines project number. Previously AUIRs had a project
number of515012. This year it's 51501I. And the reason being is
that -- is that in prior to 2005, the capital improvements were funded
through a cost accounting fund known as 301 fund. So they -- the
board put monies into this 301 fund to fund these projects.
Today it's funded through the 325 funds. So as the projects were
closed out in 301, maybe the projects weren't done but the money was
spent. And we had to come up with new project numbers. And
Australian pine is a typical one. We have several of the other projects
that have actually two different project numbers. One project
Page 166
November 29, 2006
underneath the 301 fund and another project underneath 325.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any questions of anybody
before we move onto the next subj ect?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Nope. Appreciate your time. Thank
you. And I -- we're going to have to finish yours up tomorrow as best
as -- we expect to get through everything by tomorrow what we don't
finish today so...
MR. CALVERT: Okay. For the board's purposes do -- would
you like me to come back, then, tomorrow for any other future
questions towards the end?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think any questions that we have of
your new information won't really be available until tomorrow. At
least I'll need that much time to review it and I'm sure others do. So,
unfortunately, you're going to have to come back again.
MR. CALVERT: I will be available. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
The next item up is are-review of the county potable water
system. We had some questions last time to which we had some new
handouts. And I guess we need to move into the potable water
section.
MR. GRAMATGES: Good afternoon. Phil Gramatges,
principal project manager, public utilities engineering. The last time
we met, this board had three requests. First, that we add some
financials at the end of the -- of the potable water and wastewater
sections in order to show the sources and uses of cash. And we have
done that. You can see those on page 36.1 and page 52.1.
We also at your request added a couple of graphs on 52.2 and
52.3 that show the service areas for the specific water reclamation
facilities. The first one is for the year 2011 which show the way that it
will look at that time, of course. And the next one is for 2025 which
will show the service areas once -- at the end of the master planning
Page 167
November 29, 2006
period.
The third request was that we change the peak calculation for
solid waste from a six-month basis to four-month basis and we have
done that as well.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Let's start with the potable water
and any questions that we have from the panel to get through that
portion of it. Anybody have any comments?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I'll start out with some questions
on the population statistics. Again, not as to how they were devised
but where you got some of the your information from. And I know it
was from the projections and comprehensive planning. But under
your potable water system, from what I can tell, you used the total of
the north and south water plants. Yet on the proj ections that we had in
our package, we had other plants called the Southeast Water and
Sewer, the Northeast 2 and 3 Water and Sewer and the Orangetree
Water and Sewer. Do any of those produce water?
MR. GRAMATGES: No, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: They're all sewer?
MR. GRAMATGES: The Northeast plant will produce water
and sewer, but that, of course, is 2011.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, but there's -- there's two Northeast
plants or Northeast 2 and Northeast 3 that population statistics were
provided for from, you know, years back. But those -- that is all one
plant, the three Northeast plants that are referred to in the population
statistics are all one?
MR. GRAMATGES: Yeah. I have to confess that I'm not
familiar with those designations. But at this point in time, the
Northeast Plant is just one plant. And that plant will produce both
water and -- and processed wastewater.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And that plant isn't going to go
on-line until --
Page 168
November 29, 2006
MR. GRAMATGES: 2011.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So all the other references to that--
MR. GRAMA TGES: Mr. Wides just explained that that could be
related to the fact that that is phased, the Northeast Plant. So the
Northeast Plant, in fact, as a result of discussions we had with the
Planning Commission last year, we decided to take it in stages and
that's probably what you're referring to there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is the first phase in 2011?
MR. GRAMATGES: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And, again, that's why it was
confusing because the way this population stats are written, there
appears to be two of the phases for which population statistics were
provided for. And I'm wondering, then, how you could have -- how
those statistics could have been provided for if the service area doesn't
exist because you don't have a plant?
MR. GRAMATGES: Well, the service area doesn't exist, but we
know what areas will be covered by it. And, therefore, we can
calculate what population will be there at the time the plant will be --
will be functioning.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Do you know why in Northeast 1 Water
and Sewer wouldn't have had anything allocated to it although it
wasn't a line item on the population statistics added to our AUIR?
MR. GRAMATGES: Can you detail on what page you find that,
please?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, if you turn to -- have you got the
AUIR?
MR. GRAMATGES: Okay. Oh, I see. Well, the reason why
Northeast 1 Water and Sewer does not have anything is, as I
understand it, because, indeed, we're not serving that area. I will need
to turn that to CDS for answers.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Because if Northeast 2 and 3
aren't existing and they're incorporated in some other way, I just want
Page 169
November 29, 2006
to make sure that the population is addressed either in the statistic as it
should -- as it may need to be or out. I mean, it's out. It's not in your
-- it's not in your table. That I confirmed.
MR. GRAMATGES: Yeah. Northeast 1 is not going to be
serviced and that's the reason why there's all zeros there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What about Orangetree, are you guys
pulling water out of Orangetree?
MR. GRAMATGES: Orangetree, we -- we are planning to take
over Orangetree in 2012. There -- there is -- the Northeast Plant there
is not necessarily -- not to service Orangetree. Orangetree is operating
right now. We're going to take over operations. There maybe some
overlapping, but that's all.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any questions about
some of the new sheets or any of the sheets that were supplied to us by
potable water?
Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: I'd just like to comment that those -- those were
exactly the things I was looking for. And in -- it's very well done. I'm
quite satisfied with my questions. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: On your summary sheet that was
provided, Phil, on line 16, water impact fees, 2006 you use 7.70 and
2007 you dropped severely down to 3.6. 2008 you were back up to
11.30. And in 2009 40.40. That's quite a jump in 2009.
MR. GRAMATGES: Let me ask Mr. Wides to address that
question.
MR. WIDES: Good afternoon. For the record, Tom Wides,
operations director for public utilities.
First off what we look at is we don't expect to spend the funds on
a ratable basis throughout a time period. We'll rate them. We'll spend
the funds as -- as components of capital projects basically start to
come on-line so we get through -- as we get through various
construction periods. And as you've seen in our master planning in
Page 170
November 29, 2006
particular, we do -- we do go through peaks and valleys as we go over
the years. We don't have just a flat line. So the monies will go out as
we need to fund the projects.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: This is under the funding sources. So
it's monies coming in.
MR. WIDES: Well, it's -- it's actually use of the monies coming
in. You have to look at it from the point of view the monies are
coming in, yes, ratably depending on the building cycle. But the
actual use of the monies may not be on the exact same cycle as the
. ..
monIes comIng In.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I'm used to seeing use of money
under expenditures and then the sources of where that expenditure is
able to be spent from under funding sources. So under your funding
sources and under expenditures you're both saying they're attributed to
the use of the money?
MR. WIDES: Yes, sir. Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, how do you control when you're
going to get impact fees? Don't you get them at the time of building
permit?
MR. WIDES: Well, we do, but we don't have control such that
we can't say that we're going to get $2 million this year. We know
that. We know we'll follow the building permit cycle. Okay. But any
over funding in a given year does not mean that we've over funded the
program. It just means it'll be utilized in the next year or the following
year. Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I wasn't going there.
MR. WIDES: Sure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I have no problem with that. I'm just
wondering how you perceive the flow of impact fees based on the
revenue streams in the years you predicted it. Because it's quite
different than the other departments have predicted impact fee revenue
flows. And it's quite different than what your sewer impact revenue
Page 171
November 29,2006
fee flows showed on the following -- a similar page under sewer.
MR. WIDES: Right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm trying to correlate all that. I mean,
why would one year you look at a difference of almost ten times what
it is going to be next year in impact-fee revenues when your revenue
stream comes in at the same time that everybody else does from
impact fees, doesn't it?
MR. WIDES: Yes, it does.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. WIDES: I can't argue that part whatsoever. However, we've
tracked this literally in our master plan efforts, in our -- in our actual
funding efforts. And as we see the populations coming in from doing
these studies, we've actually tried to estimate the revenues that will
come in. I can't account for how others have done it. However, we
refined this process over five or six years. And it's -- it's worked very
well for us. And if I may --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sure.
MR. WIDES: -- tracking our cash-flow process over the last five
years, we've been able to defer this large revenue buying program for
two years by literally following the cash and the cash needs. And as
you may be aware, we just literally have prepared to float a $100
million revenue bond. We originally projected to do that back in
2003, but we followed the cash flows over the years and were able to
defer that revenue bond.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I'm not -- Tom, I'm certainly not
saying that you're wrong. I'm trying to understand your basis because
you may have a better basis in the way you're doing it than the other
departments are. If that's the case, because right now statistically I'm
concerned about the way the other departments use our population
statistics. You guys for this document looks like you used when
building permits would be hitting the plate for your revenues.
MR. WIDES: Right. And follow the flow of the building
Page 172
November 29, 2006
permits coming in. And, again, I can only speak for the way we do it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. That's the only question I had on
that sheet. Anybody else have any other questions?
MR. HARRISON: One down here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: I'm still looking at the details. In prior reports
you had the transmission facility out to 951 And Immokalee Road?
MR. WIDES: Yes.
MR. HARRISON: Is that still in the five-year horizon here?
MR. WID ES: I'd have to defer back to our engineering
department on that one, but I believe the -- the five-year plan does not
-- well, I'll let Phil speak to that.
MR. GRAMATGES: Can you tell me what part you say you're
looking at again, please?
MR. HARRISON: Well, I thought I'd seen this last year where
there was, like, a new 36-inch line going out to connect with the
existing service to the comer of 951 And Immokalee Road.
MR. GRAMA TGES: That -- that line is definitely in the master
plan. Whether it's in the five years or not, I would need to look for it.
Because I do remember that project from the master plan.
MR. HARRISON : Yeah. On page 205 near the bottom you've
got the new 36 inch line from 951 down to Golden Gate Boulevard.
That's all part --
MR. GRAMATGES: If you look at page 29, you will see that
the line 4 shows that proj ect coming in on fiscal year -- beginning on
fiscal year 2006 and ending on fiscal year 2008. So that's definitely
within next five years.
MR. HARRISON: So the transmission is in before the new
treatment plant?
MR. GRAMATGES: And that's quite likely, yes, because we
tried to take advantage of any --
MR. HARRISON: Construction, yeah.
Page 173
November 29, 2006
MR. GRAMATGES: Yes, that is going on there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other questions of the
potable water?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are we in a position to take a position
on it? Any -- I don't think we need this issue to come back to us. Any
comments from anybody?
MS. VASEY: The only comment I would have is I -- I think
we're going to be recommending approval without any issues.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I cannot hear you, Jan.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: She said she--
MS. VASEY: I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead. I'm sorry. I'll let you speak
for yourself.
MS. VASEY: We're going to probably -- as a subcommittee
we'll probably recommend to the full committee for approval as -- as
this AUIR is presented without any issues.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So from the Planning
Commission perspective then is there a motion from the Planning
Commission how to address this issue?
Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'll make that motion in
accordance with the recommendation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: According to the recommendation
where?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'm going to find it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Early they made a
recommendation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I don't know if--
Page 174
November 29, 2006
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. I'll make -- I'll make a
recommendation in accordance with the presentation and the
supporting documentation and the qualification as shown on the
record here today and prior days.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a second to the motion?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah. I'll second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Mr. Murray, seconded
by Commissioner Caron. Any discussion?
From my part of it, I believe that the document provided by the U
department -- utilities department is good. I don't have a problem with
it. I don't have a problem with the work that they're doing nor the
work that they're proposing, but I have a problem with the basis for
which it was proposed. I am dead set against the way we not
explained population criteria. And because it isn't explained, I can't
see the valid -- I can -- I cannot validate any of the elements of this
document that are based on population as expressed to us without the
explanations to clarify it.
And at this point I have gone on as much research as I have done,
I can't find a valid explanation yet. So having that blank in front of
me, I will be voting no on this particular recommendation to the Board
of County Commissioners for specifically the questionability of our
population statistics.
Now, is there any other discussion?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chairman, if you like on
that negative note included into the -- into the motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If the motion maker feels that's worthy
of inclusion, I certainly would like it.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: My suspicion is if the
commissioners were to read that, they might be made aware of
something that they have an opportunity to qualify further.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I think we've made it perfectly
Page 175
November 29,2006
clear and I think it should be in any motion that gets made that we're
not happy with the population statistics that are being used. And we
have gotten no answers. We've asked over and over and over again
and haven't gotten any answers to any satisfaction whatsoever. And I
think that it's very clear that we should include it in anything that we
forward.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN : Well, the only -- this is the first item
that we've had that is population contingent. The rest of them have
been more count contingent or other elements of radius or miles for
the fire department. So that's why up until now this is the only
element that I felt had the impact that was concerning to me.
Mr. Vigliotti.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Mr. Chairman, I also agree
with you. I can't -- I can't vote for this. It's based on population
figures which I just don't have faith in. I don't think they're correct.
And until they're adjusted, I just can't go forward on any issue related
to the population.
MR. COHEN: For the record, you know, I'm somewhat
perplexed by that statement. You asked us to contact the Bureau of
Economic and Business Research which we did, myself, Mr. -- Mr.
Bosi and Mr. Weeks. We had a lengthy discussion with Mr. Stanley --
Dr. Stanley Smith who's the head of BEBR with respect to
documenting the validity of the population statistics used in this
methodology and he validated it. In fact, the methodology that we
used based off the 2000 census was extremely accurate. It was right
on point with respect to starting with the 71.2 percent vacant housing
units. It was scheduled as the first item on your agenda today. And I
was not asked to speak with respect to that and I was here to do just
that.
If you would like me to speak with respect to that, I would be
more than happy to. Mr. Bosi also confirmed that as well too.
Furthermore, we offered the chairman the opportunity to come in and
Page 176
November 29, 2006
meet with myself and Mr. Weeks via e-mail, I believe, last Friday.
And that request for a meeting was turned down.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, it was.
MR. COHEN: And -- and I don't know why it was turned down,
but an explanation would have been provided to you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Randy, first of all, I don't need an
explanation from a phone call. I'd like to see the documentation and
put the number together. I've done my own research trying to figure
out how you got to this number. And I looked back and there are two
things that are used in population: estimates and proj ections.
When you do estimates, you fall back on the census bureau
estimates as the final ones or close to the final ones. The year 2000 is
one example of that. When you do that, what happens is you're using
vacancy rates that are applied to the whole county. And if you look at
the vacancy rates of the City of Marco, I think they were 51 percent.
The City of Naples was over 30 percent if I'm not mistaken. Those
are going to have a huge impact on the vacancy rate you left and used
for the balance of the unincorporated area of Collier County. I have
not seen how that's utilized in our population statistics. And even if it
was satisfactory explained, I do not see how the population statistic
relates to the impacts of water, sewer and many of the other elements.
As I said in the first meeting, those elements are driven by the
physical structures that are put up. Impact fees are paid. The vacancy
rate has nothing to do with when those structures come on-line.
Because they come on-line when the facility's created whether it's 100
percent occupied or not occupied.
MR. COHEN: And we had very lengthy discussion with Dr.
Smith with respect to that. And that was one of the things that we
wanted to brief this board and the Productivity Committee with
respect to as well to with regard to geographic units, especially like a
water/sewer district, a county, smaller geographic units as well
because we have fire districts and the applicability not only of
Page 1 77
November 29,2006
permanent population, but seasonal population as well too and how
that relates to 9J5 with respect to also having one population
methodology countywide. And I think it does warrant an extreme
amount of conversation with both the Planning Commission and the
Productivity Committee. And I -- and I think it warrants a lengthy
discussion with respect to that because it gets at the valid point, which
you've raised, of, you know, how do we deal with population when we
talk about certain geographic units? And when I say that, I don't
disagree with you.
Dr. Smith pointed out that one of the biggest problems that they
have at the Bureau of Economic and Business Research is when they
start dealing with geographic units statewide, every county is different
to start with. And then within the counties themselves, they deal with
different cities that have different types of -- types of populations.
And beyond that within -- within those general rounds themselves,
even the track and block data is so specific when you start dealing
with certain geographic entities. So how do you deal with them and
how do you actually get to the route of the population issues that may
be at hand.
When we talk about a water/sewer district, for example, okay,
and, you know, we compare that, say, to a fire district. We know that
the populations within those districts, because they're different
geographic boundaries, are not going to be the same. We wouldn't
anticipate that they would be the same. The question was posed to Dr.
Smith, well, how would you go about doing that if we were talking
about specific geographic regions? His response back to us was, I
would recommend that you do an intensive survey of that geographic
-- that geographic area. And if it was a specific one that warranted it
and go that route and do a comparison of that compared to your
general population within the county. And that would get at the route
of your -- of your issue. Granted that's very costly to do that because
we're talking about different geographic units. The question then
Page 178
November 29, 2006
becomes which geographic units do you want that specific information
for? And from a sampling statistic -- from a statistical sampling
standpoint, how do you want to go about doing that and how do fund
that?
Do I disagree with you in terms of that we have different
populations, different seasonal rates, different vacancy rates within
different geographic areas, not at all. I would expect that you would
have that throughout the county in different areas whether it's
Immokalee, whether it's Naples, whether it's Marco Island, whether it's
the water/sewer district. Do we have that level of detail available to
us? No, we don't. Are we going to get it from the census data? No,
we're not going to. Is there a mechanism to do that? Yes, there is. Is
it costly? Yes, it is.
Now, from this body's perspective, you know, we've -- we've
utilized population data in the past for this county time and time again
from AUIR to AUIR to AUIR as well as CIE. We also know we have
a recommendation from the Department of Community Affairs to
change that methodology. I would deem it extremely appropriate
from this body and from the Productivity Committee to recommend to
the Board of County Commissioners with respect to certain
geographic units that you feel very uncomfortable with that maybe
there needs to be some more intense data collection done in the future
with respect to those units. Because obviously at this -- at this point in
time, it's a very lengthy undertaking and, you know, it can't be done at
this point in time. But in the future I think it -- it would be warranted
to do that and budgeted accordingly.
So I don't -- I don't disagree with that. But for us to come back
and say we studied this and come up with a number, there's no way
that's going to happen. I can look at census data. I can look at block
data. I can look at track data. There's no way it's going to transpire
without going out and doing a sound statistically solid sample of a --
of a geographic area and doing a survey within that area. And if you
Page 1 79
November 29, 2006
wanted it done for, say, the water/sewer district and that was that --
that the Board of County Commissioners gave our staff and budgeted
accordingly, we'd be more than happy to do just that. It's a very
lengthy undertaking. And I think in some instances, it's definitely
warranted.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I know that population is a need
for this county. Number one, it produces our HUD grants and
qualifies us for certain grant levels. It qualifies us for certain revenue
sharing at both federal and state levels. And it also -- Tallahassee
likes this part -- it qualifies this state for a higher population count for
the federal house of representatives that we elect.
So for that reason the population has to be driven to the most
optimistic viewpoint and I understand that. But what my problem is,
and it's not -- it's not that we have to drive this population or we have a
statistic to do it. That's fine. But that is not the statistic we should be
using for many of our AUIR elements. We should be more like
transportation that uses a physical count that says, okay, we have gone
out and counted. This is what we want. And we do have the capacity
to do that. We know through each planning area how many vertical
buildings we put up. We know what the ERCs in those buildings are
because we tabulate them. Every time we issue a building permit and
a C.O. And we also know the PPH. The U.S. Census provides a
different PPH for different types of housing. We have 15 CDPs in this
county for different census tracks. We could take the -- if we wanted
to, to get down to that we could take the PPH from those. There are
numbers of ways this could be done off the statistics available that
might render a more accurate decision on what's needed for the future.
It may come out worse or it may come out better, but I don't think the
population number is the right way to go. And I -- especially with the
fact that we take a number that is permanent. We add a vacancy rate
to it and then we've got buildings and structures out there that are
already created that those people are staying in. I don't -- to me that's
Page 180
November 29, 2006
double counting. I just don't see it as viable.
MR. CO HEN: Well, one thing that I -- that I did feel
comfortable with and I'm sure Mr. Basi and Mr. Weeks also concurred
with that was in determining the -- the housing unit count which they
use statewide, they account for 100 percent of our housing units and
I'm talking residential units to begin with. The 2000 census identified
that we have 71.2 percent of those housing units that are -- that are
occupied on a permanent basis. And 28.8 percent of those they're--
they're considered not to be occupied housing units. They fall in the
vacant category which I believe 23.4 percent of them are completely
seasonal units. That's based off of a countywide ballot 2000 census
data. Is it broken down to the level that you probably like it, no. But
in terms of double counting the seasonal with the -- with the occupied,
specifically Dr. Smith said we start with 100 percent of your units.
I've got the chart here with me. It's straight from the population
statistics. We -- we -- we take out and, you know, what's occupied
which is 71.2 percent and -- and we break that out. And I could pop it
on the visualizer if you'd like to see it. I'd be more than happy to. I
would think it would be the appropriate thing to do right now because
you raised the issue.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, Randy, I have all that information
as well just so you know. Ms. Caron, you had a question?
MR. COHEN: So I'm just kind of curious, you know, if the
standard methodology used by the Bureau of Economic and Business
Research with respect to total housing used statewide, how they
calculate what's occupied, how they calculate what's vacant and
seasonal. So I'm somewhat perplexed. Are you questioning the state's
methodology in terms of how they -- how they count housing units
because that seems to be the gist of where you're going. Because
that's what's done countywide.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Questioning the basis of using it for the
elements of the AUIR unilaterally like we are. The elements of the
Page 181
November 29, 2006
AUIR are more focused on vertical construction through the COA
process and everything like that. And that is a much more accurate
way of determining where we're going in the future than tourist and
how much -- how many units they occupy in a hotel.
Ms. Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: How can we not question -- at the
very minimum how can we not question population statistics that
include areas we do not serve, for example, the City of Marco Island
or the City of Naples?
MR. COHEN: Well, that's not questioning a statistic. That's
questioning whether or not to use that population in -- in applying it to
a level of service that you're -- that you're going to be utilizing. For
example, if you were to say -- if you were to say we don't want to
include the population in the incorporated areas for, say, regional
parks. We just want to supply regional parks for the unincorporated
area as a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners.
Then -- then -- then that would be your recommendation. Obviously,
regional parks do serve countywide population. And in the past that's
been the board direction to apply it countywide.
Whereas, with community parks, we're all well aware that they
serve a certain geographic unit. And the determination was to use
only the unincorporated population for community parks. So there has
been some definitive guidelines there. When we start talking about
different geographic units like the water/sewer districts which have a
totally different type of boundary that's set up by -- by special district
and special act, I believe, it gets a little different.
MR. WIDES: Ms. Caron, if I may, speaking directly to the water
and sewer district. As we speak to the City of Naples or Marco Island
or Everglades City, they are specifically excluded from our population
counts by the community development division. So they are
specifically --
COMMISSIONER CARON: I understand that.
Page 182
November 29, 2006
MR. WIDES: Okay. I just wanted to clarify.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I understand that. We're talking--
MR. WIDES: I know. I know. I can't help but feel somewhat
dragged -- dragged into it.
MR. COHEN: But what we do see as being problematic is that
we do know that there's different seasonal rates within different
geographic units. And that becomes problematic in ascertaining, you
know, how do we apply those particular levels of service, you know,
and populations within them. And that's where Dr. Smith in talking
with him, he said the best avenue about going and doing something
like that is to do really some ground grouping and a survey of those
particular geographic units. And the water/sewer district would be
one of those.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chairman--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: -- as the motion maker, I would
like to offer an amendment to my own motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Due to the apparent variation
and the number as expressed as population over the several
departments and divisions that use population counts and the difficulty
in ascertaining the most correct usage, it is especially requested that
the Board of Collier County Commissioners take under advisement
this motion and to have them have the final policy decision made that
will express the final conclusion of what should be used. I hope that's
clear. If it's not, I'll try again.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I guess it's up to the second to know if
it's understandable.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Giving it to the Board of Collier
County Commissioners we're -- we're -- we have -- this horse is
hurting badly. And I'm suggesting that we go to the Board of Collier
County Commissioners and have them make a decision as to what the
Page 183
November 29,'2006
policy should be as to what numbers to use. I recognize fully that we
could turn it down or we could go without question, but I do think it
needs attention by them. And I would hope that they would want to
deal with it.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, perhaps the better solution--
I'm sorry. I'm usually the one loud enough and I don't need it.
Perhaps the better solution is to make that recommendation and not go
forward and vote on anything that includes population figures that
we're not comfortable with.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, see, the commission -- we're--
we're charged with moving this forward. I think we should take a
position on every one of the elements.
My position on the elements pertaining to population and -- and
the statistic used to generate some of the impacts I am not comfortable
that population is the answer to that. I -- I strongly believe that it isn't.
And that's just where I'm coming from on this. I think we could do
better. I think we could have more accurate results if we were using
another statistic in which to base some of these level of service
generated elements from. And housing is a good example because the
housing starts that were supplied to the state Office of Economic and
Demographic Research -- that wasn't starts, it was C.O.s -- showed
that out of the past five years, we had declines with the exception of
one year. Overall it's a rather large decline.
Now, if you've got declines in housing and that's what you're
really servicing with your facilities, are we really aiming at the right
thing by using a population statistic that's based on tourists when 95 or
98 percent of those tourists are staying in vertical components such as
hotels, motels or even vacant houses that Mr. Wides has built into his
system as being a serviceable unit? That's my concern. That's where I
lie.
I don't want to belabor this point. We've got two gentlemen here
more waiting to get past and go on to another subject. I mean, we can
Page 184
November 29, 2006
talk about this all day long, but it's all talk right now. I would rather
have seen a breakdown of how the -- each year is calculated with the
percentages attributed to vacancies, where the vacancy number came
from to -- I think at one point it was called Florida Power & Light
connections. Where that came from, where the tax revenue sources
came from and how they are different or needed to be calculated in as
an add-on because I don't see why that's necessary, but that
explanation is lacking.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would further amend the
motion to include the statement that you just made as a
recommendation of this board that the BCC consider the use of CDs
and whatever phrasing you used to describe that. Because I do agree
with you that's probably going to give us a better number to work
from. But I do think we need to move it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Bob, to summarize what you're trying to
say is you're recommending approval of the potable water element of
the AUIR with the stipulation that the BCC consider using a different
statistic to calculate the element instead of population, something
other than like housing starts.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: You're a wonderful man.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is that--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's where you're going?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does the second--
COMMISSIONER CARON: Actually, as the second, I'm -- I'm
going to withdraw -- withdraw my second because I think we need to
determine what that's going to be before we pass anything along.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: With what's going to be?
COMMISSIONER CARON: What that statistic is going to be.
Page 185
November 29, 2006
Are we going to use the housing starts or --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I don't think we can do that in this. I
mean, someone needs to analyze that and that can't be done in this
AUIR.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: No.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's the problem. We're up against
the wire like we were last year. I think we need to move this forward
in some manner, give it the best policy or suggestions we can to the
BCC and go onto the rest. It's on record. Population is a question.
Statistics used for calculating is a question. I think it's now seen to be
a rather big concern. Next year or throughout the forthcoming
months, someone needs to address it and respond. And I -- I would
think that would happen just by the mere fact it came up on such a
discussion here today.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Especially if we're --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I know the Productivity Committee has
had questions about population. Do you have any collective thoughts?
MR. HARRISON: Our sense is much more from a macro view
that given the economics of housing that we all see going wrong going
on around here; that using the past history is a poor basis for
projecting what's about to come at us; that based on what is happening
in faraway places like California where their housing costs went
through the roof. They went from immigration to static to
up-migration very quickly. So the thought of using 4 to 5 percent
compound growth rates in population in the foreseeable future or what
-- I know it's -- there's two steps, two levels being assumed. It doesn't
seem to be very valid to us. In the short-term, I think our sense is it's
going to be half the historical average.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. HARRISON: And even if you go talk to the private sector,
people like Healthy Homes have told us privately that, you know, they
think it's going to take until 2008 just to work off the inventory and to
Page 186
November 29, 2006
wash the speculators out with permanent residents.
So, you know, in the meantime that has a direct impact on the
construction sector and its population here, negative. So it's hard to
visualize, you know, if the past is a good indicator of the future.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, I think the motion maker
has now made a motion that's amended to the effect that its
recommendation is approval with the stipulation that the BCC should
consider the policy regarding how the statistics are used to calculate
the A UIR on this other than population. Is that a fair statement?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's a good statement.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Is there a second? Okay. I'll--
Ms. Student.
MS. STUDENT-STIRLING: Unfortunately, I had to miss part of
this discussion, but I just want the Planning Commission to know that
under Rule 9J5 it seems that the state law prescribes population. They
talk about audited methodologies, but the way the language is written,
and it's a three-paragraph thing, it seems to all relate back to
population. That's all I wanted to put on record.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The AUIR document is not part of the
processing through DCA, is it?
MS. STUDENT-STIRLING: No, it's not. But our CIE is based
on it and that is.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, if we want to convert something
for DCA's benefit, but for a practical application in Collier County, I
think we can do better. That's where I'm coming from.
Mr. Murray's motion would move this forward. I would second
that motion in the sense it clarifies the position on (inaudible) and
request for concern of the population statistics. So with that, is there
any further discussion?
(N 0 response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none we'll call for the vote. All
those in favor signify by saying aye.p
Page 187
November 29, 2006
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Those opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 5 to O. Thank you.
We'll go on to the wastewater. Are there any questions on the
wastewater element?
(N 0 response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, you -- was your statement for all of
them? So you guys are pretty comfortable with all of the wastewater
and solid waste and potable?
MS. VASEY: Actually, I -- I do believe we don't have any issues
on that. We may have -- we may have a comment in general on
population, but based on the population that was used in the
document, we're going to recommend -- I'm going to recommend
approval to the full committee.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. As far as wastewater goes, is
there any comments from the Planning Commission? There was some
new material provided.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The only question I had was the one I
asked about impact fees. You already answered that. Hearing none
other is there amotion?
COMMISSIONER CARON: They provided the information
they were supposed to.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. Everything looks fine. Again,
this is well done. My position on this is going to be the same as the
last one regards to the suggestion about a different statistic utilizing
maybe vertical or something else for you-all to generate your statistics
Page 188
November 29, 2006
from or your needs from.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And I would make the same
motion that I had made and you summarized in the last item.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. That's my recommendation of
approval with a caveat that requesting the BCC to consider a possible
different statistic for calculation -- calculating the need.
Is there a second to the motion for Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: I thought you seconded it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I seconded the first one. I'll second the
next one as well. Motion's made and seconded. Any further
discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, all those in favor signify
by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 5 to O.
All right. Now we're on to wastewater. I mean, I'm sorry, solid
waste.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Solid waste.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Everything's waste. Any--
MR. WIDES: Not our potable water, please.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there any questions on the waste -- on
the solid waste?
(No response.)
Page 189
November 29, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Phil, this is the one where we talked
about how the -- you were six -- I think that six-month review and it
was supposed to be four and --
MR. GRAMATGES: Then it was changed accordingly, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What I notice in your change and it's--
this is a carryover from last year too, whatever the population is, you
can make the annual tons disposed come out to whatever you want it
to be based on change in column 3, tons per capita disposal, which is
what you actually did in three -- for Friday you did it again in this one.
MR. GRAMATGES: What we do with the -- with column 3,
tons per capital disposal rate, is we calculated once we go past 2006,
which is a known quantity because we do know exactly how much has
been sent to a landfill, we then calculate what is the average of the
previous three years and we carry it on forward. We have no way to
estimate what the per capita disposal rate will be. And for that reason
we use that estimate.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So the 73 which is what you use this
year -- last year at the end of the AUIR your calculation was 0.82.
MR. GRAMATGES: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The last time you came before us it was
0.73. Now it's 0.77.
MR. GRAMATGES: And that -- the reason for that, sir, is that
the population in column 2 has been reduced based on the fact that it's
a weighted average calculation now based on four month rather than
SIX.
MR. WIDES: And, Commissioner, if I may reiterate -- Tom
Wides, again, for the record -- your driving column is column 4 from a
historical point of view. As you change your populations, column 3 is
derived. It is not -- it is not the basis for the calculation. And then as
Phil said, as you get into the out years, you keep looking back three
years. And then finally you get to the point where it just doesn't
change. But as your populations went slightly downward from the last
Page 190
November 29, 2006
discussion from the four to the six months -- excuse me, from the six
to the four, in fact, your generation rate went up slightly in the
historical years. So your -- your ending numbers, that 0.77 is going to
be based on a little bit higher generation rate in the historical period.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, where do you derive column 4
from then, the annual tons disposed? I know you do in the -- you can
estimate or you know what was prior years, but how do you derive the
future years?
MR. WIDES: We derive the future years based on the average of
the previous three years. So when you get to year 2007, it's based on
the three prior years, '4, '5 and '6, that generation rate, that column 3.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. But how do you generate column
4?
MR. WIDES: Okay. Column 4 on the historical basis --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, I see that.
MR. WIDES: -- is reported -- you know, is -- is -- is recorded
and reported to FDEP. It's -- it's a known number. And then as you
start to move from history, you look back to column 3, okay, to see
what your generation rate was. And gradually it flattens out as you
move to outer years. It -- it takes a few minutes just to kind of absorb
that.
MR. GRAMATGES: If I may, sir, on No.4 on that page 54
explains how -- how four is derived.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah. I went through and actually tried.
I recreated this table. I didn't -- I got hung up on column 4. I think
now I understand why I did. So, okay. Where is the Immokalee
Landfill in here?
MR. GRAMATGES: It's not in here at all.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, how do you account for that?
MR. WIDES: Well, the Immokalee Landfill itself is a closed
facility.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, is it? Okay.
Page 191
November 29, 2006
MR. WIDES: And we are using it as a transfer -- no. We are
using part of that area as a transfer station, but it is not a storage
facility as of, I think, approximately a year ago or less.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any other -- any
questions on solid waste?
Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Just one about the end. I think
we already asked this question and last year and maybe just to
recollect it. You folks have done a fine job of opening up old cells,
removing a lot of stuff that really shouldn't have been put in there in
the first place thereby giving a lot longer life to the landfill. In your
calculations here since you're using a historical basis, is that -- is that
something that an aberration should have somehow shown up
somewhere along the lines?
MR. WIDES: We've tried to readjust the tonnage to be exactly
what we've shown as going into the landfill.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So there's no time numbers as it
were?
MR. WIDES: Yes. What's remained in the landfill.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'm sorry. Thank you. I
apologize.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And this is one that the Productivity
Committee is satisfied with as well?
MS. VASEY: Yes, we are.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Is there a motion from the
Planning Commission in regards to the solid waste management
department?
Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I will make that motion again
now.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Same one as before?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah. The question is whether
Page 192
November 29, 2006
or not to include. And I guess we are obliged to do that to be
consistent. So it should be the same motion as the one prior although
what's driving this is not the same thing. Population here, as I
understand it, is almost a second thought.
MR. WIDES: Well, I wouldn't want to say that --
MR. HARRISON: It's primary.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, good. Then I'll make the
motion as I had earlier. Thank you.
MR. WIDES: Mr. Chairman, if I may--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, sir.
MR. WIDES: -- to address that for a moment. The -- the
difference in the population here it may get into the issue of whether
of occupancy, et cetera; however, you don't have another mechanism
that's readily available to drive solid waste. You know what you're --
you're putting into the landfill. You know that, you know, you have X
number of tons per capita so to speak. So to -- to just move to some
other method would be a -- would be difficult here.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. I -- as I said, I make the
motion that I had previously -- previous too.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I'll second that previous motion as
well.
Any discussion from the Planning Commission?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All those in favor say aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you very much.
Page 193
November 29, 2006
MR. WIDES: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- for your patience and your time.
MR. GRAMATGES: Yes, sir.
MR. WIDES: Thank you.
MS. VASEY: Very nice job.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We were going at 4:30 to discuss some
conceptual outlay of how we could possibly do a -- Ms. Vasey had
volunteered to write up some ideas from a joint committee
recommendation to the BCC, but we're actually going to do that
tomorrow morning; is that right?
MS. VASEY: I would like to do it tomorrow morning.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And we previously had told the
audience, actually parks and rec, that we would continue to tomorrow
morning, but I notice Marla's here. I do not know if you want -- no?
You don't? Okay. Then I think that we're at the end of our -- our rope
here today more or less. But we're not -- we're not ending the
meeting. We'll just continue it until tomorrow morning at 8:30 in the
morning in this chamber.
Is there a motion from the Planning Commission for that?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: To continue.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Seconded by Mr. Vigliotti.
All those in favor signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carried. We'll continue
tomorrow morning at 8:30.
Thank you, Mr. Bosi.
MR. BOSI: Thank you, Commissioner Strain.
Page 194
November 29, 2006
*****
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 4:30 p.m.
COLLIER COUNTY
PLANNING COMMISSION
MARK STRAIN, CHAIRMAN
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT
REPORTING, INC., BY CHERIE' NOTTINGHAM AND
CAROLYN J. FORD, RPR.
Page 195