CCPC Minutes 11/30/2006 AUIR
November 30, 2006
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE COLLIER
COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
Naples, Florida, November 30,2006
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
Lindy Adelstein
Donna Reed Caron (Absent)
Tor Kolflat
Paul Midney
Robert Murray
Brad Schiffer
Russell Tuff
Robert Vigliotti
ALSO PRESENT:
Mike Bosi, Comprehensive Planning Manager
Janet Vasey, Productivity Committee
Stephen Harrison, Productivity Committee
Lawrence Baytos, Productivity Committee
Jeff Wright, Assistant County Attorney
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good morning, everyone. It's 8:30. We
will get this continued meeting on the A UIR underway. If you'll all
rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you. And we'll make an attempt
at a roll call. Mr. Midney will need to get a chair from that -- see the
young lady in the yellow top? If you could grab one of those chairs
and bring it up here that will allow you to --
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Here is a chair, right here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: There is a spot already here. Okay,
thank you, Paul, if that works for you. Unless you wanted one of the
padded chairs that we're in.
With that I -- trying to think, the secretary is not here today so we
will go forward with the roll call just by calling names. We'll start
over at my right.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Paul Midney.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Brad Schiffer here.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Bob Murray.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Tor Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Bob Vigliotti.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mark Strain.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Lindy Adelstein.
MS. VASEY: Janet Vasey.
MR. HARRISON: Steve Harrison.
MR. BA YTOS: Larry Baytos.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Russell Tuff.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you. Now we have a larger
crowd today than we had yesterday, which is a little bit unexpected
but kind of nice. But we all have a shortage of microphones.
So as we each talk, there are the same rules we have to remember
for the court reporter, especially, to be recognized, and when you do
talk try to get a mike moved in front of you so that your voice can be
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picked up by the audience and by the court reporter appropriately.
Yesterday we had left off going through the final review of the
Category "A" issues. And we finished yesterday with the utilities, and
we're going to go into parks and recreation. But there has been a
request by government buildings to accommodate them early because
they have to leave around midmorning. So we'll start and we'll try to
finish up with government buildings right now, and we'll go right into
that.
It's all yours.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mr. Chair.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: One thing, some of you who
were not here yesterday, there were some handouts given, stuff like
that. Could somehow the departments that brought handouts to the
meeting send it at least in E-mail to those of us who were not here?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sure. Mike?
MR. BOSI: Absolutely. Jim and I can make sure that happens.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Brad, for pointing that out.
MR. HOVELL: Good morning. For the record, Ron Hovell,
Principal Project Manager in the Facilities Management Department.
And I'll try and remember to talk slower today.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
MR. HOVELL: What I just handed out to you was that top sheet
that you probably need a spyglass to read is the inventory list, the full
inventory list that facilities management holds. You had requested
that yesterday.
I think my boss had passed along that if you were looking for
some further sorting and sifting of that we could perhaps deal with that
later. But at least the initial request of just having a list is there.
The second stack, which has a paper clip on it, is the updated
pages based on our discussions yesterday.
Again, starting from the back at the more detailed end, I updated
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the inventory and broke it down into a subtotal of owned facilities that
include both space and value captured in the impact fee study, a
subtotal for owned facilities that are not included in the impact fee
study, a subtotal of owned ancillary facilities where the value is
included in the impact fee study but not the square footage, and a
subtotal of the leased facilities, and then a total for all of that. So
whichever way you want to slice and dice it, it's there now.
And the next, again, working from the back, the next sheet
coming forward is the capital improvement plan. I moved the north
transportation facility and the Ave Maria projects to beyond 2011 as
requested.
I did find the two pages out of the DRI for Ave Maria. Basically
just says that we need to provide notice and that notice would be
considered given if we provided the project in the capital
improvement plan. And since there was no further words than that
and that this one sheet of paper seems to be called a capital
improvement plan, that would seem to meet the intent. So we'll
simply try that for now, send it to the developer and make sure they
don't for some reason object.
And then everything in front of that is just the updated charts and
details that reflect those changes.
The summary sheet on the very top, then, reflects the additional
revenues required dropping down to about 2.2 million, mainly to
cover the debt service. The five-year, as it turns to be, surplus is 5,802
square feet.
And I think with that I've covered the highlights of what we had
talked about yesterday. And I'm not sure if you want to wade into any
of the details of these new ones or, since there are new people here, or
if you want to go back on some of the issues we talked about
yesterday.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, we will certainly open it up for
questions and just see where it goes. I know from yesterday there
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were a couple of things that we had asked to check into, and I thought
one of them was the reduction of the level of service from 1.7 to 1.52,
because that's a footnote on the summary page. You still calculate this
at 1. 7?
MR. HOVELL: Well, what we had talked about was one of two
options, either recapturing the square footage that the legal counsel
had advised pulling out, which is the way we went, or reducing the
level of service and leaving those things out of the inventory? So we
went with the first choice of staying with the board-approved level of
service at 1.7 showing in the inventory all the different ways those
inventories are captured in different areas.
And so when you look at the, that third page, the chart with the
lines on it, the blue line for the square feet required at 1.7 square feet
per capita is still there, but then the red line that that's being compared
to is the inventory based on the way we did it last year, which did not
remove those items that legal counsel had recommended taking out of
the impact fee study. So it's at least a consistent approach, both with
prior board approvals for level of services as well as the way we're
capturing the inventory.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The footnote says the level of service
standard for 2005 is at 1.7. Revised level of service derived from
BCC-approved impact fee study shows 1.52. So does that mean that
we have an impact fee study that says 1.52 that's approved by the
BCC, and that this document is suggesting to raise it to 1.7? I know
that's above the impact fee study.
Can you explain how that fits together?
MR. HOVELL: Well, we seem to -- it seems like there is never a
right answer to this question. Last year we had proposed capturing the
more realistic level of service that was being provided and we were
told to be consistent with the impact fee study. This year we
suggested sticking with what the board had approved at a level of
service and we've now done that, and we're being asked, you know,
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which one should we do? We can do any of them.
I think this is consistent. The impact fee study specifically
dropped out some things that, per our discussions yesterday, I got the
impression that you all felt, and I certainly feel, that they exist, they
provide services to the public, and so if we were to capture them, then,
to be consistent with including those in the inventory we should stick
with the 1.7 because these two things are a consistent approach to
reviewing it.
Either way the math kind of works out that the delta, whether it
went over or under, the delta tends to run the same. It's just, you
know, is it all scaled down because we dropped those things out of the
inventory or is it all the way it's displayed here, where we do capture
those things in the inventory.
So, yes, the way this is done shows the latter.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: One thing I wanted -- a housekeeping
matter was to correct the -- let the record show that Mr. Midney is in
attendance and Mr. Harrison is now in attendance.
And by the way, you guys, because we have so many of us up
here, when you do speak, grab the nearest mike and bring it closer to
you. Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Yes. I would like to say that I think that the 1.7 is
the right number to use. By taking those properties out during the
impact fee study they were just trying to meet the legal aspects of the
impact fee to make sure that it's defensible legally.
But there is no reason to exclude those from our review, because
it is a facility that we own. And I think rather than use the 1.52 and
exclude those items, I think we should include them and use the 1.7.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I agree.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray, any other comments?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Just to say I fully agree.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Schiffer.
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COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Question, Jim. Yesterday, since
I wasn't there to ask it, it appears that we're going to add 50 percent
more square footage in the next five years, correct?
And it seems in an age of technology, it seems odd that we're
growing that much when there might be alternate ways to cover these
servIces.
MR. HOVELL: If you want to turn to the capital improvement
plan we can talk about where -- you are talking about the proposed
CIE being 233,000 and some change square feet.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'm just looking at the, you
know, looking at the available inventory, look at the proposed
inventory for the next five years. That's essentially 50 percent of it.
MR. HOVELL: Right. And if you would care to turn to the
capital improvement plan, the projects that we're talking about, and I
appreciate you were not here yesterday so we'll go back and talk about
it specifically, what drives that amount of square footage is
predominantly projects that are under construction or nearing to be
under construction. They have already been approved, they are
already bonded, they are already underway. So it would not -- I'm
trying to think how to say -- it's not going to work out very well to
suggest that any of those specifically be scaled back.
Beyond that, how to provide services in the future, that might be
an area that could be looked at. But specifically, the courthouse annex
parking deck just opened on November 20th.
The courthouse annex, they are working on the site work and
getting ready to start on the foundation work.
The fleet facility construction contract was approved by the
board at one of their recent meetings. We're planning on having our
preconstruction meeting here shortly, and they'll probably get under
construction in the month of December.
The emergency services complex, at the next board meeting we'll
be bringing forward the guaranteed maximum price proposal from
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Kraft Construction to begin the site work for that project.
And the CAT operation facility, the board recently approved the
purchase of the old Morande automobile dealership. As a matter of
fact, last night there was a public hearing related to, I don't know if it's
rezoning or conditional use or what exactly, but something to do with
the use of the property.
So those are all approved and underway projects, so they are
really not much opportunity to talk about doing things differently for
those.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I notice you upped the unit cost. And I
know we had a question of the 497.55 being maybe higher than it
needed in regards to some of the facilities that are being constructed.
This is even higher now, we're at 514.96. I assume that's per square
foot?
MR. HOVELL: Yes, sir. It's per square foot. And it's just a
function of the projects that are on the list. When we took out the Ave
Maria government center, which had a project square foot cost of
483.33, and the north transportation facility, which had a square foot
cost of314.81, then the projects that were left had a higher average
square foot cost than those did. So it drifted up.
And this gets back to our discussion yesterday about are we
going to set the square footage cost and say that all the proj ects cost
that specific square footage cost or are we going to base it on the
reality of each project? And the way we've approached it is to base it
on each individual project and work out the math.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And those are predicted costs,
obviously, for the structures that are not yet constructed.
MR. HOVELL: Well, the courthouse annex parking garage, we
know exactly what it's going to cost because we're done.
The courthouse annex we have a GMP proposal from Kraft, so
we're reasonably sure we know what that's going to cost.
The fleet facility, we have a GMP approved by the board for that
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phase, so we're pretty sure what that's going to cost.
And the emergency services complex, we're due to come in here
in the next couple months with the full GMP for that one. So that one
would still be an estimate.
And the CAT operations facility was recently approved by the
board for purchase, so we know specifically what that one's going to
cost.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If the future -- we're in a soft market
right now, based on some of the announcements, the economic
announcements I've seen over the weekend. If it gets softer you may
find better pricing.
Would the AUIR next year be revised to reflect any better pricing
that would come out as the market dictates over the next 12 months?
MR. HOVELL: I would assume that this time next year the CAT
operations facility would fall off a proposed list because it will
probably be done by then as far as purchasing the property.
The fleet facility and emergency services complex will still be on
here because they'll be under construction.
The courthouse annex parking deck will fall off because that one
is done. And the courthouse annex will still be on there because it will
be under construction.
So we'll take those three projects, and whatever that math works
out to be, that will be the unit cost next year. My guess is it will go
down, if for no other reason than one of those projects we just named
really had no square footage, it was the courthouse annex parking
garage.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I know that -- oh, Mr. Harrison, go
ahead.
MR. HARRISON: Just for the benefit of the Planning
Commission, one of the major initiatives of the Productivity
Committee is a value engineering program on all major projects, and
the purpose of which is in the final design stages to review the design
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for simplification, streamlining, better economies, purchasing strategy,
so the cost you are looking at as the projects get to a final design stage
are scheduled for that kind of an engineering review.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I've done a lot of value engineering as
well, and usually we do it to drive the price down. Prices keep going
higher.
MR. HARRISON: That's true.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I hope that maybe by the end -- by the
next -- this year, by the next AUIR, maybe we can see a reflection of
that value engineering.
The last question I would have is, I realized last night that there
are a lot of buildings in this county that are, I think they call them
enterprise buildings, where they basically are fee-balanced, fees get
paid. They are buildings that offer tremendous services to the public,
and actually to this board, because this board meets in some of those
buildings as needs arise. Yet none of those are on this list.
And I'm speaking specifically of one of the largest, which is most
commonly used by the public is the Horseshoe Drive annex for
Community Development Services. And I understand it's a fee-driven
enterprise building, which means it doesn't need ad valorem taxes for
its operations or for its expansion because it's based on the fees it takes
In.
But the square footage of that building is critical to use by the
public.
And I got -- I'm trying to understand why, then, the square
footage isn't calculated in as already existing so that we're not creating
more square footage as though it didn't even exist at all, regardless of
how the building is paid for.
MR. HOVELL: This is where we kind of get stuck in, what is
the point of an AUIR? And I think the way your question is asked
implies that everything the county owns should be captured in some
AUIR.
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But on the other hand, if you recall especially last year, the
conversations were about all of these categories specifically and that
they should be consistent with the impact fee studies. Not everything
in the county is covered by an impact fee. So therein lies the
difference.
This particular category, government buildings, the A UIR is
predominantly based on the history of developing the impact fee. So
the inventory, all the dollars you see, are all related to buildings that,
even if we happened to buy them initially through something other
than government impact fees, are eligible to be in this category.
The one you just mentioned, the community development
building on Horseshoe, is not eligible to be in here because it's
covered by user fees.
So you're right, it's not captured. As far as I understand it, that's
by design. Where it should go, if anywhere, within the AUIR I really
have no idea.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I remember the discussions, some of
them, last year on impact fees, and what was discovered was that the
impact fee studies had used various population statistics that did not
match the impact fee studies used by each department in the A UIR.
And when those statistics are played out, they were not consistent
from one department to the other. That was one of the concerns.
And the other concern was that if an impact fee study had a
certain value attributed to it, the departments had to be at least that
value or greater. To be otherwise you are in jeopardy of having an
invalid impact fee study.
Those were the issues, I think, that drove the changes to what you
presented here today, because you are now higher instead of possibly
lower. The population standards have just -- have been standardized,
basically, through every department now. And all of those are good
things. But I think that's the part about the impact fee that I recall.
I am concerned that major buildings in the county are not
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accounted for as public space under the premise that if its not counted
for then we need more public space, especially when that space at
developmental services is used for meetings like this. We have met
there many times.
So it is a use like you are seeing here today. I see it no
differently, and I was just surprised it wasn't on the list.
MR. HOVELL: Well, then, and to go back in time though, the
snapshot in time when the government building impact fee was
created and the 1.7 square foot per capita was created, there was a
specific inventory list in hand at the time. And there was a specific
square footage that existed at the time.
If we now wanted to say, well, for AUIR purposes let's capture
the CD ES building and anything else that might not be captured
someplace, then we need to go back to that same point in time, add it
to that inventory, come up with a level of service with that additional
square footage, and it's going to change all of the math.
But the end result is the delta as we go forward still works out to
be the same. It still drives -- and all the population figures really do in
my mind, maybe I'm too much of the engineering, math kind of driven
kind of guy, but if you really look at it, population only tells you what
rate of growth to plan for, for your buildings.
So if -- you can name any category you want, whether it's
government buildings where we use square footage or the amount of
water that they need in the utilities department, they have a specific
capacity at a specific point in time and they are just looking for how
fast should I grow on a year per year basis. And the population
projections that I've seen, whether they are countywide or individually
based districts, all seem to be based on the same assumption that
approximately four and a half or whatever the percentage was growth
rate is what we should assume.
And so the actual population numbers themselves kind of fall out
of the equation. All that really happens is to set your -- to agree on
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what you had at a particular point in time and how fast you should
grow from that and make appropriate plans.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I understand the pattern that's been set
by the AUIR, and that is a pattern that I as well as others have fallen
back on in reviewing from prior years to see how this year looks.
But like Norm Feder mentioned yesterday, that it's been done that
way all this time doesn't mean that that's necessarily the correct way to
move forward.
I think part of the purpose of having the AUIR reviewed by these
boards, and that started last year if I remember correctly, was to look
at other possibilities, maybe needed changes and things that can be
done to make the accountability better so that the public, when they
get their tax bill each year, knows that the process to get there had all
the elements in it that it need. That's why I'm asking questions about
things that don't seem normal.
I, you know, when I see a list of buildings that are used by the
public and I see a huge one missed that I use almost every day, it
puzzles me.
And I understand your argument, it's too late to do anything
about that for this AUIR, but I think that maybe it would be better for
a clear conception of everybody that has to read this document to
explain how some of this happens and doesn't happen.
So I guess at this time that's the only comment I can add to it.
MR. HOVELL: I think somewhere along the line you are right
that revisiting what is the purpose and the goal of the AUIR, that type
of conversation should probably be added with the general
coordinating groups. When you do it individual category by
individual category we don't see that big a picture.
So I don't know when the time to do that is, but I know that on
our end we have the same types of concerns, especially when we
transition, as I mentioned yesterday, from long range planning into the
specific planning. Because regardless of the level of service that you
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pick, the reality is that when we try and actually plan a specific project
we need to go to a specific functional area and talk to them about their
specific needs for how do they plan to grow, what drives them to
grow, and who controls that growth.
The perfect example is the judges, that's a very political process.
But when that process says here, three more judges, we have to
provide space for them. And that drives a specific amount of square
footage. Doesn't matter what the math from the AUIR was, it is going
to drive a specific proj ect at that point. So I don't know how to __
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No -- and I'm not, I don't think we can
propose much different for this year's AUIR.
MR. HOVELL: Right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm trying to plant seeds of ideas for
next year's collective thoughts on getting a better document that can
be more accurately understood by the public and everybody involved.
Are there any other comments or questions from the Planning
Commission or the Productivity Committee?
Mr. Harrison.
MR. HARRISON: Adding a leased space would dramatically
change the actual performance against the level of standard, because
just the financing of the facility is the determinant whether we put it in
the numerator or not.
As you've said, we could exclude huge amounts of space from
the calculation if there are decisions made to lease it rather than own
it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I see what you are saying. Lease more.
I think the direction the county seems to be going in is to own more
than lease more, but I certainly understand. I don't know if that is the
right or wrong direction --
MR. HARRISON: If the level of service at 1.7 or 1.52 is
accurate, comparison of actuals to that where some is excluded
because its lease is fallacious.
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MR. HOVELL: If I might, that was the point of the extra lines
on this chart. The blue line and the solid red line are the owned
facilities, compared to the 1.7 square foot per capita level of service.
The green line and the dashed red line include the leased facilities.
But as I mentioned before, if we had included the leased facilities
back when we did the initial establishment of a level of service, the
calculation would not have been 1.7, it would have been 1.9. The net
result is whether or not we're over or under the delta mathematically
works out to be exactly the same.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Do we have any other questions,
concerns, comments, suggestions on the government buildings portion
of the AUIR?
From a -- I think the Planning Commission will have to resolve
our issues right now as far as recommendation goes. Before we do,
are there any suggestions from the Productivity Committee?
MS . VASEY: I'm satisfied with the way things are right now.
Although if they wanted to take a take on the review, as you suggest,
of the factors to see what buildings should be included or not included
that would be productive. But for this AUIR I'm satisfied.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: At this point, with the amount of time
we've got, this A UIR needs to be processed and we do have to move it
forward in some format. So generally we're looking at
recommendations to go forward in the manner that we can ask for
stipulations, and one of them then might be that we stipulate closer
review of the buildings that are in this, understanding it may -- maybe
provide a better understanding as to why they aren't or maybe should
be included into this.
I think the other issue would be the caveat of yesterday's meeting
for the Planning Commission. And for those of you that were not here
it was an issue involving population statistics, and we had stipulated a
strong suggestion to the Board of County Commissioners with each
recommendation based on population that we made yesterday that the
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use of the population statistics by the various elements of the A UIR be
reviewed to see if there is not a more accurate way or an alternative
way that could be utilized in lieu of the gross population statistic used.
And we had discussed housing units as an example and other
calculations involving that yesterday, with that stipulation that we
move forward several items from yesterday's meeting.
So, at this point, and the only other comment I have on this, and I
know, Ron, you addressed it yesterday and I'm not challenging your
addressing of it because it wasn't yours to originate, but the population
being used in this particular element is on a countywide basis.
And the argument and the response that came out yesterday was
that we have some facilities that do service countywide residents, and
I realize that, but there are about 40,000 people between Marco Island
and the City of Naples who don't use all of our government facilities
such as this room right here. They have their own council chambers
and they have their own building department. They have a lot of their
own facilities that they use that are not taken up in this AUIR.
And those same facilities, because they use them and because
they use some of ours, I think there needs to be a ratio maybe looked
at for the incorporated areas of the county. They don't use a hundred
percent of our facilities like our unincorporated residents do. They
use them to a certain percentage. And my suggestion would be on this
one that any motion made that we add on a stipulation that that be
considered for the future as a look-at.
MR. HOVELL: If I could address it a little bit more, too. Some
facilities service everybody, some facilities service, as you point out,
only county residents, not city residents. But in the end this is one
category. And unless we're going to establish a bunch of different
subcategories, in the end we have to somehow calculate one standard
of service.
And the one we have right now is based on a countywide view.
If we were to go through all that math and come up with a bunch of
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different sub-ones and then do the math to conglomerate it into one it
might turn out to be different but the population would also turn out to
be different.
And the level of service, again, going back to the math, all that
really in the end counts is what is the growth rate that you want to use.
And so I would suggest that although that would be an interesting
exercise, maybe the real focus ought to be how do we best measure
the growth that we want to project for the future that is needed for it,
whether you want to call it population base or as you suggested a
minute ago maybe somehow related to building permits, either houses
and! or commercial, and what do we want to use to gauge the growth
and establish a growth rate from which to project forward how much
more things we should build.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I think that's the gist of the motion
that we had going forward yesterday, and that does stand as it was
yesterday.
So with that all said, if there are no other comments from the
Planning Commission's perspective, there are eight of us here today,
we need to make a motion to move this forward in some manner and
then I guess go on to the next issue.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would move that this body
approve the -- or recommend approval of the AUIR with regard to
government buildings, with the understanding that this board also
believes that the BCC should have the opportunity to evaluate
alternative means, seek alternative means to realize the purpose of the
AUIR.
And I'll defer to Mr. Chairman, who might be able to add a little
more eloquence to it ifhe so chooses.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Let's get a second.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I'll second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made my Mr. Murray, seconded
by Mr. Vigliotti.
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He got ahead of you, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I didn't know he seconded.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: As far as discussion goes, my
suggestion would be to add to that the same language that we added to
the motions yesterday that were population-based, and that was
simply, as I previously stated, that the consideration of population and
the way it's statistically used by the county now ought to be looked at
in regards to the uses on this element as well as any others that are
population based for a better method of determining projections and
means. The suggestion was housing units but whatever better method
might be out there, I think we ought to explore that a little better.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I want to thank you for that, Mr.
Chairman. Had my inventory of grey matter been adequate, I would
have been able to vocalize that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm not sure exactly what that means but
I think that's the gist of it.
Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Just so essentially what we're
saying is we agree with the methodology used, we're just not
guaranteeing that we accept a population number. What does that
mean?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, I mean -- it's too late now to change
the methodology. We're agreeing that this has to move forward.
We're agreeing that basically this is a reasonable analysis at this point.
But I think what we have said is that we don't necessarily agree
with the way the population statistic that's been developed applies to
each one of these and there may be a better system and we're urging
the Board of County Commissioners to consider looking for a better
way to look at elements of the AUIR for calculation purposes, other
than strictly population.
And does anybody else have any comments? Mr. Murray, do you
accept the --
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November 30, 2006
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, I certainly do.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- changes to your motion? Does Mr.
Vigliotti accept that as well?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All those in favor of the motion as
stated and amended, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 8 to O. Thank you very
much. Appreciate bringing back all of the information that you did.
I would like to move now back into the order that we had started
yesterday. We had finished with the utilities. The next item on the
agenda would have been the recreation facilities followed by the
community park and the regional parks. We need to take them one at
a time for purposes of voting.
MS. TOWNSEND: Morning.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Morning.
MS. TOWNSEND: Amanda Townsend, operations analyst with
the public services division.
To address some of the questions that we were left with last time
we discussed the parks and recreation facilities A UIR, first question
was on Page 64, the surplus that is shown in the five-year window of
$27 million. And it was really a legal question as to whether or not
there were any legal ramifications for showing that surplus.
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November 30, 2006
And we had discussed how, when we got there that surplus really
won't be there if we continue to value facilities the way we do.
Nonetheless it shows there now, and so the question was is there a
legal problem with showing that surplus.
The answer, in a word, is no. We have seven years to spend our
impact fees, and there is a mechanism in place for returning them. But
that will not be necessary.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I -- just so the rest of the board
knows, I concur with your statement. Margie did the research. She
wasn't able to be here today but she relayed that information to me as
well as the chairman so I could let everybody know that was her
findings. Thank you.
MS. TOWNSEND: Great. Second question was again sort of a
legal question and that was about carrying Conservation Collier lands
in inventory. We haven't finished our discussions with Conservation
Collier really about that yet. At this point we still feel that we don't __
there is not a problem carrying that land in inventory at this point.
Also, the amount of acreage we're talking about is three and a half
acres. So it's not going to swing our AUIR either way.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And Margie and I did talk about that at
the time I spoke with her. She did not have a clear consensus on that
yet, although she was, it seemed to me, that in the discussion was
going more towards not being able to be done than being able to be
done, although I think she still needed some time to resolve any legal
questions.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chair, just a clarification, if
I may.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: The question, as I recall, was
will it be part of your -- are you going to have some kind of agreement
with maintenance. But I heard you say carrying in inventory. You're
not intending to carry that portion in inventory or you are?
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November 30, 2006
MS. TOWNSEND: It was a change between last year's and this
year's, that Cocohatchee Creek preserve, which is adjacent to Veterans
Community Park, about three and a half acres, we do already have an
interdepartmental agreement in place that parks and recreation
department does maintenance on that, loose litter and patrol and that
sort of thing.
And because of that, because the parks and recreation department
is responsible for helping provide that recreational amenity to the
public, we put it in inventory.
The same when you, if we have facilities on school property that
we maintain or have helped develop, we put that acreage into our
inventory. So we modeled, basically, on the kinds of cooperative
agreements we have with the school and followed suit with the
Conservation Collier lands.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay, I understand that. It
seems it's a rather small area, but I would imagine if they were larger
areas they would impact on what your total proj ected needs would be
and that certainly is something to look at. Okay. I think you've
answered our question in regard to that. Thank you.
MS. TOWNSEND: Another question was about the EAR
directives to amend the LDC requiring some -- a suitable
neighborhood park in private developments. It doesn't have
immediate bearing on this AUIR but it was a question that was asked.
And that is, will there be an impact fee credit to those developers
who provide that suitable neighborhood park.
My answer last Monday was none is proposed at this time. And I
just wanted to add some extra information to that discussion, and that
is that neighborhood parks of course are not part of the growth
management plan. We inventory their facilities but not their acreage
in the AUIR.
If parks and recreation is to develop a neighborhood park, it's
done with ad valorem funds. Therefore, if a private developer were
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November 30, 2006
providing a private neighborhood park, they would be offsetting an ad
valorem expense not an impact fee expense.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MS. TOWNSEND: And the final question that I carried away
from the last time we talked was about the cost of a bocce court. And
I have an answer for that. That is that park staff contacted a vender
and we came up with a total for a new bocce court of $22,400. That
includes the court, shelters, lighting and the scoreboard. For a
shuffleboard it would be about $20,500. The value given in the
inventory, I believe, is 29.9 so it is a slightly overvalued facility in the
inventory .
We took a look last time and we saw tennis courts were
undervalued by about 45 percent and we had that discussion that for
next year we need to go through and look very carefully at all those
facilities and what their value is.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other reactions you want to have
before we ask questions?
MS. TOWNSEND: I can carry away any other questions that I
needed answered immediately.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any questions from the panel?
Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: There was a question on public
versus private facilities and whether you kind of inventory or if the
private facility has recreations, that you take those, the population that
would match off of this thing.
You did send us out the guidelines, but have you looked into that
or -- in other words, for example let's say there are tennis courts in a
gated community and the tennis courts match the population according
to our resource, but are probably exceeded according to the data you
sent out. Are those people taken off of your inventory?
MS. TOWNSEND: No, the people are not taken off of the
inventory. The way we use that information is to help us decide
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November 30, 2006
which facilities to build and which we think are met, where the
public's needs are met privately.
Certainly, just because there seems to be an extreme number of
tennis courts out there available privately, they are still not available
to every member of the public, certainly there is not one in my
neighborhood. So we know in the parks and recreation department that
we need to provide tennis courts but we can provide them at a lower
level than the state-recommended per population guideline.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And the other question is any
facility where you require payment for access, is that on this list, is
that considered part of providing public areas?
MS. TOWNSEND: Yes. You mean any recreation facility
where there is a user fee involved?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Correct.
MS. TOWNSEND: Yes, we do inventory those. User fees offset
operational expenses but they do not offset capital expenses.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: As a follow-up to that, do you inventory
all of those facilities whether they're user fee or not?
MS. TOWNSEND: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So it doesn't matter if it's a user fee, you
inventory it.
MS. TOWNSEND: Correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Just an example, in my
neighborhood there is a really nice tennis facility that nobody uses
because user fees are so high and they go in the private communities
to play tennis.
So to me that's not an accessible recreation facility because of the
fact that the fees are, in some cases and I think in this case, really
high.
So I mean we're not really providing it for the public, the public
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November 30, 2006
is providing other ways to access the recreation.
Anyway, a statement not a question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I was wondering how we were
going to develop that into a question, but okay.
Are there any other comments from any members of the panel?
Mr. Vigliotti.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Amanda, do we keep track of
the amount of people that use all these facilities once they are built
and --
MS. TOWNSEND: Yes. Particularly on our fee based
programs. Of course we have very good numbers on that. That's all
kept electronically.
We do also park counts in parking lots on a fairly regular basis.
We have, of course, numbers of all of the participants in all our
leagues, the number of teams, et cetera. So we are laden with data.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: How about park usage as
compared to what you feel the facility can handle in the beginning?
Do you do a comparison?
MS. TOWNSEND: Certain of our facilities have a land
management plan on them that addresses carrying capacity,
particularly ones where there is an environmental stewardship aspect
to it. Barefoot Beach preserve would be an example.
I can't say that we've ever had like excessive carrying capacity
issues in many of the community parks. We know that they get full.
But exceeding carrying capacity in the community parks has not been
an issue, with the exception of course of sports fields where the
leagues have a greater demand than we really have fields to put them
on.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You've provided us with some new
charts. And before I get into the specifics of some of those, by the
way it was nice that you referenced the SCORP guidelines, but on
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November 30, 2006
such short notice it was hard for me to read and digest 300 pages,
although I did some of it. So we will have some questions involving
those 300 pages.
Population. It goes back to a question I asked previously. I
believe you used the countywide population statistics, but the
recreation facilities that you show credit for are only those in the
unincorporated areas of the county even though our residents use the
incorporated areas just as much as the residents of the incorporated
areas use the unincorporated areas. So it goes back and forth.
I still don't understand the reasoning for not including the places
and facilities like Fleischmann Park, which has racquetball courts and
tennis courts that are used by a lot of -- in fact, I can tell you I use that
park more than I use county parks. I go there much more frequently.
Lowdermilk Park is a great park to go to, it's easily accessible.
Yet it's not on there. And I use that as a county resident much more
than I use any of the county facilities.
And I'm just wondering why, when you use the city populations
to generate more needs for county people, you don't at least give
county people the credit of the city facilities, that the city populations
are being used against us for, more or less. Can you offer an
explanation?
MS. TOWNSEND: I do understand the question. Of course I'll
remind you that countywide population is used for recreation facilities
value. Not for community parks, but is used for regional parks. The
community parks are unique in that they use the unincorporated
population numbers.
Yes, the new chart that you see that's by facility guidelines is
using the countywide numbers. And what I can really tell you is that,
not dissimilar from what Ron Hovell was explaining, that if you
change what you're inventorying, then you are also going to need to
change your level of service, because you want that relationship to
stay the same. Otherwise you will be denigrating the level of service.
Page 25
November 30, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I mean that's under the assumption, in
Ron's case, when he has got bodies that have to function in the
government, they have to be put somewhere, it's a vital statistic not a
non-vital. Parks, if we didn't have an overwhelming number of parks
in Collier County it may not be as bad as if we didn't have someplace
to get our driver's license.
So I think the criticalness of the two departments is a little
different, especially with Collier County. And according to SCORP
there are so many recreation areas in the State of Florida by
waterways and things like that they don't even include a standard for
those because they are just everywhere.
So people have a different opportunity for recreation than they do
to go to government facilities, so I'm not sure the comparison is apples
to apples in that regard.
But anyway, I made my concern over the population. I don't
think you should include the incorporated areas without including as
well their facilities because we do use those facilities.
Now, back into the SCORP guidelines that you provided, the
document that I read was the Outdoor Recreation in Florida 2000.
They did not provide a definitive guideline. They provided a range of
guidelines that I could find, medium, maximum -- minimum to
maximum then a medium. And I notice that we've taken and gone
beyond their guidelines in some -- I shouldn't say beyond meaning
better, in some cases beyond meaning worse.
I'm wondering, for example, the swimming pool complex. The
SCORP guideline is one for every between 1,000 and 50,000 people,
with a median of 25,000 people. We're using one for 110,000. And I
would like to understand how we came up with that arbitrary -- or not
arbitrary, but that statistic.
MS. TOWNSEND: That is in direct response to that inventory of
facilities available privately. We know that there are, I think, the
inventory revealed something like that 250 swimming pools available
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November 30, 2006
to people privately. So that's one facility where we know we don't
have to do quite as well as with the SCORP because there is an
amenity out there available privately that sort of offsets the public
need.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That swimming pool that we have up at
the new reg -- and I think you call it a regional park up off of
Livingston Road?
MS. TOWNSEND: Correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What's the size? How many acres is
that?
MS. TOWNSEND: The Sun and Fun Lagoon is about a nine to
ten-acre complex.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: How much of that is -- many square feet
of water, do you know?
MS. TOWNSEND: I believe its a million gallons. I don't know
in square footage.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, an acre is 43,000, what, 560 or
something like that square feet?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Sixty.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So your nine acres is not all swimming
pool, but you have a substantial amount of water there.
The guidelines in SCORP said that an averaged-sized pool that
they were counting on was 4800 square feet, yet our swimming pool
there you have got down as required inventory, three.
So that means countywide you have three swimming pools but it
sounds like they're all quite in excess of the standard use by SCORP,
which means for every three that we have we may have 25 of the
SCORP standard size. Is that a reasonable statement?
MS. TOWNSEND: I hadn't thought about it that way, to be
perfectly honest. I'm looking at these as swimming pool complexes,
not simply a swimming pool. And I haven't considered it in square
footage. And I would have to go into the text of the SCORP to really
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November 30, 2006
see what their discussion is about that particular facility if there is one.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You know what, I brought that with me.
I'm not sure that we're going to have the time to go through all that.
I'm just trying to make points that we can discuss.
If you don't have an answer for that right now, then we will
maybe consider it for next year.
But I think that if you were to break the number of swimming
pools down, and the sizing range that SCORP was talking about was
footnoted as 4800, based on a standard community pool measuring 81
feet by 60 feet parentheses 48,000 (sic) square feet. Based on that we
may be in better shape on swimming pools than what your documents
appear to be at this point.
When we get into some of the other issues like multi-use fields,
they range between 4,000 and 25,000, yet our standard is lower at one
to 10,000.
Now this is an issue that takes up a lot of space and it's been
controversial in some locations. Not everybody necessarily
participates as much in team sports as some of the other SCORP
indications are, where you have walking trails and things likes that
where we seem to be shy on but our standard is worse than the
SCORP's in wanting those produced.
So someone has gone in and decided that this community needs
more of something or less of something above and beyond the SCORP
standards.
How did that happen?
MS. TOWNSEND: Again, what we're trying to do mostly is
respond to what we hear from the community, the community input,
what our people out in the field know when they have stressed fields
because we have so much play on our fields and our fields don't have
time to rest and grass dies. What we know when we've got teams that
want more facilities, when we have trouble scheduling, when, you
know, that when the neighbors, when the lights are on until 10: 15
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November 30,2006
instead of 10:00, the neighbors are upset because we're trying to
squeeze games in. That's one thing.
We have a huge staff out there that has a sense of the demand and
we're taking input from the community and from them and then we're
looking at things like that private inventory that you've seen and trying
to make adjustments.
This is fairly new for us. This is the second year that we've really
looked at these and started to adjust. This is the first year that we've
had the inventory of private facilities and we're still tweaking it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I'm going to try to get to the end
because I know this is an issue that I may be interested in but I'm not
sure everybody else is.
As far as regional parks, how big is your biggest regional park?
MS. TOWNSEND: North Collier Regional Park is 207 acres.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: 207.
MS. TOWNSEND: Yes. Well, Barefoot Beach preserve is
classified as a regional park, and it would be 342, I think, or 56, one or
the other.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You had said that you focus on regional
-- you have regional and community parks, you don't do neighborhood
parks. The definition of a regional park by SCORP is a minimum of
250 acres. By that definition it sounds like we only have one regional
park.
And then SCO RP goes into weighing in all these state parks.
They actually include the state parks which you exclude. That's
another bone of contention with me because we have all these
facilities. A TV riders, for example, don't use your parks, they use the
Big Cypress, or they try to use wherever they can use.
There are other parks out there that the public is benefiting from
that are not recognized in your statistics. And the state recognizes
them in their summaries. In fact, they have a nice summary that
shows where they think our county's at and where they are at. And
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November 30,2006
they provide their facilities.
With all that information I'm real concerned that we could do a
better job in analyzing what is really needed out there in regards to
SCORP and what's provided by the state and what's provided by our
incorporated areas.
MS. TOWNSEND: Just to briefly address what is provided by
the state. Several years ago we did inventory state owned lands and
regional parks and we chose at one point to exclude them. And the
reason is this -- we talked about this last Monday also. When you
have large areas of passive recreation or ecologically sensitive land
that you can't develop facilities in, you meet your acreage
requirements but you can't meet your facilities value requirements
because you can't develop active recreation facilities on that land.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, the idea of multi-use pathways
and hiking trails is a big issue. In fact, I'm not sure if you are aware of
the survey that was recently done in the East Naples area with over
300 respondents, eleven of which wanted a soccer field, out of 300.
The rest were all for other uses that we don't commonly see in our
parks for some reason. Leading one of the issues was hiking and trails
like that.
Yet, and I think that if we were to incorporate some of the state
facilities then you would have a lot more opportunity for hiking trials
and being able to show a lot more.
On here you've taken the SCORP standard one per five to 10,000
people and upped it to one to 25,000, which, to my sense of the word,
is you are saying it's not as important then as some of the others where
you brought them more in line with SCORP or are more popular
according to SCORP.
I know you can't do anything about it right now. I know this
needs to move forward and we're out of time for this year's AUIR. But
I would hope that, and I think that next year if we review this, if we're
still in the loop, these will be issues I would like to have a better
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November 30,2006
response for in next year's AUIR.
So I'm not going to try to belabor the point any more, I think I've
done too much of that already, so I'll move on.
Are there any questions from the panel of the parks and
recreation?
Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, in your research of the
SCO RP thing was there any distinction between fee access and free
access recreation?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Brad, there may have been. I just
couldn't get through the 300 pages. I was focusing on another issue
last night and so I didn't get through it all.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Staff could maybe answer that.
MS. TOWNSEND: I'm not aware of any, that the document
addresses really the difference there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: One thing that I think would be
important to know, and I was looking through this and I had not
finished it, and that's to find out if there is any age relevance in the
way SCORP applies itself in different demographic areas. We have a
higher median age in this county than other areas in Florida possibly.
That age difference may account for a different assembling of
recreational facilities needed here.
And that's another area that I think ought to be explored a little
bit more, and will come up again I'm sure in the future.
Other than that are there -- Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: I just wanted to mention from our discussion on
Monday that one of the things that I would like to recommend to the
Productivity Committee for their consideration in our comments is
that, while I think that the, your program looks fine, we would
recommend approval, I would like to see you look more at your level
of service standards. Because I really don't think they are very good
for actually getting at the service that you provide.
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November 30, 2006
U sing the specific dollar amount per capita that you do is leading
to -- it doesn't come up with a cost increase, it leads to understated
requirements, large surpluses, the $27 million that you show in the
A UIR period and excess revenues that are due to the impact fee
change of including beach and boat access.
So all of those things are making it, are creating very strange
things with $27 million surpluses and even cash increase -- cash
surpluses too of revenues over expenses in the period.
Also with the acreage, the acreage per hundred thousand people,
that leads to some other very strange things where large chunks of
land meet your requirement for the level of service standards for many
years but it's not meeting the requirements that you have for other
types of land services.
So I was -- I'm hoping that you can -- and I don't have the
answer, but I'm hoping that you could look at that and see if there are
some better level of service standards to be able to evaluate your
program and make sure that it really is meeting the needs of the
community.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any other comments?
Hearing none, is there, from the Planning Commission's perspective is
there a recommendation?
Mr. Murray, you are the only one that seems to want to make
recommendations today.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And I'm hoping my function can
work effectively here.
I would recommend approval to the Board of County
Commissioners of the 2006 AUIR summary with regard to recreation
facilities, all the park recreation facilities, with the additional
recommendation that the BCC review to see if there can be a better
basis to determine the AUIR, rather than just population. And you've
said it, I hope it's sufficient as I've just said it now.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think that follows suit with our
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November 30, 2006
previous recommendation.
Is there a second to the motion?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I'll second the motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Commissioner Murray,
seconded by Commissioner Adelstein.
Discussion? The only caveat I would like to make, and it's just
for the record, is that I do not believe that omitting the facilities in the
City of Naples and the City of Marco Island while calculating and
using their population is the right way to go. I think that is strongly
wrong. So with that.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would like to make another
comment if I may.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sure. It's your motion, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I want you to know it has to do
with my thoughts regarding your bringing out the SCORP, is it?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: SCORP, yes.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And the other issues. And I
think it benefits the parks and recreation people and Ms. Ramsey's
operation to know these things are there, and I'm sure they know that
in one sense, and they have already had a determination, perhaps it is
a -- no, in fact, I'll say it is a good thing that you brought it out
because now they know that there are other things, that maybe a left
oblique is necessary somewhere along the line.
Not that I think you are doing a bad job but I think they are open
to doing a better job. And I think that's what we're attempting to do
here. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Hearing no other comments,
we'll call for the motion.
All those in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
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November 30, 2006
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries. Thank you.
We'll move on to community parks.
MS. TOWNSEND: I don't have any further information to
present but I'm happy to entertain questions.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think the questions -- I asked my
questions last time. You are still doing a countywide population and
you are going to make that change, and, I believe you didn't make it.
We didn't get the correction but you are going to make it, right?
MS. TOWNSEND: No, sir. Community park land has never
used a countywide population. They always have used unincorporated.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So even though it says
population countywide, it's the unincorporated. That's right. You
corrected that last time.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No problem. Other than the population
statistic as a whole.
Any comments from anybody on the committee?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Productivity Committee--
Planning Commission will take a vote on it. Do you have any
particular vote that you are taking on it that we should jump on?
MS. VASEY: Actually, my comments addressed all parts of the
park program.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN : We'll just move through these then.
Is there a motion from the Planning Commission in regards to
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November 30, 2006
this element?
Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would make the same
recommendation as I had earlier, and I'll try to read it again.
Recommend approval to the BCC with regard to the 2006 AUIR
summary, as it relates to, what is it, community parks, with the further
recommendation that the basis used to determine the A UIR, currently
population, would be reviewed with the intent to seek a more effective
basis.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a second?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Seconded by Commissioner Adelstein.
Motion made by Mr. Murray.
Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries. Thank you.
N ow regional parks. The only question I had left on there was
the issue involving the impact fees, which has been answered.
Any questions from the panel on regional parks?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Actually, that's where the bocce
court issue was raised.
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November 30,2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's where the bocce court issue was
raised?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I have my standing objection to the
population but that's been said.
So is there a motion from this panel in regards -- from the
Planning Commission in regards to the regional park?
Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'll keep my hand up.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Might as well.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. With regard to the
regional park land, recommend approval of the 2006 AUIR summary,
with regard to the regional park and with the recommendation of
approval with the additional recommendation that the BCC review the
basis used to determine the AUIR, which is currently population, with
the intent that there may be a more effective basis.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a second to the motion?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I'll second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Seconded by Commissioner Adelstein.
Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, all of those in favor,
signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
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November 30, 2006
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries. Thank you.
Recreation department.
MS. TOWNSEND: My pleasure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm sure it probably wasn't but we
understand.
Next up on the list is -- oh, I'm sorry, did we miss something?
MS. TOWNSEND: Libraries.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm sorry?
MS. TOWNSEND: Were you going to take libraries next or
were you going to go in the --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You know what, we could -- since you
are up here why don't we finish that off. Thank you for bringing that
up.
Next in line was the jails and law enforcement but I'm sure it
wouldn't take but short a bit of time to move into libraries. And those
are Page 121. Okay.
MS. TOWNSEND: To address some of the questions that were
raised yesterday, there was a question about the difference in impact
fee projections between the 2005 and the 2006 AUIR.
What I discovered is that the impact fee number that you see in
the 2005 AUIR had rolled up into it grants and carry-forward.
In this year's AUIR in the revenues we broke that out. In last
year's it was not. So the 10,597,000 figure that you saw in last year's
AUIR actually included three and a half -- better than three and a half
million dollars worth of grant and carry-forward.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, that wouldn't have helped you get
a raise in impact fees. It would look like you already had it.
MS. TOWNSEND: Secondly, there was a question about a line
item in the revenues of last year's AUIR that was $6,918,000 impact
with the cryptic per BCC policy directive description to it. I have not
completely been able to unearth the source of that figure but I do have
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November 30, 2006
a good guess.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, since we need to try to
finish with this I guess the best guess at this point is all that we can
hope for.
MS. TOWNSEND: In the fall of 2005, there was a board action
about the size of the expansion of the Golden Gate library. It was
determined at that time that that expansion was going to be 17,000
square feet. It was also determined that it would require an impact fee
increase to achieve that.
I believe that the number you see there, that $6,918,000, is
inadvertently a ten-year projection as opposed to a five-year
projection on what that impact fee increase would gamer.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Did you get the impact fee increase?
MS. TOWNSEND: Yes. And it was -- it was estimated early on
in that, in the fall of 2005 at $600,000 a year. When it passed, it was
looking at a $731,000 a year increase. The number you see there,
divided by ten, is right in the middle there, and that's my best guess as
to the source of that figure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So if you were to add that figure to last
year's impact -- anticipated impact fees, combining the two with the
increase, you were looking at about $17 million in impact fees.
And again, unfortunately, that probably goes back to the
question, in this year's anticipated impact fees where the increase is
9.8 million. What happened again?
MS. TOWNSEND: Let's back up just a little bit. Here again that
ten million dollars includes grants and carry-forward. You have to
take those out. And then also that $6.9 million is probably a ten-year
figure, so it should probably be halved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, it's a ten-year figure, not a
five-year.
MS. TOWNSEND: I believe that is a ten-year figure in there.
It's my best guess as to what was in last year's AUIR.
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November 30, 2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Regardless, we have to start with what
you have this year anyway.
MS. TOWNSEND: Precisely.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any questions anybody
had lingering on the library issue that hasn't been answered?
MR. BA YTOS: One issue.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Baytos.
MR. BA YTOS: One issue -- Mr. Baytos. One issue we had
discussed at some length yesterday was, given what appeared to be
some changes in library usage, is there some better way to determine
our forward planning rather than just growth population numbers?
MS. TOWNSEND: Marilyn Matthes, the library director, is
here. She has some information for you on that.
MS. MATTHES: Marilyn Matthes, library director. We talked a
lot yesterday about technology and how it changes library use.
Technology also lets us more easily make mistakes and also
compound our mistakes year after year.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's true.
MS. MATTHES: Last year during the AUIR, Mr. Murray
pointed out a mistake in the '04 AUIR, which we corrected then. And
I thank you for pointing out the door count seeming to go down.
I went back and looked yesterday and I discovered that in
February of '02, when the new headquarters library opened on Orange
Blossom, I added a column in my door counts for that collection of
data for the new library and it didn't calculate at all in any of my door
counts, so what you are getting now is a revised count of those door
counts and it shows from -- instead of increase from 2000 to 2005,
actually a year-to-date increase of 32 percent in usage.
It does show a decrease in usage from fiscal '05 to 06. The
beginning of '06 is when we were closed several days for Hurricane
Wilma, thus really compounding our loss of door counts.
Also, as we remember back to that time, the storm didn't -- we
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November 30, 2006
thought it was coming and it didn't come and people really were
boarding up or moving out and we really lost a lot of door counts for
that time period.
But, yes, it has gone down between '05 and '06.
MR. BA YTOS: So the numbers that you provided for the impact
fee study --
MS. MATTHES: They were incorrect.
MR. BA YTOS: They were correct -- incorrect. So all of the
points I was making before become moot.
MS . MATTHES: But I do appreciate your noting that, because it
certainly caused me to go back and look at it again, and I thank you
this year for that correction.
There were a couple of other things that you wanted us to look at
and we will look at as we go forward with this process for future
years, including collocations at other county facilities, including
schools, and also a different way of calculating standards. And we
will look at those in subsequent months.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Have you had any discussions about the
error in the door counts that were the basis, apparently, for the impact
fees that Mr. Baytos had analyzed in regards to how that affects the
impact fee analysis that now is apparently in error as well?
MS. MATTHES: No, I just handed it to our impact fee -- Amy,
this morning.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Maybe -- I see Amy is moving to the
podium so maybe she could tell us what the ramifications are as far as
she might know them now in regards to impact fees.
MS. PATTERSON: Amy Patterson, for the record. The
ramifications -- this is a discussion in the Productivity Committee that
was used, and correct me if I'm wrong, those numbers that are here,
but we got into this discussion trying to kind of validate the need for
libraries, trying to look at, as we talked about technology and different
things, how was the library being used. This wasn't anything that was
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November 30,2006
included in the impact fee study or is not incorporated in any way for
the impact fee study but was another way we were trying to see if
there were other ways to look at the information, be sure that there
was really a need for the libraries in the way that we were currently
considering them.
So this information is not incorporated into the impact fee study
at all.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So the comment that Mr. Baytos made
when he asked is this the information we were provided in regards to
the impact fee study was just the internal study the Productivity
Committee was making, not the study that's gone out and done the
analysis and the basis for our impact fees themselves.
MS. PATTERSON: Correct. When the Productivity Committee
was reviewing the impact fee study, that's -- they asked for additional
information as a comparison.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Just want to make sure the record is real
clear.
MS. PATTERSON: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
Okay. Are there any questions concerning library buildings?
Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Buildings, no.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're on buildings. We have to take
them one at a time.
Okay. Then I guess the Planning Commission can take a position
on it.
Are there any thoughts from the Productivity Committee before
we go forward?
MS. VASEY: Yes, I'm going to recommend to the committee
that, along the lines that Marilyn mentioned, we would like to have
another evaluation of whether the level of service standard of .33
square foot per capita is still relevant for the very reasons that we
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November 30, 2006
talked about yesterday with the technology.
And that's exactly where the issue came up when we were on--
casting for the information was whether that .33 square footage per
capita is good or not. And I think that that is, you know, that is still
something that maybe needs to be looked at.
But other than that we're satisfied -- I'm satisfied with the
program.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Now, so the suggestion of the
Productivity Committee will be to consider the analysis of the .33
square foot per capita figure?
MR. HARRISON: Uh-huh.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So -- I mean, I agree with that. I think if
the Planning Commission also included it in their suggestions that
would be helpful too.
Is there a motion, Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: With regard to the library
buildings 2006 AUIR, we would recommend approval with the
additional recommendation that the BCC review the basis used to
determine the A UIR, the population, and with the intent that there may
be a more effective basis, and to evaluate or to look at the level of
service standard of decimal 33 square foot per capita as a question of
its relevance today.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I'll second that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Commissioner Murray,
seconded by Commissioner Vigliotti.
Is there any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, all signify approval by
saYIng aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
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November 30, 2006
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Those opposed?
(N 0 response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: None is opposed.
Now we're on library books.
Are there any questions or comments for library books?
Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'm sorry if you did this
yesterday, but what exactly is a book that's our unit? I know what a
book is obviously, I hope, but --
MS. TOWNSEND: The library inventories, for the purposes of
AUIR, books, both hardback and paperback and audio-books.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And the only points I had for last was
the impact fee adjustment, the impact fee issue, which I think was
already responded to. And explore using books per person by -- and
through door count in lieu of the population statistic. That goes along
with the caveat we have been adding to all of our stipulations anyway,
so I think that's covered by that.
Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Follow-up. What is the
percentage of hardbound, paperback and audio, do you know? And is
that growing in audio?
MS. MATTHES: It's definitely growing in audio. I don't have a
percentage. Audio-books are minor compared to print books. But it is
a growing collection.
We're also exploring different ways of providing that. We expect
to start circulating online downloadable audio-books in the coming
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November 30, 2006
year. Something that we don't have to shelve and we don't have to
maintain other than pay a description service for.
Percentage wise, it's still minor compared to the print materials.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Assuming the Productivity
Committee's positions on this is mimicked from the first one?
MR. HARRISON : We talked yesterday, this is Harrison, about
the collocation effort whenever possible and also the focus on the
Hispanic population, you may remember.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes. Okay. Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: And did I understand that you're
foreclosed from downloading to an I-pod anything in the future in
audio?
MS. MATTHES: Unfortunately the companies that sell to public
libraries, sell services, do not sell an I -pod version, and that's entirely
due to Apple's licensing and their own restrictions. It's not our choice.
You can -- I assume you can go to Apple and download an audio-
book but they don't have programs that sell them on a cost effective
basis to public libraries. We certainly do talk about that and there is
talk in library literature encouraging Apple to make that kind of
change. But to date they have not elected to do that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: One other recommendation I think we would like
to make is that you look at a different level of service standard to
include the number of items in all formats per capita as opposed to just
books and the audio-books.
And, Brad, that was one of our major discussions yesterday
because it's becoming more -- there are more and more of these other
media, and in order to really support the community that's a better
measure than just the books now.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Could I ask a question, please?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Of course, Mr. Murray.
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November 30, 2006
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And I'm not disagreeing in any
way with Ms. Vasey, because that's poor thinking, future thinking, if
you will. How much of it -- I know you've indicated that fraction is
small. Can you make a guess as to how much?
MS. MATTHES: Five percent at the most.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: But it's a good starting point for
now beginning that process, that 5 percent.
MS. MATTHES: Sure.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That does add the dimension that
Ms. Vasey raises. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I had one clarification. And I understand
the collocation issue and the level of service for all formats on a per
capita basis. The Hispanic issue, Mr. Harrison, what was the -- what
direction --
MR. HARRISON: We were curious what proportion of the
collection was catering to the Hispanic collection -- population, as
opposed to English-only speakers.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So it's just a statistical answer you are
looking for there?
MR. HARRISON: We were. We did answer it yesterday
because they talked about the number of volumes that were there for
Hispanics.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I just wanted to make sure it was
resolved or addressed.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: What is it?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I guess you'll have to answer it again.
Mr. Midney wasn't here yesterday. He wasn't here to benefit from the
answer.
MS. MATTHES: Actually, did I give you a percentage
yesterday?
MR. HARRISON: I think what came up was 12 percent or so of
the population are Hispanic and your collection has got a comparable
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November 30, 2006
MS. MATTHES: I wouldn't say that 12 percent of our collection
is in Spanish languages. Probably it's less than 5 percent.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Bosi.
MR. BOSI: Just to summarize, the discussion point was, Mr.
Harrison's concern was we have a large growing percentage of the
population, I believe the statistic was 19.4 percent of the current
population being of Hispanic origin. His concern was that the library
was doing enough to recognize that growing trend in demographic.
And Marilyn had, I believe, addressed the question to his
satisfaction that they recognize that and they were continuing to
increase the number of volumes and materials and mediums that were
available within the native Spanish language that is 19.4 percent.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: It would be interesting to actually
have a figure, because I know in the Immokalee library where we have
about 70 percent of our people who are Hispanic, just by eyeballing I
would say we have less than 5 percent that is Spanish language stuff.
MS. MATTHES: I would agree with that. We also get into the
discussion of are they wanting materials in Spanish or are they
wanting materials to learn English, both. So it's a compromise.
As I said yesterday, I don't think you were here, we do buy
significant numbers of materials in Spanish. And our -- actually, even
our online catalog has a Spanish version. You just click on a button
and you can get all of the instructions and all the information about it
in Spanish.
We do bilingual story hours for kids. Twelve years ago we did a
three-year grant in which we hired a bilingual librarian for the
Immokalee area. And we do try to hire more bilingual employees in
general now. If we have a choice we're certainly going to take a
bilingual employee. And it's not just in the Immokalee area but also
Golden Gate area, East Naples have significant numbers. And really,
all of our libraries are seeing more traffic by the Spanish speaking
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November 30, 2006
people.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: I think you are doing a goodjob.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Going further on that, if I were a
speaker of Spanish and I knew about the catalog or the methodology
and can go online either at the library or another way, I could, could I
not, I could request books be sent to my local library , could I not?
MS. MATTHES: Of course, sure.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And then the question would be,
would the availability of a variety of topical interest books as well as
translated into Spanish, current best ten seller type (sic) things, are
they as readily available? In other words, can we give a sense of
equality to people of another language?
MS. MATTHES: I hope so. I really -- we buy periodicals in
Spanish. Miami Herald comes in Spanish. That's a subscription.
There are some other periodicals that are available in Spanish and that
we use. We also do advertising on the Spanish language radio
programs. Staff appears, not on a regular basis but a frequent basis,
discussing Spanish programs for the community.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Let me help you a little bit more,
because I wasn't trying to embarrass anybody. What I was driving at
is there any impediments within our system to deny anybody the
opportunity to obtain what is available? Now what is available may
be limited by virtue of economics and marketing, et cetera, et cetera.
But are there any impediments within your system to deny folks the
full opportunity to obtain if they choose to?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Bob, isn't that -- that's a pretty
ambiguous question. I mean, someone could say the parking lot is not
marked right. I mean, I'm sure that's going to be -- I don't know how
anybody could categorically answer a question like that.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, what I was trying to do is
not create a negative but in fact I thought I was helping to create a
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November 30, 2006
positive in that I believe the system, as you've indicated it, allows for
folks to be able to benefit from what is available.
MS. MATTHES: We certainly try to be proactive. And
including -- included in that is we've had staff training for basic
Spanish for the front line circulation staff who deal with a lot of
people who don't speak English very well. There is a -- there was a
ten-week program that we sent a number of staff people to on a
weekly basis to get them up to speed in standard library terms in
Spanish, is basically what the course was geared to. And we've done
things like that.
I can't say that we have a Spanish speaking person in each
location every hour of the day. That really doesn't work out well for
us. But there is no, no reason that -- we're trying really -- I guess, to
put it on a positive light, we're trying to be proactive in providing
service to the entire community and we try not to exclude purchase of
materials that would be in foreign languages to the constituencies that
we do serve.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And I apologize if I appeared to
put you in a state of embarrassment. That was not my intent. I was
really playing off, I think, Mr. Harrison's ideas. He recognizes that we
have a growing influence and need, and I just thought I would give
you the opportunity to indicate how you are facilitating that. Thank
you.
MS. MATTHES: Thanks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions?
I notice you have used the word Hispanic. I'm assuming then that
the periodicals and books are in Spanish?
MS. MATTHES: Yes. We also have some Russian, German,
Czech, Polish books too. But primarily our language other than
English is Spanish.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I don't know what the mix in
Immokalee is but I know, I thought I heard there were dialects of
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November 30, 2006
Haitian and Guatemalan and things like that. I'm not sure they all
speak the same language. So I'm not sure what value it is to try to
cover one if not all.
So, I mean, I'm satisfied with the way you're doing it. I think it's
as relevant as it can be, so, onward and upward.
Any other questions on the library book stock issue? If not, is
there a motion to recommend?
Mr. Murray, ifit wasn't for you we wouldn't have any motions
today.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, you know, I would defer if
someone else wants to tackle it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, I'm glad you make them.
Someone's got to step forward and do it.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Let me discuss the 2006 AUIR
having to do with library book stock that is currently at 1.75 books per
capita. And we would recommend approval of this AUIR portion with
the additional recommendation that the BCC review -- well, I can't say
that in this case because we're using books per capita. Yes, I can. I
will say with the review of the basis which is ultimately used to
determine the AUIR, in this case population, with the intent that there
may be a more effective basis.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I'll move it along with a
second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Would the motion maker and the
second consider adding the request to the BCC to consider exploring
the collocation of these facilities and also modifying the level of
service so that all formats should be considered in the per capita rate?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would be open easily to the
second portion. I need more qualification about the collocation. Does
that have to do with schools or something? I forgot.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think it was just to explore it. Whether
it works out or not would be up to the departments to determineS
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November 30, 2006
whether it's feasible. I think we heard a strong argument yesterday
that the security issue is overwhelming.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, now I have a recollection of
what we're trying to -- yes, I would agree with that. I think that's a
good idea. I hope that the exploration is not -- yes, let's go forward
with that. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Does the second also accept?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Yes, I will.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any further discussion?
(N 0 response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All in favor of the motion, signify by
saYIng aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 8 to O.
We will take a break until 10: 15 for Kady and the court reporter.
(A break was taken.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, if everybody will return to their
seats we can continue with our meeting.
The next element for final review is the county jail element of the
AUIR. And Chief, I'll let you go forward.
CHIEF SMITH: For the record, Greg Smith, chief of
administration for the Sheriffs Office.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Page 97, by the way, for everyone's
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November 30, 2006
sake.
CHIEF SMITH: I don't think we had any questions or follow-up
regarding the j ails but I'll be willing to entertain any questions or
additional observations at this time.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Mark?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, Mr. Midney.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: I hope I'm not repeating stuff that
other people might have covered at some of the other meetings, but I
have one question about the weed and seed program which aims to
test two components.
The weed part is to get more people off the street who might be
contributing to criminal activity or just maybe vagrancy, making the
neighborhood less desirable. Has the stepped-up law enforcement
with the weed and seed program resulted in part in, some part to
increase the number of jail beds needed?
CHIEF SMITH: I'm sure that it has a direct effect, especially
with regard to the Immokalee facility.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: How much of an effect would
you say it has?
CHIEF SMITH: I can go back and look at the population
numbers from last year to this year and draw that correlation out, but I
don't have that this morning.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Okay. I have another question.
Since 9/11 has there been an increase in the rate of arrests of
undocumented workers and has this impacted the jail bed rate?
CHIEF SMITH: I can say that there are several initiatives that
we're currently involved with with regard to our participation in the
Regional Domestic Security Task Force and also with joint operations
that we have had with ICE where we have --
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: ICE?
CHIEF SMITH: Immigration Customs Enforcement, where we
have -- and that's under the Division of Homeland Security, that we
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November 30, 2006
have participated with them to take in undocumented aliens. But we
usually do not detain them in our jails. They are usually transported to
federal holding facilities.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Do you see or does the Sheriffs
Department see as part of its mission to enforce the INS laws in terms
of not allowing undocumented workers to be in Collier County?
CHIEF SMITH: The sheriffs mission is to cooperate with every
law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction in Collier County
including ICE and Customs and Immigration enforcement. He's
willing to partner with them on whatever initiatives that they bring
forward.
It's also an issue germane to our agency as well. Recently we
have had other resources made available to us where we can check via
our laptops in patrol cars through the Resource Clearance Center out
of Immokalee, where we can check on the documentation status of
people who we encounter in the field.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Do you feel that people who don't
have documentation to work here but who are here, do you look at
them as criminals, since they are illegal?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Paul, this is about jails, and I have to
ask that we don't get into politics in regard to this issue. Let's stick to
the jail and the jail beds. I think that would be more productive.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Well, I'm just asking because this
does affect our use of the jail beds and the census that we have in our
jails, which is the AUIR, what we're talking about now. But I'll
withdraw that question.
Has anyone attempted to work with judges in sentencing
guidelines to perhaps try to get some hold on the amount of jail
population that we have and the number of beds that we need?
CHIEF SMITH: Currently there is a jail study that is underway
that will be published, I would say, within the next month that has
been undertaken by the county. That was at the behest of the Public
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November 30, 2006
Safety Coordinating Council which is chaired by Commissioner
Coyle.
The charge of that council under statute is to develop means to
introduce programs and initiatives that will forestall the need to build
future jail beds. So the answer to your question is yes. We're working
very diligently.
It was the efforts of that group which has led to Collier County
receiving three new judges because it's been recognized there is a
direct correlation between the speed of the judiciary and what happens
with regard to the j ail population.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: You mean people waiting for
extended periods of times in order to have their trials?
CHIEF SMITH: People who do not for whatever reason make
bond would remain in jail until they arrive at their trial date.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: That sounds positive.
Just a final question, do you have information as to the Collier
County rate, I guess, it's 3.2 per thousand? How does that compare to
other counties in the State of Florida and nationally?
CHIEF SMITH: It's very comparable.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other questions on the
jails?
Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Do we have any additional new sheet for Page 97?
We had the first revised one but at that time the revenues needed to
maintain the existing level of service shouldn't have had the brackets
on it and footnote four star talks about it would likely not be feasible
to build a 60-bed addition or stand-alone jail during this AUIR period.
But then we changed it to do exactly that.
So it seems like there needs to be some administrative changes in
the information on this sheet.
MR. BOSI: Ms. Vasey, I will make the modifications in terms of
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November 30, 2006
eliminating the bracket in terms of revenues needed to maintain the
existing level of service.
I guess it didn't strike me -- a memory chord in terms of the
removal of the feasibility to build just a 60-bed addition. I'm not sure
how we address that because we do have that 60-bed deficit within
this five-year planning period.
And I'm not sure if we had taken any steps to add any capital
improvement programs that would satisfy that deficiency.
MS. VASEY: We did in your 11 beds planned in AUIR under
Page 99, change sheet, shows 64 beds going in in the fifth year of the
AUIR period.
MR. BOSI: There is still a 60-bed deficiency, and that's where
that footnote --
MS. VASEY: I see. Okay. But this is still kind of -- we did add
a 60-bed addition and now you are saying it's not feasible to add a
60-bed.
MR. BOSI: There were two modular expansions capable at the
Immokalee facility, and the last, the 64 that they have in the fifth year
is the last of that. So maybe I need to expand upon there are no more
modular expansions available and therefore the construction of a
60-bed facility -- expand that footnote that way to further explain it
that we were out of modular expansion capability within both of the
facilities.
MS. VASEY: That might be a good idea because that certainly
confused me.
CHIEF SMITH: That is a good point. Just to build on that a
little bit, when they built the Immokalee Jail, the new jail, in 2001,
they left the ability to add on a modular component of 64 beds. The
electrical is pigtailed, the plumbing is stubbed out and everything is
ready to go with that. In fact, they'd only have to build more staff
base or controls there because they've expanded to the size necessary
to support the extra 64.
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November 30, 2006
So from that standpoint facilities did a wonderful job back when
they prepared the site to bring that additional, so we can bring over 64
beds and do if rather cheaply.
MS. VASEY: And that sort of was one of the other issues that I
was going to hit on. It shows a requirement for 3.1 million, but as you
discussed the last time and just now mentioned again, it probably,
since everything is ready, except for, you know, pouring the concrete
or whatever is needed for the building addition, the modular part of it,
it shouldn't really be that expensive.
CHIEF SMITH: Correct. I'd really have to defer to facilities for
the hard and fast answer. But just in my layman's view, you don't
have to do the site prep, you don't have to acquire the land, you don't
even have to do the engineering specs because you are going to build
the exact replica of the structure standing next to it. So all that is laid
out already. So I would think that it could be done at a much reduced
cost than that.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any there any other questions on
the jail portion of the AUIR?
As far as the Planning Commission goes we need to take a
position on it.
Has the Productivity Committee -- my notes are that modify the
brackets that are on the page, get those corrected and explain better the
60-bed facility. Is that consistent with the Productivity Committee's
thoughts on this issue?
MR. HARRISON: I think so.
MS. VASEY: Yes. There was only one other thing that I was
going to mention and that was the j ail study has a very strong
capability of changing. If the planned initiative to move the inmates
through the system faster works, then that will affect the number of
beds per hundred thousand population that's required. And perhaps in
the future we can look at moving, if the study makes it possible to
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November 30, 2006
adjust that level of service standard.
CHIEF SMITH: That is correct. That is our hope in working
with those initiatives, that we may arrive at a point -- if all other
external factors remain neutral, I just throw that caveat out, that we
may arrive at a point where we can reduce the LOS.
MR. HARRISON: Harrison here. Chief Smith, do I remember
when you brought this to the Productivity Committee talking about
how the addition of the judges and the more prompt processing of the
inmates, it could free up like how many beds, was it like a couple of
hundred?
CHIEF SMITH: It could free up as many as 200 beds.
MR. HARRISON: A lot.
CHIEF SMITH: Yeah. Your jail population is a direct
correlation to how swift those who are held there move through the
judicial system. And that's recognized by the judges, that's recognized
by just about anybody that looks at it, you know, that's not in dispute.
And certainly that need was recognized at the state level when
those additional judges were appropriated to Collier County . We feel
very good about that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We need a recommendation
from the Planning Commission.
Mr. Murray, would you happen to be able to make a
recommendation?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would be thrilled.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: With regard to the 2006 AUIR
matter concerning county j ails, I would make a motion that the
Planning Commission recommend approval, with the additional
recommendation that the BCC review the basis used to determine the
AUIR, which is population, with the intent that there may be a more
effective basis.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a second?
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November 30, 2006
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I'll second the motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Commissioner Murray,
seconded by Commissioner Adelstein. And we had discussed that the
staff is going to remove the brackets and explain better the 60-bed
facility reference. I don't think that needs to be stipulated but --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I thought that was a given, quite
frankly.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. And that as far as the jail study
goes I think so that would be part and parcel to the comment
concerning the use of the population statistics.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I thought that was also part.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there any other discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, all those in favor of the
motion, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 8 to O.
Move on to law enforcement. That was the one, Chief, I think
there were some lingering questions on.
CHIEF SMITH: There were some questions regarding the
percentage of time deputies spend devoted to the incorporated areas of
the county.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No. I think it was more of you didn't
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count the -- you counted the countywide population including the
incorporated areas -- incorporated communities but you didn't count
their police officers in your statistics. I hope that's the same, that
becomes the same question to your answer. But that's what I thought
was the question.
CHIEF SMITH: Right. That's a different way to get there I
think.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I mean--
MR. BOSI: I was going to say that we had left and the issue was
we were counting their population --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
MR. BOSI: -- as the chief had indicated. If we're counting their
population. But I guess the mandate of providing service was falling
upon those municipal police stations and not the county sheriffs
department. The question was do we -- but then the statement was
made from Chief Smith that the officers, the sheriffs officers do spend
a percentage or some period of time within activities related to the
municipalities.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I don't disagree with your
statement, but I also -- I think where I was trying to go is, you got a
guy who is a trained police officer. I don't care what uniform he's
wearing, his presence is going to have an impact on the people and the
protection and security of the civilian population. The City of Naples
has a lot of those people in uniform. So does the City of Marco
Island. All I'm saying is they have to be considered. If you are going
to use those populations to justify more law enforcement it should
equally be used -- we should use some of their offsetting personnel in
regards to that.
So that was the gist of the question I thought that was asked. But
Chief, I'll let you go forward and explain the best you can.
CHIEF SMITH: I understood the question to be what percentage
of time, and I think we arrived at that, from what you just pointed out.
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And I apologize for my confusion on that.
And I suppose the answer depends on to what unit you are
assigned within the sheriffs office. For instance our marine patrol and
our air units are based in docks and hangars within the city limits, so
they are exclusively in the city and travel outside of the city back into
the unincorporated areas to service us. So they spend a good deal of
time there.
Deputies who serve civil process, police officers cannot serve
civil process, that must be done by the sheriff and his deputies. So we
have to go into the city to serve all manner and form of civil process.
So we have a presence in that regard.
We still maintain a substation on Marco Island within the city
limits with minimal staffing to do things like accident reports, to give
them police reports and the availability to service those citizens that
come in and need the services the sheriff has under his umbrella.
Also, as we also point out, we also dispatch for the City of Marco
Island. So we have a lot of interaction with them as well.
Road patrol deputies don't spend a great deal of time answering
calls that they have been assigned there within the city limits, but what
does happen is we travel into the city to go to our training center,
which is located at Gulfview Middle School. The PDC is where our
training center is.
So we have uniformed deputies in marked cars as, to build on
your point, going into the city and coming back out some six or seven
hours later. All those marked units and officers in uniform have a
deterrence value that's being provided to the city.
Also we have been called on for complex investigations, for
pursuits, for large joint operations. And the sheriff is the -- is the
co-chair of the Regional Domestic Security Task Force that provides
domestic security-related issues for all of Collier County. So from
that standpoint we provide service as well.
Also today and every two weeks from Thursday we have what's
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November 30, 2006
called a Comstat process where we join with the cities of Marco and
Naples and have a joint meeting of the PDC where we discuss crime
trends. So we have today all of our command staff over in the city
with a joint meeting. Their presence there, as you pointed out, has a
crime deterrence value. So we do provide some service to them.
And also there have been studies that have pointed out that what
you do in the unincorporated area has a value with regard to those
people who live in the incorporated area because the criminal element
is mobile for the most part, and if they are not encountered and dealt
with in the unincorporated area would have the capability to transit
into the incorporated area and be there. So -- and that kind of stuff is
hard to measure. But there is a value presented to the city.
I suppose that it would serve no value to you if you lived in the
city, worked in the city, recreated, shopped in the city and never left
the city. Then, again, you could make a very strong argument for
what value is the Collier County Sheriffs Office to me personally,
take away the fact that we go in and out of there frequently. So from
that standpoint you may have a case for adjusting those population
figures.
Also, it should be pointed out there are special operations centers
about to be built in the City of Naples. So we're going to have a large
contingent of deputies in that regard as well.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Vigliotti.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: It seems very confusing trying
to split up duties and responsibilities. Seeing as we're using the
population figures for the City and Marco, why don't we use, just use
their officers in our figures and make it so much simpler?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Let me expound on that because I think
I started the ball rolling on this question and I understand now better
your operations. And I think it goes back to the way and the format of
this AUIR.
The departments have been locked into certain formats, levels of
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November 30,2006
standards created by statistics that may not be the best for what they
are trying to do, and the unit cost corresponding to that statistic. I
think that for the recommendation to look at a better statistic to use for
your department, just as we have for the others, I think you could find
a better statistic, one that incorporates all of the other municipalities
and still provides you with a level of service based on a realistic
population or whatever it is that drives your numbers better than the
one that we're using here.
Mr. Vigliotti, I understand your comment because you're along
the same lines I was earlier thinking. But I now, based on what the
chief said, this is more of an issue that can resolve by a better statistic
weighed properly than just using a blanket bold statistic on its face
value.
And I think that's back to what we're trying to do with each
department, have them look better at what they use for a statistical
base. And I think this one could be done better next time.
F or now the fact that you have a surplus and not an impact on the
ad valorem tax base at this -- I'm not that concerned about this year.
There is not much we can do about it. But I would hope that by next
year with the recommendations we've been making that we can come
up with a better statistic for you to use that does take into
consideration the other municipalities. Is that --
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- kind of where you're going?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Yes, that will achieve the same
goal.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Just adding to that piece, what
comes to my mind is that it's clear there is an overlap of some degree.
I'm thinking about it from the point of view if Dr. Lee and the county
were evaluating how many new police officers he needed for the city,
how much impact would he take into consideration of the presence of
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sheriffs deputies and all of those things that you related to. And so it
does become a true question that needs to be resolved I suppose.
Certainly not this year but next year it could probably lead to it.
And I think we're getting to a finer point, and we thank you for
your effort that you're making to help us understand the full impact.
That would be my comment.
CHIEF SMITH: Yes. You're very welcome. And I do not argue
that there could possibly be a better formula derived, and we will
commit to working with the planning department next year to look at
some alternative formulas to use.
Certainly, you know, you could use calls for service, you could
code your patrol time, you know, there are several different ways to
look at it, other than just based on population, just as you pointed out
several times this morning already. Historically, it's always been
population, that's what we've gone with. But certainly there are some
other factors that we can determine as well.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you. Are there any other
comments or questions on law enforcement?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Before the Planning Commission votes
is there any comments from the Productivity Committee to help guide
us?
MR. HARRISON: This is Harrison. We've had significant
discussions with the sheriffs office on the capital projects that they
have, like on Page 119. There is $18 million for airport operations,
and that's led to conversations about what aircraft do we have, how are
we using them, and that sort of thing, because for most of us we think
of law enforcement as officers in cars on the street.
I don't know if the chief wants to say anything about that. EMS
center of course has been in the papers quite often as they are
challenged to find a suitable site to put it in. But that's a high tech
dispatch unit that all emergency services are plugged into so that they
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have like one source that tells them, you know, an emergency of some
kind. So that's a very desirable facility.
Do you want to say anything about the airport, Chief?
CHIEF SMITH: The only thing I'll say about the airport is the
devil is in the details. The detail has purposely been left out of this
report because it is a public document. There are some very sensitive
missions that are going to be carried out there that I would be willing
to discuss offline with any member of either the Productivity
Committee or the Planning Commission.
But for the purpose of this, we're going to build an $18 million
hangar.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I bet that is going to be a beauty.
CHIEF SMITH: And I hope I've led you to the conclusion that
it's not just a hangar.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I understand.
MR. HARRISON: And if we look at the funding I'm not sure,
with all of these sources of funds, if there in fact is a surplus because it
looks to me like there is about 38 million of new debt coming along.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mayor may not be.
CHIEF SMITH: Let me say this, that the airport operations
center, the sheriff is funding himself, which is unprecedented, out of
his budget through his turn-back each year. We've already made three
of the $1.6 million payments. And we just broke ground this week. So
we're in pretty good shape in that regard.
And as Mr. Harrison pointed out, the emergency operations
center, ever since 9/11 all we've heard about is interoperability
between different emergency service workers, and that's exactly what
that is designed to do is have everyone that is participating in the
cogent disaster in one room coordinating all the services and all the
functions of the county under one umbrella.
I just can't advocate enough for how much this community and
the size that it's progressing to needs that center. Not only has it got
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dispatch but we also will have a new East Naples substation operating
out of that that will get us out of the fire department, the East Naples
fire department where we've been tenants in two rooms for the last 15
years. So we're moving out of that and finally getting an East Naples
substation in the deal as well.
Orangetree substation, as we pointed out the last time, right now
we are operating out of a double wide trailer on the grounds of the
middle school out there because we agreed that the county could use
the funding previously allocated for that to some other proj ects. And
we'll just go with that for right now because it seems to be working,
and give the county a chance to catch up on some other things.
So that's why it's been structured out through the year even
though the need for that center was three years ago. We brought it on
line this past year, so.
MR. HARRISON: Chief, would you expect the new emergency
center to affect the response times of all of the first responders, EMS,
fire, et cetera?
CHIEF SMITH: I would hope that it would.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. The comments, I think, are all
asked. Is there a motion regarding -- from the Planning Commission
for law enforcement?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Could I please make a motion?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It's about time you would, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: With regard to the 2006 AUIR
matter on law enforcement having to do with the level of service
standard of one decimal 96 police officer per population, I make a
motion that the CCPC recommend approval to the BCC, with the
additional recommendation that the BCC review the basis used to
determine the AUIR, that is population, with the intent that there may
be a more effective basis to be learned.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I'll second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Commissioner Murray,
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November 30, 2006
seconded by Commissioner Vigliotti.
Any further discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, all those in favor of the
motion, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries 8 to O. Thank you, chief.
Mr. Bosi.
MR. BOSI: Chairman Strain, I did want to point out one thing,
because every motion has been added with the recommendation for
the BCC to look at other statistical methods for analyzing level of
services in the specific AUIR. The question -- or the point that I
wanted to make that that will have to be in conjunction with revisions
to the impact fee studies, and I believe that impact fee studies will
have to be revised, or the majority of them will have to be revised as
we go to our new population methodology. So those opportunities
should be there.
The reason why I say that is the AUIR for the Category B
facilities really acts as the checkbook to make sure that floor level that
was established within that impact fee study, that that level of service
is being maintained.
So if there is departures from how we are now measuring the
level of service for, say, for instance, for law enforcement, if it goes to
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something that is not population-based or it's different from what the
methodology that was expressed within the impact fee study, there
could be potential legal issues with that. So when we would go and
revise the impact fee study for law enforcement we would have to
agree upon the new methodology that we're going to establish for the
level of service.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Michael, I think that that goes without
saying. I would have assumed if you are going to change something it
has to change everywhere, and that's why the legal staff in their
advisement to the Board of County Commissioners, in any discussion
like that, I'm sure they would point out that those ramifications have to
be dealt with as well.
I had assumed all that would have to happen. If we changed our
methodology it's far and more wide sweeping than just the AUIR. I
think all of us understood that as a fact, but it's just a matter of it still
needs to be done or still may need to be done, needs to be determined.
MR. BOSI: Thank you for that, Chairman Strain. And I guess I
was just putting that out for the obvious, for the viewer of this
proceedings just to let them know that that would be a necessary
component of that. I appreciate that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you. Chief, thank you, I think
you are finished unless --
CHIEF SMITH: Thank you. I would like to make one comment
in closing just because it came up and there may be some viewers out
there who are wondering as well. But if anyone would like to know
Sheriff Hunter's philosophy on the import of the immigration laws or
the guiding philosophy with regard to immigrations enforcement
within the Sheriffs Office, I would like to refer you to our website,
www.colliersheriff.org, where we have several position papers
published on the subject. So you can get the information there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, sir.
CHIEF SMITH: Thank you.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Next issue in the AUIR will be
the emergency medical services remaining questions from yesterday's
meeting. This is on Page 136.
MS. BAY: Good morning. Artie Bay, for the record, EMS.
I think the first question you had was how EMS intends to repay
the 7 million debt service to the general fund. And what we're going
to have to do is, this is a result of our stepped-up building, and once
we have a new building that's actually been constructed, the units are
in place, the ambulances are equipped and ordered and in, we're going
to actually have to do another impact fee study. And that's going to
generate the revenue to payoff this debt.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So you are putting a debt on the books
that you have no source of funding to repay that's known?
MS. BAY: Well, we know we're going to have to redo the
impact fee study.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: See, the impact fees have gone up
dramatically in this county. There is a long and strong push against
raising them any more because of some of the other impacts they have
on new and affordable housing and things like that. I am not saying
there won't be any more, but that's a pretty risky bet.
MS. BAY: Actually, I don't know that the EMS impact fees have
been increased to the extent of some of the others.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: They haven't. I know they haven't.
But anybody have any questions on this?
Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Amy is the authority, but -- Amy Patterson -- but
it's my understanding that you need those facilities, that you are
bringing those facilities on line. And if you are bringing them on line
and then trying to use impact fees to pay for a deficit that currently
exists, which is what we've got right now as we bring these on line,
you can't use impact fees for that. Impact fees can only be used for
new growth-related items. And you are working off a backlog right
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now; is that right, Amy?
MS. PATTERSON: What you said -- Amy Patterson, for the
record. What you said is correct. But it was my understanding that
these are growth-related stations that they are adding, so if they are
related to growth then there is no reason that the impact fee can't be
used for them. If there are deficiencies that they are accommodating
then, yes, they would have to be paid for out of another funding
source.
MS. VASEY: I think according to the Chart 138 it shows that
they are current deficiencies, at least the first 4.7 of them are. Now
maybe if you are serious about changing your impact fees I would
recommend that you have another impact fee study before you run
into the ones that are, you know, after this next year. Because you
have a deficiency right now --
MS. BAY: Right.
MS. VASEY: -- and so you can't use impact fees to make that
up. But as you address the ones that are for future growth you can do
those, but you should get your impact fee study in first, I think.
MS. BAY: Okay. Were there any more questions to that issue?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I mean, as a follow-up, I'mjust
trying to figure out how this document that you've provided to us will
work. And maybe Amy needs to clarify something else other than --
something Ms. Vasey said I'm now curious.
If you spend some of this money that you're counting on for
future impact fees now, isn't that an existing condition then? It's
qualified automatically as existing? So then how do you reimburse it
from future impact fees? I think that was kind of more the question I
understood but it didn't get answered.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Right.
MS. BAY: I'll let Amy address that.
MS. PATTERSON: Sorry. Amy Patterson again for the record.
Could you repeat the question.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If you take a building that you want to
build right now, and you get a loan for it and you build it, partially
build it or whatever, then eight months, six months, a year, two years
later you finally get the impact fees increase so you can payoff that
loan, that you built that building from, isn't that kind of like paying in
arrears? Can you do that with impact fees?
MS. PATTERSON: I think there are probably two separate
things going on here. There are stations that they are required to build
for their level of service that they are going to use these general fund
dollars for, or whatever they might be, and any things that are
deficiencies, they are not going to use impact fees to pay for.
Anything that they use impact fees for would then be growth-related.
They would have to be.
But when they build anything that's paid for, once those facilities
come on line and are added to the inventory, that would constitute the
need for them to update their impact fees. If they have added to their
inventory that's where they would come in and do another study which
would generate additional impact fees.
So I think it's two separate things. Anything that is a deficiency
has to be funded by another source. Anything that is growth is going
to be funded by impact fees or impact fees into the future.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: If they construct some of these 4.7
needed surplus or deficient facilities with 13 or $14 million and the
impact fee study doesn't get done until that's completed, the impact
fees then can be used only for what's built after that, not what's built
before that. Is that correct or incorrect?
MS. PATTERSON: The impact fees would be used into the
future for what's built after that. But that facility would be added to
the inventory, which would -- because it's paid for, would then help
the impact fees in the future.
I know it doesn't make sense exactly, but they are not using
impact fees to fund a deficiency, I guess that's the bottom line. At no
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time does that ever happen.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm not debating that. What I'm worried
about is, I think Ms. Vasey hit on it, maybe I'm -- I hope I'm reading it
right, by putting this $7.3 million in there now as a loan against future
impact fees, you really can't expect that to happen because you can't
put something in there now as a loan and use it against future impact
fees.
Like you just said, they have to be paid for what is going on in
the future, not what is going on in arrears.
And Michael, you have been trying to say something. I'm sorry.
MR. BOSI: And this is the one Category B facility I think where
this board is going to have to make a recommendation to either find
the additional revenue from the general fund or to lower your level of
service, because the impact fees that we expect in the future cannot be
used to pay down this current deficit.
The board had decided with this level of service standard that one
per 15,000 population, one unit per 15,000 population was the level of
service that they wanted to go with. If they want to maintain that level
of service they are going to have to utilize revenue sources outside
impact fees, and more than likely it will have to be from the general
revenue fund.
So your recommendation is going to have to be based upon that
type of an action. So it won't be able to fall back upon impact fees to
pay for this specific facility.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Tuff.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: This was my first meeting last year,
same topic and everything else. If we keep budgeting and supplying
funds and people can continue to operate, now a matter that may not
be as productive, you know, we have the EMS, we have the fire
departments, now you have Marco wanting to join in. And
somewhere along the way a squeeze has to happen in order to do
things more efficiently and so that the agencies work together and can
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November 30, 2006
maybe accommodate this.
But if we keep funding all these levels of service for all of these
different departments and they aren't -- where does that fall into our
last year when we were told that that doesn't apply here, but then it's
not changing, it continues to grow and perpetuate more problems and
other fire departments need to have more.
Is there a way, by budgeting, to force economies to happen?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, good question. And I don't know
if anybody can answer it. It is an ambiguous question. I'm sure
everybody is going to say there is.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: We're going to say let's go ahead and
do this and then we've just perpetuated another year.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm not sure everybody is going to say
let's go ahead and do this. Of all of the elements that we've had, I
have a lot of respect for the chief and his abilities for EMS operations.
But I think from an accounting viewpoint there are some problems in
how they put things on paper that they are doing.
We pointed out a lot of this in yesterday's meeting in regards to
some of the collocated units, the response times, the interactions with
the fire departments and how multiple facilities are responding to
every call. And I think all that needs to be weighed in on this. And I
don't think this is reflective of all of that information.
I'm not sure if I'm -- I'm not trying to answer your question, just
giving you my thoughts on it. I'm not sure that is going to have any
better answer.
Ms. Vasey, did you?
MS. VASEY: Yes. I really don't think that you can plan to use,
plan to repay the $7.3 million loan with impact fees. Amy is
absolutely right, when you redo the impact fee studies and you have
four new stations, that will generate a higher impact fee rate because
you've got more in your base now. That was part of the problem in
the past. They have had so many leased stations that they don't get
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November 30, 2006
any credit for that the impact fees are very low compared to others.
So by increasing the number of owned stations that will increase
the impact fees because you are -- it's based on what you have.
So it will go up. But I don't believe with impact fees planned of
$6 million over the five-year period that you could expect to generate
$7.3 million by increasing them sometime in the future. So I think
you may have to -- the solution to that maybe you'll have to increase
your additional revenue required line, because I don't think that that's a
financially feasible solution the way it's written right now.
MS. BAY: I guess what we were looking at too is we were
looking at these four stations that we were directed to put on line this
year, as growth stations, because you recall from last year we
switched from the permanent population, which had been used since
2001, to the weighted population, which -- at the permanent we were
going along just fine. But as soon as we switched to the weighted
population that put us where we needed to, you know, increase to
maintain our level of service.
MS. VASEY: Right. You had been using weighted until 2002
and then switched to permanent and then switched back.
MS. BAY: Right.
MS. VASEY: And that certainly, I think, can account for a large
part of the problem now of how many stations need to be built in the
next five years. And you can use your impact fees for some of the
new stations, but you've already counted that, the current impact fees
are in the $6 million that -- for those stations that are coming on line
now.
MS. BAY: Correct.
MS. VASEY: So I think that number can't really be supported
through impact fees even after you increase them.
MR. BOSI: I will say that the way that this is reflected, and that
is shown as a revenue but it's also shown as an expenditure within this
category, so that would be reflected within the additional revenue
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required to maintain the level of service.
So I think that money is being accounted for that that loan has to
be paid back because it shows up in expenditure. And that's part of
the factor that arrives at that $1 7 million that will be required to
maintain the level of service standard.
But it still hasn't gotten you from the issue that there is still $1 7
million that would have to be allocated to provide for this type of a
capital improvements program.
MS. VASEY: You are sort of in a do loop here because the 7.3
million revenue that you're getting from the general fund as a loan is
to provide the expenditure of $7.3 million under expenditures, which
is for the commercial paper of $11 million which shows up under
revenue.
So it's a rather complicated kind of thing but you are still left
with the problem that the $7.3 million from the general revenue as a
loan has to be repaid.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Harrison, did you want to
contribute to this?
MR. HARRISON: It seems to me like the major issue here is the
economics of the stations, because we looked yesterday and the
available inventory cost on average 2 million per station. The chief
shared with us yesterday a couple of recent examples that they got it
even below 2 million through collocation, donation of land, et cetera.
So, you know, to go forward with 3.3 million for fully
independent stations seems to be not in the cards. That's double our
recent experience. So if our capital requirements here are based on the
3.3 rather than something at 2 million or less, some of these financing
questions go away.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: May I?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: It occurs to me too. It seems to
be an interesting problem because, in terms of collocation, the
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expression there would make it that you would have many, many
more fire stations in order to operate. You would, I think, likely have
more EMS stations for population and locations and time than you
would need fire stations. So I'm not sure you can achieve the result
you intend by all collocation. I think that they are stuck with that.
But I realize that anything that the CCPC will do with regard to
this as we have to go forward, that you need to make certain that you
have the funding, that it's more clearly established than this. This is
not going to work for you.
CHIEF PAGE: I just want to bring up, you know, when we talk
about -- I'm sorry, for the record, Jeff Page with EMS.
When we talk about collocated stations, that may be collocated
with public works. We've also looked at other county departments
where we may be able to collate our facilities together. So in some
cases that land is already purchased, it's just the structure involved.
And of course the -- we're still looking to work with the school board,
with their property, things of that nature. But it's not just the fire
districts.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, good. Then I was in error.
Then Mr. Harrison's comments were quite right on. And I didn't
realize that you would collocate with others. That just makes good
sense. And his point is well taken.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Baytos.
MR. BA YTOS: I would just like to remind us of a couple points
that we covered yesterday that have not been addressed. One is that
this is one of the most aggressive near term capital plans we've looked
at in the AUIRs. And at the same time it's recognized, I believe, by
the community and certainly the Board of County Commissioners that
this is an activity where we have more duplication and overlap than in
perhaps any other government service. And the fact that there is a
study underway now that might lead to some sort of combination and
better utilization. And yet we seem to be going and looking at this
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November 30, 2006
AUIR in a vacuum and ignoring everything else that is going on with
regard to this.
I'm not -- you know, being my first time in this process I'm not
sure how all that fits in. But if it doesn't fit in here I'm not sure where
it does fit in.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I would tend to agree with you. I think
for that reason this summary that we have in front of us is not a good
reflection what needs to go forward. I think the issue of the 7.3
million is huge, and that you can't count on that and how to pay it
back. And until that is defined I don't see how it can even be in here.
But taking that out may end up reflecting a level of service needs
to a greater degree at the same time when we have other operations
that can be relied upon for response times. Maybe we ought to go
back, as suggested by staff, as one of the things that could be corrected
on here is considering a level of service standard change that would be
more accommodating in regards to what we have out there.
I think that would meet Mr. Tuffs concern. I think that's a good
valid point. Maybe that would force more cooperation with other
departments. I know there is some going on now so we get a better
product.
I also know that we have 32 units total according to statements
that I heard yesterday, but only 22.5 are actually listed here. I think
the value of those being off the books not shown as clearly as maybe it
could be does have an impact on this document.
As Mr. Harrison pointed out yesterday, when we finished with
this staff had already left. The document that was provided to us on
Page 151 shows the EMS fleet, and the fleet total is more units than
are being reported on the summary. Granted now, all of those units
maybe full ALS life support systems but they all have intrinsic value
to the community in both service and availability. There actually are
40 line items there. Some are obviously not vehicles, but still it seems
to be more than 32 vehicles there.
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November 30, 2006
Maybe closer scrutiny of these documents would provide a better
summary page. I'll leave that to the staff to --
CHIEF PAGE: Well, I can tell you that on Page 152, that
reflects the growth units that it came in --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
CHIEF PAGE: -- for the newer units.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I wasn't -- I specifically said -- on Page
151 there are 40 lines. With the exception of maybe two of those they
all seem to be some kind of response vehicle, maybe three.
And then on Page 152 on the top you have one more vehicle, a
2006 Ford, white. I don't know what that is. But some of the -- I'm
wondering how many of these are the ALS system units.
CHIEF PAGE: I'm sorry. I see what you are talking about. For
example, about midway down it says Hallmark. That's a trailer.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
CHIEF PAGE: Some of these Fords are actually, they are Crown
Victorias that supervisors -- I'm sorry, office staffhave. Not all of
these are ambulances. So that's -- the Wells Fargo or Wells Cargo
toward the bottom, that's also another trailer. There is a state vehicle.
This is all of the vehicles they provided out of the EMS fleet.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I realize, that's why I said not all of
those would be counted as ambulances. I realize that some of them,
based on the value, would not be an ambulance. But I don't know how
that is correlated with the 32. But the 32 units that you do have, even
though ten of those are reserve units, I'm still not clear on how they
are reflected in your inventory as a positive to the taxpayers. They are
usable units.
Anyway, I don't know where to go with this. I mean, I don't -- I
don't believe the numbers are workable the way they are. It may not
just be a simple recommendation to lower the level of service, only
because I'm not sure what the real numbers need to be to get to a point
where you know if that's the right thing to suggest.
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November 30, 2006
Any comments?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I have another question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: About the report --
CHIEF PAGE: Before we get to that. Mr. Strain, the EMS units
are reflected on the equipment page, as listed as 32.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm talking about the summary page, on
136. I was just wondering where the 32 ALS units are reflected on
Page 136. My Page 136. I have no idea what you may have.
CHIEF PAGE: They are actually reflected on Page 149.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, that was pointed out yesterday.
Those are the 32 units that -- you go to Page 136 under available
inventory it shows 22.5 units. In that matrix that you showed
yesterday there are a certain number of ALS units factored in with a
certain number of new facilities and collocated facilities. I'm just
wondering how the full 32 got factored into the 22.5.
If you did explain it yesterday, I'm sorry if I forgot.
CHIEF PAGE: Okay.
MS. BAY: The 22.5 are the front line units. We also have --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Before we go farther. So I understand it,
and I might be the only one. When you say 22.5 are the front line
units, what is a front line unit?
MS. BAY: Those are the units that are on the roads every day.
Those are the units that are always active.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The 22.5 are ALS ambulances?
MS. BAY: Yes. And what we consider a unit is the ALS
ambulance fully equipped and staffed. Okay.
Then there is like, we have for maybe special events or we need
units up for seasonal units. We bring them from that reserve fleet.
And I would like to clarify something I said yesterday. I
misspoke. You had asked if these units, if these ambulances were all
equipped. Yes, they are. I said no because I was thinking about the
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medics taking their monitors out when they go into fleet for some
reason, if the truck breaks down. They take their monitor and take it
to another truck, because we don't leave them on the trucks.
But obviously they are not going to be moving stretchers and
backboards and all the other equipment.
So they are fully equipped. We just -- and we do have monitors
for all these vehicles. They are just not locked in the vehicles.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'm sure I was the individual that
initially raised that question and it's still haunting me, this issue about
how we treat it. This even makes the case in my mind more that they
should be completely used. If I were to buy six automobiles, I could
only drive one at a time but they are all available, they are all ready to
go, they have gasoline in them and I'm paying for them. They are my
asset.
If somebody asks me do you own an automobile I wouldn't
respond one, I would say I own six. So it's an asset, a considerable
asset, now, especially since you've indicated that they are equipped.
And you indicated that they were subject to rotation, which
means that they are in use. So for all intents and purposes, while I
recognize you keep some in reserve, some are bound to be in the shop
for repair or maintenance, et cetera, et cetera, but they are all part of
your inventory. And I think you must find a way to include them in
there with --
MS. BAY: And we have done that. But we also took, I believe it
was Mr. Harrison that brought up the point that we were tying
everything to 20 stations. What we have done is corrected this, and
we've divided it by units versus stations, which reduces the inventory
a little bit, by about, well, actually $53,000. Because we, instead of
tying it to 20 stations, we tied it to the 22 and a half units.
And if you looked at the lines, each of the ambulances are listed
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along with all of the other vehicles and the equipment. Those are the
equipped ambulances that you are looking at. And then we've sorted
that out by the 22 and a half active units.
So they are included. And they are also included in that, in the
cost per station.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That does help, that chart.
And by the way, the court reporters, I noticed Cherie's in the
audience. Does that mean you guys need to switch?
THE COURT REPORTER: Whenever you're ready.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Give us a few minutes to try to get past
this thought and then we'll try to take a ten-minute break so you can
switch.
Okay.
MS. BAY: So that's brought down our cost for stations, both for
the owned and collocated stations, so -- I didn't bring the sheets.
Obviously, it's going to change all of our numbers.
And when we're projecting out for our required inventory, we're
basing that required inventory or those number of units. We're basing
on a collocated going forward, a blended cost, because we don't know
what's going to be owned, we don't know what is going to be
collocated, so we're going to say, okay -- and historically two-thirds of
our stations we own, one-third we're collocating. So we blended that
to come up with -- the new figure is actually, it's down to 2.8 really.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, everything you are talking about
needs to be put down on paper so we can assess it. It can't be done
obviously right here, now, today.
Weare not going to probably have any other issue left over after
today except for maybe this. But I don't know if it's productive for us
to weigh in on this summary sheet, that isn't as accurate or even close
to being accurate --
MS. BAY: I do have the new numbers. I just didn't make
copies. I thought it might be a little too much to digest.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What's the thoughts of this panel in
regards to getting the information? I think you still need to go back
and address Ms. Vasey's issue and the 7 million. I don't think you've
done that by the comments that you've supplied here today.
MS. BAY: I think Amy has a comment she would like to make
regarding that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, before we go too far -- Mr.
Harrison, I know you have to leave. I would kind of like to get a
consensus on where this board thinks this might be as far as review.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would tell you, Mr. Chairman,
I would have a hard time developing an adequate resolution to offer or
really a motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Vigliotti.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I don't think we can move
ahead based on the changes in numbers involved we have.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Vasey, any comments from the
Productivity Committee?
MS. VASEY: While all of these numbers are changing, they are
changing in small amounts and the problem is big.
I do have a suggestion, and we can wait until after the change if
you like.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes.
MS. VASEY: I wrote up some comments that I'm going to
propose to the Productivity Committee on how I think we should
handle it, and it's asking for either substantial changes or not
approvIng.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MS. VASEY: We can go over those after.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'd like to take it -- can you girls switch
off in five minutes?
THE COURT REPORTER: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Great. We'll take a five-minute break
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November 30, 2006
until 11 -- well, actually a six-minute break until 11 :20.
(A break was taken.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, if everybody will-- everybody
has resumed their seats and we now have two court reporters, so that
means we can talk really fast.
Mike turned on the mic. Thank you.
Okay. We left off in the EMS. And Ms. Vasey, you had some
possible comments?
MS. VASEY: Yes. Did you have anything you wanted to add
first?
CHIEF PAGE: I just wanted to finish up with the outstanding
questions so that I resolve the rest of the questions.
One of the questions was, what was the ratio that was used for
the reserve week? In 2006 it was 4.5. For every 4.5 units, you put
one in reserve. This year in the budget, that was changed at 3.5 at the
recommendation of the fleet manager. And that's based on historical
breakdowns, things of that nature, and also benchmarking from what
other systems use. It's a 3.5 reserve.
The second question that was still outstanding was the increase
for the portable radios. The cost the radios that were reflected in the
impact fee study was based on historical information that went back
several years.
When we looked at it yesterday, those radios are no longer even
available to buy at that cost. So that's why the cost in this year's
AUIR reflected that increase, I think by about $1,000 or so.
So it's just a newer radio. It's still 800 megahertz. They all still
work compatibly, the old ones with the new ones, but the newer radios
do cost that much.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chairman?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: No more bells and whistles that
we'd have to concern ourselves with additions or replacement of the
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current fleet of radios?
CHIEF PAGE: Correct.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So it's just compatibility and it's
a new series, I assume.
CHIEF PAGE: Correct.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay. Thank you, that answers
the question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What you just said, based on an
internal policy of going for reserve stock, you've increased the need
for at least one more unit, maybe even two in reserve to accommodate
the active vehicles you have by what you just said your fleet
operations manager did.
CHIEF PAGE: In the budget that was approved by the board
this year, there were two additional reserve fleet units put in there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are they reflected in this AUIR?
CHIEF PAGE: I don't believe so, because it's FY '07.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Ms. Vasey, did you want to --
MS. VASEY: Yes. In going after the discussions yesterday, it
seems clear to me that these are problems that are really beyond our
ability to solve, and all that we can really do is recommend to the
BCC another possible way of looking at things.
And if I could, I'd just like to -- it's sort of a complicated one. If
I could just read it. I've got, well, my thoughts down on this. And this
is what I would be recommending to the Productivity Committee to
consider at our next meeting.
Recommending substantial changes in the EMS facilities.
U sing the current level of service standard, EMS needs to add 11 units
to current inventory of 22.5 units during the AUIR period, requiring
1 7 million in additional revenue.
We question whether the program is financially feasible. Impact
fees do not cover debt service on existing bonds and new commercial
paper loans. The general fund will make $7.3 million in loans overr
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the five-year period but it's unclear where EMS will get the money to
repay these loans.
EMS level of service standard has been one unit per 15,000
population for many years, sometimes using weighted population and
sometimes only permanent population. However, during recent years,
three fire districts and both the City of Naples and the City of Marco
fire departments have added a total of 19 advanced life support units
that can respond to medical emergencies and provide paramedic
interventions.
Five of those units carry Dr. Tober-trained county EMS
paramedics under the exchange program.
N one of these units are included in the inventory, and to that
extent, more service is being provided to the countywide population
than is identified in the level of service available inventory. While
these fire district units cannot transport patients, 56 percent of calls
result in transport, they do provide a service to the community.
We recommend that some level of service be recognized from
these 19 units providing emergency medical service to the community
from the fire districts and city fire departments.
If even a part of the response provided by the five exchange
units with EMS paramedics were counted, it would save millions of
dollars in required additional funding.
We recommend a reevaluation of the relationship between the
level of service standard of one unit per 15,000 population and the
real ultimate goal of an eight-minute response 90 percent of the time.
F our new units are planned for FY '07, and this will improve the
current performance of an eight-minute response 80.75 percent of the
time. That's where you currently are now. And it's possible that the
response time goal could be achieved with a level of service standard
of one unit for a population greater than 15,000. If so, the number of
required units in future years would be reduced.
I strongly feel that we're over-served because of the fire district
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units, 19 ALS and these five exchange units that actually have EMS
personnel, you know, paramedics on them. And maybe it can't be one
for one, but there must be some way to recognize that that service is
being provided and being paid by taxpayers through, you know, in
many instances the fire district ad valorem taxes. But somehow we
need to count that.
And I recognize your comments from yesterday, that they're not
always available, but they often are. And it just seems to me that we
have to find some way to count them.
And so this would be my recommendation.
CHIEF PAGE: Can I respond to that?
MS. VASEY: Sure.
CHIEF PAGE: I agree with you, that I do think with the four
units coming on that there will be an opportunity to re-look at that
population figure.
The only thing I would say about the ALS engines, as I pointed
out yesterday, oftentimes they're responding to the same call from the
same station, so they have no impact on the response time that we're
aiming for, that eight-minute travel time.
The only other thing I would caution you, too, is in the past we
have had this ALS engine program, I think since 1999, maybe '96. In
that time, both the City of Naples and North Naples dropped out of
that program, and only recently reestablished it with the county in the
last few years.
So I would just caution us all to -- if we started counting them
as part of the unit inventory, if any district had to do that for staffing
purposes, things of that nature, where they have to remove themselves
from the program, like both of those did, in just those two districts,
that would be eleven units out of the mix.
So that's why we haven't really -- for two reasons: One, that
we're both responding from the same station, the same call. The way
it's working there, there is no improvement of response time. The
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November 30, 2006
only time that there is an improvement is if the transporting unit's out
of district and that other ALS unit is able to respond in their vacant
position.
So we haven't seen a large increase, but we are working right
now to see what impact the ALS engines have when we're not in the
districts. And that's something Mr. Stedman is working on in
reviewing all the times from the Sheriffs Office.
MS. VASEY: And one of the things that we don't know, and I
didn't ask any questions about it yesterday, is what are the response
times for some of those exchange units and some of the other ALS
units?
It may be that they are providing comparable or close responses
to, in some instances, medical emergencies that you're not getting to
right away. So your response time on that call shows maybe 10
minutes but they were actually there and started in eight minutes.
So, you know, maybe we are getting a better level of service
than just counting your response times would give us.
CHIEF PAGE: My understanding in talking to Dave is our
ALS units, at least the ones that we're staffed on, are in our response
time mix. The only ones that would be in question possibly are the
ones that don't have our personnel on it. They're not filling out the run
reports.
If for whatever reason the ALS engine responding for, let's say,
from East Naples, if that crew member does not fill out the run report
saying that he responded and arrived on scene, I have no way to track
that information.
But that is something we're working for and hopefully we'll have
that information shortly.
MS. VASEY : Well, just given the level of additional
requirements that are needed and the possibility out there that there's a
whole lot more service than we're counting that is providing --
meeting the response times that you have as a goal, I would caution,
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you know, very much against spending the kinds of millions of dollars
that are necessary.
Plus you've got four units coming on line this year. So already
out of the 11 you're going to have four after this year already on. So
we're just talking about seven additional units now. And that's very
close to, you know, just kind of a little bit of the other service that's
out there. You can make some of this go away.
CHIEF PAGE: Correct. I agree.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chairman?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: The question I was going to ask
earlier was I didn't note whether the helicopter -- do you still have
responsibility for the helicopter?
CHIEF PAGE: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And it's in your inventory.
Does it impact on the response time?
CHIEF PAGE: Certainly, it does have an impact on response
times to calls out on the Alley, things of that nature. I'd have to talk to
the database administrator to see how that's factored in. I really do.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Do you think it would be
significant or negligible?
CHIEF PAGE: You're talking probably five -- four to 500
transports a year with the helicopter. Not all of them are from the
scene. Some of these are going from base stations or hospitals.
But I just don't know how that's factored in. I can't give you an
honest answer.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And I appreciate that. I would
say if it raises -- as I did with the library people, if it rises to the five
percent category, that's a good statistic to start keeping.
Because if I recall correctly, you were requesting an additional
helicopter. I knew you had parts that were essentially equal to, I think
if I recall correctly, 75 percent of your helicopter, should you need
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replacement. Is that a fair statement?
CHIEF PAGE: Well, in regards to a second helicopter, there
has been talk with Mr. Summers about looking at a second helicopter
for when our helicopter is down for an extended period of time. That
could be anywhere from three to six weeks, depending on what kind
of service.
But we're also talking to Lee County, you know, they have a
second helicopter, as a way that we can do a lease option or something
like that for that time period.
But that's all-- there is a thought out there that there is enough
inter- facility transports from our area hospitals that could fund an
additional helicopter that could be used for reserve.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, I remember quite clearly
90 -- $138 revenue for a transport, yes. And there were some factors
there. I know it's a tricky area to get into, and I'm not trying to take
away from the solid issues that we have established here.
I see what your efforts are, and I would hope that you could
qualify the information more, because I too realize you just cannot do
what you had hoped to do here. I think that might have been a
thought.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any comments from the other
members of the Planning Commission?
Mr. Midney.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Yeah, I just have a question
about something that seems to be minor. But the laptops, $4,000, why
are those so expensive?
CHIEF PAGE: Those are Panasonic Toughbooks, military
grade, like drop them. They're just more indestructible than a
common laptop.
It is pretty much the standard, I can tell you that, through fire
and EMS to purchase that type. But I think also associated with that
cost is probably some of the software involved that we have to load on
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these computers.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Adelstein?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: The helicopter puts out how
many services a year?
CHIEF PAGE: How many responses?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Yes.
CHIEF PAGE: Hmmm.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: How many per day?
CHIEF PAGE: Well, that could certainly vary. But I think we,
in this year's budget, predicted about 600 transports a year.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: You predicted, but I'm
trying to find out actually, in this past year how many did it actually
perform?
CHIEF PAGE: Almost 500.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Okay. That's the question I
was looking for. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any other questions on
EMS?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Based on comments that we've heard, I
think to sum it up, I know the Planning Commission's going to vote on
this. I would hope that we'd want to support the Productivity
Committee's position that there needs to be an adjustment to the level
of service, incorporating the fire district involvement into that
response times, and that there needs to be some clarification to the
repayment of the 7.3 general fund loan that's shown on the summary
sheet.
Are there any other points that need to be made from the
Productivity Committee or made from our perspective? I know you
guys are going to do a refined paper on it more or less.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: I think that we should have counting
all the ALS that's in the East Naples, Golden Gate and North Naples.
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Unless that was part of your --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That was the first statement I made,
the recommendation by the Productivity Committee to adjust the level
of service using the fire districts involvement up to their response
times, was a critical component of that -- I mean, that's like a
summary of the paragraph that we heard. I hope that reflects
generally what --
MS. VASEY: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Generally, okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chairman, I'm a little
confused. I thought the Chief indicated that he did include those ALS
units where his staff were involved.
CHIEF PAGE: Yeah, we do include some of those.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's what's tricky, you use
the word some.
CHIEF PAGE: Five of those units and whatever run reports we
have.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think the point is the level of service
can be adjusted because we have overlapping jurisdictions responding
to these kind of calls. If that needs to be the basis on which the
recommendation can go forward and to get this particular issue
funded, that it ought to be done through reconsideration of a level of
servIce.
Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I don't disagree. I thought I'd try
to give some thought to what he had made.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But isn't the problem that
there's a requirement from both agencies, I'm not sure where that came
from, to respond? So there's nothing that EMS can do, they have to
respond anyway, as if these other agencies didn't exist.
CHIEF PAGE: That's correct. My point is I think when we
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factor in their response times, since we're going out of the same station
most of the time, there is not going to be any difference. The level of
service with that eight minutes travel time that we're trying to factor in
is still going to be the same.
But we'll run the numbers, we'll include all other ALS engines,
not just the ones we're on, and take a look at it. But I think at the end
of the day, at least what I was getting from Mr. Stedman is, is that it's
going to be insignificant, due to the fact that we're both collocated,
respond at the same station, that type of thing.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It's interesting, because they were here
yesterday, and their standard of service is four minutes.
CHIEF PAGE: They have a four-minute response standard for
them to be on scene, that's correct. Did they say that they made that?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: They were asking it. For the two
districts that were here yesterday, I would say that of all the districts in
the county, they're probably the most -- let's say hardest to reach that
routine. They're distant districts, they are sparsely populated, Isle of
Capri and Ochopee.
They don't make it. They believe with a couple of station
positions they can make it.
I would believe that most of the other stations probably are
already to that standard. But I think their standard is equal or better
than the one you have. And if they both leave the station at the same
time, and they've got a four-minute response time that they're meeting
more than you're meeting your eight, maybe there's a possibility they
could improve on their response time. I think that's the objective we're
looking for.
CHIEF PAGE: Well, I'm certainly not going to speak for the
fire districts, but I can assure you they're not making a four minute
response time.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, then that differs from the
comments that were made to us yesterday, so --
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CHIEF PAGE: In Isle of Capri I don't doubt that they could. I
mean, the island -- where their station is, they're able to do that.
Ochopee, I don't believe they would be able to handle their -- I
certainly know they couldn't handle Port of the Islands in four
minutes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The point was if they put a station at
Port of the Islands, they could.
CHIEF PAGE: Right, right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's where they were going.
Mr. Vigliotti, did you have something to say?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Can I make a motion at this
time?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Make sure everybody has had their
comments put in. Everybody is satisfied?
Okay. Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I'd like to make a
recommendation of denial based upon the $7 million that basically
they can't figure out where they're going to get the money to pay it
back.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I'll second the motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Mr. Vigliotti,
seconded by Mr. Adelstein.
Discussion from the Planning Commission and any assistance
that the Productivity Committee wishes to offer?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: This is the last chance for them
to come back with any numbers, is that right?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, if we move it forward in a motion
today -- we could continue it. Although, I'm not sure that is a
productive use of our time.
I think the Productivity Committee's recommendation to adjust
the level of service using statistics from -- or response times from fire
departments and their involvement and their equipment as well, and
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also then that requiring a clarification of the repayment of the general
fund loan of 7.3 if it's still needed once they adjust the level of service,
that is a solution to move this forward.
Recommending denial, I don't believe gets us anywhere in
regards to what the BCC has got to deal with.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That would be my concern.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We have got to put something forward
to the Board of County Commissioners that they will have to move
into an A UIR document that they can base the budget, I believe, next
year.
By denying it altogether doesn't take it out of the budget. It
might be more productive to try to correct it if we can make
recommendations.
Mr. Bosi?
MR. BOSI: No, I was just going to make a comment. I'm not
sure if the appropriate motion would be a recommendation of denial,
because not only is the 7.3 million dollars unaccounted for, there's
actually 17 -- there's an additional $17 million that have been
unaccounted for.
So the charge of the CCPC and the PC is to either recommend
approval, recommend approval with identification of alternative
revenue sources, or recommendation of approval with a lower level of
service to make it financially cost feasible.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I would agree. So -- I think I
understand, Mr. Vigliotti, your concerns, but I don't think that a
denial gets us to a point of assistance to the BCC and how to deal with
this.
So for that reason I wouldn't be in favor of it.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Neither would I.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But we have to take a vote on it so that
we can get to another motion. So the motion has been made to
recommend denial.
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All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Vigliotti.
All those against the motion, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Motion to deny is not approved by eight (sic) to one against.
Now, can we have a second motion?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Can we have a second motion?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes. We don't have a motion if we
don't have a second motion.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: We denied recommendation.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: No.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Nothing's on the table right now, Mr.
Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay, fine. Then I would
make an effort to do so, if I may be allowed.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sure. Go right, ahead, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: With regard to the 2006 AUIR
emergency medical services and facilities and equipment, would hope
that the CCPC would recommend approval with the requirement that
the -- well, let me put it this way, the requirement that the
Productivity Committee's recommendations will be followed and an
effort would be made to modify and determine the true sources of
income, revenue, going forward to the BCC, and that the level of
service -- if that cannot be accomplished, that the level of service be
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reduced to reach the goal.
Is that a satisfactory motion?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, let's get a second and then we can
discuss it.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I'll second it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: For discussion. Mr. Adelstein
seconded it.
There's three things I think we need to consider. Number one is
this still is a population based issue. So our concern and stipulation
about having them recommending to the BCC to consider an
alternative method of calculation other than population and to look at
that in regards to this issue is equally as important.
Number two, the Productivity Committee's recommendation in
summary suggested that an adjustment to the level of service using
involvement with the fire districts and their capacities be considered.
And I think we should you support that.
Number three, there ought to be a clarification as to the
repayment and the use of the 7.3 general fund loan, because that is
certainly an undefined amount of money right now in this budget that
isn't clear on how it's going to be paid back, based on testimony today.
I think if we were to send it forward with those three things as
caveats, that does bring in the Productivity Committee's concerns,
which I think are absolutely right on the mark. That's not an
advertisement, by the way.
And the clarification of the 7.3 issue is the issue that Ms. Vasey
has also brought up and is well founded in regards -- it just isn't
addressed property.
And so Mr. Murray, if you would consider those three
amendments to your --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: The only one I thought I
actually missed was the matter of the population as such. I thought by
my statement about the Productivity Committee, I was referring to
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Ms. Vasey's rather good monologue of the details that she saw.
So if that's considered covered and by your statement, I will
accept that as being the case and also add that we make the additional
recommendation that the BCC review for the purpose of determining
whether or not the current use of population as the basis is the most
effective, with the intent that there may be a more effective basis to
be obtained.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray, I'm a hard -- sometimes a
lot of words confuse me. I just want to make sure that --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: It's my weakness.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: My confusion or your words?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: My words.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I want to make sure that we're on the
same page. And I understand now you have a population statistic
issue. Your comments regarding the Productivity Committee's
comments were more elaborated on ways to correct their concerns
and issues. I'm not going there.
I'm simply saying they have recommended in their statement a
reduction in the level of service as a solution to the problem. And to
get there, we should be considering the response times and the
equipment availability from the fire departments.
I think that's a good recommendation. That's as simply put as I
thought it was. And that's where I wanted -- I would like -- think it
should stay.
And then the other issue of the clarification of $7.3 million is
valid as well.
Are you -- is that where you are going?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's where I've been. See, I
was totally taken by Ms. Vasey's statements, that's where I thought
she was so complete that that's what I felt should we (sic) relate to.
And I thought it was 1 7 million that we were really concerned
overall with.
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So if it satisfies to say that what you've just indicated, I
completely agree with that. I was merely perhaps being too
expansIve.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: As unclear as the record is, I think it's
clear enough what we intend to do. Does the second accept those
changes to whatever extent they are changes?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I'm trying to make sure what
they are.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think the intent's clear through all the
discussion that we've had.
Any other comments?
Mr. Midney?
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: I have a problem with reducing
the level of service standards, because we're still trying to get to the
response time that we need. By saying that, are we saying that we
think that there's not that many units that are needed in order to reach
that response time?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, Ms. Vasey's statement indicated, as
I believe is a correct consideration, that the fire departments have
large amounts of equipment, well equipped, with trained people that
also respond to the same issues. And that where they can be utilized
to help reduce the level of service, we certainly ought to be
considering lowering the level of service for the county that is offset
by the reliance upon the fire departments and their equipment they
supply.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: But what if when you factor in
the fire departments, as he was saying, the difference is not great.
And how are you -- what if you still don't get to your level of service
when you factor in the fire departments?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I think that would be up to him to
argue in front of the Board of County Commissioners. Because
unless we want to continue this and get that methodology brought
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back to us, which I'm not sure is as productive right now. Let's move
it to the BCC with this recommendation.
Any other questions or comments? Call for the vote. All those
in favor --
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I do have one question.
We're talking about the document that was read to us today, that letter
in the motion?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're referring to the Productivity
Committee's position that they related to us and that was read to us by
Ms. Vasey.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: That wasn't in the motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, it was.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: No, it wasn't. Okay. It's in
there now.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I referenced Ms. Vasey's -- I
called it a monologue. I didn't know what else to call it. It was a very
good --
MR. HARRISON: Dissertation.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Treatise. Dissertation, treatise,
very well done.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Before we go too far a-field.
We have a motion.
All those in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer and Mr. Midney opposed.
That will leave it six to two. Motion carries. We can move on to
drainage.
Thank you, Chief, we appreciate your time today.
Gene, welcome back. You're getting to be a regular fixture
around here.
MR. CALVERT: Mr. Chairman, members of the board,
appreciate being here. For the record, Gene Calvert.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think the intent of where we left it
yesterday was that you provided us with a lot of information, new
information, new charts, new pictures new data for us to consider. It
was better that we had an evening to consider. And I think we now--
we just go forward with any additional comments you might have and
then questions we would have.
MR. CAL VERT: Primarily just to answer questions that you
may have regarding what we brought forth yesterday and talked about.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there questions from the panel?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Gene, I've read everything. I want to
reiterate from yesterday, you have no millage increase you're asking
for through this AUIR implementation. You're simply providing a list
of work items in an order by which you're going to work on those,
because the allocation from the ad valorem budget has already been
fixed and set. Is that a fair statement?
MR. CALVERT: That's a fair statement.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I could not debate whether you
should be working on this way or that way, probably anymore than
anyone else could outside your department.
On question I had -- I have as a result of things I don't see on
your revenue source, when you construct miles of canals, and
especially now that you're talking about treatment lakes, those
generate a fine fill. As Norm has told us so many times, fill is a big
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factor in the cost of his roads.
What is the utilization of that fill, is it moving to another
department where you could show a revenue stream from it to help
offset or help implement other programs in your department?
MR. CALVERT: We're certainly looking at all those options.
In a project that we're getting ready to bid here within the next month,
we're offering two bid alternatives on the material. One is to haul into
a county designated location within a certain radios of our job site on
-- to be used on a county proj ect.
The other alternative is for the contractor to dispose of the fill --
or the excavation material.
This would give us an idea of what the value of that material is
to the other departments within the county or if it's more cost effective
to let the contractor dispose of it.
So we're looking at both of those alternatives in this upcoming
bid document.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: When you schedule for the use offill, I
mean, I know travel distance is always included in the excavation
number to a point. Beyond that they usually have a surcharge. And
also if you stockpile it and then have to reload it you have loader
charges and hauling charges from that point.
When that contractor is allowed to keep the fill, are you seeing --
is he providing you with a credit in the bid for the value that he sees
from the fill that you can actually see, or is it something that he just --
you just have a lower number from his bid based on the fact he gets to
keep the fill.
MR. CALVERT: That's an option that he has the ability to
provide. He can either give us credit on the charge of the material, or
that he can bid it at a lower cost or a higher cost, depending on what
he foresees as the most cost effective means for that construction.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Because I hope that at least if you
know the value that he's providing the fill, the roads department then
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know that they can buy fill at a certain value.
MR. CALVERT: This will give us an opportunity to evaluate
that. If there's a value in that fill material and other departments
within the county desire to have that fill we'll have some firm
numbers.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
MR. FEDER: For the record, Norman Feder, Transportation
Administrator. You raised a very good point, and yes the quality of
dirt is no longer dirt cheap, there's no question about it.
Most of the fill though that we're getting out of the maintenance
of the canals is not very clean fill. And so we found some uses for it,
but it's difficult on other uses and cost for clean up.
But given the cost of fill, we're reevaluating all those issues
again. Because even if I have to clean that fill, it may be viable.
We've used some in some of our landscaping where we can.
There's some other purposes we've used before, but it is not typically
coming out as the type of clean fill that I'm going for and
unfortunately paying very dearly for in projects.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Through soils management there
always is the possibility of creating good fill out of bad fill.
MR. FEDER: Exactly. And the costs have gotten to the point
where that's becoming a real question. And we're looking at it.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: If I may --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: The important thing was, and
that is value needs to be ascribed to it. And it certainly has value.
We shouldn't be giving it away or letting it just go.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Gene, one other questions I had is on
the top under level of service standard. Existing department prior to
January of '89 under current level. Is that the ten-year storm event
that most of the existing development prior to '89 is under?
MR. CALVERT: Yes. In the undeveloped area, particularly in
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Golden Gate Estates, that is the ten-year, three-day event, storm
event.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are any of your improvements through
this drainage and canals and structures geared to improve the level of
service in the prior to '89 areas?
MR. CALVERT: We've got some projects, particularly up in
the Immokalee area that is designed to meet the level of service that
has been established. And that is our goal, is to try to meet those level
of services or to exceed those levels of services in some of those
areas.
We've got some areas that don't meet the level of service of D, if
you will, or C.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. But in the level of services prior
to '89 where you have a ten-year storm event, that is problematic
when we have ten-year storm events that flood the areas, like they
recently have in Golden Gate Estates.
Augment -- to offset that and to give them a better, say a 25 year
storm event, do you have facilities planned for those ten-year storm
event areas that will improve then to a 25-year storm event standard?
MR. CALVERT: No, we don't, because what our standard is, is
defined by the Growth Management Plan.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So everybody that's in a ten-year area is
stuck with that?
MR. CALVERT: Under the current Growth Management Plan,
yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, that's good to know, because the
current Growth Management Plan then needs to be watched. Thank
you, SIr.
Are there any other questions for the drainage canals and
structures?
Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'm going to have to abstain
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from this, because myself and I think three other commissioners on the
dais today didn't get the information that you'll be voting on. So I
would obviously have to abstain, and I don't think you'd have a
quorum that should vote.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I don't know why -- I mean, so
now you want people to abstain so we don't have a quorum to move
this forward? I don't see how productive that is --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: If I'm going to vote on stuff I
don't have, what am I doing? I'm guessing. Unless you want to
provide it to me and give me time to check it out. What would you
do?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer, we got this yesterday.
And honestly, the only thing I've gone done is at breakfast this
morning I circled two things that I was concerned about to request of
staff.
And the reason I'm not too concerned about it is they're already
using an allocated source of ad valorem tax dollars. No matter what
we do here today, they're still going to get that allocated source of tax
dollars.
So out of this document, all they're providing for us is a
breakdown of the facilities that they want to plan and prepare with that
money over the next five-year period.
As I said to Gene at the beginning of the meeting, what he
wants to do and where he wants to build matters not to me. He has the
money to do it. He will put his priorities where they are deemed to be
needed. I don't think we can micromanage it and involve ourselves in
those priorities with the limited information and time that we have for
this document.
Therefore, I can't see how this document hinders anything by
moving it forward with a recommendation of approval. It is not
contingent on population. It is purely a work program is all it is. And
he's the best one to decide what the work program is over this board at
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this point.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: My notes from the last
meeting was that there was a concern over the fact that a new canal
cost the same as cleaning a canal and stuff like that. Was that
information provided yesterday as to why that is?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What happened is Norm came forward
yesterday in a rare event, a staff member actually said that we're right,
there may be a better way of doing it, not following the pattern of the
past. And he came back with a whole new program.
Norm, if you want to expound on that.
MR. FEDER: Mr. Chairman, if I could, I'll try to be fairly brief.
And I appreciate that we do have some members that weren't here
yesterday.
Essentially we reviewed a number of things. But to that
question specifically, we went back and looked at our program, and
one of the things we acknowledged that is not fully in here, but we're
moving towards it, is that a mile of canal versus a mile of canal is not
one and the same thing when you start talking about both the issue of
flow capacity for retention, for storage and for treatment.
We looked back at our work program as an example
Commissioner Schiffer, and what we saw was that we had a project
that was shown as reconstruction because we're making improvements
to an existing mile of canal in LASIP, as an example. We're going
from a ten-foot at top, two-foot deep to a 40- foot wide at top, six-foot
deep. So the cost for that construction, while noted as reconstruction,
in the effect is basically the same cost as new construction.
So that was why we had that issue. And we acknowledged that
obviously at the end I now have a 40-by-six which has far greater both
storage conveyance and treatment capabilities, but it still is only one
mile of canal, the same one mile of canal typically in the way that was
reported and the way it's been reported in the past.
And so what we've done now is we've given you exactly how
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many miles we're doing, how many under reconstruction, how many
under new, and an idea of those items.
We also went through and identified, as you'll see in the
material -- and I'm sorry I didn't have before -- but in that material we
passed out yesterday was structures. And we defined the structures
down from anything from a fixed weir to a moveable weir, to pumps,
and to spreader lakes and lakes. All of which even within the
category have a wide range of costs and implications by size and
magnitude, but nonetheless are very different.
We made sure that we identified all structures out of inventory,
which was another question. We've gone on GIS. We feel very
comfortable with the miles, with the more specificity of the GIS
analysis on all the structures we've identified on that map, although to
get it to that size there is a couple that are on top of each other in those
diamonds, but the numbers are there and shows you by the type of
structure where they are.
And then if you look at the last page we gave you is a new
Attachment B, which shows you four of the items which we are
permitted over the next five years, major projects, what we're going to
do in the sense of how many new structures, how many lane miles of
either new or reconstructed.
And so rather than trying to put a unit cost per se, when the units
are so different, what we've done is given you exactly what will come
out of a very detailed work program, which even last year you had us
put in what was designed, right-of-way construction phases, what the
product is will be coming out of that to give you more definite.
And then the real thing that came out of this discussion is we
need a better unit of measure than canal miles. Because I'm only
going to add two, but I'm going to reconstruct a number of them. And
yet they will be the same canal mile. But they will go from one
instance, and actually there is more extreme than this, but one from
10- foot wide, two feet deep to 40- foot wide and six feet deep. So
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obviously we need to go to something like acre feet or something, and
that's what we're trying to look at now.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Norm. If anybody that
wasn't here yesterday does not feel comfortable in voting for this, then
but by all means then that's your prerogative not to vote for it.
Although I think if we do not have a quorum, then we just move it
forward with a non-vote, just as hand recommendation. But one way
or another I think this needs to get moved forward.
So with that, is there any comments from Productivity
Committee?
MS. VASEY: Yes. I'd like to draw your attention to Page 19,
the new one. And we're going to -- I'm going to recommend to the
productivity committee the approval of the program. However, it
appears that the MSTU revenue for projects that benefit property
owners will not be sufficient to support applicable capital projects.
And you know, you can see at the bottom of the page there, the
county policy is to have cost share ratios, one-third county, one-third
grants and one-third MSTU s. Well, there were no MSTU collections
that cost -- there were no collections for that in FY '04 through '06, as
Gene reported yesterday. However, there is a line on Page 19 for
MSTU and other identified revenue of$25.8 million. And that item is
very questionable -- that funding source is very questionable to me,
because of the fact that there have been no MSTU collections.
And even though Norm said yesterday that without the MSTU
cost share, they would go forward with a proj ect and only spend the
county share and the grant share, if they got it, I think this really calls
into question the BCC policy that property owners who benefit from
these stormwater management proj ects should pay a cost share,
because their property -- the value of that property increases when it
no longer floods.
So I think there's a problem with the policy. There may be a
problem with the funding, but there is definitely a problem with theh
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November 30,2006
policy that I would recommend be brought to the attention of the
BCC, because I don't really believe this policy is being followed.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: During the last EAR, there was some
discussion of the formation of MSTU s to pay for drainage. There was
__ I know there was some objection to that, at least I voiced some at
the meeting. And it follows a little bit of what you're saying is that --
and I'm not sure I'm in agreement with you for that reason, that's why I
wanted to mention. From a planning perspective, Collier County has
been developed. And a lot of drainage systems in this county are paid
for through ad valorem tax or other sources.
And it seems that the remaining areas that need to be developed
happen to be areas like Golden Gate Estates that have been here for a
long time but have never benefited from the extent of the drainage
provisions that other areas in the county have benefited from.
I certainly am against the fact of using MSTUs in some areas
and not using it countywide to pay for all the county drainage so --
because it unfairly burdens one section of the county's population,
although it benefits from ad valorem taxes. I'm not sure where that's
going to go. I'm not sure how it irons out. But MSTUs as a whole for
drainage, I'm a little concerned about them unless all the drainage is
either paid by MSTU s or not, where everybody is equally paying for it
other rather than just some benefiting from ad valorem taxes. So I
understand where your suggestions go as far as the revenue stream.
Gene, do you have any counter to Ms. Vasey's concerns about
whether that revenue stream is there or not?
MR. CALVERT: It's certainly a valid concern. And that's one of
the reasons we did include that note at the bottom of the page at the
double asterisk about -- stating that the individual project funding
will be expanded based on the receipt of funding or, conversely,
reduced if the funding is not there.
The policy is certainly a concern. Weare endeavoring to follow
that policy. One of the recommendations you've kind of alluded to is
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November 30, 2006
the management of that particular policy as well as the whole funding
program.
We did make a recommendation to the county manager about a
month ago to do a management study or review in conjunction with
the Big Cypress Basin of the stormwater systems. And in part of that
management study, we would look at not only the operation of the
canals, but also how we finance these things and how we maintain
those systems.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: My original -- when I read it
originally, I had several quotations on it -- not quotations, but
exclamation points optimistic with regard to that particular issue. And
I hadn't spoke up earlier, but it had been bothering me a great deal
with your response about that note below.
It seems to me that if we can establish that the county has a
responsibility to provide maintenance and services to avoid flooding,
to then indicate that well, if they don't go ahead with it, we won't do
much about it and we'll just let them flood doesn't ring -- you're
probably not coming across the way I would have preferred in terms
of that. And I don't mean to make it personal to you. But I'm sure
that's not what you mean.
And I recognize that you're struggling to look into the future and
get people to go along and, you'll probably succeed. But I would hope
not too dissimilarly in my mind is the issue here that relates as well to
EMS in their optimism about where there'll obtain funding.
So while I know you will have to do that, I would hope that you
would take a different tack with regard to tell well, we'll only do a
third. That means you'll have two-thirds flooding you haven't been
entitled to.
I'm sorry to make it seem personal, but I'm rather frustrated by
that response.
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November 30, 2006
MR. FEDER: Mr. Chairman, if I could, I'm not sure I'll
eliminate any of that frustration, but I'll try to elaborate a little bit
further.
When the policy was being looked at, essentially there's a
feeling that there is as countywide benefit to improvements for
drainage in any area around the county.
There's also a feeling that there's some benefit that accrues more
so, or more specifically to those properties that are being specifically
addressed with some of these capital projects.
There's also a feeling that we are paying into for the drainage
through the Big Cypress Basin and the Water Management District, a
separate set of ad valorem. And that's why the policy was set up
one-third, one-third and one-third, as a way to bring that forward.
The Catch-22 that I think is being raised here is that while it is
true that we, under that policy direction, are going to go forward, and
if I have the county funds, which is the only part that I can
specifically commit two because of the .15 mills, we can do the
one-third solution, which might make 50 percent of the
improvements, spending one third of the dollars.
You start downstream, of course, because you otherwise you
don't do anything good, but you work your way up. That's the way
we're doing LASIP.
So far, Big Cypress Basin on these capital projects has come
forward, not a full one-third yet, but we're assuming that's where
they're going to be. So I might get to half or the two-thirds solution,
which might provide 80 percent of the relief.
The concern though, is, and the one that's being raised is how do
we get the MSTU if I have to provide 80 percent of the relief to come
in with one-third of the dollars to do the last of the job, the last of the
work.
One thing we're starting to look at is we're also having to pay,
and I'll use LASIP as an example because it took us 20 years to get the
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November 30,2006
permits and now people are surprised about a project we've talked
about for over 20 years. But nonetheless, is we have right-of-way that
we have to acquire, easements. We're feeling that those costs for
right-of-way and easements could add on to the construction costs, as I
look at the policy of one-third, one-third and one-third.
And where those right-of-way easements are provided, they
become an in-kind match to that one-third. Where they are not
provided, then maybe an MSTU needs to be formed to pay for those
people that insisted to be paid for those easements, even though they
were getting a particular benefit. Although, yes, the county also
countywide got a benefit.
So that's the balance we're trying to -- I fully understand the
concern. I understand from both sides of that equation very honestly
that how do you figure out exactly how this gets funded? You could
argue that it's a county service, just go and do it.
But yet at the same time, a lot of these areas got developed, and
new development is coming in. And when new development comes
in, we require it to meet all the standards and provide for drainage.
And they're paying, when someone comes in and buys in that area, for
that full cost of it.
And then I'm going back, some of the argument is well, that new
development, because it's meeting standards, is building higher, and
therefore helping flood some of these other areas, so therefore there's a
responsibility for the county to come. And there's the other argument,
they didn't pay for it. Why aren't they paying?
That's why I believe the board settled on the idea of the
one-third, one-third, one-third. And we're trying to implement it.
The only thing I know for sure I can tell you is that I will not go
beyond the one-third county portion, and I will seek to get the other
two-thirds, because we want to do the 100 percent solutions and
address these needs.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Norman, if I may?
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November 30, 2006
MR. FEDER: Yes, Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And I appreciate very much
what you're saying. What rings in my mind was the comments made
by Commissioner Coyle with regard to Rock Road. He went into a
great length to explain to folks that this is not a compulsory matter,
and that they can decline to benefit from it, and they don't have to go
forward with an MSTU. So I'm not really sure --
MR. FEDER: Actually, that was on Haldeman Creek, because
on Rock Road the citizens came together and are forming the MSTU
voluntarily, yes.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: All right. But my point is taken,
is it not, I mean, that's why I raised the issue, because of the confusion
I have. Is it the board's policy to advocate, or -- he said clearly, we
cannot compel. And I heard that we will require, that was the original
statement, and perhaps a misuse of the word, that we would require
them to enter into an MSTU, and we cannot do that.
MR. FEDER: I don't think the terminology should be require.
And I know right now the best answer I can give you, which like I
said, I don't think will necessarily add to your comfort, is that we
would provide the one-third level of solution that we could with the
county funds. Ifwe get the one-third or more from grants, particularly
Big Cypress Basin one-third, we'll provide the two-thirds solution.
And if we don't have the MSTU come forward, we wouldn't be able
to go to the 100 percent solution.
But that two-thirds would have provided major relief in some
areas. In these capital projects, you have secondary, tertiary mixed in.
We would have done most of the secondary, so therefore the relief
countywide would have substantially been addressed.
So that is the feeling is that the last of the project work, which is
a little bit more locally related, isn't done. That's the choice of the area
if they do not follow through on an MSTU.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And I understand the principal
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November 30, 2006
is very good, and perhaps with the right approach that people will be
induced to go into it.
MR. FEDER: We don't feel that's a simple matter, so we
understand the concerns being raised. But that's the concept and that's
the way we're approaching it right now, and we're open to any
recommendation on how we proceed even better on that.
But yes, MSTU s are not something that people freely want to go
into. But there is a localized benefit as well as there is a countywide
benefit. We're trying to address all those things.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Vasey.
MS . VASEY: Yes, I would like to just mention that one of the
things that I guess makes me so concerned about this is I was on the
revenue commission when we worked on this issue, on how to take
care of the flooding problem and how to find the money for it. And
we recommended the establishment or the use of what had been
established earlier and never used, which was the stormwater utility,
and put the absolute money that was needed into the program, the .15
mills. The idea being that then you could qualify for grants because
you had a guaranteed funding source every year.
But it was always understood that the MSTUs would be created
to participate in that, and now I really feel that the guaranteed funding
source and the grants are totally denigrating the idea of MSTU
funding, which I always thought was essential to the whole program.
And I felt at the time that the commissioners felt that, too.
That's why I think it's important to identify that there's
something broken in the program right now. And, you know, and then
throw it into their lap to deal with it. Because that really -- that was
the whole deal, it was going to be a shared responsibility, because all
of us are paying through not only the county taxes, but through the
grant funds from South Florida Water Management. And those who
are benefiting do have a responsibility to contribute something. That
was the feeling on the whole revenue commission.
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November 30, 2006
Somehow some of that's being lost, I feel.
MR. FEDER: I'm sorry, excuse me. Yes, and Ms. Vasey, I agree
with you fully. If we go through and do the two-thirds cost solution,
which might be 80 percent of the needs, the 20 percent will be more
localized of the remaining needs. And if they are not done by MSTU,
they are generally more localized. But obviously we'd rather be doing
the full program as we're trying to do in forming the utility issuing the
.15 mills.
The other thing we're trying to do as well as MSTU s is go
through other grant sources, which may be another avenue for us. But
again, a plan is one thing. So far we don't have MSTU money coming
In.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Norm, before you leave, if you do
one-third the county money and one-third with the grant money, will
there be people able to be benefited from the use of that money in
regards to drainage.
MR. FEDER: Yes, countywide what we do is emphasized, and
that's what we're doing on, LASIP, the downstream outfall that
services not only the LASIP basin but other areas. And we do some of
the conveyance there, the more secondary features first and then some
of the more tertiary features within the basin itself would probably be
dependent upon whether or not the MSTU monies came forward to
complete the hundred percent proj ect.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And the two-thirds portion of the
project, there would be a lot of homeowners then that would benefit
from the ability to have that drainage in place.
MR. FEDER: No question about it. And so would the county as
well. But yes, they would.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Then the one-third that isn't in
place because the homeowners refused to be taxed for it separately,
they don't get the benefit, while those other people who aren't getting
taxed separately got the benefit. Is that where this is going?
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November 30, 2006
MR. FEDER: Everybody benefits from the two-thirds.
Obviously, folks right there may maybe a little bit more, but
everybody does benefit through that. The more localized benefit
would not be funded if the MSTU doesn't come forward. That's in
general terms.
Now obviously every project, we're going to figure out every
drop and item on that. But generally yes, that is a correct statement.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: My concern has been the fairness of the
MSTU focused on a handful of people who are poor, remaining
one-third who just didn't get the benefit of being further downstream.
I just don't see the MSTU as a viable, fair alternative.
MR. FEDER: In reality it would probably be the one's upstream
to it, in some respect, because the downstream would be where you
start all your projects.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, sir. Are there any other
questions on this issue?
Productivity Committee, your position is, says you've already
stated.
MS. VASEY: That's what I would propose to the Productivity
Committee. And then that sub-committee is not here today. But as I
recall, Sid Blum also had a problem with the MSTU. So we'd discuss
it at the meeting and then have the whole committee vote on it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a recommendation from the
Planning Commission?
Mr. Vigliotti.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I'll make a recommendation
for approval.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Is there a second?
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: I'll second it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Mr. Vigliotti, second
by Commissioner Adelstein. Discussion? Any discussion?
(No response.)
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November 30,2006
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, all those in favor signify
by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
Anybody opposed?
(N 0 response.)
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, I want to note that I
didn't abstain, because after having received the information and
reviewing it, I'm comfortable voting.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, thank you for that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I do think procedurally, though,
and it's really staff, that if members aren't here and things are handed
out, we should make an effort to get them to those members.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think part of that might have been
yesterday we didn't know who was going to be here today either, so
that caused a little bit of problem. But thank you for participating.
Mr. Bosi.
MR. BOSI: One final thing before you close the workshop.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're not closing it for a while yet, Mr.
Bosi, but go ahead.
MR. BOSI: Okay. The original charge coming into this year's
AUIR process as evidenced by the book that was before you, you had
a four to six month -- the board originally wanted direction on that
four and six month utilization of the weighted population. Obviously
with the population issues that have been well discussed and versed
that that no longer is a relevant issue to make a recommendation upon.
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November 30, 2006
I just thought that maybe the Planning Commission would like
to at least have a motion or at least text to that to speak to that point to
the Board of County Commissioners, that based upon the problems
with the population and the likelihood that we are moving to a
different population methodology in the recommendation, that even in
the AUIR process to utilize potentially a different statistical analysis
for the -- measuring levels of service within the AUIR, that that
analysis of the four versus six no longer would hold value.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I think that from the day we
started, we basically ignored the six based on statements made by staff
that the six may not even have been into fruition in front of us, and
they responded differently to the BCC at the time the question was
asked.
So I didn't see the six as even a valid point. I'm sure that -- and I
-- is that --
MR. HARRISON: We couldn't even look at the numbers to see.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I think formalizing that statement
in a motion would be probably a good idea then to support staffs
comments.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would so move.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Murray made a motion to
support the four months scenarios in lieu of the six, based on the
testimony provided by staff and others at these meetings.
Is there a second?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I'll second that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Seconded by Commissioner Vigliotti.
Is there any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, all those in favor, signify
by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER ADELSTEIN: Aye.
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November 30, 2006
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MIDNEY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
All those opposed?
(N 0 response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries, seven to zero, with one
person missing at this time.
(Mr. Kolflat was absent.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That clears that up, Mr. Bosi. Thank
you for pointing it out.
And I think now we're going to take a little bit of time, and for
everybody's benefit I thought we would just finish and not take a
lunch break and come back for the remaining amount of time.
Ms. Vasey has gone through a lot of time and trouble to prepare
some summary comments in a draft nature that she's going to present
to the Productivity Committee. I thought it would be helpful if we
could hear those, is she was willing to let us participate in those and at
least weigh in on them so that we can maybe go forward with her
statement.
Ms. Vasey.
(Mr. Ko1flat is back in the boardroom.)
MS. VASEY: Thank you. I'm not going to bore you with any
of the things you've already heard. We've already discussed a lot of
the issues.
But we did vote with you that first day to approve the road
program. And I'm still recommending approval of that. But I did want
to put some comments in here about what we discovered. And in our
comments, that was one of the things that what we were trying to do is
provide not only a recommendation of approval, but also give the
BCC some additional information that we thought was important that
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November 30, 2006
came out of the review.
And so on the road program, I wanted to talk a little bit about the
fact that the -- there's a lot of uncertainty in the program. And I know
we all recognized it. But I wanted to be sure they did, too.
The cost per lane mile for the last two awarded projects is double
the unit cost that's actually in the AUIR. So this is going to come back
to bite us in the future. I mean, we just have to recognize that the
expenses are definitely understated.
Also, the revenue, as Norm said several times, and also I think
Don Scott mentioned it, too, the $180 million in revenue that's for
developer contribution agreements and the advanced reimbursements,
most of that is very uncertain at this time.
So this funding, though, is to -- would pay for the fourth year of
the program, which is good. Because that's -- we've pushed all of that
uncertainty out to the fourth year.
But I just wanted to be sure that the Board of County
Commissioners understood that there is a lot of uncertainty built into
this program. But I still think it's the best that they can do at this
time, and there's nothing else they can do, because they're required to
balance the program based on the projections of revenue and cost to
meet concurrency. So they've got to do it. This is the best they can
do. But it's a little scary.
So that was the comment that I wanted to convey to not only the
Productivity Committee, but to you guys and then also to the Board
of County Commissioners.
And then we've already covered the drainage and the parks and
jail, EMS. We've talked about most of them.
Weare -- I am recommending that we approve the Isle of Capri
fire district program, as long as it can be funded within their current
1.5 million, just as you guys did. I wanted you to know that that's in
there. Also the Ochopee one.
I personally -- I don't believe it's feasible. But that's up to the
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November 30, 2006
commissioners to look at. And I just provided them some comments
about, you know, some of the information that we discovered in our
review. But we are recommending if they can do it, fine. It looks like
a real challenge.
Also, we are going to include some recommendations -- well,
not recommendations, but we have our own concerns about
population. You guys have adequately addressed your concerns on
the population numbers. We at our last meeting had quite a few
discussions about the realistic -- how realistic they are in the context
of the housing market, the affordabi1ity issues, and what we really
think will happen with population growth. Regardless of what DCA
says we should use, we really think these figures are very much
overstated for what's going to happen.
And I included that there -- Larry Baytos provided a paper at our
last meeting, and I've basically just taken that paper and scaled it into
this format to provide for the commissioners as our feelings on
population.
But, you know, with not only the current housing situation and
affordability, which we've seen in school populations, you know, that
people are not moving in with children because the people that have
children can't afford to live here. These things are going to affect
population.
Plus the hurricane experience, we feel probably has scared off
quite a few people for the next few years, until people forget. But I
think that's going to hit, we all agree.
So those are the comments that we're going to probably be at
least talking about at the productivity meeting. I'm not sure what will
actually come out of it, because the whole group is pretty independent.
So I can't tell you what will come out of it. But those are the kinds of
things that are coming up.
And then each of the sub-committee members will bring up
things. But as the vice chair and the one that has been here for the
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November 30, 2006
whole set of meetings, I started the document and then there will be
adjustments and changes to it, I'm confident.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I have a question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I certainly thank you for your
comments. And from my perspective, at least, I think you -- I believe
you're going along the same lines that I have expressed or felt too
during the meeting. So I have no objection to at some point agreeing
that we're in consensus with you on the concepts you made in your
statement.
Mr. Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I was going to ask Ms.Vasey
whether or not she felt that the -- lacking a better term, constancy of
the use of COs, the hotel rooms, the motel rooms and all the rest
that's been stated here is a better baseline from which to start the
process. Or have you evaluated another format that you think you
might go with?
MS. VASEY: Frankly, that is more your area than mine. I've
understood your conversation, but that is not an area that I'm very
knowledgeable on. And so I don't really have a strong opinion on that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I think what we were trying to do
is let everybody know that there might be a better system out there.
And 9.1.5 actually expects you to use the best statistics available. And
that's all I'm simply suggesting to staff, is look at alternatives.
And Bob, it may be housing units in one case, but it may be calls
for service in another. And for one we know it's traffic counts, and
another it's response time. So I would hope that the departments
would each look at their best way of calculating how their facilities
could be improved and look at that statistic and possibly look at a
recommendation and do better.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That wasn't something that I
appreciated earlier. I'm wondering, is there -- you said 9.J.5 requires
that you go for the best methodology. So that means a mix is
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permissible.
And the question next is then whether it's desirable on behalf of
the county, whether that presents problems and so forth. But I like the
idea. I think everything should be looked at.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think we put the record strong enough
on the population that it's not going to be missed. And I would bet that
next year if we ever were to have the same statistics come forward,
there's going to be a stronger justification for them, if that happens. So
I think that's the intent of the population. I know you guys are
heading down a similar path.
Yes, sir, Mr. Baytos.
MR. BA YTOS: I just have one additional comment. Janet's
comments were more about the specifics of each AUIR. What I'm
trying to put together for our committee is some comments on the
effectiveness of the whole process.
And that would get into issues such as correct numbers being
presented on a timely basis. Also introducing some, rather than a
mere arithmetic process, which I think it seems to be now, that staff
introduce some evaluative comment regarding what's going on in the
community. And for example, the issues regarding the EMS possible
consolidation or mergers, you know, it was like it was -- didn't
happen if you weren't reading the papers. If we didn't bring it up, it
would not have been addressed here.
Another issue we'll bring up is the issue of standards, standards
of service, the references to standards proposed by the library
association and by EMS associations, and those kind of service
standards. The example I use, it's like asking the judges association
how many judges there should be per hundred people. It's a natural
upward bias based on our interest and our training and education.
So we're going to suggest looking at some real world
benchmarks such as pick a -- you know, a comparative group of ten
counties or so, how many books do you have per thousand population.
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What's really going on out there? We might find that we're, you
know, not doing enough.
But let's look at something other than broad generic standards
for planning our capital expenditures. Those are some of the issues
we'll try to address when our committee meets.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Baytos, I think that also is along
the lines of thinking of most of us. I can tell you, to meet some of the
issues you brought up, you brought up this idea of looking at other
counties for comparative. And actually, 9.1.5 has a statement in it that
says in addition, the department shall make available upon request --
and by the way, the department being referred to is DCA--
beginning on December of '86, examples of methodologies for
resident and seasonal population estimates and proj ections that are
deemed by the department to be professionally acceptable.
I think DCA's reaching out and saying you can do things. We
even have standards which we've approved, come and look at them.
Here are some better ideas, or possible additional ideas.
And I heartily agree with you, that's what we ought to be doing,
is comparative basis. There's a lot to be learned from the mistakes of
others. So -- Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Just a couple of general notes I
had. One thing is that kind of overwhelms me is that we use the
county as the denominator in this thing. For example, libraries, how
many books do we have, we divide it by the population of the county,
when maybe they're in the wrong place. I mean there's -- I kind of
think we should be able to get down to more of a micro, you know,
populations and things like that, just to see where some of these things
are.
In other words, if the -- all the books are in one part of town,
then everybody -- we're wasting transportation to get to the books.
So in terms of parks and some of these other things, I wouldn't
mind seeing some more micro data, rather than the county, as the
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denominator, which is one.
Another thing, too, which is -- and I know it shouldn't be in the
AUIR, the county attorney doesn't have to teach me that anymore --
but in some of the other goals in the GMP, I wouldn't mind us looking
at those. One is obviously the affordable housing. But remember
when we did the EAR, we found out that the watershed plan was
decades, seven years at least behind.
So I'm sure if we looked at that every year and were reminded
that we're not doing anything, I think we would deal with it better.
So, I don't know what process, but it would be good to go
through the GMP, find out whatever is a goal-oriented requirement
and get a yearly inventory of that, too.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mike, if I'm not mistaken, when you
have an issue that involves capital facilities, it becomes then a possible
consideration of the AUIR; is that how it works?
MR. BOSI: If any of the elements that are included within the
CIE or any of the capital improvements programs that are put out
through this and provided by the county, it becomes part of the AUIR.
So yes, you're correct in that statement.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think in the last EAR review, Brad, I
think you may have brought it up, that affordable housing ought to be
considered as an element or an issue in the CIE. So that may be a
way to get this all started.
MR. BOSI: It may be. And I guess there will have to be
discussions with the county attorney, because that is not a commodity
that the -- that the county is specifically providing for the citizens. So
there will definitely have -- where that sits -- and I think you made the
point, because of that issue that maybe it could be a Category C,
where it kinds of sits somewhat outside of required provisions but still
something of vital of interest and necessity to monitor.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I bring this up, remember,
I preface this, but you don't have to tell me that it doesn't have to go
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to the AUIR. I'm not really just saying in the AUIR. I'm saying while
we're doing the AUIR reminds me that there are other goals. So it can
be in a separate pamphlet, it could have nothing to do with this
process.
But the scariest thing is when we looked at the EAR and there's
the watershed thing due in 2000, and nobody touched it, nobody
mentioned it, nobody knew it was laying in there undone.
So that's what I'm trying to cure with something, whatever
process it is.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, I think that from this
panel, I didn't hear any objections to the positions that are being
conceptually drafted by the Productivity Committee, so I think with
that we can say that we would be joining you in your concerns, so that
would help.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: Were we making comments about
the process for everybody, or it was mostly just productivity.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anything you want to -- this is going
to wind up the AUIR, so if you have any comments relative to the
AUIR --
COMMISSIONER TUFF: The main one that struck me as
being -- and I wasn't here for all your stuff, so I didn't want to chime in
too loud, but like the parks, we spend millions and millions of dollars
on some things. We have greater resources, and yet at the same time,
you hear the crying, the little leagues can't have a place. They don't
have a soccer field and we're building a mega million dollar water
park.
And maybe that was the right thing to do. I don't know who
sets those priorities of what is important. But I didn't hear any
indication whatsoever is will we have a need for this, because we
have 27 kids doing this, and these 15 people can't get here. There is
no quantifying of why do we need what we need. It's just so generic
and blah. How do you know?
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You may have missed the handouts, but
there was a revised set of tables in our very first meeting with the
parks and rec department. We had asked for some additional
information. They provided a new set of tables. In the tables they
referenced a guideline for parks and recreation called SCORP,
S-C-O-R-P.
If you check that out on the Internet, you can download their
book. It's three hundred pages, and actually in that book is apparently
how these standards are set for the population statistics, the number of
users, the acreage, the sizes, what you call each particular group of
acreages, whether it's an urban park, community, park, neighborhood
park. I would suggest that. Because that seems to be where our parks
and recreation department is going, is they used that SCORP
guideline, how they changed it and modified it.
And today's question centered on why they thought those
changes should be done, with the caveat that next year maybe they
ought to look at how they did those changes and why they did them
and why they weren't in line with SCORP. I don't think this year we
could have done much with that based on the time frame.
But I would -- you know, Russ, that book is -- I'd go on the
Internet and download that PDF. It's three hundred pages, but it
addresses everything. There's a lot of issues in there that are really
interesting, and they might shed some light on better questions next
year for the parks department, and hopefully we'll have those --
COMMISSIONER TUFF: I guess I'm hoping that they could
bring that so we don't have to have -- they've answered those
questions before we get together, otherwise we're going to be two
years down the road before we can address it again.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: That actually was part of our recommendation
that were taken in productivity was to take another look at those level
of service standards. Because the dollars per person and the per capita
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and the acres per capita are just too big of a chunk to have any effect.
So we were recommending to look at those level of service
standards and try to come up with something more functional.
And what I was thinking in that is maybe we need to look at the
number of baseball diamonds and soccer fields and things like that as
part -- you know, you can't go through the whole list of 20 items and
have a level of service for each one. But that was the issue that we
were trying to get at too was are you providing what you really want.
Whereas if you get a big chunk of land like this transfer for the --
what is that, the A TV, that satisfies the acreage for I don't know how
many years, but what does it give that the community really needs?
So I was real unhappy with those level of service standards and
was hoping that they could come up with something better by next
year.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Is it not true that under the
Planning Commission, it's chartered that any member may raise an
issue that can be placed upon the agenda if it's so deemed as
applicable to our duty?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray, I don't know how to
answer that question.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, I'm talking about if, let's
say Commissioner Tuff had a concern for the issue of the plans for
parks and recreation, could he not raise that and ask that it be put on
the agenda as a matter for study?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We have a right as a planning
commission to request additional studies. That's in the charter that
we're authorized by. I think we did that today. So I don't know what
more we would do by trying to request they put it on some agenda
that is out of a time frame or sequence that's going to be done
automatically anyway.
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COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, okay, that satisfies that.
But both Commissioner -- this guy brought up the issue of how long it
takes before we see it again on the AUIR -- no the EAR. And
Commissioner Tuff also indicated that his concerns were. So I
thought that I would point out, if it's valid, that if we do have a
concern for a specific, we could give it a little bit more eyeball.
That's all I'm really saying.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Ko1flat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: There is a public petition
process before the commissioners. Any individual can request a
public petition on this. That's five minutes to explain what they want
and they decide whether they want to consider it on a future agenda or
not.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I think that this is not at petition
of a specific item, it's more of a level of service study. And I think
after today's meeting, that's going to be done.
But Mr. Murray, I don't think it's any harm that we ask
periodically of staff where they are at with it. And if we find they're
not working on it, then we could probably formalize that in the form
of a regular demand for a study, which is one of the rights I believe we
have to do.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: My point exactly.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, so let's just -- and Russell, since
you brought it up, I would assume every couple of months if you want
to ask, put in an inquiry ahead of time before the meeting to Mr.
Schmitt so he could get the answer by the time of the meeting, give
him the courtesy of an advanced notice, he could tell us if they're
working on it.
I'm sure with all that's been said, things are going to be worked
on. I shouldn't say I'm sure, I hope that with all that's been said.
Are there any other comments for the AUIR?
(No response.)
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, with that, is there a motion to
adjourn.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: So moved.
COMMISSIONER TUFF: So moved.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by numerous people. We
are adjourned. Thank you very much. Michael, thank you very much
for your attendance.
MR. BOSI: Thank you Productivity Committee and Planning
Commission members. It know this is a long process. Hopefully we'll
improve it based upon your suggestions.
*****
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 12:43 p.m.
COLLIER COUNTY
PLANNING COMMISSION
MARK P. STRAIN, Chairman
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