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Agenda 09/14/2021 Item # 2C (BCC Budget Meeting Minutes from June 24, 2021)09/14/2021 COLLIER COUNTY Board of County Commissioners Item Number: 2.C Item Summary: June 24, 2021 BCC Budget Meeting Minutes Meeting Date: 09/14/2021 Prepared by: Title: Sr. Operations Analyst – County Manager's Office Name: Geoffrey Willig 08/09/2021 11:53 AM Submitted by: Title: Division Director - Corp Fin & Mgmt Svc – County Manager's Office Name: Mark Isackson 08/09/2021 11:53 AM Approved By: Review: County Manager's Office Geoffrey Willig County Manager Review Completed 08/09/2021 11:53 AM Board of County Commissioners Geoffrey Willig Meeting Pending 09/14/2021 9:00 AM 2.C Packet Pg. 25 June 24, 2021 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Naples, Florida June 24, 2021 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of Count Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such special districts as have been created according to law and having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m., in BUDGET &&,V SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: Chairman: Penny Taylor William L. McDaniel, Jr. Rick LoCastro Burt L. Saunders Andy Solis ALSO PRESENT: Mark Isackson, County Manager Edward Finn, OMB Director Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney Page 1 June 24, 2021 MR. ISACKSON: Madam Chair, Commissioners, you have a live mic. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. Welcome on Thursday, June 24th. This is our traditional budget workshop. INk This year we -- our County Manager is going to deliver some remarks and outline an agenda, but he's also our former budget director, so I think he's going to have a lot to say today. So I will turn this over to County Attorney. f% ` a MR. ISACKSON: We can start the proceedings, Madam Chair, with the Pledge. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I think that's a great idea. Commissioner Saunders, if you'd lead us in the Pledge, please. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) MR. ISACKSON: Madam Chair, Commissioners, before I get into the general overview section, I wanted to try and give you a little outline of the proceedings today. And you can see on your visualizer we put on there the various County Manager agency and courts operations that will be beginning after my general overview comments, and then you have at 1:00 p.m. the constitutional officers beginning with the Supervisor of Elections, the Clerk of the Circuit Court, the Sheriff, and then any other constitutional officers requesting to address the Board. Public comment, we've traditionally put it at the end of the meeting, but I think we have always allowed those who wish to sign up to talk about specific sections of the presentations after those presentations and after Board discussion. So I think we have a few speakers on the line, I think, remotely. This is a hybrid remote meeting. It was advertised as such. And I think the format -- we're going to keep it, from a department standpoint, having the department head -- on the County Page 2 June 24, 2021 Manager Agency side, the department head and their chief financial operations officers will be presenting information to you and responding to questions of the Board. So without further ado, let me proceed. We'll pull up the general overview. GENERAL OVERVIEW MR. ISACKSON: Commissioners, what I've attempted to do in the PowerPoint -- and I won't take long. I sent this out yesterday to everybody, including the officers. There was a pretty good list of folks that received it yesterday afternoon. ` a This is intended to try and highlight what I think are the key points in what is admittedly a very voluminous document, some 600 pages. What I tried to do is condense that into what I think are the salient points that board members need to focus in on. Many of you have looked at the document. It really hasn't changed much in terms of its format. The overview section in the first part of the book is intended to give commissioners a general idea of our philosophy of what we try and accomplish with the budget document. Commissioners, the timeline -- you've seen this slide before. The timeline essentially begins with your budget policies and ends with a package of information that's sent off through the state Department of Revenue TRIM section, but in between there you've got various opportunities to talk about the budget, beginning with today's session. There's a tentative budget that's submitted to the Board in July pursuant to the TRIM notice, and then you have your two public hearings in September. After July 1 it gets real routinized with regard to TRIM statutes, so there's certain things that obviously the staff has to do in order to meet those TRIM requirements. But Page 3 June 24, 2021 this slide gives you a little idea on the timelines and things that happen throughout the budget -- what we call the budget season. I threw this slide in here this year, Commissioners, to give you a sense of characteristics of the budget. Obviously, it comports with Chapter 129 of the Florida Statutes, which is the county's annual budget. It's balanced as presented, and it will be balanced throughout the process. When changes are made, if changes are made by the Board, the budget is reconfigured and balanced. So the balancing part is something that we do regularly. It's balanced now. If you did nothing between now and September, this would be your budget document. It's a flexible tool. You've heard me say that before. And that's been the philosophy of when I was the budget director, and it will continue to be the philosophy for as long as I'm in the organization. Sufficient budget. That's a term of art, but it's also very important. Nothing happens on the expenditure side without sufficient budget in the organization. That applies to our operating side of the house as well as the capital side of the house. The document reflects the best efforts of staff and our constitutional officers to maintain and, where appropriate, enhance our services. And, finally, Commissioners, we really pride ourselves in our conservative budgeting and forecasting practices. That, coupled with your strong policy -driven reserve position, really enables us to react to and overcome a lot of the unforeseen events that are thrown at us often, and it also provides us with an opportunity to continue to make this community what is a premium community to live, work, and play. The current economic landscape, I won't get into a lot of this. The commissioners have their pulse on, certainly, the economic -- our unemployment rate is dropping. Our new home sales, there's a recent article in the Naples Daily News about the median home price NM June 24, 2021 has skyrocketed in the community. It used to be, over the last couple years, in the mid 400 ranges. It's now popped to over 620K. Our visitation to the destination, as Commissioner Solis has pointed out, in some of his communications to the Board, is returning to what we think are going to be record -- record highs. Our new construction permitting, Mr. French and Ms. Scott, in their areas, are trending positively. Our countywide taxable value is up for the tenth consecutive year. We're now at about $104 billion. And the state has estimated that they -- their economic experts think that continuing over the next couple of fiscal year cycles it will pop in the range of 4-and-a-half to 5 percent. Of course, I'm very conservative in how we estimate those things, and we're always positioned to handle downturns should they -- should they occur. I wanted to give you a couple of slides that talked about how we're recovering from the pandemic. The dotted orange line is what we thought was going to occur based on information that we knew a year or so ago about the pandemic. The orange bold line is what actually occurred in 2020, and the blue line is what happened in ' 19, and the purple line is what's happening now. So you can see there's a constant drop as you go through these various revenue sources like the half -cent sales tax and the infrastructure sales tax. The point of this is we are recovering and recovering nicely. It points out our very conservative forecasting numbers which allowed us to, again, weather what was admittedly a two -month economic shutdown, and we're on the right path going forward. Same with our tourist development taxes. And our gas taxes have hovered in at around the 20- to $22 million level. That's been a constant number over the past couple years. It's not as -- the swings there aren't as dramatic and haven't been as dramatic. June 24, 2021 The recommended budget highlights, I'm not going to go through all these, but I'm going to pick up on the ones that I think are important. We set budget guidance every year. This year it was one-half of 1 percent on the operating side, and all of the rest of the money we tried to devote to the capital side of the house. Commissioners, that represents a significant philosophy change in the organization, and it's like turning the Titanic sometimes. It takes you a while to move that rutter and move that philosophy forward in the organization. It's not that we're disregarding the operating side of the house; we aren't. We keep it at adopted service levels. But we have a substantial infrastructure investment in this community, and it's the hallmark of why I think people come to our lovely community. So I wanted to point that out. Our tax rate is -- the General Fund is currently at 3.5645 per thousand dollars of taxable value. Noting that Conservation Collier this year, the referendum allows up to .25 mills per thousand dollars of taxable value; if you levied 25 cents on a thousand, it's $26 million. The Board will be making those decisions as it goes along in the process with your final tax rates adopted in September. The unincorporated area rate is .8069, and that includes a portion of .0906 for landscaping in the community. Expanded service requests, we have one in the County Manager's side of the house but primarily driven by vehicles. We're, obviously -- with our capital plants coming online, we needed some additional vehicles to service those areas. So that's what you see there. The Sheriffs Office, of course, is looking to -- in the final year of a four-year program where we've been adding 10 sworn officers a year devoted exclusively toward our school safety -- school safety program, which was an offshoot of the legislation that was passed a June 24, 2021 couple years ago by the state. The Clerk of the Circuit Court is asking for six individuals, and the Supervisor of Elections is asking for one. Our reserves, Commissioner -- and you've heard me rail on this for years and years; our reserves are policy driven. They are increasing. They've increased every year for the last 12, 13 years that I sat in Ed's chair. And oh, by the way, I noticed Ed there. I know most of you know Ed Finn, but Ed's now taking over my slot as the budget director. I think I'll take this opportunity to acknowledge Ed and welcome him to the hot seat a little bit. MR. FINN: Thank you, Mark. MR. ISACKSON: More importantly, reserves is the -- is the continuation of a program we set up a couple years ago where we're setting aside money for what we term a long-term capital reserve, and it really recognizes our substantial infrastructure investment and our future responsibility to maintain and replace that important asset. We've added another 2-and-a-half million dollars to that tranche. So instead of 5 million dollars, it is now going to be 7-and-a-half million dollars. — `* '*. Continuing on, I mentioned earlier that paradigm shift from operations to capital. We're about $105 million more in new money in '22 that's programmed than we were in '21. A lot of that's with your local option infrastructure sales tax, and it's primarily funded with that revenue source, user fees, impact fees, and remaining bond proceeds. Some of that also is in our stormwater area, our transportation network, our constitutional officer capital, et cetera. Debt, we'll be talking about debt during '22. We're kind of in a sweet spot still with interest rates. And I'll be before the Board over the next few months talking about some opportunities for good money, taking advantage of our credit rating to tackle some areas like our governmental operations, business park, transportation Page 7 June 24, 2021 improvements in the eastern quadrant east of 951, and then further our infrastructure expansion in the northeast service area. Workforce, Commissioners, dollars appropriated for employee compensation. This year we're suggesting a simple $1,000 adjustment to every classification and a modest adjustment for pay plan maintenance. But the more significant issue is at the end of this year, we're going to be having a report presented to us from an outside consultant on our classification and compensation plan. It's 20 years old. It needs to be updated. And more than likely, when that report comes up, then we'll be issuing some recommendations to each of you publicly about how we're going to possibly make a midyear adjustment to the pay plan based on those findings that come from the -- from the consultant. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: County Manager? MR. ISACKSON: Yes, ma'am. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Normally we would increase a percentage. That's why in this year, because of this review, we're giving $1,000, but that -- the employees need to understand that changes are afoot. MR. ISACKSON: Yeah. The thousand dollars is -- the average salary's about 57,4- in the organization. That thousand dollars is, on average, about 1.7. Obviously, if you make more money, it's a lot less. If you make less than 57,4-, it's more. We've used that approach over the last couple years, but I think having a complete redo of our classification and compensation system's in order. We haven't done merit in years, and I'll have some ideas on how to begin to reintroduce merit back into the organization, also. So I'm looking forward to that report. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So am I. Thank you. MR. ISACKSON: Health insurance, what a good -news item. Our health insurance premiums haven't increased for the last nine June 24, 2021 years, and that's -- Mr. Walker and his team do an excellent job with our claims history, and we have very healthy reserves, so we're allowed to do that. So don't underestimate how that -- how important that plays in the compensation package. Millage neutral, our tax rate, if we keep the tax rate the same as compared to this particular year's levy, we'll be up about $19,400,000 in the General Fund. That would increase the levy to 371 million. And that's -- this year we played the planning scenario 2 percent, and that millage neutral rate would garner an additional $11 million over that planning scenario. Our Unincorporated General Fund is -- the levy there totals 52.9 million, 46.9, almost 47 devoted to operations in capital -- in the capital transfers, and 5.9 million for the median landscape program. As I mentioned earlier, the constitutional officers, they're requesting some additional staffing. You see that at the bottom of the chart. Important to understand that the budget will be amended at the appropriate time to provide the final payment to the Sheriff for a new helicopter in '22. I have been in contact with Chief Butcher, and we will be bringing to you in that July meeting a complete redo of our EMS plan, pay plan, because it is out of date with regard to our competitor areas, specifically, our captive fire districts that have much different pay plans than we do. And we're down a few EMS people because of that, and I think it's time that we move on that, so... We have an issue that we're dealing with Ochopee, those last two bullet points, Commissioners. We're in current discussions with the leadership at Greater Naples, and we'll be presenting information to you going forward as to how we can entice the Greater Naples fire leadership to, in fact, solidify the annexation which was contained in the management agreement going forward. So hopefully we'll have some success in that area. June 24, 2021 We talked about the sworn law enforcement officer detail. We're attempting to realign our budget where prudent to continue our stormwater program. There's a slide later on that will talk about that. We always satisfy our policy -driven economic development incentives. I mentioned earlier our continued commitment in the long-term capital recovery reserve. The enterprise -- or the CRAs are continuing to receive their portion of dollars pursuant to statute. Our enterprise operations, the water user rates, Joe Bellone tells me that I put the wrong percentages in there because that was what we were talking about at our initial meetings, but they're going to be up about 2.8 percent. But I will say here, Commissioners, that to the extent that we can use some of the -- some of the COVID money, the American Rescue Act money, to -- on our maintenance, utility infrastructure, that would allow Mr. Bellone not to transfer as much from his 408 operating fund to the user fee fund and, as a result, we could possibly take a look at reducing those rates, at least year one, in return. So we're going to talk a little bit more about that on our July meeting. But that's -- that's what I have, at least in my mind, in regards to how we could use some of that COVID money for that type of purpose. Our building permit and inspection/reinspection fees were reduced in 2020, and that base will continue into 2022. Taxable value, obviously trending up for the tenth year in a row. This is our millage rate history. The stormwater board has made some significant investment in our stormwater infrastructure. We're programming on a continuing cash-and-carry basis 13-plus million dollars for what we term to be an industry -standard maintenance program, but we've also issued $60 million in debt to update our system infrastructure, and that debt service is roughly $2.2 million a Page 10 June 24, 2021 year. So if you add that to the 13.3, you're getting over $15 million in investment in the system. And you see below the breakdown. Slowly, but surely, we're increasing the fund balance in those -- in those enterprise operations, and that fund balance this year is a little over 3 million, and it will be used as part of our effort going forward to continue our stormwater initiative. ,.110i, � This is an eye chart a little bit, Commissioners, but it gives you an idea on how much the General Fund and the Unincorporated General Fund contribute to our capital initiative. _ Im Highlighted there, sheriff facilities and the helicopter at $11 million. Continuing to put aside money for the accounting system update. That back -office infrastructure, like our IT component, we're continuing to make substantial investments in that to try and get our system to a point where it's as failsafe as possible when it comes to outside attacks. Our transportation capital is on par with '21. We're continuing money to maintain our substantial sports complex investment. So you can see that there is a substantial commitment to our, what I would call general governmental capital program. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Mr. Isackson, do you want us to wait on -- MR. ISACKSON: No, no, please, interrupt. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I had some questions on this chart, but if it comes at a better time. MR. ISACKSON: No. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So the Sheriffs big plus -up is the helicopter. MR. ISACKSON: Yes, that's predominantly this. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You know, one thing I sort of flagged here, and it's not a -- you know, I'm not throwing rocks or anything, it's just more of a question is, you know, we've got a lot of Page 11 June 24, 2021 issues with our parks. We have some beautiful parks around here that need a lot of care and feeding. You know, the previous commissioner in this seat, you know, lobbied every one of these other commissioners to make sure that, you know, somebody was doing something for the parks in District 1 and had a long list of things. And, you know, when I see a lot of these numbers plus up -- and for good reason, no question about it. It just seems like if the numbers stay the same -- they actually go down because of inflation. You know, we've said in here many times, cost of construction's gone way up. Well, that's not just construction. It's also repair and all kinds of other things are all part of that. Just contracts have gone up. M061, '1",, * I*, So when I see the parks sort of stagnant, and I sit here and know that we have pools that don't work and things are broken, and we hear from all of our constituents and, you know, we try to work hard in house, I really take my hat off to how we've absorbed, through our normal budget, some of those repairs and some things that we've done at several of the parks. , You know, that number just -- I just sort of put a little flag on it. I wanted to just hear, you know, maybe we're using other monies or things like that to just make sure we maintain them at a very high level. N MR. ISACKSON: Thank you, sir. One -- COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Before you move on -- are you finished with that question, or are you -- I*- MR. ISACKSON: Well, I was just going to say, Commissioner, that remember that we issued $20 million in debt to fix the aquatic infrastructure that's been lacking. So that's really not included in that -- COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Well, that's covered. MR. ISACKSON: -- set -aside number. Page 12 June 24, 2021 COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Which is a biggie, so that's covered. MR. ISACKSON: Yep. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But, you know, I just thought some of the other things. You know, I mean, I saw some of these numbers raised, and I just think, you know, there's inflation every year, so if a number stays the same, we actually lose. But -- so that covers the aquatic part. But do you have any -- you know, I mean, this is more of a question. It's like we're just -- we're having healthy discussion here. But do you have any concerns that, you know, we're not putting everything that we can put into our parks, especially when we get pinged a lot by citizens who go out there and notice things and are looking for, you know, repair, upgrades, just, you know, sort of normal operation and maintenance type things? What are your thoughts? � - "PW �, MR. ISACKSON: What I'm going to throw back at you is remember that the budget's flexible, and we're always in contact with the department head, and there are always reserves that are set aside in the various capital funds. 306 is your Parks Operating Capital Fund. 346 is your Impact Fee Capital Fund. So if Dan Rodriguez comes to me and says, look it, that's not enough. I need to do this, this, and this this year -- and we've done this many times -- Dan will know this, that we did this when he was at facilities, down in facilities. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Dan, you heard that back there? I just wanted to get all this on the record. I kind of knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it all officially. Okay. MR. ISACKSON: If Mr. Rodriguez comes to me and provides a pretty good business case for needing another 500K, let's say, or this or that -- Page 13 June 24, 2021 COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right. MR. ISACKSON: -- then I'll listen. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And you answered the question on the water parks. I really wanted to get that on record. I wasn't sure. I knew that was sort of being dealt with separately, but I couldn't sort of dig it out of here. So, thank you, sir. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Saunders, and then Commissioner Solis. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I want to tag a little bit onto what was just said about the parks, Commissioner LoCastro's comments. And I've had conversations with Mr. Isackson and some other folks at the county over the years about the condition of parks, not looking at District 3 but looking at all of the parks. I'll use Sugden Park as an example. I've kind of been beating the drum here for a couple years to really spruce up that park. There are areas there the grass doesn't grow; there's just weeds. And it's just -- it's kind of a shame. And the same thing at the Vineyards Park. There's some issues there. I'm sure there's some issues in the parks in Immokalee with lighting. And so I agree with Commissioner LoCastro; we need to beef up the fund for dealing with our existing parks and improving the quality of those. Those parks are really the area where our citizens see how county government really operates. And I've gotten complaints over the years. And it's been a little frustrating because I've kind of been beating this drum here for -- literally, for three or four years, and nothing seems to happen. So, Commissioner LoCastro, I want to thank you for bringing that up, and I will second that effort to really take a look at our existing parks and spruce them up all over the county, all of the parks. MR. ISACKSON: I have eyes behind my head, and I suspect Page 14 June 24, 2021 that Mr. Rodriguez is taking a few notes, so... COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: He's just smiling. He's not writing it down. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Solis. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And just so Mr. Rodriguez will continue to smile, I'd like to agree with my colleagues about the parks. You know, from Immokalee, the fields in Immokalee, and, you know, all over the county, I think -- Commissioner Saunders makes a good point that that's where a lot of people see how well we're taking -- especially the kids, you know, and how well we're focused on them.^V� A couple other things I'd like to ask is, just so -- to set the record straight, the Pelican Bay funds, 520,000, from the General Fund, that is the payment that we agreed on the swap of assets, right? MR. ISACKSON: Yes, that's correct, sir. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Can you -- I just want to make everybody understand -- make sure that everybody understands what that is. MR. ISACKSON: As the Board remembers, we entered into an asset swap agreement with Pelican Bay a couple years ago. In exchange for that, they're now responsible for all the sidewalk infrastructure, lake bank improvements in the district. And recently you approved the ability for Pelican Bay to draw down on a commercial paper note, and this gets to their sidewalk improvement program which has started and is ongoing, and it will also get to their lake bank improvement program that they have, and also their refurbishing of a community center, community maintenance facility that they have there also. So I hope that answers your question, sir, but it -- COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah, it does. I mean, these are Page 15 June 24, 2021 the things that, otherwise, we would be doing directly, but they're going to take care of that. The other question I had was the video monitoring system; can you refresh my memory on what that is? MR. ISACKSON: Yeah. If you've ever been to the facilities control center -- COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. MR. ISACKSON: -- it is a -- it is quite an operation, and - COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Oh, yeah. _W% ` a MR. ISACKSON: -- and every one of our buildings and facilities have cameras in them. Well, those cameras need replacement. They're getting to the point where -- I don't want to say they're functionally obsolescent, but it's getting to the point where they need to be replaced. So this is the recognition of starting to phase that replacement in. Or," � COMMISSIONER SOLIS: f That's the overall security -- MR. ISACKSON: That's correct, that's correct. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Thank you. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And just one quick thing. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Excuse me. Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. And I don't want to beat the -- I don't want to beat the drum too awful much on the parks, but one of the things that I found in our level -of -service designations was we have delineated different levels of service appropriations for different parks. Regional parks receive a higher priority of level of service than community parks, and I thank you all for acknowledging -- and, by the way, just so you know, I've talked to the PARAB board, Parks and Rec Advisory Board, and asked them to look into that to level that adjustment so that the priorities for our Page 16 June 24, 2021 maintenance are spread equally amongst the community, and I think that will largely help. Several of you mentioned circumstances that we have going on in Immokalee and in the east, and if you kind of watch, particularly in our community parks, things have a tendency to lay around a little bit more than in our regional parks. And I'm sure there was merit at some particular point in time. But Commissioner Saunders said it best; that's one of the places where local government's graded on a regular basis with folks. So I did talk with the PARAB board with regard to having a look at so that we, from a policy standpoint, can make the necessary adjustments and get the money equally appropriated. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So I promise, Mr. Isackson, we'll get off of this one in about 30 seconds. But, you know, really, just to go on the record, you know, you look at regional parks, and it actually went down, and when you look at the community parks funding, it stayed the same. And so to my point of -- with inflation and higher costs, you know. But, you know, my final point would be I appreciate what you say, that there's also emergency funds, and Mr. Rodriguez could go to you for 500,000, but the reality is when stuff is in this budget here, it's a promise. It's basically -- it's got teeth. So we always have emergency things. But, you know, get three Hurricane Irmas and that 500,000 for Dan Rodriguez isn't around possibly, or something else emergent. Now, I know you. You'll say, we'll always find the money, but when it's here, it's programmed. It's programmed. And just like you have deeper in this book, these numbers then turn into projects or, you know, they're allocated for things, so that would just be, you know, sort of, like, my really strong takeaway is that, you know, one Page 17 June 24, 2021 of these numbers goes down, the other one stays the same, so that really means it goes down with inflation and higher costs, and putting it on here really makes it a promise that we're not just sort of kicking the can or we'll try to get to it or if we have some extra money. You know, so I know you appreciate that, and we all do but, you know, if we're talking today and this is fluid, it would be nice to have it be a little bit more concrete in those areas that I know we all really care about. So thank you, sir. Ilqcmp� CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's it, sir? COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO. Yep. MR. ISACKSON: Moving on. Commissioners, this gives you your position count in '22. You'll see some of the changes that we made in'21, and a lot of those changes were executive summary items that the Board approved during the course of the year. I've got a little bit different philosophy in that I'd like to bring those items to you where we're expanding or changing or needing to change our operations, and I'd like to bring them to you more in executive summary fashion rather than budget to budget, because sometimes they lose visibility, so... Our compensation adjustment, I talked a little bit about that earlier in the presentation. You can see what $1,000 does to the -- to the system. " 4N I will tell you that our wage and compensation study will not produce cheap fixes. You could be in the 6- to 7- to 8-million-dollar range depending on what we're talking about, and it will be my job and the staffs job to whittle through that and give you some solid recommendations on how to appropriate the dollars possibly over two fiscal years in terms of how we get the pay plan to where we think it needs to be. So I just wanted to provide that level of caution to the Board. Our healthcare program, again, I mentioned that earlier. We June 24, 2021 strive to maintain 80 percent employer, 20 percent employee paid, and having no increases for nine years certainly puts -- keeps putting some money back in the pockets of our workforce. This is our net budget. You see it climbing. That's all in. Here's the General Fund, and that's the fund where, as every one of you have pointed out with your recreation comments, is the fund that provides the services to the most folks, so -- and it's also a 1' countywide tax. ^ �/ This is the -- what I will call the pro forma. This is what you're getting for, essentially, an increase. I see a typo there. I'm going to look at my staff, and I'm going to chastise them for that. And I can already hear them in the back going, ooh. But that 34.7 million is what you're getting for that in terms of the expense side and the revenue side. I will note that about 90 percent of our taxable value is residential in nature. That might be an interesting point for everybody to know. Here is our reserves. You can see where they were in 2012, and you might wonder, well, how the heck did we get through those years. I don't think we had any natural disasters at that point in time, so we skated through a little bit in the earlier years, and we're positioned now to, I think, handle all that we can -- all that we need to handle going forward. And that's a little slide on why we strengthen reserves. These are your outstanding principal debt all in. We've issued some debt since FY 18. And the next follow-on slide talks about where we're at with our cap of general governmental revenue. It's bondable general governmental revenue cap, and it's in our Growth Management Plan. It's grounded in that plan. You can see over the years where we've actually stood with that. That little blip in '21 is because we paid off commercial paper Page 19 June 24, 2021 that was used to buy the sports complex property. These are revenues in the General Fund. The biggies are ad valorem taxes, sales taxes, and state -shared revenues. Commissioners, here's your other revenue sources that are of importance: Gas taxes, impact fees and, of course, our fund balance, which I always harp on. It's something I and the staff managed to during the course of the budget cycle so that we make sure we've got anywhere between 95 and 100 million in cash at year ending fiscal year to hold us over until property taxes come in. _ ` a The unincorporated area, we sometimes skip that, but it's a fund that is also contributing substantially to our capital effort. Here is a pro forma of the unincorporated area and its increase and what you're getting for that increase. W*W..w, Finally, Commissioners, these are our challenges. And I look at the budget document as the significant financial planning tool that you have. It's akin to the Land Development Code on the planning side of the house. Everything revolves around the expenditure plan. And I will tell you that we put a lot of effort into the document. We can tweak it around the margins. You're fully reserved. Your cash position is excellent, but that doesn't mean that there aren't challenges going forward. We're continually trying to balance the competing priorities of capital investment, asset management, expanding our service delivery, new programs and initiatives. I worry at night that at some point in time we're not going to have the communications services tax in 111. That's a $5 million hit if we lose that. So those are things that I think we need to be cognizant of going forward. Commissioners, that ends the presentation that I have. I'd be happy to answer any additional questions. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Seeing none, County Manager. Page 20 June 24, 2021 There are none. MR. ISACKSON: Thank you, Commissioners. COURTS AND RELATED AGENCIES (STATE ATTORNEY AND PUBLIC DEFENDER) /A V Commissioners, with that, we'll begin our series of presentations that we have, and we'll begin with our courts. Mr. Rice, Ms. Fox, and the team can come up to the podium, and Chuck can kind of brief the Board on where he's at with his budget and can answer questions. MR. RICE: Yes, sir. It sounds like I need to be friends with Dan Rodriguez right now. W*-" � ' �, Good morning, Madam Chairman and Commissioners. For the record, my name's Chuck -- MR. MILLER: Speak into your mic, please. MR. RICE: Oh, I'm sorry. Is that better? Better? CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I think you can even pull it over more, if you want. If it's easier for you. There we go. MR. RICE: How's that? Well, good morning again. For the record, my name's Chuck Rice, Court Administrator here in Collier County. With me today we have our administrative judge, Joe Foster, and to his left, State Attorney Amira Fox. MS. FOX: Good morning, Commissioners. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Good morning. MR. RICE: And we're here to present to you a $5.7 million budget which meets budget compliance from the General Fund, we're happy to say. As always, I'd like to thank Mark and his staff for their help throughout this process, thank the Commissioner for your continued support and interest in what the courts do, and I'm happy to say, as of Monday, the courts are fully open for business to the public -- Page 21 June 24, 2021 CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's nice. MR. RICE: -- no restrictions, and we're happy for that, after a long year and a half of doing stuff that a lot of us thought couldn't be done. I'll use Mark's analogy, you know, we're such a large ship, the court system statewide, and we're governed by the supreme court and chief justice, but the way we're able to make movements on such short notice, and as nimble as we became with technology and everything, I think that's a huge compliment to the Courts, stakeholders, the Sheriffs Department, and the Clerk of Court. I mean, really remarkable what we've been able to accomplish in this year and a half. I'll just make a few remarks and be brief and let the judge and Amira make comments. But, right now, one of the important things we were faced with early on in the pandemic was that we continue with our problem -solving courts where we service mental health, veterans, and drug court. We were able to do that and maintain that service to the public, which is huge, because as you know, during the pandemic there's a lot of extra needs, and everybody handled it different. So we're proud of that fact that we're able to continue to do that; we were able to continue with our Marchman Acts and Baker Acts for the community We also were able to have safe jury trials at a point during the pandemic. And throughout the circuit, we had held more jury trials than any circuit in the state of Florida. Here in Collier County we held over 20 jury trials. And, again, that was working with our chief judge and our Administrative Judge, State Attorney, Public Defender, Sheriff, and the Clerk, worked on a weekly basis to meet the challenges and everything and put the protocols in place to be able to do that. So outstanding job by all. And we certainly couldn't have done it without the support from the county staff with facilities and Page 22 June 24, 2021 such, so... You know, the pandemic also allowed us to find some deficiencies in our system, mainly technology. So we're investing some money in technology, and you'll see this year our budget's gone up in the technology area and probably will continue to do so in the next year or so. Now, that money is offset by some revenues. So you're getting a $5.7 million value for a cost of $3 million to the General Fund, which is probably a pretty good return on your investment. We are making every effort we can to go after pandemic money from the state to offset the costs from the county. So we'll -- that's working out very well. We had a pretty good carryforward this year as well to help out where our budget request. With that, I'll open up for comments to Judge Foster and then Amira. JUDGE FOSTER: Good morning, everybody. It's actually a pleasure to be here. Thank you very much for your time. I won't take much of it either. &N Last year when we were here we were talking to you about the importance of keeping the courts open during the pandemic. Obviously, it's very important that we protect everybody's constitutional rights. And we were talking a little bit about our safety protocols. Chuck's gone through some of that with you. And we were very able to keep open, and were very successful, and we're very pleased about that. As Chuck mentioned, as of Monday we're opened back up without restrictions, which is great. We did have a few blips with the virus, as did everybody else during the past year, but our protocols worked. I'm very happy to report beyond -- we never had a case beyond the first. So whoever came into the building with the virus was the only person who had the virus. We didn't have any secondary or third that came in through the course of the whole Page 23 June 24, 2021 epidemic, so we're very excited about that. I would be remiss, though, while I had you -all here and had the microphone if I didn't thank some folks. As Chuck was saying, it took a whole lot of help and support. We had support from the Florida Supreme Court. We had support from the Florida House, the Senate, the Governor's Office. We had the support of you -all and the county government, including the Department of Health, the judges, the assistants, and our partners in court administration, Collier County Sheriffs Office Bailiffs Bureau, the Clerk's Office, the State Attorney's Office, the Public Defender, and the private bar. Everybody came together. We were creative. We were flexible. We were adaptive, and everybody maintained their sense of humor, which was very important, as you all know, as we worked our way through the changing circumstances and the guidance to keep ourselves up and running. �, v I also want to thank the citizens of Collier County. As Chuck mentioned, we were able to do jury trials. The citizens showed up, they did their civic duty, they trusted us with their safety and their health, and we very much appreciate that. And as a result of that, we were able to keep everything running. And as I mention to jurors a lot, our system of justice doesn't work if our citizens don't show up. And so I'm very, very proud of the folks in Collier County, and I'm very thankful for everybody who came. I know all of you -- or lots of you have questions always about the treatment courts. Chuck touched briefly on it. We did have to shut down for about eight weeks, but we were able to keep up and running. So I just thought I'd end with some statistics for you because you seem to like that. End of December last year -- our stats go calendar year -- we had 48 participants in drug court. We had a 61 percent successful Page 24 June 24, 2021 completion rate last year, and a 24 percent rate of recidivism over a three-year period of time. In the mental health court, we had 40 participants at the end of the year. We had a 67 percent successful completion rate and a 7 percent recidivism rate coming out of the mental health court last year -- or over a three-year period of time. And in the veterans treatment court, we had five -- we ended the year with five participants. We had a 73 percent successful completion rate and a 17 percent recidivism over a three-year period of time. Normal recidivism rate over that period of time is between 65 and 75 percent, and we use the three years because that doesn't mean that somebody's not going to reoffend after that period of time, but it's most likely to occur quickly. So we look at a three-year period of time. &&, V So the treatment courts, they're very labor intensive for everyone involved; the participants, the judges, the staff. And, frankly, there are too many partners for me to thank. David Lawrence, probation, everybody worked really, really hard on that, but they work, and we know they work. And so I'm very happy to give you the statistics. And I just wanted to thank you for your continued support of us and the courts, and particularly in the treatment courts as well. I am also happy to answer questions, but I'm also happy to sit here and just smile quietly if you'd like. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner LoCastro, do you have a question for -- COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Not for -- just after the -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: At the -- yeah. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Let Ms. Fox -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: What lovely wonderful news. It works. Page 25 June 24, 2021 JUDGE FOSTER: It does. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's all you need to say. Congratulations. Commissioner Solis. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah. If we talk about an ROI to the community, I mean, that's -- those numbers are amazing. So thank you for all you do, and the whole staff. It's -- yeah. I don't even know what to say. .r CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I know. It's phew. J just like, COMMISSIONER SOLIS: It's amazing. JUDGE FOSTER: It's my honor and it's my privilege and, honestly, it's great working with the participants as well, so yeah. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Thank you. MS. FOX: Thank you, Commissioner Taylor and Commissioners. Good morning, again. So I echo, of course, what Chuck said and what Judge Foster said. I think we've been immensely successful here in this circuit and in this county in particular, all our counties in the circuit, in conquering what we needed to last year in overcoming the challenges we had during COVID. And I will tell you this: That we, circuit -wide, have done, since September of last year, almost 200 jury trials. I think we're hitting the 200 mark this week, and impaneled two grand juries to indict first -degree murders in several of our counties. And the citizens, all five counties, I agree with Judge Foster, I mean, they're just -- they've just been wonderful. They step up to the plate. They come in when called for jury duty and, of course, we took every precaution for their safety. But they could not have been more participatory or willing to take part in the criminal justice system, and we all know without them we can't do it. I'll share with you that I spent some time with other state Page 26 June 24, 2021 attorneys in the state this week at our annual board meeting and, for instance, the state attorney in Miami told me that she's feeling pretty upset because they have done two jury trials -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Oh, my goodness. MS. FOX: -- since the beginning of COVID. So that gives you some comparison to us and how far ahead we are, by far, of other places in the state, and I think that's because of great leadership from our commissions and from our judiciary and our court administration. So I just wanted to thank all the stakeholders because I think it's made a tremendous difference that we are all a team here, we really are, and it shows, because other people who don't work as a team weren't able to get it to that level. Q%hl ` a And speaking of team, I want to say this, echoing the success of our treatment courts: So the Florida Department of Law Enforcement uniform crime rate statistics came out on Monday, and I'm extremely happy to report to you -all for the ninth year in a row the 20th Judicial Circuit was the lowest crime rate in the entire state of Florida, and by quite a big margin. So I think that we can all agree that that's a result of really hard work by the stakeholders in the criminal justice system, by our law enforcement, of course our Sheriff here, Sheriff Rambosk and his team, and our other sheriffs in the circuit in law enforcement. And I think it's also a reflection on what Judge Foster just mentioned, those statistics. Without those problem -solving courts where we can take people in the criminal justice system and try to rehabilitate them instead of the constant Band -Aiding and putting them through the jail and then back out again, that really has a dramatic effect on the crime rate, and I think the balance we have here in our community, with your leadership, of violent people who hurt other people are going to go away for a long time so they can't hurt anyone else. Page 27 June 24, 2021 But the vast majority of the criminal justice system, we work as stakeholders together to see what else can we do to stop this cycle. And I really firmly believe that's why we've had the lowest crime rate for nine years. So I thank you tremendously for funding our problem -solving courts. They make a gigantic difference, and I can tell you as the state attorney, I'm very dedicated to them, as I know our justice partners are. So thank you. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. ZA Commissioner LoCastro. . � e f*. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. I just wanted to make a couple comments. Q%hl ` a You know, as a veteran, I mean, I've lived all over the country, you know, in my last few years. Being a commander, you know, I've worked with commissions and city councils and chamber of commerces and even state attorneys. I'm not being overly patronizing or trying to over -compliment, but I've never seen a state attorney more visible than you. MS. FOX: Thank you. %L COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And so I just wanted to, you know, say that publicly, you know, you speaking all over Collier County and everywhere else, you know, as well. So we don't see other places that you are. And it really is a reflection of your entire office. I'm sure when you're gone, everything's still working, you know, and like you said, it's a great team. But, I mean, I feel like I've lived in a lot of places. I couldn't even tell you the state attorney's name in some of the places, you know, or I could pull it off of the website, and I think that just speaks highly of, you know, how you're serving. You know, as a veteran, I really want to throw a -- well, first of all, levels of recidivism. Never seen those numbers anywhere. So, June 24, 2021 very impressive. But, you know, Judge Martin and what she's doing with the veteran's court is really near and dear to my heart. And I know that Commissioner Solis has done so much work with mental health, and so I'm sure he echoes the same thing, not only the low recidivism rates, but just the hard work. P116 You know, I do a lot with Wounded Warriors of Collier County, as does Commissioner Solis and others here, you know, supportive of them and, you know, the successes that have come out of that court. So Judge Martin, I know she's not here, but, you know, she's part of your team and whatnot. But thank you for all that you do. It's really important, even when you just show up at events. You know, like even you just being at Sugden Park, people notice that. And so you could be a million other places, so I just wanted to thank you, you know, on behalf of Collier County. You know, you cover the whole state, and you could be doing so many other things, but to show up to speak to all those veterans, all those first responders from the stage. You know, maybe it was just like, you know, five minutes at the mic, but it means a lot to people. And then they're all asking, who's that? Who's that? Well, that's your state attorney, you know, and that means a lot. So, you know, thank you. Keep up the good work. MS. FOX: Thank you very much. Those issues are near and dear to my heart, as I'm sure you -all can tell. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Judge Foster, for me and maybe for the public again, would you please read those statistics. JUDGE FOSTER: Yes, ma'am, happy to. In our drug court last year, we ended the year with 48 participants, so that's the number of people that are in at the time. We had a 61 percent successful completion rate and a 24 percent recidivism rate. Page 29 June 24, 2021 For mental health court, last year ended the year with 40 participants; 67 percent successful completion rate and a 7 percent recidivism rate. And in the veterans treatment court, we ended the year with five participants, 73 percent successful completion rate, and a 17 percent recidivism. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. JUDGE FOSTER: Certainly. MS. FOX: That's very good. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: All right. Quit bragging. Quit bragging. No, I'm just kidding. I would say it's not bragging if you did it. JUDGE FOSTER: I'm happy to brag about those numbers. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It's not bragging if you did it. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: It ain't bragging if it's true. Please brag some more. It's -- just wow. It's unbelievable. Congratulations. � - "V� \*" — JUDGE FOSTER: And, again, it's ;the defendants work really, really hard, as do the treatment folks, and -- anyway, they're tough programs, but if you want it -- and I tell all this to the folks who come in, you know, we want you to be successful. We're going to work with you. We don't expect you to be perfect. We just expect you to own your mistakes as anybody would own their mistakes, and we'll work with you, and that's what we do. So it's great. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Well done. Thank you very much. Any other questions? (No response.) CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. MR. RICE: Thank you. JUDGE FOSTER: You guys have a great day. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: You guys have a lovely day. Page 30 June 24, 2021 MS. FOX: Thank you. MR. ISACKSON: Thank you. GROWTH MANAGEMENT MR. ISACKSON: Next up, Commissioners, you have Ms. Trinity Scott, Mr. Jamie French, Mr. Gene Shue, Mr. Ken Kovensky of your Growth Management Department. MS. SCOTT: Good morning, Commissioners. I'll start this morning. I'm Trinity Scott, your Deputy Department Head of the Growth Management Department. U^N '% '% With the bifurcation of GMD, I'm now responsible for capital project planning inclusive of stormwater management and coastal zone, road maintenance, transportation engineering and construction management, and operations support, which also include the county's three airports. With me today I have Gene Shue, director of Operations Support, and Mr. Chris Johnson, our Financial and Operations Support manager. I will keep my comments brief, as you have a long agenda with numerous important areas to address today. In this section of GMD, we currently have just under 300 staff members who dedicate their professional lives to supporting the vision of this board as directed by our County Manager. Our funding sources are as diverse as our projects and come from tourist development funds to grants, ad valorem, gas taxes, impact fees, infrastructure sales tax, and did I mention grants? The County Manager has done an excellent job of highlighting our plans to continue providing exceptional services for the residents and visitors of Collier County. I would like to mention a few items of importance that are expected to begin over the upcoming budget Page 31 June 24, 2021 period. Fifteen years in the making, Vanderbilt Beach Road extension from Collier Boulevard to 16th Street Northeast is expected to begin construction in Fiscal Year '22. This roadway will provide an additional manner of egress and ingress to first responders and those living or having business in eastern Collier County and will provide relief to parallel roadways such as Immokalee Road and Golden Gate Boulevard. The Immokalee Complete Streets Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, as we call it, which consists of nearly 20 miles of sidewalk and drainage improvements and transit improvements in the Immokalee area, which will be a transformational project for Immokalee, is anticipated to begin construction in the upcoming fiscal year. And, finally, the Fiscal Year '22 budget continues to improve the maintenance of your stormwater system to protect life, property, and improve water quality. GMD Capital Project Planning staff continue to partner with both the City of Naples and Collier County Public Utilities to leverage our funds for cohesive projects that reduce construction disruption. An additional value add that we are incorporating is planning for future sidewalks for these projects and incorporating them into the design to ensure that our improvements today do not preclude sidewalk construction in the future. With that, I will close my comments and turn it over to James French to cover the operations and regulatory areas of GMD, and Mr. Shue, Mr. Johnson, and I will be available for questions. MR. FRENCH: Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, I'm Jamie French. I represent your regulatory and enforcement arm of Growth Management. Many times we're asked, what do you do on North Horseshoe? So we're your planning, environmental, building, code enforcement, and licensing arm of your local government. Page 32 June 24, 2021 The Development Services element of Growth Management is comprised of six division directors with an operating budget -- and I stress the word an "operating budget" because we don't have capital, we don't build things -- of approximately $70 million. We are primarily funded by enterprise -based dollars that we collect. Now, these are restricted -use funds that we can only use to carry out our mission and to perform those services. They cannot be used for any other general government type of service or capital item, and that's by statute, of course. _ 9%a With limited dependency, this group operates on General Fund contributions. It's about a 90 to 10 split. So about 10 percent of our operating budget comes from the General Fund, and that's primarily composed of your code enforcement and of your Comprehensive Planning neighborhood studies type of elements. Those sections funded by the General Fund have met the budget guidance outlined by the County Manager's Office and the Board of County Commissioners. Our reserves and our Enterprise Funds are well established, as business has been exceptionally strong. These reserves include the appropriate allowances, as the County Manager had mentioned, for fees prepaid for future services owed to our applicants. We have experienced significant growth in permitting volume, and June will mark the fourth consecutive month processing more than 6,000 permits. This volume represents an approximate 40 percent increase over this same time last year and a 30 percent increase over this same time in 2019. So to meet this rising demand and address the review and inspection deadlines, your staff has been working many nights and weekends, holidays, and senior leadership continues to strategically support alternative operating approaches and bringing on any available resources through our professionally licensed staff Page 33 June 24, 2021 augmentation contracts and temporary staffing agencies. As a result of this move and in addition to our already approved FTE counts, we are currently employing at any given time 60 to 70 contractor job bank type of --our contracted services. Over the next few months we'll be looking at our organization to determine the appropriate long-term permanent staffing solutions or staffing levels and available process enhancements with our industry for long-term sustainable solutions that will continue to better serve our community and maintain statutorily required business and community expectations. We continue to streamline our permitting operation, and since April we've moved to 100 percent electronic permitting for all of our business elements. **W.Iq&_, 11* And there are future initiatives underway to improve our customers' experience when applying for a permit, such as a self -issuing permit offering for certain types of work and redesigning and simplifying current application workflows within our public portal. •-�,� To better assist the contractor community, a video inspection program was developed earlier this year and implemented for the building division that allows for both recorded and virtual video inspections " m Our Code Enforcement division remains committed to life, safety, and the well-being of our community through education, cooperation, and compliance. This team conducted 14 community meetings, nine educational meet and greets, and seven community cleanups throughout the county. And please note that with any success of any of our programs, we give a great deal of appreciation and understanding to our partners. Through the County Attorney's Office, the Collier County Sheriffs Office, your constitutional officers, state agencies as well as Page 34 June 24, 2021 your County Manager's Office, we could not achieve any level of success along with the community without their partnership. Our budget is adequately sized to accommodate upcoming land -use activities including current and future studies or restudies, peer reviews, master plans implementations, redistricting, and LDC amendments. Commissioners, there have been no requests or approved increases in any of our fees since 2009. Instead, the County Manager's Office and the industry has continued to challenge us and support us with new service delivery approaches, and the Board of County Commissioners has approved numerous staff -initiated fee decreases resulting in our enhanced efficiencies. These last two decreases since Fiscal Year ' 17 have resulted in an aggregate savings of better than $7 million back to our consumers. Finally, and much to our mission statement, the Community Development element of Growth Management is committed to the resiliency and long-term protection of our natural built resources, our environment, through professional planning efforts, application of existing code, and well thought-out approaches to our unique environmental and economic challenges. Through our efficient business practices, we've been able to maintain a reliable level of service, and as a participating community in the National Flood Insurance Program, Collier County has retained its current rating of a Class 5 community in the National Flood Insurance policy community rating system. This classify of rating resulted in a 25 percent discount on all flood insurance premiums for NFIP policies issued or renewed in special flood hazard areas since May 1 st of 2020. This savings essentially translates into greater than $7.8 million spread amongst 70,000 flood insurance policies in unincorporated Collier County within the unincorporated areas, as I said. And here's the kicker. All of these services that we designed Page 35 June 24, 2021 in-house were done at no additional cost to the General Fund and no additional fee to the already fees collected. We built them into the programs. We appreciate our community partners, the County Manager's agency, and the Board's continued level of support to our mission but are always aware it's the ladies and gentlemen, our colleagues, working in all aspects of our business that make us successful. Thank you for your time this morning. Mr. Kovensky, your Financial Operations and Regulatory Management director for our Community Development element, is available for any questions, and I, of course. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Jamie, I had one question, and you brought up flood -- you know, flood zones and flood insurance. And this isn't really a budget question but, you know, just because you're sitting right here. ""' '---- '* Recently I met with some folks that work very closely with FEMA, and FEMA has re -drawn the flood maps since Irma. You know, just for -- you know, like I said, just for convenience because you're sitting right here, do you have an update for us on -- because it does dovetail into, then, your department. And I was hearing sort of cryptic type of things of when those maps might be released and then, of course, different organizations challenged the drawing of the maps because the expectation is they're going to be much more aggressive, thus raising the flood insurance fees and whatnot. Somebody that was living in an area that was sort of semi -orange is now red or, you know, that sort of thing. Just didn't know if you had any sort of latest Intel at all on that topic since it sort of falls in your job jar eventually. MR. FRENCH: Sure. It's within our house. So what happens is that FEMA comes through. They update their flood maps Page 36 June 24, 2021 periodically. And, essentially, once those maps are filed, once that data's filed with the national registry, it opens up an appeal period. The appeal period just closed. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, it did? Okay. MR. FRENCH: Yes, sir. And so Collier County, we do have an outside consultant through Tomasello Engineering. We have reviewed their maps. We have some questions. We've challenged them in some of the areas. And the latest revisions to the map were predominately coastal. They were not the inland. We're still working on challenges on the maps from about 12 years ago. So we've -- we go off the best available data, and that's how we enforce the flood maps based off FEMA, but we are still in challenge periods that date back better than 10 years with Tomasello. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Is there a timeline where you're hearing where the maps, eventually, it looks like they'd go final and then all appeals are over, too bad, so sad, this is the map, and then this is what everybody uses for insurance and evacuation and all those kind of things? Do you know what that window is, or is it drifting back and back because of all the challenges? MR. FRENCH: That's certainly a fair question but, sir, it's dependent upon the funding that FEMA receives. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. FRENCH: And so that's why we've been where we've been for probably the last 10 or 12 years. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, sir. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Saunders. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Two quick questions. The 25 percent discount, that is the maximum that's permitted; isn't that correct? MR. FRENCH: No, sir. So for every drop in level it's reverse. So if we got all the way down to a 1, you would receive -- it's 5 Page 37 June 24, 2021 percent per level. So 25 percent -- there's only a handful of Class 5 communities in the country. Now, what's unique about Collier is that we are the only Class 5 community where a good majority of our entire county is considered a special flood hazard area. We have the largest special flood hazard area considerations. And we recently went through an audit that ended back in probably around January through ISO. They took us all the way to Portland because they felt like there was something wrong with our numbers. f% Y _ And the found that we were -- we were well within our Class 5 community rating. But you can -- a Class 1 community, they do exist. They're probably sitting at about an elevation of 8- to 11,000 feet, but -- it would be hard to get there from here, sir. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: The reason I mention it is I wanted to brag a little bit -- on you a little bit about getting that 25 percent, because I don't believe there's any higher amount you could get, and maybe you've just kind of verified that, unless we build some mountains here. And the second question I wanted to raise is, there's been some complaints in the past over backlog and permitting, getting permits out, getting inspections done. And from what I understand, you've solved that problem; is that fair to say or -- MR. FRENCH: Sir, we've given it a good effort. I've -- as you know, I've been back at the head of the group in North Horseshoe. And with the County Manager's support, we've been able to take some alternative approaches, like I mentioned earlier. We were about a month to a month- and- a -half behind on processing permits. Typically we runabout 100 permits per day behind. Because we are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week online, we average now somewhere between 80 and 90 per day. So we caught up in probably about three weeks. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. So you're -- in terms June 24, 2021 of keeping up with the demand, you're in good shape, and you've done a -- your team's done a great job in eliminating those backlogs? MR. FRENCH: Yes, sir. And as I mentioned, we're looking at long-term solutions, but we've certainly found a short-term fix. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Solis. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Just very quickly, can you run through those statistics again. In terms of the number of permits, we're how far ahead of 2019 at this point? 2019 was a big year, right? MR. FRENCH: It was. So we're 30 percent this time last year above 2019 numbers and 40 percent above 2020. , Iq COMMISSIONER SOLIS: That's unbelievable. And I know you and I had had a couple of conversations, and I was glad to hear about the compensation plan because, I mean, one of the problems that you have is finding and then mainly retaining licensed professionals to do the kinds of inspections and things that we need, right? That's one of the challenges you have? MR. FRENCH: Yes, sir. And, in fact, you as a board two years ago approved 10 new FTEs for our group, and it was building inspectors, and it took us better than a year to fill all those positions. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah, okay. That's all good. Thanks. Commissioner McDaniel? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm not quite sure. I think it's probably Jamie, because you and I have had this conversation in the past. There's a substantive increase in reserves, and I believe that has largely to do with the large increase in services and permitting and so on and so forth. And, again, my question is is, how can we be more reactive to Page 39 June 24, 2021 our operating expenses and not retroactively going back and reducing fees on an after -the -fact three-year basis? MR. FRENCH: So, essentially, Commissioner, as I've presented before, we do a fee study about every five years, and we true up what the actual cost is to perform the work versus what we charge, and we measure up quite well. But what we're seeing is that with commodities -- with the commodities market responding very slowly and construction projects are taking longer, the applications are not -- they're applying -- and we've got jobs that are in the queue where a contractor will explain to us that they could be 12 to 18 months out before they anticipate completion. So when we collect those fees, we have an obligation to provide that service. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, I wasn't talking about the reserve for a future -- I mean, I'm looking up above, and for prepaid services I understand that. This is -- and maybe -- and if we need to have this conversation in private off-line, I don't need to take an enormous amount of time for this. It's just -- it seems like -- and it's easy for us to get caught up in the economy of today and the increase and the prices of houses. They're all impacts on how we get along every single day, but this is a long-term -- the economy hasn't gone up or gone down before. We live with this in all of our lives every single day. So I just -- I'd like to have maybe an off-line conversation -- MR. FRENCH: Okay. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- about how we can have a look at this and not -- because since I became the commissioner, I know we have retroactively gone back and looked at the fee structure and reduced them because we found out we were charging too much. And so that's my point. MR. FRENCH: And I appreciate the question, sir, and we're happy to have that conversation with you. 0m' June 24, 2021 CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. That's it. MR. MILLER: Madam Chair, I did have a registered public comment for this section, for the Growth Management section online, Mr. Michael Mogil. Mr. Mogil, you should be prompted to unmute yourself at this time. I don't see him unmuting. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: While we're waiting, Gene, you want to tell us everything we need to know about airports? MR. SHUE: Very briefly, it wasn't too long ago we were sitting here, and we were requiring a 3- to $500,000 subsidy from the General Fund for operations and 100 percent of subsidy for our match related to capital projects. I'm happy to say that next year will be the eighth consecutive year in which we're self-sufficient on an operating side, and I don't see us ever going back to needing capital support -- or operating support. And the FY22 budget is the first that I can recall where there is no need for any subsidy from the General Fund for any capital projects, and for as far out as I go, looking out 10 years, I don't believe we'll have a need for the foreseeable future either. So we're doing great. One other thing to mention, I just learned yesterday, as a matter of fact, that the Marco airport has been nominated by FDOT as the General Aviation Airport of the Year. The Marco terminal has also been nominated as the Capital Project of the Year. They'll announce the winners -- General Aviation Project of the Year. They'll be announcing the winners in about three weeks at the annual conference that they're hosting up in Jacksonville, but I fully expect to win one or both of those. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Oh, wonderful. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Nice. MR. MILLER: All right. Madam Chair, I had a Zoom issue here. I think my operator's back. Let's try Mr. Mogil again. Page 41 June 24, 2021 Mr. Mogil, you should be getting prompted to unmute yourself at this time, if you will do so. There you go. Mr. Mogil, you have three minutes, sir. MR. MOGIL: Yeah, thank you. So glad I'm here remotely and I don't have to sit there for five years. Appreciate this. A. - So I'll be relatively brief. My biggest question regarding this development in Collier County is that we keep pushing east toward undeveloped lands, and sooner or later we're going to start paving them over with roads and sidewalks and shopping centers and roofs and other impervious surfaces. 'N� I've made this comment to the county before., As a meteorologist, I'm well aware of flooding and other things. And the last thing I want is Collier County to be as impervious as Houston, Texas. &&I V V But I just wonder whether the county has a district -by -district handle on the amount of impervious surface that we have in Collier County, and if this is something that might help us better plan and better develop alternatives to just building more stormwater management. Could we do better by putting in some small forest stands, perhaps some more grass areas or parks, other things that would allow water to penetrate into the groundwater system instead of trying to drain it off to other places? I don't know that those are necessarily the solutions, but I'm just curious as to the amount of impervious surface that we have among the five districts that are represented on the dais today to have some idea of just how much impervious surface we have in Collier County. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. MS. SCOTT: Would you like us to respond back to Mr. Mogil? We can -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No. Page 42 June 24, 2021 CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah, I think that would be very helpful. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, I think we already pretty much have that from the stormwater utility fee that came through a couple of years ago. With a click -- MS. SCOTT: We will connect with him off-line. A COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I wasn't being disrespectful by not responding now, but we can -- certainly now is not the time and place for that, so... MR. ISACKSON: Thank you, Commission PUBLIC SERVICES MR. ISACKSON: Your next department, your Public Services Department, Mr. Rodriguez and his staff. MR. RODRIGUEZ: Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, Dan Rodriguez, your Public Services Department Head. Thank you for the opportunity to come to you and speak about the services here, public services, as well as the highlight of the budget. Before I get started, I want to the -- thank you and the County Manager for what I consider a very smooth transition to Public Services. It's been my pleasure to work with the directors, the managers but, most importantly, work with the frontline staff members here in public services. I've had the great opportunity the last 45 days to meet with over 200 employees in the field and really see the great work that they're doing, and it's certainly my pleasure. Thank you. So, Commissioners, we've met your budget guidance including meeting new debt -service obligations and maintaining healthy reserves to the levels of $44 million and returning to full Page 43 June 24, 2021 pre -pandemic service levels. As you are well aware, the department is heavily reliant on several funding sources, including the General Fund, the Unincorporated General Fund, impact fees, tourist development tax, state and federal grant funds, and special tax levies, and our own program -generated revenue of over $9 million each year. This funding supports a $145 million operating budget of our 10 divisions, and the additional $40 million in capital programs with 69 active large projects. And in defense of our County Manager but also our budget director and Susan Usher, we have some money, Commissioners, and we're working on the execution of those projects and programs. We currently, in this fiscal year, have $11 million of projects that are in the works. Some need a little more attention than the others, but we're going to execute. And I've had the pleasure of working with Mark over the last 19 years in facilities, and I have yet for him to say no to me when I delivered a business case for a need. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We'll see how that goes. MR. RODRIGUEZ: See how that works, right? For the record, he's never said no. So with that, the department is now organized with a central financial and operational management division providing cooperative planning -- financial planning and management to support the mission of each division, and that's really the challenge, to find out from each division what are the priorities; what's first, next, and last so that we can follow the Board direction and our County Manager to execute. In Fiscal Year '22, the department will continue to provide a wide variety of high -quality public services to all residents and visitors of our county. Some highlights include planning for and hosting over June 24, 2021 2.7 million visitors to our parks, libraries, and museums. We will also expand our park offerings this year with the opening of the Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Here, here. MR. RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely -- featuring aquatics, baseball and soccer fields, and the largest playground in the county, and many other desirable amenities. Your Conservation Collier team will begin acquiring and managing additional environmentally sensitive lands following the passage of the Conservation Collier re-establishment referendum in November of 2020. Conservation Collier currently owns 4,300 acres, and they plan to acquire another 250 acres at FY22 with a land acquisition budget of about $13 million. Several hundred acres are under consideration, and purchase recommendations will be presented to you, the Board, and the County Manager for your consideration. � - ".P* "lk&, — '* We will continue to facilitate the distribution of more than $150 million in grant funding to our community for pandemic response, human services, senior services, and affordable housing. In a moment I'll ask Kristie Sonntag to provide a high-level summary for you. Our department will continue to invest in its assets and infrastructure by deploying the $20 million bond -funded restoration for parks aquatics and other amenities. And good news, we will be opening the Sun-N-Fun in July that's been shut down for a while, as well as some other pool features. Commissioners, the Golden Gate Senior Center renovation expansion is underway with local, state, and federal forces -- funding sources. Your Collier Area Transit division is committed to providing safe, accessible, and courteous public transportation services to our Page 45 June 24, 2021 customers. We provide essential transportation service to over a million trips annually to the general public and special -needs population. The delivery of service is supplemented with state and federal grants equaling approximately 45 percent of the total operating expenditure, providing relief to the General Fund. Your Domestic Animal Services team will maintain a stellar animal live release rate of over 90 percent. Spay/neuters for the county will exceed 2,200 animals and facilitates over 2,500 animal adoptions or transfers. We will enforce our Animal Control Ordinance, and we will also amend and improve the Animal Control Ordinance to ensure safe management and handling of domestic animals while fostering local businesses in that industry, and we will increase low-cost vaccine clinics for the public. Our University Extension Service Division, in concert with the University of Florida, will deliver research -based programming in the areas of agriculture, marine sciences, urban and commercial horticulture, family consumer science, and 4H youth development. These services are provided by experts in their fields of horticulture, dietetics, sustainability, zoology, and child development. Further, we will continue our long and effective partnership with the Florida Department of Health to support a vital and healthy community. They will continue their COVID-19 programs of testing, contact tracing, vaccinations, and extensive public health education. Our veteran systems team continued outstanding service to our veterans during the pandemic by migrating to an online phone service model that delighted our clients, and the outreach efforts continued as well. In Fiscal Year '22, we will assist over 3,000 veterans and their dependents in completing their benefits claims with the Veterans 0-_ June 24, 2021 Administration, and we'll place further emphasis on outreach events and social media to reach even more veterans. We are working with the Tax Collector's Office to potentially have one of our veteran service officers stationed at our new Heritage Bay government center when it opens later this year. Kristie. O MS. SONNTAG: Good morning, Commissioners. Kristie Sonntag, your Community and Human Services Director. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss our upcoming grants for Fiscal Year '22. As Mr. Rodriguez mentioned, Community and Human Services will administer approximately $156 million in grant funds this upcoming year which represents 87 unique grant awards to the county. The grant funds are dedicated to a variety of services that will benefit our citizens, including $75 million in COVID funding, which will provide support to small businesses, not for profits, individuals, health and mental health agencies. There's also $5 million in grant funding to support housing for low to moderate income persons, 20 million from housing and urban development grants to support the homeless, housing development, and public services, as well as public facilities. And we also received an additional 20 million in emergency rental assistance to support landlords and tenants. In addition, we were recently awarded $6 million in Irma grant disaster funding that will benefit three projects in Immokalee and the Golden Gate Senior Center. We continue to administer $2 million in criminal justice grants, 3-and-a-half million dollars in grants that benefit seniors in our community and, of course, we administer $24 million in other public service department grants. So you can see grants make an overall tremendous benefit to our community and provide a tremendous amount of support. Thank Page 47 June 24, 2021 you. MR. RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Kristie. Commissioners, here in public services, our team members continue to rise to the occasion and provide stellar service. This was on display more than ever during our response to the pandemic where multiple service model adaptations were successfully deployed. Our focus every day is improving quality of life for residents and visitors, and I am confident to assure you that we will continue to do so even with the challenges we all face of increasing operating costs and meeting the appropriately high demands of our citizens. Thank you. ��� "1,, CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. Any questions? 1"• 11* COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I have a question. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: It's obviously -- we talked about parks. I'll move on. Okay. Domestic Animal Services and what we're doing to take a look at the directives, the county directives, and tighten up some things, I mean -- and I'll just cut to the chase. And I've talked with you -all separately but, you know, I want to go on the record here. We had a roomful of animal welfare supporters and people on both sides of the fence a year or so ago. Let's not let -- and I don't call it the Petland issue, because there's other -- there's other businesses and whatnot. But in the end, you know, we deserve to have good ordinances that have teeth in them that we can enforce. As you know, you know, we have county employees that have gone out to some of these places, written plenty of citations. Citations come back to us, then there's some gray areas, and this and that. If I was one of those employees spending the day in the heat going out and trying to do my job and then came back and found out 0-M June 24, 2021 that nothing came of it -- so I know that the ordinances and things that we're trying to tighten up and put the right verbiage and everything but, you know, let's make that a priority. Let's -- you know, let's put that thing to bed, have something that we're proud of here in the county, and then let the dust fall where it may. If, you know, we have a business in town then that has to, you know, overhaul some of their practices, great, you know, then they have to do it. If they're in compliance, great. But, you know, I just want to mention that. You know, it seems like, you know, that's gotten a little bit dusty and everybody's sort of forgotten about it by COVID but, you know, it was a pretty passionate issue and, you know, there again, it's in your job jar, and all of ours. And I know we're working on it but, you know, we're not launching the space shuttle here or building an international space station. I mean, if the ordinance, which is only a few pages, needs some extra teeth, you know, let's get it in there, or if it needs clarification, let's get it in there. And I know you -all are working on it but, you know, let's do that sooner than later so that our employees that are going out and doing the business of the county and trying to do the enforcement of, you know, the ordinance -- if it comes back here and then, like I said, it dies, I can't imagine that they're happy about that. You know, it doesn't give them air speed to basically do their jobs, so... ,W,% MR. RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely, Commissioner. And we're on that, and I have clear direction from the County Manager to get this resolved. And we've been working with the County Attorney. We actually have our first draft that we'll go take before the DAS committee here within the next month. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, look at you. Okay, MR. RODRIGUEZ: It's Darcy and her team and a collective June 24, 2021 group. But, again, it's taking the personalities out of it. It's truly about the care and welfare of the animals and conducting a business that's conducive to their care. And 96 percent of that ordinance is just definitions and updating with the state. There's a small percentage that speaks about the cages and size. We'll take care of that, bring it to you, and I think you'll be happy with the product. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Great. Thank you, sir. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So just a -- I just have a question. Seventeen thousand volunteer hours, am I hearing this, over a year's time of the volunteers that come to Domestic Animal Services? MR. RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. Darcy and her team -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Wow. a%, ` a MR. RODRIGUEZ: --they just do a great job of embracing the volunteers and bringing them in and getting help to take care of those animals, absolutely. If you go there on any given day, you'll see 20, 30 people; 15, 10 walking around, carrying pets, cleaning them, cleaning their kennels and enjoying it, so... CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: They are to be commended. I mean, that shows us tremendous community support for what we do. MR. RODRIGUEZ: It speaks volumes to Darcy and her commitment to truly caring about the animals, but also her staff. She's found key people that that's their lifelong dream is to care for animals. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: And if we were doing anything wrong, we'd know about it, and it's seamless over there. You never hear anything. In fact, it's -- people are smiling. I've gone there several times. I mean, it's just -- it's really congratulations. Really. MR. RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. We'll pass that on. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. Thank you very much. We have public comment. MR. MILLER: Madam Chair, I do have one registered public Page 50 June 24, 2021 comment. Mr. H. Michael Mogil -- oh, I'm sorry. That's the wrong person. David Jaye. Mr. Jaye, you're being prompted to unmute yourself, if you'll do so at this time. Mr. Jaye, are you -- are you with us? We're sending you a prompt to unmute, sir. (No response.) A CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I have all my Zoom guys here, s� know it's not on our end this time. ZA:� David Jaye, are you with us, sir? (No response.) MR. MILLER: All right. Madam Chair, he is registered to speak on several items, so he'll have a chance later on in the day. Thank you, ma'am. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's fine. Thank you very much. And I think we have a well -deserved court reporter break. Thank you very much. We'll reconvene in 10 minutes, if that's okay. So let's make it 10:45 today. Thank you. (A brief recess was had from 10:33 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.) ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES MR. ISACKSON: Madam Chair, you have a live mic. Next up is Admin Services which, as the Board knows, under our restructuring, has now been collapsed under the County Manager's operation. Sean Callahan and Edwin Finn will address and answer any questions you might have on that section. MR. CALLAHAN: Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, Sean Callahan, Deputy County Manager. As the Manager stated, we have begun to move the Administrative Services support division under the guidance of the Office of the County Manager. Page 51 June 24, 2021 Today what you have in front of you is a $145 million operating budget of which about -- impact to the General Fund is about $30 million. Three hundred sixty-six employees in the department. The Manager's been very instructive on what he wants this budget to accomplish. I think it's three things: One, a commitment to public safety; two, an investment in our own people; and, three, mitigation of risk and increased service throughout the agency. ik W I believe that the County Manager covered most of the salient points in his presentation earlier, but I would like to highlight just a few. In EMS, we are negotiating a new pay plan with that bargaining unit that we hope to have in front of you on your July agenda which we believe will address some of the issues with vacancies and staffing that they have there. ft Throughout the full agency, we are in the process of updating our pay and classification plan that we have to have done this year that will make us marketable in recruiting throughout the market, improving our workforce. And then we've been very aggressive with our information technology capital investment to mitigate the risk throughout the agency from increased data protection and cyber risk that's there. So I'd like to highlight those three, and if you have any questions about the budget in particular, myself and the director of our Office of Management and Budget are available to answer them. MR. FINN: Thank you, Sean. Edward Finn, OMB Director. This budget's pretty straightforward. The highlights that Sean mentioned are all reflected in the budget. There are some increases, particularly in the EMS side to accommodate some of that adjustment that's necessary, as well as some critical equipment needs, including a new reserve for the new helicopter. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. I don't see any questions Page 52 June 24, 2021 up here. Thank you very much for your presentation. No public comment. Thank you. MR. FINN: Thank you so much. MR. CALLAHAN: Thank you for your time. PUBLIC UTILITIES MR. ISACKSON. Commissioners, next is Mr. Yilmaz -- Dr. Yilmaz, Joe Bellone, and Amia Curry, your Public Utilities section, please. Thank you. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Good morning. MR. CURRY: Good morning. MR. BELLONE: Good morning. g DR. YILMAZ: Good morning, Commissioners and County Manager. For the record, George Yilmaz. We have met your budget guidance as you have approved as our governing board and Board of County Commissioners, and we have met our County Manager's expectations, and we're here to inform you that we have appropriated funding to continue outstanding life -sustaining mission -critical services 24/7, over 240,000 customers that we have and we have been serving, and our customer base, as you know, growing. Our financial team here, to summarize highlights on three business units: Collier County Water/Sewer District, which is an enterprise business operation and fund; Collier County Solid Waste Districts 1 and 2, also enterprise business operations and fund; and general government facilities management, including our constitutionals, mostly funded by our General Fund. With that, I'm going to request Amia Curry, who just recently got her MBA, our Financial and Operations Support manager, will address the highlights. Ma'am. Page 53 June 24, 2021 MS. CURRY: Thank you, George. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Amia Curry, the manager of Financial and Operational Support for the Public Utilities Department. I'll begin with the water/sewer district. The district is budgeted revenue centric, and it meets your Board -approved budget guidelines. It is an enterprise fund, so it receives its revenues from fees for services, and those support compliant operations, provide for a critical capital repair and rehabilitation program, and meet our debt obligations and bond covenants. Our revenues were prepared utilizing a 2.9 percent rate increase which, combined with our customer growth, is anticipated to generate 4.7 million over the FY21 budget. 11* This budget is set to produce 9.8 billion gallons of water, treat 8 billion gallons of wastewater, and distribute 5.8 billion gallons of reclaimed irrigation -quality water. * Our expenses are pay -go. They include an operating element of 116.8 million, and that includes 468 FTEs; and a capital improvement program of 57.1 million that's focused on the renewal and replacement of $1.6 billion in aging infrastructure in alignment with our Enterprise Asset Management Program. Significant capital projects for'22 include the utility replacement program in Naples Park in coordination with stormwater, the wastewater western interconnect, and the Goodland pump station improvements. Our unrestricted reserves of 30.9 million represent 62 days of operating and capital funds. And at the beginning of FY22, our current outstanding debt will be approximately 223 million with debt service of 21.7 million. The district has held the highest bond rating possible, that's triple A, from Fitch since 2014 and from Moody since 2019. And as you know, Page 54 June 24, 2021 maintaining these investment -grade credit ratings benefits our ratepayers by allowing the utility to borrow at favorable interest rates when necessary. Next is the Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Division. This budget is also revenue centric, it maintains no external debt, and it meets the Board -approved budget guidelines as well. It's also an enterprise fund receiving fees for services for its revenue. And the revenues were prepared utilizing a 2.9 percent tipping fee increase and 2 percent non -ad valorem assessment increase for the residential curbside collection. This budget is set to provide 14.2 million curbside collections, manage about 300,000 tons of municipal solid waste, and dispose of 2.6 million pounds of household hazardous waste. Twice -weekly collection of garbage and weekly collection of recycling and yard waste services are provided to approximately 400,000 Collier citizens. � - "qp* Expenses are pay -go. They include an operating element of 51.3 million, including 47 FTEs, and a capital improvement program of 3.4 million that includes improvements to the Immokalee solid waste facility as well as completion of the deep injection well. Unrestricted reserves of 11.1 million represent 70 days of operating and capital funds, and restricted reserves for emergency debris removal total 8.8 million. Finally, we have our Facilities Management Division budget. This budget also meets the Board -approved budget guidelines, and it's a General Fund operation dedicated to providing secure, clean, and comfortable facilities for the Board agency and our constitutionals. This budget is set to maintain almost 5 million square feet of government facilities, and expenses include an operating element of 17.6 million including 76 FTEs, of which one million is funded by Page 55 June 24, 2021 fees for services and the capital program of eight million includes projects for video monitoring security system replacement and heating, ventilation, air conditioning, fire alarms, life safety, and general building repairs. The one -cent sales tax projects also fall within this division services, and they'll continue into '22 with a remaining value of about 74-and-a-half million. i, ' In closing, Public Utilities' budgets for our three business units meet Board -approved budget guidelines, and Joe Bellone, our chief financial officer, will address potential funding impacts. MR. BELLONE: Thanks, Amia. 14%1` For the record, Joe Bellone, Director of Utilities Finance. And I've never had this opportunity before, and I will take it up right now. I've never had -- 18 years in Collier County in Utilities, never had a County Manager stand up and say, Joe Bellone, corrected me in my memo. So thank you, Mark, I really appreciate that. We have some great spirited conversations. K", As Amia mentioned during her discussion, that we did create this water/sewer district revenue budget using a 2.9 percent rate increase across the board for water, wastewater, and irrigation -quality water. You will see at your July 13th board meeting another item for a rate study that we completed a little bit earlier this year that has some different rates, a little bit higher, as Mark included in his intro memo to you. And we'll have a discussion about that and set some policy at that meeting. I do think that it's important to note that the budget -- the water/sewer district budget, set as it is, provides, as Amia said, a $57 million capital budget for water and sewer infrastructure repair and rehabilitation. That's just a little shy of what we've been able to do annually. We've been able to do about 60 million annually. This Page 56 June 24, 2021 is just a little bit shy of that. And I just think it's important as we talk about rates eventually and we talk about any federal funding for the utility, what the utility faces coming up in the next couple of years in terms of rehabilitation. It includes, as of today, an additional 101 miles of asbestos cement water main out of about 1,128 miles of water main. Mainly in the older sections of the utility, Naples Park, Naples Manor, Lely, Palm River, and I think we know where those are. We have 27 miles of thin -walled PVC pipe worth about $42 million, and those are all within Golden Gate City. There's 113 miles of clay sewer mains out of about 732 miles. Pretty significant investment. About 226 miles. Q%hl ` a 11116, COMMISSIONER SOLIS: I'm sorry. How many miles? MR. BELLONE: One hundred thirteen miles of clay sewer out of 732 miles of sewer mains. Ph, V N COMMISSIONER SOLIS: % Wow. MR. BELLONE: And out of 136 wastewater air release values, the valves that let the methane gas come out to keep wastewater flowing, about 120 of those need rehabilitation. If you do the math on all of that, it approximates about $433 million. So at $60 million a year, we're talking a program of at least seven years or more to get that done using user fees alone. I just wanted that to get on the record so that as we start to talk about rates and we talk about any federal funding, we have in the background what the utility's facing in the coming years. And with that, we're all available to take any questions you have. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I have a question. What is your recommendation for this, this repair and restoration of working clay pipes, et cetera, and replacement of valves? What is your recommendation? Seven years, or do it in a shorter time? You Page 57 June 24, 2021 know what the condition of the pipes are. You know what's happening with your infrastructure. MR. BELLONE: George will back me up, and we have our engineering director and our water and wastewater directors outside. We're attacking worst first. We know that air release valves can leak and cause wastewater to leak into the environment. Those are critical. Clay pipes, while we don't get a lot of breaks on those, they do allow infiltration, which causes more water to end up at our treatment plants, causing our treatment costs to increase. Asbestos concrete pipes, while they're in place and don't break, are fine until they break, and then there's an issue. So what we're trying to do is we're trying to isolate -- using hot maps, isolate those areas where we find there are more frequent breaks of those kinds of mains and attack those areas first. And they're throughout the utility service area. So that's sort of how we approach the annual capital budget. '--- '0� CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So -- and I just -- DR. YILMAZ: If I might add to Joe, as commissioners know, about a little over five years ago, we have initiated Enterprise Asset Management Program, GIS based. So our Enterprise Asset Management Program on GIS, you can zoom in. More sophisticated than, in so many ways, Google. That's a challenge. We're going down to components of our assets. So given that detail at tactical level, our Asset Management Program tells us what we have to fix today or tomorrow or within a year, next five years, next 10 years. Risk -based decision -making is the fundamental driver for the Asset Management Program. So we have to take a risk. We cannot fix everything at once. So seven years is a much better window than 10 years. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah. DR. YILMAZ: So we were at 10 years. We've compressed it June 24, 2021 to seven years, hopefully less, because of the fact that this board approved our Enterprise Asset Management GIS base that given now results so that we're not going by institutional knowledge. We're going with institutional knowledge and significant amount of algorithm and field confirmation of, as Joe articulated very well, what is worse that will fail yesterday, today, or tomorrow, we go and fix it as early as possible. And what might fail next two or three years, they are programmed in your budget that you're going to approve. Next five years is part of your budget that you're going to approve. But that's all risk -based management and also shows we're managing our assets responsively without creating rate shock to our customers. I hope I answered your question together with Joe. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: You did. You did. Commissioner Solis, I know you want to - 'N COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah, just a couple of questions. You know, every time I hear that number much how many miles of clay pipe there are out there, it's staggering. But -- and I just want to say that I think the challenges that you face and the scope of what you -all oversee is really amazing, and I think, you know, we're lucky to have all of you on the team and doing such a great j ob. So thanks for everything you do. Just out of curiosity, the things -- the materials that we are changing, the clay pipes, to, you know, what we're replacing them with, I mean, what's the life of those? I mean, it's PVC, right, or -- usually, or something like that? So it -- DR. YILMAZ: Commissioner, I might take that. And there are -- there are three different -- three different primary product lines that we looked into carefully for water mains, wastewater mains, and IQ mains. So we are going with what is most prudent and longer lifespan. So the pipes that we have chosen for wastewater has a lifespan Page 59 June 24, 2021 and resiliency for potential force main breaks is about 20 years out. So when you have PVC pipe like Quarry [sic] area we put PVC pipes, they are not as elastic as HDP type pipes; therefore, they are prone to break faster. Moving from tactical strategy, your question is right on. We have to be as good as we are in terms of asset management, what we are replacing but also replaces with what. So that's also part of our Asset Management Program. That is somewhat dynamic, and that's where our utility standards gets updated every two, three years so that our developers produce to our standards before they convey to us so that we're giving the customers best possible product line for next 10, 20 years. Q%hl ` a 11116, CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Can I piggyback on that? COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Right. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So you -- in new development you have a standard that you expect -- well, I mean, frankly, in the east we are the -- we are the service in the east. And so if -- for instance, in areas that we are not the main service provider, we have no authority at all in terms of what is put in the ground or how long it lasts; is that correct? DR. YILMAZ: Correct, with the follow-up, this board was visionary to extend our service area boundaries to Collier County Water/Sewer District Special Act boundaries. Doing so, our utility standards applies everywhere except other districts like Immokalee Water/Sewer District, City of Naples, City of Marco, and Rural Lands West area. They had their own district, and they had option to produce their water, and they had option to put their own infrastructure to their standards. So we were able to bring our standards to the level and, as an enterprise business, be competitive enough to the point developers have chosen us to provide service and decided not to build their own June 24, 2021 system. That's why you have gone through and approved those interlocal agreements. And that goes to this Board's vision and our executive leadership team's vision. This is about 50- to 100-year endeavor. Everything we're putting in infrastructure in ground will stay there, will serve customers now and in the future. So I think that visionary strategic policy decision put us in a position where private sector willing to have this governing board providing water/sewer, irrigation water, and solid waste services within their districts. v CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. —R COMMISSIONER SOLIS: And just my last thing is I was looking in the budget, and I couldn't find the budget line item for the huge awards case that you must have somewhere, because I saw that the division got another award for the outstanding membrane plant. So, I mean, you must add on to that thing every year, because the awards just keep coming in, right? , ""-�-- '* DR. YILMAZ: Thank you, Commissioner. That's very gracious of you. And our team members, 560 men and women out there hearing what you just said, they are thrilled. We appreciate the acknowledgment, and I think that being the best is above and beyond what we have to do every day with the resources we've got. And we have the encouragement. And our new County Manager and I had high-level discussions and, yes, we do have the freedom to be the best in the nation next five years, and you will get more of them. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Congrats. Great job. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Great. Thank you. Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You know, I just wanted to say that, you know, when I became a commissioner, the department I spent the most time with was you -all, mostly because, having commanded a couple of bases, you quickly learn that all the visible Page 61 June 24, 2021 stuff that people drive by is great, but it's all the behind -the -scenes stuff, when it implodes, it creates some havoc. You know, people flush their toilets, they work. Nobody says, wow, Collier County, great job. But, you know, if it overflows into their bathroom, all of a sudden, who are the idiots in Collier County that, you know, don't know what they're doing. And, you know, just the opposite, you have an unbelievable professional team. I mean, I've spent -- how many days did we spend together going into places that, like you even said, a lot of people haven't even stood here to really understand what the infrastructure looks like. You know, through my eyes being able to compare it with what I had at some of my bases -- because it's very similar, very similar, and I was extremely impressed. You know, how many times did I tell you, holy smokes, man, I wish I would have had this at Eglin. But more than that, people really need to realize and to, you know, hear publicly the proactive measure that Collier County has taken under your leadership and your team to make sure that we're well ahead. You know, Commissioner Taylor and I went -- you know, went and cut a ribbon at one of your, you know, stations, and there's been a couple of other visible things. But there's so much stuff you guys are doing behind the scenes with pipe replacement and everything. But on the flip side, when we have had an emergency -- you know, we had that wastewater, you know, break -- your sense of urgency, which is something I really respect, being able to really, you know, while citizens are going crazy already -- and they should. You know, they're wondering, you know, if we're responding, you already have the trucks out there, the updates to all of us over, you know, the weekend and late hours and whatnot so we could respond back to constituents. You know, those are the fine points that aren't lost on anybody up here. Page 62 June 24, 2021 And so that's why, you know, your department wins a lot of awards. I actually saw the trophy case. It's packed. So there might be something in the budget to add a bigger one. Lastly, I'll just say, very impressed with the knowledge of your employees. A lot of times you can go around with a director, and that person's saying all the things. You are, you know, such a hands-on leader that I can't count the number of times where I'd ask a question and you'd be like, oh, Karl's going to answer that or, you know, one of your other people, and that just shows the depth of your leadership. So I'll never wish this but, you know, if you got struck by lightning or whatnot -- and you won't -- but, you know, the job of a leader is to make more leaders. The depth that you've built with your team and their knowledge has -- you know, has been, you know, very impressive. �,` The only thing I'll just say on the budget is I know you really pride yourself on, you know, tightening your belt and finding ways to be efficient and everything but, you know, don't be shy that if you do see some things, like the County Manager has said, you know, we have funds, General Fund, and you -- I'm sure you tap into it, you know, plenty of times. But, you know, there's some areas in your budget where, you know, you've tightened the belt or reduced it, and in a couple of areas I know why, because we've already upgraded it or whatnot, so it was a change that wasn't needed. But in a couple of cases, if you're doing something more efficient but it looks like it's not proving to be effective -- and I'm telling you something you already know, but just for the sake of sort of reiterating it, you're in a very important department that is way behind the scenes, but the minute something goes wrong, it's front and center. So if you do see something that's coming up, don't be Page 63 June 24, 2021 shy to, obviously, the County Manager or any of us, because we really want to be here to support your department because of the importance of what you do and how many people it affects, whether they know it or not. So, well done on the award, and I'm sure more to come. And, you know, I was very impressed from top to bottom and saw so many of your areas that were extremely, you know, impressive, and those areas that needed a little tender love and care, you were on it. You know, you already had the plan and the people. So, thank you. DR. YILMAZ: Thank you. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. I think that's it. No more questions, no more public comment. Well done. Thank you. Ar-W N DEBT SERVICES MR. ISACKSON: Commissioners, I'll take debt service. In my prior position -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: From over here? No, no. MR. ISACKSON: In my prior position I spent a lot of time and paid a lot of attention to our debt program and specifically debt management. I will tell you that your debt -- your total all -in principal debt outstanding in '08 was $788 million. It's now down to about 559 million, and that's with issuing about 200 million in debt since 2019. We're always looking aggressively at our portfolio. We always look to try and see what tranches of debt that we have out there that might be possibilities for refunding. That's done on a regular basis. You're at about 62 million right now in all -in debt service on an June 24, 2021 annual basis. Amia just said that on the utility side it's about 23 million of that -- of that number. The average all -in net interest cost of the portfolio has dropped from about 5 percent back in '08 now to about a little under 3. That's substantial. Is So I just want the Commissioners to know and understand that we're positioning the portfolio such that when there is a need to issue debt, we're in a position, the best position possible, to do that. Financially you have a triple A implied corporate credit rating. The utility has a triple A rating currently. It's likely, because we just had surveillances on the most recent not -to -exceed $145 million issue. Those ratings will come back in a day or two.. I suspect it will be a hold at 02 A. So just some comments on the portfolio in general, and our particular approach to that, I think, would have been -- is in order, and I'll conclude my comments there, and I'll ask for any questions that you might have. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Seeing none. MR. ISACKSON: Any comments from the public, Troy? MR. MILLER: Not on debt service, sir. MANAGEMENT OFFICES (PELICAN BA MR. ISACKSON: All right. Next, Commissioners, we'll go to management offices and Pelican Bay. I think we have Mr. Dorrill here, Mr. Callahan. MR. CALLAHAN: Good morning, again, Commissioners. For the record, Sean Callahan, Deputy County Manager, and joining me is Mr. Neil Dorrill, your Director of Pelican Bay Services Division. What you have in front of you is about a $37 million net Page 65 June 24, 2021 operating budget. It's comprised of 86 full-time employees for your management offices. As a reminder, your management offices include both the Bayshore and Immokalee Community Redevelopment Areas, your economic development programs, the Paradise Coast Sports Complex, your Tourism Division, Office of Management and Budget, Corporate Business Operations, Corporate Compliance and Internal Review, County Manager's Office, and it - finally Pelican Bay Services Division. I will briefly go over some of the different programs and then turn it over to Mr. Dorrill to see if he has any comments related to Pelican Bay. Both of your CRAs are implementing an aggressive capital projects program in the upcoming year focused on infrastructure throughout both of those areas. Some changes to your economic development program, we will be phasing out the Naples accelerator but continuing to operate the culinary accelerator in Immokalee and continuing to assist the public that wishes to open food -related businesses there. The three innovation zones continue to accrue money and accrue funding for economic development plan projects that will be coming forward. In the Paradise Coast Sports Complex, we are actively soliciting for a new management operator at the complex. Operations are ongoing. The stadium is hosting its first large event on July 3rd that we're all excited about with the Ben Allen Band, and we'll continue to host and bring in business and increase the tourism. The tourism's a good -news item. Our annualized through the end of this year, we're expected to be at about $30.1 million, which is back to your FY2019 budget for TD tax. So, you know, what that tells us, and what we've heard constantly during the TDC meetings, is that that industry is beginning to recover and get back to normal and 1 •• June 24, 2021 increased levels. In your FY22 budget, we're projected at $29.8 million in tourist development tax collections, and if the trend continues that we're seeing this year, we expect to actually exceed that number. I'm going to pause there and turn it over to Mr. Dorrill if he has got any comments about the Pelican Bay Services Division. MR. DORRILL: Very quickly. And, Commissioner LoCastro, it's nice to be able to meet you and work for you. 1 The Pelican Bay Services Division is a combined Municipal Service Taxing and Benefit District under the Board of County Commissioners, and, essentially, we're a public works, environmental, and conservation agency and provider to that community. Pleased to announce that next year's budget in terms of operations and administration will actually decrease 6 percent or a reduction in the non -ad valorem assessment of $33. Clam Bay will increase slightly by $6 to $31.14, and then we will have an increase in our capital spending. The community has embarked on a fairly aggressive, for them, capital construction campaign that includes replacing all of the concrete sidewalks and pathways in the community, a new operations facility after 45 years. We'll be relocating our administrative offices to the lobby and ground floor of the Sun Bank where we have been a tenant for many years because we got a better rate to move off the third floor. Total assessment next year, $799, which a lot of people consider to be a real value in terms of the ability to live and enjoy retirement and raise a family in Pelican Bay. Seven hundred ninety-nine dollars, a $39.58 increase in the non -ad valorem assessment. It is astounding to me that the community's assessed value is approaching $8 billion in assessed value. It's a pleasure to represent the Board in the operation there. And I'll just -- I want you to know, in conclusion, you have a great Page 67 June 24, 2021 staff there, administrative staff. I'm a long-term county employee, but, you know, a lot of those people can work and only meet you for their 10-year recognition or something like that. So Chad and Lisa, Karen, and Darren and Barbara, you're a pleasure to work with there. I appreciate you. I know the community appreciates you, and it's a pleasure to represent your interests there day to day. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? I just -- I have one comment which we don't have to decide now, but I wanted to kind of fly that balloon. I believe we have a 10-year agreement with the City of Naples where TDC funding -- I think it's two million, five hundred a year, over -- and it's a 10-year agreement, I believe it is. I'm hoping that my colleagues might consider more money for the beaches. I think the City of Naples has done an outstanding job cleaning the beaches and maintaining it there. They're there all the time. And I think if we know anything about increased tourism, I think it's maybe time to bump that up a little bit. And if there isn't a huge "oh, my gosh, let's not do that," with your agreement, I'd like to see if staff could work with staff and see what their needs are and what they might want to do. So I wanted to bring that forward right now. MR. CALLAHAN: Yes, ma'am. We'd be happy to reach out to the City of Naples staff and coordinate on that. I'd remind you that your beach interlocal parking agreement will also be up for renegotiation at the end of FY22 as well. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Oh, lovely. MR. CALLAHAN: So if we're going to talk funding and all of that, we might want to do it together with those items -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes. MR. CALLAHAN: -- and look at it holistically. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: There really -- as you know, what's 1 •i June 24, 2021 happened in the city is they decided that the parking needs to be to all of us in the Collier County, as many streets as possible, not to whoever gets there first. And so they really have taken a very -- I think a very brave step in that direction. And then I also would remind my colleagues, unlike any other area in Collier County, the City of Naples is open to whomever wants to drive on their streets. No gated community. Beachheads wide open. Anybody can go down, and it's residential. So they particularly understand and feel the pulse of the increased growth. And as I say, they do a great job on the beaches. So if there's an agreement here -- I didn't want to just go to staff. I just wanted to talk to my colleagues about it.` a COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I would say I certainly would agree to staff taking a look at it. I'm not agreeing to any numbers, obviously. It's just -- �, %, CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: No, no. It's more to start the process. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Sure. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Good. Thank you. MR. CALLAHAN: Thank you, Commissioners. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. MR. ISACKSON: I'm assuming, Troy, we didn't have anything for management offices? MR. MILLER: No, we did not, sir. COUNTY ATTORNEY CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I'll ask County Attorney Klatzkow to provide any comments on the County Attorney's budget. 1 •• June 24, 2021 MR. KLATZKOW: Yeah, and I'll be brief. We're essentially unchanged from last year. Eighty-five percent of my budget's personnel, and we're compliant with the County Manager's guidelines as to increases and what have you. And I'm happy to take any questions. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MR. ISACKSON: Commissioners, hearing none, the Board of County Commissioners budget, some of that's -- a lot of that's controlled by me. So the portion that's controlled by the Board through individual cost centers -- there are five individual cost centers for each commissioner plus one catch-all cost center. Those went up modestly primarily in the area of IT charges and things of that nature. &&, The stuff that I control, for example, like other G&A, I buried a lot of money in there for IT capital. So that's why you see some increases in that particular area. And, predominantly, those are what I would call countywide charges like your audit expenses and your insurance -- property insurance and things of that nature. So I just wanted to make those comments. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. Well, we really like our new computer and technology in our boardroom. It's well done. Thank you. MR. ISACKSON: If I can, Commissioners, before we break, I just want to acknowledge the staff, the department heads, the deputy department heads, Mr. Finn, and the staff at OMB for work that goes on behind the scenes in generating the document, and just a shout out to those folks that have been doing this for a lot of years. Even when I was over there, so... CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So I think we do have public Page 70 June 24, 2021 comment. MR. MILLER: Yes, it's -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: But we want to hear from our commissioner. No, no. That's fine. I just saw Commissioner LoCastro's name appear on the board, so... COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Do you want to go t person or -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. That's fine. MR. MILLER: Once again, David Jaye has signed up to speak on several items, including the Board of County Commissioners section. Mr. Jaye, you should be getting a prompt to unmute yourself at this time, sir, if you wish to speak. And I see you're unmuted. You have three minutes, sir. MR. JAYE: Thank you. I wanted to bring to the commissioners' attention and the public that there are 77 overpaid mostly over 65-year-old Collier County bureaucrats that are receiving county pensions of 11.3 million plus 5.8 million a year in salaries at the same time to do the same job, plus healthcare insurance, supplemental pay, cashing out of unused days off, and take-home cars. And the cashing out of unused days off is not at the salary level when those days off were banked, but at the highest level of salary. _Wk I call them triple dippers, tripledippers.org. These public servants are the only public employees in the state of Florida that don't pay 3 percent of their salary to the Florida Retirement System. Replacing -- replacing these drop -- these triple dippers with freshly trained and newly educated entry level people would save taxpayers approximately 2.3 million each year without cutting a single job; 2.3 million. Collier County's 77 DROP triple dippers is now up from 52 in Page 71 June 24, 2021 2018, and the king of the Lee [sic] County government triple dippers is Leo Ochs. And he had a salary of 213,000 and a cash bonus of 637,546, the second highest cash bonus in Florida in May of 2021. Ochs shifted his personal individual responsibility to the taxpayers by not paying 3 percent of the salary in his pension, 6,411. The -- after Leo Ochs, there's also Matthew Villa (phonetic), battalion chief, salary of 113,069, cash bonus of 450,000. The Collier County triple dippers include low-level employees like secretaries, auto technicians, janitors, and incredibly, a courier -- a courier. When UPS and the other courier services aren't available, you're paying a courier 38,870 plus a cash bonus of $50,000 to do the same job at the same time. Private companies can provide these services much cheaper and use personal computers, not secretaries. And the cherry on the top, for these triple dippers is that these public -servant retirees can afford to delay Social Security which then increases 8 percent a year to age 70.*-' '* The taxpayers are on the hook for 36 billion, with a b, in unfunded public pensions and retiree healthcare. That works out to 1,674 liability for every man, woman, and child in Florida. So the Deferred Retirement Option Program is an option. There are no mandatory retirement laws in the state of Florida. It's an option program. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. I'm sorry. Your time is up. Thank you very much. And I know that you've registered to speak with some other items. So at the appropriate time, I will allow you to come back and continue -- not to repeat, but to continue. But, unfortunately, you have to stop right now. Thank you very much. Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: A question for you, Mr. Isackson. Just -- and I just want to find out when the appropriate time is. So on Page 33 is when it starts, sort of an Page 72 June 24, 2021 overview of District 1, District 2, District 3, and the projected funding for Fiscal Year '21P22. I had a couple questions. No huge, deep dive. Is it appropriate now or wait till the end? What's more -- MR. ISACKSON: No, you can -- COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. So getting to District 1, just a couple questions that I had, and it sort of dovetails on what Commissioner Taylor was saying. I mean, I don't have a lot of beaches in District 1, but Tigertail is one of the beaches, and I just didn't see a line item there for beach renourishment. So, you know, the answer could be, well, the General Fund or if we need it. What I tend to hear from my constituents in District 1 -- and, you know, I'll paraphrase, but their quote is always, you know, we always get the last truckload of sand. You know, you flip these pages, and everybody else has beach renourishment. Granted, beaches are huge in some of other districts, and we don't necessarily have the big footprint -- but some of the renourishment that I think we actually do on some of the Marco Island beaches as well. You know, like I said earlier, when it's not a line item and it's like, well, we'll get to it, you know, if we have a fund with extra money and just raise your hand, but it's not in the budget. You know, I just want to know your thoughts on that. MR. ISACKSON: Well, let me just say that what we attempted to do with these pages is simply to provide a snapshot. This is not an all -exclusive list. Mr. Finn could probably give you the 10-year renourishment plan sitting in our Fund 195 that will give you a very, very comprehensive look at all of the coastal projects that are being funded, not only this year but in the out -years. We'd be happy -- COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Are there District 1 things in there? MR. ISACKSON: Yeah. We'd be happy to provide that to Page 73 June 24, 2021 you, sir. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Because, I mean, like you said, there's a long-term plan. But for '21 and '22, is there -- are there line items in there? MR. ISACKSON: That 10-year plan includes '22 also. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. So, yeah, maybe if you could send that to me just so I can speak, you know, as eloquently as possible to my constituents as to what we're doing, what we're not doing, is it in the budget, is it not. And then, just as I was looking through here -- and I don't know that I caught something. You know, you were telling your staff, you know, they had a typo somewhere, and you flipped the slide. I was actually looking for it. It's a pet peeve of mine, too. But if you look at Page 34, about halfway down, it says -- it's in District 2. It says Sugden Regional Park, 215,500, and then if you go to Page 36 for District 4, it's the same, the last line is Sugden Regional Park, 215,500. KW NIN Now, if you look at the comments, it says Sugden and Conner, and so I just didn't know if maybe those were both line items because -- you know, but maybe one of them should say Conner, one of them should say Sugden. It just caught my attention. So I wasn't sure if that was sort of a misprint or needed some more specificity. But, you know, it was identical in the same thing but two different districts. That's really all I caught. So it was more observation. See, we're both -- we actually read this. MR. ISACKSON: Thank you. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So, I mean, what do you think that was? Do you think -- is that correct; that it's both districts? It's part of their budget. MR. ISACKSON: I'll let -- maybe Ed can address that. I'll let Ed talk a little bit about that. Page 74 June 24, 2021 MR. FINN: Commissioner, thank you. Why don't we do this: Let me get back to you off-line and make that -- COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yep. Or just -- yeah. And you don't even need to. It was more of an observation. You know, I was just reading this, when you saw something identical in both districts and, you know, it was just -- maybe it was just sort of a i misprint or something. +� And, you know, it's six figures so, I mean, it goes into the total somewhere. I just want to make sure, more importantly, that it's not duplicated somewhere else and being part of the final big number and maybe it's being counted twice or something. You know, that's sort of the overarching thing. But whatever the outcome is, I just -- I just highlight it, and I figure you'll look into it, and if it's not a mistake, you know, then so be it. mr1w I MR. FINN: I can appreciate the concern. The one thing I can tell you, it most assuredly is not double counted in the budget. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. FINN: It could be double counted in a presentation for presentation purposes, but not in the budget. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right. Got it. Okay. Thank you, sir. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. Thank you very much. It's 11:30. I'm assuming our callback is at 1:00? MR. ISACKSON: We'll reconvene at 1:00 with your constitutional officers. ., CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. Enj oy your lunch, everyone. (A luncheon recess was had from 11:31 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) MR. ISACKSON: Madam Chair, Commissioners, you have a live mic. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. Page 75 June 24, 2021 MR. ISACKSON: We're into our 1:00 afternoon session, Commissioners. ELECTIONS MR. ISACKSON: We'll start the proceedings with Jennifer Edwards, your Supervisor of Elections. 1� MS. EDWARDS: Good afternoon. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Good afternoon. _ 1KC MS. EDWARDS: I'd like to introduce my Chief Deputy, Melissa Blazier, and my Executive Assistant, Madelyn Harper. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you., ` a MS. EDWARDS: This is going to be really short and sweet. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Like you. MS. EDWARDS: I don't know about that. Thank you. Our proposed budget is $4,307,100. We have an overall increase of $13 8,000, and that includes an expanded position for Heritage Bay as well as a notice of election mailing for the 2022 cycle, and we will also be sending new voter information cards to the voters after redistricting. That concludes my comments. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Well, I don't see any questions. Thank you. Wk Yeah, let's just talk a little bit about how you're adapting to the new laws and what you see going forward. I mean, we're in election time. MS. EDWARDS: Right. We had a Supervisor of Elections conference in Tampa last week, and we were so hopeful that the Secretary of State and the Division of Elections would be able to explain to us how we will be implementing some of the changes in Page 76 June 24, 2021 the law. But we didn't learn everything, but that will be evolving, and we'll be learning more as time goes by before the election cycle. But we do know that when a voter requests a vote -by -mail ballot, one of the changes is that we will ask the voter for ID, and we'll compare that to the information we have in the record. That's one of the changes. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So they will have to come in to get -- MS. EDWARDS: No. They can still -- they can call us or they can -- they can request online. V CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. 11 MS. EDWARDS: They can do that. rz!z1 COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And then just 46 supply -- forgive me. N CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: No, go ahead. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And then just supply you with a scanned copy of the driver's license or something? How are you going to -- MS. EDWARDS: No, we will ask the questions, and they can just give it to us, and confirm or verify it against what we already have. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Gotcha. MS. EDWARDS: And we're going to be able -- one of our big concerns was they were going to take away the drop boxes. But they left them in, but -- we can use them at early voting locations, of course, inside. They have to be manned, so we may be hiring additional poll workers. And then the one in our office, we had it outside, and it was available 24/7, and your security monitored it through the cameras they mounted. We can't do that anymore. I remember, Commissioner, you called me and you deposited yours in the drop box on a Saturday. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes. Yep. Page 77 June 24, 2021 MS. EDWARDS: And now we can't do that. We had to take it out of the ground, bring it inside, and have somebody man it. Only during work hours. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: During work hours. Okay. So... MS. EDWARDS: That's some of the changes. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: All right. X MR. MILLER: Madam Chair, I neglected to put the light on. One of online speakers was registered for the elections section as well, and that's David Jaye again. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. MR. MILLER: So, Mr. Jaye, you should be receiving a prompt to unmute yourself. And there it is. You have three minutes, Mr. Jaye. 1W*W.1q&_, MR. JAYE: Thank you. I've been receiving almost monthly the 33,000-plus statewide DROP employees, and I did not see any from the Elections Department. Do you know if there are any DROP individuals receiving a paycheck and a pension at the same time to do the same job in the Elections Department? Because I haven't seen it. MS. EDWARDS: No, no one in the election's office is receiving retirement as well as salary. MR. JAYE: All right. So there you go. This is an optional program, and the people who are receiving a paycheck and a pension at the same time to do the same job are crowding out operational revenue because the employer match, the taxpayer paid match, for DROP is almost 19 percent compared to 10 and a half percent for regular general -class employees. And the other issues are, is let's give the young people a chance. Let's give the young people a chance to get the job, to start a family, to buy a home as opposed to having these people who DROP triple dippers, tripledippers.org, lists a statewide list -- instead of having all June 24, 2021 that money go to these individuals at the highest pay, let's get in some newly trained, newly educated, low healthcare cost individuals and give them a chance at having these jobs. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. MR. MILLER: And that was your only speaker for this item, ma'am. ` CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. MS. EDWARDS: Any other questions of me? CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: No. That's -- -At MS. EDWARDS. Thank you all very much. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Seeing none. Thank you. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Take care of all those broken bones. rN CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yeah MS. EDWARDS: We will. CLERK OF COURTS ,Rt►, MR. ISACKSON: Next up, Commissioners, is the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Crystal Kinzel and her team. MS. KINZEL: Good afternoon, Commissioners. I, too, want to introduce our staff. I have Derek Johnssen. You all mostly know Derek. __"% MR. JOHNSSEN: Good afternoon. MS. KINZEL: Derek's our Director of Finance and Board Minutes and Records. And Raymond Milam, you've seen him usually during budget, but he's recently been promoted. He will be the Director of Accounting and Recording. Our recording director, after a long career with us, she's retiring this year in August. And so Raymond will be doing that in addition Page 79 June 24, 2021 to all of the Clerk's accounting. So we did consolidate a position there between these guys. And also I want to recognize some of the other accounting staff that's in the back of the room. They work on our budget plan every year, and so they'll be taking over soon, and then maybe -- I don't know if I'll be here or not, you know. We'll have them trained up to do this. i * "Mill" So with that, May I we provided you with our budget book with a lot of detail, and we've complied with the budget policy regarding increases, insurance pay, and we remain flat as a percent of the county's budget at .55 percent of your budget. This funds the financial functions. Everything you heard this morning funnels through the Clerk's Office. The departments do a lot of legwork. We work really well with them. I want to thank them for their continued cooperation with our office in paying bills and payroll and bond issuance and audit and investment and custodian of cash and culminating with the preparation of your Comprehensive Financial Annual Report that includes even the constitutional officers. So we appreciate all of that cooperation we receive all year. As you heard this morning, there are a lot of expansions in the CARES Act and COVID money. We'll be getting millions and millions. We had the first tranche, for lack of a better word. The tranche of funding was about 74 million. We did not add staff during 2020 to try to handle that. We thought it would be a temporary condition. We tried to work it with the overtime and value out staffing that way. Obviously, with everything that's coming forward in the way of the sales tax continuing with their projects and capital building, the other programs that Kristie Sonntag from Housing explained this morning, we have included six additional staff as expanded positions l it June 24, 2021 for our office. That still keeps us as a total Clerk's agency below our 2008 staffing levels. We've tried to do everything that we can with automation. We have e-filing, e-recording. Those things help us to maintain minimal staff, but when you have workload, particularly in the grants where there's a lot of submitted paperwork, the audit functions and other processing to make sure that money gets to the citizens of Collier County in a timely manner, we do think that we need those additional positions. C�ZA.r And -- but we still, even with those expanded positions, we remain at the .55 as compared to the county's overall budget, so we think that that is at least one measure of consistency that we're not over -adding or over -requesting with our funding. Over the last three years we've also been fortunate enough to contribute back to the county 1 point -- over 1.5 million in either funds that we've earned additional revenues or we've reduced our expenses. So that's above the budgeted turnback. And, fortunately for us, the recording has been going well. We did not close our process during COVID. We continued with the recording and filing. Some face-to-face downtime, but with that automation, we were able to continue earning. So we will have probably additional turnback this year also, as that's been exponentially increasing in volume with all of the building and transactions that are going on in the county. I also wanted to thank this board, the County Manager's Office, and all the county staff because, as I said previously, everything we do integrates with what you do. It also integrates with the constitutional officers. We have great cooperation there. I saw the meeting this morning. Judge Foster, Judge Crown, Amira Fox, Chuck Rice, we have a great relationship with them on the court side, and that was one of the things that enabled us to stay processing and working, even though oftentimes the courthouse might have been June 24, 2021 closed temporarily. So now we are back in full force on the court side. So things are up and operating, and we're doing very well. And last but absolutely not least, I just want to put a plug in for the Clerk's staff. During COVID, they showed up. We did not have a spread within our offices either. We had incidents of "o, COVID, but those were contained with an individual, so we're very fortunate. We learned some lessons about maybe separating some of our department actions so that no one would become contaminated as a whole office. Many of the clerks statewide furloughed or shut down. We're hearing that places like Broward still aren't doing jury trials, and we've been very successful here in Collier to continue all of those functions. *Awllk-, 11* Now, you don't fund the court processes that we do. That is funded by the state and our court fines and fees, but it is a workload and a work measure that then -- some of the positions for budget and other functions are split between those two areas. So I thought you would at least thank our staff. They've been soldiers this last year and a half. — '— '*, So with that, any questions, we're -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I'll say -- I think we have public comment, and then we'll save questions till after. MR. MILLER: Yes, ma'am. David Jaye has also registered for this, his third and final comment. Mr. Jaye, you're being prompted to unmute. There you are. You have three minutes, sir. MR. JAYE: Yes. According to a public records request with the Collier County Clerk and with the State of Michigan, there are 11 DROP triple dippers in the Clerk's Office. Michael Smykowski, $80,000 a year salary's going to be getting 291,623, and that's a lump sum cash bonus; Susan Sullivan is going to be getting $180,000 cash June 24, 2021 bonus; Elizabeth Card, 170,966; Linda Moracco, 170,733; Tracy Payne, 149,436; Gina Carolyn, 146,128; Cathy Quilivan, 123,917; Mary Soveneer, Souvenir, $101,000; Angela Malvaso, 71,000; Bishop, Cheryl Bishop, 52,000; and Mary Intravia, I don't have what the lump sum is from the state yet. Two hundred ninety-one thousand? I mean, how many vacation homes, fancy restaurants, cars do you need? This is ' crowding out. It's crowding out operational expenses, and I didn't get a rebate on my local taxes. None of the other people from Florida got a rebate even though there were fewer hours. I salute the Clerk's Office for the work that they've done, but we pay a high and a very generous salary. W*� •*v A I'm not looking to defund any office, but the salaries are extremely generous. The health benefits are extremely generous. And the fact that these individuals are not kicking in 3 percent of the pay to the Florida Retirement System is scandalous. This is not free money, $36 billion in debt in the Florida Retirement System. The federal debt with this -- not just free extra money. We're going to have to pay for it. And I do believe that I've also asked to talk on the Sheriffs budget. MR. MILLER: I will check that, ma'am. Thank you. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. So I wanted to speak to you about, how did it go with the auditing? You -- I mean, this whole thing was the COVID, and then the money came, and then the scrambling to try to get it so we could get it to people. How did that go overall? MS. KINZEL: I will tell you I'm greatly encouraged. We've made such improvements in the coordination with the Housing Department. Kristie Sonntag, I can't say -- I mean, we've always cooperated, but I think we are getting -- our audit function is June 24, 2021 minimal. The records we're getting are great. If we have a problem, we have been able to pick up the phone, immediately resolve it. I think that's made a great difference in getting the money out. It was -- it's a lot; fast and furious. Our people have stayed late, weekends to make sure things are processed quickly, but I know so has the Housing staff. VN And so I think we're doing well. There are situations, but it's been, I think, handfuls compared to the volumes that we've seen as far as a rejection of an item. The majority are getting paid and paid promptly, and the processing, we hope, is getting quicker and better. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: You know, what's so wonderful about that is that I would tell folks, look, you know, you've got to fill out these forms correctly. So the first audit is the Housing, then it came to you. To hear that means everybody's doing their job. MS. KINZEL: I think so. You know, there are always going to be small things with each of these programs -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Yes. MS. KINZEL: -- because, as you know, with each segment of the funding, the parameters may vary, the applicants may vary, you might have landlords, you might have tenants, the things that you have to validate. So Housing's done a great job in our estimation, made our job easier, but the sheer volumes have been pretty decent. So hopefully that gets a lot of money out to the citizens quicker. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So, Crystal, this question's sort of for you, but then I'm going to ask Mark Isackson for some feedback. So, I mean, you know, the elephant in the room here is this citizen, Mr. Jaye. He actually brings up a point that's been covered a lot. So this isn't his own personal opinion. And as, you know, 011=11 June 24, 2021 elected officials, you know, we hear from citizens, and, you know, we've got to be able to hear from the ones that have some strong opinions about some things and hear from the ones that say, you guys are doing a great job, keep it up. So he just laundry listed, you know, a bunch of people that work in your office that, you know, that a lot of citizens call triple dippers. AP%, My question's really for you, Mark. You're about to do a deep dive into the Collier County positions, you know, across the board and take a look at where we might make some changes. Is this one of the things that you're taking a look at? MR. ISACKSON: Let me just say this: The DROP system is grounded in state statute. Is has been for years in this state. Nothing is being done nefariously, illegal, or otherwise, and that's all I'm going to say. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. And, really, I wanted to give you an opportunity to state that, because we're going to hear from the citizen when the Sheriff comes up here, and some of the misinformation out there is that somehow we've created a program in here to allow that. So I appreciate your comments. You know, we're all concerned citizens. I mean, there's merit to the -- you know, to the -- you know, the -- his position or his opinion or whatnot, but that's -- I wanted to get on the record and have you give your statement. So I appreciate it. - MS. KINZEL: And, Commissioner LoCastro, I do want to add to that a little bit. I know -- I don't want to belabor it; however, some of the information regarding the level of salary, we have some of the lowest paid clerical individuals in the county. They have worked 30 years or until the proper age to even be eligible for DROP. That is their whole pension in addition to just Social Security. At the level of wages that they earn over the course of 30 years, June 24, 2021 there was a time when we started clerks out at 14,000 a year. Now our starting salary's 28,000. These aren't exceptional salaries for people that put in that level of years for pensions. So -- and, again, if they are in DROP, that is the state program, but even if they leave and would come back, they -- that is the rule of the pension. If you work 30 years in a company, you get that. You go work somewhere else and you work another 10, 15, you get whatever that deal was when you earned it. 7 And so to begrudge the Clerk's employees or other county employees -- quite frankly, we have difficulty getting employees. Our benefits aren't exceptionally greater than the corporate structure these days. IT, accounting skills in the corporate world make quite a bit more money than we're able to pay here locally because we do try to consider our taxpayers. And we're lucky to have devoted staff that work all these years to keep us moving forward. So I do want to add that, because I think it's important for the taxpayers overall to know. Anything else? (No response.) MS. KINZEL: Thank you so much. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: You didn't want to speak? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I do. You didn't recognize me. I'm sitting down here politely waiting for my turn. MS. KINZEL: For me? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. MS. KINZEL: Okay. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Am I ready to go now? CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: You are. Are you? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I don't know. The six new FTEs, the rationale is to assist with the grant 11 i• June 24, 2021 compliance and so on and so forth. I would assume eventually that that's going to ratchet back. What are your plans for those new people as we move away from having to meet with the additional compliance requisites? MS. KINZEL: Well, as you heard, it wasn't just the grant programs. The county has many, many capital projects, ongoing construction, the sales tax to carry out the rest of those programs. We do all of the accounting, monitoring, reporting, bond debt, everything else that goes along with that. As we see the county double, I'm sure that we will have a need, but we won't need to expand as significantly. Obviously, if we can do -- work them in or if we do see a fall -off, we do have some of these people that are getting ready to retire, and we can certainly transition them into a vacancy without adding. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You and I had already pretty well talked about those things. I just wanted to -- I just wanted to be able to -- MS. KINZEL: Thank you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- for the folks to hear that you're not just willy-nilly adding people into there because of a particular circumstance. There's a plan along the way. MS. KINZEL: Thank you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, ma'am. SHERIFF MR. ISACKSON: Commissioners, the next up is your Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk and his team. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to be here with you this morning. You know, normally I do a fancy PowerPoint and a lot of pictures, and I'm not going to do June 24, 2021 that today. But I would like to provide you some updates on things that I believe are important for you and the community to know. The very first is to thank you for your ongoing and continuing support of public safety so that we can discharge our duties and responsibilities. That's critically important for us. I'd also like to thank the county staff who maintains our buildings, who helps us with everything that we need throughout the year. We've had some projects this year, so we want to thank them for all the time and effort they put into that. We're slowly getting through some of those projects. We've got a couple more, so... And I particularly want to recognize our new County Manager and the absolutely smooth transition that we've had since Leo's departure. So, Mark, thank you very much for that. We appreciate that. You know, most importantly I like to thank the men and women of the Collier County Sheriffs Office for the outstanding job that they do each and every day throughout the year. And, you know, this year has been somewhat challenging, because we did work throughout the entire year, our entire staff. A few remotely, but most worked. � 10 And, you know, when I look at the people that assist me, you know, that's Colonel Bloom and that's Chief Smith, Roberts, Middlebrook, and we have our finance director here today, Stephanie, as well as Chief Spell, and our entire leadership team that helps move us through. So we'll be here to answer any questions that you might have when we get to that point. But as I said, we've all had a pretty unique year. The law enforcement, corrections, and civilian deputies in our agency are all considered to be essential employees because they all work together. We all worked throughout the last 18 months. We all work to have Collier County one of the safest communities in the state of Florida, June 24, 2021 and that's even with that thing called the pandemic, which I believe is all gone now. We say it's gone. But, you know, some of the extraordinary ways in which your deputies act, one is life saving, and they're involved in everything from rescuing people who have drowned to giving Narcan to those who have overdosed. And, again, we're doing that each and every day. We've helped extinguish wildfires. We've done 450 helicopter water drops this year so far. And, you know, that -- we appreciate your support on that. That has made a huge difference. And we want to support our fire rescue and EMS as much as we possibly can because they do a great job here in Collier County. You know, from celebrating children's birthdays to deescalating crises, we are out making a difference. They are all heroes each and every day. � V And, you know, I remain committed to provide the equipment, the training, the new policies and procedures and, most importantly, my support for the work that they do every day in discharging their role and responsibility, because it has become a very different one in the last 18 months, and they have done an outstanding job in what they do. We've been recognized either individually as members and/or as an agency, got a lot of accomplishments, albeit through this time period. You know, one of the things we were able to do with our communications emergency 911 center was get nationally accredited. So that means we have now five elements of our agency that are nationally or state accredited. That is a terrific accomplishment. We've had a number of members that have been recognized individually. We have a lifetime achievement award for one from the Crime Prevention Association of Florida, the Humanitarian Award from the NAACP, a Humanitarian Award from the Naples 01= June 24, 2021 Area Board of Realtors, the Above and Beyond Award, which I was not familiar with, but with the work in procurement and logistical during the pandemic, and that was from the National Cooperative Procurement Partners Association. So that's terrific. The National Media Anvil Award for our podcast entitled Sworn Statement. If you've never had a chance to listen to that, we are getting great, great reviews and a lot of good information out to the public. The United States Congressional Record Commemorated Women in Law Enforcement and Women in History this year, and many more. You know, each year we also take the 340-plus of our veterans and recognize them for the great work that they've done to keep this county, state, and nation free. So we thank them this year as well. All that really goes into our "service to others before self' philosophy which, again, kind of mirrors our Armed Forces. But, you know, professionalism continues to be critically important. So when we look at multiple accreditations, new policies and procedures, advanced training, that's what keeps us in the forefront. We've been rebuilding our Emergency Operations Center. We now call it the Rock. It will help us in the event that we -- and I don't ever say the word, but if we have any practices this year of any kind during the summer, that's where we'll do it, but we're also going to expand that in the future, and we'll be coming back with information to you on how that is going to work. We continue to build strong partnerships with all of those in the community, because that is what we see that is lacking throughout the rest of the nation, and we are doing it, and we're doing it very well right here. All of this leads to a safer Collier County. So how safe is it? Again -- and I hate to sound like a broken record -- in 2020, the lowest crime rate recorded since 1971. We are down 13.4 percent. That is pretty fabulous. More important than M June 24, 2021 that, we are down in our Part 1 crimes 10.1 percent. So that's 10.1 percent fewer victims in Collier County than the year before, because it has nothing to do with the rate of population. So those are just some of the accomplishments that our members and your deputies have participated in this year. We have our staff here. We're prepared to answer any questions that you might have. So I open it back up to you. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Well, first of all, I want to say thank you. Thank you to all of you. Thank you to everybody that's watching. I personally believe there's three primary jobs of local government, and the first is to keep our families and neighborhoods safe, and thank you for what you do. ,, Your assistance in our fire circumstances with that Huey have been off chart, off the chart. And the Sheriff and I were speaking a moment before the meeting and, you know, the Forestry Department has their own helicopter that they do drops on, but you're no less than an hour, sometimes more than an hour, several hours, and that fire can get out of hand pretty quick like that, 30-, 40-mile-an-hour winds, and our Sheriffs Department's on it. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Twenty to 30 minutes we can have a helicopter up. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Exactly. So from me to you, thank you. Thank you, for everybody. I know it's not -- you're the leader of the band, and they're the ones that all make it go, but it's an amazing, amazing experience to be a resident here. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yep. It is the men and women out in the street right now. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: And some are sleeping right now. Page 91 June 24, 2021 COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, that's because they were up all night. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: That they were. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And that brings me to my two questions or comments, is how are you doing with hiring? SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Our hiring is doing well. Are we getting the highest quality of candidate that we want? No. So we are looking at ways that we can increase that. And we are doing a lot of media. We're doing a lot of programming with the military to connect with people who are coming out of the military. If you remember a couple of years ago, I mentioned to you that we had made a connection and a definitive position of mine to go find and hire veterans who have served our country. w,�%- � COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right, perfect. Now, and -- and in that regard with regard to the -- how is -- how do you feel or how do -- how do you feel about the community police station agency within the department? Because that's -- those are the -- those are -- in my perception, I mean, everybody in a uniform deals with the general public, but that actual physical agency that's out there amongst the people, how do you feel about that? SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Well, as you know, we've had a community policing element for quite some time. We have built that over the last decade to have it become very, very strong. We have also included a mental health unit along with that, and everybody works together. They're all staffed right now. I mean, as our vacancies come up, sometimes we have to shift people around. But that building partnerships with the community, with businesses, with homeowners associations, and other professional entities that we work with, like the David Lawrence Center, when we do that, the outcomes are unusually positive, and that's a good thing. Page 92 June 24, 2021 COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you very much. That's all, Madam Chair. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. Commissioner LoCastro. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You know, Sheriff, I know you'll agree, 9/11 really brought veterans -- as a veteran, it really brought veterans and first responders together. I mean, you know, the way our families have, you know, connected after 9/11, I think, is just a wonderful thing. And, you know, I hope you -- one of the things I'll say is, you know, as a commander, there were people that served our country that I actually sent to Leavenworth. So the word I would use is recruit the best veterans, you know. Don't just -- you know, and I'm telling you something you already know. But I actually spoke at a conference that, at the time, Governor Scott asked me to speak at, and I was still active duty, and it was bunch of a Fortune 500 companies. And my opening line was, never hire a veteran, and I thought Governor Scott was going to fall out of his chair. But it was an attention getter. But I basically said, you know, you've got to do your homework and recruit. Just because somebody wore the uniform -- I mean, I sent plenty of those people to, you know, the stockade and, you know, got dishonorably discharged. So the vetting process is important but, you know, there's no doubt that when you recruit the right people, their dedication is amazing and will be a great add to the team. You know, one of the things I just wanted to say, if anybody decided to pick apart, like, your budget and look at equipment and question anything, I certainly can speak from experience, you don't know the value of equipment until you need it. And so, you know, I've heard people in this community, you know, gosh, if you're just Page 93 June 24, 2021 responding to a domestic, you know, dispute or, you know, a loud stereo, why does the -- you know, why do the officers need to wear their vests? Well, same thing I can say for my security police people. You know, I lost a few security police officers because they responded to something that was loud music and, you know, it turned out that if they would have had the right vest on, you know, we wouldn't have had to knock on their parents' door. And so I'm a big supporter of, you know, maybe not over -equipping, but everything I see in your budget is the things that are making our county better. Like Commissioner McDaniel said, you know, maybe some people question a helicopter, and then all of a sudden you have forest fires and then you're getting accolades for having it. This may sound kind of small, but I really commend you for whoever's in charge of your social media campaign. You know, we're in 2021. If you're not on Instagram, you're not on Facebook, you're really missing a huge population of people. There's not a day that goes by that I don't pop up Instagram and Facebook to make my own little posts, and I see Collier County Sheriff. And it's so -- your sense of urgency getting things out -- I mean, I literally will hear about something and it will be, you know, on the top. And, you know, it's probably not somebody in your team that's making $150,000 or something, but I tell you, whoever does it -- and it's done so professionally. And so it might sound like a small thing, but I really wanted to give you a shout -out for that, because there are a lot of citizens that do use social media a lot. They don't turn on the TV; they don't watch the news. But if you're on social media, dang it if that Collier County Sheriffs Office isn't well represented, eloquent posts, very informative, you know, always there. And then I've recently befriended Deputy Robert Pounds, so I just want to say, you also have a doctor, because he delivered a baby 0 •i June 24, 2021 apparently, so -- SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes, he did. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- you're doing it all. You know, you're doing it all, so -- but thank you for what you do. And, you know, I know that we're all proud to work with you and, you know, your efforts and your officers across the board and, you know, the civilians that work for you, it speaks for itself. So thank you very much. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Well -- and points oints are taken. y We have a very strenuous recruitment process. About 10 to 13 percent of those who originally apply ever get hired and sworn in. So we do take that very seriously. Mph-, � pq *� And as far as our media goes, we want to be as transparent and up to date and factual as we possibly can be. And, you know, when we look at some of the emergency conditions we've had over the last decade, we've gotten a lot of information out, and we've cleared up a lot of misinformation which the people who follow our Facebook and others thank us for, because they were not getting it elsewhere. COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, sir. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Saunders. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. I also want to thank you and congratulate your whole team for making Collier County, you said one of the safest communities in the Florida. It's actually, I think, one of the safest communities in the country, and that's because of law enforcement. There's -- we have great people here, but we also are surrounded by areas where maybe there aren't so many -- there are some people that are not so great that we've kept at bay, and I just want to congratulate you for that. I was curious about school resource officers. I know we're in the final stage of providing some funding to -- SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes. Page 95 June 24, 2021 COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- complete the enrollment into that program. How is that operating? And do you see any -- have you seen any things to be concerned about in terms of possible threats and that sort of thing to our schools? SHERIFF RAMBOSK: We are moving forward in our third cadre of 10. We broke that up, as you know, two years ago or going -- I guess this is our third year, so 10 each year. We are down a little bit more than that right now. We have filled not quite two-thirds of those positions. But we do not see any emerging threats; however, you know, as things get back to normal throughout the nation, we've started to see other violent acts occur, and we are going to make sure that we are prepared in our schools as well as our streets so that that does not happen here. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: So I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for your vision. Thank you for anticipating what other areas are trying to do now because we're doing it. So long ago, 20 years ago, you talked about neighborhood policing, going door to door and getting neighbors to know who you are, and you've kept that theme throughout. You are never too much of an officer -- law officer to work with the mentally ill or to work with drug -- in the drug courts. I mean, we heard statistics today that were astonishing, and it's your cooperation of your department. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: You are so much the face of -- you come to people, and you are the face there of who we are as a county, and I'm really proud that you're there. Thank you. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. We do have public comment? MR. MILLER: Yes, we do, ma'am. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: The same gentleman? June 24, 2021 MR. MILLER: I have three waiting to comment on the Sheriff s budget. We'll start with David Jaye, followed by H. Michael Mogil, and then Dr. Joseph Doyle. Mr. Jaye, you should be prompted to unmute yourself at this time, if you'll do so. You have three minutes. MR. JAYE: Thank you, and I salute the Sheriff for the great job he's been doing, and the staff, working back when ICE was trying to get illegals, you would invite them over there and protect our community. Nobody who's a conservative wants to defund the police, and the -- there are -- it's unsustainable. I want to help preserve the pensions for the law enforcement and the other public employees, but a $36 billion debt is unsustainable. We've got Christopher Roberts is going to get $758,000; Robert Maxfield, 674,000; James Bloom, $670,000; Anthony Repicky, $6301000. There's got to be a cap. There's got to be a cap, because these people are getting a paycheck and a pension at the same time to do the same job, and they're going to continue after the five years. They get the lump sum payment as a cash lump sum, their pension payment, and they'll continue to get -- get their pension. So these source of a payouts -- DROP payouts are crowding out operational funds that could be used to pay a higher salary to help you with the recruitment. So I salute what you're doing. It's a difficult job. And I want you to see the side of fiscal conservativism, that when you've got a $36 billion unfunded pension and healthcare deficit for our public employees retirement system, that there's got to be a limit. Maybe 100,000, but not 758,000. And one of the departments in the county, the Elections Department, does not have a single triple dipper, and they've got 21 Page 97 June 24, 2021 employees. Some of them are more senior individuals. So I'm hoping that there will be some consideration to pare down the DROP amounts, the bonus amounts to maybe 100,000 or less so that we can preserve the integrity of the system -- retirement system and not suffer under huge tax increases or reductions in the promised pensions in the future. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Madam Chair, your next speaker is H. Michael Mogil, and he'll be followed by Dr. Joseph Doyle. Mr. Mogil, you're being prompted to unmute yourself at this time. There you are. You have three minutes, sir. MR. MOGIL: Thank you very much. Kudos to Sheriff Rambosk and his entire department, not just the officers on the street, but the people behind the scenes. I'm going to give him the ABCD Award, which is above and beyond the call of duty. They do the work. I know they do the work, but unless you come to frequent board meetings or watch the news every night -- I don't live on social media, and I try not to get traffic tickets. I don't have much interaction with the police. I don't even know they're out there except when I see cars go by. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's a good thing. MR. MOGIL: I've been a resident for 15 years. Five of them have been in the Vineyards, and I haven't seen community presence in the sense of walking the neighborhood, talking to neighbors, doing community meetings, et cetera. I'd like to see the police department get out more, make this face-to-face interaction that's missing in so many other places around the country, and make what we do here even better. There's no reason that we can't do it. You have your board meetings and your web page announcing the board meetings. Wouldn't it be great to put the Citizens Academy out there with a video clip? Right now the Citizens 0M June 24, 2021 Academy is buried on the Sheriffs page. Not that I go to the Sheriffs page often, but it's buried. It's not on Page 1. What about including an insert in the voter registration or in the voting about the Citizens Academy or a sheet that defines what the police are doing in the community and how to reach back to the police? What about sending notice -- and I don't have any kids in school, so this may be totally out in left field, but what about sending notices home with the kids from school about community outreach and what the police are doing to get in the hands of the parents? There's a lot of things that we can do to give the police a much more positive image, even more positive than the image they currently have here in Collier County. I'd like to see them do it. To the Sheriff, we hold a flag waving and support the blue at the corner of Collier -- not Collier -- Immokalee Road and Route 41 every other Saturday. We're going to do it again this Saturday from 10:00 to 12:00. We touched base with your office to make sure that what we were doing would not violate any sidewalk laws or anything like that. The amount of horn honking, thumbs up, and flag waving is incredible. You are well liked in this community, you and all of the people on your staff. I'd just like to see more of you around, that's all. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Madam Chair, our final registered speaker on this item is Dr. Joseph Doyle. Dr. Doyle, you should be prompted to unmute. If you'll do so at this time. Dr. Doyle, good -- DR. DOYLE: Good afternoon. MR. MILLER: Good afternoon. You have three minutes, sir. DR. DOYLE: Okay. Yes, good afternoon, Commissioners and Sheriff. Dr. Joseph Doyle. June 24, 2021 And as you know and as I've remarked on prior occasions, our essential services are public health, sanitation, storm and sanitary sewers, potable water, law enforcement, and EMS. The Mosquito Control and the fire rescue are all essential but they don't fall under the jurisdiction of the Board of County Commissioners. The defund police movement sweeping the nation is ridiculous. With the increase in violence in our cities fueled by anarchist type organizations, namely Black Lives Matter and Antifa, the invasion of 200,000 illegals per month across the southern sovereign border, including gang members, now more than ever we need to fully fund the Sheriffs Office. I've spoken to the Sheriff in past years. He has a huge job. He does a great job controlling the gangs and keeping us save, as Commissioner McDaniel noted. And while I'm not satisfied with the financial contribution from the school district regarding the deputies in the schools, at this point in time I do ask that you approve the Sheriffs overall budget request for Fiscal Year '22. Thank you. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you. MR. MILLER: Madam Chair, that was our final registered speaker. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's a good way to end. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you very much. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I think Commissioner McDaniel would like to speak again. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I did. I just -- and if you don't mind, I want to thank you, and I wanted to suggest to my colleagues, if you haven't yet, what's up -- what is the program that I attended a couple of weeks ago out at the shooting range? Do you have a -- SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Behind the -- yeah, it's called Behind Page 100 June 24, 2021 the Badge Program; that's one. As the gentleman earlier mentioned, our Citizens Academy. Both of those are great programs. If you have a little bit more time, the Citizens Academy can give you a lot more in-depth overview on the great work that your Sheriffs Office is doing and can do. We can do the same thing with Behind the Badge. And we are actually -- I was -- that was kind of a unique group. So it was so good that we are going to expand that over the coming year. So we will be posting that in as many places that we're able to. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I just want -- I want to compliment you on it. Again, it just fortifies my support, because you actually get -- and I suggest if you haven't, to any of the citizenry -- I think it's open to anybody -- and especially our leaders, if you haven't had that opportunity, please go and do that. It's an amazing experience. And I wanted to thank you and compliment you on that as well. Thank you. % �' J SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Commissioner Solis. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah. And I'd like to thank you as well on specifically a couple things. Well, first, I have to say something about this whole DROP issue, which I can't even believe we're really discussing. I mean, I think that's a state program, and it -- you know, we need to keep the people that have all the institutional knowledge around a lot of times, and I think it's -- you know, I think it's unfortunate that that's misunderstood, but -- so thank you for -- for staying with us, whoever's in that program countywide. But we heard some statistics about the treatment courts and, you know, that wouldn't work without your cooperation and support. And I did some math based upon the numbers that the judge gave us, and I guess over the -- looking at the recidivism rate, but there seems Page 101 June 24, 2021 like there was 50 people that went through those programs in the last three years that have not returned. I mean, those are 50 people that, because of your efforts and everybody in the Sheriffs Department are, you know, out of the criminal justice system. They're part of our community. They're contributing again to the community in a positive way as opposed to, you know, being in the jail or anywhere else and, you know, being more of a drain on our system than�- anything else. v So thank you for everything you've done in terms of that. It's -- I think it's one of the things that makes our county such a great place to be is your commitment to that, so thanks. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: And, you know, I often mention that when I talk publicly because, you know, we are not trying to get into a business or field that we should not be in. We refer people to the right professional groups to do that. And the two things that result out of that: A lesser crime rate and lesser cost to the taxpayer, because if you really went back and figured out, if those 50 people had to come back in at 100 to 130 to 180 dollars a day, that costs a lot of money, and we've already had to get them off of drugs or alcohol while they were in. So we need to find a better way to get those people to remain out of our jail, save us money, and make the county safer. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Thank you. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you very much, everyone. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. County Manager. MR. ISACKSON: Madam Chair, just -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Oh, excuse me. Commissioner Saunders -- COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah, I -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: -- did you want to speak to the Page 102 June 24, 2021 Sheriff? COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Oh, no, no. Thank you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: They all stopped. As soon as they heard it was you, they all stopped. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No. I don't know if we have an opportunity for Commission comments before we wrap up, because I have a couple things I wanted to bring up. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Oh, yes. Yeah, I think -- I just wanted the County Manager to close his remarks, and then we certainly have time for discussion. MR. ISACKSON: The only thing I wanted to mention to the Board, ma'am, is at your July 13th meeting, you'll be setting your maximum millage rates which will provide the basis for going forward into your public hearings. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Saunders, why don't you start off. STAFF AND COMMISSIONER COMMENTS COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. Thank you. One of the things that we talked about on the Commission going back -- it was before Commissioner LoCastro was on the Board, so we're going back a couple years ago. We put a stop to any new median beautification projects because we were experiencing such a high level of cost for maintenance. And the idea was, okay, let's freeze the program where we are and get our arms around that maintenance issue. From what I understand, there may be some good news in that regard. I wanted to bring up a -- sort of like, you know, you open the door a little bit, you know, it swings wide open. But I want to open the door a little bit on some median beautification. Davis Boulevard Page 103 June 24, 2021 from Santa Barbara east to where it comes to an end there, a lot of communities there. It's a fairly small area. And I've been told that our staff has done some looking into what the maintenance costs would be if that area was -- if we had median beautification there, and it was $120,000 a year. So not a big cost in terms of maintenance. And there are some grant funds that are available. So I wanted to see if the Board would be interested in opening the door here a little bit on some of these beautification projects. That's one. There's another one, of course, in Commissioner LoCastro's district as well. I'm sure there's several of them. But I wanted to see if there would be an agreement that, at least on this one, that we would open the door on that, have staff take a look at how to get the grants and then fund the maintenance and then, perhaps, start considering some of the other ones. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Can I -- I thought we already kind the voted on that, and -- because I had spoke with the two gentlemen that are spearheading that, and we had actually given direction to staff to look at the two pilot programs for the different -- you know, the different designs to do that. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah. I've brought this up once before, so we may have had some discussion on that. But now we're in the budget process, and that's why I wanted to bring it up here, because it's not in the budget yet. But if we take certain action, it could wind up in the budget. That's why I'm bringing it up now. MR. ISACKSON: We can have our landscaping folks look at not only Commissioner Saunders' request but kind of do a comprehensive look at where our grant opportunities are in certain areas and bring back a report to you -- to the Board. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's -- COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. Page 104 June 24, 2021 CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: That's good. Yeah, because stand in line. I've got two that are already saying, wait a minute, how come? And, you know, my response has been, you know, just to have an MSTU to handle it, but there seems to be great unwillingness. And I do believe that part of the landscaped medians are already governed by an MSTU. So when you bring back that information, if you could tell us -- as we know, costs are not going to be going down. There's no downward slope of the cost of living -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: From what they were, they are less. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: -- in Collier County. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I didn't mean to interrupt. He's ahead of me. �*W*_, 11* COMMISSIONER SOLIS: No, but I just -- can I follow up on that question? Yeah, because as I recall, the issue was we had the Productivity Committee look at whether we should hire in-house and do the maintenance ourselves as opposed to contracting it out like we used to that was 75,000 a year per mile or something, and I'm just wondering, I think there's some FTEs related to that in the budget. I mean, is that working out the way we hoped it had? MR. ISACKSON: We already have a crew, and consideration is being looked at internally whether or not to add a second crew. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Okay. MR. ISACKSON: So we'll kind of dovetail that into the report and give you guys a -- CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: And not for this year, but for long term. MR. ISACKSON: Yeah. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Of course. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And, Commissioner Solis, I think the problem was that some of the maintenance costs were Page 105 June 24, 2021 exceeding 80- to $90,000 a mile per month, not per year, and that's why it got -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, it was an annual mile; $75,000 a mile per year. I had two reporters volunteer to take two different sections of mile that were going to quit their job, so... COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah. I had understood that it was a very high number per mile per month. COMMISSIONER SOLIS: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I think also it's a very high number of miles, period. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: One hundred eleven, I think. My recollection is 111 -- -*�, in CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: I think you're right. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: One hundred eleven miles of median. It was $75,000 a mile -- a linear mile, that it was annually costing our county. And that didn't include the MSTUs and such, so... COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I guess 75,000 a mile per month would be pretty high. "*, COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I don't know where I got that number from. " COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yep. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Okay. So any other comments? (No response.) CHAIRMAN TAYLOR: Thank you very much. We are adjourned. Page 106 June 24, 2021 There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 1:57 p.m. 4\41, BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX ' OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL PENNY TAYLOR, CHAIRMAN ATTEST _ w CRYSTAL K. KINZEL, CLERK 4' NV These minutes approved by the Board on , as presented or as corrected 84 TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF FORT MYERS COURT REPORTING BY TERRI LEWIS, RPR, FPR, COURT REPORTER AND NOTARY PUBLIC. Page 107