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BCC Minutes 06/15/2023June 15, 2023 Page 1 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Naples, Florida June 15, 2023 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of County Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such special districts as have been created according to law and having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m., in BUDGET SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following Board members present: Chairman: Rick LoCastro Chris Hall Dan Kowal William L. McDaniel, Jr. Burt L. Saunders ALSO PRESENT: Amy Patterson, County Manager Edward Finn, Deputy County Manager Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING Notice is hereby given that the Board of County Commissioners of Collier County will conduct Budget Workshops on Thursday, June 15, 2023 and Friday, June 16, 2023, if necessary, at 9:00 a.m. Workshops will be held in the Boardroom, 3rd Floor, W. Harmon Turner Building, Collier County Government Center, 3299 East Tamiami Trail, Naples, Florida to hear the following: COLLIER COUNTY GOVERNMENT BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS FY 2024 BUDGET WORKSHOP SCHEDULE Thursday, June 15, 2023 9:00 a.m.: General Overview Courts and Related Agencies (State Attorney and Public Defender) Transportation Public Services Growth Management Community Development Public Utilities Debt Service Management Offices (Pelican Bay) County Attorney Board of County Commissioners 1:00 p.m.: Constitutional Officers: Supervisor of Elections Clerk of Courts Sheriff Other Constitutional Officers requesting to address the BCC Public Comment June 15, 2023 Page 2 MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Good morning, everybody. Why is everybody sitting in the back? What's going on, huh? You know, we've got free Rolex watches under each chair in the first three rows, you know, for those. But too late, Paul, keep your position. You're not getting anything. Also, extra money for everybody in the front. So, you know, you guys should have read the fine print. Olema, see, you're way back there. It's not going to happen. Okay. County Manager, let's roll into a very important meeting. Appreciate you all being here, and this is the business of the people. MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, welcome to your budget workshop. Let's go ahead and start with the Pledge of Allegiance, and then we'll get right into the proceedings. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. County Attorney, why don't you lead us in the Pledge, sir. (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Play ball. MS. PATTERSON: So, Commissioners, we'll just walk you through a little bit of what we're going to be doing today. So we're going to provide a general overview. It's going to be split between Mr. Finn and Mr. Johnson and myself. We'll go right to courts, and then move on into your departments and other offices. We will have a hard stop at noon, because we pick right back up with the constitutional officers at 1:00. Anything that we haven't finished this morning -- hopefully, there will be nothing -- but anything we haven't finished then, we'll finish up after the constitutionals. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. One thing I asked Mr. Miller is to just keep an eye on public comment. And if they start stacking up -- I don't want to leave the public on the line for June 15, 2023 Page 3 hours and hours, and they might have a comment that we want to hear before we start bringing everybody up here so that they can comment. So, you know, feel free to give us a heads-up. If you start to have some that are stacking up, we'd like hear from the public. MR. MILLER: Will do. We have two people registered on Zoom, but neither one of them are online yet. I'll keep you posted. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Thank you, sir. MS. PATTERSON: All right. Mr. Finn, did you have any opening comments before we go to the overview? MR. FINN: Thank you, ma'am. MS. PATTERSON: Push your button. MR. FINN: Edward Finn, Deputy County Manager. I guess a couple things. The format of the budget document remains consistent with prior years. It includes a high-level overview section followed by the specific department and agency budget detail review. You're going to find that the budget today has been developed to focus on the priorities embodied in our recently adopted strategic plan. Specifically, the focus areas with quality of place, infrastructure and asset management, community development, and responsible governance. Specific top priorities established in that strategic plan are largely included in this budget. There were some multiyear priorities that certainly are going to be considered. They're not necessarily ready for funding at this point but, certainly, a lot of the planning activities are included in the budget you're going to see today. Right up front, I'd like to thank the constitutional officers and the County Manager's staff for the hard work put into the budget, with special thanks to Chris Johnson, the Corporate Finance, Office June 15, 2023 Page 4 Management, and Budget director, who's put in a lot of hours, as has his staff. So with the assistance of the County Manager, Mr. Johnson, and myself, we'll give the Board a high-level overview of the budget. Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I'd like to say something as just an opening comment. You know, I think it goes without saying -- and I say this a lot in my town hall meetings -- the county doesn't have any money. No government does. What they do is they acquire it from taxpayers, and that's what we're here to decide how to spend. So, you know, when you come up here and -- be detailed, be judicious on how you're going to invest these taxpayer dollars. This isn't a rubber stamp to say, you know, I got 1.2 million last year and we need 1.4 now due to inflation, thank you, approved, out the door. You know, our job is here to do a deep dive and figure out the best way to invest these taxpayer dollars. And I know I'm saying what we already know, but I just think, you know, it's important to make that opening comment. Often we hear citizens say, either at this podium or in thousands of emails we get, the county should do this, the county should build a park, the county should do this. My reply always is, the county doesn't do any of those things. Taxpayers do. And so, you know, this is our once-a-year big deep-dive meeting, although we talk about the budget at every meeting, to really decide what's the best use of the dollars. And even though we might be a little wealthy in the side of tourist development dollars that are coming in and we added a little extra tax, and it gave us a little fund, you know, that's not play money for us to waste. And I know that's not lost on anybody in here. But when you come up here and you do talk to us about your June 15, 2023 Page 5 budget, I hope you're prepared to really give us a deep dive. And also, I know me personally, I'd like to know what you've been doing to try to figure out how to not only spend the money more wisely, but maybe save some money. I mean, I would hope that every department would be looking at where we're maybe wasting money that we could be reallocating somewhere else or, you know, that part of the budget has run its course, and it's not needed anymore. So, you know, it takes aggressive analysis and also courage, you know, to come up here and say, I'm in charge of this fund of money and, Commissioners, this is what I need, this is what I don't need, this is what I need and why. So, you know, I hope you're all prepared to do that, because, you know, we've certainly done a deep dive here, and I know we're going to have a lot of questions. And, you know, this is the time to figure out how to best spend taxpayer dollars. And it is a limited amount. We're not printing more money in the basement of the county. So -- and every county has been guilty of, you know, wasting dollars that years later they wish they would have had back. You know, our job is to try to limit that or, you know, make that invisible. So I appreciate all the work that everybody's gone into this. And then today this is where we -- we get an explanation as to why you need what you need, why you maybe don't need what you need, and how we can better allocate dollars. So, you know, I look forward to the discussion. I know we all do. All right. County Manager, it's all yours. MS. PATTERSON: All right. Well, just to follow up on Mr. Finn's statements, I want to -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Go ahead. MS. PATTERSON: -- extend a "thank you" to the staff, from our front-line staff all the way through our management staff, and June 15, 2023 Page 6 especially to the Office of Management and Budget and Mr. Johnson for the hard work on this budget. No one will tell you that this is an easy process, particularly in the times that we're facing with increased costs everywhere, inflation, housing challenges. So thank you very, very much to everyone who works for the county. You play a part in this budget every single day, and to those of you that work to prepare it. Let's just go quickly to where we are in the budget timeline. So from budget policy that you-all adopted back in March, it brings us to where we are today in our budget workshops. From here, you're going to be seeing us again several more times in this process, and this is for the benefit of the viewing public as well who will have continuing opportunities to weigh in on our budgets and talk to us about the things that are important to them. We'll be seeing you again when the Board adopts the proposed millage rates and the maximum property taxes to be levied. We'll do that in July. And you'll see us again in September for two public work -- or work -- I'm sorry -- for two public hearings on the budget. Those are held at 5:05 p.m. so it allows the public to attend, and that will be the first Thursday and the third Thursday in September. So all of those are opportunities for the public to come and give input on this budget and also for you-all to continue to talk to us about your priorities. Talk a little bit about our budget characteristics. This conforms with Chapter 129 of the Florida Statutes, which is our county annual budget. The budget that we are presenting is balanced. It's a flexible planning tool consistent with the county's financial and budget philosophy over many years. As Mr. Finn already highlighted, it provides for execution of the county's strategic plan, which we recently updated with your help, it June 15, 2023 Page 7 provides sufficient budget required to conduct the business of government, and it reflects the best efforts of your staff and your constitutional officers to maintain and enhance, where appropriate, the services for the benefits of our residents and visitors. And I have to reiterate this point that this does not come without challenges, and you're going to hear us talk to you about this throughout this budget, and coming to compliance has been challenging, and we're going to -- we're going to provide you an overview of some of those challenges as well as areas where we feel there are warranted enhancements. The county's conservative budgeting and forecasting practices, coupled with strong policy-driven reserves, ensures the agency's position to apply all necessary resources to prepare and respond to natural disasters. Last year, we went through the same exercise, and, unfortunately for us, we had a hurricane, Hurricane Ian, and we were well positioned to respond to Hurricane Ian, thanks to the actions that this board took. A very different storm than Hurricane Irma, but we were also positioned very differently in Hurricane Ian than we were in Hurricane Irma, and you can see the benefits of that, particularly as it relates to our capital program in Hurricane Irma. We did spend -- or we'd spent a lot of time combing through our capital projects and defunding them to be able to provide the resources needed to be able to respond to the natural disaster, and we were positioned much differently for Hurricane Ian. So thank you to that foresight of the Board. Protect against changing economic conditions. We all know we just had a utilities increase in CPI at this last board meeting based to the cost of everything being much more expensive, and we'll be visiting with you again in the fall with rate studies and public utilities and probably followed after that in rate studies in other areas to June 15, 2023 Page 8 reflect just that cost of doing business, as well as being able to continue to meet the challenges of growth. We have to respond to changing local and state policy positions. As we know, sometimes the state tells us we're going to do things that -- then we have to modify the way we do business to be able to absorb that. We have to fund operations. Obviously, we have to keep the lights on, keep the doors open, and continue to serve the public, and we construct and maintain capital infrastructure. Heavy emphasis on that maintenance. It's great to build new things, but it's not a service to this community if we don't provide adequate funding to then maintain those assets. The budget provides the financial approach for the execution of the county's strategic plan. Very excited about this, as it's added into this budget. And you'll see the ties to the strategic plan throughout this document. A couple of those highlights are, obviously, health/safety. We're going to talk about that all day today from our Sheriff; EMS; water and sewer; hurricane preparedness. I just touched on that; the 800-megahertz radio hardening; stormwater partnership projects; transportation; affordable housing; strategic real estate acquisitions. I won't steal Mr. Finn's thunder, but we have a lot of opportunities out there, and we're looking forward to the Board's input on where we should be placing those resources; our mental health receiving facility; as well as employee recruitment and retention. I'll talk a little bit about our current economic landscape. You're no strangers to what's going on here. We have a really tight employment market, finding ourselves having to aggressively recruit along with everybody else to keep talent here and to bring new talent in. We have a soaring median home price. Actually, I had to look at this number a few times yesterday, so surprised that we have, in June 15, 2023 Page 9 April, a median home price that has risen to $922,000. When the median home price exceeded $500,000 back in the mid-2000s, I was shocked, but -- well, now we see that it can rise even more. And you can imagine what that does to our affordable housing challenges. It is a very interesting situation we find ourselves in. And another good-news message is that the visitation to the destination totaled over a million for the January through April '23 time period. It's modestly less than last year, but it represents a remarkable recovery from Hurricane Ian, particularly considering the fact that our coastal area was so heavily damaged, yet people continue to come here, and that is a testament to the resilience of this community. Permitting remains strong. We have a slight difference from year to year but, again, Mr. French will tell you when it comes his time to come to this table that activity remains strong. Taxable value is up at this point 12.69 percent countywide. And the state ad valorem estimating conference projects continued tax base increases in the range of 5.3 percent to 7.3 percent into tax year '24 through '25. So our position remains strong. And as I alluded to before, the cost of everything is going up and continues to go up. So year over year, electricity prices have increased 9.6 percent; food, 7.9 percent; cost of goods and services, 11 percent; and prices surged 19 percent for rent of primary residence, which we also see is embodied in our difficulties with affordable housing. That having been said, all of these things will be challenges that your division directors and department heads will be talking to you about and how they were able to get their arms around their budget this year. They did an excellent job with that, and they are really excited to come up and tell you about the great things that they're June 15, 2023 Page 10 doing, their involvement with the strategic plan and how we plan to move forward. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Mr. Johnson, who's going to take it from here. MR. JOHNSON: Thank you, Ms. Patterson. For the record, Christopher Johnson, director of Corporate Financial Management Services. Before I get started, I'd like to also echo what the County Manager and the Deputy County Manager had said. I want to thank everybody. I've probably talked to each and every one of you in this room. Obviously, my first year going through this in this position. We also have three new staff members who haven't been through this process either, so thank you to everyone. I have budget highlights to go over with you today prior to turning it over to Mr. Finn for a little deeper dive into the details of the budget. Starting off at the top, policy guidance of 4.25 percent was essentially met for direct county manager operations based on department net cost impact. Keep in mind that, as Ms. Patterson said, 9 percent inflation has affected the year-over-year operating expense budgets, which require reductions to meet this compliance. Per policy, your recommended General Fund and Unincorporated General Fund millage rates remain millage neutral, as does Conservation Collier. For the County Manager's agency, expanded requests included 22 new FTEs, vehicles, and operating increases for Road Maintenance, Stormwater, Parks, Domestic Animal Services, Traffic Operations, Risk Management, Community Development, and the Airport. The total of these requests is approximately $4 million. And as the departments come up, you'll hear further details on those expanded requests for the County Manager's agency. June 15, 2023 Page 11 The Clerk of Courts' budget also includes expanded funding for court funding not supported by the state's funding allocation, and she'll go into more detail on that when she comes this afternoon. On to the reserves, the General Fund and Unincorporated General Fund reserves have modestly increased. A key element of this budget is the allocation of the 21.2 million for the partial restoration of the long-term capital reserve. As the County Manager stated, this reserve was utilized to cash flow Hurricane Ian recovery. And this reserve recognizes the county's substantial infrastructure investment and future responsibility to maintain and replace this important -- these important investments and provide flexibility for the response to our future, hopefully no future, natural disasters. On to the next slide. Capital expenditures. The budget continues to program resources like general revenue, user fees, impact fees, and remaining bond proceeds to the transportation network, stormwater system, park infrastructure, constitutional officer capital, and other general governmental facilities and programs. Total capital for FY '24 is $706 million. Debt service, new debt service is not programmed in this budget. Currently, staff is in the planning stage related to future funding needs for the transportation network, stormwater improvements, and utility infrastructure expansion servicing the northeast portion of the county. The county remains committed to position itself as an employer of choice through investment in the workforce, and that is part of our strategic objectives. The recommended budget includes a 5 percent wage increase for all classifications plus 1.5 percent to implement a merit-based incentive program and a half a percent for strategic pay plan maintenance. This investment in workforce totals approximately $11.9 million. June 15, 2023 Page 12 As briefly discussed earlier, the General Fund millage remains neutral. The year-over-year increase in taxable revenue is $54.6 million, and the total levy at millage neutral will be $490.6 million. The millage neutral levy in the Unincorporated General Fund totals $70.5 million, and that's an $8.3 million increase over last year, and the millage neutral levy in Conservation Collier results in a levy totaling 34.4 million, which is a $5 million increase over last year. Funding to -- as I spoke about earlier, funding to restore future long-term capital emergency reserves are in this budget and, again, that's $21.2 million. Our budget for that last year was 35.8 million. So that's what we utilized to fund the recovery of Hurricane Ian. This budget also provides funding for policy-driven affordable housing incentives, expanded funding for the implementation of a swale maintenance program within the Road Maintenance division, funding for hardening of the countywide 800 megahertz radio system, general governmental funding to support the stormwater utility and partnership projects, funding for the replacement of end-of-life security equipment, funding for upgrades to the Medical Examiner's facility, and General Fund new dollars programmed for capital initiatives this year total $90.6 million. That's a $4.5 million reduction from FY '23. The budget also includes support for economic initiatives and policy-driven development including funding for the Golden Gate Golf Course property and the Great Wolf Lodge. Contributions from the General Fund to the Naples CRA increased by approximately 1.2 million to $6.9 million this year. Contributions from the General Fund and Unincorporated General Fund to the two county CRAs, Ave Maria Innovation Zone, Golden Gate City Economic Development Zone, and I-75 Innovation Zone increased a combined $1.4 million. June 15, 2023 Page 13 Enterprise operations. As Ms. Patterson spoke about, the 7.07 percent utility increase approved on Tuesday is not incorporated in this budget, but it will be incorporated in your tentative budget in July. This budget has recommended water user rates up 4 percent and water -- and, sorry, wastewater rates are up 5 percent. And then solid waste tipping fees are up 8 percent. Recommended budget -- sorry. I lost my place. I apologize. Tipping fees are up 8 percent, and collection fees for District 1 and 2 are up 8 percent and 9.2 respectively. This results in an assessment for solid waste of 249 point -- $249.29. All right. On to the graphs here. So these graphs depict the taxable value trends since 2007. As you can see, in 2007, we had a peak taxable value increase of 25.4 percent, and then we kind of dipped down there until FY '13, and we've had increases for the last 12 years. The reason we put this back to 2007 is to show you how fast -- how fast the tide can turn with taxable value. And then 111 obviously follows the same trend on the bottom there. Let me move on to the next slide. This is your millage rate history. This chart illustrates the millage rate history for the General Fund and Unincorporated General Fund. The Board has maintained a millage neutral General Fund for 14 years and a millage neutral Unincorporated General Fund for seven years. If we move forward with millage neutral, this will be the 15th year for the General Fund and the eighth year for the Unincorporated General Fund. And with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Finn. MR. FINN: Thank you, Chris. Very nice. Edward Finn, Deputy County Manager. Chris had referenced the change in the available funding for capital, and this chart shows you how that change manifests itself. So there is a slight decrease year over year of $4.5 million, roughly. You'll see the top item there is the funding proposed for the Capital June 15, 2023 Page 14 Recovery Fund. The reason -- the reason this slide and the next slide -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Can you just go back to the last one. I was -- MR. FINN: Very well. Page up. When we -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Why did the Landscape Capital Fund go from 10 to 0? MR. FINN: That's a good question. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I'm sure you're going to cover it later. I'm just -- MR. FINN: No, I think we can cover it here. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. FINN: What we -- the way we should look at that, sir, is we should look at those two lines, Transportation Capital 310 and Landscape Capital 112 combined in '23. If you put those two together, there's actually a decrease relative '23 to '24. The Landscape Capital Fund, while it says that, technically it's actually funding the maintenance component of landscape -- the landscape program. It just happens to run through a capital fund. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. FINN: The reason -- the reason we talk about this at this level is the comparison that we're generally trying to make is relative to Board policy. The taxable value went up. The delta in revenue on the tax side is about $29 million, and a big chunk of that -- in fact, 20 million of that increase has gone into the capital side of the house rather than the operating side. That increase also covers some of the expanded requests that you'll see today. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I would just only suggest that, you know, these slides get passed around a lot and sometimes not with the words. It's just the slides. If I was a citizen and I saw this slide and I wasn't at this meeting and didn't hear anything, sometimes it's worth June 15, 2023 Page 15 putting a little asterisk next to something that had a huge delta and then put a little note on the bottom and say, this is -- you know, what you just explained, because, you know, these slides won't be locked in a safe after this meeting, but a lot of people won't have the benefit of the explanation. So it doesn't take 10 paragraphs, but when you see something that jumps out like that and, you know, a little asterisk at the bottom with one sentence explaining that it's not really apples to apples kind of thing would be helpful. So just a suggestion. MR. FINN: Very good. I appreciate it. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And it helps us, too. You know, we've got a big book here, and sometimes these things don't jump out at us with a good explanation up front. Thank you. MR. FINN: Good advice. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. Go ahead. Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Back on that slide. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yep. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You know, we made some budgetary adjustments back in the day in regard to that Landscape Capital Fund. And when we make those policy adjustments, I want accounting adjustments. I would prefer -- forgive me. I would prefer accounting adjustments to travel along with that. I don't want operational funding flowed through a capital project that then we have to track through BAs and other things along those lines. The Board left the millage rate alone after the tax increase to the unincorporated area of Collier County back in 2016 and then continued -- and with the requisite that those -- we wouldn't build any more landscape medians until such time as we got control of the expenses associated with that perpetual maintenance. But then -- and then that capital attributable to the new construction that we chose not to do has flowed through the Capital Fund. And I -- I June 15, 2023 Page 16 would rather have a little more clear picture as to just, in fact, how -- where the money's coming from and how it's, in fact, going. MR. FINN: I understand. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Please. MR. FINN: Whichever direction we move with that ultimately, that will be transparent to the Board and the public. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. MR. FINN: Thank you. Stormwater funding continues to be an important initiative in our budget. This is -- this slide just attempts to demonstrate our continued commitment to this. You'll see that towards the bottom of this slide is the debt service on the $60 million capital improvement bond that was taken out in '21, I believe, or a Series 20 bond that was taken out for $60 million. Position -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel's got a question. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Before you jump off of stormwater, on the tax bill, there's a line item delineated percentage for -- attributable to stormwater. Do you recall what that millage rate attributable is? MR. FINN: I do not. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. MR. FINN: I do not. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'd like to find -- I think I recall, but before I start spewing information off the top of my head, I'd like to find out what that number actually is. It's delineated. Has -- it maybe isn't any longer. It used to be. Back in the day, there was a line item on the tax bill attributable to stormwater. MS. PATTERSON: Are you speaking about the Big Cypress June 15, 2023 Page 17 Basin line item on the taxes? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, no, I'm not. No, I'm not. MR. FINN: Could it potentially be, in concept, a proportion of our taxes? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Overall. It was a portion of the ad valorem taxation that was attributable to that, and it was -- in history, it was reduced over time, which puts us in dire straits over operations, maintenance, capital, so on and so forth. And I have in the back of my mind that that number was attributable to about $20 million a year based upon those taxable values back in the day, and then we made significant adjustments to -- and supplemented that with debt. I recall that we -- that was one of the debt instruments that we issued shortly after I came into office, and I'd just like to know what -- MR. FINN: We'll attempt to do some research on that. MS. PATTERSON: It's the millage equivalency is what that is. It was all the way back in the mid-2000s we had an up-to millage -- it started as a millage equivalency, became an up-to millage equivalency, and then was drawn down over time. We can get you that information. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Please. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: One thing I'll just say to the commissioners here, just as a reminder, this is a working meeting. We've run it different, you know, over the last couple years that I've been here. But just as Commissioner McDaniel is chiming in, if we've got the main person sitting here and you've got a question -- you know, this is a working meeting, so I don't look at it as interruptions. I mean, we don't want to break your stride in your presentation, but let's not miss an opportunity that -- if you have something hot, I'll be monitoring the -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I have full intent of breaking June 15, 2023 Page 18 his stride. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Oh, I know you do. But -- and I say this with all sincerity: Follow Commissioner McDaniel's lead. This is very valuable discussion. Let's chime in while the main players are here, because I think it's extremely helpful when you've got the slide right in front of you. So thank you. I'll be watching the -- just hit your lights. MR. FINN: Good discussion. In fact, this kind of gets to a big substantive part of our budget. Our objective is to communicate to the Board what the needs are. The needs may well exceed what's acceptable from a tax rate standpoint or from a taxable value standpoint -- a taxable growth standpoint. Our objective is to point these things out. Over time, millage equivalencies or certain funding levels are established, and they're not necessarily consistently followed through, and they -- that, in fact, is a lot of what we're trying to minimize going forward. We're trying to have plans. We're trying to establish multiyear funding plans, multiyear funding plans that we can stick to so that we can actually achieve our goals. With that, position count changes. As had been mentioned, there's some expanded requests of approximately 22 positions. The bulk of those, 19 positions are in the road and bridge area for a substantial swale maintenance initiative that we're hoping the Board finds acceptable. Next slide. Compensation adjustment. Pursuant to the Board's policy, 5 percent increase in base salaries to maintain our recruitment and retention. The initiatives that we've put in place over the last couple of years, it is important to continue those. 1.5 percent for a merit-based program, an additional .5 percent to strengthen certain target classifications through targeted overall pay plan adjustments. The adjustments -- compensation adjustments in the overall budget June 15, 2023 Page 19 total about $11.9 million. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just a little more before you jump -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel. MR. FINN: Yes. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'd like to have a little more clarity with regard to the merit-pay-based incentive program. I want -- I would like to see how that's derived. I'm a huge advocate of that, by the way. I think incentive pay, merit pay, whatever you want to call it to make it legal, is a key component to build teamwork and better manage how we do what we do all day every day. So if you -- and it doesn't have to be today because, you know, there again, depending on how the Board goes with our board schedule, we can have discussions throughout the summer with regard to some of the definitions and specificity in regard to these programs. Because the merit pay's, relatively speaking, new. In the past we did more what I prefer to call as subjective bonuses with regard to pay increases. This is -- this has -- this has a little more specificity in how we derive that. MR. FINN: Very good. Thank you, sir. The healthcare program, as we discussed, the program requires some adjustment to the rates. The program we have calls for a 5 percent increase this coming year. It will result in the employer portion of the funding going up about 1.1 million across the agency. The impact to the employees is in the same percentage. And what we're trying to reflect here is kind of the weekly impact which -- while every dollar has an impact, this is -- this is fairly modest given the overall cost of healthcare. The cost share between the county and the employee remains approximately in the -- 80 to 20 percent is the ratio that we're June 15, 2023 Page 20 shooting for, and that target is a little bit flexible because it's a lot of dynamics within the program in terms of classification in terms of what they pay. The individual employee's rate of pay also impacts what their copay is. So I'll leave it at that. It's has historically been 80/20, and that is what we continue to target with this adjustment. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: What's been the trend over, like, the last five or 10 years on this increase? Does this sort of jive with what we've normally done? You know, 5 percent, give or take, has been the normal or -- historically? MR. FINN: Again, in a workshop environment, we do get a lot of questions that allow us to get to the point. What you're going to find and what I will find is we probably have not adjusted these rates one dime in at least seven years. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. And that's what I figured the answer was. And if you remember at the last budget meeting, one of the things I said is sometimes that's not the best way to do it. You know, pat ourselves on the back for eight years and say, oh, we haven't raised anything, and then we play catch-up, and, you know, some of the employees feel like then they're sort of punished with a big number. I mean, you know, sometimes it's six of one, half dozen of the other, but, you know, keeping up with inflation and keeping up with costs and taking small bites of the apple sometimes, you know, across the Board is a smarter way to do it. I mean, this isn't an enormous jump, but if the jump is this big because, you know, we maybe would have, could have, or should have made smaller -- taken smaller bites of the apple to keep pace with the economy, you know, sometimes the people that were sitting up here take credit for over the last eight years in not jumping anything, and then we're the bad guys because we're realizing maybe that was a mistake. June 15, 2023 Page 21 So I'm not saying it was, but, you know, we've mentioned that up here before. And I know we've talked about it in a smaller group. So, you know, we just want to be cognizant of that. And if we need to make a small, you know, increase because the economy has changed, then you make it. You know, you can't swallow it for eight years and then all of a sudden, you know, put a big number on there. And this number isn't huge, but some of the jumps we've made in certain areas have been bigger than maybe they should have been because we could have spread it out over time and -- anyway. I don't know if my colleagues -- Commissioner McDaniel, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. Just as an aside, for quite some time there's been a disparity in some of our constitutional officers' contributions to their employees' health benefit package in relationship to the wage. And I met with resistance in the prior life with regard to a cost-benefit analysis with regard to that. Because I know, as an employer, when you're contributing to someone's health benefit plans, you don't also pay FICA, MICA, withholdings, and so on and things that are expenses associated as being an employer. And I'd like somebody to look into that for future discussion as to whether or not we can make some adjustments to our employers with regard to the offset for the expense associated. MR. FINN: Yes, sir. We'll look into that. Thank you. The county net budget. The county net budget -- and you'll see over in the right-hand side the net budget, that's absent internal transfers, is right on the threshold of $2 billion. So it is certainly a substantial budget. It is comprised of a number of funds, 200 or more in number. The Enterprise Funds, water, sewer, utilities, the solid waste operation constitute, to a great extent, the largest of those funds. You also have substantial funding rolling through Conservation June 15, 2023 Page 22 Collier both in reserves and its annual funding. So it is not solely General Fund or Unincorporated General Fund that makes up this $2 billion. In fact, the General Fund -- and this is a gross number of $674 million. That is about 24 percent of the gross -- the gross budget number. To give you a sense of some of the key General Fund revenue sources, there is, of course, ad valorem taxes, and that chart shows an upward trend that's consistent with a millage neutral philosophy in a rising taxable value environment. Sales tax dollars continue to be strong. And you'll see that in our forecast for '23 and '24, we continue to show the conservatism that allows us to have very good credit ratings and be financially solvent enough to handle major events like the most recent Hurricane Ian, and the same applies to state revenue sharing. This is a year-over-year comparison of the General Fund with the revenue on the right-hand side and the expenses on the left-hand side. This is, as I said, year over year, pure '23 to '24 recommended budget. And you can see that in terms of numbers in the General Fund, the constitutional officers and principally the critical public safety responsibility of the Collier County Sheriff's Office is largely -- largely shown at the top there as his increase. He put together a budget with a 7 percent increase. He told us that's what he was going to do, and we planned for it, and that was, in fact, part of the Board's budget policy. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Saunders has a question. Go ahead, sir. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. Going back to the 68.5 million in the ad valorem dollars as an increase over the 2023 FY budget -- that was the slide just before this one. Yeah, that one. Can you elaborate on the 68.5 million increase? How much of that is from new construction? How much June 15, 2023 Page 23 of that is from increased valuations of existing properties? MR. FINN: Chris will give me the number. New construction is typically in the 2.8 billion, as what it's been historically. I believe we're going to find that the -- in the order of magnitude this year, it was about 2.3 billion in new construction -- 2.2 in new construction. And we'll come back to the taxable amount. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. Because I think as we get through going through this process that we're talking about setting millage rates, I think an explanation of that number is going to be very important to understand where that number comes from, and if we go back to a rolled-back millage rate as an example, what that implication would be for each -- for the average homeowner in terms of taxable savings. MR. FINN: Anything on that, Chris? (No response.) MR. FINN: And while I get that number, that specific number you asked for -- so that would be -- I'm trying to give you the taxable dollars on 2.2 billion, for example. So that number would be $7.8 million. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Seven point -- MR. FINN: Seven point eight, sir. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Seven point eight million of the 68 million is due to new construction? MR. FINN: Yes, that's right. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And then the balance is obviously due to increased property assessments. MR. FINN: Property assessments and, of course, I think, we all know that homestead properties are limited to a 3 percent increase, and non-homestead properties are limited, generally, to a 10 percent increase. There are also people that have transacted properties where their June 15, 2023 Page 24 basis has been re-established, and in those cases, the taxable value kind of rises with the new basis. So it's kind of independent of the Save Our Homes 3 percent or the 10 percent limitation. So those are the -- those are the ones that are most troubled by the tax implications when they just bought a home, and they're referencing an index millage -- indexed taxable value that the previous owner had and/or they have work that requires it to be re-established at the current taxable value. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So one of the numbers I'm going to be looking for is for your typical homeowner, that 3 percent increase. If we stay at the -- keep the millage rate steady, what that number is, and how much of a savings there will be to that typical homeowner if we go to the rolled-back millage rate. Last year I believe it was a 60 or 70 -- 60 or $70 difference -- MR. FINN: Yes. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- if we had gone to the rolled-back millage rate at that time. So I'd like to have the same comparison. MR. FINN: We'll -- I think we can do that before today's session is over -- COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Great. MR. FINN: -- and report back to you on that and try to give you a sense of what that would do. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah, me, too. I like that question, definitely, before -- at this meeting. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I don't want to -- I'd like to -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: You know, and it's hard to nail down, like, if people do a resell on a home versus -- and that was their homesteaded home, and they're selling it to somebody from up June 15, 2023 Page 25 north, and now that's going to be a secondary home. So there's a big difference in millage just in that transaction, plus the reassessment of the home years later on the sale because then that -- that's something we really -- it's hard to nail down, too, because we don't know -- because now that home's assessable to up to a 10 millage rate, you know, when it used to be at a 3. And, you know, I don't know the percentage of what that -- because there's a lot of transaction resell homes over this past year too. So I think, you know, that might play a role in the increase in some of the monies we receive too. So I know it's kind of hard to figure exactly which ones went which way, but, you know, I think it's for the public to know that, you know, these do play a role in why these -- you know, more monies come in, and we've done nothing -- and we haven't raised any millage on anything, so... MR. FINN: And you're absolutely right. Over the years, we frequently -- the residents that come in and have discussions with us about their tax bill, oftentimes they're folks that fit into that category that have had substantial increases because of an activity or a transaction in the property that requires that base to be reset. So, yes, that is a substantial -- substantial impact on those residents. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You know -- and that -- on that note, with regard to the new construction, new construction's taxed at that rate for and until the homestead's actually enacted. The other side is those transactions that are the short-term rentals for people -- for institutions that are buying homes and turning them into the Airbnbs and the vacation -- you know, the vacation rentals and such. Those folks roll into a different value. And we've had a considerable amount of transactions in that regard, people buying investment properties and rolling them into that, so... June 15, 2023 Page 26 CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Saunders. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. I thought it was interesting at our last budget hearing in September of last year. And, of course, our new commissioners were not on the Board at that time. We had, I think, two couples that came in to complain about our tax rates, both of which had just moved to Collier County from California. And so I think it's really important to really nail down what is in that $68 million number, because that's going to really be, I think, one of the major discussions we're going to have. What is the impact if we go to the rolled-back millage rate. We eliminate a large portion of that number, and what does that do to the -- our overall budget, and what does that do to our ability to be prepared for things like Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Ian. And then what is really the benefit to the individual homeowner if we did that? So that's why I wanted to focus in on that, because I think that's really the big -- one of the big -- probably the driving policy decision that will affect everything we do here in this budget. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. I couldn't agree more. The question I get mostly from citizens who drill down a little deep -- bit deeper into the budget is, wow, property values have gone up. All this extra money is coming in, so why aren't you giving it back to us? Why aren't you making -- and, you know, an answer -- partial answer to that question, as we heard in September, is, man, we have a lot of infrastructure that's -- that we've -- you know, maybe needed repair, and we've, you know, kicked the can, or we didn't kick the can, but we just pushed it down the road or whatever. And so, you know, it's easy to refund money and pat ourselves on the back, but on the flip side, if -- we're also growing. I think you said it best, I think, in September, if I recall, that sometimes people forget that we need more money for infrastructure because more people are coming in here, and it's not a matter of, you know, June 15, 2023 Page 27 just keeping everything static and saying we haven't raised anything. By the same token, I'm not saying that we can't look at it and maybe look at the roll back. But Commissioner Saunders says it perfectly, we need to see what that impact is before we make a knee jerk, pat ourselves on the back and then, you know, our replacements are sitting up here in X number of years, and they're in a bit of a hole because, you know, we did something that was a little bit too aggressive. But, Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And just as a thought, you know, one of the things -- Rob Stoneburner, our Tax Collector, attended a town hall, my Evening with the Commissioner that I do every month, last night, and he said there was approximately 270,000 parcels, taxable parcels in Collier County. So we've got a county on -- and delineation of what those individual parcels are. Some are vacant land, some are commercial, so on and so forth. So it's -- the thing that you're talking about, Commissioner Kowal, is -- this is math. We can apply those numbers and actually see what Commissioner Saunders is talking about with regard to how we move forward. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Go ahead, sir. MR. FINN: And if I may, a moment ago we were talking about kind of the year-over-year comparison, which is just straight '23 budget, '24 budget. This slide attempts to show the Board the change or the delta between the policy that the Board adopted in March and where we are today. And we had talked about the additional property tax because of the additional growth in tax base being about $29 million. That's shown -- shown on the right-hand side. On the left-hand side is kind of where that -- where those funds went. We had talked about restoring a portion of our June 15, 2023 Page 28 capital/hurricane reserve in Fund 301, and the bulk of that money, 16 -- 16.2 million of that is going -- is going there. There are some other important capital projects that are proposed to be funded. There are transfers to the CRAs and the other, I'll call them Economic Development Zone TIF areas, including the City of Naples CRA, that rise and fall with taxable value and the levy of taxes. So that's an increase there. There's some adjustments downward. There's a transfer to Property Tax Fund 516, and while that is consistent with last year's budget, it was not specifically included in policy. The -- our property -- property casualty insurance went up dramatically. The General Fund, in this case we're proposing to fund that, provides some funding in there to decrease the impact to the individual budgets and be consistent with last year. The next largest one is transfer to constitutional officers, and that, generally speaking, is -- there's about $800,000 in additional funding for the Supervisor of Elections office to reflect the elections that are going to be held next year, and there's also some funding that the Clerk -- the Clerk has requested relative to shortfalls in state funding, and the dynamics of her revenue stream relative to document revenue stream that she usually gets, that's down a little bit. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Elaborate a little bit more on our casualty insurance going up significantly. So that's through a private company? MR. FINN: Yes. It's subject to competitive -- competitive selection process, and it was up for renewal, and the county, just like you or I at our home, was hit with a substantial increase in our -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But when that happens, do we shop that around and make sure that, you know, we're not just sticking with the same company and taking -- you know, taking the increase on the chin and just rubber stamping it? What's the June 15, 2023 Page 29 process? MR. FINN: The answer is yes. So it's subject to a competitive -- competitive process, and it was carefully reviewed before -- before it was placed so that the Board approved that not too long ago. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. MR. FINN: That was a very substantial increase, so it did rise to the level where it had substantial oversight here at the executive level as well. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: One quick question. Are we going to review the CRA budgets individually here today, or do we just do that at the separate meeting when we have in the past, at their annual -- MR. FINN: The CRA budgets are part of this. Those are part of kind of the greater executive or County Manager Office -- office group. Representatives of that will be in front of you, and we can look at those pages today, as we can look at any page in the book before you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And do we have -- is the new hired -- I think Craig. MR. FINN: Greg. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Greg, yes. MR. FINN: New CRA director. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: He's a very nice man. Is he in charge of the city CRA as well? MR. FINN: No, sir. The city CRA is just that, it's a city entity. The length of time that's in place is solely up to the city. And within recent memory, they extended the life of that for another 30 years. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And there was -- I thought I June 15, 2023 Page 30 saw a fairly large transfer over there -- MR. FINN: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- for that particular one, so... MR. FINN: It is quite substantial. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. MR. FINN: And I'm -- we go long on these slides. I'm going to try to pick up the pace a little bit to get through this. And the last -- the last large item on here is the expanded requests kind of towards the middle on the left-hand of $3.5 million. The bulk of that is, in fact, the -- a new swale program, swale maintenance program, principally targeted at the Estates here as a pilot effort. General Fund reserves. General Fund reserves are up, which is the trend we want to see. General Fund reserves are established largely as a proportion of the budget that's developed, the operating budget. And while they're up a little bit as a proportion, they're down slightly. They still fit within -- within our control lines for what we're trying to achieve with reserves, but they are not -- they're up, modestly down, proportionally, but they're where we need to be for next year. And we talk about why we have reserves. Certainly the county -- the county's investment grade status is one reason. It contributes enormously to our flexibility. It provides the general government cash flow engine that we need, particularly the last bullet there, to fund the constitutional officer reserves as well. It protects the beginning cash balance which is an important indicator and absolutely necessary to cash-flow the first two, two-and-a-half months of the fiscal year before we collect taxes, and it funds unforeseen mandates and emergencies, as we've all seen. Hurricane Irma, in September of 2017. Five years later we get hit with Hurricane Ian with unprecedented storm surge. The June 15, 2023 Page 31 damages from Irma were approximately 115 million. To date, the damages from Ian are a solid $90 million all day. The cash flow of these storms, reserves were reduced. And in the past, particularly for Irma, capital projects were cut to fund that cash-flow need. Cutting those capital projects certainly is a viable way to do it, but while we're recovering from hurricanes, that cutting of existing capital programs creates enormous delays. And in the environment we've been in the last three years, those delays, you delay a project for a year, and you have 20, 30 percent inflation on construction costs. It has both a time and an enormous financial impact to cut projects. So funding up our reserves appropriately for hurricanes allows us to minimize the impact on important capital programs. And the last bullet just talks about where we were with this reserve last year, which was a budget of $35.8 million. And we're hoping, with the Board's -- Board's agreement, Board's direction, to restore that to approximately $21 million in the budget we're looking at. The Unincorporated Area General Fund is a fairly modest under-1-mill tax. The total budget is about 83 million. That's a 10 percent increase from '23. It funds operations like road and bridge maintenance, zoning, comp planning, parks, natural resources, and it also provides substantial capital -- capital funding for programs in the same area. The millage neutral rate is going to raise $70 million next year. We talked about the capital transfers, and the Board approved an interlocal agreement relative to the Ochopee Fire District that is also having some budgetary impacts here, and in this case, with the surplus we have, we also increased the reserves by some amount of money. This is the year-over-year look at the Unincorporated Area June 15, 2023 Page 32 General Fund, and this is the comparison to policy. So the comparison to policy, roughly speaking, is about $6 million. The largest chunk of that is a transfer to stormwater capital program, an increase to reserves, and an increase in the transfer to the -- I'm sorry -- transfer to the Ochopee Fire District relative to the Greater Naples Fire District contract. Debt service, or our debt policy, we continue to be well, well within compliance with the Board's policy on debt service management. Our ratio is 4.9 percent of bondable General Fund revenues. The cap is 13 percent. This is a historical chart on our outstanding principal debt, and this includes general government and enterprise debt. The bulk of this is enterprise debt. You can see that in the '16, '17, '18, there were substantial refundings that went on. We continue to monitor our ability to refund bonds when it -- when it meets the appropriate metrics. We have a Finance Committee that looks at that regularly, as does our financial advisor. We will not miss an opportunity, but we will not churn -- nor will we churn our bonds just to churn them. Budget challenges. Historically, one of our big challenges was the reliance on property taxes. It's something we struggle with every day. Future, we're certainly going to have to look at some level of diversification of our revenue structure. Franchise fees have been discussed over the years, and it's entirely possible those will come back in a more formal discussion format. We have had considerable success with our infrastructure surtax program. That is going to be terminated this year consistent with the ordinance that enabled that. In all probability, the County Manager is going to be coming before you with a recommendation to look to a future infrastructure surtax as a way to diversify our funding sources or continue to diversify, given that we have it right now. COMMISSIONER HALL: Mr. Finn? June 15, 2023 Page 33 MR. FINN: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER HALL: Can you just explain in plain talk how franchise fees operate and then how the infrastructure surtax would operate? MR. FINN: Infrastructure surtax, we would be in a position of going out to a referendum to reinstitute that. We would -- we would need to establish a program for the use of that money, what it would be used for in terms of infrastructure. We would then be in a position to -- COMMISSIONER HALL: No. Let me rephrase my question. MR. FINN: Yes. COMMISSIONER HALL: For my sake and the public's sake. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Franchise fee. COMMISSIONER HALL: The franchise fees, how would that operate and, again, on the infrastructure? MR. FINN: Franchise fees essentially are a fee that would be charged to utilities for the use of the right-of-way. The utilities -- and we would collect that fee from the utilities. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Paid by who? MR. FINN: Why don't I let Mr. French speak to that. This is his area of expertise. MR. FRENCH: Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, Jamie French, your department head for Growth Management. Franchise fees are an agreement between the local community and the electric service utility provider for the use of your right-of-way. FP&L will enter into an agreement up to 5.9 percent, where LCEC will -- we've seen negotiated terms with LCEC north -- just north of that. You would identify what you've -- so you could use these dollars for maintaining the right-of-way, to offset the cost for other June 15, 2023 Page 34 things. You do not have to be specific in nature with regards to how you use those funds, but it is a 30-year commitment, and part of that commitment is, is that you pinky promise, pinky swear, that you will never be a competitor to the utility. So like you have Mr. Rodriguez and I and former County Manager Jim Mudd and department head -- or Administrator Jim DeLony, we have negotiated the recycling center -- or, I'm sorry, the waste plant where they're taking the methane gas and they're putting energy back into the grid, and that was negotiated through Waste Management so that the county was not actually producing energy. It was Waste Management, and then Waste Management then pays the county. So that would not put you in any type of violation. And that's really the reason why at least that part of the contract was written. But it's a 30-year commitment, sir. COMMISSIONER HALL: Who pays the franchise fees? MR. FRENCH: The user. COMMISSIONER HALL: Is it the utility company or the people? MR. FRENCH: It is a pass-through. It is a pass-through -- COMMISSIONER HALL: So it's just another way of saying we're going to tax you more. We're just going to call it something different? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Bingo. MR. FRENCH: (Nods head.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I just said bingo. MR. FINN: And if I may, we're not -- franchise fees certainly is a way to diversify our revenue stream. It is not -- we can't sit here and tell you that it's not a way to generate money for the county, because it is, and that's the nature of it is to diversify it so it isn't purely the ad valorem tax, sir. June 15, 2023 Page 35 The surtax. Surtax is -- as you know is collected on the purchase of goods and services. The program that we have now is used for a number of capital infrastructure programs: Roads, community priorities, including affordable housing, as well as some infrastructure maintenance for our government buildings. How that would be instituted going forward is we would develop what we were going to use the money for. We would seek the Board's approval in doing that and, ultimately, we would get the electors of the county to presumably approve that as, again, a diversified way to fund county operations. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Saunders. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Just a quick comment. I think the concept of talking -- even talking about a franchise fee is kind of a waste of time. Your job is, obviously, to tell us what revenue sources are available, and it's our job to tell you which ones we ultimately will adopt, and that's not likely to be one. So as you're going forward with your planning, at least from my view, you know, you can strike that one off. Future infrastructure surtax probably fits into the same category. I doubt that we'd put it back on the ballot and, frankly, I doubt that it would pass. So just from my perspective, spending a lot of time on those from your planning perspective would be, I think, a waste of your time. COMMISSIONER HALL: Concur. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And on that note, there's a reoccurring theme that's throughout this package that we have, and that's -- and that's been talked to me since I became your commissioner with regard to our heavy reliance on ad valorem and the lack of security that the government has with its aggregate revenue sources because of the valuation process with real estate June 15, 2023 Page 36 values and taxation and such. So without belaboring the point, I brought up a subject here earlier with regard to the total taxable pieces of property, taxable, assessable properties in Collier County. One of the things we may want to explore as a maneuver to shift to a different methodology is -- and I -- it's an oversimplification, but it's a door fee with regard to the taxable properties of Collier County. And pick some of the -- utilize some of the budget expenses. Parks and Rec; who doesn't go to Parks and Rec? Roads and bridges; who doesn't drive over our roads and bridges? Stormwater. And accumulate an expense associated with those aggregate departments in Collier County. And with a commensurate ad valorem reduction, move to door fee -- or I'd like to see that fixed-fee analysis in relationship to it so -- because there's considerably more transparency there with regard to it. I'd like to maybe utilize -- because, you know, I don't want to be just always talking about no more taxes. I just -- there is a rationale for having that discussion, at least in my mind, which is an interesting place. COMMISSIONER HALL: Door fee, like a flat fee? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. It takes X to run Parks and Rec. It takes X to do our bridges and -- roads and bridges and stormwater and so on and so forth. And I'd like to see that comparison in relationship to what we actually charge with ad valorem and such, and that might be a path for us to travel. EMS, everybody in EMS is underneath our General Fund expenditures. MR. FINN: Very good. Very good. Balancing competing priorities for capital investment, asset management, expanding service delivery, new programs, along with perceived public expectations will continue to pose a challenge. June 15, 2023 Page 37 We're all sitting here today really dealing primarily with that challenge. Monitor the continued shift in program costs to local governments, increased service demands in the unincorporated -- in the unincorporated area, and the annual -- annual concern that the communications tax will get eroded, which funds a pretty good chunk of the 111 fund. And balance the need for reserve growth and growth in operations with future asset management and replacement. Expanded -- unfunded requests. The County Manager, in developing her recommended budget, had gone through and had to reject a number of requests in order to achieve the Board's goals relative to policy and what their targets were. The objective here -- and I'm going to show you a sheet of those -- is to provide visibility on those items to the Board and get the Board's sense of prioritization on the items that we're going to look at potentially for inclusion in the budget, if additional funding becomes available or if the sense of the Board's priority rises to the level that we need to prioritize something that's already to the budget. One of the things that we've worked hard to try to fund up, and we still haven't achieved all our goals, is relative to parks' capital maintenance. This is an annual concern that the facilities don't look the way they should and they don't -- they don't meet the community's expectations in some regards. I'm quickly going to say that -- and my sense of it is that we've made considerable progress on that, which is why the County Manager did not, per se, include this chunk of additional funding in the budget. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Consider a what? MR. FINN: Considerable progress on. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Made considerable progress. June 15, 2023 Page 38 MR. FINN: Made considerable progress over the last three years on that front. Aquatic maintenance. There was a request for an additional $100,000. Volunteer pre-K program, summer camp, key -- key staff, Christmas around the world, a number of parks programs that require additional funding. Immokalee cattle drive jamboree, which is -- given the cost of the inflationary pressures that have been discussed at length here today on core keeping-the-doors-open costs, this particular thing ends up being kind of on the margin. Not necessary to keep the doors open, so it falls to a little lower -- lower prioritization. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: They asked for an increase of 40- for the cattle drive? MR. FINN: Immokalee cattle drive jamboree, that was the -- that was the request that was presented. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The request was an extra 40-? MR. FINN: I'm going to say it may have been part of the core 40-. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We're not nixing the cattle drive. We're just not appropriating the extra 40,000 expense? MS. PATTERSON: Sir, when we get to public services, we're going to talk in detail about the adjustments that they had to make to their budget to be able to pay the electricity, keep the doors open, and keep basic programs, and they can -- they can highlight those things that there is not money for, including -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I really hate this list. I mean -- or it needs specificity. I mean, you know, not giving 480,000 for all the camp programs and everything, what I want to hear is, similar to what Commissioner McDaniel is referring to, these programs aren't going away. It's just that they wanted 480,000 to maybe make it June 15, 2023 Page 39 more robust or to cover increased expenses, and we're saying no. So like you said, maybe the more appropriate time is when they come up here, but let's flag this list here, because I would really like to go down the line and get more specificity on are we cutting these programs, are we saying no to making the programs better, or -- and all of the above, right, gentlemen? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well -- and that was my question. And, again, if we're going to talk about it in more detail, fine. And I'm picking on the cattle drive just because it's in Immokalee. I have attended it every year, and this year there was a blowup. And when I say "blowup," it was a gala event. They had -- they had buses touring people around going to cattle ranches and all kinds of things. Maybe those things aren't requisite. The cattle drive is a really nice thing. If you haven't ever attended, please come. It's a lot of fun. A couple of those little cows hang a left and go off in people's yards had -- COMMISSIONER HALL: You said "blowup." I had it pictured of running from the bulls. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So bottom line, I just want to make sure we weren't stacking or eliminating the program. I just want to -- as long as we're controlling those costs, then I'm fine with that. MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, so on this list represents things that may go away, they may be things that are greatly reduced. That's why they're appearing this list. These are high-priority items that right now there is not adequate funding to do at all in some cases or to do as much. So as we get into the departments, we'll be having a further conversation with you about that. I can point you to the West Goodlette Phase 2, which is the very bottom, a stormwater joint project with the City of Naples. There is not funding for that project. It is -- this is our best attempt to show June 15, 2023 Page 40 you where our pain points are so that we can provide some ability for you, number one, to have visibility but, number two, to prioritize these and give us direction. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: So -- and then I'll go -- I've got two commissioners lit up here. So just remember, the average citizen that's either watching this or going to get feedback after this meeting will say, wow, we have more money coming in because property values are being raised and we're collecting more taxes and we're planting more trees and making our medians look pretty and adding sand to our beaches and everything, but the first thing we decide to cut are all the public -- and I'm not saying I'm just -- and I know I'm oversimplifying, and that's why whoever comes up here to address this slide, you've got to do a deep dive and explain why these programs aren't being enhanced, why they might be being cut. I mean, these are -- these are -- and if it's because some of these programs are small, not as heavily, you know, attended or whatnot -- I don't know what the explanation is, but, you know, sometimes the takeaway by a lot of citizens is, wow, the first thing you cut are the things for our families and kids and whatnot, and it's the parks, but then, you know, they see money spent in other areas that they think is excessive or unneeded. And we just need to be able to explain that. MS. PATTERSON: So, Commissioners, for the viewing public's benefit, that's a great point but, unfortunately, the amount of things that we have discretion to cut appear on this list. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah, I get that. MS. PATTERSON: Because the money for sand is for sand, and it can't be used for parks or -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Absolutely. MS. PATTERSON: So -- and that's something that we really -- as your departments come up and they speak to you about June 15, 2023 Page 41 this, they're going to explain to you those limitations. And so when we talk to you about scenarios under which -- whether by our own decisions or by decisions that are beyond us, economic conditions, there are very few discretionary places -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yep. MS. PATTERSON: -- to cut, and those cuts often can be quite painful because they go into frontline services. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Let's make sure we explain that, because the average citizen doesn't understand at times, and it's frustrating that there's different pots of money. MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: So sometimes when we get a three-page email saying, why don't you just take the money from this pot and throw it over there, it's actually not possible to do that due to the -- you know, we always say the color of money. And we just want to be specific there. But these programs require some deeper-dive explanation, just like you said, when we get to that point, so let's press. MS. PATTERSON: That's why they appear on this list. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Oh, I'm sorry. I want to go to the -- Commissioner Hall, then, Commissioner McDaniel, you're on deck, and then Commissioner Kowal after. COMMISSIONER HALL: So on the previous list, on the budget challenges list -- MR. FINN: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER HALL: -- down there, third from the bottom, shifting various program costs to local government. Is the other list this -- what are we talk about right there? Are we talking about wanting to add programs that the local government needs to pay for, or is this an example of the next -- of the next five? June 15, 2023 Page 42 MR. FINN: If I may, that's kind of a general trend for state or federal governments to provide -- provide mandates down to the local level that are unfunded. Perhaps a poor example is the change in legislature relative to housing that's going to have some local implications on our cost structure. MS. PATTERSON: There are -- there are any number of examples over the last couple of years. One really good example I'll give you is we've had a pretty aggressive March on impact fees. And no matter where your stance is on impact fees, understand that it is one tool that we use to fund growth capital construction, 12 different categories, from schools to roads to parks. When the local governments are told that we can include all of the true costs, the capital costs, it doesn't make those costs go away. It shifts those costs to other funding sources and away from your impact fee. So you cannot charge a full fee. Whether you're in support of impact fees or not, understand that when we're told the only thing that you can build with impact fees is the actual building, the vertical construction, you can't buy, for example, books, you can't buy expanded vehicles, you can't outfit the building, those costs all go somewhere, and the demands of growth continue. So that's just -- that's one example, and so we have to find a way -- because we can't say we just aren't going to build things, we're not going to provide for the growth. We have to find a way within our budgets to balance that, and then it has a ripple effect across the budget entirely. COMMISSIONER HALL: Gotcha. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And in that ripple effect, then there's adjustments in how we manage the increase and the ad valorem that comes from the growth in a -- in a different management June 15, 2023 Page 43 of those additional funds as they come along. I have two -- I have a question here. Is the last -- the last one on this particular list is $8.4 million. What does TMSD stand for? MS. PATTERSON: Transportation Management Services division. That's just telling you the originating department. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And that's a large number, 8.4 million. MS. PATTERSON: It is the stormwater portion of a septic-to-sewer and stormwater project that we've completed the first phase of and are in the planning for Phase 2, and it is a big number. And the number that you see there may not be reflective of the true cost in this cost environment. But, again, this is a critical project dealing with not only health safety, but water quality. So we're doing you no service by not telling you that some of these projects, there's just not adequate funding in the -- in this current environment. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And this particular area lies within the bounds of the city? MS. PATTERSON: No, it is unincorporated county, but it is within the city's water/sewer district. So it's a joint project between the City of Naples and the county, and the cost escalations are -- there are noticeable. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Enormous. MS. PATTERSON: And the other side of this is the special assessment that will have to be implemented by the city in order to accomplish that septic to sewer. So there's a lot of balancing here. And the county and the city have agreed that we're going to pursue all types of grants in order to deal with those program costs in the cost of the septic to sewer, but it puts more pressure on stormwater because we're trying to balance out that assessment on our residents. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Kowal. June 15, 2023 Page 44 COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon, but I think I have to. You know, in talking about museums -- and, you know, this was brought to my attention, and I was unaware of it, that, you know -- like our museum down -- our railroad, the museum within my district -- and I think the storm was nine months ago, and to this date we have not screwed a piece of drywall into those walls down there. They lost the whole prime fundraising season with the philanthropical people here in this town, you know, just these past few months. And, you know, this is -- to me -- I don't know if this is something that was just overlooked or what, but to me I think that's a travesty, that these things shouldn't [sic] have been addressed, and now we're talking about not moving forward with monies to support these things that people do require -- or request -- or is a desire from us as a government to have in place, you know. And the monies they raise goes towards our museums. It's not our money. It's the people -- philanthropic people willing to donate this money out of their own goodness of their own hearts. And when you miss out on that because we can't go in there and put some drywall back up and clean the place up and get it back open to the public, I mean, this is something we really need to look -- a close look at. So I hated to jump on that bandwagon but, you know -- MR. FINN: Relative to the -- COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- so the other commissioners here, you know, these -- I don't think that's a hard fix, you know, so... MR. FINN: Relative to the Depot, let me check on the status of that and report -- report back to you on where that is. I'll leave it at that. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just as an aside, I mean, June 15, 2023 Page 45 it's -- do a little -- have a little discussion at some stage as to how many other counties of the 67 counties in the -- in the State of Florida have five museums that we tend? That's a discussion some day for us to have with regard to how we -- how we manage these things. MR. FINN: Very good, sir. That concludes our summary presentation. The next group up is Mr. Rice and the court officers. I'll leave it to the Chair whether we want to get into that part of the program right now or take a break. It's entirely the Chair's discretion. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. 10:30's our normal break. Rather than get them started and then -- let's take a break, and we'll come back here at 10:35. MR. FINN: Very good. Thank you, sir. (A brief recess was had from 10:20 a.m. to 10:35 a.m.) MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Mr. Miller, do we have any public comment that want to speak? MR. MILLER: I have one public commenter on Zoom. If you would like me to call on him at this time, I can do that, sir. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. Let's just do that and see if he's there, or she's there, and if not, we'll press on. MR. MILLER: Andy Wells-Bean. Sir, you're going being asked to unmute your microphone, if you'll do so at this time. Andy Wells-Bean -- I'm checking -- is not unmuting. I will keep an eye on him, but he's not unmuting. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Give him a chance. Okay, press, please. Okay. Who's got the floor here? I guess the three people I'm looking at. MR. RICE: Help for me to start off. I'm Chuck Rice, court administrator here -- June 15, 2023 Page 46 CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. MR. RICE: -- Collier County. Good morning, Commissioners. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Good morning. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Stay up on the mic, Charles. MR. RICE: Closer. There we go. Chuck Rice, court administrator for the record. Good morning, Commissioners. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Good morning. MR. RICE: We're going to do our best to be brief. We may have to amend our budget quickly, since we sat in that first row -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. No, that was -- MR. RICE: Time limited. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That was the extra-money row? CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yep. Good call. MR. RICE: I'd like to make some introductions to start off with. To my right is our administrative judge, Joe Foster. JUDGE FOSTER: Good morning. MR. RICE: To his right is our elected public defender, Kathleen Smith. MS. SMITH: Good morning. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Good morning. MR. RICE: I'd also like to recognize three of our key players in court administration behind me. We have our civil division director, Debbie Moravec. Beside her, we have our operations director, Kerrie Hixson, and to her left we have Jeff Nichols, our director of our criminal division. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Why is he in the second row? He's a shady character? MR. RICE: He's not getting that extra money. June 15, 2023 Page 47 COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Not as much. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Big mistake. You know, one of the things I just want to say up front, we don't get to see you-all on a regular basis as much, but thank you for what you do and for serving, being public servants and serving our county. You know, it doesn't go unnoticed. It's very important. And even though you're not before us every other week, like so many other people, you know, we really appreciate what you do and your dedication. MR. RICE: Thank you. MS. SMITH: Thank you. MR. RICE: And as you know, Amira Fox, our state attorney, is usually here. She sends her regrets and apologies that she cannot make it today. However, her budget, basically, just went up 3 percent due to noncontrollable costs such as water and electric. However, if you recall, last year she was here with the Sheriff's support asking for several positions for her special narcotics unit, and she did want me to highlight -- and I think it's awesome -- they've done three special operations with this and netted enough fentanyl off our streets that had the potential to kill two million people. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Wow. I really -- I really wanted to give her a positive shout-out whether she's here or not. She's here a lot, and I've had a few issues cross my radar where I had to reach out to her. Immediate response. Immediately connected me with the right people. Immediately solved the problem. Her dedication to Collier County is -- is noteworthy. And we have other side meetings. I mean, I chaired a safety and security meeting for a couple years, and now Commissioner Kowal's on it. You know, I don't want to say she never missed a meeting, but I was surprised how often she attended and just how responsive her office has been. June 15, 2023 Page 48 So, you know, she's not [sic] missed at this meeting. I know she's well represented, and she's a big supporter of the county, and we really appreciate that. MR. RICE: We will pass that on to her. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. Please do. Thank you. MR. RICE: So with that being said, we're here to submit a $7.1 million budget. That's 1 percent less than what we asked last year and 25 percent below our target compliance rate. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Approved. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you. MR. RICE: We can do that. But I would like to highlight a few things, if I may. You know, we've very efficient with our work and the efficiency of our core services. And people say, well, what's your core services with the court? Well, it's pretty simple. If you drill it down, it's the programs that we have. That's our probation department, our drug court, mental health court, veterans court, we have a strong mediation program, truancy court, and a teen court. A lot of those are problem-solving courts. Some of them are diversionary courts. But our goals in our program are very simple: Public safety and restorative justice. As for the courts, our goal is fair and timely resolution of cases and access to justice for all. Pretty simple. We do have performance measures that we monitor yearly. For instance, our judges have achieved 112 percent clearance rate. That means anything over 100 percent, they're getting rid of backlog. Anything under 100 percent, you're gaining backlog. And that's all in light of having several of our judges retiring. And I know Judge Foster won't mention it, but he was one that pitched in and basically took care of three dockets the best he could for a little while until we could fill those positions. June 15, 2023 Page 49 CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Can I just ask. So where did you -- where did you trim? Where did you make some efficiencies? Because your workload certainty isn't getting any smaller. And some of the things that I've been involved in with Ms. Fox have been an increase in services. So, you know, this is a good lesson that you can actually do things better, faster, and cheaper when you do a deep dive and you do. So can you hit some of the high points of where you did save some money? Because it's commendable, because I know you haven't reduced, you know, services. MR. RICE: Absolutely. Well, the main thing to keep in mind is the 1 percent less than what we asked last year is a key number that we really reduced. The target compliance rate -- our target compliance rate was 4.25, I believe, or 4 and a half percent of General Fund transfer. So we -- you know, our revenues went up on a lot of our revenues to offset that. Basically, the costs where we saved was our technology, some of the requests we made technology-wise. We kind of caught up in the past of the technology needs we needed to take care of, and it's just, you know, looking at different costs, containment measures, travel. You know, so many -- so many trainings are out there that we can do Zoom now that saves a ton of money in travel. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But, see, we really applaud that, because you could come here and talk about all the services that you've increased and you like to maintain your budget the same. And, you know, that may not get by us and we might say, gosh, why aren't you using technology more and why aren't you trimming travel? But the fact that, you know, you guys have taken the responsibility, I mean, I think that's a good message for all the June 15, 2023 Page 50 departments that I hope come up here that have been able to take advantage of that because, I mean, we're trying to be judicious and spend taxpayer money wisely and not just sort of rubber stamp budgets and move forward. So I really think that's commendable. And every nickel counts. So even if you haven't saved $3 billion, if everybody could do what you've done -- and it was realistic, you know. Other places -- other departments are going to come up here and they need more money because of certain things. But, you know, I think it's impressive that, you know, you guys have taken to task the responsibility of figuring out how you could do things better, faster, cheaper without a loss of service. MR. RICE: Well, thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: So thank you. MR. RICE: And, you know, we do a lot, you know, with the Clerk and the Sheriff. If we didn't have their support, we couldn't do a lot of things that we do, along with the Public Defender and State Attorney's assistance to the Court. But, you know, we work very closely with the Sheriff's Department. Our Probation Department is one of the most aggressive enforcement-oriented departments in the State of Florida. We go out and check on people in the field with Sheriff's deputies. With all that being said, they enjoy a 77 percent success rate in completion of probation. Even though we're that enforcement-oriented, we're still getting that type of compliance and success. So with that, I'll let Judge Foster make any comments. JUDGE FOSTER: Unless you-all have any questions for me, honestly, I just want to thank you for your patience and your attention to detail. This process that you're going through, it can be mind-numbing and, yet, you-all are very, very engaged, just from the bit that we've been here. So thank you for looking out for us. June 15, 2023 Page 51 CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I love that the judge is down there and I'm up here. It feels really good, you know. I don't ever want to have it the other way, you know. And I'm glad you didn't wear the robes. JUDGE FOSTER: I appreciate that, too, Commissioner. I don't want to see any of you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I would have nightmares if you were sitting there in the robes, so... COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'm wondering if we can hold him in contempt. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah, that's right. What can we do, County Attorney? Let's have some fun with this, right? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I make a motion. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah, that's right. Oh, I second. Thank you, Judge. MS. SMITH: And just quickly, I would like to thank you for your continued commitment to our drug courts, mental health courts, veterans courts. They made a huge difference. I think they save money, but they also increase public safety because we're making people well. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, ma'am. MS. SMITH: So I know that you have made significant investments, and I truly appreciate it. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you. Okay. Great. And any questions from any of our -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Go ahead, Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: While I have you all in a pile. And I don't know if it's filtered to you yet, when I talk to people, they blame you, Chuck. And then I talk to other people, they blame you, June 15, 2023 Page 52 Your Honor. Not you. MS. SMITH: No one blames me. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No one blames you. COMMISSIONER HALL: You're perfect, Kathleen. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. JUDGE FOSTER: It's all Chuck's fault. MR. RICE: That's what I'm here for. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We'll blame Charles. I want -- we're not done with you. This is the -- this is the workshop portion of your budget and how you're going. There is a direly dilapidated facility in Immokalee where I have multiple offices that aren't usable right now because of air conditioning and mold and other things. There's a courtroom in there that hasn't seen a judge since 1942. I have storage facilities over in the back side over in the Clerk of Courts area and the conference room. I want to remodel that facility. I want to -- I want to -- and I need to cooperate with you and our CRA in Immokalee to talk about the relocation of my offices -- our offices in the -- in the workforce center over off of Fifth. We're paying rent for a large space over there that can be utilized to offset the expenses associated with that remodel. So if I'm seeing positive head nods out of both of with you regard to that, I would like to explore that further to find out -- because in review of the budgets, there's reserves that are set aside over here and such, and revenue streams that can come with the elimination or replacement of rent to help offset those expenses. And it's -- it's time for us to do something there and do something nifty for the community. MR. RICE: Commissioner, just so you know, I think I've had a discussion with Facilities on this, and we are more than willing to cooperate and give that space up. Because we're paying, you know, per square footage on electric and water in the place that we're not June 15, 2023 Page 53 using either. So it makes good business sense. We're all on board. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Anything else from anybody? (No response.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. We don't have to take a vote or anything like that, right? It's just -- MS. PATTERSON: No, sir. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- an update. Yeah. Okay. MS. SMITH: Thank you very much. JUDGE FOSTER: Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: You know, one thing I'll just remind the group is we're not here to race through any of this, so -- we've blocked the whole day. So I know people feel the need to come up here and say, oh, we want to be brief, and we definitely don't want to be overly wordy or anything. But this is an important meeting, and none of us are trying to get out of here or play beat the clock. And this is also a chance for you as a department to come up here and, you know, toot your horn if you think you need to, to brag on the hard work that you've done. That's what this meeting's for. So don't feel like we're sitting here staring at the clock as commissioners trying to get out of here. This is an important meeting, so we appreciate all the information. Oh, this is going to be a good group. MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, next up you have your Transportation Management Services Department. Trinity will introduce her folks at the table. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You jumped out of order in my book. June 15, 2023 Page 54 CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. No, they came up with a new -- yeah, in the book it's a little out of order, but yeah. MS. SCOTT: Sir, that was to keep you on your toes. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. Well, we're on them. COMMISSIONER HALL: We're on it. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: We're on it. MS. SCOTT: Good morning. Trinity Scott, Transportation Management Services Department Head. This department, also known as TMSD, for brevity, or Trinity Mary Scott's department, encompasses six divisions: Capital Project Planning, inclusive of Stormwater Management and Coastal Zone; Fiscal and Grant Services; Operations and Performance Management, which includes the county's three airports; Public Transit and Neighborhood Enhancement, which oversees multiple Municipal Service Taxing Units; Road, Bridge, and Stormwater Maintenance; and Transportation, Engineering, and Construction Management. With me at the table today, I have Mr. Gene Shue, director of Operations Support, and Ms. Ellen Sheffey, Management Analyst II. You may not be aware, but Mr. Shue will soon be retiring, so he'll be turning over the reins to Ms. Cheffy in the next few weeks. Also in the room are the directors for each respective division as well as a few of our summer interns. We felt that the budget process was important that they learn a little bit about so they -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Where are they? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: They're right there. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Stand up. Let's see. Okay. Why you all in the back row here? Here, move up here to the front. Move up to the big seats, okay. Feel the mojo. This is where it all happens. This is the energy. Okay. MS. SCOTT: TMSD currently employs -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Can we have their names June 15, 2023 Page 55 before -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. Why don't you tell us who you are, where you go to school. This is important. Go ahead, young lady. Come up to the podium. MR. MILLER: You have to come up to the microphone. Pull it down so you can talk. MS. AGUILAR: Hello, everyone. I am Karina Aguilar. I'm from Immokalee, so I go to Immokalee High. And I'm doing road maintenance because it seemed very interesting. It's not something I would have thought I would go for career-wise, but maybe there's an opportunity in the future, and we'll see. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We're hiring. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Lots of opportunity. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I think I see 312 FTE requests in here. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah 311 now, right, because we got one. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We get one. MR. YBARRA: Hi, I'm Mickey Ybarra. I just graduated from Palmetto, Palmetto Ridge High School. I'm planning to be a firefighter, so I started at school at FSW for EMT and paramedic -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Congratulations. MR. YBARRA: -- because that's what I plan to do for the future. I took this opportunity for the internship because I think it's a great thing to do. A lot of stuff to learn, a lot of -- just a great experience and a great opportunity. And I'm excited, and I like learning everything with road maintenance. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Excellent. MR. MUCKELVANE: Good morning. I'm Justin Muckelvane, and I attend Palmetto Ridge. I'm a rising junior. And I'm happy to be involved with this internship opportunity June 15, 2023 Page 56 that was given to me by my engineering teacher. I plan to major in engineering. And, road maintenance, I entered this field not expecting at all to be the way it was. I'm very happy that I got picked by Marshal Miller into this division, and it's going to be a great four weeks. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Look at you guys. You've got badges and everything. Wow. Awesome. All right. (Applause.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: These are the folks that will be sitting up here after we're all long gone. So stay at it. There's a lot of opportunity serving your county. Appreciate it. MS. SCOTT: And we know all projects start with funding. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah, that's right. MS. SCOTT: So this is the best thing for them to experience, so... TMSD currently employees just over 300 team members. The funding sources are diverse, as are projects, and include tourist development funds, grants, ad valorem, gas taxes, impact fees, fares, and infrastructure surtax. Each activity performed by TMSD is intended to support the Board's vision to be the best community in America to live, work, and play and deliver on its mission to provide high-quality and best-value services to meet the needs of our residents, visitors, and businesses today and tomorrow. Every day our TMSD team members dedicate their professional lives to optimize our operations and efficiently plan our very limited resources to support the Board's strategic plan as directed by the County Manager. Remember, Commissioners, when we build something, we have to maintain it, and we have to have plans in place to have capital replacement over the years, and this team takes that very seriously. June 15, 2023 Page 57 In line with the strategic plan's responsible governance focus area, our team utilizes an asset management system to assist with data-driven decision-making. Continuing prior years' efforts, TMSD will proceed with our stormwater capital program, which includes projects identified in coordination with our Road, Bridge, and Stormwater Maintenance team, as well as partnering with both the City of Naples and Collier County Public Utilities to leverage our funds for cohesive projects. This work highlights another focus area in developing and utilizing partnerships to ensure that we meet public expectations. During your recent conversations with regard to the unfunded request list, the West Goodlette Phase 2 project was highlighted. This is a very important septic-to-sewer water-quality project, as indicated by the County Manager. Our stormwater capital program currently receives approximately $9 million per year for capital funds. It doesn't go very far when we're trying to partner with our Public Utilities. Our Public Utilities have aging infrastructure. From a public expectation standpoint, it makes the most sense, if we're going to have the area torn up, to replace that infrastructure all at once. Otherwise, we are both incurring cost for that maintenance of traffic as well as tearing up of the road. We try to partner with them as best as possible. Our Stormwater Maintenance and Capital programs have been the donor for other programs over the years. They, quite frankly, have been cut down to the bone. Meanwhile our infrastructure has continued to age. As we discuss every year in our Annual Update and Inventory Report, this program is in dire need of additional capital funding. We've plugged the gap in recent years with the $60 million bond, and those funds are anticipated to be committed by the end of this year; however, over the next five years, we anticipate needing an additional approximate June 15, 2023 Page 58 $150 million for stormwater capital. We are currently prioritizing those projects and reevaluating based on increased costs. We will continue to prepare several other major capital projects for construction that are identified in the strategic plan board priority of the Annual Update and Inventory Report. These projects include Pine Ridge Road, Collier Boulevard, and Vanderbilt Beach Road extension Phase 2 while continuing a variety of bridge projects, intersection improvements, and roadway enhancements. Public Transit and Neighborhood Enhancement will begin to design for 100 percent grant-funded replacement of the Collier Area Transit maintenance facility at 8300 Radio Road, a 40-year-old building that's met its useful life. Due to cost escalations, we expect a nearly $200 million deficit for road capital funds, which are largely needed to support infrastructure east of Collier Boulevard. This has been communicated annually to this board through our Annual Update and Inventory Report. TMSD remains focused on the Board's strategic plan in preserving our infrastructure as we respond to the demand for new capital project execution to be accelerated. We continue to anticipate challenges such as supply chain delays, project cost inflation, and a stressed labor force; however, the department's professional team will continue to scrutinize bids, diligently manage our contractors, and maintain tight fiscal controls and not be afraid to come to the podium when we need more money. In this budget, we've requested 19 additional team members and various capital equipment additions. The first two positions are customer service specialists for the Marco Island Executive Airport. The terminal building is open 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. seven days a week. We are currently filling these positions with temporary June 15, 2023 Page 59 contractor assistance. Unfortunately, we're missing continuity in our customer service and incurring costs due to turnover. To carry out the quality-of-place strategic plan objective, which is to provide quality public amenities and promote Collier County as an exceptional tourism destination, we are requesting to fulfill our customer service initiatives two full-time equivalent positions. We are hopeful that this modification will allow for a consistent and exceptional customer service experience which is vital to any business that intends to grow and succeed. Because the airports generate their own income through sale of fuel, there's no cost to the General Fund to add these two team members. And now, Commissioners, I'm going to change up a little bit. Typically department heads sit down here, but I am going to go over to the podium and go through a few slides. The next few slides relate to our expanded requests for a proactive swale maintenance program. To begin, let's look at our rainfall totals over the last year as provided by the Big Cypress Basin. And for those of you who don't receive Brad Jackson's report on a monthly basis, it is a wealth of knowledge about how our rainfall totals fluctuate countywide. As you can see, we've had multiple times during the year where the actual rainfall totals exceeded our historic averages. As such, we are receiving more calls regarding stormwater. The stormwater management maintenance program has historically been reactive and crisis-based request driven. In typical years, from June through September, we are pulling team members from other important activities to respond to stormwater concerns. Our senior leadership has been working together to evaluate our existing programs and determine how we may shift to a more proactive stance. TMSD has prior successful experience in implementing June 15, 2023 Page 60 proactive maintenance programs. Under County Manager Patterson's leadership in her prior role, we implemented the underground stormwater clean and repair program. For those of you who've been at the government center at 5:00 p.m. in August, you know that in the not-too-distant past, you might be able to launch a boat on Airport Road and get down to Davis Boulevard. All joking aside, the roadway would consistently go underwater due to a typical afternoon shower. We challenged our team to develop a proactive program to clean our underground stormwater infrastructure every five to six years and meet the industry standard. We developed a plan and, in utilizing contractor assistance, we were able to implement the program. Since we have started these proactive maintenance efforts, we have experienced the stormwater management system operate as it was designed to do so. The proof is in the pudding. Airport Road's not underwater during our typical afternoon rains. As I indicated earlier, TMSD's mission is to implement the Board's strategic plan. And the next program I'm going to introduce directly supports the objectives identified in equality of place, infrastructure, and asset management and community development as well as the County Manager's priorities of asset management and preventative maintenance programs and, more specifically, the Estates swale maintenance restoration program. In our effort to establish a proactive stormwater maintenance program, we need to address the swale network. Many areas that have existing swales in the urban area are covered by a stormwater management public utility partnership project. In addition, the TIGER project alone in Immokalee is improving 20 miles of swales within that area. Rural Golden Gate Estates, which encompasses approximately 650 miles of swales that are the conveyance network to get the June 15, 2023 Page 61 stormwater from the roadways to the ditches and canals, has received the most stormwater-specific requests in recent years. To meet these needs, we're requesting 17 additional team members who would be dedicated to proactive swale maintenance for the eight months of the year when our rainfall totals are low. And in those months where we experience the most rainfall and are required to be reactive due to the amount and duration of rain, this quick response team, or strike force, would be available for deployment countywide. This allows our existing crews to remain on their critical assignments of guardrail and pothole repair, litter pickup, vegetation removal for sightline concerns, and sidewalk maintenance. I'm now going to turn it over to Marshal Miller, division director of Road, Bridge, and Stormwater Maintenance, to discuss the composition and responsibilities of the proposed new crews. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And as he's coming to the podium, look how nice he looks. MR. MILLER: Hello, Commissioners. Marshal Miller, division director for Road, Bridge, and Stormwater Maintenance. At this time Golden Gate Estates is overseen by an area supervisor and crew that are currently reactive in their swale maintenance efforts, as they are also handling all roadway safety concerns to protect the pedestrian and motoring public. Our team will bring a proactive approach to our maintenance programs and explore new opportunities with these two expanded crews. These two dedicated crews will be working in conjunction with one another, which will not only give our division a greater area of coverage, as well as set and maintain a proactive schedule. The importance of having these two crews is that if an emergency, unforeseen event, or assistance is needed in a heavily traveled area, we have a crew nearby with the proper equipment to do June 15, 2023 Page 62 so. The equipment and vehicles selected for each crew have been identified as a universal asset for situations such as emergency response, recovery efforts, and intergovernmental assistance with anybody who needs it. They are also the standard we use in our fleet for consistency and upkeep costs. The standard plan for each crew would be as follows: The field supervisor would inspect and document each roadway to create a maintenance plan and mark for locates; an equipment operator would go in first to remove all overgrown vegetation affecting the roadside retention areas and outfall areas leading to our ditches and canals; then the crew leader with their heavy equipment operator, maintenance specialist, and another EO, or equipment operator, would provide maintenance of traffic for public safety, all reshaping swales to an elevated specified -- I'm sorry -- a specified elevation. Lastly, sod would be replaced and watered by crews, giving time for the field supervisors to proceed to the next roadway. This is where that field supervisor is key. The capture of information by this position is the framework for a successful recurring maintenance cycle. Capturing all the data from each aspect of the plan is key to making the decision if maintenance is feasible in this area or if there is a need for improvement through a capital project. With these two dedicated crews cycling maintenance, we will be able to implement and integrate a sustainable plan to protect and manage our roadside retention areas while optimizing the useful life of our public infrastructure through proactive maintenance. Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Trinity, just to ask you a question. So these are new positions, right, new FTEs you're asking for -- MS. SCOTT: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- to build these teams? June 15, 2023 Page 63 You know, one thing I'll just say -- and I was going to save it for the end, but one of my disappointments here is when we've had people come to the podium asking for FTEs, and we've approved it, you know, immediately, and then 10 months later we asked how many had been filled, and it was minimal. And, part of that -- you know, it's one thing if you can't find the expertise that you need. It's another thing if, you know, we're being negligent and not aggressively advertising. What have you-all done proactively in anticipation for us saying yes to this? Are we going to just be moving people around on the county staff -- and I'm sure there might be folks already on our staff that would be maybe promoted to these positions, and then it would free -- you know, it's a little bit of a domino move. But what's your anticipation that if this was, you know, approved that, you know, what the fill rate would be? Do you have -- do you have -- and I know I'm asking you to look into the crystal ball, but there's also a lot of proactive work that needs to be done, and then once you get the green light from us, you know, jump on it quickly. What's your thoughts? MS. SCOTT: So, it's funny, when Marshal and I were walking to the conference room yesterday to talk about this presentation specifically, I specifically asked, how are your applications coming in for our maintenance workers? And our discussion, quite frankly, is, heavy equipment operators are very difficult to fill. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. MS. SCOTT: They are a -- they require a CDL; however, we have implemented a program in-house where we have a training facility. So what we do is we work with our own team members to try to elevate them up through our ranks. And so those maintenance workers that we have existing, which are easier-to-fill positions for us, we will send them to training to get them a CDL to where they June 15, 2023 Page 64 can now qualify for those higher positions. And so that is one thing that I believe that our Road Maintenance -- Road, Storm, and Bridge Maintenance group really does a great job of, of promoting within, and then filling those maintenance worker positions. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And you think you have a deep bench of people that are ready to move up to these bigger positions and then, like you said, it's easier to fill the smaller ones, or the lesser -- MS. SCOTT: That's the intent. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MS. SCOTT: That's our intent. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I'll just add, you know, some of the drill-downs that I had with HR on a few departments where I was a little bit disappointed that, you know, we approved the FTEs, and it took a long time, it was disappointing to find out a lot of people actually had applied for these jobs, but the department was kind of slow in working with, you know, Ms. Lyberg's office and getting those applications and interviewing and all that. So I'm not saying this to be directive to you-all, but as a generic statement, sometimes the applications pour in but, you know, HR can't do the interviews for you and can't do the legwork. And it's disappointing, we actually have had a couple of departments that were less than aggressive in answering those. And then as we've said in this room before, some of those people, when we reached out to them, they were long gone. They were working for Lee County, and we missed out on some really great expertise. So that's more of a generic statement, not aimed you. I know that you really run a tight operation. But I think it's worth mentioning. MS. SCOTT: And, Commissioner, before I move on, so the heavy equipment operators, those that require CDL, as well as our June 15, 2023 Page 65 higher-level project manager positions, what I can tell you, what we're actually doing as well, we teamed up with Human Resources, and we went to career fairs at Florida Gulf Coast University, Tony Khawaja, myself, as well as Beth Johnssen from Capital Project Planning, and we met with the students, those rising seniors and also those that were getting ready to graduate. In addition, we're very involved with their senior projects so that we're introducing them to Collier County and working with them and being their mentors. So hopefully, just as we have our summer interns here with us today, that when they're getting ready to start into the workforce, that they look at Collier County as an option. And whether I can keep them in Transportation Management Services or Trinity Mary Scott's department, I will certain -- by the way, my middle name is not Mary. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: See, that's the kind of ownership I like. That's somebody really taking ownership of the department. MS. SCOTT: You know, if we can gain a great team member, whether that's for Dr. George's group or Mr. French's group, that's what we're here to do is to get people to come to Collier County. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Excellent. That's the right answer. Okay, proceed. MS. SCOTT: So, Commissioners, the ask today for the Estates swale maintenance restoration program is 17 additional employees and the associated equipment at a total request of $2.8 million. The ongoing operational costs are $1.24 million annually. With the size of our current team, we can accomplish approximately three to five miles of reactive swale maintenance per year, which does not meet the industry standard of 10 to 15 years for the swales to be re-graded and shaped, and with 650 miles, I'd be at the next Centennial before I got to all of them. With the proposal in front of you today for a dedicated team, we June 15, 2023 Page 66 strive to increase from three to five miles per year to 50 miles per year, which would allow the county to complete swale maintenance in Rural Golden Gate Estates on a 13-year cycle, and have our strike force available when the deluge comes, and we know it does happen, without reallocating our resources from other critical tasks. If implemented this program would be reported on annually through our budget process as a performance measure. The impact of this program is to implement the County Manager priorities as well as the Board's strategic plan focus area of community development, infrastructure and asset management, and quality of place, meeting the strategic plan objectives noted on this slide. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel, you have a question. Go ahead, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And as a comment, you know, we talked about this on a regular basis. When you're behind, you're behind. And we've been behind for a long, long time with respect to this. And if this, in fact, comes through and is satisfactory to the Board, I want continuous communication. We just re-established the east of 951 horizon study 2.5. Who knows better about where the water flows than the folks that live out there, right? I recall last year, just as an anecdotal story, one of my -- one of my folks that lives in Eastern Collier County got so mad because he couldn't get the water off. He went out and grabbed his own tractor and was pushing dirt out of the swale so that the water could be alleviated off of his property. So just make sure that as you're going through -- this is a direly needed improvement to our infrastructure capacities in Eastern Collier County and that we're delineating the worst first, because it's easy to tell where the worst first, in fact, needs, and then we work out June 15, 2023 Page 67 from there. MS. SCOTT: Absolutely, sir. Commissioners, when we implement proactive maintenance or our capital projects, this is a no-brainer, but our crisis-driven responses are reduced, which allow our current teams to do their mission-critical work. I'm not pulling those resources to smoke hop, if you will. I thank you today for your consideration of our expanded is unfunded requests that fulfill the areas discussed and bring alignment of TMSD to the Board-approved strategic plan. Anything else? Otherwise, we'll go sit down, and send Tanya up. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I'm going to just say something specific to you, Trinity. I mean, I think recognition is very important, and especially when it's in a public forum. And I know I speak for all the commissioners here, but you personally -- I really appreciate your -- how much help you've been to me in these last two years. Your sense of urgency, your dedication, your speed at getting answers, your overall knowledge of the county is so impressive. Even if it's not your department, you never kick the can. You never send me to somebody else. So I'm talking to you just personally right now in front of everybody, but you're a superstar on this staff, and I'm really impressed when you talk about how you're making that contagious and you're building your bench, and that's some of what we need more of on the county staff. We can't afford to lose somebody to requirement, and then we're in a big giant hole. And it's so obvious that you do that, and your people respect you so much. So I'm not saying this to toot your horn or pat you on the back, but these are facts, and you're one of the first people I reach out to when I have a question almost about anything, and I apologize for June 15, 2023 Page 68 that. But you've made me so much -- a much better commissioner, much more, you know, educated on what's going on and how we can better solve things. And there's no question that you are a servant leader, and, you know, these interns that are sitting here, if they can even just learn a little bit from you, it's -- it's going to be invaluable to them. So, you know, I know we've talked before, but I just can't thank you enough for being at my beck and call at times and always saying yes, always following up, and always taking action, you know, and we need more of that on our county staff, and you certainly epitomize it. So thank you very much. Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I would like to second that because, being a rooky commissioner, I've had utilized Trinity a lot. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: So I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Opposed? Commissioner Hall was opposed, so you might want to talk to him later. No, I'm just kidding. COMMISSIONER HALL: No, she's been a champion the whole time, just like you said. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Absolutely. Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Just a quick question with regard to the obvious necessity for infrastructure for the folks that live in the State of Florida, the Moving Florida Forward initiative, we haven't delved into the road construction and those sort of things. Are you -- are you finding success in working with the Florida Department of Transportation both at the state and the federal level to make sure that the monies that are appropriated out of the federal to the state are -- and then managing our funds accordingly? Are you finding success with that, or can we help? June 15, 2023 Page 69 MS. SCOTT: Well, sir, I would be completely honest of saying that the money doesn't come fast enough or enough of it. But we certainly work through the MPO process to be able to bring those dollars in. And when I mentioned grants, a lot of the funding that we are receiving through the Florida Department of Transportation are discretionary programs. And I'm very thankful that I have a great grant writer on our team with Lorraine Lantz who writes the majority of our grants that go to the Florida Department of Transportation and kind of has the package together, if you will. Certainly, assistance along the Immokalee Road corridor, particularly at the interchange of I-75 and Immokalee Road, would be very helpful for us from the Florida Department of Transportation. We've talked about, Commissioner Saunders and I, Commissioner McDaniel and I, and, obviously, collectively all of us through the MPO process. And then the Moving Florida Forward Initiative certainly will give us some relief on I-75 which hopefully will keep I-75 from backing up into our major arterial roadways, particularly in the evenings. We're hopeful that that continues forward with the Moving Florida Forward Initiative. The improvements out in Immokalee as well with State Road 29 will go a long way from a safety perspective. Those two-lane high-speed rural roadways, you know, those are concerns. So being able to have that as a four-lane divided roadway will go a long way, as well as fostering the economic development in Immokalee. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. MS. SCOTT: But rest assured when I need -- when I need the assistance to twist the arms of Secretary Nandam and such, I will certainly call upon my commissioners to help. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And that was -- that June 15, 2023 Page 70 was -- thank you -- primarily my point. I mean, you know, there's a lot of interests that are spread throughout our entire community, but you know, the interests in the east have an enormous amount of different moving parts. You know, we have a wildlife corridor movement. We have the wildlife corridor itself that's the legislature -- that's another huge budget appropriation out of this year's particular budget, and then -- and then with the panther preserve and the water movement underneath State Road 29, the wildlife corridor crossings on State Road 29. There's a lot of different moving parts that direly need attention. I mean, I recently -- I got an email this morning, or yesterday, from a lady with regard to the traffic fatalities for the Florida panther. And it just -- it rung my bell because I know we were talking about some other expenses at the MPO meeting and PD&E studies for other interests, and that -- those are imperative to be done in the front end so that we have that water-quality, water-quantity wildlife traversability and all at the same time for our four-legged friends that move back and forth. So please, please, as you're moving forward, when you're running into blocks, let us know so that when we're traveling to D.C. or Tallahassee, we can make sure we can push those buttons accordingly. MS. SCOTT: Will do. Thank you. MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, next up we'll have our Public Services Department. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I think it goes without saying that part of your presentation, I'd like you to address the list of -- you know, of all the things that were being unfunded. And so it doesn't have to lead off your presentation, but you're the -- you're the team that that list points towards. So you can obviously anticipate our questions, you know, for that. So wherever it -- wherever you June 15, 2023 Page 71 can work in addressing that list. But, ma'am, we'll turn it over to you. MS. WILLIAMS: Thank you, Commissioner. For the record, Tanya Williams, Public Services Department Head. I have with me here Department County Manager Dan Rodriguez as well as my Operations Support and Veterans Services director, Jeff Weir. I thank you for the leadoff, because you're right, the presentation I had previously written now has chicken scratch all throughout it so that I can make sure I address what has been brought to right earlier this morning. But if you will indulge me. I would like to at least begin with what I had -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Absolutely. MS. WILLIAMS: -- originally planned to present, and then we'll get into a deep dive and nuts and bolts of your Public Services divisions. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MS. WILLIAMS: So good morning, Commissioners, and I do appreciate this opportunity to speak with you today and provide you with a high-level, albeit, now a more granular perspective of your Public Services team who regularly delivers to constituents and visitors throughout the year ensuring Collier County is the best community to live, work, and play. The Public Services Department includes a small administrative staff and eight divisions: Community and Human Services, Domestic Animal Services, Libraries, Museums, Operations Support with Veterans Services, Parks and Recreation, University Extension in partnership with the University of Florida, and we have oversight responsibilities of the Department of Health, Collier County, through a contractual agreement with the State of Florida. June 15, 2023 Page 72 Commissioners, your Public Services Department division directors, working in tandem with the Office of Management and Budget and the County Manager's Office, present to you a compliant budget as we strive to meet the needs of customer and Board-directed policy demands, general capital maintains, and enhancement of existing assets while achieving the goals embodied within the county's strategic plan. Your Public Services Department is heavily reliant on several funding sources, including the General Fund, Unincorporated General Fund, impact fees, tourist development tax, state and federal grant funds, special tax levies, and program-generated revenue that we're estimating of a little over $10 million for this next fiscal year. Your combined funding sources support a $188.5 million operating budget for the eight divisions. We also are currently funding 40-plus active projects. The department's 490 FTEs are supported by an additional 300-plus seasonal job bank and temporary labor employees to ensure operational hours and program demands are met. Expenditure controls are in place across all divisions and monitored continually at the department level by the PSD operations support team under the leadership of Jeff Weir. Expenditure patterns within the individual divisions are scrutinized to ensure program and project appropriations are spent for the intended budgetary purpose. I'd like to take a moment and highlight the eight divisions that comprise the department. Community and Human Services, which you see regularly on the agenda throughout the year continue to create solutions to build resilient community through direct services using a network of partner agencies managing over 100 contracts and 25 unique grants. CHS will continue to facilitate the distribution of over June 15, 2023 Page 73 $128 million of grant funds throughout our community for mental health, rental assistance, human services, senior services, home rehabilitation, and working in coordination now with our Growth Management Department affordable housing. Over the next year, the senior program anticipates serving more than 84,000 nutritious meals to qualifying seniors. Budget compliance, I need to note, includes the assignment of an additional $675,000 to meet the compliance base required for increasing Medicaid payments, and this is actually starting July 1 of this year. Your Domestic Animal Services division is tasked with keeping stray populations under control and complying with state and local ordinance and regulations through education enforcement. They ensure public and animal health and safety by investigating animal-related complaints, including animal-related injuries and diseases, and they increase public awareness by promoting responsible pet ownership and humane treatment of animals. DAS anticipates continuing to achieve a live release rate in excess of 95 percent. Well over 5,000 animals will be handled by your dedicated DAS team through sheltering, fostering, adoptions, and transports. Your DAS director, Marcy Perry, has worked to build a network of local, state, and nationwide agencies to ensure high-quality veterinary shelter care and facilitate the transport of dogs and cats to other states. Most recently, you may have noticed in the news, she coordinated the transport of over 800 cats to Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania needed kitties. DAS is now open seven days a week, expanding that service to our citizens. Through Herculean efforts of our facilities division, portable air conditioning units have been deployed to the kennel buildings, June 15, 2023 Page 74 ensuring sheltered dogs are kept in an environment meeting established standards of care. As noted earlier this morning, Domestic Animal Services has been granted two additional FTEs. Those are customer service representatives which will be hired to directly enhance the direct service to our lost-pet owners. Your library division is one of those public service divisions that hit all four aspects of the strategic plan focus areas with their mission to provide educational environments, facilitate community engagement and cultivate lifelong learning to maintain a thriving Collier County. They do this by annually providing over 24,700 operational hours across 10 libraries. Your library system serves over 800,000 visitors a year with a checkout rate of approximately 1.7 million annually of both print and electronic materials. The library's mission is to -- is so that residents have access to a managed collection of over 700 -- 670,000 print and electronic materials. You have 200 computers for public access, with iPad also, over 2,500 virtual and in-person programs. Many times programs that are started at the federal and state level without any front-facing public access services are provided online, and your public libraries are identified to pick up that slack so that your residents and visitors can apply for those federal and state programs. You noted on the unfunded list approximately $145,000 in subscription services. I'd like to note at this time that that reduction was due to the fact that we had an increasing -- we had to meet that 20 percent increase in electricity costs, so the library director had to reduce our subscription services -- online subscription services in order to cover those additional utility costs. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. So we hate that, you know, as an answer, and I hope you do as well. I mean -- June 15, 2023 Page 75 MS. WILLIAMS: I do. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- I would hope that -- you know, we have -- we have money in different places, and so to sit here and say to pay the electric bill, we have to decrease services to our libraries that are frequented by 800,000 people, right, isn't that what you said? MS. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: So we'll get to that. MS. WILLIAMS: We'll get to that. I wanted to highlight some of the rationale behind the numbers and the programs that you saw on that list earlier. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I mean, a better answer -- and I'm not saying it was the right answer. But if I would have heard, well, we're decreasing that and we're okay with it because we've gone to a lot of online magazines and we've utilized technology, then we would say, oh, okay. So then it's not really a hit. It's just more of a, you know, increase in technology. But hearing that's the tradeoff, so we can keep the lights on, we'll get to that. MS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, we'll get to that. Be happy to have that conversation with you. Museum is your next division I'd like to highlight, and that is a dedicated staff that provides informal education on the natural and human history of Collier County. The museum consists of five museum locations, one historic cemetery, and in total cares for 19 historic buildings, 13 historic structures, including three that are on the national register for historic places. They also maintain over 21 acres of land. Your museum collection includes tens of thousands of documents, photographs, and artifacts. Annually, the museum receives over 900,000 visitors, and I want to note for the record that we still have the Key Marco Cat on June 15, 2023 Page 76 loan at the Marco Historical Museum, and that cat will be there through 2026. Your museum budget does have several items that were listed earlier this morning on the unfunded request list. I want to just very quickly remind the Board that the museum is funded predominantly through TDC funding. That is capped annually at $2 million. The General Fund makes up some residual minor operating costs. So at this point -- we knew this point was coming. Museum -- with the increase in inflation, again, having to use electricity and not candles, we had to make the hard choice of, again, we keep the doors open, we keep the lights on, and then we have to look at possibly what would this impact. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Mr. Finn, that unfunded list, is it in this book somewhere? Did I miss it? And if it's not, can somebody print out -- MR. FINN: I'll pull up the original presentation -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Can somebody just print out that list and hand it to all of us here so we can have it here in front of us as a hard copy, and we don't have to keep jumping back in slides? Because that list is a main point of contention, and so whoever owns that slide, print it, copy it, and if you could please bring us five copies so that we can follow through. I'm sorry, ma'am. Go ahead. MS. WILLIAMS: No. It's quite all right. Thank you. Deputy County Manager Rodriguez also reminded me that while, yes, utility costs, as we noted earlier this morning, was at a 20 percent inflationary increase, there were other increases that the museums has had to absorb as part of their operations, and that includes increases in insurance as well as other contractual costs that the museum has to enter into during for their -- for their annual operating. June 15, 2023 Page 77 So all of those costs had to be absorbed in a budget that is constrained to begin with. And as we continue on in this discussion, you're going to hear from me that your Public Services Department has operated historically under a very constrained budget in 15-plus years, and we'll get -- and I'll be happy to get into some of the specifics of that. Your Veterans Services Team, which is part of our Operations Support division at this point in time, is a critical layer in the department's implementation of the strategic focus area of quality of place by providing advocacy and support for over 3,000 [sic] veterans and their dependents, filing for disability compensation, non-service-connected pensions, appeals, burial benefits, education benefits, health benefits, survivor benefits, and other support. Your Veterans Services Team all provides outreaches to inform veterans of potential benefits, and they are committed to serving nearly -- nearly 30,000 veterans and their families that call Collier County home. And I'm pleased to say, and I know Deputy County Manager Rodriguez has mentioned this before, that your Veterans Services Team in Collier County actually serves veterans outside of this county due to our reputation of being able to successful work with our veterans and get them the benefits that are -- they are deserved. Your Parks and Recreation division maintains a high level of service across a total of 71 regional, community, and neighborhood parks. Your Parks division is a nationally credited agency holding accreditation through the Commission for Accreditation of Parks and Recreation Agencies, affectionally called CAPRA, and they've maintained that accreditation for 18 years running. Over 250 different programs are offered by the division, and park visitation is expected to exceed 2.6 million visitors in this coming year. June 15, 2023 Page 78 The division maintains a regular capital projects portfolio to ensure community assets are well maintained to the best of our ability and budgetary guidance. The Fiscal Year '24 capital project plan focuses on execution of repairs and upgrades of existing community and regional parks with an emphasis on continued restoration of your aquatics facilities and athletic fields. As noted in the budget earlier -- discussion earlier this morning, 6.9 million is allocated for regional and community park capital maintenance and repairs; however, I must note that of that $6.9 million, $700,000 of that is earmarked to address a backlog of deferred equipment replacement, and a million is allocated for future artificial turf replacement needs. Your Parks division has been approved for expanded requests, and that is for equipment to help shore up our carpentry maintenance crew so that they can better mobilize across the county, and we can have that crew do in-house work instead of having to contract out some of these maintenance and repairs, thereby reducing our costs. Parks is listed heavily on that unfunded requests list. As Mr. Finn stated earlier, Parks capital maintenance, we have a backlog of maintenance and repairs that we are just starting to address. Through the leadership and guidance of Deputy County Manager Rodriguez, when he was sitting in this seat, as well as Jamie French, when he was also seated in this seat, and under the current leadership that we have now, we are gradually addressing our huge capital maintenance and repair backlog. Aquatic maintenance -- and I can do a granular deep dive into that if it is your pleasure. I do have a cheat sheet on that. And watch me not be able to put my hands on it. All right. I'll come back. Hold tight on that, because I do have a detailed granular list of what those unfunded requests actually spell out. Do you want to say something about Parks? Near and dear to June 15, 2023 Page 79 your heart. MR. RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, Dan Rodriguez, your Deputy County Manager. In particular, the first two items on that UFR list, as we call it, are for operating maintenance for Parks and Recreation. A year ago -- a little more than a year ago in the budget process, Commissioner Saunders, you were a champion as well as Commissioner LoCastro saying what do we need to get these parks straight? What you need is that number sitting right there on a UFR list. Well, why didn't we include it in the budget? Well, like many of your budgets here in county government for the last 10 years since the recession, they have been drawing down their operating funds. The funds that they actually use to -- whether raise the level of service or, in some cases, pay for programs or parts, supplies, things like that. When we get a policy of 4.5 percent or 4.3 percent cap -- electricity costs have gone up 20 percent; your chemical costs have gone up 30, 40 percent; your pipes, parts, equipment; lumber has gone through the roof at 30 percent or above; or your program costs; your contractor costs. As we all know, many contractors here in Collier County are very busy. One of the last customers they probably want to work with is the county government, because there's so much work out there, Commissioners. And the market is very challenging. So what do they do? They drive the cost up. We've seen that across the board. So what happens then is those operating costs -- staff has a responsibility, and they take it very seriously to say, what are the essential components of my operating budget, as Tanya has repeatedly said, as our County Manager has said, to keep June 15, 2023 Page 80 the doors open, to keep the lights on, to pay the sewer bill. As you know, even our public utilities bills have gone up for all the right reasons. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But let me ask you this, Mr. Rodriguez -- and I get all that. But this additional tax that we've collected over the years -- and we've said in this room before that, wow, we've collected even more than we've had -- are we -- isn't part of the reason that we added that extra tax was not to keep lights on, but it was to make sure we could continue projects, add projects. Why aren't these things at the top of that list to pull from that? And, I mean -- and I don't -- you know, it might be a silly question. But I'm sitting here scratching my head saying, we have some money to move around. I'm not saying all this stuff gets fully funded, but, you know, why isn't this at the top of the list to use that additional tourist tax? Can we not use it? MR. RODRIGUEZ: I'll let Ed Finn take over here in a minute, if you'd like. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. RODRIGUEZ: But what's at the top of the list are those reserves that he spoke about. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. MR. RODRIGUEZ: The millions of dollars that you need to make sure that are in the bank so that when we do have these major breaks or major -- (Simultaneous crosstalk.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I get that. MR. RODRIGUEZ: Or there's a chiller system on the county complex that's probably 30 years old. A chiller, to replace, is probably a million -- (Simultaneous crosstalk.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Well, no, I get that, but we have to June 15, 2023 Page 81 find balance. MR. RODRIGUEZ: Sure. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I mean, you know, seeing all these programs going -- being zeroed out is -- and it may not be specifically -- like you said, some of these are -- we're asking for additional money. It's not going to shut down the jamboree, but -- and we'll get to that answer, I'm sure. MR. RODRIGUEZ: To finish my statement, so the reserves are the priorities so that we can -- so we are flexible to handle all of the different demands for -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Sure. MR. RODRIGUEZ: -- our 36-plus departments. But, in addition to that, you're responsible for the constitutional officers' facilities. Those are -- as you know, are aging as well. They have their demands as well. But for the last point, on these operating budgets, we could have put those in the budget, loaded up. We would have met your compliance 4.5 percent. What we're saying is that in the priority of money that may be -- and it's not extra, the residents' additional funding. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Sure. MR. RODRIGUEZ: What may be available, can we put it to hear next so that we can administer the rest of our programs here in -- whether it's Public Services, whether it's Transportation, or Public Utilities or some of the other divisions and departments. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. MR. FINN: Thank you, Dan. If I may, Mr. Chairman. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Can you get a little closer to your mic. MR. FINN: I beg your pardon. June 15, 2023 Page 82 As we went through our presentation, we outlined for you the budget policy that we move forward with, and that involved a -- maintaining the same millage rate as last year and, essentially, capping, in our budget at least, the amount of taxable growth that we anticipated. So we assumed 5.75. We did, in fact, get the best part in excess of 12 percent growth. And we told you that -- additionally, we told you that the inflationary impacts were quite substantial. We tried to explain those. Those have continued to grow since we established our policy. And we've told you that instead of coming to you with budgets that are not in compliance with the direction the Board gave us, we brought you a compliant budget. We showed you that we're putting some of the extra money, the majority of it, the vast majority of it, back into a reserve. We did, in fact, fund up a few things that were higher priority, if you will, than the items you're looking at now. Another slide we told you that this list that we're showing you, we're showing you so the Board can give us a sense of their priorities, give us a sense of whether their priorities need to be worked into the budget that we're presenting to you within -- within, if you will, the compliance envelope and/or outside of the compliance envelope with, perhaps, some of the additional money that otherwise would go to reserves perhaps being earmarked to one or two or three of these programs if the Board sees those as a high enough priority to do so. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I guess what I'm looking for is balance. I mean, we can do anything, but we can't do everything, so I get that. But as we go through these -- and that's where I'm looking for you-all to come up here and fight for some of these things or make -- you know, I know these are tough choices, but if you're acceptable to these and you've figured out a way to absorb these decreases, then, okay, then maybe we'll be supportive. But, I mean, I know that this has the attention of all five of us, June 15, 2023 Page 83 and I'm actually really surprised at some of the things that are on here. And like I said, I'm not -- I'm not up here just saying fund, fund, fund, fund. But, you know, we've got to find balance. Certain things just can't go to zero and then everything goes into some, you know, discretionary emergency fund. I mean, you know, it's got to be somewhere in the middle. And that's why we're having this meeting, so I get it. MR. FINN: And staff absolutely concurs. We would not be doing our duty if we didn't bring these issues to you, and we truly are looking for a sense of the Board's priorities. Some of these -- so you think about our priorities. Health and safety. We have assets, so we need to keep the lights on and the air conditioning running. We have certain programs that are base programs that need to be funded because that is what the community expects and, unfortunately, some of the things you see on this list, in light of the overall priorities, at least envisioned by the County Manager's staff, don't meet that level right now. We need some direction from the Board that some of the funding that, perhaps, is going to be available to us to go to reserves alternatively could be earmarked towards the highest properties, perhaps, on this list. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Well, I can't speak for the other commissioners here, but I think they probably share -- we all share the same concerns. I'm not -- I'm not high on trading keeping lights on and electricity for not buying books and fixing pools. I mean, I'm shocked that aquatic maintenance is on here because, over this last year, we've had serious repairs needed, and several of our pools that went unfixed with the current budget because we didn't have the money, or there was some other issues -- so to hear that we're hitting that even more, I'm just looking for that explanation. But, you know, trading books and programs to keep light switches on is not going to get a big yes from me very quickly unless June 15, 2023 Page 84 I hear a whole bunch of stuff that I'm not pervy [sic] to right now. And I would expect some of my other colleagues here feel the same way. I'm not saying there isn't a good answer, but -- that initially. But let me go -- Commissioner Hall is lit up, and then I see Commissioner Saunders is reaching for his light. Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: You know, I do, I concur completely with the services. You know, you trade utilities or electricity bills or water bills for services that go to people. The same way -- you know, I've never been politically correct, and so I'm going to say something, and I don't want the public to hammer me. I don't want -- I just want to -- this is a workshop. And as I look at Parks and Rec, you know, the figure that we need is $520,000 to get services for our kids, families, visitors, and to enhance the Park's capital maintenance. So I'm looking at that, and I'm thinking okay that's for people. And then I look at the budget for Domestic Animal Services, and I see that that's a $5.25 million annual budget that we're operating seven days a week. So my thoughts are, to risk sounding cruel -- and I'm not cruel at all -- we're a no-kill policy, and it seems like to me like if you ever go to a no-kill policy, there's no returning back, and I can understand that rationale. But when it comes to money and funding, do you want fund pit bulls and pit bull mixes, or do you want to fund people? So I'm just -- I don't know. I can't speak for the other commissioners. I am just -- at the risk of sounding bad, I want to just throw that out, because that's a -- that's a place where I feel like we could probably take a look at to save money and come up with 520,000 over a $5.25 million budget. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Saunders. June 15, 2023 Page 85 COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: On the West Goodlette Phase 2 project, this would be a phase that's not underway yet. Tell me a little bit about the importance of going to Phase 2. MS. PATTERSON: So West Goodlette Phase 2 is in design, slated to go to construction this year. Now, there are things that could disrupt that schedule, including our partnership with the City of Naples. But because that project is a partnership project and we've committed to a partnership, we felt it was important to put this on this list. Now, if you-all tell us that you understand that and that we should come to you at the time that we get closer to taking this to bid and we can work out financing for this at that time, understood. But the other thing I have to tell you -- two things, is, one, to all of your points, is things appeared on this list because they are the priority of staff as we stand right now. This is not the entirety of the need nor does it represent the entirety of the backlog, but it represents what this staff feels that they could accomplish and what they're short now. There are difficult situations in probably every one of our divisions. They have to make hard choices, and there's not often enough money to do all of the things that we want to do, let alone what the public would like us to do beyond the things that we have to do. Jumping back to West Goodlette, essentially, this is a next phase of a multiphase project to remove septic tanks and convert to sanitary sewer, which will be borne by the city, and to do the associated stormwater. This is years and years and years in the making. It's a very, very important project not only for health/safety, but for water quality; however, we can work with the Board on this as we move forward. It's -- this isn't a decision that necessarily has to be made as part of -- of this list, but it is something that has to remain highly visible to this board, along with the millions of dollars of backlog. June 15, 2023 Page 86 And I'm not meaning to be a wet blanket on these proceedings, but understand the need in stormwater is enormous. Hundreds of millions of dollars of backlog in capital projects and maintenance, and that is due to decisions that were made over the years. And it's easy to look back now and say I would have done it differently, but that is what we are trying to do is to position you to do things differently so that you have the full picture of what we're facing, not only from the past, but for the future. And that's why this list is being presented to you in the way that it is. We could have hidden this from you. We could have gone and buried these in places and cut places that you would never see, but we're perpetuating the same type of behavior that got us to where we are now, and that's not -- we owe you better than that. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: No, and we appreciate it. And I mean -- COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Let me just add -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- just a quick follow-up, then. Exclusive of that particular line item, the other items here, are they on this list -- are they unfunded because of the 4.5 percent budget direction that you're provided? MS. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So we've sort of created this list ourselves by giving you that -- MS. WILLIAMS: Yes. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- guidance. So in terms of revenue that might be available, we have other reserves. We're increasing our reserves. Are we able to, just as an example, fund things on this list that we think are important -- like Parks capital and all the way down to West Goodlette, are we able to June 15, 2023 Page 87 fund out of projected reserves that you're now planning on? MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. And that's -- so that's sort of positioning us to exactly this conversation we wanted to have with you. We understand your priorities, largely, through what we went through with the strategic planning and the work that we do every two weeks in our Board meetings, but we wanted to give you a sense of what we were facing in those things that are currently not able to be funded, and they appear -- they're a priority to us, but we can't judge for the five of you if these are a priority to you. But, absolutely, the money that we're now moving to restore our reserves, certainly, a portion of that could be redirected to fund some or all of these up to West -- I understand West Goodlette. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: We could put 2.4 million of that -- of those reserves -- MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, that would take care of the list. I don't know if we want to fund the entire list. But the point I was making is we have the funds available if we just -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Absolutely. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- without cutting into other programs. MS. PATTERSON: Correct, but it's a decision that we felt should rise to your level to understand the decisions we're making every day in the cost environment we're currently working in. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So one other question then. Based on the budget that you've presented to us, if we go to the rolled-back millage rate, what would happen to this particular list? Would it be multiple pages, or would it be -- MS. PATTERSON: This disappears, and we present you a list that's many, many times longer than this where we are, again, cutting June 15, 2023 Page 88 into things like programs and projects. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, I know I sound like a broken record, but I keep going back to this rolled-back millage rate. We all want to cut taxes. The easiest way to cut taxes is just to simply go to the rolled-back millage rate. And every time this comes up, I just raise the issue because I want the Board to know that there may be some short-term gain -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Oh, absolutely. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- in going to a rolled-back millage rate. The long-term pain won't be worth that, that little bit of gain. So that's why I keep bringing this up. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Or as you say, find other monies that we have available that may be being fenced for something else that we might want to give direction to move around. Before I go to Commissioner McDaniel, I just wanted to piggyback on something. I believe -- correct me if I'm wrong -- there was $6 million that was fenced, saved, being allocated for the new -- a new DAS building. In conversations that we've been having just sort of informally, it looks like maybe that's not going to be the priority. If that's the case, where's that 6 million now, and can any of that be -- is it the same color of money, or am I totally off base? MR. FINN: If I may, the funding you're talking about is surtax funding. The funding in the original plan was to restore, renovate, and update the existing facility. We went through a couple of planning exercises that didn't plan out to attempt to leverage that money to relocate the facility and build a new one. We got to the point with that planning exercise that it was a realization that there was not sufficient funding to do that and, effectively, we're in a position now of going back to the original plan and providing for substantial restoration and renovation of the June 15, 2023 Page 89 existing facility. We made that decision with the knowledge that the location we have, while not perfect, is certainly -- continues to be an appropriate one. It continues to have the proper visibility, and it's a site that actually is pretty well established. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And those upgrades are less than the cost of a brand-new building, obviously, right? MR. FINN: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But then maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that money for the new building was -- was approved, voted on, saved, was sitting somewhere. Is that not the case? It was sort of a soft fence? MR. FINN: You're asking -- you're asking me about the money; I'm describing to you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. FINN: The truth is that when that new facility was actually to the point where it could be estimated appropriately, it was order of magnitude 12 to $15 million. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. MR. FINN: So as we look back at the overall planning exercise, our working approach at the moment is to move forward with that surtax commitment to renovate that facility looking towards an additional or satellite facility potentially in the northeast region that would serve the actual growth in the community and where the needs are. So instead of having people driving across the county to get to the facility, we're going to work towards moving the facility into where it needs to be. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Is there a delta left in the fund, or it exhausts all that money? It just -- the reallocation of the idea of -- instead of building a new facility, renovating the current one and then building a satellite one, does that absorb all the money that was initially programmed for the new building that's not going to happen June 15, 2023 Page 90 now, and it's being spread out now in a better way? MR. FINN: The answer -- the short answer is yes. And if you would indulge me for one second, the original intent was to renovate the existing building. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. MR. FINN: There was a thought that that would be sufficient to build a new building. When we got to the point where that thought was actually proved out, it did not work. The 15 million that was necessary for a new facility never existed. When we get to the point -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But that's news to a lot of people who have been sending us a lot of emails saying, wow, your 15 million that you approved, when are we cutting a ribbon? And, you know -- MR. FINN: There was never 15 million approved. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Okay. MS. PATTERSON: Sir, also to your point is this is infrastructure sales tax money. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. MS. PATTERSON: If this project -- if DAS's project was to disappear or if there were to be extra savings, it doesn't help anything on this list because it's fenced money. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And I'm going to go to Commissioner McDaniel, but one more quick thing. Commissioner Hall's point about, you know, not trying to be Scrooge, but trading dogs for people and things like that -- I don't want to sound like I'm not an animal activist, but this -- and I've been out to where that satellite facility would go. I've gone out with the SNIP group and Tom and whatnot. But if -- and I'm just thinking out loud. Is the building of that satellite facility and what it would cost more important things on the list? And, I mean, that's the June 15, 2023 Page 91 trade-off conversations we have to have, because that is the same color of money, correct? I mean, if we said -- if we put that facility, the amount we would spend on that facility a little further down the road so that we could keep lights on and still buy books, that's a decision we could make here, or are those different pots of money? MR. FINN: Those are -- building an additional DAS facility is a General Fund function as is -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: As are these. MR. FINN: As are the items you have here. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. FINN: That trade-off, to a certain extent, would take place. The planning, the financial plan, the approach to doing that is not something that is included in this budget at all. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. I know, but in this meeting, we could include it. That's why we're having it, right? MS. PATTERSON: We're not there yet. MR. FINN: We're not -- we don't have the preliminary -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: We might get there. MR. FINN: -- preliminary -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel. MS. PATTERSON: I mean, we're not -- we're still getting our arms around what we need to do on what we already have, let alone as we -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But the five of us are going to help accelerate that. MS. PATTERSON: Oh, awesome. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I mean that with all due respect. MS. PATTERSON: Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And since we're on DAS, just remember years ago when we effectuated the disposition of the June 15, 2023 Page 92 47 acres and brought in the Shy Wolf and the sale of that piece of property, there is a proposal coming through them with a potential collocation of a shelter -- hurricane shelter on that facility there at Golden Gate and Wilson Boulevard. That's -- and even not just the northeast facility over where -- by the old stockade, but something in between as well. MS. PATTERSON: We are open to all possibilities out east, and partners, of course. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm sure you are. But, again, there's more to the puzzle than just that $6 million that was earmarked in the surtax funds. That project, that development, the surtax was adopted after those transactions, in fact, came to fruition, number one. Number two, on -- Commissioner Saunders lightly touched on it, but I want to ask it maybe a different way. Are there other funding sources that could come to alleviate some of the stress here with regard to the unfunded requests list? Have we explored -- I mean, you know -- I assume that that 8.4 million in stormwater capital is for capital expense. Is -- with capital expense comes a connection to the water and sewer district for potable water sales and wastewater disposition. Is there a -- is there an agreement back from that utility to assist with -- MR. FINN: No, that -- the answer, generally speaking, is no. Those are siloed monies for appropriate reasons. The Utility is required by its enabling -- enabling documents to generate sufficient money to fund its operations and its capital needs going forward. So to redirect that money is something that typically should not be done and, when it is done, it's done with the appropriate lawful -- lawful things. If they're providing service to the properties, they need to receive those -- those receipts for service. MS. PATTERSON: And this is the City of Naples utility, not June 15, 2023 Page 93 Collier County Public Utilities, in this particular case. Now we will -- again, setting the $8.4 million project aside from the rest of the list, we most certainly, in preparation for going to construction, will turn over every rock and explore every funding source. The reason this item appears on this agenda -- on this list, one, is to open the conversation that this is only one of a series of needs in stormwater. I'm the stormwater broken record about this. This situation isn't getting better as our infrastructure ages. It's getting worse. Secondly, this is a partner -- partnership project with the municipality. It is a water-equality intensive project with its outfall to the upper Gordon River, so -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's imperative to water quality. There's no argument about the health, safety, and welfare of our community with regard to it. MS. PATTERSON: Nope. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm just -- I'm looking for -- if -- because it hasn't been explored with me. And I asked, when Mr. Finn was at the podium, about the delineation on the line item for an appropriation into stormwater that all feeds into that. Then that got tapped for a long, long time that helped with these huge deficits in capacity both in ongoing maintenance and construction. MS. PATTERSON: Had stormwater continued to be funded with this -- the millage equivalency of .15 mills that began in the 2005 time frame and was substantially changed around 2010, we would be having a different type of conversation today; however, decisions were made based on the information at the time and the decisions of the Board at the time to change funding away from stormwater and to other places. We were in the depth of a recession. Unprecedented changes to our property tax collections, and people were scrambling to do everything that we could to do what we June 15, 2023 Page 94 needed to do. Stormwater happened to be one of the areas that was significantly affected, and now we're working to be sure that we insulate stormwater from that type of thing moving forward by providing you-all the proper view on these types of projects. Taking the 8.4 million aside, at the appropriate time we will be coming back to you with this project. We felt it was important that you knew it now so that when we showed up a couple months from now and said, hey, we're $8.4 million short, or whatever it is, you aren't like, why didn't you tell me that at some point, any time before now? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you for that number on the millage equivalency. I can start doing math. MS. PATTERSON: Yes. It was a dedicated -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I remember. MS. PATTERSON: -- semi-dedicated .15 until it changed to an up to .15, at which point it started to be reduced year after year after year until we all know what happened. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I want to -- I want to just say something to clarify something that you said that I think you might have -- you might have misspoke or you're not giving yourself as much credit. But you said something a few minutes ago and said, we could have easily hidden all these things, and we would never know and we could just -- you know, it's all flowers and rainbows. But having worked with you closely and seeing how you really have been turning over every rock, like you said, I think the reality of what you were trying to say to us is, not we could have easily hidden this, but it continued have been easily hid. But due to what -- the deeper dive that you've done that we've been very impressed with, we're not doing that anymore, and, unfortunately -- and I don't want to beat up ancient history, but I say it all the time. The reason it's June 15, 2023 Page 95 important to look back at ancient history is so we don't repeat poor decisions that may have been made with good intentions but now we realize the trickle-down effect was a negative one. And I will say, the reason why this meeting's going long and we're talking, and the reason why you've done -- you and your staff have done so much due diligence is because we're not doing that anymore. So we're not -- and not saying that previous staffs hid things, but maybe they weren't as aggressive or doing as deep of a dive as your staff is doing now, and that's not going unnoticed up here. So wouldn't have expected that "we" would have hidden any of this today. And maybe they didn't previously, but maybe they also didn't blow the dust off of a few things the way that you and your staff are working really hard to do now, and I think that's worth saying. MS. PATTERSON: I meant no disrespect. And the term "hid," I don't want you to take that wrong. But, you know, these are very emotional conversations. And sometimes to take money from something that's less emotional was a decision that was made in the past. And I don't envy the position of anybody that sat in this seat before and the things they had to face, whether that was extreme growth or a recession. We all make the best decisions that we can at the time, and it's super easy to now sit here and look back and go, well, I would have done that differently. So no disrespect meant at all but simply that we want to be as transparent as possible. We committed to that when we took these seats. Sometimes those are painful conversations to have. Sometimes it's emotional. But we owe you all the information that we can provide you so that you can make the very best decisions whether we agree or not. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And you just took the words out of June 15, 2023 Page 96 mouth, because when you interviewed for this job, one of the things that you promised us was more transparency, better communication, and this is an example of how we're getting it. And like you said, these are tough. It's emotional. We're not here to beat up past people, but we don't want the folks that sit in these seats after us to be beating us up that we overlooked a lot of things or we hid things. So thank you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Always blame the previous administration. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. And that's really McDaniel and Saunders, right? Because we're all new guys up here, right? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Strike that from the record. MS. PATTERSON: I just like -- I blame Nick. If you're watching, Nick, I blame you for everything. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Now, get that on the record, Terri. Okay. Let's proceed. MS. WILLIAMS: We'll wrap up. MR. RODRIGUEZ: If I could just say -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. MR. RODRIGUEZ: -- I'd like to leave a positive note for Domestic Animal Services. You know, a year ago, year and a half ago, you had brought many items to our attention, and I need to tell you that the staff that are working at Domestic Animal Services, it's not a petting zoo. There are strays running this county. There are bites going on, dog bites, animal bites going on that need to be investigated. They had over 1,200 investigations probably in the last nine to 10 months. Most of those got resolved, and brought the residents into compliance which is -- kudos. That hadn't been done previously. In fact, many of those citations never got to the Magistrate or got resolved. June 15, 2023 Page 97 More importantly, the conditions at DAS, that facility, remember the term back in the 2000s, even the '90s, value engineering? That's a pole barn, for those of you that are familiar with a pole barn. It wasn't a proper facility. Did it meet the hurricane code? Yes. But the infrastructure, the air conditioning systems, the insulation, that all needs to be updated, electrical systems. With your approval, we added commercial washers and dryers. Well, what's the big deal about that? Commissioner, there are thousands of animals that pass through that shelter. It's not a boarding facility. They get cleaned up, they get the medical attention they need, and then they get moved out. Your new director, Marcy Perry, as Tanya stated, has partnered with not just our own Humane Society, who also does a great job and has supported us very well, Humane Societies in Broward, Miami, you name it, Pinellas County, and has moved the animals, the strays, that otherwise wouldn't get homes or would be released or -- placed with owners, and that's the goal and the mission. We talk about money. You talk about, well, is there other opportunities for us to gain money? Her team puts together events, and you'll see them posted on social media, where they raise thousands of dollars. Your Domestic Animal Services division raise thousands of dollars, and they directly pay for the treatment of those animals so the taxpayers of Collier County aren't burdened with that. And that's not another line item on the UFR list. So those activities are going on every day, all day. And, lastly, I need to say that the commercial -- I'm sorry -- the animal control officers that work the field seven days a week, 24 hours a day, they're running on calls, they're taking that van, they're running out to the Estates, to Immokalee, they're picking up animals that are hit by cars, they're investigating barking noises. June 15, 2023 Page 98 Every day that phone rings at Domestic Animal Services. There are three people in the front there that are trying to do their other job, but they're answering that phone, and we still get dropped calls there. The volume of work that goes through DAS is incredible. And I just need everyone to understand -- and I believe you do, because many of you toured it. But I also want the public to think [sic] that we're not -- we do not have some fancy place Taj Mahal. It is not. We're just trying to get to a standard. And, by the way, one of the things Collier County does so well is that we are in compliance. We're in compliance whether state, federal -- there are state rules and Humane Society rules that we follow as practices with the state that require us to maintain conditions for the animals when they're brought in and whatnot. So we're not making this stuff up. It needs to be done, and it's done for the right reasons. Your volunteers hadn't been happy in a long time with the condition there. They are much happier. Your DAS committee, they'll come in here and tell you, they are very happy with the services Collier County's providing. We just want to continue those services, and we're asking for a simple $170,000. Is it simple? No, because it's contracted labor that helps clean the kennels, that helps answer the phone and whatnot. With 4.5 percent increase, there's not enough capacity to buy those contracted services. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. And here's what I'll say in response to that. I don't want us to have bake sales and car washes to pay for things at DAS that the county should be funding. I don't want to have bake sales and car washes to keep lights on and buy -- and to buy books. So when I look at the money that they've raised, the thousands, that should be additional funds for the frosting June 15, 2023 Page 99 that they want to add to an already incredible program. I agree with you, Marcy's done an incredible job. These cats and dogs that would have sat at DAS for months and maybe even years, working with other organizations even in other states that are -- that are -- that already have owners waiting for these cats is great, and I wish we would have been doing that more aggressively before. But, you know, I think some of the philanthropic and fundraiser options that they've had to try to make up some of the difference -- I'm not -- I'm not as -- I don't want to say as appreciative of those, but, you know, they shouldn't be having to do that to pay for things that we should -- we should fund or because there's a delta, and they're doing their best to make up the difference, especially when there are funds to be had. And some of these are small numbers compared to other things. I mean, I know it all adds up, but -- okay. We're at a point of a possible break, and I don't think -- I don't know if we're done with this group. And, you know, this list still has a lot of discussion left. I don't know if we have to continue it with this group or it's something towards the end that we can address after we get more, but would this be a good time to take a break? And are they done, or should they come back? What's your -- County Manager, what's your suggestion? MS. PATTERSON: We'll all be here. So I would suggest that we take the break now, come back for the constitutionals. We'll pick back up with the rest of our -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MS. PATTERSON: -- Board of County Commissioners, and we can -- and I'm certainly going to talk more about the list, and Tanya, Dan, we'll all be here. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Should we come back at 1:00? Is June 15, 2023 Page 100 that enough time, an even 1:00, or should we go later? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, 1:00's great. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Yeah. So we'll stay on our thing, 1:00. Fifty-minute lunch break. (A luncheon recess was had from 12:10 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Let's get to it. MS. PATTERSON: All right. Welcome back. And we are going to start right off with the constitutional officers, beginning with the Supervisor of Elections. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: No photos. This was no photo ops in here on the budget. Appreciate it. MS. BLAZIER: Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the record, my name is Melissa Blazier. I am the Collier County Supervisor of Elections. So the Supervisor of Elections budget is comprised of two cost centers, the administration and the elections cost center. The administration's cost center funds all of our personal services and operating expenses for the office, and the elections cost center funds countywide elections to be conducted during the fiscal year. There are three statutorily required countywide elections in 2024, and the 2024 fiscal year budget that you-all have in front of you incorporates two of those countywide elections; the March 20th presidential preference primary election and the August 20th primary election. The November 5th general election will be funded in the 2025 fiscal year budget. The elections cost center is cyclical, meaning every four years when we have a presidential preference primary election, the elections costs center increased approximately $750,000 for that additional countywide election. There are no increases in our budget for major equipment or June 15, 2023 Page 101 software changes going into on the 2024 election cycle. With that being said, there will most likely be some equipment needs going into the 2026 election cycle, especially due to the increased growth in the county in Districts 1, 3, and 5 in particular. And with that, I'll open it up to any questions. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Anybody have anything on this particular budget? Commissioner Saunders? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Understood. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Didn't mean to bring you here for nothing, but I think you had a very complete -- COMMISSIONER HALL: Oh, yeah. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- budget that we went through, so... COMMISSIONER HALL: And a good phone call before this. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah, so I think we're good to go. Okay. County Manager, did you have any questions? MS. PATTERSON: No, sir. Thank you. Thank you. MS. BLAZIER: Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: All right. Thank you, ma'am. Sheriff, you're not going to get off so easy. You might want to move to the front row, sir. MS. PATTERSON: Next up we'll welcome the Clerk of Courts. MS. KINZEL: Thank you. Good afternoon. We'll be brief also. But first I do want to introduce -- most of you know Derrick -- he's been here a while -- but he's the finance director and also the director of the Board Minutes and Records. So he primarily is the director over the services to the commissioners. We have Don Holder, who's the manager in recording who June 15, 2023 Page 102 works on the Clerk's budget. And a new face. Mike's been here about a year. You always saw Raymond, and Raymond retired. So Mr. Netti, Mike Netti, is the director of recording and clerk's accounting who prepares the budget. First of all, I do want to take a minute and just thank everyone. The commissioners first, for your support, the pay plan. We would not have been able to retain the people that we have retained without the support first for the court subsidy but also so that we could mirror the County Manager's pay plan and keep our offices moving forward. I also want to thank the County Manager's Office and all the county staff. We work every day with them. And as I have said publicly, so I'll just say it again, I think it's one of the best relationships that I've had. This is my 35th year of budget presentations to Collier County. First for the Sheriff, and then for the Clerk. So that hit me this morning. So it's very interesting to have been here to see a lot of the things that you are going through, a lot of the history. I was here when -- Commissioner Saunders' first round as commissioner. So we have a great history of where and what has happened in Collier County. And I also, last but not least, certainly want to thank my incredible staff, not just these people, but obviously everyone in the Clerk's Office that contributes to the economies of what we try to do, the processes that we try to improve and make within the organization. So I know that you know this, but for the public that's viewing, there are three primary functions of the Clerk's Office. I mentioned to you the Clerk as Clerk to the Board. That includes everything from the financial statement preparation. I left you a PAFR on Tuesday. That is actually Popular Annual Financial Report that puts it more in layman's terms as to the distribution of dollars. June 15, 2023 Page 103 Now, that's for the '22 year ended after you approved the financial statements that we also compile, but as we said in the presentation of the financials, that takes the entire army of everyone in the county to contribute, including the other constitutional officers to do their part. So -- but we do compile that information for presentation, and we also -- our budget document that we have provided you, the non-court side, will then be combined with the court side when it is approved in August, and we will apply for reporting credentialing for all of those with the Government Finance Officers Association. And just as the county has gotten the award for the budget many, many years, 35 years, I think, or so, probably, we've also gotten the budget award for the Clerk, and the PAFR in the final statements for Collier County are all award-winning. So just to give you a little bit of that background for Clerk to the Board. We also handle the investments that you determine the policy. The state has policy. But we do the day-to-day work on those investments. We keep the financial statements system going. Commendations to the entire county staff who -- just recently we had to upgrade the background of the SAP program that you approved. That has been completed. We're still doing some training and converting and getting used to the new system, but that was very sufficient implementation in this year. One of our other functions is, obviously, recording, and that is -- we do everything from major licenses, passports for the citizens, as well as recording all the property records for Collier County. That, by the end of this month, we have completed digitizing all of the records. So when I brought to you before that we have everything from microfilm and microfiche and actually parchment paper going back to the late 1800s, we will now have those items available digitally for June 15, 2023 Page 104 everyone under the land-use records and some of the other official records. Those will be automated. So those are two successful things we've done with your prior dollars, and we hope you continue to fund us in that regard. We are also the Clerk of Courts, and that's where you were so gracious last year to fund about 400,000 so that we could implement the pay plan for our courts side of the house, so to speak, and we appreciate that. There is another 827,000 in this year's budget to fund it for this year. Good news though, our State Senator, Kathleen Passidomo, appointed me for the next two years, this year and next, to the Clerk of Courts Corporation Executive Committee, which, in fact, determines some of these items, like funding for the Clerk of Courts. So as you can imagine, I have been vocal in the past, but now I have an even greater voice and an actual vote as to how the budget's distributed, and my intent is to bring it back to Collier County. Your subsidy, we are able to sustain our court functions on the revenues that we receive. This year we submitted to the state 8.1 million for the court processes and services. They are telling us that our budget will be about 6.6 million instead of 8.1. That means that they will take over a million dollars of tax revenue and fees generated here and give them to other counties who may or may not be operating as efficiently as we are. And so I have fought that for the last five years, but I may have a greater voice this year. So that is probably one of the largest pieces of our budget is that continued subsidy, and I would appreciate your funding for that. The Clerk's Office, we have 220.5 FTEs. You fund about 103 of those. We offset the others with our revenue that comes in from recording and as well as the court budget supplements the court staffing. We are not asking for any additional positions at this time. I brought to your attention the conversion of the court records, June 15, 2023 Page 105 financial systems. I think I brought all of that. We remain less than 1 percent of the county's budget. We remain at about 5 percent on staffing, and as you -- as I went through the processes, we support your entire staff in the way of payroll and accounts payable, invoicing, audit. All of those functions are supported by that 103 people that are in the non-court budget. And so with that, I also wanted to point out -- because I did watch this morning -- that we were sitting in the front row, so I wanted to point that out before you made the decisions -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Got it. MS. KINZEL: -- good, right, that got points. And I should -- I wish I had thought -- Trinity had a very good idea. I wish I had brought our interns and volunteers over. We currently have six volunteers in the court side of the house, and they're helping us. They're with Ave Maria and Florida Gulf Coast, and they are learning legal and everything, so we will hope to groom them to come back and work with us, and the six volunteers are businesspeople in the community, including a retired lawyer, and so we're able to get those services free that we really, really appreciate their support for our operations. And if anyone out there is listening, we will take all volunteers. You do just have to pass a background check. But we try to make it comfortable and get the help where we can. So with that, any questions, we'll be glad to answer. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I'll lead with a question. MS. KINZEL: Sure. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: You know what I really liked about your budget is it was a mixture of savings but then also justifying, you know, the additional things. This -- and the overall budget might be a small number, but it's almost $200,000. Could you just give me a little deeper dive on this one sentence? And it's June 15, 2023 Page 106 not to be accusatory. It's really just to get the information. You say, operating costs increased $146,800 or 27 percent due primarily to an increase in software and other resources for audit. I was just curious what those were. Usually it's the other way around. You know, you get -- software comes out, and it does more, but it doesn't cost as much, or not usually; sometimes. Is it something additional that you've added to your plethora, or there's something that you currently use that they just raised the price of significantly? I was just curious. MS. KINZEL: And it's -- in the scheme of things, we pay a considerable amount of money for the ongoing maintenance, for example, of SAP and the upgrade to the SAP system, and we do have smaller programs that do analytics. So that's a culmination, probably, of all of those individual -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But the prices just went up, so you didn't -- MS. KINZEL: Yep. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- necessarily, like, add a new piece of software, but just your -- the regular things you use every day. MS. KINZEL: Other than the upgrade for SAP, which we came to you separately on those items. But that's just in general. We have cybersecurity -- I do know that is an additional software was the cybersecurity. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MS. KINZEL: We are mandated by statute to go with the government standards for that, so we had to implement a couple of things to make all of the systems more compatible. And we did also convert the jury system, but that isn't out of this pot of money. But that was another upgrade that we did on our systems. Before we used paper and markers, and now it's all mobile and app and scan, so June 15, 2023 Page 107 we're proud of that. But that's not the reason for that 200-. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Gotcha. MS. KINZEL: It would be those smaller computer programs. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Gentlemen, any questions? (No response.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you, ma'am. MS. KINZEL: Thank you, very much. Appreciate it, and appreciate all the help with everyone. The budget office worked with us really well this year also, so thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Excellent. MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, next up we'll welcome the Sheriff. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: That's this guy here. Is that -- okay. MS. PATTERSON: That's him. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Eight-by-10 glossies are available at the exits during the next break for $8; $12 signed. Sheriff, we tease because we love. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: I know, and just because I feel the same way, I'm going to limit this to three hours. Some highlights for you. So it works both ways. Good afternoon, Chairman and Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and submit what we believe to be our 100th budget to you. You all look pretty good over that kind of time, so thank you for that. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Commissioner LoCastro says I've been here since then, so... SHERIFF RAMBOSK: The budget we're submitting is also policy compliant and is determined by the necessity of what we need to keep Collier County safe. I think most importantly today, aside from the request and June 15, 2023 Page 108 information we'll provide to you, is to recognize and thank the men and women of the Collier County Sheriff's Office for the fabulous job that they do each and every day, and particularly last year with the challenges and achievements that we've had during that time. We want to thank you for all of your support, particularly during the hurricane. And, again, as the Clerk said, we have a great working relationship with your staff, the County Manager, all the different departments. We couldn't do as well for this community without their help and their support, and I will also say that we feel like we have the best relationship that we've ever had with your staff. So thank you very much, and you as well. Today we have with us Chief Smith, Stephanie Driscoll, and Colonel Bloom. They are going to help in the event that we have more in-depth questions that you wish to ask and answer. But I always like to thank those who don't get me up in the middle of the night and take care of problems so that I can sleep most of the time, and that would be Chief Middlebrook, Chief Hampton, Chief Poling, Chief Roberts, and Chief Spell. And they all work together with each and every member of our agency and, really, that's what has led us to where we are today. Because the first thing I'd like to start off with to let you know about is that never in 100 years have we in this county been ranked or recognized as the safest metropolitan area in the United States. That is a true accomplishment. That wasn't ranked by us. As you might remember, that was ranked by U.S. News & World Report. I will tell you that we remain one of the safest and lowest crime rate counties in the State of Florida. And, you know, working together with you and other agencies throughout Collier County, we have developed a quality of life in this community that both you and the community expects. We're on the best-of-everything list for the last 10 years; best June 15, 2023 Page 109 places to live, best places to retire, best beaches, and how I got here, the best romantic locations. Actually, that's how my wife got here. She had me with her. COMMISSIONER HALL: She found me. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: But, you know, it still comes down to the most important resource that we've got, and that is people. Next comes excellence in programs, professional policies, procedures, and practices. And that's why out of 18,000-plus law enforcement agencies, I'm going to tell you and this community that you have of the best law enforcement agency and support in the nation. And some may think that I might be biased, and I certainly am, but let me tell you a couple of the achievements that they've received this year. We now have seven professional accreditations in the agency. They are state and national accreditations. We have multiple programs that are nationally based that we participate in, and the most important part of all of this is that they are independently examined, reviewed, observed, and assessed on a constant basis from outside organizations, not us, and that's all to ensure that your Sheriff's Office has the best practices with regard to law enforcement, corrections, communications, courts, and beyond. And, you know, many agencies throughout the nation don't even apply for accreditation because it's too difficult, and it is difficult, but we like a challenge, and that's why we do it. And in addition to those checks and balances, let me just highlight a couple of the accomplishments that we've seen this year. Your deputies, along with our great first responders in the last 18 months, have saved nearly 200 residents from dying, and next week, the most recent 63 of those are going before EMS for their Phoenix awards. That is a huge plus. And I will tell you that we also have the best first responders, fire rescue, EMS, and we couldn't be more June 15, 2023 Page 110 pleased to partner with them. We received a national award on school safety for threat assessment this past year. We received a model agency award from the National Association of School Resource Officers. We received an outstanding crime prevention award for construction site watch, and that's from the Florida Crime Prevention Association, the outstanding victim and senior program award from the National Organization of Victim Assistance, the gold standard certification award from the Florida CIT Coalition, and if you remember, we were among the first in the nation to have a behavioral health unit in our agency. Our corrections emergency response team, which is our SWAT team in the jail, placed in the top four of 18 in the national prison riot exercise this year, and your SWAT sniper team placed first in the latest national competition amongst 48 other agencies. So you can tell the quality and dedication of the men and women that we have serving our community each and every day. And there are more recognitions. As you know, we were challenged with Hurricane Ian this year. We created a coastal safety and security initiative with your help, partnered with the cities and the low-lying areas throughout the entire county to increase safety and patrols, and that went extremely well. And, in fact, it -- and I think I've told you this before. It is the worst, most destructive storm that I've worked in 45 years. We had the largest ASHER training for multi agencies. ASHER is -- well, originally it was the active shooter program. We've now changed the title just briefly. We've incorporated fire rescue, EMS, law enforcement, all the cities and, if you remember, we actually pioneered this seven years ago before anybody in the country was doing it. So, again, kudos to all of those. Our aviation bureau dumped 38,000 gallons of water to help June 15, 2023 Page 111 stop spreading fires. Your investigators have done thousands of investigations, dismantled drug organizations. They have secured and seized thousands of fentanyl pills, hundreds of grams of methamphetamine and cocaine, twenty firearms, and we continue to do that, and that's what helps us lead to the recognitions we have for one of the safest communities in this country. We were selected for -- as beta sites for multiple organizations over the years. The most recent was RapidSOS, and it was due to our commitment to excellence and technology. We were recognized by Motorola as the gold standard client, and we also pilot much of what they are going to present to the rest of the nation this coming year. We are one of six agencies in the country that have FAA authorization to do a pilot program to fly drones beyond line of sight. We are currently doing that now, and we help to build that as FAA regulations change and allow us to fly further than that. We created a new unified policing concept and tied it to technology in our operations center, and that center has become one of the most sought-after centers to visit to learn about unified policing, which is a change from what we used to do with the old New York style CompStat process. We've taken that. We've updated it. We've merged it with real-time technology, and we are visited on a regular basis by dozens of agencies throughout the nation and have been referred by Vigilant, who is the company that installed our system. So we continue to be a leader in crime fighting throughout the nation, and that, again, comes down to the men and women that you have out there each and every day and the investment that you make in us and that we're hoping you will continue to make with this coming budget year, because my commitment to you and to our June 15, 2023 Page 112 deputies are to provide the essential equipment, training, and support to continue to keep Collier County the safest in the nation. We open it up to any questions. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I've got a few. Thank you, sir. And I know at the beginning we have a little bit of fun, but I think the reality is that we respect so much what you do. We work so closely with you-all. I just want to tell you, I know every department's budget is different, but this document that you gave us here, this is stellar. I've read this cover to cover. And, I mean, this is -- the reason why you're not going to get a whole lot of questions here is -- and I know it's a team that puts this together, but, you know, you could hand this to a stranger, and they'd be fully informed of what your department does, every nuance of it, and that's -- you know, to me that's the true test of a document like this. Having said that, you know, we'll go on record here -- and I know I'm speaking for all my colleagues -- this county doesn't defund our police. We support it. And you do such a great job doing a deep dive and showing where you need additional funds and where you've added efficiencies that it's obvious, and that's why we rank as high as we do, and that's a testament to your long-term leadership. I'm glad to see that you're finally wearing your fourth star. Last time I saw you, you only had three. And I was like, what's wrong with that? It's supposed to be four. And Colonel Bloom educated me that we were fixing that here in Collier County. So I don't like seeing other county sheriffs wearing four and ours only has three, so I'm glad we caught up with the times. But I do have a couple quick questions. One of the -- one of the budget changes, which was an increase, was the emergency 911 phone system. And I don't want to put anybody on the spot, but -- and it's a 12 percent increase, not a gigantic number. But I June 15, 2023 Page 113 was wondering, what are we doing to improve that system? Where does that money go? And it's just more out of curiosity as to how is that system getting better with the increase, or is it just higher costs for the current system? SHERIFF RAMBOSK: There certainly are some higher costs in there, but we've gone to Live 911 this past year or 18 months, and in order to do that, there are increased costs, but it also helps us geo-locate cell phones, and that is a gigantic improvement that we have not been able to do in the past. And if you think about, you know, most of our phones today are offline. So with that capability and that increase in the system, it will give us the ability to respond, even if you're unable to tell us where you are, we can geo-locate you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I had a town hall meeting in Lely, and one of your sheriffs was there who's responsible for that area, and I was shocked when he read the stats of how many 911 calls there were just for that neighborhood. And what I was really disappointed about, and he was as well, is how many hang ups because, you know, a hang up could be a seven-year-old kid playing with the phone, but a hangup could be a spouse who's in severe distress and then, you know, chickens out, or isn't able to complete the call. So as he was saying, even the hangups have to be responded to, and a lot of them turn out to be nothing, but some of them turn out to be somebody that is hopeful that they'll dial 911, hang up, and we will respond. And he had all the right answers, you know, at that town hall meeting they had. But I was flabbergasted at, just for that one small neighborhood, how many 911 calls there were in the past year. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: If you dial 911, we're coming. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: One way or the other, to check it out, June 15, 2023 Page 114 make sure you're okay, or to take action. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Now, this is a small thing, but because we've got the senior leadership here, we continue to get complaints from a lot of citizens on panhandling. And, you know, one of the times you and I spoke -- and I use your quote in a lot of town hall meetings. You said one time to me, people asking citizens for money isn't against the law. It becomes a problem depending on where they do it; if they're trespassing or they walk into a restaurant or that sort of thing or they're in a parking lot of a shopping mall and the management doesn't want them there. And, granted, we don't throw them in jail. You know, our jails would be full of people that have minor infractions, but letting those folks know that they're not welcome there. But we continue -- we passed an ordinance here that had more detail to it, but it's not flawless. But one of the things that I believed that the new ordinance did is it -- it disallowed panhandling in areas where safety was going to be of a significant concern, and to me when I see people -- and I saw it this morning on my way to work. There's frequently panhandlers at the corners of U.S. 41 and Collier Boulevard, and there's frequently a panhandler at the Pine Ridge exit as you exit off to the Physicians Regional Hospital. And the Collier Boulevard and U.S. 41 intersection is a significant safety issue, because as soon as that light turns red, the person with the sign saying I was affected by the hurricane and this and that is dodging through cars. And, you know, one of the things I said in my last newsletter to citizens is, if you want to stop panhandling, stop giving them money. Give the money to an organization in town that helps those that are less fortunate. And it's not to say these panhandlers aren't in need, but when they're dodging cars, and then I watch the light turn green, and they're trying to, you know, rush back to the safety of the June 15, 2023 Page 115 median, that certainly is a person who shouldn't be there. And I've called -- I've called it in before to the non-emergent number, and I've put in my newsletter for citizens to be aware of that number, and if they see something that's a major safety concern -- and sometimes the feedback I get from citizens is the operator on the other end either says, oh, we can't really do anything about that, you know. You need to talk to your county commissioner, was one of the responses. But I just think a little bit of tightening and separating rumor from fact of where people can panhandle, where they can't. And, you know, as your sheriffs are driving by these different intersections, I would hope that when they would see something, whether it's called in or not, they would take action because some of these people are in very dangerous areas, and they know how long to linger there. Linger about an hour, they know they're going to get reported by somebody, and then they take off. So, you know, you-all don't have a crystal ball to know where people are, but anything you could do to increase the training and knowledge, especially of your phone operators, so that when citizens call in -- sometimes the feedback we get is, well, the person on the other end of the phone was a -- seemed a little bit unsure of if they could do anything or not. So I just sort of leave that with you as just a nugget. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Well, you know, first, thank you for the ordinance, because before that we really had no authority to do anything at all. COLONEL BLOOM: Yeah. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: It is kind of unique that once that went in place, those that participate know the ordinance almost better sometimes than others do, and they know what to do and where to do it. But we are out enforcing. We certainly will talk to June 15, 2023 Page 116 communications and make sure that we're forwarding that information to road deputies. The other thing that we're doing is -- and it's somewhat related to -- we get similar calls with regard to homeless and believe that some of these people are homeless. So we are working from a couple different perspectives identifying areas where we have some homeless complaints, some of the commercial areas. But as we continue to build and take down wooded areas, we continue to see more people that seem to be visible. And I've talked to a lot of residents about that this year. And the colonel and his staff are doing a great job with identifying different locations where they are holed up today. We send in our mental health unit to find out if we can refer them to the proper resource that can help them, but in many cases people don't want help. They want to be by themselves. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And also the reason it's important to -- and you've said this before, it's not illegal to be homeless. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Right. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But, you know, I go back to the panhandler example. And one of the reasons why I always call it in is because a sheriff might respond and scare that person off, but I'm sure before they do that, they have a conversation maybe with that person, and if that person has drug paraphernalia on them, if they have a weapon -- so it's not a matter of just scaring them off, but some of these people maybe should be picked up. And there's a few that I've seen sometimes that, you know, cause me concern, and that's why I always call it in. But it's the same on homeless. Like you said, they're more visible, but -- they may not want the help, but we may need to help them over to the jail if they've got stuff on them that's of a legal nature. And I know you already know that. June 15, 2023 Page 117 I've got everybody lit up here that want to talk to you, so... SHERIFF RAMBOSK: And we absolutely do that. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. Thank you. Commissioner Saunders and then, Commissioner Hall, you're next. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. I've got two or three areas I wanted to explore. First of all, thank you, and thank you to all the men and women in your agency. Keeping us safe is the number-one job of government, and you do an excellent job at that, and your personnel do an excellent job. The school deputy program, we're funding that, I believe, still at 100 percent. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And I assume that you have all the resources you need for that at this point. I know you had to ramp up to that, but we can sleep well at night knowing that all of our schools are fully protected. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes. All of our schools are fully protected, they're fully funded. We certainly continue to have people that retire and are trying to fill permanent positions. But we're able to cover every school every day. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Does that include the charter schools? SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes. COLONEL BLOOM: Yes. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. And then another question, in terms of your budget, there's -- obviously, keeping folks safe from crime is number one, but we also, as you well know, your agency, some of your folks are working very closely with a group called Quiet Florida to try to improve quality of life as it relates to the fact that a lot of that quiet enjoyment is being disrupted by loud June 15, 2023 Page 118 mufflers and alterations to vehicles that are illegal. Do you have anything in your budget going forward that recognizes that and that -- if not, is there some other things we can do in your budget to be maybe a little bit more proactive in terms of protecting the quiet enjoyment of our communities? SHERIFF RAMBOSK: I can tell you, and I believe you already know, that we, as an organization, have embraced that and have been working with that group, both locally and even now at the state level. We didn't include anything as a line item because we have that incorporated in our community policing efforts, and we have people assigned specifically to do sound assessments and to respond when necessary. We proactively go out and do it. So we don't have anything specifically to cover it, but I'll talk with the colonel and see if there's anything more. But he's done a great job in working with this group. COLONEL BLOOM: Chair, if I can jump in there real quick. Commissioner, I think you saw the stats we forwarded over to you as an agency. Commissioner Kowal was involved in that in the very beginning. He took in -- and I'm not saying it because he's sitting there. He took a leadership role in that with our traffic unit. We've written more citations than -- for the most part -- I'd have to pull the data, but -- than the majority of all other agencies added together. So we take it very serious here in this county. We'll continue to do that. I've had several meetings both with our staff at the direction of the Sheriff and the community, as you have. And we're going to continue to take that on and embrace it and work legislatively, too. I know that they're working with, currently, Senator Passidomo and possibly doing some legislative changes. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Senator Passidomo has taken a real leadership position on this. June 15, 2023 Page 119 The OPPAGA report that the legislature required -- COLONEL BLOOM: Yes. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- has been issued. It hasn't been made public yet because it needs to have the signature of the Senate president before it becomes public. I don't know if you've seen it. If not, I'll make sure that as soon as it's available that you have it. And if there's anything in there that might impact your budget in some way, then, we've got several months now to make adjustments if we need to. COLONEL BLOOM: If you can forward a copy of that over to us, we'll -- COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yes. And we have a -- we're going to have an update on that at our Board meeting on June 27th, assuming that the OPPAGA report is ready. If it's not ready, we'll continue to the first meeting in July. Then on another topic, we have the mental health facility funding issue coming up at our meeting on June 27th. Staff has three or four different types of proposals ranging from the original, I think, 25 million all the way up to a $45 million construction budget. Have you been involved in the current discussions concerning the services to be provided and the proposals that's going to be coming to us on the 27th? SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes. We've been involved from the very beginning both with the facility itself, with the David Lawrence Center, and with the neighbors, as we told you that we would be. I can tell you that our position will be to recommend and support the staff's recommendation of the 75-bed facility that was originally planned. It is more cost. I believe that is the 44-plus million dollar cost. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I tell you that I've heard that the neighborhood is very pleased with the increased security that your June 15, 2023 Page 120 agency is providing at David Lawrence Center, and certainly that will be that much more important once this facility is up and running. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Yes. And I'm going to give an update to what we have done with the neighborhood at that meeting. I will be here to support it. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Great. All right. Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, Chair. Sheriff, thanks for a great job. I love hearing all the awards, and I like seeing the helicopters. But my question is, with the increase in the budget for personnel, you know, for law enforcement, what part of the budget, or if any part of the budget, are you using to incentivize or, you know, to recruit and entice quality law officers? SHERIFF RAMBOSK: The personnel services part of the budget, which is about 81 percent of our budget, because we're very labor oriented, goes towards retention and recruitment, and we have increased that. I believe that was an 8 percent increase over last year, and it is for the purpose of seeking and hiring only the best qualified individuals, because we will not lower our standards like other places in the country. COMMISSIONER HALL: Does any of those incentives include housing? SHERIFF RAMBOSK: They do not, but we have representatives on the housing committee. We have met with two or three different organizations that are planning on coming to you to provide alternatives to housing. But that is our number-one problem for attaining the most qualified candidates, so we need your help with that. COMMISSIONER HALL: Thank you, sir. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner McDaniel, and then June 15, 2023 Page 121 Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I, as well, share the happiness when I see the helicopters flying. I think I've said this to you before, but to say it again, when you find another Huey, buy two. Those singularly have saved the lives and properties of Collier County residents tenfold to the expense associated with those. I wanted to say thank you for that. I also wanted to say thank you. As Commissioner Saunders said, it's our number-one job at local government to keep our families and neighborhoods safe. Your proactive steps, your leadership with regard to being ahead of what's, in fact, transpiring in the marketplace both from a positive enforcement standpoint and, on the other side of the equation, knowing what's coming down the path from the bad guys, allows us to do what we're doing and for us to be able to say thank you to you. And it's because of those decisions that you've made, the proactive steps that you've taken that allows us to enjoy the safety that we have. So from me to you, thank you. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chair. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Ready to interrogate your past boss? It feels weird, doesn't it? It feels weird. Get ready, Sheriff. Here it comes. He's moved -- COMMISSIONER KOWAL: A lot of notes. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: He's moved over to a new seat. Take your time, Commissioner. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: All right. All right. Well, Sheriff, I want to thank you, and especially the men and women of your agency, because I know how hard it is. I spent 20 years with that agency, and I know what it takes to keep this place June 15, 2023 Page 122 what we're accustomed to. And, you know, the men and women of the agency are the spearhead of this government. They are the first contact. They contact every individual out there and represent the government of Collier County on a daily basis. So when they get an impression of what we are in Collier County, they typically get it from the contact they have with our sheriff's department. So that's -- that's very important. That being said, technology's wonderful, and I love how we lead the nation in technology. But you know as well as I know, eventually it takes boots on the ground. It takes that human interaction to place that bad guy in custody, you know. At some point we have to reach out, and we have to obtain that individual and bring him to justice, and that takes people. And I get it, I know the process to get hired into a law enforcement agency. It is long. You wait six months sometimes to even get an answer, you know, as an applicant. And I know we get thousands every year. And, you know, we want to make sure we're having the best of the best. But, you know, it scares me when I look at the numbers, and I look at the past couple years is -- and we are giving conditional offers to individuals that meet that litmus test that we all require here in Collier County, and I'm seeing, just the last past year, you're talking about 223 people that turned the job down after already being accepted -- you know, offered the job. And I think that's what we need to explore as a group up here and as a Sheriff's Department and the citizens of Collier County, how do we retain these people we're already giving conditional offers to at the onset. Because they've met the litmus test to be one of our deputies here in this county. And, you know, you're talking almost a 300-applicant difference the year before that actually accepted. June 15, 2023 Page 123 You know, we know housing's an issue. You know, it's probably the biggest one that smacks us in the face. When they get this conditional offer, they're like, great, I'm going to be hired by one of the best agencies in the country, and then they realize they can't afford to live here. So I think -- I just want feedback from your group, you know, to us. You know, how do we move forward to continue with this quality? And get a better number, ratio of the conditional officers to actual hires, so... SHERIFF RAMBOSK: That's a great question, and one that we challenge ourself with each and every day. A couple of things, and let's start right at state government. We have a great governor who supports law enforcement who has given all kinds of incentives to draw law enforcement officers from outside the State of Florida. That certainly helps us to start that flow of people in. We have looked at internal incentives as well to get people situated with a sign-on bonus, with equipment issuance. So that they can take that and get a down payment on some of the costly facilities to live here I mean, a one-bedroom apartment, you're looking at 18- to $2,500 a month, and that is -- that's a lot of money. But we're hoping -- we're hoping to offset that with the incentives that we're giving. I will tell you that I have included a significant adjustment, as you have, in the county to address inflation and the cost of living, and that will be in place effective October 1st, and then a secondary adjustment probably the first of the year. That will make us one of the most competitive pay organizations in the state, and we believe that will help and assist in our recruitment. But one of the other things that is really very unique is we've decided to look at recruitment from a local standpoint more in-depth June 15, 2023 Page 124 than we ever have before. And we've got a couple of things that are ongoing, but let me tell you about one. We partner with the Immokalee Foundation. And they hook us up with interested young people, typically who are seniors in high school or due to get out of the high school or just out of high school, and we put them in a training program and, particularly, we started with communications, because dispatch, as you know is a critical -- that first element, and if we can recruit and train, we can keep local young people that are here. And I think we have done one round of training, and I believe we got six out of the first one. And then we have another one where we've got probably 20 people that are interested, and we'll look at some more. We're also going into the high schools. We're doing a lot more with high school career fair days and letting our young people know what they need to be successful in our hiring process. So if we can get to young people in high school anywhere from grades 9 to 12 and say, listen, you know, you can't be smoking dope and be a law enforcement officer, so stop, or don't do it to begin with. And so if we can let them know early on, don't joyride in a golf cart that doesn't belong to you. You know, some of those things that, they're not -- they're not fatal acts, but, as you know, when you're there answering on a polygraph, everything comes out one way or the other. And we want our young people in this community -- first of all, we have great young people here. We want them to be successful, and we're putting a lot of effort into hiring them and keeping them here in our community. So those are a couple of things. But I think from a competitive standpoint, we will be there midyear this year. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Sheriff. Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I just had one last thing. You're June 15, 2023 Page 125 definitely a department or office that has a fluid mission and budget. And so I think it goes without saying, we know what's in here. But it's -- you know, we're prepared that, as things change, you -- as one of our constitutional officers, you've been so proactive to come in here on your own and always speak with us. And at times we've asked other constitutional officers to come in here, and we had some questions. We never have to ask you. You're so proactive to come here, and please continue that. And if anything becomes dated or dusty in here where, you know, you estimated something wrong or something -- and I know I'm telling you something you already know. But on behalf of all of us here, we're ready to be dynamic and fluid and continue to make sure that, you know, you're fully -- fully funded, you know, for sure. And, you know, without sounding corny, I've got to think as the -- our sheriff for so long and the pride that you take in the people who work for you, that you must be proud to see former employees of yours run for office, get elected to office, continue to serve as servant leaders in the county. I know that, you know, from my military days, when I would see an airman get their degree and become and officer and then go on and command a base, that was a big deal. And so as former, you know, fellow uniformed people, I've got to think you must sit there with great pride. And, also, it's obvious you have a very deep bench of leadership. So when the time comes for you to, you know, move off and maybe play a little bit more golf or tennis or whatever, you certainly have some people that you have been mentoring for a long time that are -- they're ready to step in and take over, and that's really commendable. And I know we all really admire and respect it, and we're enjoying serving with, you know, one of our fellow employees, and we're doing our best to sort of keep him in line and keep him up to speed. June 15, 2023 Page 126 SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you. It is very heartening for sure. And I'd like to say something for the public so that there's no miscommunication whatsoever, that this board has and is a law-enforcement-supportive board. There is nothing that we have asked for that we have needed that you have not provided, and we appreciate that, but the public needs to know it. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Appreciate that, sir. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Can I just say one more thing? CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I looked through this whole book, and it would have made it a lot easier if they could have dug up one picture of me somewhere and stuck it in here. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: That would have been a nice touch. Yeah, that would have been -- SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Next year. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Actually, I know there's one in the hallway right outside your office. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: There is. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: There was. You might have taken it down. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Is that all the dart holes on it? COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I have the motorcycle helmet and the sunglasses on. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Actually, as Chair, I saw it in the draft, and I asked him to take it out. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Oh, all right. All right. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you, sir, for your time and, as always, this room is always available to you as well as our office email waves and everything. You know, we're here to -- we work June 15, 2023 Page 127 for you as well so, thank you. SHERIFF RAMBOSK: Thank you. MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, we're going to return back to our earlier lineup, starting with Growth Management/Community Development. MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, I wanted to alert you. I actually have four public speakers all here in person to speak about Conservation Collier which falls in this area. Did you want to hear them before or after? CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: No, I'd like to hear them before, because it might help the panel, then, couch their answers a little bit better or to address that. So let's go to the four speakers. MR. MILLER: Absolutely. Your first speaker is Michele Lenhard. She'll be followed by Brad Cornell. MS. LENHARD: Good afternoon, Commissioners. I'm Michele Lenhard, chair of Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee. I want to thank the county staff for the hard work on the FY '24 budget and for the proposed funding recommendation of a .25 millage rate for Conservation Collier. I also wanted to thank the county commissioners for their long-standing support of a .25 millage rate during the 20 years of the program has been here with us. There is one additional thank you, and that is to the voters of Collier County for their support of this program. A 77 percent of the voters during the 2020 referendum reaffirmed support of this program at the .25 millage rate to acquire, preserve, and manage environmentally sensitive land for the protection of water equality, water resources, wildlife habitat, and public open space. You currently have 4,700-plus acres in 22 project areas in conservation as community nature preserves. Project areas are in all five commission districts where program staff worked to make them June 15, 2023 Page 128 accessible to the public for nature-based recreation. Funding has and will continue to provide the opportunity to respond to property nominations which meet the criteria of the program. Recent acquisitions cycles have seen properties range in size from just over half an acre to up to 4,378 acres, so we see a large range in applications. Funding provides the resources to grow four multi-parcel project areas. These project areas have previously been designated on the A list. Letters are sent once a fiscal year, as budget permits, to property owners. One project area, Red Maple Swamp is currently 77 percent completed. A new project area, the Panther Walk Preserve, located within the Horse Pen Strand, is an important new project area, as it will provide water resource protection and can help meet stormwater management goals. Your Conservation County program protects rare habitat, aquifer recharge, flood control, water-quality protection, and listed species habitat, thanks to the long experience and expertise and valuable interface with the public of staff as well as committee members. We appreciate your long-standing support, which has made this possible. I don't know if you have any questions for me today. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you, ma'am. MS. LENHARD: All righty. Thank you very much. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Brad Cornell. He'll be followed by Andy Wells-Bean. MR. CORNELL: Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. Thanks for the opportunity to address you on your budget workshop. I'm Brad Cornell. I'm here on behalf of Audubon Western Everglades and Audubon Florida and its Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. I want to offer my thanks to your staff for the great work on June 15, 2023 Page 129 developing this draft budget and to you-all as a Board for your detection and support of Conservation Collier for 20 years and all the vital national resource-based stewardship programs, including stormwater and pollution control that you oversee. These are the economic and ecologic infrastructure that sustain Collier County. There have been three referenda, 2002, 2006, and 2020, as you know, which show that Conservation Collier is one of the most popular and successful programs Collier County manages. These are the rare instances of public mandate and consensus to tax themselves to protect the nature of Collier County. It doesn't happen very often. Why is that? Conservation Collier preserves -- conserve conservation land that is neither pursued by the feds nor by the state. Those lands include the substance of what makes Collier County's quality of life unique and what drives the nature-based economic vitality of this place. These preserves include the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed, you know, the CREW project, which is a huge collaboration between the Water Management District, Lee County, and Collier County, as well as private landowners. Pepper Ranch with history, hunting, and key wildlife habitats, including for panthers, bears, deer, and turkey. Otter Mound and nearby Marco Island Preserves with 3,000 years of archaeological treasures, pioneer history, and threatened wildlife habitat for bald eagles, burrowing owls, and gopher tortoises in rare tropical hardwood hammocks. Four critical wetland sloughs in North Golden Gate Estates that also host wading birds, panthers, and bears. North Belle Meade Preserves, Rookery Bay area, extremely rare scrub preserves like Railhead Scrub's 90 acres, and the Gordon River Greenway, and Fred Coyle water-quality park, and mangroves and June 15, 2023 Page 130 tributaries to the Wiggins Pass estuary. Preserves are in all five districts of county close to where all of our citizens live, every one of us. Additionally, these preserves are a vital part of building and creating climate threat resilience, including holding more floodwaters than wetlands; catastrophic wildfire risk reduction; heat threat mitigation. Thinking of that this week. Every time I walk my dog, he lays down, and I can't go any further than 100 yards -- with -- because that gives us green space and trees; and harmful algal bloom reduction through cleaner water. These all add to and complement projects the Army Corps would probably build for the coastal storm risk management. So, again, we support the full levy of the quarter mill for Conservation Collier as a successful program. Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: You know, Brad, I just wanted to say, while you're here, we really appreciate how passionate, knowledgeable, and articulate and dedicated you are to all of our meetings that we have. We may not agree on everything, and I know some days you probably walk out of here, and maybe we agreed to disagree on a vote that happened, but, you know, you're here to not only represent the issue and better educate us, and sometimes it's just, you know, there's other factors. But, you bring such a professionalism and maturity into this room to represent folks that have environmental concerns, and we do greatly value that. And I would hope that you would always feel, regardless of the vote, that your input was never discounted. It was always heard. And I know whether you've spoken in here or you meet with us one on one, it is greatly valued, and we are listening. Sometimes we do have other factors where, you know -- and I've said before we can do anything, but we can't do everything. But you really bring that sense of professionalism, knowledge here, and June 15, 2023 Page 131 we really do appreciate it, because I know it takes a lot of time for you to do that, and it's needed in this room. So thank you. MR. CORNELL: Thank you, Commissioner. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Andy Wells-Bean. They will be followed by Ellin Goetz. MR. WELLS-BEAN: Good afternoon. My name is Andy Wells-Bean. I'm the new executive director of Audubon Western Everglades. It's wonderful to be here with you-all. I've been listening in all morning. So I am new to the organization, and so I wanted to get a sense of the group, and so I plotted all of our members and supporters on a Google map. And it turns out there are Audubon Western Everglades members all over the county. They're not clustered anywhere. They're all over. I was very pleased to see this. And I was looking at that and realizing that there are vulnerable birds and other wildlife also scattered all across the county. There are also Conservation Collier project areas scattered all over the county. And thank God, because in this era of habitat destruction, habitat loss, we need strategic conservation, and every single person in the county, whether they are a birder or just an outdoor enthusiast of a different variety or just somebody who likes the idea that pieces of wild Florida are being preserved for wildlife and for future generations, that's a good thing. Now, I wanted to just wrap up and show myself here to say thank you for your past support of the full funding for Conservation Collier, and he heartily endorsed the .25 millage moving forward. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Congratulations on your new position. MR. WELLS-BEAN: Thank you. Appreciate it. June 15, 2023 Page 132 MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, your final speaker is Ellin Goetz. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Who? MS. GOETZ: Last but not least. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Who? MS. GOETZ: Good afternoon, I'm Ellin Goetz. I've been a resident of Collier County since 1984 and a small business owner since 2001, and I was privileged to be the chair of the three successful political action campaigns for Conservation Collier in 2002, 2006, and most recently in 2020. And I just, for the history, looked back at some of the statistics from 2020 because we forget so quickly. This issue got more votes than either presidential candidate in Collier County. More votes than the commissioners that were -- percentage-wise that were running for election at that time. It's an astonishing thing. I looked back through the different districts. District 1, highest percentage, 82.7 in one of your precincts; District 5, 84 percent; District 4, 86; District 3, 81.1; and District 2, 79.3. So, overall, the approval rating was 76.5 percent in 2020, and we forget the pain again so much, but that was during a pandemic. So it is a remarkable, I think, testimony to the value that our citizens place on this kind of a program, a very fair deal for the seller, for the buyer, beautifully administrated, I would argue, by the county for these 20 years. And I wanted to thank you all and keep it up, please, because it's really important, not just for land, but for water, which we all know is a crucial issue for us. So thank you for your support in the past, and I hope that we can see that continue. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you for reminding us of those percentage numbers. June 15, 2023 Page 133 MS. GOETZ: No election is fun -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Nice technique. Nice technique. MS. GOETZ: -- and it wasn't fun. But we did it because -- and Brad Cornell that you complimented was a key player in that. So I want to thank you for those kind remarks for him. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you, ma'am. MS. GOETZ: Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Mr. Miller, any other -- MR. MILLER: That was our final registered speaker, sir. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Great. Mr. French. MR. FRENCH: Good afternoon, Commissioners. As most of you know, my name is Jamie French. I'm your department head for Growth Management and Community Development. No pressure. So why did Conservation Collier supporters come out to -- at the Growth Management budget? Well, under the County Manager's vision and realignment of the organization, we'd like to say they came home. So Conservation Collier is now part of Growth Management/Community Development. I've had them for exactly -- not me -- Ms. Cook has had them now for about less than 40 days. So we're going to rely on Mr. Finn, perhaps Ms. Williams to jump in, and we'll phone a friend if we need to, if there's any questions with regards to their budget. But we are evaluating their group. We think it's wonderful. We've already got relationships with them. Summer Araque, is a former Growth Management/Community Development staff member with us. Very well respected in the environmental field. And we very much appreciate the speakers who spoke today, especially Mr. Cornell, their support, and bringing them back to Growth Management/Community Development. So we're so June 15, 2023 Page 134 looking forward to the challenge. But in the meantime, I'd like to just talk a little bit about Growth Management and Community Development as the budget's been presented to you today. We've got a map that I'd like to put up on the screen to just -- and I spoke with our Deputy County Manager, Ed Finn, and, really, unlike an upside-down triangle that relies on just the point, we actually have a broad base, and I want to talk about our broad base and really how we -- how we monitor, how we track, and really how we evaluate growth, and, as you many of you know, your Annual Update and Inventory Report is based off of these numbers. This is actual growth in Collier County. It's spread out over the years within about a 15-month period. The blue dots are going to represent actually single-family homes, which would indicate that what we've been saying that we're a single-family-home market is true. The yellow is commercial, and -- not residential but commercial, and the -- I'm sorry. The yellow is multifamily, and the red would be your commercial. But the Growth Management/Community Department of made up of seven divisions: Building Plans Review -- and I've asked those directors to come along here today just so you can see their faces. Many of them you don't know, and many of them you don't work with on a daily basis. But Mr. Rich Long, our building director -- Rich, if you wouldn't mind raising your hand. You've recently met Tom Iandimarino, our new our Code Enforcement Board director. Housing Policy and Economic Development, our interim director there is Sarah Harrington, and she's been backed up by Cormac Giblin. We were so lucky to have Cormac jump in and, as we're transitioning Cormac back to his old job, Sarah's going to be taking the lead there. Operations and June 15, 2023 Page 135 Regulatory Management, that's led by Mike Stark, who's back to my right, along with Evelyn Trimino, his financial and operations manager. And the reason why Mr. Kovensky is sitting next to me is because that was Mr. Kovensky's job, and I asked -- Ken recently transitioned into the County Manager's Office. And so, Mike and Evelyn have been us with for about four months. But Mike did come from HR. Prior to that he was with Dr. Yilmaz's group over at Solid Waste -- I'm sorry -- the recycling center. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Let the record reflect that most of them are in the front row. So just for the record there. Nice job. MR. FRENCH: Yes. Another new group, Resiliency in Community Planning. Many of you worked with Mr. Mason during the hurricane. Chris Mason is back there to my left. And, of course, you may not know him, but he's our Zoning director, Mr. Michael Bosi, and I still to this day blame Mike for -- I love -- loved working for Public Services, but part of the deal for Mike to come back was that I had to come back here, too. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: We see Mike more than we see our significant others, and that's not a good thing okay. MR. FRENCH: So, Commissioners, the proposed department budget is approximately $96 million. That represents a 26 percent increase. That's because of the formulation; we shifted some of those groups out of their -- out of their former budget, now into the Growth Management, and that's your Housing group as well as your Economic Development group. The group is still primarily funded by enterprise-based dollars collected. We're regulated under Chapter 489 and 553, which is your Florida Building Code. Many people think that a local community has a building code. They have the state's building code, which is a mandate. We are the authority having jurisdiction for June 15, 2023 Page 136 maintaining the responsibility of ensuring that we maintain that building code. In other words, all building plan permits are measured up to it, and the way we issue permits are done so based off the guidance provided -- or the mandate provided by the state. That budget represents nearly two-thirds of the revenues that come into our facility, and they are restricted use. They can only be used for what they were intended for, which is to provide a service. They may not be used for general government purposes, and they cannot be used -- at least on the building side, they cannot be used for planning and zoning. Those sections funded by the 111 and 001 funds have met the budget guidance outlined by the County Manager's Office and the Board of County Commissioners. Even though we've seen a slight waning in demand for single-family homes, as the County Manager indicated earlier, our activity is still strong, and that map would represent that. Again, that map represents actually COs, not applications. Our Enterprise Funds are well established to ensure community confidence into future years. These reserves include allowances for fees prepaid. So if you've paid your fee up front and your project does not get finished, like what Todd Mathes spoke about the other day, the skeleton building, which is now the Amazon, we did not have -- we could not go back to the register and charge them for building permits that they paid 10, 12 years ago. We owe them the service. And in the event that we default on that and the money's not there, the General Fund has an obligation to make that up, and we take that to heart, because that puts that on the backs of the taxpayers. When compared to previous -- to the three previous fiscal years and what -- we call those the pandemic years where the community experienced a greater-than-average migration of new residents to the area, what we've seen is we've actually seen a downgrade. So where June 15, 2023 Page 137 we averaged about 2 percent per year growth over the total growth, we're down to just over 1.5 percent, and we believe that's primarily because we are in that demand-pull economy where you've got a lot of money chasing few assets, few commodities and, really, few labor that would be available at the right price. Unfortunately, though, the price is stuck, unlike the recession. So we are seeing those construction costs on our opinion or probably costs that come forward; they are very highly elevated. Now, we charge by service. We don't charge by percentage of the job. In other words, if it costs the property owner more money to build a home because it's more complex, they want more features, it's a set fee that this board -- that this board has established. Over the last 12 months, greater than 51,000 building permits were issued, and approximately 296,000 building inspections were performed. With regard to the activity related to Hurricane Ian, there were over 20,000 address points that were evaluated, predominantly -- and this was your Building Department staff. They deployed, before the all-clear was given, they evaluated over 20,000 properties within a day and a half, and that was all within the prior -- all within the Evacuation Hurricane Zone A. Currently, we've issued nearly 3,000 storm-related building permits. Single-family home residential was done in less than five days. Now, unless, of course, it was missing something, unless something wasn't completed. And we prioritized even the commercial and multifamily to where we could get those out in no less than 10 to 15 days so long as they were able to meet the state standard on the application process. As identified within the County Manager's strategic plan, our budgets within the Enterprise Funds are adequately sized to accommodate current and upcoming land use and building permit June 15, 2023 Page 138 activities requested by our clients. There have been no requests for a fee increase. We're enterprise funded since 2009. Now, that has come at some disadvantage to us. In fact, what we've done is we've brought the community better than $9 million in savings since that time because we found ways to do things more efficiently. We've automated a number of things to include video inspections. They can -- customers can close out their own permits. We've gone 100 percent online but, in return, we've dipped into our reserves a little over $2 million last year in Fund 113 and almost $3 million in Fund 131, and that's primarily due to hiring contract staff. Commissioner, you had mentioned last year with regards to the vacancies -- and I know you mentioned it earlier as far as how are we doing. We've got 25 vacancies. We've got a dozen building inspectors and a dozen -- little more than a dozen plan review other positions that are available. But, unfortunately, when you've got a median home price that the County Manager indicated and you've got all this work out there -- these are licensed contractors that do this work. Many of them are specialty contractors that hold a license. That's the only way they can qualify to become a plans reviewer or a building inspector. So what happens, do they make 2- to $300,000 owning their own company doing this work, or do they come to work for the county for what we pay? The benefits are great. The stability is awesome. But, again, many of these people, they're going to work where they can get the money. And so this is just a condition of the market. Mr. Stark, who I mentioned earlier, he was the county's HR -- one of the HR managers there, and we've actually had him go back through and reevaluate our process. We interview people within one or two days, or we set up that interview upon receiving June 15, 2023 Page 139 those applications. We try to turn those around as fast as we can. Our Code Enforcement division remains committed to the life safety and well-being of the community through the education, cooperation, and compliance of our citizens. The team continues to conduct community meetings, education, meet and greets, and community cleanup efforts, and we couldn't do that without Dr. George and Kari in Waste Management, because our Code Enforcement staff goes in, and we load up trucks, remove junk from people's yards so that they can avoid a code enforcement infraction and try to maintain that community. Further enhancements with reducing redundancies through a unified education enforcement effort throughout the agency is scheduled to roll out within this year. That's one of the County Manager's directives. So if one agency is doing something that we're doing, our goal here is, is remove it and make sure it's within the agency it belongs with. Now, yesterday or, I'm sorry, earlier on Tuesday, you awarded a contract to both Kevin Noell and to -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Patrick. MR. FRENCH: -- Pat Neale, right? Forgive me, Pat. I've only known him for 25 years. But nonetheless, your Code Enforcement staff processes and gets ready for trial every infraction. So whether it's a park ranger case, a DAS case, or a -- could be a solid waste enforcement type of case. All of those flow up through those two bodies, Code Enforcement Board or your Special Magistrate. We'll continue to brief the Board members as we roll out and address any staffing needs that would need to be considered, and that ties right back into, as Mr. Finn said, our strategic plan that offers some reliable and responsible governance. June 15, 2023 Page 140 Beyond implementation of state and local mitigation policies, our Resiliency and Community Planning division maintains our Collier County community rating system. Congratulations, we're still a Class 5. What does that mean? Class 5 is a 25 percent discount off of flood insurance policies. Every new station I know that I've seen over the last few months -- and we've dipped into this even in discussion with affordable housing -- that is equated to better than a $9 million savings aggregately throughout the community just because we participate and we follow the rules. You're a model community, and we do all that through the Building Department. We use 113 funds, because in 2007 building code, I believe it -- yes, 2007 building code, they rolled out the CRS requirements. So if you didn't want to participate as a community, you were forced to through the building code. So when you came in for a building permit -- and the reason why you didn't see us on the news, because of the 50 percent rule, because through your staff, and through your -- through your thoughtfulness and support, there was no news to be seen. We were already ahead of most of the state. And so most of the state has been chasing you as a board and chasing you as a community for a very long time based off of what we've set up that you've supported, so thank you for that. Our colleagues remain committed to the resiliency and long-term protection of our natural and built environments through professional planning efforts, application of existing codes, as well -- as well as well-thought-out approaches with patterning with our state and local agencies. We could not ask for a better partner than the Collier County Sheriff's Office. We collocate on many -- whether it's a homeless camp or whether it is a squatter in a home, we work very well together. You saw on the news yesterday, Lieutenant Chad Parker from the Sheriff's Office was leading someone out. Three contractors that had really June 15, 2023 Page 141 ripped off some citizens because they were unlicensed and they took their money and had no intention of doing the work. And I can tell you that we find them, and then the Sheriff's Office arrests them. It works out well. We continue to evaluate the community and market demands to assure appropriate long-term solutions to service requests through advanced technology (unintelligible) that promote a unified solution; quality of place. From build-back efforts after a major event to new structures coming out of the ground, staff has continued to focus on an improved customer experience within state and locally adopted requirements. It's that old: Plan, do check, model. It never stops. The only unfunded areas that we have -- and it's something that I've brought up at previous Board meetings. We currently have some studies that Mr. Finn has provided to you, and I believe they're on your sheet. There are currently studies out there -- there's eight of them -- that equate to just a little over $650,000. So I'll fall back on what I said earlier, if we collect a fee to provide a service, I can't use it for general government purposes. So these are -- these are studies that the Board has asked us to look into or given us direction to move forward with and without additional dollars, and this cannot be done. And Mr. Bosi is here to talk about every one of those if you'd like to go through those, along with Mr. Mason. But you've got four planners in that area that is working with clients every day, and outside of that, what we have is we use out -- we outsource. Most of the studies that have come back to you, we've used out-sourced labor, and when we could use the Enterprise Funds, I promise you we did. But this is -- this is a General Fund sponsored event, and going forward we would need to have those dollars. We're not asking for additional staff. Again, we have 25 vacancies. I would not be here June 15, 2023 Page 142 today asking for additional staff that I know I can't fill. So we are balanced between -- we augment our staff through contract services when they are available. And, again, they are licensed companies, and they do charge top dollar. But you have contracts with these companies. And your model, by the way, has been copied all throughout the state. It started here. I'm happy to answer any questions about our unfunded requests. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Gentlemen, any questions? I have some questions about some other things. But anything on -- COMMISSIONER HALL: I don't have any questions on unfunded. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Mr. French, I did want to ask you, you know, there again, we want to take advantage you've got senior leadership here, and so it might not be a deep dive into the budget. But the berm project that's a going on on all our beaches now, and we're just sort of finishing up on Marco, all those folks that are working that fall under you, correct? I'm speaking to the right person eventually or -- I know it's Trinity, but is that -- am I talking to the right person? MR. FRENCH: It would be -- Trinity's staff is the one that's heading that up, and I know that she's probably walking up, so -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Not yet, but she wants to. MR. FRENCH: But I know that she could answer it. I will tell you that it's -- through Trinity's staff and ask our staff, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project that's currently underway, that is being headed up. The interaction and the meetings, the charrettes, the working with the community, that is us. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. FRENCH: But the actual physical work with regards to your Coastal Zone staff and that -- any augmentation with state and federal partners, that's under Ms. Scott's watch. June 15, 2023 Page 143 CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I jumped over my first question, which I know is you, which is code enforcement. And I just wanted to say here, especially with Tom in the audience, you know that we passed a much stronger resolution, and so we're really counting on your team to make sure that, you know, when it comes to code enforcement and fines and liens and all those things that we talked about -- and I don't have to rehash it -- our direction here is much different than what it has been in the past. And some of it got a little soft, a little dusty, or whatever, and we were committed here to make sure that, you know, and like I've said before, we're not chasing down the person who is hospitalized and hasn't mowed their lawn, but, you know, bigger entities that have been sort of laughing at us and collecting these unbelievable fines, and then in the end they're excused or the Code Enforcement Board has been very lenient in seconds to dismiss, you know, very large fines that -- or penalties for breaking the law is something that we're not going to tolerate anymore. And when I say that, you know, we could have collected -- or we billed $25 million over the last five years when it came to liens, and we only collected 400,000 or less -- granted there's some reason for that, but the delta is so huge, and in some cases I don't think it needs to be, and I would hope you'd agree. And I just want to make sure that we're sending that message loud and clear to the Code Enforcement Board, who we count on who are our nominees, to -- to serve us well and execute the processes that we are, you know, putting in place. And it's different. We want it to be different than it has in the past. And I hope that message is being sent, you know, loud and clear to the proper folks. MR. FRENCH: Yes, sir. Thank you for that. So true to his word, your County Attorney, Mr. Klatzkow, did address the Code Enforcement Board, and he -- and I believe the June 15, 2023 Page 144 message was delivered. Mr. Iandimarino and I have sat down and looked. Mike Ossorio will -- we are so thankful -- I've known Mike most of my life, and I will tell you -- even outside of the county in my short tenure of nearly 20 years here. So I will tell you is -- Mike knew that you code, and Mike inherited a lot of old policy that he did his very best with, and their staff is phenomenal. Our entire time team is phenomenal. The culture of our group is second to none. But we heard your message. And I will tell you this, is that the direction that Mr. Iandimarino has taken is that it will include staff recommendations to our Code Enforcement Board and to our Special Magistrate to say, no, here is all the efforts that we have expended to try to get this person right. We did not want to bring them here, but we're here nonetheless. And so with that, we can't help but to recommend a penalty. And I've learned that if you hit somebody on the wall hard enough, they'll pay attention. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Well -- and it sends a message too to some other folks maybe see that we are a little bit soft, and so then when they get penalized, they think, well, but that's not real. It will go away in a year. And I'll -- and added to that, as part of our discussions, we were adamant here about saying, please keep us posted. We don't watch every Code Enforcement Board meeting, and -- although we closely follow the outcomes, at least I do, especially on the ones that are in my district. But if there's a need to come to the podium at one of our BCC meetings and give us a report card -- and I'm hoping that report card would be a good one, that, hey, we are doing something different, and it is resulting in a different attitude of our code enforcement process. That's feedback we all would like to hear. MR. FRENCH: Sir, when I returned a little over two years ago, it's one of the -- one of the things I've looked into, and I can tell you June 15, 2023 Page 145 that you're better than $25 million in liens against properties out there. And those people would come in front of you as this board has indicated. We'll be bringing forward -- we'll be working with the County Attorney's Office, of course, but we intend to bring forward foreclosures, because there are some liens out there that really outpace the value of the property, and the property is still dragging down the community. And it may be very well that the person has passed, could be incarcerated, could be of some mental state that they're elsewhere. We don't know. And we've had those come, as you remember, not -- just in Commissioner Kowal's district just a few months ago where her son finally found help, and they were just trying to sell the property. They cleaned it up, and they just wanted to settle, and that one was a really good -- that one worked out as a good compromise. So thank you for that. But we are taking every approach possible to make sure our communities are safe, clean. And no one wants to live next door to that. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And sometimes we know the liens are funky. When we've met with the County Attorney, and, you know, we've been frustrated about a certain property, you know, sometimes he'll come back and say, look, the juice isn't worth the squeeze on this one. MR. FRENCH: That's right. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But when it comes to fines, there's a lot of folks that have gotten off, you know, really, really easy. I mean, if they've broken the law, they've broken our ordinances, and they've sort of ignored it, and then a year later, they finally fixed it, we shouldn't dismiss that. It sends a wrong signal. And I know you agree. June 15, 2023 Page 146 And then the other example of somebody has a huge fine, they sell the property, they pass it on to the new owner, and then the new owner comes in here and says, oh, I didn't create that problem. We're not playing that game anymore. So I don't want to belabor the point, but this is a -- MR. FRENCH: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- a formal setting where it's good to remind and sort of summarize some things that have been discussed in BCC meetings. And it is part of the budget. This isn't a side discussion. This is money that adds to -- adds back to -- gives back to the taxpayers, and we're sitting here trying to figure out where we're going to scrape nickels and dimes. And in some cases, our longer conversation should be about where we're wasting money or where we're not fully securing funds that could be coming back to the county, rather than figuring out where we can -- we can grow dollars or, you know, trade books for electricity in the library. So -- and I realize sometimes it's different pots of money, but sometimes it's not. Trinity, I have a -- just a quick question for you. And it -- and it is -- it's not a side question, because it does have to do with budget. So I went out yesterday and looked at the beach erosion, restoration in the berms on Marco. Very impressive, so I won't -- and I think I gave you some of that feedback. But something that I also discovered -- and we knew it was coming is that aggressive project at Hideaway Beach and the dredging that they've done. It did exactly what we thought it would do. It's now created more flow of water into Tigertail, and it's creating more of a wash through, which is great. So it's turning that mud puddle back maybe a more restoration, you know, type of look. But the problem that it's created, which we also anticipated, is now because more water's coming into that lagoon, and the beach really doesn't exist anymore. June 15, 2023 Page 147 It's all sort of one elevation. During high tide, that water is coming up all the way to the snack bar. So the two dots that I connected yesterday watching that beach restoration is a lot of what we've done on the City of Naples beaches, Vanderbilt, Barefoot, and at Marco -- and I talked to Mr. Rodriguez about this yesterday. Before all those crews disappear, we could benefit from raising the elevation of the very small beach area at Tigertail Lagoon so that we can contain the water in the lagoon where it needs to be and it doesn't wash out the area all the way to the snack bar. So I just wanted to take advantage with everybody in the room here. And then that does affect the budget. It's going to be a cost. But we need to take a look at that, I think. So it's just a recommendation, but it was something that I saw with my own eyes yesterday. And while we've got everybody's attention, you know, restoring our beaches, you know, that's something to maybe take a look at and let me know your thoughts. MS. SCOTT: Perfect. Will do. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you, ma'am. Okay. I've got Commissioner Hall and then, Commissioner McDaniel, you're on deck, sir. COMMISSIONER HALL: Thanks, Jamie. You know, you've been a lot of help to me as a new commissioner because I get a lot of questions about can you do this or what can you do about this or what can you do about that. And, you know, without having the knowledge, I just forward things to you, and you've always just been spot on and prompt even over the weekends. And so I just want to thank you publicly for that. MR. FRENCH: Thank you. COMMISSIONER HALL: Tell you how much I appreciate that. June 15, 2023 Page 148 And, you know, growth management, when people come to Collier County and they're building a house or they're buying or they're remodeling and they go to get a permit, it -- it can be just like overwhelming because they haven't experienced -- I never experienced anything in West Texas like that when I first came. So it is a daunting task, or it can be. And so you're the first, kind of, public -- you know, you're the first line of defense, you know, so to speak, for the county. And in your helping me in these questions, a lot of times -- and, you know, there's always two sides of the story, and a lot of times it's -- it's insufficiencies in the process by the third -- by the other party that's holding them back, you know. But when I'm looking at the budget, part of the funding I see is the reinspection fees. And, as a commissioner, I get a lot of things -- you know, a lot of frustrations because of reinspections or -- you know, I've -- one guy came out and told me this and then another guy came out and told me that. And I'm not putting -- I'm just saying what I get. I understand why because of our conversations. But for the public, I want -- I just want to ask the question, the reinspection fee, since you're self-funded, is there any part of that that you think could be counterintuitive to the public? MR. FRENCH: So the reinspection fee is really a last-ditch effort when we have a contractor that just wants the reinspection fee because they're either buying time or they're not prepared. And if you look in CityView, on that you'll see comments from the inspector that they stopped by, they weren't ready, they said, I'll come back through. Your average inspector is performing somewhere between 23 to 30 inspections per day. As I stated earlier, the total number of inspections are well over 200,000. You've got, in the field, just under 50 inspectors. They leave from their home. We know -- we map out their day before they even June 15, 2023 Page 149 know it's coming at them. We start -- we get them the closest job to their house, and the last job is on the way home. And so we -- we actually evaluate that. There's a great deal of technology that goes into this. And you'll have inspectors that will do this. I give great examples. Ritz-Carlton, I can tell you, we stop by the Ritz-Carlton. Michael Wynn, Sunshine Ace Hardware that he just did in Founders Square, we stopped by and started asking, what do you need? Looking at things before he asked for them, we -- now, we may not do this on every single-family home, but that's the type of relationship, I promise you, that Mr. Long and his staff has with it because, again, many of our inspectors were contractors in the field. The reason why the age of our inspectors is much older than the practitioners in the field is because they just don't want to do it anymore. COMMISSIONER HALL: Perfect. I mean, that's the conversation that me and you have had. I just wanted the public to hear -- to hear that as well. Thank you. MR. FRENCH: And feel free -- and I appreciate that, sir. But I will tell you this, Mr. Rich Long, he's always available, until November of 2024. Well, he's told me he's retiring, so I hope he doesn't. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Commissioner McDaniel, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. I have a -- I want to have a discussion about this unfunded 750- for planning in just a little bit more detail. Maybe, Mr. Bosi, you want to jump to a microphone and share with us how important these planning processes, in fact, are. If we can't fund these, we're -- two of those that I know of for a fact are large tracts of land. This board's voted to expend funds to June 15, 2023 Page 150 buy the Hussey piece, $10 million, what, close to three years ago, four years ago, somewhere in there. We did another similar purchase out in Eastern Collier County, Camp Keais, for another 12 million or so, 14 million for the thousand acres there at Camp Keais. And without the zoning on those properties there, it's a deadhead expense to our General Fund. MR. FRENCH: So, Commissioner, if you wouldn't mind, one of the things that I have worked with with the County Manager, if you noticed the environmental testing for soils. That's just one of the phases. And your Deputy County Manager, Mr. Finn, and I, we have, well into the night, conversations, usually almost every night. If he doesn't call me, I think we're breaking up is what I tell him. So I will tell you this, is that in the private sector, what we do, it's called a contract purchase. And until the zoning gets in place, how often have you seen Mr. Yovanovich come in front of you and say, I need to -- if I can't get my zoning, then I walk away from it. And I know that doesn't always happen, especially with opportunity buys, but it is something we should consider as a county for certain that -- or at least set aside those dollars at the time of purchase for this, and we wouldn't be back in front of you. So, again, falling back on the strategic plan, it is strategic planning. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: For the record, when, in fact, an opportunity to purchase comes along and these dollars are requisite, let's make sure that that's a discussion that the Board gets, and that funding is put in place either as part of the acquisition or in a very near budget cycle, not three or four years later when I wake up one day and realize we haven't even started yet. MR. FRENCH: We appreciate that, and behalf of Ms. Cook and Mr. Bosi and I, thank you for that. That's what we will do going June 15, 2023 Page 151 forward, if that's the will of the Board. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Other questions. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, I'd like to hear what they are. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. BOSI: Mike Bosi, Planning and Zoning director. And first let me apologize for the casual dress. I wasn't -- I didn't plan on coming to the budget. Jamie said he had it covered, but then he asked me to come because detailed questions were being asked. So I apologize. Even though I see that there's no ties at the dais, so I don't feel too bad, but, please... COMMISSIONER HALL: You look great, Mike. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I was going to say. MR. BOSI: But back to the -- you know, to the Hussey property near Wilson Boulevard as well as the Camp Keais, those two projects, they're -- they've been acquired. They're property of the county, but there's no entitlement on them. You know, they're zoned agriculture within the Rural Fringe Mixed-Use District but also within the RLSA zoning district. So there's no real useful identification of what those uses can be. What we need to do is retain a consultant to be able to go out, provide the data and analysis to justify a Growth Management Plan that would suggest the uses that the county has contemplated in coordination with individual commissioners and then provide for that GMP amendment to allow for the change to our Future Land-Use Element and our Future Land Use Map, but also, along with that, provide for the establishment of a Planned Unit Development, probably from a community facilities standpoint, that's going to provide for the arranged specificity of how those uses will be arranged, and that just takes outside consultant work. We have a number of staff within -- within my Land June 15, 2023 Page 152 Development Code amendment team, within my Comprehensive Plan amendment team, with my current planning team. But we're really in a reactionary mode to all of the individual private petitions that we have to deal with. So the capacity that we do have is limited. But the need for providing for that entitlement allows for the county and the taxpayers' dollars to be justified for why that property was acquired so a useful -- for a useful land use to be developed on it that's going to provide for a gap within, whether it be for affordable housing, whether it be the relocation of the fairgrounds, whether it be for industrial flex space. A lot of these uses -- or some of the uses we're talking about for Camp Keais, if you have been around any period of time and talked to the NABOR, especially their commercial real estate brokers, what they have understood is this county has a long-term deficit within our industrial zoning space. And one of the ideas that was floated for the Camp Keais property not only was a relocation of potentially the fairgrounds but also some industrial flex space to be able to address some of the future needs that we will have from an industrial standpoint. And we know that's -- industrial is probably some of the hardest zoning districts to have established. And when you predate -- when you -- when you take a proactive state and place it out where there's not a lot of objections to it at the time, then development could go -- can develop around it with the understanding of what it can be and what it will be. So those are two examples of the seven projects that we had listed as unfunded of why we need the additional funding, was either for consultant support or consultants to take the lead on whether it be a GMP amendment or whether it be a zoning action that's needed. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And the post statement on that is, is that ultimately, then, is a return on investment from that expenditure. Right now it's just a deadhead expense to the General June 15, 2023 Page 153 Fund or borrowings, as the case may be, wherever the money came from for those acquisitions. And if we don't zone them, we get to continue to stare at an expense with no opportunity for taxation revenue or housing or industrial or anything along those lines, so thank you for that explanation. MR. FRENCH: And just for clarification, Board members, is that we do have nine ongoing projects that are currently funded. So it's not as though the 17 or 18 that you've given us over the last year and a half, two years, we're not working on. It's just at this point, the money only went so far because -- and we are staffed. The reason why we're not asking for staff is we're staffed to handle our consumer demand. It's just simply when you've got, say, a petitioner that comes forward and asks something for the Board and they agree -- and we're not saying it -- it makes great sense, as I hate to quote Nick, but he used to tell us that you don't build the church for Easter Sunday, and so we don't staff for Easter Sunday as well. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Or commissioners that think stuff up, like a TDR program for Golden Gate Estates or anything like that. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But the reality is, you're not fully staffed. You've got 25 FTEs that are critical positions that you really need, and it's a challenge filling those, getting back to that initial statement, correct? MR. FRENCH: It's a challenge filling those but, sir, it's also a challenge for our contract staff to fill them too. They don't have them either. And they -- you know, an inspector makes -- for outside labor, they make 40, $50 an hour, and the private sector will come along and they'll use them for a private provider, and they're willing to pay 75. We can't compete. And it doesn't make sense to compete because it's an artificial -- it's artificially inflated. And eventually, once we start to see a little market drop-off, then they will June 15, 2023 Page 154 become available. Plus, we've already brought a contract forward, and we've negotiated that. And it's also hard to pay an inspector from a private third-party company that much money, and then we have our own inspectors that are doing more. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. MR. FRENCH: And so it's a balance for us. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: I was going to say, it's really telling, you and I have been working a lot on permits, especially since Hurricane Ian. And it's really telling when 99 percent of the complaints I get from citizens saying, oh, you guys are dragging your feet, and I've been -- and my contractor's been waiting for six months for a permit, and then I reach out to you and your staff, and 99 percent of the time, maybe even higher than that, the reality is the contractor applied for the permit, you quick turned it in 24 hours, but they were missing 14 different items, and then we never heard from them again. And then when I tell that to the citizen and then they go to their contractor, a day later they fire that contractor. And so a lot of times the slowdown -- most of the time, maybe the majority of the time, it's not us. Even with your limited staff, you guys have done an incredible job. And I appreciate citizens that bring it to our attention so we can separate rumor from fact and make sure they know we're not sitting on permit requests for six months. That's ridiculous. But then the vast majority of the time it's a contractor who's lying to their citizen to buy more time or to blame the county. And when they have -- when they haven't even submitted the right paperwork. So I appreciate, you know, how we quickly you've quick turned those complaints from citizens and turned them into, you know, real factual responses that I and we have been able to give back, you know, to citizens, especially post hurricane. So thank you for that. June 15, 2023 Page 155 MR. FRENCH: I do appreciate that, Commissioners, but, again, it is that staff. It is my colleagues. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: No, we know. MR. FRENCH: Yeah, okay. Thanks. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And, you know, having said that, I'd like to, you know, give the same voice of appreciation to Mr. Bosi and Ms. Cook. Those are also two people, to echo probably the same words of Commissioner Hall, always at the other end of the line, always quick response, never kick the can even if it's not in their job jar, you know, and that's why at times I'll reach out to them, because I know they'll find the answer, and especially in the case of both of them, very unpopular jobs at times, whether it's the rock crushing lot or trying to come before us, and you've got a roomful of citizens in red shirts saying please say no to rezoning, but Mr. Bosi has to stand up there and explain how we don't have that luxury to just say no to a property owner who has rights. And so, you know, those are difficult times. And when you -- when we ask you directly, is the staff across the board recommending, you know, this certain direction or our certain vote, it might be unpopular to citizens, but we know that that recommendation is coming with a lot of work, a lot of knowledge, and with, you know, also great care that you have for the county. But at times, you know, citizens don't always get, you know, what they want. And just because they don't want it, you know, that property owner's also a citizen. But you both have really difficult jobs, and, you know, we really appreciate the work that you've done to make us better commissioners. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: All you-all. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: All you-al, yeah. Well, there's a couple. I don't know. Cormac -- no, I'm just kidding. June 15, 2023 Page 156 MR. FRENCH: Thank you again. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Really do appreciate all the work that you do. It's very important to us. MR. FRENCH: Appreciate it so much. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. County Manager, who's up next? MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Public Utilities. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. MR. MILLER: It might be a time for a court reporter break. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Oh, yeah. I had here 2:30. So let's do that. Let's take a break here, and why don't we come back at 3:00. (A brief recess was had from 2:44 p.m. to 2:57 p.m.) MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, you have a live mic. MR. FINN: Mr. Chairman, Public Utilities is up next. Mr. Yilmaz will present. DR. YILMAZ: Thank you, Deputy County Manager. And good afternoon, Commissioners. George Yilmaz, Public Utilities. We are here today to present the Public Utilities budget which is comprised of two enterprise businesses and operations: The Collier County Water/Sewer District that you are hearing us as the governing board of Water/Sewer District, and the Solid and Hazardous Waste Management District, you're hearing us as the Board of County Commissioners. Combined, these operations represent an operating budget of 321 million across 18 enterprise funds with 532 team members who work 24/7/365, night and day, during tropical storms, hurricanes, wet June 15, 2023 Page 157 weather conditions, dry weather conditions, hot weather conditions, to make sure all the essential life-sustaining services available to our customers and residents. As you know, that includes managing municipal solid waste recyclables, includes providing water, sewer, wastewater, and as important but not last, irrigation water quality, as we say in Collier County, during dry season, every other day it rains. That's about 5.6 billion gallons of freshwater, which we take from brackish water, give it to our customers as irrigation at the rate of 82 to 92 percent recycling rate. As this board recognized and acknowledged last board meeting, we did have our reuse award statewide. I want to also mention that our capital program overall for Collier County Water/Sewer District is about close to $40 million, 39.7 million with additional 5.6 million in Solid Waste, excluding reserves. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank the Board and our leadership, County Manager and Deputy County Managers, for continued support, including for sustained operations during trying times. Hurricane Ian and past pandemic. We never stopped working during pandemic, and we continue to work during trying times due to the fact that we provide essential life-sustaining services. During Ian, Hurricane Ian, the only essential service did not go out of service was potable water. Cell service, telephone, power, and, most of the areas, natural gas. And when you think about it, as the governing board and our board representing our team members, when you have trying times, when it's most difficult where individuals, in 72 hours out they lose connections including, some areas, Internet. Having water was inspiring. That's the feedback we got from our customers. We never lost our water. That's how important it is for us to give our public and customers hope that everything is going to be okay. Give June 15, 2023 Page 158 us 72 more hours, we'll -- back to you. We will be back to you. All other services back in operations in five days. That includes other utilities, other services. So I just want to thank you for your support during those times and, more importantly, our team members selflessly put additional hours overtime during those trying times. And, again, on behalf of my team members, I want to thank you, individually and collectively, for adjustments that this board accepted as presented by our County Manager and former County Manager Mark Isackson. With that, I'm going to have Joe Bellone, our fund manager and Utilities Finance director, giving you more in-depth highlights of our budget. And with that, Joe Bellone. MR. BELLONE: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, George. Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the record, Joe Bellone. I am, once again, the director of Utilities Finance after one year -- one-year sabbatical. I'll be presenting the FY '24 budget, as George said, for the Water/Sewer District, and I'll follow that with solid and -- highlights of the solid and Hazardous Waste Management division. We mentioned before they're both enterprise funds, and it's good for the public to know that those are funded by user fees. No governmental funds come to us. We have some great staff. I'm happy to be back working with them again. On the left is Matt McLean. He's our Utilities Engineering director. To my right, another solid partner for me is our Solid Waste director, Kari Hodgson. I thank them for being here today. Our other directors are watching this online to make sure that they're understanding what we're saying. June 15, 2023 Page 159 I'm going to bring you the Water District to begin with. It is revenue centric per your budget policy. Our net operating budget for the Water/Sewer District is $231 million. That's spread across 11 different funds. It supports six divisions with 485 FTEs, and we're not, at this point, requesting any new FTEs. Consulting with the County Manager's Office, we thought it was important for you, as the governing board, to understand that the district has three priorities that are in line with the strategic plan. Within those three priorities, we have two number-one priorities. It sounds strange, but we do. Now, I'll call it Priority No. 1A is to meet the demand while remaining in compliance with all of our regulatory regulations, be they federal, state, or local. While -- we produce 10.4 billion, that's b, billion with a b, gallons of potable drinking water. We deliver those to over 85,000 connection points across the county, and we're treating -- planning to treat 8.25 billion gallons of wastewater at two regional water treatment plants, two large regional wastewater treatment plants, today a subregional plant at Golden Gate, in Golden Gate City. We'll be transitioning to a regional plant as we prepare that expansion. We're still operating the subregional plant on the Orangetree site, and we're getting very excited to begin operations of our interim wastewater treatment plant on the northeast utility site. We move to the second Priority No. 1, I call it 1B, and that's to meet our debt service requirements. That promotes fiscal stewardship which helps us with future borrowing. It's about $25 million this year. And some great news that goes along with that. There was a recent surveillance by Fitch. On May 31st they reaffirmed the triple A rating for the Water/Sewer District bond, so that's great news. Moving to Priority No. 2, that's to provide adequate reserves. June 15, 2023 Page 160 And we have both operating and capital reserves, 29 million and 14 million respectively. Priority No. 3, a little bit different. Priority No. 3 is to maintain a capital rehabilitation and renewal program that's in accordance with the county's strategic objective of asset management to maximize the useful life of the utilities' installed infrastructure. That at the end of -- I just got the actual CAFR for the Water/Sewer District signed off by the auditors. We have $1.7 billion in gross assets installed as of the end of last fiscal year. So this budget that you have in front of you meets both of the No. 1 priorities and Priority No. 2. But I'm going to explain why it falls short of Priority No. 3; that's the capital rehabilitation program. The budget you have before you includes a reduced rehab capital program compared to prior years, and let me just kind of give you an idea. In Fiscal Year '23 and in prior years, very comparable, we had a $55 million contribution to -- new money for capital rehabilitation. In FY '24, that's down to $39.8 million. It's an over-$15 million decrease, 28 percent. Those numbers are important because the installed utility asset base depreciates. As you know, as they age, they depreciate, at least the books. And depreciation as of the CAFR shows for Fiscal '22, $48 million. So if $48 million worth of assets have reached the end of the useful life, we're adding 39 million to the capital program, we're not even, at this point, able to replace the assets that have reached the end of their useful life. So what's the plan to fix that? The first one is the action that you took just the other day on the 13th. Agenda Item 17D, you adjusted user rates using the Florida Public Service Commission's index. That will help with the impact of inflationary pressures on our operating costs. And you've heard it 100 times today, the electricity, chemicals, utility parts, et cetera. June 15, 2023 Page 161 And that's a first step. But when I left a year ago to retire, we initiated a user fee rate study. That has been progressing over the year, and it's nearing completion. This being my ninth day back, I am having another meeting tomorrow. We're trying to finalize that to bring to you so that you have an opportunity to review and discuss any of the further longer-term steps that we have to take in terms of rate adjustments to kind of fix that issue with Priority No. 3, and that's the capital rehabilitation program. So at your discretion, I can answer any questions you might have on our Water/Sewer District budget before I move on to Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Division. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: No. Continue, please. MR. BELLONE: Okay. Thanks. Thanks, Commissioners. The Solid and Hazardous Waste Management division is actually served by two enterprise funds. That's the Solid Waste Disposal Fund and the mandatory Solid Waste Collection Fund. That Solid Waste Collections Fund really is two, MSTBU, MSTUs. There is no external debt. Unlike the water/sewer utility, there is no external debt. Solid waste is still cash and carry. It is -- their budget is revenue centric in '24 and meets all of your guidelines. Solid Waste has 47 FTEs and a net operating budgeting of $64.3 million. Again, fees for services. No governmental -- no General Fund help there. Those are funded through landfill tipping fees, recycling drop-off center fees, the residential curbside collection assessments, and franchise fees from our franchise haulers. The annual assessment that -- with your approval, that customers will see on the annual residential assessment for District 1 will be $249.29. That's $1.54 a month higher than the prior year or, if you do the math, it's about $19; and in District 2, it will also be $249.29. About $1.77 a month. That's $21 annually. And so what do we get? What do we residents get for that? June 15, 2023 Page 162 We get two -- twice-a-week trash collections, one-a-week recycling, yard waste, and bulky items, and we're doing that for 145,600 residential customers next year. I think in the County Manager's introductory letter to you it talked about how did we fund that, and we fund that with an 8 percent rate increase for both residential and commercial tipping fees. They're going to fund essential operations. And just so you realize, those operating -- operating costs in Solid Waste, the bulk of those, over 70 percent of them are contractually tied to CPI, and we all know where that has been over the last year. We're trying to build sufficient reserves to support the debris management mission, which was so important over the last few storms, and to fund planned capital investment activities. We're running four major recycling drop-off and hazardous waste material collection centers. They're open six days a week, and we expect over 98,000 visitors to those facilities. The hazardous waste disposal site, we're going to dispose -- properly dispose environmentally safely of over two million pounds of household hazardous waste materials. And the division, obviously, is responsible for the debris recovery mission, and I'll thank Kari personally right here for the great job. While I was away for a year, I rode my bike around the week following the storm, and piles and piles and piles and piles and piles just on Bayshore. I understand the immensity of that project, and it was quite a feat. Thank you for doing that. Kari's budget is aligned with the county's strategic plan to ensure public health, safety, and the preservation of its natural resources. Using a customer centric, environmentally sound, and cost-effective approach provides best-value services. And with that, I'll conclude my high-level presentation and, of June 15, 2023 Page 163 course, we're here for any questions you have. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Any questions across the board? (No response.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. BELLONE: Do you-all want to know why I came back? COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I was going to say welcome back, but... MR. BELLONE: We'll save that for later. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: It's good to see, though. Welcome back. MR. BELLONE: Thank you. Thank you, Commissioners. I appreciate it. It's your support and your help that has helped me do my job. Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Anything else to add? I don't think we had any questions about your specific budget. DR. YILMAZ: We're all good, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioners. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you very much. MR. BELLONE: Thanks. MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that moves to us Debt Service. MR. FINN: Very good. I will mention that when we bring the Utilities budget to you in July, the rate adjustment that was just approved will be rolled into the figures that you saw today. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So the proposition is for another 8 increase coming? MR. FINN: Yes. What Joe described is there's a rate increase -- I'm sorry. Strike that. A rate study that's been progressing. The rate study's going to do a full evaluation of the capital renewal and replacement needs for the utility and move in a direction that's a little bit better than described by Joe. June 15, 2023 Page 164 COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. MS. PATTERSON: The other rate increase that they were referencing was relative specifically to Solid Waste. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. MR. FINN: Very good. Thank you. I'll just cover Debt Service very briefly. We touched on it a little bit earlier in the overview. We're -- the county is in a very solid position relative to debt. In 2008, our debit portfolio was $788 million. It will be 649- by the end of this fiscal year, a reduction of 139 million. The '24 all-in debt service is $66.8 million. Forty-one million of that is on the general governmental side; 25 million is on the Utilities enterprise side. As was mentioned before, we're well within our 13 percent policy cap. That's a self-imposed policy cap. And we're well positioned to deal with the challenges coming in the future, including transportation network, stormwater capital needs, the expansion of the utility in the northeast service area, and future government facilities and/or real estate acquisitions we might find ourselves in a position to do. I will say that right now we're working on a commercial paper draw in order to be able to award the important headworks project at the north regional wastewater plant. The Board's going to see that very shortly. That will allow us to award -- with the Board's authorization, award the contract for that job, which is very important. Ultimately, the northeast service area is going to include two additional plants. The AUIR that the Board most recently approved has the bonding for those plants scheduled in the FY '25 range. Exactly what that schedule is going to be isn't precisely determined right now. But if you're interested in a little look-ahead, that's one of June 15, 2023 Page 165 the things we'll be looking ahead to. The other major thing -- and when we do that financing, in all probability, this commercial -- commercial draw that I referenced earlier relative to the headworks project, we would roll that into the permanent financing rather than the commercial paper. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Roll that in. MR. FINN: Similarly, the transportation program typically has a substantial funding deficit in the five-year and the 10-year window, and ours does. We, however, have extended fully the local option gas taxes which gives us some bonding capacity. Whatever commercial paper -- I think we took out $30 million to award the Vanderbilt Beach Road. Eventually, we will be providing some bonding activity on the transportation program using the local option gas tax as a pledge, and, similarly, we would then be refinancing that commercial paper draw as -- into a more permanent -- permanent financing source. So with that, that would conclude my discussion on the debt service. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Any questions? Commissioner Saunders. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I think you may have just answered my question. When we did the one-cent sales tax increase, part of the rationale was to avoid some bonding because of the increased costs of a project due to bonding. And so my question was -- is, what are you expecting in terms of increased bonding efforts going forward? You just mentioned you will be bonding -- or getting some commercial paper, I think you said, for the sales tax, if I understood you correctly. MR. FINN: So the -- most recently when we awarded Vanderbilt Beach Road, we used some commercial paper to do a little bit of gap financing relative to the contract award. And most June 15, 2023 Page 166 recently we'll be coming forward with a commercial paper line in order to award the contract for the north regional headworks project. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So on Vanderbilt Beach Road, then, we have enough revenue that can be bonded to complete that project, because -- MR. FINN: Yes. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- the sales tax was, what, about 70 or 80 million? MR. FINN: Yes, you're correct. I think it was 74-. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And the whole project's 120-plus -- MR. FINN: Hundred and fifty. MS. PATTERSON: Hundred and fifty. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Hundred and fifty. So how is that going to be funded? MR. FINN: That will ultimately be funded by dedicated sources for roads. The gas taxes come to mind as the long-term -- the long-term pledge there. MS. PATTERSON: Impact fees also. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Impact fees, okay. What about any other major projects like that that are going to -- that will require bonding? MR. FINN: When we look at the entire transportation planning horizon, in the five years it looks like about a 200 -- $200 million delta. So for us it's going to be a lot about timing. The projects are going to proceed. It's just a matter of when the market is going to be right for us to do the bonding we need. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Anything else? (No response.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Let's press. June 15, 2023 Page 167 MS. PATTERSON: All right. Moving on to the management offices, including Pelican Bay. MR. RODRIGUEZ: Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the record, Dan Rodriguez, your Deputy County Manager. Thank you, again, for the opportunity for us to bring our professional division leaders here to present. I actually just have a very brief discussion on highlights of some of those most critical divisions that, going forward and in the past, have had concerns or that we've needed to plan for the future. First of all, the County Manager's agency, under Amy Patterson, is responsible, as you are very familiar with and know, for implementing your strategic plan and ensuring that the tactical action plans of the divisions meet up to that strategic plan. You heard that this morning in Mr. Finn's presentation, how they're connected. Each program, each project has a nexus to that strategic plan. It's important so that county staff, through our County Manager, understands the Board of County Commissioners' responsibilities to this community. In addition to the strategic planning, the County Manager's agency is responsible for establishing the level of service. We're all familiar with Collier County hearing the accolades that the community, not just here in the county, the City of Naples, Marco, is voted one of the best places to live, work, and play. It's because of the hardworking individuals on the front lines, those divisions that have those plans in place that you require. As we continue to manage those plans, we want to make sure that we're good neighbors, good partners with those municipalities. Whether it's the City of Naples, Marco Island, whether it's the HOAs, or whether it's the developers, we have a responsibility to make sure their ideas, their concerns get up to the division director's levels, our level as well, and that we follow your expectation. June 15, 2023 Page 168 In addition to that, one of our primary responsibilities is to make sure we're in compliance, whether it's in Growth Management, Transportation, as you just heard from Public Utilities, or admin services in employment as well under our employee -- with human resources. Compliance, safety is nonnegotiable here in Collier County. And thanks to our leadership from Amy Patterson, Ed Finn, and many other team members who have come up through the ranks, that's been engrained in us for years. In addition to that, we have several divisions and sections within the County Manager's Office. Just to go through a couple of those, you have the Office of Management and Budget, the Communications and Government Affairs -- and Public Affairs. As you're all familiar, John Mullins, it's his team, they do an amazing job answering 311. Thousands of calls come to Collier County Government. Many times, that's the first interaction that our citizens of Collier County have an opportunity to get help or get information, and thanks to those individuals on those phones, answering those calls directing them to the right directors, we're able to do that. There's also Pelican Bay Services, Corporate Business Operations. Corporate compliance and continuous improvement. As you know, continuous improvement is critical to a business success. Amy Patterson has set the stage. In fact, this -- the County Manager's agency has seen probably the most change of any department in county government. We have seen leaders come and go, but we've recently hired some really strong leaders. We've restructured the organization to move some of those divisions that, for lack of better words, were sacred cows where we didn't want to touch and, you know, this is mine. She's pulled down those silos and moved some of those divisions back to where they belong where they're most effective and where they can get the most feedback, not June 15, 2023 Page 169 only from the residents, but from the professional business organizations in the community. In addition, the Office of Management and Grants is under the County Manager's Office. As you know, hundreds of millions of dollars comes to Collier County. It's returning those taxpayer funds back to this local community, whether it's FEMA, whether it's social services. This division is responsible for that as well. In addition, we have the Tourist Development Council, and you're going to hear just a bit from Paul Beirnes, some of his highlights. Bayshore Community Redevelopment Agency and the Immokalee Community Redevelopment agencies. And thank you, Commissioner McDaniel, for recognizing our newest hire, Mr. Greg Orick. He would be here, but his son is graduating on this day in Tallahassee as a fish and game officer, and he's very proud of that, as we all are, and it's exciting times. He actually asked if he should stay. But as I reminded him, here in Collier County Government, families do come first, so... COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Amen. MR. RODRIGUEZ: In addition, through the internal divisions that support all of the other divisions, that includes Fleet Management, your Human Resources Division, Information Technology, Risk Management, and, of course, the Bureau of Emergency Management with Dan Summers as well as one of the most important in our community is our Emergency Medical Services, our EMS. With that, I'm going to kick it off with just talking, just briefly, about EMS, and, then I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Dorrill to give his highlights of his budget and mention one other division, and then I'll let Ed and Mr. Kovensky continue on. First of all, Emergency Medical Services, EMS, Tabatha June 15, 2023 Page 170 Butcher and her team do an amazing job. This has been a very challenging year for her due to staffing. Many different agencies, including fire departments, pull from our EMS EMTs, paramedics, not only because of their certifications, but they're highly skilled, and they're well trained, and they are well experienced. This year there's a 16.5 percent increase in her budget, and it's for those 24 positions that you gave a year ago so that we can ensure that the level of service we provide is maintained at a high level. The response time for EMS, the standard is eight minutes. There are pockets within Collier County that are slightly higher, and these positions are helping to address that. Of those vacancies, 24 vacancies, 10 of those have been filled. The other 14 are being utilized for paramedics. And Tabatha's in the process now of hiring into our job bank about 35 EMTs so that they can be trained and move through ranks. In addition to that, we've changed our policy, how we hire, and in offering bonuses for those with specialized certificates/certifications, like paramedics, so that maybe we could pull back some of those paramedics that we lost early on. Currently, there are no expanded services for EMS. They manage -- EMS gets about 48,000 calls a year. Of that, 33,000 transports. That's incredible. In looking at the operation with direction from your County Manager as well, there were some deficiencies and efficiencies that we needed to work on. One of those included ensuring that the ambulances are not being stacked at some of the hospitals and waiting and things like that. And thanks to our partners at the hospitals, they've added additional staff to help pull those. That's increased the response time, the availability of that equipment. Some of the challenges coming to EMS, the ambulances to purchase those, many are on backorder, but we continue to find other June 15, 2023 Page 171 opportunities to locate those ambulances. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Neil Dorrill, your administrator for Pelican Bay Services. MR. DORRILL: Good afternoon, Commissioners. I understand that this mic may not be working. I was handed this one. I'll proceed with that. For the benefit of our two newest commissioners, the Pelican Bay Services District is one of the largest special-purpose government districts in the state with over 7,000 units. We're unique in that we levy both a flat rate non-ad valorem assessment and also a millage levy on ad valorem taxes in addition to a general revenue subsidy that you provide from your Unincorporated General Fund 111 in support of Clam Bay and our environmental responsibilities there and the fact that you are the largest landowner in Pelican Bay for all those conservation lands both beachfront and within the mangrove estuary. It's the Board of County Commissioners who are the single largest landowner in that community. There's really nothing unusual about your budget for Pelican Bay next year. There are no expanded service requests. The non-ad valorem assessment total is $935 per equivalent residential unit basis. I will tell you, they feel they get an enormous amount of value for $935 per individual home there. We are the principal public works and environmental service provider to the community. The overall non-ad valorem assessment next year is increasing by 6.4 percent, in particular, in recognition of the market-rate adjustment in two phases that you had made for your workforce. And even though we're almost -- we're getting close to a year removed from that, I want to thank you for that if for no other reason than I can tell you that talent development has really settled in to where I'm very satisfied with the team that we have there, especially on the administrative side. June 15, 2023 Page 172 We're fully positioned within our administrative compliment of employees there. A lot of talent there. And so talent development has certainly benefited as a result of the market-rate adjustment that you have funded. That's the principal reason for the increase in our operating budget. In addition, a couple of major capital improvements are underway. In part, we have some commercial paper line of credit type products that are available to us. We're replacing all of the asphalt pathways with new ADA-compliant concrete sidewalks in the community. About a $7 million project to replace the sidewalks in Pelican Bay. We have a contribution in aid of construction from you to offset a part of that and maybe using some debt before that's all over. Our operations facility was essentially destroyed during Hurricane Ian. We went through one bid phase and found it necessary to terminate an out-of-town contractor for convenience as a result of unresponsiveness and unanticipated requests for cost increases. Our new bid opening is in about 10 days, and so we're excited about opening bids for a replacement facility there. We continue to be responsible to raise the funds within the community from property taxes or assessments to pay their proportionate share of future beach renourishment. We continue to be responsible for Clam Pass and the Natural Resource Protection Area that is there and responsible for maintaining what is, perhaps, the smallest and most unique natural inlet on the entire West Coast of Florida. So committed staff, very active and involved high horsepower advisory board there. I'd like to personally thank the County Manager, as part of her reorganizational structure, for keeping Pelican Bay within the executive office aspect of her agency and organization. I can tell you the residents appreciate it just because of the prestige associated June 15, 2023 Page 173 with that. Thank you for the opportunity. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioner Hall. COMMISSIONER HALL: I do want to say thank you, Neil, for a great staff. I mean, that's my district, it's right across the street from me, and I get comments all the time about what an amazing place that Pelican Bay is. And to that, you know, the speed of the group is determined by the speed of the leader. And I want to say another thank you to Chad Coleman. He does a great job of leading his team. There's a lot of moving parts out there. There's 12 acres, y'all, in the very middle of Pelican Bay, if you don't even know about that. That's a lot of -- I mean, that's -- boom, right in the very middle, and from that, they operate and take care of everything. So I just want to say kudos, job well done, and it is a great place to live, and I'm proud to have it in District 2. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Absolutely. I think Chad's a current Marine too, isn't he? He served in the Marines. He's still got the haircut. MR. DORRILL: Four combat tours, two in Afghanistan, two in Iraq. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah, and one in Pelican Bay right now. So it's five. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I remember when you hired him. You still liking him? MR. DORRILL: I do, yeah. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. I'll give Chad a shout-out too. Even though Pelican Bay's not in my district, you know, I always like to learn a lot more about just the whole county, and the half a day I spent driving around. And you have such June 15, 2023 Page 174 knowledgeable people, and he's right there at the top. I met so many other people. It's aways impressive when you're riding around in a golf cart, and one of your top leaders is calling out to the maintenance person by their first name, and then you continue to drive. And, you know, he fills in the gaps and knows his family. And he hasn't worked for us for 30 years, Chad, so that's impressive. MR. DORRILL: As an aside, I can tell you -- I presume Chad -- he's still there, but just because his -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Well, he sent us all those notes to say, so I just -- Chad, did we say it like you wanted? MR. DORRILL: We have one employee there who's a groundskeeper who's 80 years old. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah, yeah. I met him, yeah. MR. DORRILL: I believe the gentleman is Haitian, and I'm here to tell you he can outwork them all. And he's tried to retire twice, hated it, and -- he's 80 years old, correct? MR. COLEMAN: Yes. He's 80, but we've also got some 73s and 74s that will run circles around the 20-year-olds. That's for sure. They don't make them like that anymore. That's why we can't get rid of them. MR. DORRILL: Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you. Okay. Who's up next? MR. KOVENSKY: Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the record, Ken Kovensky, executive director of corporate business operations. The corporate business operations group was restructured earlier this year to include four internal service divisions: Human Resources, Information Technology, Procurement Services, and Risk Management. June 15, 2023 Page 175 I would like to thank the County Manager for the confidence that she has placed in me to lead these very important divisions. As an internal service organization, our customers are our county employees, and it is critical that we provide exceptional customer service, clear direction, and institute policies and programs that help the departments work smarter and more efficiently. The four divisions have 107 employees and a total budget of over $138 million. Here are some highlights for each of the four divisions. Led by Division Director Amy Lyberg, the Human Resources Division has undertaken several activities to align with the county's strategic plan, specifically related to the Board's priority that human resources recruitment and retention will position the -- position Collier County to be an employer of choice. Some of these recruitment activities include participating in job and school career fairs to promote job opportunities and careers, implementing an engineering internship program. That began in April 2023. That encourages college and university juniors and seniors to work in their field for nine to 24 months before graduation. To date, we have successfully hired one student and have several more in the works. A presentation was recently given at Grace Place to educate students about county government and how they can find careers in their own backyard, and we continue to work with the NAACP of Collier County and Collier County Public Schools to host a six-week summer high school internship program. We are also expanding our advising efforts, including creating and publishing custom links on the public library and parks and recreation website to drive job seekers to view and apply for open positions. Leveraging software to create engaging LinkedIn postings and graphics for the Collier County careers page, and we are working to June 15, 2023 Page 176 find a vendor to order tabletop and full-size retractable banners with dynamic QR codes that can link directly to the county's jobsite. Finally, we are reassessing the minimum requirements needed for job classifications using years of relevant experience as a substitute for educational requirements. This will hopefully remove barriers for applicants both internal and external who are qualified to perform the job based on their on-the-job experience but lack the required educational credentials. Some retention activities HR is pursuing include increasing the 457 deferred compensation matching program for employees from $500 to $750 per year effective January 1st, 2023, expanding career progression programs and certification initiatives throughout the county. As an example, one certification program that was recently approved provides a 5 percent pay increase to employees in Project Manager 1 and 2 classifications who attain their project management professional designation. We are also redesigning the performance evaluation system for ease of use and to provide timely feedback to employees, and we are working to implement a merit-based incentive program that has been discussed, which is a first time since 2007. Finally, HR will be reviewing an update in the CMAs, which is a County Manager strategic plan priority. These CMAs are designed to ensure consistent application of policies, provide adequate records, and ensure compliance with applicable laws, ordinances, and regulations. The HR division's budget is in compliance with board policy. Led by division director Mark Gillis, the Information Technology division provides efficient, reliable, and secure customer-oriented information technology services, which include the agency's data network, telephone system, software applications, and data. June 15, 2023 Page 177 There are two County Manager priorities in the strategic plan for the IT division. Cybersecurity initiates and an IT master plan. Cyber security initiatives include expanding the backup capacity to allow for more than six months of immutable backups online to help combat cybersecurity and ransomware attacks, adding and upgrading layers of cybersecurity to the existing security infrastructure, implementing a security operations centerpiece to the cybersecurity apparatus along with extended monitoring that will add to the existing layers already provided, and working towards a zero trust networking environment. The IT master plan includes adding fiber to strategic locations to avoid single points of failure and replacing outdated fiber that has been around for up to 20 years, upgrading and replacing equipment on a scheduled rotation, applying software patches, installing self-help software, installing next-generation firewalls, strategically adding equipments like servers and disk space, moving to cloud applications where it is deemed a good fit, upgrading and refreshing older technology to faster and smarter equipment, providing enhanced project support for the departments through collaboration software, and providing longer support hours. The overall IT budget is programmed to decrease at FY '24 due to cybersecurity equipment that has already been purchased and is now being implemented. These lower expenditures are passed on to the internal county divisions, which lowers their costs. The Procurement Services division led by Director Sandra Herrera ensures proper safeguards are in place to maintain a procurement system of quality and integrity that protects taxpayer money by promoting fiscal stewardship and sound budget oversight. Current initiatives that are supporting their mission include updating the procurement manual and purchasing card manual to incorporate legislative changes and align with process improvements; June 15, 2023 Page 178 replacing the bidding system with a cloud-based bidding platform resulting in improved project management communication, transparency, vendor community assistance, and increase competition; implementing a vendor outreach program to encourage vendor engagement, and educate the vendor community on bidding procedures and to promote future bidding opportunities; improving strategic sourcing involving contract oversight and agency procurement support, and implementing software that streamlines internal project collaboration, automates solicitation requests and project work flows, and combines stakeholder communications. Future initiatives include evaluating financial institutions, providing purchasing card services that offer alternative solutions, best practices, establish internal controls and opportunities to increase revenue generated for the General Fund, such as a corporate travel card program and increasing options for live public auctions as part of the surplus program to increase revenue generated for the General Fund. The Procurements Services division's budget is in compliance with Board policy. The Risk Management division, led by director Michael Quigley, strives to continuously develop, manage, and improve the county's risk finance, group insurance, safety, and occupational health programs in order to provide quality cost-effective support to our customers, to protect the county's financial interests against catastrophic loss, and to serve as a resource for the health, safety, and well-being of Collier County employees. There are two items of note regarding the FY '24 budget for this division. First, operating expenses are budgeted to increase significantly in the Property and Casualty Insurance Fund due to an unprecedented increase in reinsurance premiums as a result of Hurricane Ian. Mr. Finn reported on this earlier, this affecting the June 15, 2023 Page 179 Fund 516. Second, as indicated in Board policy and addressed in the County Manager introduction to your budget, the recommended budget for this division includes a 5 percent increase to health insurance premiums. This increase was recommended by the county's actuarial firm and is the first step in what may be a multi-year effort to stabilize reserves. The biweekly employee cost increase will be approximately $3 to $8 for single coverage, and $6 to $14 for family coverage. Finally, this budget includes a request for an expanded position to replace an operations support specialist that was resigned to run the gym located on the main government campus. The duties of this reassigned position are currently being performed by primary and full-time staff. Commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to present these highlights. I'm available for questions, and my directors are on standby as well. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I don't see anybody lit up here. Who's next to present? MR. FINN: Terrific. I think I'm next. Edward Finn, Deputy County Manager. Thank you. As always, thank you for your attention today. This has been a little more spirited budget discussion than I've had the benefit to witness over the last 20 years. It certainly is good, though. Appreciate it. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about Facilities Management, and before I start, I just want acknowledge the efforts of Interim Director John McCormick -- I am so sorry -- deputy director James Williams. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Ms. Lyberg, drug test immediately. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Talk about spirited. June 15, 2023 Page 180 MR. FINN: It's good that I don't have anything to remember today. It makes -- I have an excuse -- real property director, Jennifer Belpedio, and Brian DeLony, one of our newer principal project managers. I just want to thank them for their efforts on the budget. Facilities Management division '24 budget is prepared in alignment with the Board's -- the Board's policies, and it is in compliance with the Board's 4.25 percent. Facilities Management also has the responsibility for several strategic plan Board and County Manager priorities. The division's proposed operating budget of approximately 21 million is consistent with the commission's budget policy and directions. The division, of course, provides secure, clean, and comfortable facilities for citizens and visitors. All buildings, offices, grounds, and property acquisitions are managed and maintained to appropriate standards through preventative and predictive maintenance. Staffing totals 97, supplemented by contract employees. The budget for the maintenance side of Facilities Management is approximately $16.5 million. Regular maintenance functions include electrical, plumbing, HVAC, structural repairs physical energy plants, fire systems, pest control, landscaping. The county has 956 total structures with an estimated value at 945 million in vertical assets only. The division maintains a total of almost five million square feet of building space, while completing approximately 26- to 30,000 work orders a year on those facilities. The division also provides government security. Government security is provided through a contract arrangement with Allied Security. That has been -- has been a good partnership with them. During Hurricane Ian, they were tasked with some hurricane-related tasks that they had never performed before. It wasn't without a few bumps, but they certainly achieved -- met our expectations and June 15, 2023 Page 181 exceeded them in many regards. Additionally, the Real Property group is embedded within Facilities Management. The Real Property group has seven staff members handling property acquisitions, both strategic, utility-related, Conservation-Collier-related are some of the ones that come immediately to mind. They also are responsible for general property management and leasing, Lake Trafford Cemetery management, and management of the GAC -- GAC Land Trust. Facilities management, through its Capital Project team, also provides for the capital maintenance, construction, and renovation for the county's facilities and structures, including three government service centers: The Collier Sheriff's Office facilities, which are quite -- quite extensive, including the jail and jail complex; two courthouses, including the Immokalee -- what we're now calling the Immokalee Government Center, and there is funding budgeted for that, Commissioner, I will tell you; EMS stations; parks facilities; museums; libraries; and general construction and development requirements for the Board of County Commissioners, the judiciary, and other constitutional officers. The Capital Project team, with a team of 25, is responsible for approximately 170 projects, including a number of surtax projects with budgets probably in the order of magnitude of 220- to $300 million all in. Specifically, I'll say that hurricane recovery was certainly a burden on -- a necessary burden on the entire staff. Facilities Management, during the October to January period, responding to the hurricane took up about 50 percent of the overall Project Delivery team's efforts, and subsequent to that, dealing with the permanent repairs since January, about 25 percent of the team is tasked and continues to be tasked against hurricane projects. So what I'm describing to you is a situation where we have a June 15, 2023 Page 182 pretty full workload on our Project Delivery team, and Hurricane Ian, as we would expect, added considerable burden to that. Thinking about it, I know there are a lot of -- a lot of projects -- repair projects that certainly we would all like to have completed a little bit quicker. Commissioner Kowal correctly pointed out the depot building, the museum depot building, and truly it would have been desirable to have that done for the season. They stabilized that building; they dealt with the emergency things. Unfortunately, that building required some engineering before we could get the permitting to do that. That permitting -- I'm sorry. The engineering is ready to go out -- go out for bid or be awarded in the very near future. So the staff is proceeding through that but, as I said, it doesn't -- doesn't meet any of our desires to have things done quickly, and we all wish it could be done faster. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: But we couldn't even do a mere drywall replacement or -- I mean, that's what the -- MR. FINN: My sense of it is there was some engineering that had to be performed to ensure the building was safe before they could proceed. That's my sense of it. The other thing is, the exhibits, of course, were damaged as part of that too, so the exhibits simply had -- they have to be replaced as well to make it a useful and meaningful thing. A lot of priorities following the hurricane. I think with Commissioner Kowal's kind of mentioning it to me, I'm going to put my thumb on it a little bit and ensure that if something partially can be done a little quicker, we get that done for you. I'm going to mention quickly some of the strategic -- strategic projects managed. The mental health central receiving facility, of course, that touches on quality of place, responsible governance, infrastructure, and asset management. June 15, 2023 Page 183 The Sheriff's forensic building, again, quality of place, responsible governance, infrastructure, and asset. Master space planning. One of the overall priorities established in the strategic plan is to kind of shore up our planning house in all our areas. That is, in fact, one of the budgeted items for Facilities Management is to proceed with an update -- a full update of the government facilities strategic plan. That plan may as well strike on Camp Keais and the Hussey property as part of it. So we also have some other planning money for Camp Keais in addition to what Mr. Bosi discussed with the Board a little bit earlier. So there's several of those initiatives that we do have in our capital budget that are more forward-leaning than backward, but the vast bulk of the capital budget is, in fact, renewal -- renewal and replacement funding. With that, I'll be happy to answer any questions I can, and anything I can't I will assuredly get back to you in a timely manner. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Well, I know another thing I want you to ensure you keep on your short list, and I know this includes other agencies. But three words: Fire station replacement, okay. So I'm going to be bugging you about that for a while. And like I said, I know it's not just in your job jar, but, you know, Ms. Patterson and I have talked about it, and I'm pleased with the progress we're at least making putting it on the radar. Long overdue, especially Station 21. You know, a separate issue, but make sure you pencil that in there with your -- with your other list of projects as well. MR. FINN: Yes, sir. Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: You know the names of all the fire leadership, right? I'm just kidding. MR. FINN: Yes, sir. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Who's next? MR. FINN: In my task -- overtasked memory, yes, I think so. June 15, 2023 Page 184 Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you, Mr. Finn. MR. FINN: Thank you, sir. MR. RODRIGUEZ: Again, Commissioners, Dan Rodriguez, your Deputy County Manager. We're going to talk about Fleet Management for a minute to give you some context on one of the operations that, in addition to many divisions, is working very well. As you know, we've hired a new fleet director, Mr. John King. Raise your hand there, Mr. King. Mr. John King hails from Columbus, Ohio, where he served in a national award-winning fleet operation, and in his short time with us, he has made many changes and improvements to not only improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the operations, but also promoting within his ranks and hiring very professional mechanics. And I will tell you, Commissioners, Fleet Management is a very tough operation, having been there myself and watching some of the mechanics. In this hot heat and humidity, they're out there day in, day out, raising those hoods, lifting those vehicles, and making those necessary repairs so that those tools and resources for our divisions can maintain and run, and they do that nonstop. Their budget, he is well into compliance. That a $16,272,000 budget with a 3.9 percent increase. The current county fleet includes 3,800 vehicles, and of those, 1,028 road vehicles, as well as 42 ambulances, 64 buses, 69 heavy trucks, and 122 off-road pieces of heavy equipment. And then some -- an estimated 2,000 of similar smaller equipments like trailers, mowers, and small equipment and whatnot. And several of you commissioners have experienced running Fleet Operations yourself and know the challenges with managing heavy equipment. But he and his staff day in, day out continue to do June 15, 2023 Page 185 a great job. Fleet is averaging an availability rate nearly 90 percent. That's substantial. That's up over 5 percent in the last two months. Kudos to Mr. King and his staff for the great work. In addition to that, we hear many times -- and somehow it's Fleet Management that gets picked on first. Well, we need to outsource government. Well, let me tell you, Fleet Management is a fine-oiled machine, and here's a good example. Being an internal service fund, those costs come back to all those divisions, and the question was asked, well, where's all that money go? Well, when the price of fuel goes up, the price of parts for vehicles goes up. Those are all passed through those divisions, and they have to find them funding within their division to pay for those in the context of a 4.2 or 3 percent increase. Parts alone this year have gone up 35 percent, if you can find parts for specialty vehicles. Back to the labor for Fleet Management, as an internal service agency, their hourly rate is $102 an hour, their fully burdened labor rate, which is considerably lower than the local service provider. We're familiar with Tamiami Ford, their labor rate's maybe $184; Kenworth, which does heavy equipment, $210; and Southport Truck, $195. As for their Capital Recovery Fund, again, many of you have been involved. Some of you have been here a while. That fund has saved the county hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. And that Recovery Fund allows the county to replace the vehicles at the perfect timing so that, one, we get the maximum use of that vehicle, we let it go before it starts the major breakdowns, but also to get the value at auction. And, in fact, I was on the East Coast the other day and met an individual whose job was to buy vehicles, and he said, Collier County June 15, 2023 Page 186 has some of the best auctions. He said, the prices are high, but the vehicles are best maintained. So with that, the Capital Recovery is looking at replacing 85 vehicles and pieces of equipment, and 7 -- at $7.8 million. I will tell you, your Fleet Management team is small, but they have a big job, none of which is possible without your support, the Board here. This spring, you approved an additional mechanic for Fleet Management, which he'll use that individual to help increase that availability rate for all team members. I will tell you, Mr. King and his professional staff's personal goal is to keep all our essential equipment up and running every day. Next, if I may -- any questions on Fleet, Commissioners? CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: (Shakes head.) MR. RODRIGUEZ: Mr. Paul Beirnes is here, if he could give us just some quick highlights on his TDC. MR. BEIRNES: Good afternoon. For the record, Paul Beirnes, division director for Tourism. I'm here to provide a brief overview of tourism. I certainly don't have to tell any one of you what happened at the start of this year, but I'll tell you the significant impact of that and of the hurricane on tourism was pretty significant. That said, it could have been a heck of a lot worse for the destination than it really was. We're about to welcome back online the Ritz-Carlton Naples reopening on July the 6th, which simply leaves the La Playa working towards a reopening a little later on this year. Taking a look at visitation. Fiscal year to date, which runs -- we're calculating from early October through till the end of April, totaled about 1.4 million visitors, which is about 9.9 percent lower than last year at the same time. Visitation declines were felt across the region, not only immediately following the hurricane, but June 15, 2023 Page 187 fractionally every month during the -- even during the season. We saw a little weakening as well around March briefly. On the other hand, room nights consumed have actually increased by 1 percent, from 1.84 million rooms in Fiscal '22 to 1.854 million in '23 during the same period. That's due to longer length of stays by everybody during that period. Now, the total economic impacts for the fiscal year to date through April is $2.57 billion, yet that is also a decline of about 15.5 percent primarily because those visitors that consumed a large portion of the rooms from October through December were contractors who did not have the same economic impacts that the community recognizes with tourists that are in market and the activities we track. Now, looking at tourist development tax collections, there were certainly immediate business interruptions to many hotels following the hurricane. Fortunately, 90 percent of all the destination rooms were back open in November. Certainly, the sideline of the Ritz-Carlton and the La Playa certainly was felt very deep since the properties are very upscale and higher average daily rate. It was our advantage, though, that the average daily rate remained high and, as a result, fiscal year to date through April, the TDT collections amount $33.7 million in collections compared to $37.3 million the same period last year. That is a 9.6 percent decline, which I will remind you was against a very, very record season -- or record year of 2022. Strategically, we focused our marketing efforts this year by pushing visitation into the spring and the summer. This -- and that, along with a reopening of the Ritz-Carlton on July 6th should really assist in the claw-backing of tourist development tax for the remainder of the year. In fact, our forecasted year-end TDT is $40.8 million, which is a June 15, 2023 Page 188 staggering 24.3 percent over what was budgeted when we started this particular year; however, when you look back, though, we will likely fall behind last year's incredibly large record-setting collections by about $8 million compared to last year. Just a reminder, though, how much we have grown. Our tourist development tax in 2019 was only $30 million. So for the fact that we were just shy of 50 million last year was absolutely staggering coming out of the -- out of the pandemic. Just as a reminder, all this tourist development tax collections is governed by our state statute. It is then divvied out. I'm actually so proud to be sitting here today and hearing the dialogue and how the tourist development tax has helped and continues to help the destination, whether it's beach park facilities, non-county-owned museums, beach renourishment in Coastal Zoning, county museums, TDC capital going to the development, the building of the sports complex and, of course, the support in funding of tourist global promotions. So budget, we entered into the budget very aggressively following the budget guidance set forth. In fact, exercising only a 3.6 percent increase year over year for Fund 184, which is our promotional expenditures. Now, we believe that Fiscal '24, we're going to witness an absolute fierce competition among travel industry for market share. As a result, we had to make some pretty aggressive changes. At the same time we like -- same time, like all costs, marketing costs on all fronts have significantly increased. As a result, we have made some aggressive cuts in the marketing budgets. Certainly, some of the locations we felt were underperforming, so we did a deep dive. For instance, we suspended our marketing presence and trade representation in Latin America. We reduced our expenditure June 15, 2023 Page 189 significantly for RFP enhancements to incent conventions to the regions, and a great number of adjustments that help support the three legs of tourism. One is, of course, leisure -- or leisure domestic, groups, meetings, sports tourism, and then, finally, international. Just as a point out when you take a look at the numbers, some of the numbers on the line of the separating expense look significantly large. I will tell you, because the tax collections are divvied and split amongst the divisions, we actually have, by design, for the last couple of years, have had very, very significant input, if you will, or revenues coming from tourist development tax, but our expenditures we kept very, very close to 2019, 2020/21 with small increases. For instance, last year, 2023, there was $8.8 million within the budget that was assigned to an un -- unassigned line item. That actually increased to $12.2 million. That means that we are not actually expending that. And if there are opportunities through the year that fits within the tourist development -- or sorry -- within state statute, those remain or move into -- into reserves themselves. So we're pretty proud to be able to help continue to contribute to that. And then, finally, taking a look at the sports complex, as you know, just recently the sport complex folded under the CVB. This completely made sense since the intent of the complex itself was to drive sports tourism to the destination. Even prior to the formal alignment, over the last year the CVB and the vendor at the complex, we have worked very, very heavily on integrating our efforts, and particularly on ensuring that tournaments and events taking into consideration during the destination compression, while targeting key events and tournaments, are able to absorb the elevated average daily rate. So, for instance, some of you have attended the likes of our lacrosse tournaments, which included University of Michigan, Marquette, Ohio State, and others. These were opportunities to June 15, 2023 Page 190 really bring in some great elevated tournaments and drive visitation through to the alums. During second quarter, the complex exceeded foot traffic to the complex by 21.3 percent compared to prior year. And year-to-date revenue has increased 166 percent from the $464,000 last year to $1.23 million this year, an improvement of over 770,000. Fiscal year to date, the net income has improved its position by over $113,000, and so as a result, you know, definitely going in the right trajectory, and we are proud to be part of the greater solution. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. I've got a few questions, but, anybody? (No response.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Just a couple of quick ones. So the money you saved by cutting the Latin America marketing and a few of the other things, did you roll that into other programs, or did you give it back to the county? MR. BEIRNES: We actually had to reconfigure. We knew that there was going to be increased costs for even media across the globe. What we did is we took a look at where the real fish were biting, the greatest opportunity for return, realized that the ROI that we were able to get from Latin America due to lack of direct flights into RSW and many other -- plus elevated competition from other destinations, didn't make sense. So rather than continuing that, we -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: So zero gain but higher speed in other areas? MR. BEIRNES: Correct. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. When it comes to the sports complex, the last time the leadership team was here, they gave a great presentation, and we want to continue to see success there. Just as a reminder, what we said to that team as they exited here was, don't be a stranger in this room, and also don't just come to the June 15, 2023 Page 191 podium and tell us what's coming up in the next 30 days. We want to hear more of a strategic plan. What are they chasing in the next, you know, six months, eight months, you know, what type of thing. So, you know, in your discussions with them, you know, remind them that this podium is always open to them, and we want to help tell the story of the improvements. And added to that, we also had mentioned that as the Great Wolf Lodge is making great progress in their construction, that we really partner with those folks and make sure that the ribbon cutting of the Great Wolf Lodge is as big of an advantage for us as we know the sports complex is going to be for them and that we can have a symbiotic relationship and -- you know, and we're working together to have that project next to the sports complex actually do more than just, you know, bring more tourism but actually feed the sports complex in whatever ways we can be creative, I guess, so... MR. BEIRNES: On all points, absolutely true. In fact, our line of communication is very, very thorough with Great Wolf Lodge. It's amazing the amount of communication and, actually -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Good. MR. BEIRNES: -- their head of communication was a fellow coworker of mine at Disney, so we have a secret handshake. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Excellent. Okay. Commissioner Saunders, sir. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. We had a brief conversation on Memorial Day. Commissioner LoCastro had given an excellent Memorial Day speech, by the way. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you, sir. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: It was very impressive. A whole lot better than I expected. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: That's what you told me. That's exactly what you said. You just said something better now. Then June 15, 2023 Page 192 you were like, wow, I didn't think your speech was going to be that good. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I expected a lot, and you overperformed. But one of the questions I had when we were there was, from your perspective, how is that park playing out in terms of tourism? And I have another question after you -- but I'd like a little bit of evaluation on your part on that, because we do get a lot of -- a lot of criticism for this expenditure, which is a lot more than, perhaps, we had anticipated. But are we getting any bang for the buck there -- MR. BEIRNES: Yeah. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- in your view? MR. BEIRNES: Absolutely. And I think -- what I -- how I answered it there, as we were casually talking, I said, you know what, I'm going to frame it up similar in another life. If you went to a major -- major destinations, took a look at convention centers, you walk in probably close to 300 days of the year the air condition's running and nobody's there. But, you say, why was seven million square feet of under-air space built here in Orlando? It's because when you need it, that -- that 65, 70 days of the year, where you can bring 110,000 in the economic impact into the destination, absolutely makes sense, that economic engine. So if you take a look at the sports complex and, you know, minus the air conditioning, minus the roof, it is basically our unwalled convention center. And that -- that, honestly, is the dialogue that we're having with the vendor out there. The sky is the limit as far as whether it's art shows, whether it's lacrosse -- we are really thinking out of the box -- whether it's community events. All of the above. It is not only an economic driver -- so when times are tough, for instance, during the pandemic when we had a real dip in visitations June 15, 2023 Page 193 leisure-wise, and definitely within the groups, being conventions, what didn't get turned off was youth -- youth sports. If little Jimmy is playing soccer, my gosh, it's hard to say you can't go because we're going to save money or such. So youth sports is the last thing that gets trimmed. But we -- we're in an interesting window where we've got this elevated ADR. We need to find not just Mom and Dad coming for youth sports, but maybe some of that elevated, like the lacrosse. It is an economic impacts engine for the destination and continues to grow, and I think that definitely once we have the next couple fields, which are coming online soon, it really gets exciting, because what we have here is -- I'll use the term again -- sky is the limit, okay. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. Then on -- pardon me. On the fifth cent for the tourist tax, which was -- a portion of which was devoted to this, I believe about 60 percent of that was devoted to the sports complex, and the remaining was divvied up with advertising and, I guess, other uses. As we are experiencing some increased costs for future fields, would some of that tourist tax, that one penny, be available for those costs? MR. BEIRNES: It actually -- you know, before answering -- because I actually always defer to our County Attorney to make sure that we are -- we are within the line, but that would definitely be something we could talk to the County Attorney's Office to make sure that that works. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah, because we have a lot of construction, and it could be used for construction of the facilities. It can't be used for operating expenses. So my question is is will some of that be available for some of the constructions cost? And maybe that's just something that the Manager and the County June 15, 2023 Page 194 Attorney need to take a look at as we go forward. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Before I go to Commissioner McDaniel, I'll just piggyback on something here. As you mentioned, the sports complex is more than just sport events. We're trying to bring in art shows and all these other things, and maybe Great Wolf Lodge will feed some things in there too. And we had talked in here a couple of times about maybe the sports complex isn't the best name. A lot of people don't even -- don't even know we built one, and then when you mentioned it, alls it sounds like, just by the name, is a stadium. And, second, I had a lot of citizens say this to me when they went out there for the Memorial Day event and actually didn't even know we had a sports complex and had a hard time finding it. The City Gate sign is larger than that Paradise Coast Sports Complex sign. And so with Uline there and now, you know, Great Wolf Lodge, I hope we're taking a look at, like, signage so that it stands out. I mean, we don't want to make that look like Las Vegas or anything, but you could drive by that so easily now and barely even see the sports complex. And if you GPS it, it sends you on a wild goose chase in that area. So we really do need to take a look at that. Commissioner McDaniel. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, you mentioned a couple of times that sky's the limit. What is the limit? What's the capacity for an event there? You are limited by your parking. We are limited. It's not you. You just got this swept underneath your wing. What is the capacity? MR. BEIRNES: You know what, I think it's -- my reference was the type of things that we can bring in there really is interesting. I'm not really at liberty, but I will say that there was a major NFL team that was looking for a preconditioning week of being held out at June 15, 2023 Page 195 the sports complex. Unfortunately, the five-star elevated rooms they commanded, there was such compression in that one week, that it just didn't make sense, and they're going to have to go to Orlando. But our conversation is open. And then we also realized, you know what, there are others, MLS soccer and similar. So a lot of those conversations are taking place. So it's not just that youth sports. It's, hey, this is a great opportunity to bring major NFL, MLS training to the area. In a couple of years we have, just down the street, we have the World Cup, and we're engaging in conversations. Can this be a site for -- it might be media. It might be pretraining, maybe conditioning, all of the above. Those are -- those are some -- really some interesting conversations that really wasn't even factored in when we originally thought. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Great. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Let me ask the question again. What is the limit? What's the capacity for the venue? MR. BEIRNES: Attendance capacity? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. MR. BEIRNES: I will have to actually get back to you on the actual number talking with the vendor, because they've calculated based on what the -- what they could put into the stadium based on configuration whether it is a tournament, whether it is on field. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And I'm not trying to put you on the spot, Paul. It's just -- because I'm -- it's kind of a leading question, because there's also -- way back when, when we first approved this project, there was an 80,000-square-foot indoor stadium that was promised to us in Phase 1 that not even on the radar now. June 15, 2023 Page 196 And Commissioner Saunders is talking about how we're going -- how we're going to manage the funding, and also there is constraints and limitations with regard to the parking. And there are some other ideas that can come into play with that, so... MR. RODRIGUEZ: Commissioner, for the -- I've got your answer for you. It's -- there's about 1,300 parking spaces, and they can accommodate up to 5,000 people currently. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Five thousand, on one particular event as things stand right now. MR. RODRIGUEZ: That's correct. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: You know another nugget I'll plant, that if anybody wants to have a venue on the main football field where the jumbotrons are, and it's going to be, say, like a concert, that grass has to be covered and protected. A couple vendors that approached Paradise Coast to possibly have events there actually wound up not doing them because Paradise Coast said the cost of covering that field had to be passed on to them, and it's significant. You know, it might be a good investment for us to invest in field covering type of things so that we could attract those events, and I think that would pay for itself. If, you know, we're making some pretty large investments in the sports complex and, you know, those special -- it's not just wood. It's something -- it's a special type of covering. But when we tell a vendor, wow, you have to pick up the cost of covering the entire football field, I know of two vendors that went elsewhere just because of that. It just was an expense they assumed or expected the sports complex, you know, to cover their own field to bring in a vendor. So I just -- I just say that as feedback. I mean, I know you're June 15, 2023 Page 197 juggling all the finances, but, you know, to attract the sky-is-the-limit type of folks, you know, sometimes we just can't plop the bill on them. And, you know, it's a beautiful facility, but 1,300 parking spots and 5,000 isn't Raymond James Stadium. And so some of those investments we might need to make to, you know, attract some of those people that you mentioned. I mean, if we wanted to fill that field with media for the World Cup, they're -- you know, we don't want them digging up the grass. And then if we passed on the bill to them, that they have to cover the whole field, I bet they would -- they'd go elsewhere possibly. So just a thought, nugget, not directive at all. Just observation. Did somebody -- Commissioner Saunders, did you have something? COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No, I was just going to say, there was mention of the field house, which is still part of the last phase which, we may conclude that project before we get to that last phase, but... COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You said it probably more politically correct than I, so... CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Great. Thank you, sir. MR. BEIRNES: Thank you. What's next, County Manager? MS. PATTERSON: County Attorney. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Thank you, all. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I was thinking I've got to get a new chair. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: We don't have that in the budget. It's on the unfunded list, chair for Commissioner Kowal. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Just so you know, it took us six years to get new chairs up here. MS. PATTERSON: What, like 1985? June 15, 2023 Page 198 COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No, no. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: 1985. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No, no. Back in 2016 when Bill and I got elected, the chairs were really pretty awful, and, Leo Ochs was involved in getting us new chairs, but it literally took about five years. COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I mean, it's comfortable. I just sink every once in a while. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: It is weird, though, these chairs don't hold their height. About every 30 minutes, you've got to pull the thing up, and it drops you about three inches every 30 minutes, yeah. This one does it as well. MS. PATTERSON: I didn't realize these chairs were that new. They cut off the circulation to the backs of my legs every time I sit in them. It's okay though. I'm good. It keeps me awake. Okay. County Attorney. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. County Attorney, it's all yours. MR. KLATZKOW: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. My office represents the Board of County Commissioners. We handle the legal matters for both you and for the county staff. There are 16 of us; eight attorneys, eight support staff. Four of us are over at Horseshoe. They're dedicated to Jamie and his staff, primarily land-use planning, but they serve other functions there. And then there's 12 of us in this building. We try to cross-pollenate so everybody does a little bit of something else so that if somebody leaves, we're not stuck with not knowing, you know, what to do. The budget this year is substantially unchanged with the only difference being the board-approved increases to the wages, which June 15, 2023 Page 199 we greatly appreciate and thank you. Operating budget is the same as last year. And any questions you have, we're happy to answer. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Commissioners, anything? (No response.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MR. KLATZKOW: Thank you. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Commissioner McDaniel, did you have anything for the County Attorney? COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, no, no. I already talked to him about it. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: All right. What's next? MS. PATTERSON: The final category is Board of County Commissioners. Mr. Finn. MR. FINN: If it pleases the Chair, I'll speak to that. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Sure. MR. FINN: The Board budgets do include Attorney Klatzkow's budget. The budgets that there are reasonable controls over, that we have the ability to control, they are, in fact, in compliance in accordance with the Board's policy directives. There is also other GNA costs that are in here that covers insurance and some other things that we do not have controls over. That's a little bit in a little different category. But the Board -- the Board direct cost centers are, in fact, in compliance, and that's what I would report to the Board. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. All right. So I'll start it off, right? Is the mic ours now? MS. PATTERSON: You have the mic. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. So this unfunded list that's up on the board, let's get back to that and not sweep that under the June 15, 2023 Page 200 rug. What are we going to do with that? I know we've got several concerns up here that, you know, we're trading turning the lights on for books. We've got some events that have asked for additional funds that, you know, we care about. So what's your -- what's your recommendation for this list? Do you want to have the staff take another look at it and come back to us at, you know, another meeting, or do we want to talk about it now? And I mean -- and I say that to my colleagues, here. What's your concerns, your thoughts, your recommendations? Because at the start of this meeting, this list was pretty important, and we didn't finalize anything on it. Any thoughts or recommendations or -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Oh, we have a whole bunch of thoughts, but you asked her a question. Let's let her -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. So I turn it over to you. MS. PATTERSON: I thought he was directing the question to you-all. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: No, really -- really -- really to you. MS. PATTERSON: So our thoughts in the -- in producing this list, obviously, one was for the transparency of it. The second was to get your thoughts on the items on this list. You-all may have feelings about things that are here that are not something that you're interested in, or there may be things here that you would put to the top of the list. I would say I would divide this into two pieces: The stormwater and everything else. So we understand, for visibility sake, that this stormwater project is coming and that we all need to be prepared for a number of options on how to fund it. So I think we're okay setting that one aside, and we'll continue to work on a strategy for that, just knowing that you've been -- you've had at least the initial preparation for this and future stormwater projects as well as other capital projects. June 15, 2023 Page 201 On the rest of the list, you have a couple of options. You can send us back to work through the list, we can make some proposals to you on how we would suggest, if we were funding these through some of our reserves or other things, where that would be and where our cutoff points are, or you can also kind of give us an indication of maybe your top priorities here. It's at your pleasure. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. Well, I mean, one of the things I'll just start with and see what my fellow commissioners think, is maybe a little bit of a breakout. So $100,000 for aquatic maintenance. You know, we sit here and say, what's the breakout of that? And, you know -- because it isn't an all or nothing. I don't think it's responsible for us to just say, fund it, 100,000, boom, next line. But if I had a bigger of a breakout here, we might be -- it might be easier to sort of check off and in the end, you know, we fund it 60,000, and we thought 40,000 of some of the other requirements, and the same thing could go for parks on capital maintenance. You know, it's over half a million dollars. If this was broken out a little bit more, we might be able to pick them off line by line a little smarter than just saying, 520- or zero. And I don't think -- and, you know, same for the other ones. Commissioner McDaniel brought up a good point. The Immokalee cattle drive jamboree. If we don't give them $40,000, does it cancel the event? No. They just are saying they need a little bit -- COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: At their direction. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: -- more. Yeah, it might say -- need a little bit more. So if we had a deeper dive, then we know what the effect would be. And if we funded 25,000, would it -- would they be able to make some adjustments so we're meeting in the middle? So that's what I would say. June 15, 2023 Page 202 And so -- that would be helpful to me is if this was broken out a little bit more so it just wasn't an all or nothing. MS. PATTERSON: So we could provide you a narrative on each of these categories, tell you what's included -- because they are -- some of them are broader -- so that you understand what exactly is in here. The broad category, Parks capital maintenance is a good one. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. MS. PATTERSON: As far as the more specific things like jamboree, we'll explain what you get and what you don't. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. MS. PATTERSON: It might be, you know, very small or up to this. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. MS. PATTERSON: That way you've got a little narrative and something to work with. We could do that with each one them, and I propose on the stormwater project, we'll get you a little visibility on timing and options on that one as well. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And then also a breakout would show us we'd be able to triage these a little bit better with priorities and say, wow, that extra money for the jamboree really sounds good but not trading it for aquatic maintenance, you know, that kind of thing. MS. PATTERSON: Understood. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yeah. Okay. Commissioner Saunders, and then, Commissioner McDaniel, you're on deck. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Pardon me. I'm a little confused. Is this list, this unfunded list, based on the current budget that we're in right now, or is this projected for the '24 budget that we're working on? June 15, 2023 Page 203 MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. This is for the '24 budget. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So I'm not sure how you come up with an unfunded list when we haven't set the millage rate yet. And so, you know, help me understand that -- MS. PATTERSON: Sure. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- because, you know, if we went -- if we stay at a steady millage rate, we don't do a rolled-back millage rate, there's a certain amount of revenue that's generated over and above the '23 budget cycle. So I'm not sure what this list really means. MS. PATTERSON: So let me help with that a little bit. So this list is -- again, these are '24 projects. This assumes a millage-neutral situation, and it assumes returning a certain amount of money back to reserves to start to rebuild the reserves that were lost during Hurricane Ian, or spent during Hurricane Ian. If something changes with taxable value, because, again, we only have the preliminary, that could give a little bit of wiggle room here on this. But equally so, if the Board takes the position that they would like to see a little millage reduction, this list becomes a much larger list. So right now this is us only showing you what this looks like if we take a conservative approach with our reserves, returning a larger chunk of money back to re-establish our reserves, and filling some essential buckets but leaving these things to become more discretionary with the caveat there could a little -- because remember we were -- we were faced with this last year. We had an initial taxable value, and then it ticked up a little bit. So that's the other thing here is if when we get to that final taxable value there's any play in that number, it could make these decisions a little easier. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So that goes kind of back to what I had said earlier in the day, that if we adjust our reserves for June 15, 2023 Page 204 the -- there's what 2 point -- MS. PATTERSON: Two point four million. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Two point four million that's not part of the water management project. That's simply just moving some money from your proposed reserves into these projects. So we had -- there's an easy solution to all of that. MS. PATTERSON: There is. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: There is not an easy solution to the West Goodlette Phase 2 process. MS. PATTERSON: No. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And so we're going to need -- or I'm going to need some explanation as to why we would proceed with Phase 2. I understand that it's an important project. MS. PATTERSON: Yep. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: But we have a lot of important projects. MS. PATTERSON: We do. COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So I'll need to know more about that so we can -- so at least I can decide what is more important in my view. MS. PATTERSON: Understood. And, also, I think timing is very important as well as a check-in with our partners. Again, this was put onto this list because it was slated for '24 bidding and beginning construction. But remember that partnership projects rely on the partner. So the City of Naples could very easily be having the exact same conversation right now too. So if we have slip in the timing -- COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Sure. MS. PATTERSON: -- then that buys us a little bit more time. But it's only deferring the inevitable. So it's a good conversation to have no matter the timing; '24 issue, '25 issue. It's an issue. June 15, 2023 Page 205 COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Sure. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: And with more detail, we might not need the full 2.4 million. We might be able to sit here and negotiate a little bit more and then -- and sort of split the difference, so... MS. PATTERSON: You could, understanding that, again, this represents what the staff prioritized as their -- as their biggest needs, not the entirety of their needs, and so what we're trying to provide to you is the ability to not lose ground. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Absolutely. Okay. Commissioner McDaniel, and then Commissioner Kowal's on deck. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I have a simpler viewpoint of all this. What I would like for our staff to do, you, your office to do is go back through this budget book. This board gave direction for a 4.5 percent allowable increase on a budgeted basis, and I want to know -- because a lot of them were more. I want to know what that spread is. That's a division of the monies that we have available to us to be able to utilize in other places. And I also want to hear from you what other funding sources and/or expense reductions or adjustments we can make in order to be able to facilitate these -- this list of unfunded requests. What other revenue sources are available? How can -- there are other -- there are other monies that are available. I mean, we had a lot of folks come and talk to us today about how important Conservation Collier is, and it is. That's $35 million that's coming to our community right now on this at the estimates of the assessed valuations that we have coming. And we -- I know our board agreed to appropriate a larger amount of those collected funds over into reserves for this theoretical perpetual maintenance that isn't perpetual. June 15, 2023 Page 206 I need a burn-rate analysis on the reserves that are there and how much of that can be utilized for borrowings, necessarily, or manipulation to be able to facilitate some of the shorter-term needs. If you're -- if we're -- my estimates in my brain are -- we have an expense right now of about a million and a half a year. What -- how does that tally out from a reserve capacity standpoint so we don't jeopardize the reserves? Because we're not going to take from the reserves without a fulfillment of those reserves from other revenue sources or other opportunities, if you will. MS. PATTERSON: We can provide that analysis to you. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Anything else? I don't see anybody lit up. Did you have something? COMMISSIONER KOWAL: He covered what I was going to ask. Anything else, County Manager? MS. PATTERSON: So let me just make sure that I've captured your comments. We're going to go through the list and provide additional narrative on what is -- what is entailed in these broader categories so that you are able to get a better understanding of everything that's contained here. Secondly, we will look at the West Goodlette project and provide some more information on timing and other funding sources potential as well as the partnership with the City of Naples so that we can get some context as to what the possibilities are for that project, both when it will go forward or when it could be delayed or any of those things that would give you situational awareness. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yep. MS. PATTERSON: And then we will look at the budget everywhere that we have an exceedance -- even though the department budgets are in compliance totally, where the variations June 15, 2023 Page 207 are from the 4.25 percent guidance, what other revenue sources may be available to fund some of these or shift things around, and a burn-rate analysis on the Conservation Collier maintenance money. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yep. I think by a drill-down on the unfundeds, it would allow us to do sort of a line-item veto or line-item approval, and it, you know -- I think, you know, the answer would be somewhere between the 2.4 million, not necessarily an all or nothing. Obviously, you're not going to do that in 24 hours. So what's the time like -- what kind of time crunch are we on for these types of things? It's not, you know -- MS. PATTERSON: We have some time. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. MS. PATTERSON: We've got Board meetings coming up, so -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. MS. PATTERSON: And we can work with you individually as we start to flesh this out, and then we'll find the right time to bring this back. The next target is when we set the maximum millage rate. But, again, that is setting the maximum millage rate. I don't anticipate difficulties there because you have your September meetings, then, to make adjustments, should that be the direction you go in. We would never want to lock ourselves up that way where you can't go up, but you could always go down. CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Right. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We technically -- I mean, my perspective is we can make these decisions clear up through the last budget -- because we're adopting -- we don't finalize the adoption of that budget till our second budget meeting in September, so these things can shift -- we'll have a better timeline on the Phase 2 -- June 15, 2023 Page 208 MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- of the water management, we'll have a better timeline on our swale projects in the east, and so on and so forth. MS. PATTERSON: Absolutely. COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We've got -- CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Yep. Well, great presentations today. The book was very -- all the budgets, very thorough, very transparent. And, you know, like Mr. Finn said, I think, you know, we all had a spirited discussion because that's what we've pledged to do a little bit -- a little bit better than maybe in the past and improve upon, you know, processes that we -- that we need with a bigger budget and a lot more going on in the county. So any last comments by anybody? (No response.) CHAIRMAN LoCASTRO: Okay. Meeting adjourned. ***** June 15, 2023 There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 4:33 p.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL RICK LoCASTRO, CHAIRMAN ATTEST CRYSTAL K. KINZEL, CLERK rj. r 4n H -1 2. c Attest as to Mirman's ' A signature only. These minutes approved by the Board on 3/4(/P-3 , as presented v or as corrected TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF FORT MYERS COURT REPORTING BY TERRI L. LEWIS, REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL COURT REPORTER, FPR-C, AND NOTARY PUBLIC. Page 209