CCPC Minutes 10/16/2007 AUIR
October 16, 2007
TRANSCRIPT OF THE SPECIAL AUIR MEETING
OF THE COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
AND THE PRODUCTIVITY COMMITTEE
Naples, Florida, October 16, 2007
LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Planning Commission and the
Productivity Committee in and for the County of Collier, having
conducted business herein, met on this date at 8:30 a.m. in SPECIAL
SESSION at the Horseshoe Drive Government Complex, Naples,
Florida, with the following members present:
CCPC CHAIRMAN:
PRODUCTIVITY COMMITTEE:
Mark P. Strain
Tor Kolflat
Brad Schiffer (absent for roll call)
Donna Reed Caron
Bob Murray
Robert Vigliotti
Lindy Adelstein (absent)
Paul Midney (absent)
Russell Tuff (absent)
Janet Vasey
Brad Boaz
Joseph Swaja
Steve Harrison
Georgia Hiller
ALSO PRESENT:
Joseph Schmitt, CDES Administrator
Randy Cohen, Comprehensive Planning Director
Michael Bosi, Comprehensive Planning
Marjorie Student-Stirling, Assistant County Attorney
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Good morning, everyone.
MR. SW AJA: Good morning.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Exciting. This is like watching paint
dry. So if you'll all rise, we'll say the Pledge of Allegiance first.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We'll probably use the same
process that we did yesterday for roll call, and that simply was, please
state your name and the committee you're with and we'll start with Mr.
Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Tor Kolflat, Collier County
Planning Commission.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Bob Vigliotti, Collier County
Planning Commissioner.
MR. SW AJA: Joe Swaja, Productivity Committee.
MR. HARRISON: Steve Harrison, Productivity Committee.
MR. BOAZ: Brad Boaz, Productivity Committee.
MS. VASEY: Janet Vasey, Productivity Committee.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mark Strain, Planning Commission.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Donna Caron, Planning
Commission.
MS. HILLER: Georgia Hiller, Productivity Committee.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And Bob Murray, Planning
Commission.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Let the record show the Planning
Commission has a -- barely majority. We have five of us here today.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Brad Schiffer is here, but
apparently is not aware.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. A reminder that when we speak,
we need to speak at a tone -- I mean at a level that is slow enough so
that it can be recorded properly. Please do not talk over one another.
Again, you need to be recognized in order to speak, please.
And before we get going in today's meeting, it occurred to me
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and a few others, that the elements we're talking about today, we may
not have all the paperwork for one in particular and an important
element, and that's the EMS.
As you may have read in the document, there was a report that
was due in September, and then I think October, and it's not in the
report. EMS has repeatedly told us how vital this report was to
understanding what they're trying to do in regards to the ALS units
and everything else.
Well, I know we could sit through an hour-or-two-or three
discussion today on the EMS facilities and what they mayor may (sic)
propose. In the end we're probably all going to want to see that report
and base some of our conclusions on that report, so when it comes in,
we'd have to have another meeting, and we'd have to spend another
two or three hours going over the same thing we probably would go
over today.
So I'd like Mr. Bosi to talk to us about the possibility of how we
should proceed with EMS and what the most reasonable solution is,
and if there's a need to reschedule and reconvene strictly for EMS at
some point down the road when that report is in our hands, we've had
time to read it, and we can take a look at it then. Thank you.
(Commissioner Schiffer entered the hearing room.)
MR. BOSI: Good morning. Mike Bosi, for the record. Thank
you, Chairman Strain. I just spoke with Jeff Page, head of Emergency
Medical Services, and the draft master plan, as promised within your
workbook, is not available today, so I understand that that complicates
the issue because that was a key piece to the component. I mean,
we've been saying all along it's a key piece of the component to
understanding the level of service and contribution to the ALS engines
within the system, which has a direct effect in bearing upon deficit,
cost, and everything within the system.
That draft plan obviously, is soon to be produced. I would
suggest -- and one thing I would say as a caveat, within this AUIR,
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EMS proposed no growth -- no new growth units.
What we have right now, 26.5 units available is what EMS is
going to stand by for this year based upon the lack of -- the lack of the
master plan and the lack of any conclusion for a level of service
standard and the issues surrounding that.
With that understanding that there are no new growth units
proposed within this AUIR, I would suggest, ifboth of these bodies
desire to have the master plan before you, you would move forward
with any recommendations upon revising a level of service for the
component. I would suggest that comprehensive planning -- once that
master plan is in, comprehensive planning can definitely disseminate
that information to both of the advisory boards and I could -- we could
coordinate with each of the -- each of the advisory boards to appear on
your -- one of your regularly scheduled meetings, find one that has an
agenda where it's pretty light where you could fit a two-hour --
probably a two- to two-and-a-half hour discussion within your agenda
to address this specific issue related to the EMS master plan.
We have until the -- until next year's AUIR, where they'll be
proposing, would be a reactionary to the growth that's being proposed.
That's the next time or the next critical time where a decision for
a level of service standards would have to be made. So we do have
some time before that -- that occasion would arise.
So we could coordinate, if that's the discretion of both of the
boards. Comprehensive planning, when that master plan becomes
available will coordinate with each of the chairmen, with each of the
staff liaison for each of the boards to find what's the most appropriate
meeting you would like to hear the EMS portion and hear the
discussion in terms of the master plan and the potential level of service
changes for that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any -- anybody want to weigh
in on this? Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: So what you're saying, Mike, is
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that the draft will not even be available for the meetings that we have
booked for later this month?
MR. BOSI: I am --
COMMISSIONER CARON: We have four AUIR meetings at
least penciled in.
MR. BOSI: The last of the scheduled dates was the 29th of
October. I am -- I'm not sure if that's going to be done. When I spoke
with Jeff Page he said that the consultants will be here and are
available today to discuss some of the more critical components but he
did not indicate that that draft plan has been finalized.
So as to whether that's going to be available on the 29th, I would
-- I'm somewhat hesitant to offer a firm commitment based upon the
commitment that I had provided within the workbooks that a master
plan was going to being forthcoming, and I wasn't able to follow
through with that. So I'm very hesitant to do that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Once this plan comes out, was the
intention of compo planning to more or less rewrite the EMS section of
this AUIR and then either modify or suggest modifications to the
standards where necessary?
MR. BOAZ: That wasn't the intention of comprehensive
planning. The intention of comprehensive planning was to provide the
-- both of the advisory boards the master plan, provide the
recommendations that were within that master plan and coordinate and
facilitate the discussions related to what those recommendations were
on top of what other recommendations that each of the advisory
boards may have arrived upon.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, my question was, right now we
show a required inventory and we show a deficit need, but we don't
show how many proposed new units. What I was suggesting is, were
you intending to tell us how many proposed new units based on the
master plan would then be recommended so we would have something
to study?
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MR. BOSI: No. For this year's AUIR --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
MR. BOSI: -- the intention was to propose no growth -- no new
growth units until there was a finalization between what should be the
appropriate level of service for the -- for the EMS component.
Because right now, you know, the current deficit is being expressed at
6.8, but that's at one unit per 15,000 of peak population. We -- until
we have certainty towards what our level of service recommendations
are going to be going forward in the future, it wasn't our intent to
update it and be ready to propose growth units within this AUIR. For
this AUIR's purpose, EMS was going to stand pat with what's
available.
MR. COHEN: Chairman Strain--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes.
MR. COHEN: -- maybe I can help out a little bit. I think what
the intent is, obliviously we anticipated that this particular EMS study
was going to be completed, you know, prior to this year's AUIR. It's
not. Obviously we don't want you acting on an item where you don't
have full disclosure, full information where you can make an informed
decision.
What I would anticipate transpiring is that both Planning
Commission and the Productivity Committee would fully vet all the
issues within the -- the upcoming plan when it's in its final form, make
recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners as separate
entities, we would then take it under consideration, fully vet that item,
and then make recommendations that would come out of that, which
would form the basis for next year's AUIR, that way we would have
the foundation based on the advice of both of the advisory boards as
well as the commission with respect to moving forward with a policy
decision.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And we don't have a definitive
time though when this master plan will be done basically?
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MR. COHEN: No, sir. But as soon as we get it, we're going to
go ahead and schedule it at one of your meetings where it's obviously
not on a meeting that's really lengthy in terms of items. Same as with
the Productivity Committee as well, too. And we'll work with you on
that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What's the -- Ms. Vasey?
MS. VASEY: I'm a little bit concerned. This is the second year
that we've taken no action. They had $20 million they showed last
year as being required. Twenty million is sort of hanging out there
this year. It's the biggest single element that we've got of all the
facilities.
There is a draft report. It apparently had some problems. I don't
know how serious they are. But it seems like maybe we could get Jeff
to come in and talk to us about it, how quickly they would have a
usable draft. I mean, we've used drafts before on impact fees to
review and make -- you know, make recommendations.
Maybe we could still go forward on the 26th or the 29th if there
was something available, because I think it's pretty important --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, I--
MS. VASEY: -- to resolve this issue. It's the one major item we
have on the -- in the whole AUIR, and I think we ought to try to make
every effort to get it done on schedule. And then if we can't, there is a
fall-back position, but I'd like to see us try.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, then for the point of
today's meeting, is the suggestion to delay the EMS until the last
possible date that we currently have scheduled under the hope that we
will have the master plan in some format in front of us so we could
discuss that? Then failing that, then fall back to the plan that Mike
Bosi suggested in going back to the committees individually at that
point? Does that seem like a -- I mean, I -- we've all got to be in this
so someone tell me what you all think, so --
MS. VASEY: I'd kind of like to speak to Jeff.
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CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Today?
MS. VASEY: Yeah -- what it looks like in terms of fixing
whatever it is that's not right and how soon they might have a draft,
and then we can, you know, go from there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody else?
COMMISSIONER CARON: I think that makes sense.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, Mike. At least we'll have Jeff
come in. And he needs to, more or less, focus on addressing this
master plan and the timing of that. And I don't know if we want --
there's not a lot of point in getting into every one of these financial
issues with him until we have a master plan. I'd rather not spend two
hours listening to a presentation that's going to be outdated.
MR. BOSI: Before EMS appears on the agenda, I'll have further
conversation with Jeff and let him know of the wishes of the advisory
board and where they need to -- where he needs to focus his
discussion today surrounding the --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, thank you. I think that will work.
Okay. With that, the first item on -- we're into category B. First item
on category B for today's discussion is jails.
CHIEF SMITH: Good morning. For the record, Greg Smith,
Chief of Administration for the Sheriffs Office. And we have worked
again with county staff here on their submission of the AUIR. And
you have that report in front of you, and I'll stand for questions or
clarifications.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, you must have been in the
audience yesterday.
CHIEF SMITH: No, sir. But to borrow the southern vernacular,
this ain't my first rodeo.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, we normally work through
these page by page. Why don't we start with the very first page,
which is the AUIR summary form. It's on page 99.
Mr. Murray?
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COMMISSIONER MURRAY: This question is by Russell Tuff,
who was not able to attend today but asked that this be asked of you.
The need for jails has decreased from prior year to the current year.
This coming year a need is showing for more. The sheriffs office is
instituting a new program through ICE which will remove illegal
immigrants from our system.
The office states that the -- that illegal immigrants cost the office
large amounts of money. If this new program gets launched, will there
be a need for more jail cells?
CHIEF SMITH: It's kind of a compound question, and I hate to
bore the group with some of the details to frame it, but let me do that,
if I may.
First of all, absolutely we're going to launch the program. That's
not a question. There's a need, a recognized need, to do something on
a federal, on a state, on a local level. And we have partnered very
successfully with ICE on previous ventures to remove criminal aliens
from our community.
We now have taken that to the next level and have embarked on a
program where we have certified local law enforcement officers to act
with full standing regarding the enforcement capabilities of
Immigration/Custom Enforcement law.
The overarching goal is to remove this portion of the criminal
element from our community, and we've identified that that's the
costing us about $9 million a year. So the goal is to remove them.
Obviously if we get them out of here, our need for jail capacity, we
hope, will decrease from that regard at least; however, initially, at
least, it's going to require some commitments of capital up front. It's
going to -- it required us, once we entered into this partnership, to
dedicate 50 beds to utilization for customs enforcement, for
Immigration/Customs Enforcement, and those people who we
identified for removal will be housed in that area.
We think there will be a couple things that will happen as a result
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of this. First of all, we'll be able to identify those people who are
frequent fliers, if you would, to our facilities, and we'll be relieved of
that by their deportation or removal.
Secondly, we think that there will be a trickle-down effect that
people will not find Collier County as a place to come and blend in
and hide if you're in the country illegally. And we think that that's
going to have a dramatic decrease in what we have to do with regard
to that segment of the population.
And so we hope that the answer is, yes, it should decrease. We
hope it decreases that segment. But having said that, you know, jail
population is dependent upon a whole lot of things, predominantly
enforcement strategy.
And through my experience, there's always been another segment
that's popped up that seems ready and willing to fill the void. So I
wouldn't say that we probably don't have a need to plan more jail
space because we're launching into it. I mean, you know, federal
legislation could change. You know, philosophies could change. So
all of that would have an impact on the jail population.
But that's as simple an answer as I can give you to that question.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We're on page 99. Any other
questions?
Janet?
MR. HARRISON: Steve Harrison.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Steve, I'm sorry,
MR. HARRISON: Chief Smith, a couple of years ago we were
launching an expedited hearing process in conjunction with hiring
more judges to clear dockets faster. Is that kicking in and saving us
the number of beds that we need to provide?
CHIEF SMITH: You'll see that there's been a decrease in
utilization. That's a direct result of where we use the rocket-docket
initiative to speed those people through the system. We track on a
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daily, monthly, and yearly basis the amount of those people who are in
jail at -- at what we call benchmark dates like -- you know, I think the
first one is like one year. You know, we don't want you to be in the
jail especially awaiting trial for more than one year, because obviously
if you're charged with a serious enough crime, we want you to get
through the judicial system so that we can pass you off to the state,
and that's going to save us locally. So that's -- what you see in that
decrease of utilization is a direct result of everyone working together
within the judiciary to move those people through the system faster.
MR. HARRISON: Are there more savings to come, yet to come?
CHIEF SMITH: You know, I want to answer optimistically and
say, yes, I think so. I think there's some more things that can be done.
I think we're looking at those. I think when you look at the utilization
history, you know, you're able to see some spikes and some lulls.
And almost in every case where you see a lull in the need for
more jail beds it's because we've instituted some new partnership or
program. This allowed us to be very judicious in the use of our jail
cells. That's what we've tried to do is utilize all these programs to
forestall the need to build more jail beds.
And that's also reflected -- if you look in there and you see what
the incarceration is statewide and what the incarceration is on the
federal level and then you look at Collier County, you know, it's
remarkable that we have a low crime rate, a decreasing crime rate, and
at the same time, we're able to make better utilization of our jail beds.
Usually, you know, that's a converse relationship.
MR. HARRISON: Right.
CHIEF SMITH: You know, when the crime rate goes down,
usually it's because your jail cells are going up in need. And so we've
-- we've just been able to institute a lot of that stuff to forestall it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Janet?
MS. VASEY: Greg, when you say you have to dedicate 50 beds
to the customs operation, is that 50 that we would have already been
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holding these illegals in or is that 50 new that are used for something?
CHIEF SMITH: Well, right now it's kind ofa wash, because if
you're able to go in and identify over 200 people that are in the jail
illegally, you just get them earmarked and identified and you move
them from the 50 cells over here and to these 50 cells over here.
So it's nothing that's required, you know, 50 more jail beds
immediately. But when we start going into the community and
identifying the criminal element that usually would have been allowed
to post bond and go back out, now we'll be placing INS detainers --
excuse me -- ICE detainers on them and be able to keep them in
custody so -- until their deportation hearing.
MS. VASEY: Okay.
CHIEF SMITH: So there will be a little bit of a spike there at
least initially.
MS. VASEY: The new expansion that you're planning in
Immokalee -- we talked about this a little last year -- the dollar value
is based on, you know, the calculation here of unit cost per number of
beds, but you thought it would probably cost less than that. Do you
have any prediction as to, you know, what it might cost for that 64-bed
expansion?
CHIEF SMITH: I do not. Probably the best person to ask that
would be Skip Camp or some of the people over in facilities that work
with those numbers every day. I just know that, you know, we did
some preplanning to add that additional dormitory on when we did the
construction so -- and the land's already acquired, so I think that there
are going to be some cost savings in going ahead and adding that pot,
but I really don't have a basis to estimate what it would cost.
MS. VASEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Georgia?
MS. HILLER: Thank you. Chief Smith, has any consideration
been given to the possibility of developing a separate facility for, I
would say, a low security, you know, minimum security facility for
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the more non-threatening offenders like people who are being
incarcerated over weekends for DUIs or people that haven't paid child
support to potentially reduce the overall costs? Because it seems
somewhat of a waste to put them in a higher security facility.
CHIEF SMITH: When we design jails, we do a -- we perform
what you call a jail program analysis, and you go in and classify
where you have offender population groups, and you see just exactly
what drives the need for the expansion.
So the answer is yes, we consider that, but we've found that it's
even more economically feasible to identify those offenders that are in
for, say, failure to pay child support or first-time DUIs or those less
serious offenses and put them on the weekend work program where
they're not utilizing jail space at all but reporting on Saturday and
Sunday on their days off, and we take them out in the community, and
I'm sure you've seen them out there picking up litter and doing other
public service projects.
We think that that's even a better utilization because then you
don't have to feed them, you don't have to house them, you don't have
to have them interacting with the rest of the population. So we try to
-- we're trying to expand those programs, and we've been very
successful at that.
Building a stand-alone facility just for minimal offenders is
pretty pricey because you do have to replicate certain, you know, core
functions. So we really haven't done that at this point.
We've analyzed it; we've looked at it. We consider it every time
we add jail space, how much should be minimum, how much should
be maximum. But you try to centralize them all around the core of the
facility, like laundry, kitchen, administrative, so that you don't have to
duplicate all that.
MS. HILLER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We're still on page 99. Joe.
MR. SW AJA: Joe Swaja, for the record.
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First of all, thank you for the great job you and your sheriffs
department do every day in Collier County. You guys are pretty
good.
CHIEF SMITH: Thank you, Joe.
MR. SW AJA: Building on Georgia's comment, are we looking at
options besides building new jail buildings like -- since we live in the
Paradise Coast and this is a beautiful climate, like maybe a tent city
somewhere out in the jungle, to put some people to enjoy our climate
in a less expensive manner than what they enjoy in the palace over
here in Collier County complex?
CHIEF SMITH: Yeah. We -- we've also considered that. We
currently have almost 80 beds in inventory that are in a tent-like
structure. But the problem when you go into tents -- and if you just
want a program, you know, just tents is, you have to understand that I
also have to place staff there to watch them, and it's pretty hard for me
to retain staff if I have to send them out there into the tent
environment. That doesn't make it a bad idea because we'd still be
able to accomplish that as well.
But what we also would have to consider is, you know,
hurricanes, and what would happen in that regard. And the
overarching concern is that we've come up with so many diversions to
using our jail space that we do have.
And, again, I direct you back to what's happening at the federal
level and the state level regarding how many people they keep in jail,
you know, that we really have taken out a lot of these people that they
normally have in their populations and then have to house in tents.
For instance, you know, Sheriff Arpaio is a great example
because right now there's an email flying around out there telling
about all of this stuff that he's done that we've done here for years. He
just has a better press agent than we do.
But the people that he's keeping in his tents -- because I've been
to his facility and I've toured it -- we don't even have in our system.
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We've diverted them through the weekend work program and we've
diverted them through first-time diversion programs with the state
attorney and those people, so we've done that.
Another thing with tents is, most of the people that we keep in
our jail system are pretrial detainees. We don't have a whole lot of
sentenced inmates, proportionately. And pretrial detainees are
innocent until proven guilty. And eventually we will, but their
standing today is that they're innocent until they're proven guilty, and
so they retain all their rights.
We have to also understand that, you know, managing them is
different than, say, if they were a fully sentenced inmate because then
they have less standing. And so all those things are things we
consider.
But, yes, when we can stick them in something that looks and
smells like a tent, we do it, and we have and we will continue to do so.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Page 99? Go ahead, Brad.
MR. BOAZ: One last question. At the bottom of the page there's
a reference to the jail master plan and a revised level of service of 3.8
beds. I just wanted to clarify if there's any intent to change the level
of service going forward.
CHIEF SMITH: I think that the jail master plan that is still yet to
be adopted indicates that -- their recommendation for a 3.8 percent
LOS -- excuse me, not percent, but 3.8 LOS.
I found that a little problematic personally because what they use
to base that on was the numbers from our peak season, and then they
added in a peaking factor, and I just think that's counting it twice.
And so I think that, you know, at least from our perspective, you
know, I mean, it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to
stand up here and say, well, the report supports 3.8, but that's not the
case, at least in our minds. I think we need to go back and ask that
consultant to adjust out the peaking factor and find, you know, the
relevance given the fact that we arrived at that using the peak
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population.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Chief, since we're talking about
levels of service, I notice that your actual level of service for the year
varies from the level of service standards we have.
In '05, your actual, of incarceration, was 2.89, and in '06 it was
2.97. And I also notice that if we were to take your level of service,
instead of3.2, and use 3.0, you would be able to defer the need for
new beds until 2012 to '13.
I actually redid your table and recomputed it. And the reason I'm
suggesting this is we've got a surplus that we have -- I mean a deficit
we have to deal with, and there's two ways of doing that, I would
think, is bringing more revenues or possibly lower the expenses or
thus the level of service. And by dropping level of service to 3.0, I
think we could defer some of your expenses, and then using your new
jail master plan as justification, you could request an increase in
impact fees if we could find a way to decrease the pool of impact fees
from other possible departments, such as we talked about yesterday.
What are your thoughts on that?
CHIEF SMITH: Well, I think that you're on safe ground anytime
that your LOS is lower than your actual utilization, which is what
you're talking about.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
CHIEF SMITH: I -- and from what little I know about impact
fees -- and I defer to Amy on all that -- is -- as most of us in the room
do -- but, you know, you just want to be careful about not getting into
a deficit situation, then having to fund that out of something before
you can attack it with the impact fees.
But the best thing that I can do is just present what the numbers
are and tell you how we arrive at them, and then it's up to you and the
board as what you set the LOS at. It's never going to completely
mirror -- and I don't think it ever should -- your utilization because
then it's a moving target and you're adjusting it every year, and that's
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October 16, 2007
just, you know, too much work for staff and it kind of creates the
illusion that we're chasing, you know, something that we'll never catch
because, trust me, with jail beds, you're never going to catch it.
There's always -- you know, you're always going to be adding, just
like any other piece of infrastructure. So I --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think you're heading in the right
direction with some of the programs I heard talked about here this
morning, which is actually probably going to help, and we have a
bigger possibility of that helping than hindering. That's why I thought
if we got the level of service down to three -- but that still was higher
than the existing in any prior year, it might be a practical way to
approach some of the deficit.
I did notice, too, that under your other revenues you've dropped
from 1.9 million to 785,000 for other revenues. Do you know why
that occurred?
CHIEF SMITH: I do not.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Contradiction of something you
said earlier, I was just curious. I thought it was an interesting twist on
words. You have people in jail that are illegally there.
CHIEF SMITH: Yes, sir, who are in the country illegally.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I just -- I thought that was a unique way
of stating it, so -- okay. Any other questions on page 99?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And for the benefit of Janet, because I
forgot last time, on the back of page 99, a continuation of the
footnotes, is page 100. Is there anything on page 100?
MS. VASEY: Not from me, thanks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Move to 101. Any questions on
page 1017 Ms. Caron?
MR. SW AJA: I'm confused about the population numbers.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe, I just recognized Donna first.
MR. SW AJA: Sorry.
Page 17
October 16, 2007
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, no. Donna had just put her hand up
first; then we'll get to you.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I just wanted to question these
population numbers. Are we using the revised numbers in this chart?
Excuse me, Mike?
MR. BOSI: Yes. These are the -- this is a permanent population
with the peak season adjustment.
COMMISSIONER CARON: With the peak season, okay.
MR. BOSI: Based upon the October 1 permanent population
numbers, which are in the back of your AUIR workbook with the 1.2
multiplier.
COMMISSIONER CARON: But now are these figures the ones
you were talking about using peak season plus a peaking factor?
CHIEF SMITH: Those are the ones used in the consulting
report.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Just in the consulting. Okay.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe, did you still have a question?
MR. SW AJA: Answered the question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Still on page 101. Any other questions?
Janet?
MS. VASEY: Yes. You say on the first footnote that the
population in June was 1245 inmates. Do you have the populations
for July, August and September?
CHIEF SMITH: I'm sure that we do not have them for
September yet. Do you have any updates on that?
We can give that to you. I can tell you it's holding steady at 1250.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Because that has to do with Mark's
question on utilization. So it did continue through the rest of the year
at that level?
CHIEF SMITH: Yeah. And the concerning thing from our
perspective is -- excuse me -- this is the time of the year that we
Page 18
October 16, 2007
usually see a lull, and what we've actually seen is it going up, so --
MS. VASEY: It looks like if -- I guess to follow on with Mark's
comments from the earlier page, if you did project that utilization
factor, that you would not have a deficit through the end of the -- the
AUIR period; isn't that correct?
CHIEF SMITH: Well, we don't know. I mean, utilization is
whatever comes through the back door and stays there past 72 hours.
So, you know, we can only track it, you know, historically. And by
doing that, we can get our projections out.
But, you know, for instance, just let me throw this out there. You
know, the state now is struggling with their budget and meeting their
budget shortfalls, and almost inevitably that translates into unfunded
mandates on local jurisdictions.
And I think that some of the things that we're seeing happen with
regard to those cuts, what's being talked about is reducing the amount
of probation and parole officers. We see, you know, a trend to try to
have some local jurisdictions assume responsibility for those people
sentenced to two years and under.
We've seen the Department of Juvenile Justice taking some
significant hits that probably are going to translate into a more active
younger criminality locally. If those things happen and transpire, you
know, I can't stand here today and tell you next year what our
utilization's going to be because it could be radically different. So just
something to keep in the back of your mind.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We're on page 101. Any other
questions?
MS. HILLER: May I ask one question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah, sorry, Georgia. Go ahead.
MS. HILLER: Your population numbers exclude the illegal
population?
CHIEF SMITH: No. They include them.
Page 19
October 16, 2007
MS. HILLER: They include the illegal?
CHIEF SMITH: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay? Chief, are there holding cells in
any of the other municipalities, like the Everglades City, Naples, and
Marco Island?
CHIEF SMITH: No. I understand that there's some holding cells
in Marco Island. There are no holding cells in Everglades City. We
routinely -- if we take someone into custody that there needs to be
some follow-on questioning, from time to time they'll do that in the
squad rooms, say, out in Golden Gate or North Naples. But pretty
quickly they're transferred down to the main jail.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So I saw that you used
countywide population, and that's fine. I just wanted to make sure that
if there's any possibility of counting any other cells in other
municipalities that we utilize them.
Okay. Any questions on page 102? Only two lines, again, Brad.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, and they got it right
actually.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Page 103, any questions? Go
ahead, Steve.
MR. HARRISON: Chief Smith, our cost per inmate per day has
been rising sharply, and as we get up in that last right-hand column, do
we ever call one of the outside contract firms to see if they can do it
less expensively?
CHIEF SMITH: We outsource everything that we can possibly
outsource in that regard. We've outsourced our medical service, we've
outsourced our food service, we've outsourced our commissary
delivery. We've shifted the funding of certain positions to the inmate
welfare fund, which is a fund that's generated by revenue from selling
sundry and candy items inside to the inmate population. That's
something that's a burden that's not borne by the taxpayers. So we do
look very aggressively at outsourcing.
Page 20
October 16, 2007
The reason why you see your cost per day going up is because
we've built a new facility that's not quite over capacity, and the best
way to get your cost per inmate down is to have an overcrowded
facility. So -- and that's -- when you look back at the chart, you know,
back in the days when we were like at 50 and 60 dollars, it's because
we had, you know, more than 300 over our capac -- over our rate of
capacity.
And so with the same amount of corrections staff and the same
amount of kitchen and everything else, you've got those blend-ins that
kind of look like economies of scale, but it really wasn't.
So now we've built this brand new great, big facility, and you
have to staff it as though it's going to be full occupancy every day.
And so when you blend in those costs, then it looks like it's
completely inflated and left with the impression that it's run-away, but
it's really not. But it's something that is going -- if you take the whole
budget and break it down by the utilization, that's the number that it
comes up with, which is still fairly consistent with the national
average, but it's high for the state. But it's an attributable fact that we
have a jail that's not overcrowded yet.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Brad?
MR. BOAZ: There was a very large increase between 2004 and
2005. I just wondered if there were any specific factors that --
CHIEF SMITH: That's when we brought the new jail on-line.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Page 103, any other questions? Chief,
you just mentioned something I'd like to understand better. You
talked about over capacity, and let's take an example as of 300-bed
building. At what point are you over capacity, at 301 or 310 or --
CHIEF SMITH: You're considered over capacity at 301.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: 301.
CHIEF SMITH: But that in and of itself may not be a reason for
alarm, because what the courts are more concerned with is the overall
conditions of confinement, and that's a term of art. And what they
Page 21
October 16, 2007
look at is, even though you may be overcrowded, say you have 200
more than what your capacity says you can hold, as long as it's still a
clean environment, as long as it's still a safe environment, as long as
inmates are getting the services that they're mandated, such as
recreation and visitation, then the courts really don't inject themselves.
But as the population does increase and go over capacity, it is
more of a challenge to administer that type of facility. Increases in
violence can and do occur, and sometimes you do have to trim back
on programs. But as long as the overall conditions of confinement are
good, there's no harm in running an overcrowded jail.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What percentage of capacity do you feel
that you can adequately run the jail before you reach that critical point
where the courts would intervene? I mean, say you have a 300-bed
unit. Can you go to 320, 350, 400? Can you go 200 above, 300, and
still feel you're providing the level of service required by the courts to
make sure you have a safe and clean environment?
CHIEF SMITH: You could probably get away with a 20 percent.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And that's -- the reason I asked
that, Chief, that is a big buffer -- that's a big buffer to work with
during the peak season when we have an influx and possibly more
incarcerations, and maybe we don't have to build for that peak season
as much if we knew that there was a capacity there that could be
utilized during the crush periods of time, and that was the purpose of
the question.
CHIEF SMITH: And just let me -- let me take that one step
further just to have this on record, that a lot of what you get from the
courts, you know, in regard to, you know, forestalling any action--
and oh, by the way, you know, you talk about litigious, these inmates
sit around all day and write writs and file suits and have fun doing so.
I'm sure you're all familiar with the term jailhouse lawyer.
And we have had some that are very talented, and it's only
because we also have a very talented legal staff onboard with the
Page 22
October 16, 2007
county and the sheriffs office that we've been able to get clear of
some of that stuff.
But part of what is built into any defense is that we have planned
for additional cells, that we're in the process of adding on additional
capacity, that we're not sitting by and just saying, well, we'll just deal
with the overflow and try to make it okay. So I would say that we at
least have to have some planning going on --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Correct.
CHIEF SMITH: -- to take advantage of any kind of defense.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you. Mr. Murray, did you have a
question?
COMMISSIONER MURRA Y: Yeah. Good morning, Chief.
CHIEF SMITH: Good morning.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Relative to the issue of using the
example of 300 and then 20 percent, in answer to the other question
about cost, costs should go down in economies of scale, so to speak,
but it occurred to me, do you not run into an issue of safety and
security if you have an overpopulation? Do you not put other
employees in there to bolster up your operation, or do you leave your
operation with standard roster?
CHIEF SMITH: It all depends on what that population mix is. If
it's misdemeanor, pretrial detainees, then you're probably going to
watch them with the same amount of staff. But if what you see is your
felony blocks getting full and getting over crowded, then absolutely
you're going to augment that with additional staff.
COMMISSIONER MURRA Y: And your numbers take into
consideration those variations?
CHIEF SMITH: Yes, they do.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We're on page -- whoa, Janet?
103 still.
MS. VASEY: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm on 104.
Page 23
October 16, 2007
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Anybody -- everyone done with
103?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Janet, 104.
MS. VASEY: Okay, thanks. Have you done an analysis to
determine at what point you have to start on a new jail, looking at how
much time it takes for permitting and construction and all of that for
your next jail, that you can back into when we have to -- when we
have to deal with it, and that you're, you know, getting to the end of
overcrowding?
CHIEF SMITH: Yes. That's something that we do on a routine
basis. Almost monthly we break those figures down and look at them,
but it's also a huge component piece in the consultant report. The
master plan for jails lists out when those benchmarks do occur and
suggest when you should start the planning stage, the design phase,
and when it should become, you know, brick and mortar on the
ground. So, yes, it is in there.
MS. VASEY: Do you know what that date is?
CHIEF SMITH: I think we should have already started with the
64 beds, according to the report.
MS. VASEY: Well, the 64-bed; I see that one is coming. I
meant the next really big jail that would be like 400 capacity.
CHIEF SMITH: Mike, we put that in here somewhere.
MR. BOSI: That was contained -- the jail master plan was
contained in the May 21st workshop and -- ifmy memory serves me.
And you have to have the caveat, remember that their timing and their
recommendations are based upon their recommendation of going to a
3.8 level of service standard. So they're planning function is
accelerated based upon that recommendation.
But the process of a new jail location should have -- according to
the master plan, should begin within the 2007/2008 planning period
because of the time frames associated with it. And you have to
Page 24
October 16, 2007
consider, if acted upon their suggestion at 3.8 beds, we would be -- we
would be -- right now we would be in a pronounced deficit based upon
that -- based upon that revised upward number of 3.8.
MS. VASEY: So assuming that we still want to stick to the 3.2
or, you know, somewhere around that level, we maybe have a year or
two to figure it out and proceed. I don't think anybody's interested in
the 3.8, including you.
CHIEF SMITH: Well-- go ahead, Randy.
MR. COHEN: One of the things I just asked Chief Smith on the
side is, did you use the old numbers or the new numbers in the study
as well, too, with respect to population, so that may skew the need as
well. So obviously when the study goes through the process, that's
something that they'll take a look at as well.
CHIEF SMITH: That's an excellent point. And then also, when
we look at the numbers and try to determine when to bring new jails
on, at least internally, you know, we use actual utilization. We don't
really, you know, schedule it on the LOS need.
MS. VASEY: Oh, okay.
CHIEF SMITH: We actually do that by what our utilization has
been.
MS. VASEY: Okay. One last question. Regarding your beds,
you take -- you take 42 beds out that are on the first floor for concrete
beds and medical beds and holding cell beds when you're figuring our
your capacity -- your total capacity right now is at 1,444. Don't you
count those beds when you're -- people are in those beds when you
have your count, aren't they, when you come up with your 1,245?
CHIEF SMITH: Yeah, yeah. Let me explain that a little bit.
The part of the state law that mandates that all the jail commanders,
sheriffs, association of counties get together and come out with what
they call the Florida Model Jail Standards, and that's basically the
guidebook we have to run a jail by. And they tell you what you can
count and what you can't count as far as what your factor capacity
Page 25
October 16, 2007
beds are. And they say, in that document, that you cannot count these
types of beds towards your rated capacity.
The answer to your question is, yes, we do utilize them every
day. Yes, we do have inmates in them. Yes, it does help us when we
talk about our overall population. But when we're planning jails and
when we're sitting here doing LOS, we just have to understand that
that isn't something that we can count towards achieving beds under
an LOS.
MS. VASEY: But you wouldn't necessarily have to break open a
new tent, you know, for maybe the first 16, or maybe the first 32; the
16 on the concrete and the 16 in the cell beds or something, because
you actually do have a place at least for them temporarily?
CHIEF SMITH: Well, the 16 beds that are on the concrete beds,
those 16, those are just for when you're arrested, they stick you in the
cell until they transfer up to the main housing.
MS. VASEY: Oh, okay.
CHIEF SMITH: So that's for a very transient population. Most
times those beds are not utilized, you know, because you'll have your
heavy peak booking times during the day, and ifno one's being
booked, those cells are empty and you can't really put someone in a
holding cell for their housing. The rules say you have to have them
moved out within six hours.
MS. VASEY: Oh, okay, thank you.
CHIEF SMITH: Now, the beds that are in medical, those are
occupied all the time but, again, they want you, you know, for the
purpose of any exercise, to treat those as transit beds. They're just in
there until-- you know, they're not infirmed to the point where they
need separation and then they're placed back in the general population.
And the same with the other 16 holding cell beds. So, yeah, we
utilize them, we have people in them, but it's really not something we
can count as part of our rated capacity.
MS. VASEY: Thanks.
Page 26
October 16, 2007
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Donna?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah. I just wanted to make a
comment with respect to preparation for the next major jail, and it has
to do with our conversation yesterday on parks.
One of the things that's throwing the park numbers way out of
whack is this 625 acres that we are being given by the state for the
offer of vehicle people. And it's my contention that a -- there aren't
that many offer of vehicle people and that we should be utilizing those
625 acres in a, perhaps, more creative way, one of which, I think,
would be to use some land -- I don't know how many acres you would
need for ajail-- 10 maybe, you know, if that, for that purpose, and I
just wanted to throw that out and get it on the record, and hopefully
people will start talking about it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any other questions on page
104?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: 105 is a map. I hope you don't have any
questions on 105.
106?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: 107?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That brings us to the end of jails.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I have 107.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Brad.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The populations that you use in
your comparative analysis chart, what numbers are those? Because, in
essence, between 2005 and the numbers we're using for 2007 is a
100,000 jump. So I think probably one of the most important numbers
in the study is that 3.6, but if it's based on a population --
MR. BOSI: I'm sorry. Maybe I didn't understand the question.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The question is, there's a
Page 27
October 16, 2007
number 317 thou. for the population to derive at 3.6, but that number
really isn't comparable to what we're using today, correct?
MR. BOSI: That was based upon the population methodology
utilized in 2005. So, yes, it is.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So if we put in the way of our
methodology today, that 3.6 would be a lot lower, wouldn't it?
MR. BOSI: Absolutely, correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Could we -- do you know what
the method for 2005 would be the way we're doing it today?
MR. BOSI: Well, basically you went from a 1 -- from an 11.6
percent population increase --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right. I know how we got
there, but do you know the number, the actual number? I mean --
MR. BOSI: It would basically be revised down 8 percent
because the old weighted methodology utilized an 11.6 percent
markup for our seasonal population. Our new methodology utilizes a
1. -- or 20 percent markup for our peak scenario. I mean, that's just off
the cuff. You could revise that down by 8 percent and you would get
closer towards how the current methodology is utilized.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Thanks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You done, Brad?
CHIEF SMITH: I think that's going to bring you really close
back to 3.2.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah. And I mean, I'm just --
in other words, the way it's positioned, it's not that handy. If we had it
with the right population, we could make a better judgment.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are you okay, Brad?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, I'm fine.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Steve, and then Brad again.
MR. HARRISON: Perhaps before we leave this segment we
should revisit your idea yesterday about raising the impact fee for
jails. If you look on page 99, the projected revenues, we have no new
Page 28
October 16, 2007
debt here, and if the growth happened, we have 11 million expected of
impact fees and not at the current unit cost for 163 more beds.
So if we were able to make the kind of adjustments you were
speculating about yesterday, we could be funding to that 3- or 400-bed
level and with commensurate reduction on the ad valorem
requirements to keep this going.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's exactly where I was thinking of
heading.
MR. HARRISON: So ifit was -- you know, if we could increase
by half again as much whatever the per unit impact fee is, we'd be
much farther along toward funding the next expansion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Of course, that will be subject to an
impact fee study, which has got to be done on everything else, but I
think that's the direction we should be --
MR. COHEN: Rather than bringing Amy on up, I spoke with her
earlier and she said that they're about maybe six or seven months on
out in terms of coming before them the Productivity Committee and
the board.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, good. Brad?
MS. VASEY: Is this a full update?
MR. COHEN: Yes, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Brad, did you have--
MR. BOAZ: Yeah. I would like to see the comparative analysis
on the 107 basically reflect the 2006 and portion of2007. It talks
about the trend, the upward trend in our incarceration rate, and as had
been indicated, that has not been true for the period from 2005 through
2007. It's actually more stabilized again.
MR. BOSI: This was taken from the May 21 st workshop level
service comparison study. You're asking, is the request specifically to
revise this level of service comparison?
MR. BOAZ: Yes, because I don't think it's consistent with the
other data that we have in here.
Page 29
October 16, 2007
MR. BOSI: That was -- okay. The only issue is, that was taken
from the jail master plan study and that was based upon the
methodology of that consultant.
I can try to take it back and adjust it towards the current
methodology for our population and try to provide you what those
numbers would be expressed at. That would be the most that staff
could do with that, and I'm not sure how far we could take that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: But this is -- really, this is a pasted page
out of a previous study. I think that's what Mike's trying to get to. It's
not one that they did specifically for today's meeting, so that it's not
something that -- I don't know if it's part of the AUIR process other
than the reference for informational background information. They'd
have to recreate the table from scratch to start all over, I think is what
they're saying, to get the population correct.
MR. BOAZ: Okay. But we do have the population numbers and
we also have the incarceration rates on page 103, don't we? So we
have that information available?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I mean --
MR. BOSI: And I do believe that the information that you're
looking for is really contained in the actual numbers because all that is
trying to give you a snapshot of what the actual numbers were for
2005, what the incarceration rate was.
MR. BOAZ: Right, but I think--
MR. BOSI: Page 103 actually provides what the incarceration
rates were for 2006 and partially for 2007. I can -- I could provide the
breakdown of what that equates to based upon our population numbers
for those specific years, if that would provide a better basis for an
evaluation for the Productivity Committee.
MR. BOAZ: Well, I think this just seems to support the increase
to 3.8, which I think we've agreed, based on the other information in
here, is not an accurate conclusion.
MR. BOSI: And I would agree with that. And back to Mark's
Page 30
October 16, 2007
comment, this is really a static page that was taken from the master
plan for a comparison analysis purpose only. This was -- that was the
only purpose of this, to give you what the level of service standards
were.
Through the discussion, we've fully vetted that 3.8 is -- was
based upon a prior methodology and something that the sheriffs -- the
sheriffs department has not -- is not willing to embrace that level of
service suggestion and is asking for a revision to that from the
consultant.
CHIEF SMITH: Well, let me clarify what the sheriffs office was
suggesting. We're suggesting, is you want to make the LOS for jails
3.8, fine, but we can live with less.
MR. BOAZ: And I guess if this is going out on to the board or
anyone else, I wonder why it's not updated to reflect that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, again, the way I saw the report
that you're referring to, it was a previously done report by another
consultant. They used it as a backup data reference for us to read to
get a flavor of --
MR. BOAZ: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- it, and it wasn't something that had
been recently modified or updated because they didn't need it. It was
more or less for our experience.
MR. BOAZ: I did -- I did hear that in the verbal discussion
today, but that was not the impression I got when I read the document.
And the document, standing on its own, I don't think, reads that
way. That was my point.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. You may --
MR. BOAZ: There are references to that --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- want to clarify it.
MR. BOAZ: -- but it's not accurate.
MR. BOSI: And what I can do, Brad, is for the BCC workbook,
I can provide a -- more of a descriptive introduction as to what this
Page 31
October 16, 2007
section is and the limitations of the information that are contained
within this section.
MR. BOAZ: That would be very helpful.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That would probably solve -- and I note
Mr. Murray, then Brad Schiffer, then Joe.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah. I don't recall whether it
was Brad or Steve that raised the issue about no additional debt. But I
noted in 2005, the debt service payments were 9,770,534, and today
it's 9,761,007. Is there any rolling debt? Are we retiring and
replacing, or is this just payment down? We haven't taken on any new
debt. I just want to have that on the record; is that true?
CHIEF SMITH: You'd have to ask county staff that, Bob.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Can I what, sir?
CHIEF SMITH: You'd have to ask county staff that. We
wouldn't know that.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, you wouldn't know that?
MR. BOSI: There have been no expansions within the past two
years in the AUIR.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
MR. BOSI: There has been no additional county debt. This is
still past debt for past expansion.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Good. That's just all I wanted to
clarify for the record, in fact, we are retiring the debt. Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Brad, did you still have a
question?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, yeah. My question was
still back. Is the population on 107, is that the actual population?
Because in the appendix where you give population, everything is still
an estimate. Do we know exactly how many people were here in past
years?
MR. BOSI: The population in 107 was generated by the jail
master plan off of -- off of a methodology that's different than the
Page 32
October 16, 2007
methodology contained within the packet of the population sheets for
-- at the back of this AUIR workbook.
As Commissioner -- or Chairman Strain had indicated, this is a
static -- this was a static comparison from our 21 st workshop. This
wasn't intended to be updated for the purpose of this AUIR. This was
just to be -- to provide a comparative analysis that was -- that was
provided by the jail master plan that I thought the more relevant -- the
more relevant statistics for this was just the comparison to what the
Florida averages were and what the -- and what the national averages
were.
For the actual incarceration rate average for Collier County, the
best way to do that -- and I guess that's staffs fault for not providing a
breakdown. As to -- for 2006 we averaged 11,198 inmates within our
system. That should have been divided by our population to provide
you what the actual utilization in -- as Chief Smith said, what the
actual utilization rate on this system was at the time, and that would be
the more relevant information for this discussion.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And the question kind of goes,
in the back we have an appendix that lists the population projections.
How come the ones from 2000 forward are still called estimates? Are
they good numbers or are they numbers that you're working -- I mean,
don't we know what the population is, you know, historically?
MR. BOSI: We don't know in the sense that we haven't had the
decennial census go out and actually door by door count and do that
verifying process that goes on every 10 years. They are still -- and
that's a caveat. I mean, with no absolute certainty with BEBR say that
2004, your population was 309,000 people. They still want to put that
caveat with the term of estimate.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But the 2000 was a census
number, is it?
MR. BOSI: Every 10 years is the decennial census.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But it's still an estimate. I
Page 33
October 16, 2007
mean, do we have -- the base number in this report should be a
census-driven number?
MR. COHEN: The 2000 number is a census-driven number.
Anything forward from that is an estimate from the Bureau of
Economic and Business Research.
And I think the problem that happens in a community like this
that has both the seasonal population, a very transient population, and
as the sheriff -- the sheriffs department is a good example of it -- a lot
of illegal immigrants actually capturing the essence of what the actual
population is really difficult to do on a yearly basis.
So what will probably happen in 2010 when we do the decennial
census is that we're going to probably find a number that's a lot
different than what's actually there, and it will also depend on the
vacancy rate that we have right now in our households and what type
of absorption we have in the meantime, because when they take that
count is really going to depend and determine a lot of things about our
population.
If absorption occurs at a quicker rate, obviously, you know -- we
have a season -- we have a vacancy rate, you know, attributed to
Collier County. If you were to take that right now, it's going to be
extremely high. If it was two years ago, it would have been extremely
low, so just like anything else, population numbers have a tendency to
be reliable to a certain extent.
Right now we're in a situation where there's a high degree of
uncertainty and unreliability that's out there.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. Thanks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I bet -- I hope compo planning thinks
twice before they throw more support documents in that are current
because it does raise a lot of questions, and legitimate questions, too.
Joe?
MR. SW AJA: As a general principle, I suggest that the numbers
that we put on these tables and charts ought to be either the current
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October 16, 2007
methodology, 1.2 for peaking and all that, or they should not be
included at all if we can't adjust them, and when we do use them
inaccurately, we at least put a statement by the table or by the chart
that says, this is an estimate or this is some other methodology so that
there's a caveat attached to it and we don't make bad decisions off of
raw numbers and bad numbers. I think it misleads some of us in terms
of, like the 3.8, you'd jump to one conclusion; if it's 3.2, it's another
conclusion. That's a lot of money, and we ought to be careful how
they use the numbers.
And that's not to be critical. It's just to be a positive improvement
in the future that we do that so people will know that. Because we've
had that with every section we've gone through here, the numbers
haven't been matching. And every one of these has a different set of
population numbers, and I'm totally confused as to what the
population of Collier County is.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'll second that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Brad?
MR. BOAZ: Yeah. I'd just like to clarify that table on 107 so if
we do go back and look at that master study again, that table
represents permanent population so it does not have the 120 percent
factor. So that 3.6 would be with the 120 percent -- would be the 3.0
that Mr. Strain discussed at the beginning of this.
And that conclusion that we're rising to a 3.8 level is -- would be
wrong based on that because it's based on that 20 percent difference.
And using the level of service, it should reflect that 20 percent.
MR. BOSI: Once again, that was for comparative analysis.
What the intention of comprehensive planning staffs inclusion of that
was, was for the boards to be able to see what the national and the
state average was for the actual utilization rate of Collier County's
system. 103 provides -- provides that information, and that is -- that is
the responsibility of myself for not clarifying the individual purpose or
the specific purpose of inclusion of what those numbers were for, and
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October 16, 2007
those were for -- just for comparative analysis of systems other than
the Collier system, and I apologize for that.
MR. BOAZ: That's fine for this document. My comment was
towards the updated master study when we come back and relook at
that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any discussions further
on jails from the panel?
Georgia? Georgia, then Mr. Vigliotti.
MS. HILLER: Can you help me out, because maybe this has
been discussed and I just didn't understand. But when I read -- going
back to page 99, the final footnote with the three asterisks, it
addresses, a future jail center, phase one, would provide 400 beds, cost
46.7 million, land cost not included but, you know, Donna has come
up with a solution for the land cost -- and is scheduled to be completed
by 1/1/2011.
How does that statement factor into the numbers above? Because
I see where you address the 64-bed need, but where is this 46.7
million, or is that not supposed to be factored in this? And then -- and
coupled with that, you know, there's the debt service that's potentially
associated with it. What am I missing?
CHIEF SMITH: You'd have to refer that to county staff for your
answer.
MS. HILLER: I seem to--
MR. COHEN: You want me to go ahead and take a shot at this
one while Mike has that look like he's looking at a deer in the
headlights?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Whoever put that paragraph together
ought to take a shot at it.
MR. COHEN: I didn't write it, but what's transpiring is two
things; one, we had a change in population methodology, which
obviously pushed down the Immokalee need as well because we've
gone to that 1.2, which includes our seasonal population.
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October 16, 2007
We've got a jail master plan out there that's based on the different
population methodology. That hasn't been adopted yet by the Board
of County Commissioners, correct?
So what's going to happen is undoubtedly we're going to ask that
that consultant -- and I believe Chief Smith and I will talk about that in
going back and revisiting some of the issues in there because
obviously, in speaking with him based on the need, if you go to that
chart on page 101, when you look at the number of
surplus/deficiencies -- and you talked earlier about getting to that
300-bed number. That doesn't transpire until fiscal year 2016/17, or
maybe 2017/2018.
So there's going to be ongoing discussions with respect to the
AUIR and also their master plan in trying to come up with a realistic
date for when that jail is actually needed. And I think that's what
needs to transpire and that's why it's not listed.
MS. HILLER: So basically -- so if I understand what you're
saying is, is that completion date of 20 11 is not correct at this point?
MR. COHEN: I would assume at this time that that is a correct
statement, but again, I think we're going to have to fully vet the
county's jail's master plan, and again visit all the issues and then come
up with what I would consider a realistic date. And this is something
that their consultant probably should go back and take a look at,
because I think they used the old population methodology.
MR. BOSI: If I could jump in for one second, that is just to
provide you the information that was contained -- and the footnotes
indicates it. That's the information in the schedule that was contained
in the jail master plan, and that was just to provide -- provide both of
the advisory boards what the -- what the professional assessment from
that jail master plan was indicating in terms of scheduling.
This isn't -- it didn't -- it doesn't dictate or doesn't reflect the
actual schedule of capital improvements that are being proposed
within the AUIR that's before you. The capital improvement for that
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October 16, 2007
is a 64-bed expansion within Immokalee that's the sole capital
improvement project within this AUIR.
MS. HILLER: But potentially we could be facing the need for
this other one, in which case the deficit that Mr. Harrison was
addressing is going to be substantially greater than what we're
presented with here right now.
MR. BOSI: That would be only if the Board of County
Commissioners would accept a 3.8 level of service standard for jails.
MS. HILLER: Uh-huh.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Anybody else have any
questions? Oh, Mr. Vigliotti, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I have a general question.
How is the economic downturn and the rate of unemployment rising
going to affect jails on the short-term and possibly long term?
CHIEF SMITH: One more time.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Unemployment is going up in
the county, the economic downturn is causing a problem, a lot of
people are out of work. How is that going to affect the jails, or will it?
CHIEF SMITH: It may have some effect. I don't think we've
been in it long enough to really tell what that effect might be. And I
think that that's something that we probably need to keep an eye on,
because, you know, people who are out of work tend to gravitate
towards criminal enterprise. But it's really too early to tell. And we
don't really see that reflected in the numbers yet.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: That's my concern, right. All
right. Thank you.
CHIEF SMITH: All right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Georgia?
MS. HILLER: Taking off on what Robert just mentioned, there
could be an offset to that in that if we have an illegal population that is
no longer employable, they might migrate to an area where there is
more employment so you might see a decrease in the immigrants -- in
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October 16, 2007
the nonlegal population which might offset what Robert is talking
about. So there might be a net zero effect.
CHIEF SMITH: I suppose that's possible, yes, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Everything is pretty hypothetical in
regards to what could happen.
MS. HILLER: It is.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah. Okay. Are there any other
questions on the jail section from the panels?
MR. SW AJA: Solution to illegal immigration is a big recession,
right?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Pardon me, sir?
MR. SW AJA: The conclusion -- the solution to illegal
immigration is a big recession.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is a big recession?
MR. SW AJA: Then they won't come here.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any--
MR. SW AJA: That will solve the problem.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody in the public wishing to speak
on this issue? Just raise your hand if you would like.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I guess then we're at the end of
jails, and for the Planning Commission's behalf, I know, again, the
Productivity Committee will take it back and discuss it, I'm assuming,
with your larger panel, if that's what you choose to do. I know we
have to take a position on these.
Is anybody from the Planning Commission ready to make a
recommendation or discussion? Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would move that the Planning
Commission accept the report with the modifications that have been
introduced and corrections to be made and recommend approval to the
Board of County Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Bob, could you clarify what you mean
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October 16, 2007
by recommendations that have been -- I'm not sure what you --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: There have been -- there have
been suggestions made by both the Productivity Committee and by the
Planning Commission members to modify some of the approaches that
comprehensive planning would take when it presents to the BCC.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, let's -- ifthere's a second, there
needs to be discussion because I have no idea what you're referring to.
So let's go for a second. Anybody want to make a second on that?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Bob, the problem is, I didn't hear
any specifics coming from -- I mean, I heard a lot of discussion, but I
didn't hear anybody say anything specific. If you could--
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: There were no stipulations, I
agree, but -- and I'll leave it then just as a recommendation to forward
with approval.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Everybody's--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So there's been a recommendation to
forward with approval. And before we go to Randy, is there a
second?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Motion dies for lack ofa second.
Randy, did you have a comment?
MR. COHEN: Yeah. I just wanted to clarify. On page 107, there
was significant talk with respect to modifying that table, and I would
suggest that from the current comments made by Mr. Bosi, that we'll
either modify that table accordingly or have the specific footnote or
notations that will give the Board of County Commissioners the
proper information, the context in which to consider that table.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you. And I'd like to venture a
motion then with some clarity in regards to where we could go with
this. I would suggest that we recommend approval for the jail
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October 16, 2007
subelement, but that we also recommend a reduction in level of
service to 3.0, and the basis for that is that at this time we've been
informed that there is a 20 percent capacity overage that could be used
if needed, and there's the 42 beds that aren't counted that are actually
in use. Well, that gives a total of 1,775 potential beds should there be
any shortfall during peak season, which I think we're adequately
covered based on historical, so that's why I would recommend that the
3.0 be used, which would help lower the revenues needed to maintain,
and that also we look at recommending an impact fee increase, if it
can be justified by the upcoming study for this particular item, on the
presumption that the impact fee total threshold for Collier County as a
whole does not increase. And the reason I'm saying that is, we need to
go back in and revisit parks if I'm possibly looking at a decrease from
that recommendation.
So now that's -- that is the specific motion I'd like to put on the
floor if there is a second.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I'll second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Second made by Commissioner
Caron.
Now, is there any discussion? Is there any things that were
missed that we may want to add in? Brad?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: No. And I'm comfortable with
that -- excuse me -- because the way our population's really set up is,
it's only two months, three months that we have that population that
we're designing from, so it's conservative with the fact that the
majority of the year we're at our lower population in that design.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any other discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. From the Planning Commission
side of the table, all those in favor of the motion, signify by saying
aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
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October 16, 2007
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries unanimously.
Janet?
MS. VASEY: I'd like to have our group talk a little bit.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sure.
MS. VASEY: We might do a subcommittee vote if you want or
we can do it. What I would propose on our side is that we recommend
approval with the understanding that the cost ofthe 64-bed expansion
is probably overstated and maybe we can get something before we
have to go to the full Productivity Commission -- Committee on what
that cost would be.
Then also looking at capacity utilization may not actually need to
deficit 61 beds identified during the AUIR period. We need to start
thinking about the next major jail based on a realistic date as to when
the new jail is needed, you know, something along those lines, and
then I would also recommend a full update of the jail impact fee to
determine if the fees are set at an appropriate level.
Is there any interest in those kinds of issues?
MR. SW AJA: I'd want to add the one that Mark had, which is
lowering the level of service to 3.0, unless that can be shown
otherwise with concrete, realistic, accurate data.
MS. VASEY: Could we have that considered during the impact
fee review? That would be a natural thing to look at and actually have
the study address that level. And I could put it in there.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe Schmitt had a comment in that
regard. Maybe--
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October 16, 2007
MR. SCHMITT: Yeah. I have some confusion here because
you're saying reduce the standard to 3.0. In an attempt to increase the
impact fees, that will probably have the reverse effect. You've
reduced the level of service. You're most likely going to reduce the
impact fee.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Depends on what the impact fee was set
at. We've found from some of the other impact fees that was testified
to yesterday was that they were set at a different rate purposely to
have a buffer there between what was really needed versus where they
could have -- how they could be utilized. I don't know. Is Amy here
to --
MR. SCHMITT: I've got Amy here --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right now we're --
MR. SCHMITT: I have Steve here as well, who did the study, so
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Before we go into that though, Joe, let's
let the --
MR. SCHMITT: All right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- Productivity Committee -- I thought
you had something to contribute to their discussion.
MR. BOAZ: Janet, for purposes of this discussion, I would keep
the 3.2 as approved in this document, but we should look at level of
service when we go forward and look at the impact fees, and that
master study should be updated with accurate population numbers and
also reflect the actual incarceration rates.
MR. SW AJA: I can live with that.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Are you going -- Chief, are you going to
be looking at the master plan? You said it hadn't been approved yet.
Are you planning to do something to approve it in the future?
CHIEF SMITH: It will be presented shortly to the Public Safety
Coordinating Council, who is that body formed by statute to review all
issues pertaining to jail expansions in the county, and that's chaired by
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October 16, 2007
Commissioner Coyle. Once it's been approved at that body, then it
will go to the Board of County Commissioners for final approval and
adoption.
And at some point I'd like to make a clarifying remark, if! could.
MS. VASEY: Okay, sure.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Chief.
CHIEF SMITH: It's in relation to building a methodology or a
strategy that banks on the fact that we're always going to be 20 percent
above population or above what the j ail is designed to carry, and I just
feel the need to make the statement on the record that that isn't
something that we support. I answered a question as to what could we
possibly do. We could possibly do that, but we certainly don't support
adopting a methodology where we're always going to have inmates
sleeping on the floor.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And that wasn't the intent of the
methodology. What it was is a comment that ifthe historic rates
increase because of any peaks, we would have some cover so that -- so
that by the time we got to the next AUIR, if we had to make an
adjustment, we could do it. That was the philosophy that I was
expressmg, so --
CHIEF SMITH: I understood it to be that, but I would have just
felt more comfortable if it had been left unsaid. Some inmate comes
back and sues and said that Chief Smith stood at the dais and said that
we can always live at 20 percent over, I just need that cushion, and I'm
sure my legal team would appreciate me making that comment.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Understood.
MS. VASEY: That wasn't actually in ours. We're going to the let
the study take a look at that, that impact fee study, look at everything.
Is that -- would you all want to vote on that or you just want to take
that --
MR. SW AJA: I'm comfortable voting with it here. Taking it
back to the big committee, they can never have the benefit of all these
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October 16, 2007
discussions, and asking them to vote on something they have little or
no knowledge of is kind of a waste.
MS. VASEY: Okay. All in favor?
MS. VASEY: Aye.
MS. HILLER: Aye.
MR. SW AJA: Aye.
MR. HARRISON: Aye.
MR. BOAZ: Aye.
MS. VASEY: Opposed?
(No response.)
MS. VASEY: Okay. Unanimous.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I think we're finished with jails
then, and we ought to take a break and come back here at 10 after 10
and go onto law enforcement.
(A brief recess was had.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. If everyone would please return
to their seats, we'll resume the meeting.
Before we go on into law enforcement, there needs to be a
clarification on the motion made by the Planning Commission onjails.
Mr. Schmitt, we appreciate your information you supplied. I
talked with the impact fee gentleman, Mr. Tindale, and Mr. Smith's
comments were accurate, that if we lower the level of service, it will
be difficult to then suggest to raising impact fee.
More accurately stated, we probably should recommend that the
level of service remain the same, but in exchange we request an
increase in impact fees but subject to the same ceiling that was
described in the previous motion, and that ceiling being that overall
impact fees in the county do not rise as a result of this request, that
they seek reductions elsewhere so that the package stays the same as
far as the total goes.
And so I would like to ask this committee to reconsider the
previous motion and have it replaced with this motion that I just made.
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October 16, 2007
So I'll make that as a motion if anybody would second it.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I'll second it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron would second it. Is there any
discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All those in favor, signify by saying
aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. All those opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Nobody opposes. I'm assuming staff
understands the clarity of that motion so when it goes to the board, it
goes in the right format?
MR. BOSI: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Great, thank you.
Chief, we're now into law enforcement.
CHIEF SMITH: Okay. Again, for the record, Chief Greg Smith,
chief of administration for the Sheriffs Office.
And you have in front of you the law enforcement portion of the
AUIR that encompasses most of the law enforcement lands and
buildings occupied by the sheriffs office. And just as a reminder, the
buildings are owned by the county. Sheriffs cannot own real property,
so we are dependent upon the county to provide that once we certify a
need.
And I'll stand for questions.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We'll start with the summary
page, page 109. Are there any questions from the panel on 109?
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October 16, 2007
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I kind of do, Mark. Just for --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: This is the only -- or the first
time we're actually essentially buying people. Prior to this we've been
buying land and buying buildings and stuff, right, or is this --
CHIEF SMITH: There's always been a portion of the impact fee
that generates capital equipment that's utilized by the sheriffs
deputies.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But is this -- this is not
providing anything to do with their salaries or -- in other words, we
rate it 1.9. Is that the equipment to support 1.96?
MR. BOSI: 1.96 is your officers per population. That's been the
standard within law enforcement during the AUIR purpose since the
inception of the AUIR. What they correlate that to is once the specific
number of officers gets beyond a threshold, then that correspondingly
relates to the need for the capital improvement to house the additional
officers.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So this is to equip, and the
denominator is just people?
MR. BOSI: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any other questions on page
109?
Janet, I know you've got to have some questions, then Joe.
MS. VASEY: Yes, please.
Chief, on this one, I don't know that I noticed it so much last year, but
this year it seems like the costs of the capital per police officer and the
magnitude of the capital costs -- total capital costs in the AUIR period
are driving up the number of officers that we're showing. It's -- you
don't really -- you wouldn't really need -- well, I guess maybe I should
ask, do you really need, in the AUIR period, 274 more officers?
CHIEF SMITH: We need more. I don't know that the number
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October 16, 2007
would be 274 more, but we absolutely need more. Everything that
we've looked at, all the need generators, and show us that, you know,
we right now enjoy the benefits of some programs and methodologies
regarding patrol strategies that have paid off and have decreased
crime. But at some point we're going to have to try to maintain that in
a growing environment, and that's going to be pretty tough.
You know, I -- when I have conversations with my fellow chiefs
who manage the sectors involving investigation, patrol, and
corrections, they tell me that we're pretty much pushing the level of
effectiveness, and at some point we are going to have to start looking
at adding in more.
MS. VASEY: The new buildings that are coming on-line in '08
and '09 relate to the emergency services center and the -- let's see, the
fleet facilities is already in. No, that one's coming in too. And those
aren't really going to necessitate major personnel associated -- new
personnel associated with them, are they?
CHIEF SMITH: No. The building won't mean more personnel
are needed. We need the buildings because there's more personnel.
There's -- right now we don't have enough space for the deputies that
we have. The emergency services complex, for instance, we're only
one tent in that structure. The whole building's not for the Sheriffs
Office.
We will house the communications e-911 center in that building
as well as the East Naples substation. And currently we are
shoehorned into East Naples Fire Station there in front of Naples
Manor, and that's our East Naples substation, which is woefully
inadequate, I might add, to service the needs of East Naples.
So one of the components of the emergency services complex is
going to be moving most of the East Naples substation into that
facility.
MS. VASEY: Okay. But when you calculate this number of
officers that are needed, you take the cost of the buildings and you
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October 16, 2007
divide it by the capital cost per police officer, the $159,000, and that's
how you get the number of people that are identified here.
And I just -- I can't see how that number is realistic. It just seems
like a -- it's a 40 percent increase in your population in your officers
over a five-year period, and it just seems like -- not that you're asking
for the wrong thing, but just that the methodology here is very flawed.
CHIEF SMITH: The methodology that was utilized -- and this is
just my understanding because, again, you know, our involvement
isn't at that level. That comes from the county staff. But my
understanding is that the 1.96 was a result of the consultant who
performed the study to have the impact fee.
And we've always -- when we've looked at it, you know, from
our side of the house, we've never been comfortable with the 1.96
number, but we also understood that the 1.96 number was just to
derive a timetable with which to add facilities predominantly.
And since most of our deputies we prefer to be on patrol in a car
rather than sitting at a desk, we're okay with that. You know, we've
always been able to live with the 1.96, but we're also concerned, you
know, that we don't want someone thinking that that reflects what the
need is, because the two are very different.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Steve and then Joe.
MR. HARRISON: In talking about the jail, you made the
distinction of core functions and things that are more variable costs.
Just for clarification, does the 1.96 -- these are certified officers, field
officers, or are there administrators and staff people in there as well?
CHIEF SMITH: I think that it encompasses all law enforcement
officers, so it would be some who also have administrative duties, but
that doesn't relieve them of their duties to be a law enforcement
officer. There's -- there are also investigators that are included in that
number as well.
MR. HARRISON: But are HR and finance people in there as
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October 16, 2007
well --
CHIEF SMITH: No, they're not.
MR. HARRISON: -- the core functions?
CHIEF SMITH: No, they're not.
MR. HARRISON: All right. So the capital numbers, we can
assume, are just for the field certified people --
CHIEF SMITH: Right.
MR. HARRISON: -- not for the core functions that we hope to
get leverage on.
CHIEF SMITH: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe?
MR. SW AJA: I almost hate to ask this question. What numbers
would the population 1.96 officers, what was that based on, which
population calculation?
And second question, second part of the question, if you're not
comfortable with 1.96, what number are you comfortable with?
CHIEF SMITH: We're more comfortable with the national
average.
MR. SW AJA: Which is?
CHIEF SMITH: 2.4.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe, you're waiting on the population
answer, correct?
MR. SW AJA: Yep.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Chief, were you able to find it?
MR. SW AJA: Move on and come back to us.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Were you able to find that
population answer?
CHIEF SMITH: Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't looking for it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh. You might want to restate your
question, or whoever it was. Why don't we move on to Steve while
we're looking -- staff is looking that up.
MR. HARRISON: Chief, in the last two years we've talked
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October 16, 2007
about the department's policies on the police cars. Does everybody
need a vehicle, for example, or could we, you know, double shift in
individual vehicles? Because we've projected the need for the fleet
vehicles. Have we made any changes in our policies on who needs
cars and how they're going to be used?
CHIEF SMITH: We do a yearly review of the fleet assignments
and who's driving what, but we aren't adjusting any policies to go to
two officers per car or we're not going to adjust a policy currently that
requires one car to be hot-seated by deputies around the clock because
it's just not economically advantageous.
MR. HARRISON: So you've studied the numbers, and this is the
cheapest way to go?
CHIEF SMITH: That's correct. It's two things. First of all, the
way that we do cars is -- it gives you greater life for the car, which is
very important because, you know, when we had to go back and trim
out $6 million out of our proposed budget this year, we are going to
have to make sure that the life expectancy of those cars are pushed out
another one-and-a-half to two years. We wouldn't have been able to
do that if we were hot-seating cars.
Secondly, it gives the -- a greater visibility in the community that
we think has had a direct impact on keeping crime low, and the
numbers of reports of citations of police interactions that are generated
by members to and from work in those units more than justify the
need, we think.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Did anybody happen to find a
response to Joe's question about population? Mike.
MR. BOSI: On page 121 of your level of service work, or your
AUIR workbook, the third paragraph down indicates where the 1.96
number came from. In 2005 it was the first time that law enforcement
was separated from general government buildings as a segment of the
AUIR. Prior to that we collected impact fees for general government
buildings that covered jails, law enforcement, all other general
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October 16, 2007
government buildings.
We -- the Board of County Commissioners accepted an impact
fee study in 2005, and then the level of service identified within that
impact fee study was 1.96 officers per 1,000. And within that first
AUIR where law enforcement was segmented into its own component,
the Board of County Commissioners adopted that as the standard, the
1.96 officers per 1,000.
MR. SW AJA: Help me understand, if that number's correct, and
that's made off of 1.2 for the peak factor, right, or the 1.33 -- which
one did we use there?
MR. BOSI: That would have to -- you'd have to go back and
look at the impact fee study from 2005, what's the methodology and
the population methodology that was used to establish that number,
and then that would provide the answer for that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. SW AJA: When we translate that, given that 1.96 is right,
which I'm not confident in, we translate that into number of officers,
274.5, and that directly translates to all that square footage we're going
to add, all those officers?
MR. BOSI: If you look at the summary page, the actual number
of available inventory right now is 672.5. The required inventory at
the end of the five-year capital program is 860. That's roughly about
191.5 required to be added to the system.
The system is proposing to add 274.5 additional officers, and that
is corresponding to the square footage contained within the
improvement within the five-year window, being the sheriffs airport
operations, the fleet facility, and the emergency service center.
What has happened -- and it's almost impossible to have your
square footage meet exactly what you need for that given year. So
what happens is, you have somewhat of a surplus, an 84-officer
surplus at the end of this five-year window based upon the capital
improvement programs contained within this -- within this CIP. But
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October 16,2007
the actual officers demanded by the population is 191.5.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Brad, did you have a follow-up?
MR. BOAZ: Yeah, just to clarify. I think for purposes of this,
the numbers that use the 860, it's reflected on page 111, and that's
based on population in the unincorporated area, and I believe that's
unincorporated adjusted for the 120 percent factor.
MR. BOSI: Correct.
MR. BOAZ: Okay. So that does include the 120 percent
weighted factor. And then based on actual permanent population, that
would be close to that 2.4 that you're talking about?
CHIEF SMITH: Yeah. And the way that we look at it is -- and
just to build on what Mike said -- it is not that you need to add in 84
officers because you have the square foot to do it. We look at it as,
okay, this gives us a window where we could add an additional 84
officers before we ever have to start thinking about new facilities.
So we may have it -- you know, I confess. We may have it
backwards, but it seems to me like that's the better way, rather than
have the building drive how many officers you go out and hire.
MR. SW AJA: Yeah, it's kind of like new thinking.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We're on page 109. Is there any
other questions on the summary page? Ms. Vasey?
MS. VASEY: Who -- is someone here able to talk about the
revenues on here, or is -- or can you do that, Chief?
CHIEF SMITH: County staff should really be the one to discuss
any of the revenues.
MS. VASEY: I would like to talk about some of these things in
here for -- and in particular, the loan from the general fund of $8
million. Is there -- can somebody talk about that?
MR. BOSI: I can attempt to address your question. If it's
something that's beyond my level of expertise, I may have to defer to
and try to obtain Susan Usher's impact or input from the budget office.
MS. VASEY: Ifprobably would be a good idea to have Susan
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October 16,2007
come at some point because this is the same question I have on several
different facilities.
Where is the money going to come from to pay off this loan? It's
another one of those situations where we're -- where the account is --
the facility is borrowing money from the general fund, all of their
impact fees are already recorded as revenue, their normal ad valorem
budgets are already recorded as revenue. So where do they get the
money to pay that off?
MR. BOSI: It's going to have to come -- if it's not available
through impact fees, it has to -- there's only one other alternative for
that, and that's the general revenue fund.
MS. VASEY: Well, we're also constrained on general revenue
increases through the tax reform legislation, so I would really at some
point like to talk to somebody about the actual viability of this. It's
eight million here, but I think I figured out that it was like 25 million if
you add up all the different facilities, and I think that's a substantial
issue for cost -- for financial feasibility where all this money's going to
come from.
MR. BOSI: We will -- we will definitely attempt to get Susan to
come over here so she can specifically address the board.
MS. VASEY: Okay. And like I say, several other facilities have
the same issue, and maybe she can address all of those. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any other questions on page
109?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN : We'll move on to page 110, which is the
back of 109. It's not much for us to talk about. Page Ill? Question
on page Ill?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Page 112 and 113, charts and maps?
MR. SW AJA: There's two lines, Brad.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Pardon me? Oh, yeah.
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October 16, 2007
Page 114, law enforcement buildings.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I know that you've stated that
you don't own the buildings.
CHIEF SMITH: Correct.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So I think that this chart needs to
be a little bit modified to express that fact because it does introduce,
again, the thought that you own the buildings. I don't think you made
this chart up, did you?
CHIEF SMITH: No, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mike, is that something that you need to
correct then and get properly corrected?
MR. BOSI: I'm sorry. I was -- I missed--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Page 114, Mr. Murray has
pointed out that under status there's a series of owned-referenced
buildings, and the chief had previously mentioned they don't own any
buildings. They only lease them. Does that need to have an
adjustment made to it?
MR. BOSI: I guess clarified, the county -- we can just place it in
county-owned.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I think that's important.
MR. BOSI: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Page 115? Are there any questions?
Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Chief, where's the sheriffs
administration building going to be or proposed to be?
CHIEF SMITH: It's an addition onto building J, the current
building J of the main campus.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Chief, the -- under government
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October 16, 2007
buildings last year we have the Sheriffs Office CID building. Is that
-- where -- that is still somewhere. I mean, you guys -- oh, it was
transferred over on the prior page, okay. Forget the question.
Any questions on 115? Any others? Ms. Vasey, go ahead.
MS. VASEY: Yes. Orangetree in the last AUIR was in FY -'08
and it's moved to FY-'16, eight years later. Is that -- and I thought
there was some talk about that being a high priority. Could you talk
about what happened?
CHIEF SMITH: I think there was some slippage due to funding,
is what we've been told by county staff, that they don't have the funds
to build Orangetree, and there seems to be some concerns regarding
the availability of potable water. So those are some issues that they're
now telling us that we probably won't see an Orangetree substation for
quite some time.
Naturally that concerns us because that's the fastest growing area
within the county, but that's not to say that we didn't take action on our
own. We were able to form a partnership with the school board who
donated some space next to the middle school, and we were able to
acquire a modular unit that we were able to move out on site and at
least set up some kind of operation, because we understood the need.
Naturally we'd like at some point for the county to build a permanent
sheriffs presence out there in the Estates, but we just couldn't wait, so
we did it on our own.
MS. VASEY: And how many people are you able to handle out
there? I guess it doesn't matter too much because they're in their cars
a lot.
CHIEF SMITH: The staff currently assigned out there is what
you're referencing?
MS. VASEY: Yes.
CHIEF SMITH: I think we have close to 30. That is pretty close.
MS. VASEY: Oh.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Big modular, huh?
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October 16, 2007
CHIEF SMITH: Well, like I said, you know, most of the time
they're out in the cars, but they do have to have a place to base from,
they have to have a place to come back, write reports, take care of
things like, you know, administrative paperwork, submitting
timecards, that kind of thing. But I think that we were -- we were
pretty much pushed by the community to have a presence out there,
and rightfully so.
MR. SW AJA: Could you repeat the reasons why we can't build
it?
CHIEF SMITH: I will repeat to you the reasons, what I was told
by county staff. First of all, there's no funding to build it. Second of
all, that there is an issue regarding the potable water that's available.
I think that most things in the area are serviced by Orangetree
Utility, which is a private utility, and they are at capacity. So that's an
issue.
So I think a lot of it is tied to the construction of the regional
water treatment center out there and the ability to handle any more
capacity on potable water and sewerage. And Joe, you may be able to
talk to that.
MR. SCHMITT: Yeah. For the record, Joe Schmitt. The
Orangetree is a complicated issue, and we're currently under a lawsuit
involving that. But basically there are some competing demands for
that utility in regards to what their providing.
I know they're in the process of seeking -- or submitting a request
to expand capacity, but there really is some problems with sewage
treatment as well for that facility.
In regards to the building of the new facility, as the chief
mentioned, it's really -- I would have to turn that over to Skip Camp,
and it's a facilities issue and it's a funding issue. I mean, that's the
bottom line on that.
I think the manager is looking for alternative sites as well where
he can locate ajail, an additional facility in the county, at least the one
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October 16, 2007
that meets the requirements for both a county Sheriffs Office and that
we can certainly fund and afford for an expansion proj ect.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe?
MR. SW AJA: I think this is an area where we need to look at the
overall facilities and have somebody set priorities about what's more
important to build, the sheriffs substation in an area that doesn't have
the coverage it deserves versus other buildings that we had talked
about in our last -- past day. It's got to be a list to build -- I mean, I
just can't believe that a sheriffs substation goes way down on the list
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I agree.
MR. SCHMITT: -- compared to building a park, for example.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Certainly agree with you.
Any other comments on page 115? Go ahead, Georgia?
MS. HILLER: I'm not sure exactly what, you know, you need
specifically in that type of building. But is there not the possibility of
leasing something out there? Is there nothing available in this market
that, you know, could temporarily maybe satisfy what Joe is pointing
out is, you know, a real need?
CHIEF SMITH: We looked into that possibility. And the big
thing with leased space is the amount of parking spaces they'll give
you along with your lease, and that becomes problematic pretty
quickly when you try to set up a storefront situation.
I think that the solution that we're in right now, although it just is
never meant to be a permanent solution, it's just temporary, but it does
suit our needs, and we are present, we are in the community.
So I think that that probably -- we're probably better there right
now than any leased space. But, quite frankly, out there right now
there's just two little strip malls and another one that's currently under
development, but neither one of those would probably be suitable.
MS. HILLER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Steve?
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October 16, 2007
MS. HARRISON: Chief, I gather the airport center is under
construction now, 207/208?
CHIEF SMITH: That is correct.
MR. HARRISON: I just wanted to repeat our oft-stated
questions. This is basically for interdiction of drug traffickers by
water or looking at illegal immigrants coming ashore. This is a very
expensive operation both in terms of operating costs and capital costs
compared to policing our streets, and taking Mr. Swaja's comments on
priorities, this one seems to be out of place.
CHIEF SMITH: Which one are you referencing?
MR. HARRISON: Airport operations, 18 million more dollars
for hangars where we've got, what, four aircraft and six pilots and stuff
like that going on out there.
CHIEF SMITH: Well, it's a lot more than that. Some of it I can
share with you, some, because of operational security, I can't. But I
will tell you that there's going to be a whole lot more housed there
than just airplanes and boats. It's going to be the entire special
operations unit, which is about 100 men strong. It's going to have
some other elements related to domestic security housed within, and in
recent meetings with the county manager, there's even some talk of
going ahead and finishing out the shelled-out third floor so that we can
move additional sheriffs out of the Horseshoe building, because I
think the strategy is at some point that we would vacate the building
on Horseshoe and let the county assume that.
MR. HARRISON: But as domestic security, do we have an
federal grants helping us with this?
CHIEF SMITH: Absolutely. But you usually don't get federal
grants for the brick and mortar, typically.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. lIS, if that wrapped up the
questions on page lIS, we'll move on to 116.
Brad, I knew you were going to ask a question on 116.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, again, population. Mike,
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October 16, 2007
how did you -- what are these numbers we're seeing for population on
that chart? And they're referencing the year-old population study. Isn't
there a way we can update these things at the time of publication?
MR. BOSI: Once again, this was information that was contained
in your May 21 st for comparative analysis. I guess there can be the
endeavor to undertake it to update it with the new methodology in
terms of how that's going to reflect the numbers on 116, going back
and kind of changing the past with our new methodology, if you've
seen the value in that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, I'm not -- yeah. I mean,
the whole thing is based upon population being the denominator. So
that means there's a numerator and a denominator. If the denominator
we can't trust, then the equation doesn't become all that handy. But
anyway, the information because -- I mean, it's just, we have to
approximate what we think it would be from this point on, right?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Tindale?
MR. TINDALE: A couple comments. The impact fee study --
and again, I've not been involved in any master planning study. The
impact fee study takes what we call a functional population. You go
into some communities and you have a huge number of people who
move into the community during the day, and in some communities
we have a lot of people who move out of the community during the
day.
And for law enforcement, the AUIR numbers are not numbers
that we use to calculate our functional population and the sheriffs
needs. But we -- what we have to do is we have to do the study, we
calculate all the employment that comes in versus the few people that
go out, the daily population, the weighted seasonal population, then
we come up with a reasonable number that we think we have to
calculate law enforcement, what's being provided, and the standard
that's being provided.
Then we have to back solve when we get through and calculate a
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October 16, 2007
number that goes into a report that goes to DCA. And I just want to
be sure you understand that there's a lot going on in terms of the needs
of the sheriffs, the calculation, the asset per officer, et cetera, versus
what they need in terms of total people they serve on a 24-hour basis,
which we call a functional population in these calculations.
And to try to, you know, type something up, I guess, that says to
be consistent statewide and to use BEBR in the peak season what you
do for most of your facilities, and then put a footnote in here about
how we really deal with functional population when we do analysis of
needs and impact fees, would be an extraordinary task.
But as we do the impact fees and the calculations and work with
the sheriff, we bring you a set of numbers that vary significantly -- not
tremendously different than this, but are different than this, and they're
very logical and I think it works very well.
And I think we need to be very careful about what we're trying to
do in the AUIR report that goes to the DCA and these references back
and forth to functional population. Any area that we want to be
careful with that would be in the sheriffs, because the sheriffs
departments clearly have different demands in terms of how your
population moves around during a 24-hour period than most of the
other types of facilities we do studies for.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So what you're saying is that
this number is the functional population number?
MR. TINDALE: Well, I've got the -- the number we gave you,
for an example, we come up with 2.13 people on the average during
the day when, whatever method the old method, the weighted, was
1.96. We're like 20 percent higher because you have a lot more people
who live outside the county that come in here during the day that have
nothing to do with maybe some other general planning. These are
employees and they're working and not going to parks, those types of
concepts.
So from a planning and an impact fee perspective, we were using
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2.13 and back solving at 1.96, and that's -- I think that's about a 20
percent -- only 15 or 18 percent difference between the two numbers.
But we do have a solid number, we have a solid methodology to
estimate the number of people that the sheriff has to service each day.
It affects the impact fees, it affects, you know, projected revenues.
That's just one comment.
Of all the ones you're dealing with, trying to get a handle on level
of service and population, the sheriff is the one that's probably the
most difficult in terms of making footnotes.
The other general comment I'll make in terms of financing in the
budget, in '05 you had no impact fees, so 100 percent of everything
you did was with general funds, et cetera, and this is one of those
departments that you go through a transition, and that's where you're --
you're in the middle of a transition with your revenue sources. You
can't blame the sheriffs department. They come in and we say, go to
an impact fee, do a revenue projection, and let's just put in your
budget impact fees.
Well, there have been no impact fees in the past. They're not
about to drop all your local funding to build your facilities and go to
impact fees. So you've gone from 100 percent of your funding
without any impact fees, '05 when we did the study, and '06, I think
you dropped down to -- about 75 percent of your revenues were not
impact fees and now you're at about 50 percent.
So as time transitions on -- I mean, look at right now with the
permitting. The fear of the permitting and what we would do. We'll
have to consider that. But as time goes along, what you will see is that
there'll be less reliance potentially in the capital for budget for general
fund, et cetera, and more and more impact fees.
You have some service areas that have zero financing other than
impact fees. This service is going from 100 non-impact fees to 75
percent, to 50. And over the next five or six years, you should see a
continuation of a transition if things work out in terms of the revenues,
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October 16, 2007
that the impact fees will become a larger part of the budget, but they're
in this transition process, and that's very difficult to put in a five-year
plan or 10-year plan wherein you're in this process of just adopting
impact fees two years ago.
So the whole budgeting process in terms of bonds and debts and
revenues and impact fees clearly are in their transition fees. And I
know the budget people can answer questions, snapshot this year of
what's being projected over the five-year period, but you should see --
and I think the goal is, become less tax dependent, more impact-fee
dependent, but you're going to do that very carefully over the next five
years for the sheriff.
So for all the ones you're dealing with, both in terms of
population and budgeting, you've got one, a different methodology
needed in terms of the functional population that we're servicing, and
two, you've got a transition going on because you've only adopted
these two or three years ago.
So I just let you know, when you're looking at these numbers,
that we're trying then to sit down and kind of back solve numbers to
go here and generate a report for DCA.
MR. SW AJA: That was very helpful.
MS. HILLER: Yeah, very helpful.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you. Georgia, go ahead.
MS. HILLER: Based on your review of the numbers that we've
seen today, is it your opinion that the impact fees that are currently
being levied for the benefit of the sheriff are understated?
MR. TINDALE: Well, no, they're in a transition. And, for
example -- I give you one example. It's the City of Plant City I did in
1990, and they had no assets, and they put a bond out and started
retiring the bond. And they had a very low impact fee and they used
impact fees to retire it.
Well, they finally got the asset owned. By now you have some
bonds. When you've got bond in debt, you really haven't owned the
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October 16, 2007
building yet. They transitioned from one of the lowest impact fees in
1990 in the state to -- I think theirs are higher than yours because
they've got a nice facility and they've got some assets for their officers
that they now own.
And they went through a -- that's a, what, an 18-year period of
transitioning from no assets and using general fund to now going to
impact fees and creating the assets and having fees that are reasonably
-- not reasonably high. I think they're probably higher -- probably
they are higher than yours because they moved and they own those
assets. And you're just in the middle of that, that process, in terms of
the sheriff, in terms of leased, owned, using debt, and then using
impact fees to pay the debt, get it paid off, and then the fees changing.
MS. HILLER: But aren't we moving forward in a little bit of a
dangerous situation because, you know, development has slowed
considerably? So your projected shift from ad valorem dollars to
impact fees, but we're not seeing the growth that would generate those
fees. So I'm not quite sure how, you know, what you're proposing is
going to play out over the next five years.
MR. TINDALE: Well, to be honest with you, two or three years
ago I thought the sheriff was probably being overreactive not to
become dependent upon impact fees. Two years ago I just thought
that would -- that just didn't make sense, and now it's very obvious
that it was a good decision.
So I think they've got a good mix here. They've got impact fees
and the tax. The taxes don't go down that much when growth slows.
So they've got that base still sitting there guaranteed. Now, if growth
picks up and occurs, then they can -- they'll have the fees and they can
then adjust their budget.
So I think they've done a good job of the reliance and the
transition from where they were to where they are. Once they get
caught up and get these assets on the books and they own them, then
they can feel much more comfortable about relying on the impact fees,
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October 16,2007
you know, in the future, and I think that transition will continue over
the next few years.
MS. HILLER: One question, Mark.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead.
MS. HILLER: Yesterday you told us, you know, how much the
sheriffs impact fee is versus parks. Can you repeat that number; like
what is the park impact fee relative to a house --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I had asked staff for a rough idea
of what the impact fee levels were, and I believe they said $3,000
approximately for residential for parks -- for both parks; 240 for jails
and I --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: 30.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- 130 for law enforcement.
MR. TINDALE: Okay. Multiple reasons for that. Number one,
the two assets you own in the community that are the most capital
intensive is transportation and parks. If you look at any lO-year
period in your investment capital and operating, transportation and
parks, anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of all money is in capital,
transportation and parks.
Largest asset, largest asset per person, most expensive capital
asset you have. Those two always will be four to five times the asset
per person than all the other ones.
Fire, EMS, law enforcement, is very operating intensive, very
expensive. Just think of the number of people per square foot in a
park that you operate and the people per square foot in a fire station.
So you're always going to have the capital part, and that's what impact
fees are in your budgeting purposes.
You're always going to have much less capital needs, much
larger impacting operating budget. The worst thing you can do is
pump in a bunch of capital into a fire/EMS and not be able to staff it.
The capital portion of those facilities is nowhere near the issue of
transportation and parks. That's just good -- well, it's not good
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October 16,2007
planning, but it's just facts. Been that way for -- there was studies
done in the '60s, '70s, and '80s that show a huge percentage of budgets
in transportation and parks as capital. Very small percent of budgets
is capital for fire, EMS, et cetera. Even schools are capital intensive
but very expensive in the operating costs.
So you're going to have the fees lower for fire, EMS, and parks
because they are just absolutely in terms of capital value per your total
population. They're one-tenth the asset per person in this community
as transportation and parks, so the capital's going to be one-tenth. Just
a fact of life, and you're not going to get fees to pay for capital that
you don't generate that demand or you don't create that asset.
And what happens in the example in law enforcement, it is so --
so operating intensive that capital gets ignored even though it's not --
you know, the significant value of the law enforcement's capital is
inconsequential compared to transportation, but because it is, it doesn't
get paid attention to.
So what we do is we go and do a study on -- and an operation
that's very low in capital intensity, but there's none there to begin with
so the fees are $150, not 400, and it takes them years to get to the 400,
but they will never be at the 3,000.
They'll be -- you'll move from the 150, which about half of that's
reduced because of credits. You move to 3- or $400 impact fees for
sheriff, but you'll never move to the 4,000. It will be the 400. So the
transition's going to be gradual. And according to what actually
happens in growth, you'll move the fees up.
But you're going to go from one-tenth to one-eighth of those fees,
when you get them to where they need to be, and then you're going to
have a lot of operating costs to support that increase, you know, asset.
So every time you spend a few bucks to build a place for a police
officer, you got a lot of operating costs that you're still going to have
to fund in your operating budget.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Georgia?
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October 16,2007
MS. HILLER: Addressing what you said, looking at page 109
you're looking at total expenditures of 65 million. What portion of
that 65 million relates to capital expenditures?
There's a footnote down here, for example, that, you know, the
17 million relates to debt service for the fleet airport operations
building and so forth. I mean, is there a possibility that the impact fee
-- you know, I agree with you that what you say makes perfect sense.
I mean, obviously the sheriff is more people heavy as opposed to
buildings heavy.
But in the next five years it seems like there's a need for some
major capital expenditures.
MR. TINDALE: Well, you've got two numbers. You've got to be
careful of the expenditures. One, you've got debt, which is, you're
paying on an asset that you already have on the ground. Well, you
pay for an asset you have on the ground, when we do impact fees,
because you have debt on it, I can't put it in the impact fee yet because
people who are already here haven't paid for it.
So this is the reason this is a little bit more complicated than all
the rest of them. You have this case going on to where you're trying
to create this capital asset you kind of ignored for a while, and from a
budgetary perspective, you've got debt to pay for the existing item on
the ground that I can't charge impact fees for or -- and you have debt
for new construction you need to build mixed in with these
expenditures in terms of the actual new assets coming on the ground.
MS. HILLER: So that the -- what we have was not being funded
by impact fees, the debt that was incurred wasn't being funded by
impact fees from 2005? I mean, I don't know how old this stuff is.
MR. TINDALE: Well, and Amy can talk about what we're -- I
think what we're trying to do, and what they're doing is they're going
into debt, and they're almost making a loan and then using impact fee
revenues to actually retire it.
MS. HILLER: Right.
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October 16, 2007
MR. TINDALE: And that's legal. You can do that. But what I
can't do is you can go into debt, owe it, and it doesn't help me get the
fees up because you don't own it yet. As soon as debt's retired, the
asset goes up. It's kind of a circle you go through to where as soon as
you pay down the debt, the fees go up, you pay it down faster. You
pay it down, the asset goes up and we pay it faster. And we get more
into the impact fee revenues, but you've got a combination of existing
debt, loans is what I call it. It's an -- it's an interest fee.
Somebody -- some tax base is paying debt and the impact fees
are paying it back, and the impact fees right now aren't being charged
interest on that. I believe right now it's kind of being looked at as an
interest-free payment. But that's the sequence that's going on now.
And you're basically going through a transition from a
nonasset-based, lease-based underfunded capital to using debt and
impact fees to transition to the point where their assets are brought up
where they should be in terms of their officers and their support. And
that's the reason it probably looks a little more complicated than some
of the other facilities.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any other questions on page 116
ofMr. Tindale? Brad?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Question, Mr. Tindale. The
replacement value, is that allowed to be paid for by impact fees?
MR. TINDALE: What we do is to take your current asset that
you own and divide that by your population, and we calculate an
impact fee. Once we calculate that impact fee, I can -- we can -- you
can spend that impact fee on anything that has to do with new capital,
whether it's a new building or whether it's debt. You can do either
one.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MR. TINDALE: And what they're doing here, I believe, is
paying debt. In most cases here, the impact fees is paying for a loan.
It's not because you've got this deficit. It's not being -- it's not -- we
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October 16, 2007
don't have enough impact fees to pay for the loan and build a new
facility .
So you've got to -- principally what you're doing is building
assets and using impact fees as the actual retirement of the debt as fast
as you can. And the faster you grow, the quicker you can pay that off.
If you grow a little slower, the revenues aren't there. So it's kind
oflumpy in terms of what's happening now. And historically, these
impact fees would be projected to be out there and this debt would be
paid off much faster and the fees would go up much faster.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I got it. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any other questions on page
116? Janet?
MS. VASEY: I have a question on the -- on 2007, the certified
law enforcement officers, the number is 648. And just note that '06 is
672. Now, if you go back to page Ill, we start the '07 year with
officers available of 672 instead of the 648.
Could you explain -- it looks like we look the '05 number instead
of the '07 number -- instead of the '06 -- the '06 number instead of the
'07 number. Sorry.
What I'm saying is on Ill, instead of 672, it should be 648
looking at the data on 116.
CHIEF SMITH: Yeah. That's what it seems to me as well, and
the only differentiation that I can make is possibly one is expressed in
fiscal year and one is expressed in calendar year, but I don't know that
that's the case.
MS. VASEY: The difference is from the drill dropping out, the
24 drill officers.
CHIEF SMITH: Right.
MS. VASEY: So I understand the difference, but it just seems
like we've started at the wrong start point of the AUIR period, which
then would affect the number of officers by 24. If that -- I won't go
any further with that. If that is the case, could you just adjust these for
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October 16, 2007
the BCC?
MR. BOSI: I will definitely update it with the 672.5 number in
the corresponding calculation, that that would get to officers per
thousand.
MS. VASEY: Okay. I would think that it would fix, in Ill,
changing the 672 to 648.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You know, you might want to check,
Mike, to make sure the table on 116 wasn't one in progress, because
the 207 (sic) isn't complete. The year is not over. I'm not sure if
they're going to hire any more people, but it may have impact on how
many officers you have in 207 (sic). Or is that just a pure calculation?
MR. BOSI: That's potentially a true and real issue.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
CHIEF SMITH: And we report this by budgeted billets, not feet
on the ground, so that wouldn't change.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Like I say, I don't really need an answer
now, but if that is the case, could you just change that for the BCC?
MR. BOSI: And if that is the case and if we do not have 272.5
available right now and we only have 648, that's going to change the
expression of officers needed within the -- within the five-year
program. It will have an effect upon that as well. I just wanted to
point that out.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Page 117?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Page 118? And Chief, I got to make
a confession. That auto dial that I have in Golden Gate Estates that
keeps calling in calls for service, I never thought they would generate
the only increase in kind to 104 percent, but that's got to be it.
Is that reading it right under the Estates? We've --
CHIEF SMITH: That is reading it right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Wow.
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October 16, 2007
CHIEF SMITH: What happens when you stand up a substation
in an area that previously did not have law enforcement is you
generate a lot of calls for those deputies who are on patrol now in
those sectors. And so you see a dramatic escalation in that. It's not
that crime went up; it's that crime went on every day out there
unreported and undealt with. And now that we have assets in place to
do that, you know, we report the numbers and that's where they fall.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, since you've got negatives in all
the rest of the county, could you move all the deputies to Golden Gate
Estates, please? I'll even give you a street address to move to them to,
if you'd like.
CHIEF SMITH: That's exactly what we did, actually.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good. Any questions on page 118?
Brad?
MR. BOAZ: Yeah. Is there any specific reason you're aware of
that we seem to -- 2005 seemed to be a peak in every area as far as the
number of calls?
CHIEF SMITH: You know, we really can't. It's just the calls
that came in that year.
MR. BOAZ: We were very vigilant or--
CHIEF SMITH: Well, you had a hurricane that you had to
contend with in 2005. I'm sure that was a tremendous call generator,
and you know, I didn't go back and call the history, but that could be
one reason as well.
Thank you, Randy.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We'll move on to page 119.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Page 120? Brad?
MR. BOAZ: Can I ask just a quick question on 119; what is the
part one crimes; could you just explain what that is?
CHIEF SMITH: A part one crime is those crimes that are
utilized by the FBI to determine what your crime rate is. And what
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October 16, 2007
part one crimes are your more serious felonies along with property
crimes, and that's what a part one crime is. Burglary to both a -- either
a car or your house is a part one crime, along with robbery, rape,
homicide. Those are your part one crimes.
MR. BOAZ: I'm very encouraged by those going down.
CHIEF SMITH: And almost, without exception, all of our --
predominantly all of our part one crimes are related to part one crimes
or larcenies.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Page 120? 121?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: 122? Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Question. Units of
development, housing units. How did we come up with them? How
accurate are they? Do they include Marco and the city?
MR. BOSI: Units of development, if -- that is strictly from the
2004 Henderson & Young failed impact fee for our law enforcement,
and this was provided as a -- this was part of the May 21 st level of
service standard workbook. This is -- was part of the comparative
analysis.
At that period of time the question was whether there could be a
different methodology utilized other than population. This was put in
there strictly for the purposes of the benefit of the Planning
Commission and Productivity Committee to let them -- or become
apprised that in 2004 we tried to base an impact fee study for law
enforcement based upon calls for service.
That impact fee study was -- we were advised not to adopt that
impact fee study because it was found not to be legally defensible.
This was put in there to utilize to provide to both of these bodies at the
time of that May 21 st level of service workshop that we had, indeed,
attempted to try to utilize our impact fees and our level of service
standard based upon something other than population; and based upon
our outside legal counsel, we were advised to -- not to go that route.
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October 16, 2007
The units of development contained within that -- within that
impacted fee study were -- from my recollection, were individual --
were individual households.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: This was in 2004?
MR. BOSI: 2004, and this study was never officially adopted by
the Board of County Commissioners because of the advice of the
outside legal counsel because of the defendability of the data
contained within the impact fee study.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Page 123?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And the last page is 124, and that wraps
up all the pages of the law enforcement discussion.
Any questions on the overall package from anyone?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, are there any questions
from any members of the public? If so, just raise your hand.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. No questions from the public, no
further questions from the panels. Does the Planning Commission --
well, first of all, does the -- you guys want to have any discussion to
our benefit?
MS. VASEY: It would be my recommendation to just
recommend approval.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's what I was thinking, too.
MS. VASEY: I don't really have any major issues on this. Does
anyone else?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a recommendation from the
Planning Commission members; Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I make a recommendation for
approval.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a second?
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October 16, 2007
COMMISSIONER CARON: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Commissioner
Vigliotti, second by Commissioner Caron.
Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All those in favor, signify by saying
aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries by how many of us there
are here. Two, four -- six to zero. Okay, thank you. Pardon me?
MR. SW AJA: We going to vote?
MS. VASEY: If you want to. All those in favor of--
recommend to approve, say aye.
MS. HILLER: Aye.
MR. SW AJA: Aye.
MR. HARRISON: Aye.
MR. BOAZ: Aye.
MS. VASEY: Aye.
Those opposed?
(No response.)
MS. VASEY: Okay, unanimous. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Chief.
CHIEF SMITH: Thank you. I just want to take a moment to
recognize county staff for their production of the report and I'd also
like to thank the planning council and the Productivity Committee for
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October 16,2007
this year's process, I think it was probably one of the better ones we've
ever done, so thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you. It's getting better on our
side every year, too, from you guys, so it works real well. Thank you.
MS. VASEY: Mark?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, ma'am.
MS. VASEY: I know libraries are next, but since we're not
actually going to take EMS up as a full review right now and Jeffs
here, could we talk to him and then we'll release him?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, it looks like there may be more to
Jeffs presentation than originally anticipated. He has his consultants
here today.
MS. VASEY: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: They have a summary report that they
can go over with us in anticipation of having less maybe when they
come back because the consultants won't be here again on the next
time we meet. And the next time we meet, the full report now should
be available, so we may have a little bit longer presentation. So that's
up to the discretion of the board. It's up to you all.
MS. HILLER: If they have consultants here, maybe we should
let them go forward so they're not required to wait.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Jeff, are you prepared to -- could you
finish up in -- by noontime with your presentation now?
MR. PAGE: Well, I don't actually have the consultants in the
room, but -- they're across the street, but I could certainly have them
here in five minutes. I mean, they're on standby.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. But are you -- I don't know how
long you were planning to take. Based on your --
MR. PAGE: It would be done before noon.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I think that's a good idea then. We can
get you done and your consultants, and does -- any objection from the
library staff?
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October 16, 2007
MS. MATTHES: None.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Thank you.
We'll just take a five-minute break. Let's come back here at like
10 after 11. That's three minutes actually.
(A brief recess was had.)
(Mr. Boaz left the hearing room and Michele Harrison is
present. )
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. If everybody could resume their
seats. By the way, we had a -- if everybody will come to order. We
had a change-out of participants. Steve has left, Steve Harrison -- no,
Steve is here. I'm sorry. I looked at Michele Harrison's name and I
thought, uh-oh. Brad has left and Michele's replaced him on the
Productivity Committee.
And by the way, the record earlier, when we took roll, Brad
wasn't here. So he's -- the roll missed him, we just want to make sure
all those comments about population were attributed to Brad Schiffer,
so --
And with that, Chief, we'll start with your -- just so everybody
knows, we're not going to be taking action on this. This is purely an
introduction at this point. Action on this matter will probably occur in
our futurely (sic) scheduled meeting, which will be, I believe, the 28th
or 29th, so --
MR. PAGE: Good morning. It's Jeff Page with Emergency
Medical Services. What going to do today, I'm going to pass out--
our consultants are here from Emergency Services Consultants, Inc.
Phil Cowie is the senior vice-president.
I'm going to pass out this executive summary that the consultants
have prepared, which is really a synopsis of what -- the main report
that you'll be seeing before your next meeting. It has all the content
and the backup information for what's provided today.
So if Phil will come on up, I'm going to pass these out. It will
give you something to read after the presentation, but basically this is
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October 16, 2007
what he'll be reviewing.
MR. COWIE: Good morning.
MR. SW AJA: Good morning.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good morning.
MR. COWIE: Appreciate the opportunity to work for Collier
County on behalf of the county in trying to look for ways to improve
and sustain the Emergency Medical Services.
Basically I think what we picture our role here today is to explain
a little bit on the findings of our master planning study in relation to
the methodology for adding units to the EMS system in the future as
population increases and growth occurs.
The master plan project that we took on has a number of different
phases. We evaluate the existing operation. We look at growth and
population and service demand projections, and then we accommodate
an effort to match the future resources of the system to the population
and growth and demand that we see as it's going to occur over the next
15 or 20 years.
Essentially, though, rather than cover everything that's in the
report; the actual report is I think 240 pages or something along that
line. What we wanted to do today was just focus primarily on this
issue of calculating the need for additional units in the future and the
methodology for doing that.
One of the things that we were asked to do in the report was
really to just take a look at the existing methodology that the AUIR
has been using to add growth units, which has been, in the past, a
ratio, a simple population ratio, of 15,000 population per EMS unit,
and that basically was, as we understand it -- the history of that was
that it was derived from a study that was done back in the 1980s on
just basically one single zone within the EMS system that was
considered to be basically operating with a relatively efficient and
satisfactory response time performance and look at the population that
was within that zone being served by that EMS unit, and the number
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October 16, 2007
came up to about 15,000, and that number has been used ever since.
So we took a look at that methodology, and the problem,
basically we pinned down four different issues that we had concern
with there in comparison to the methodology that's typically used for
EMS master planning.
One is that we felt, when you're doing the EMS master planning,
that you must account for projected changes in demographic figures.
In other words, it's not just pure population. It's changes in the
demographics of the population and how that's going to occur.
EMS is not used -- is not utilized by the population evenly across
all demographic ranges. There are certain demographic factors that
will initiate a higher rate of EMS usage than others. Best example I
can give is if you're over 75, you can anticipate probably using EMS
more frequently or more likely than if you're, say, 40 to 45 years old.
So there are demographic issues that play into the use of EMS.
And so to simply apply a static population figure without regards to
demographics was a concern.
The second issue is the definition of geographic scale in this
particular system. In other words, you have a very, very large
geography to cover in Collier County, and simply applying just a
population figure without looking at the way that the population is
spreading out fails to look at the effect that this geography has on
travel time, which then obviously has an effect on response time.
We also felt that the existing system failed to account for simultaneous
calls. That is, as workload increases, there's a higher likelihood of
concurrent calls, that is, calls happening simultaneously. In fact, our
study of this system demonstrated that at certain peak time periods
you can have up to 18 current calls currently in your system.
And that's not a simple linear projection. In other words, as
workload increases, the call concurrency can increase at an even
greater rate. And concurrency affects response time simply because
there are less units available geographically to spread around the
October 16,2007
county to accommodate the workload. So we were concerned about
the lack of consideration under the old formula for concurrency.
And the last item was, just in the last few years there's been the
implementation of the Advanced Life Support Engine Program with
some of the fire districts, and what we wanted to look at was basically
how that ALS Engine Program is being used now, as well as to look at
how it might be or what the potential for that system was in the future
under various models of how it might operate and what contribution
that system could have to the overall EMS master plan.
So, in essence, our report takes in those four factors that I just
outlined in projecting the number of units that would be necessary to
accommodate the future population.
We do this primarily through the use of demographic projections
made by the BEBR population project, and the BEBR studies have
demographic breakdowns and projections of demographic breakdowns
and age groups within their projected population. So we utilized that
population to do our workload projections.
And in also looking at the geographic travel times, we modeled
that using GIS. We projected the simultaneous concurrency of calls
based on the projected call volume that, again, was based off the
BEBR analysis. And then we also looked at the ability of the ALS
engine companies to help cover those concurrent calls.
In other words, to reduce the impact of call concurrency because
ALS engines might be available, at least on some percentage of the
calls, to assist in call concurrency and reduce the impact of call
concurrency on overall response time.
Now, based on that, we issued, within the master plan, a
recommended growth unit population trigger, if you will. We
basically simply said that the static number that was used on an annual
basis is not -- is not applicable or not the best applicability of the
population projections with demographic issues.
In other words, unfortunately when you're doing the service
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October 16, 2007
demand projections based on issues having to do with demographics,
those change from year to year. As the population ages, people move
from one age group into the next age group and the next age group, so
that demographic portion of our calculations is not static. It continues
to change as the demographics of your population change within your
community.
So it was our recommendation that a population trigger number
which previously had been 15,000 that triggered the addition of a new
unit not be a static number but actually change from year to year
based on the projections of the demographics that BEBR comes out
with.
So we have done that and basically produced a chart for the
report that identifies the population trigger point for the various years
from 2007 out to 2030. That's the green column in the executive
summary that I think you were provided. And you can see that that
population number that triggers the addition of an EMS unit is not
static and actually changes from year to year based on the formulas
that were put together from the BEBR population and age group
breakdown.
We also have a resulting population per unit figure that basically
says that if you added the units as shown in the chart -- and this is all
based on population projections. But assuming population grew at the
rate that the planning department identifies and assuming that we were
to add the units at the rate that the formula identifies, you would have
a resulting population per unit figure that is shown in the fourth
column of that table.
So for purposes of this particular group, I think those are the --
that's the most pertinent and important part of the findings of our study
is trying to help identify new formulation or new methodology for the
trigger number, if you will, that triggers the addition of an EMS unit in
the future that is sensitive not only to the geography of the county, but
also sensitive to the demographic changes that are going to take place
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October 16, 2007
in the county over the next 25 to 30 years.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I bet you'd like some questions,
huh? Or you'll maybe not like any, but I'm sure we're going to have
some. Any questions from -- go ahead, Steve.
MR. HARRISON: Steve Harrison. I have two questions. One
has to do with technology. Twenty years ago EMS might have been
an ambulance-type service. Now you have like almost rolling
hospitals in these vehicles. Is that -- is that a factor that is to be
cranked into this analysis? That's the first question.
Secondly, we're all aware that emergency rooms are swamped
across the country. Are you finding that, you know, more and more of
your calls are de facto emergency services where the people don't go
down to the hospital?
MR. PAGE: Certainly we do have occasion -- I'm sorry. Again,
Jeff Page. Certainly we do have occasions where people are utilizing
ambulances as a means to get into the emergency room and seen
quicker.
We have implemented an actual signature page though that
addresses the fact that -- it actually tells the patient, you know, should
your insurance not accept this as a legitimately covered transport,
you're going to be responsible for the full bill, and that has generated
or kind of a correction to that.
Now, there are a number of occasions where we arrive to the
hospital, the beds are not available, and that does delay that unit
getting back out. But the hospitals have worked with us very well in
addressing that. It's not as big an issue as it was, say, even a year ago.
The last -- in 2005 it was a big, big problem. 2006, not as much.
And last year it was not really not bad at all, so --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Chief -- or go ahead, Michele, and then
Janet.
MS. HARRISON: Thank you. Michele Harrison. I'm looking at
your weighted population numbers compared with our report here in
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October 16,2007
our AUIR books, and I'm showing a difference of well over a 100,000
in population numbers. Can that be addressed?
As an example, in 2015, your weighted population projection is
536,000, whereas in our report it's 440,000.
MR. BOSI: Let me interject. At the back of your AUIR
worksheet, your Collier County peak season population estimates and
projections for 2015 projects 534,674. That might have been the
permanent population number that you're referring to.
MS. HARRISON: So these numbers are based on peak for all
your calculations?
MR. BOSI: Those numbers indicated that they're a weighted
number, meaning they take into account the seasonal. The peak
number that we have within the AUIR book is a reflection of our
seasonal population.
MS. HARRISON: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And I think, Janet, you had the
next question?
MS. VASEY: To follow up on Michele's, the numbers still are
not exactly right. Were you just using earlier data?
MR. PAGE: I think when this was prepared, they were working
off the weighted population.
MS. VASEY: But since you're doing it based on changes each
year, it probably is not a big difference, I wouldn't think.
MR. PAGE: I don't believe so, but, again, when you get the final
report, you'll have this. This is pretty much -- we saw this yesterday,
late afternoon, and we did review some of the information, but I think
there was some confusion about whether it would be weighted or peak
because at that time I think we were under the impression it would be
weighted, and it was weighted last year, so --
MS. VASEY: Okay. My first question has to do with what is
your start point. I can see where in '08 you're saying that you want to
add one, but are we starting from the 3 -- the 33.3 that we have now
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October 16,2007
on page 150 of the AUIR? I mean, that -- or, no, the 20 -- I guess we
would be starting with the 26.5. That's the start of -- or the end of
FY-'07.
MR. PAGE: Correct.
MS. VASEY: Okay. So we're not talking anything about the 6.8
that's showing up on the AUIR.
MR. PAGE: Not the deficit, no.
MS. VASEY: Okay, good. You mentioned that you looked at
the ALS contributions. And are you going to count any of the ALS
units?
MR. PAGE: Okay. I'm going to address that. Can I put this in?
We prepared this PowerPoint presentation and that actually -- we're
going to be able to show you how they were factored in.
For the most part, because they're not part of our inventory, we don't
own them, we don't count them as part of our inventory, but the way
that we did add them in was taking a look at how they assist us in the
response times.
In other words, if they arrived on scene, we're finally able to
capture that information to count that as the first arriving unit, where
before we were just looking at our own response times.
So as soon as Mike brings this up -- and there we are. Basically
this starts off and it shows the different agencies that we report to; the
State Department of Health; the medical director certainly has an
impact on how we perform our medical protocols; the EMS Advisory
Council; and ultimately the Board of County Commissioners.
This goes into our mission statement. And I'm not going to bore
with you most of this, but then we get into the current inventory. The
current deficit, we recognize that 6.8 units, if we were to maintain that
one to 15,000, I think based on what the consultants had to say, there
is a better alternative. Again, that's from the current -- what you have
before you.
This just basically shows our leased stations versus owned
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October 16, 2007
stations. And this gets into the response time. The -- currently the
goal is eight minutes or less travel time; 90 percent of the time.
For FY-'06 it was accomplished 81 -- 81 percent ofthe time, and
for the first 10 months of FY-'07, that was 84 percent of the time just
with EMS.
And this basically shows you the different zones. The areas
where you see the bar graphs that are smaller, those are, for the most
part, rural areas. There are some areas there that, because of
concurrent calls, happening one on top of the other, they were also
impacted. That got us below the percentage that we wanted.
This basically just shows -- is a map showing the respective
zones that were on that bar graph.
Now, the fractal analysis for the 11 months of FY-'07, if we
included the ALS engines, we show an improvement of 88 percent
countywide, which is pretty close to what that target is of 90 percent.
So if we -- and this is where we're including the ALS engines. If you
include their ALS response and put ALS engines and EMS together,
combined, we hit 88 percent.
This basically is a map showing the different areas where there's
ALS engines that are committed 24/7. They're in that rose color. So
pretty much the urban area is covered; the rural is not.
Clearly there is a benefit to the ALS Engine Program. Some of
the caveats to keep in mind is it's not countywide. We recognize that.
There's not to say that we may not have a few more of the other
agencies joining on board this next year.
I'm anticipating Golden Gate and possibly Big Corkscrew Island.
If that happens, that will be a benefit. We have to keep in mind that
the agreements can be cancelled. It's happened in the past where
we've had North Naples and the City of Naples both back out within
the same year due to staffing limitations.
ALS engines cannot transport patients. And when there's a fire,
we know that these units are committed to the fire and they won't be
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available for ALS calls.
Generally we know from history -- and this has been for the last
10 years -- 55 to 60 percent of the calls result in a transport. So
primarily when we respond, there's a great number of calls that do not
result in a transport, and that's really why -- one of the bases we went
to ALS engines in the first place, was that we recognized we needed
more ALS response or advanced life support response vehicles and
less transports. And that just gives you a breakdown over the last few
years.
You've got to keep in mind that a lot of these calls are along I - 7 5,
and because of the longer response time, that does affect that
countywide response.
Okay. This -- I'm going to actually enlarge this one a little bit.
Okay. This is an important slide. It has the travel time for both EMS
and fire combined. Now, you can see countywide we're hitting it
about 88 percent of the time. In the urban area, 91 percent of the time
we're making that eight-minute travel time. Now, this is for a full year
in FY-'07.
What we have to point out is, is that in the rural area, we're only
hitting that eight minutes of travel time 72 percent of the time.
Now, you'll notice that there's a smaller number of calls. That's
why it doesn't have a terrific impact countywide, because basically
what you're doing is you're throwing most of your growth units into
the urban area, and that's where the ALS engines are also, and less to
the rural area.
And you can see that 984 of those rural calls were actually on
I-75, and that's the impact they had there.
Good news items. Let me bring this back down to size. These
are showing the cardiac resuscitation rates of patients in defib and
pulseless D tach that arrive at the hospital with a pulse. As you can
see, our target area is 35 percent, and over the last year we've done
very well to get above that.
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October 16, 2007
What's probably more important than this slide though is the
actual number of people that survive the hospital and actually walk
out.
Let me see if I can increase this some. So this is post-hospital
survivals where people are -- actually have survived the postcardiac
arrest and have actually left the hospital, and we're very proud of that
number. Again, about a -- 5 to 6 percent is the national average.
Okay. These are the challenges as we see them. You know, the
biggest one is this. We're trying to operate currently at a one to
15,000 population while only collecting impact fees at a rate of one to
34,000. That's due to the leasing that we've addressed in the past.
Another issue is continuing to define the ALS Engine Program
response protocols. I've got good news there. I think we've pretty
much accomplished that. That should be in place within the next
month.
And then we need to address the response time, urban versus
rural. Some time ago both the advisory council and the Board of
County Commissioners addressed this issue by saying that we should
have countywide response protocol to where we're able to accomplish
that -- that travel time, 8 percent -- or I'm sorry -- minutes, eight
minutes 90 percent of the time. Right now we're pretty much
operating on two different levels.
This current response time, urban versus rural, eight minutes or
less 91 percent of the time in the urban area. Currently we're only
hitting it 72 percent of the time in the rural. The options are to keep
the same level of service that we have right now, one to 15,000. We
realize that would require the seven growth units over the next five
years and a revenue shortfall of 20 million.
Now, the only way to really do that is you take it from the
general fund, and although that would be a short-term solution, it
doesn't really fix the problem, because as the population increases,
that demand for new units will be created and a shortfall will, once
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October 16, 2007
again, start to build up until your impact fees can get back up there.
And you have to address the fact that there's just some areas
where, like in the City of Naples, you can't really afford to buy
property. You're going to have to either lease it from a fire district or
whatever.
Now, this was before we got the information from the consultants
as far as what their executive summary would say. But one of the
options was, was to keep the current level of service standard as what's
in place right now where we're operating at deficit, and that was one to
16,000 per capita and just accept the fact that you're going to have an
eight-minute urban response and basically a 12-minute rural response.
And this does take into account the ALS engines. That would
bring down the shortfall to 11 million.
Or this is the worst-case scenario where you just say, okay,
accept the fact that, you know, the capital-- or the impact fees are at
one to 34,000, and you just lower your level of service to meet that
demand, and then there's no financial issue. The downside of this, of
course, is the patient treatment outcomes would probably suffer.
And when we had seen the first draft or some of the preliminary
information from the consultants, you could consider, you know,
changing the response zones to which you have a varying response to
which we've talked about, an eight-minute response in the urban areas
and 12-minute response time for rural to address that issue.
Some of the other recommendations that you can look at that are
done in different areas of the nation is you accept response time
standards based on the critical nature of the call to where not every
call is an emergency. You accept the fact that in some cases you're
going to be arriving 20 minutes on a nonemergency-type call.
Not to say these calls aren't emergencies. Certainly when the
patient or the patients' families calling into 911, they feel it's an
emergency, but you're basically putting them into one of these
categories and accepting a less -- a lesser level of response than you've
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October 16, 2007
provided in the past.
It's not really something that we would recommend, but that's
basically where it's done in other areas because -- and in some cases,
these are volunteer agencies, things of that nature, where they're not
able to fully staff them all the time.
So basically that -- that's where we were with this presentation as
far as some of the options that we have, and it all goes back to whether
you want to adopt a level less than we currently have.
And I actually reviewed this with the EMS Advisory Council,
and they opted to go to this level of service here to where recognizing
-- and they were very specific in their wording. They did not want to
lesser -- to lessen the level of service that we currently have, the one to
15,000, but they also recognized the financial constraints with that.
And they're -- based on what they had, which they did have this
executive summary from the consultants, their recommendation was to
go to this level here as an alternative, basically, splitting the baby here,
so --
Okay. Questions on any of this?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Steve, and Janet, then Brad.
MR. HARRISON: Just following up on Mrs. Vasey's question
about the starting point. I'm trying to reel in our conversation a year
ago about some units that you had in reserve that were not active. It
was like 10 or 12 units. Am I recalling that incorrectly or--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: There's surplus units, I think, we
discussed at the time.
MR. HARRISON: They may be functionally obsolete or gone,
we don't know, but --
MR. PAGE: No, I've got -- currently I have five units that are in
reserve for trucks that break down, things of that nature.
What we have done in the past is, during -- and we still do --
during peak periods of time we will put up additional units to -- as the
call demand is there, we will put up additional units. We do have
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October 16, 2007
special events that take place on any given day where the public is
paying for this unit to be there for a given period of time.
Currently right now, the Harley Davidson tract out in the Estates
area, they actually pay us to have a unit out there five to six days a
week, eight hours a day. That's the half unit that you see up there.
That unit's staffed all the time.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Janet.
MS. VASEY: Yes. My question really is about the ALS units
and why we can't count some of those towards our -- towards our
number of units. I understand that they're not always available, but
fires, I don't know, used to be about 10 percent ofthe calls and
medical was 90, so most of the time you'd get them. You wouldn't be
able to count them -- maybe some of the ones that were duplicative to
exactly where you are and the exact times and weren't really helping.
But they were looking at your data that shows what response
times were, how they improved between the county and the ALS
times and not. There were about seven units, I guess, that had major
contributions to improving the response times, and it would seem like
at least those units should be counted because they're having a major
impact on your response, which is good.
So isn't there some way that some of these units can be counted
since they're -- maybe you can't count 100 percent, but they're out
there, they're doing the job. It just seems like there should be some
methodology to be able to count them as units, not just response times.
MR. PAGE: Well, I think we are capturing them as units, if you
want to call it that, by counting them as part of our response time. In
other words, if we're saying we're making it 91 percent of the time in
the urban area with their units included, then obviously there's not a
need for any additional units, where before, if we were only making is
84 percent of the time, we would say, look, we're operating at a
deficit. We need more.
So I guess what I'm saying is, I don't think I have a way to
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capture them as part of my inventory as far as a number to plug in
here. But if we're able to recognize their response contribution and,
therefore, say, now we need to adjust this level of service from one to
15,000 because of this impact -- because as I told you before at the last
AUIR meeting a year ago, we didn't know where we were until we
actually were able to include them.
And I'm basically saying we're pretty darn close, if we include
their response time, to where we need to be. If it's 90 percent urban
and 12 percent rural, if that's where we need to go, then we're there.
We're right there.
Now, I wanted to show you this. This is what the fire chiefs who
are currently in the ALS engine agreement have agreed to, and
basically this is different -- and I'll tell you, there was a lot of
resistance to this. Even with my own staff where you have occasions
where just the fire -- the ALS engine, fire engine, is going by itself
and not the ambulance, and in some cases only the ambulance goes,
the transport unit, and not the fire truck.
And this is what -- there's about 23, I think, occasions through
this whole protocol where you've got one unit either responding by
itself or in some cases you have units that are going -- one's going hot
with lights and sirens; the other unit's going cold on the chance that it
could be cancelled prior to arrival.
But the medical director's reviewed all this. He's signed off. The
chiefs of the respective agencies in the ALS program have signed off,
and we're just -- right now we're going to tweak it a little bit with how
operationally that will work, because there's some issues with the
computer-aided dispatch program with the Sheriffs Office.
They can't tell you which units should respond with lights and
sirens and which ones should go cold, so that's -- some of this is an
educational issue within operations. But this should be in place, I
would presume to be, by next month, and so we won't have those
competing units for the same station going to the same call unless it's
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October 16,2007
really necessary or called for.
So that was one of the things that certainly consultants picked up
on. We've been working with the fire chiefs to get that down and this
looks like the fix.
MS. VASEY: Well, what about a situation -- you mentioned that
you might be getting Big Corkscrew to come in. That would be, say,
a unit out there that you'd never had before adding to the system.
Why wouldn't something like that count?
MR. PAGE: It would, it would. In other words, the next AUIR
-- I mean, if our numbers are elevated, you have to take a look at that
and consider it. That's kind of the beauty of this program is it really
doesn't have a fixed number that's not adjusted for the last 15 years.
This takes more into the account the population demographics, things
of that nature. It's not necessarily looking at a fixed number of calls.
But I think each year when we come back to you, we have to see
-- if we see that we're performing better than whatever that standard is,
if it's -- if it's urban eight minutes travel time and a rural of 12, if it's
the standard and we're above that, then maybe next year we don't ask
for another unit. I mean, you've just got to see what kind of impacts
that these units make.
I'll also tell you -- now, there's still four of the growth units that
were approved in FY-'06, those stations have not been completed.
Those units are on the road, but they're not where they're supposed to
be. Once those units are where they're supposed to be, we could see
an adjustment is, again, necessary because we're able to meet that
response time.
So I think we have to play this year by year, and it's just one of
those things.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mike, did you want to contribute?
MR. BOSI: And the only thing I wanted to add to it is the only
reason why they wouldn't contribute to the unit, but Jeff is saying that
they're factoring it into the response time, it kind of goes back to the
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October 16, 2007
impact fee discussion Mr. Oliver (sic) had when he said, even if you
had a building, but if you still owed debt on that building, you couldn't
include that within your inventory charts and charge against your
impact fees.
You know, these ALS engines are owned by the independent fire
districts. That's a separate governmental entity. And to be able to
include the assets of another governmental entity to the assets of EMS
could -- is similar to the lines of why we don't add the lease stations
into it with the impact fees.
But I guess your point is, though, because this is a category B
and because this is strictly a local decision, it isn't subject to the state
concurrency regulations. We can make it -- we can make the decision
as a local governmental entity to say, as part of our monitoring of the
EMS service, we could conclude that we want to inventory the ALS
engines, and that's just something -- I guess something that would be
able to be considered by the advisory boards as maybe an action that
you just want to consider.
But that's why we wouldn't -- we wouldn't classify them as part
of our inventory, but we want to recognize the contribution that the
ALS engines have provided. And when Jeff put up that one unit per
16,240 people per station, what that is basically saying is right now,
based upon the population numbers that we have in this AUIR with
the 26.25 units, that roughly translates out to one unit per 16,240.
That's going to give you a 90 percent response time, or 91 percent
response time in the urbanized area, and it's going to -- it's going to
grant you a 72 percent response time in the rural area.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Brad? Or did you finish, Janet?
MS. VASEY: Well, I guess I'm following what you're saying
and I guess a lot of it would probably depend on what the 240-page
document really says. Will we be having that in the next month -- in
the next couple of weeks or --
MR. PAGE: Let me bring up Phil.
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October 16, 2007
MR. COWIE: I just wanted to add to this discussion just very
briefly. There is a pretty exhaustive section in our study about the
value and the impact of the ALS engines in the response, but I want to
point out that it -- really, when we do EMS master planning, we're
looking at a number of components.
It's such a complicated service that you have to look at it from
geographic travel time, you also have to look at it from system
capacity. And the ALS engine companies impact one more than they
do the other.
The best explanation is, the ALS engine companies can have a
significant impact on the response time issue and the performance of
your response time measurement simply because they can be used to
stop the ALS clock, if you will, a little faster on -- or particularly on
cases where you have multiple calls.
We have a chart, and I was just looking through this as an
example. And we charted the number of times that the ALS engines
within certain zones arrived prior to the EMS unit. And on the very
first call, the difference is very insignificant. One may arrive earlier
than the other, about the even amount oftime. But the amount oftime
that either of those units arrives first is pretty -- is pretty minimal.
But when you get into the third and fourth call of concurrency,
that's when the transport unit is coming from a much greater distance
and that local ALS engine is having an impact.
A particular chart I happen to be looking at here, on the fourth
call, the fourth concurrent call, the fire department typically is arriving
somewhere around five to five and a half minutes before the EMS
unit. That's obviously a significant impact.
So I think the best way to describe it is, the ALS engines have the
greatest impact on the issue of response time, particularly at periods of
peak demand; however, there's a capacity issue, and that is that we
already know that up to 60 and, perhaps, during some hours 65
percent of these patients have to be taken to the hospital, and that's a
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function the engine can't provide.
So I want to caution that as you consider counting the ALS
engines, it's important that you count them for what they -- for what
they can do but not inadvertently count them for what they can't do.
Because as the call volume goes up, the number of patients to be
transported to the hospital continues to go up, and regardless of how
many engines are inserted into the system, that number will continue
to go up, and you'll have to have that many ambulances to take the
patients to the hospital.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Absolutely.
MR. COWIE: So you have to view it both ways. Where we think
the ALS engines will have the greatest impact is improving your
response time performance, not necessarily in capacity, though there is
some impact on capacity because there will be a certain number of
calls if they use the new methodology in which the ALS engine can
cancel the ambulance and return it into the system capacity.
But you have to be cautious because if you've had 48 ALS
engines spread around the county, somebody's still got to take the
patient to the hospital. So I just wanted to point that out, and that's
kind of explained a little bit more in depth in the study.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah. Jeff, just for us and
clarity of serving citizens, wouldn't it be better to pull I - 7 5 and make
that a separate data set on its own? I mean, I think the advantage to
that is that that's kind of an anomaly situation and it's kind of blurring
the rural number right now.
MR. SUMMERS: Good day. I'm Dan Summers, director of the
Bureau of Emergency Services. Granted, you bring up a very good
point, and we're working very hard. You probably saw in the report a
number of asterisks about what's going on with I-75. And I know
Ochopee and Capri are going to present to you hopefully later on this
afternoon.
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October 16,2007
Let me just tell you that we are looking at that very, very hard. We
heard some new DOT numbers today that we just got ahold of in
terms of capacity, and it's not unusual to say that you've basically got
60,000 customers traveling through I-75 affecting parts ofOchopee
Fire District and Golden Gate.
So it is an anomaly. We recognize it. And we're asking for some
time to take a look at that, kind of really figure out what those impacts
are, and really address some of the issues out there on 75. It's an
impact for EMS transport units, it's an impact for MedFlight. It's an
impact for the Ochopee district in terms of resource draw.
So I will tell you that it is high priority on my list to sit down and
look at that. And no doubt, I think we're going to need to bring some
discussion back with you on that overall impact ofI-75.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I think I'm actually -- I'm
concerned about I - 7 5 a little bit. I'm more concerned about the rural
area and getting I-75's numbers out of it so we can see what the rural's
doing without -- because, for example, all the accidents could be
happening on Pine Ridge and they're getting there very fast and the
rural numbers could actually be worse.
MR. SUMMERS: We agree with you. I think the whole -- we've
got to capture that. We've got to get our arms around those impacts
and we are looking at that real hard right now to take a look. I don't
have an instant answer for you, but I will tell you that we're studying
it, because it really is a big burden on these districts right now.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And it should be easy to isolate
it. I mean, the address is the same.
MR. SUMMERS: It's pretty easy to isolate. Coming up with a
solution to address that isolation's going to be tough. We're going to
have to look at a lot of options.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: That's it. That was it, thanks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any other questions at
this time? Go ahead, Steve.
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October 16, 2007
MR. HARRISON: With the slowing of the construction activity,
is that component of the demand decreasing? Are you getting fewer
calls to go to construction sites?
MR. PAGE: I would say so. I mean, I listen to calls all day long.
I will tell you, the thing that concerns me the most is, there are so
many vehicle rollovers every day. I don't think anybody has any idea.
But I'm not talking two to three that I listen to, and normally
that's from seven in the morning till six or so. But -- and generally
they're on I -75. It seems like someone gets off the road a little bit, it
hits the grass and it just flips.
But in getting back to your question, I want you to be clear that
I-75, those number of calls are in the rural area. They're not along
Pine Ridge or any area like that. I mean, they're further out, let's say,
east of 951. I'd say another 20 miles out.
But it -- the number of car accidents that we respond to that are
significant injuries is really -- I mean, it boggles my mind. I mean, it's
one of the things I worry about when my wife's out on the road or
taking a trip every time I hear one, and it's because some of the types
of calls that we have are so significant and result in trauma alerts. It's
unbelievable to me, but --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other questions? Mr.
Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: When can we expect this report
that you're having worked on?
MR. PAGE: They're going to need it a day before, okay? We'll
have it to you before your next meeting. I would say hopefully within
a day before so you'll have time to read it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That would be helpful, okay.
Okay. Are there any other questions at this time? Because this will
have to be continued until the 29th.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Hearing none, we'll finish this
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one up, then we will take a break and -- yes, Ms. Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Just one thing. Our next -- we had an option of
the 26th and the 29th. Could we try for the 26th or --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I -- if you think they can make it on the
26th.
MS. VASEY: Because I think we'll probably wrap everything
else up, wouldn't we, today?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I don't know. I thought we might have
wrapped up yesterday, but I'm not sure we'll get there today.
What do you think, Chief, could you do the 26th?
MR. PAGE: Even ifI have to write it myself, we'll have it to
you.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Let's move it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Then I guess we'll move it--
we'll see you on the 26th then. That means you'd have to get the
report to us before the 26th.
MR. PAGE: I understand. We'll make it happen.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Let's take a break. Is one o'clock
reasonable? I mean, it's five minutes shorter than yesterday. Do you
think we can make it? No, it's not reasonable, Steve?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Don't got to Michelbob's.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, let's do five after one then.
(A luncheon recess was had.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: As a housekeeping matter for the
Planning Commission, just to remind everybody, Thursday of this
week, our regular meeting, is going to be held here in this room and it
will be at 9:00 instead of 8:30, and the reason for that is it was
previously scheduled in the other building, but this entire week the
other building's being used by the Value Adjustment Board. So we
will be meeting here Thursday at 9:00. So don't go to the other place.
And with that, we'll go into libraries. It's all yours.
MS. TOWNSEND: Good afternoon. I'm Amanda Townsend,
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October 16, 2007
operations analyst with the public services division.
The library AUIR for 2007 covers two areas of level of service
standards, the first being square foot of library buildings per capita,
which has remained static for several years now at .33 square feet per
capita, and the second being the number of items per capita. That, we
are looking at right now, at 1.87 items in all formats per capita. This
is a change from what you saw in last year's AUIR, at which time we
were looking at books only per capita.
And as part of the level of service workshop that we went
through in the spring and the board gave us direction on in June, we
have changed to measuring all items per capita as opposed to only
books per capita.
I want to stress that this is not a change in the level of service.
We have always kept in the inventory those 1.75 books, and
approximately .12 items in other formats, that would be audiovisual,
DVDs, CDs, et cetera. And so whereas our old level of service
standard measured only the books, only apples, if you will, we're now
measuring books and audiovisual, apples and oranges. So the number
is different, but the level of service remains the same, and I just
wanted to stress that.
Looking at other changes between last year's and this year's
AUIR. The unit cost per square foot that you'll see for library
buildings in last year's AUIR was $341 per square foot. The indexed
per square foot amount in the -- in accordance with the impact fee
indexing would be $376 per square foot. The unit costs that we are
using in the 2007 AUIR is $421 per square foot, and that number
comes as a calculation and is based on the actual total project cost of
two recently let construction contracts, those being the addition to the
Golden Gate community library and the south county regional library.
So those are -- that square footage cost is now based on what we
know to be actual project total cost divided by square footage.
The unit cost for items in all formats remains what you saw last year,
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and that is $25 per item. The work program that you see for libraries
over the course of five years will be, as far as library buildings goes,
the addition to the Golden Gate library, the construction of the south
county regional library , and the addition at the Marco library.
Do note that the Golden Gate and the south regional libraries'
construction contracts have already been let. Those are somewhat of a
foregone conclusion. And the Marco addition is intended to be funded
wholly by donations and grants.
The five-year program for materials, I'd like to call your attention
to. Last year we came to you and were at a deficit in materials and
projected that we could get ourselves out of that deficit with ad
valorem funded acquisitions of replacement books, at about 4,500
books a year over a course of about four years.
I'm happy to say we've done much better than anticipated. That
deficit is not nearly as severe as what we thought in part because of
changes in population statistics, in part because I think the acquisition
program has been ramped up, so we still show a small deficit in items
or books, but we expect that we will able to overcome that deficit
much faster than we predicted to you last year, so glad to say that.
And beyond those replacement books, you'll see that our
acquisition program with library and materials will just run straight
with population and we'll be doing acquisition in time with the
population growth.
Your packet also includes excerpts from the level of service
workshop that addressed level of service standards and operating
statistics, and we can take those on a page-by-page basis.
One last thing that I wanted to address before we got too much
farther -- because I know Ms. Vasey will be asking about the summary
sheet for library buildings, so I'll just go ahead and get started with it
now, and if we do -- we may need Susan Usher's help later, but just to
start with it, and that is that you'll see the last line under the revenues
portion is a loan from the general fund to assist with commercial paper
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October 16, 2007
loan debt service. That's a little less than $3 million over the five-year
period.
Of course, as we get into the meat of the work program for
library buildings, you'll see that we are going to be satisfying our level
of service standard very, very far out into the future so beyond this
five-year window, we will be assessing library impact fees on those
.33 square feet per capita; however, we won't be building new
libraries. So over the time in the out years, we'll be able to apply those
impact fees to pay back that loan to the general fund.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, good. We'll start like we
have with the rest, and we'll start with page 126. And Steve?
MR. HARRISON: We'll break the pattern here with Ms. Vasey
going first. But I'm under the impression the county has recently hired
a value engineering consultant. Have you had them look at any of
these new buildings?
MS. TOWNSEND: No. They have not looked at those new
buildings I think because the construction contracts have been let at
this time. It may be -- it may be a little late in the game. Generally--
and I can -- I did sit on a value and engineering study on another park
-- on a park project actually with that new firm that actually was done
after a construction contract was let. It makes it very difficult because
MR. HARRISON: Four hundred and twenty-one a foot seems a
little pricey, I think, to most of us.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Schiffer?
MR. SCHMITT: For the record -- and that's something that
really needs to be directed to Skip Camp. I can have the -- if you want
to talk specifically about cost of construction, I can -- we can try and
get Skip or someone to come down and talk about that because this is
probably something -- other than information Marla may have, it
probably is beyond the expertise of at least the library staff.
MR. HARRISON: Are these costs plus contracts or fixed
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October 16, 2007
priced?
MS. RAMSEY: These are fixed priced, yeah, low bid.
MR. HARRISON: It doesn't do you any good.
MS. RAMSEY: They're low bid price, and there was some value
engineering that had been looked at for like products. As you know,
that's not necessarily a value engineer aspect, but they have looked at
it for different types of furnishings and things like that, but not as far
as constructibility is concerned, and not by the consultant. That was
just recently put on contract by the Board of County Commissioners.
I think it came in after that, the contract with them.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Brad?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, and my question was, did
that include land, these numbers, the square foot costs?
MS. TOWNSEND: They do not include land, however, they do
include design and permitting, et cetera. It's not simply construction
cost.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. How much of that's
furnishings; do you think?
MS. RAMSEY: Depends on the -- it depends on the facility
itself. But like we'll take the south regional library, we have a
guideline at the moment right now that's somewhere around $700,000
is furnishings of that total amount, which includes all the shelves and
everything that's associated with that and the lightings, et cetera.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MS. RAMSEY: And, you know, computers and all the things
that you need for the --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The equipment and everything
else is in that budget?
MS. RAMSEY: Yeah, that's everything included in there.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. So the people just walk
in -- take a key, walk in and --
MS. RAMSEY: That's correct,
Page 10 1
October 16, 2007
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: -- put books on the shelves.
MS. RAMSEY: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're still on page 126. Janet?
MS. VASEY: Yes. There's a -- there are a couple lines here
under revenue called ad valorem Golden Gate and ad valorem South
Regional. Is that money -- apparently it's not a loan because it doesn't
say loan, but where is that money coming from?
MS. TOWNSEND: The best of my understanding is that there
was a set-aside for a revenue source called excess fees, and we'll need
Susan Usher to explain further what that is, but there was some money
that was set aside and, you know, sort of squirreled away -- may have
come from some of the government buildings funding that comes from
ad valorem. So it was anticipated, and it's my understanding that that
is not intended to be a loan, but that is intended to be ad valorem
funding, for those projects.
MS. VASEY: Okay. I would like to at some point talk to Susan
about all of these and just kind of go over the numbers and the length
of the contract and what the annual costs are and how long you're
going to -- how long and how many times we're going to use the
impact fees.
MS. TOWNSEND: Okay.
MS. VASEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Was that Susan -- is that the lady that
just walked in?
MS. TOWNSEND: No.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Someone walked in with a bunch
of books.
Okay. Michele?
MS. HARRISON: Yeah, I would just like a clarification please
on that unit cost of 421. Your asterisk down at the bottom said it's
actual construction estimates, but did I hear you say that it included
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October 16, 2007
fixtures inside as well and furniture?
MS. TOWNSEND: It includes design, permitting, construction,
and all fixtures and all the fixtures that are -- and all fixtures and
equipment that are needed to bring the library on-line.
MS. HARRISON: And would you happen to know what the
breakout is?
MS. RAMSEY: Marla Ramsey, for the record. I don't have that
with me.
MS. HARRISON: Okay.
MS. RAMSEY: I mean -- and off the top of my head, I really
can't give you a lot. I mean, there's anywhere from 3- or 400,000 for,
you know, construction elements as well as furnishings. And well,
yeah, Skip just walked in the room, and so I could turn it over to him
and let him fumble through this if he wants to.
MR. SCHMITT: He's totally unprepared, but we're going to put
him on the hot seat anyway.
MR. CAMP: For the record, Skip Camp, your facilities
management director. IfI understand the question, it's what's involved
with the square foot cost of the library?
MS. HARRISON: Yes, thank you.
MR. CAMP: One of the things that's important to remember is
that it's -- we don't typically talk about construction costs. We talk
about project costs, and that's a big difference because a project cost
has the design, the impact fees contingencies, the equipment, and also
our construction is not like commercial construction. Our construction
includes what's needed in that building for the next 50 or 60 years, for
instance.
So there are things where typically they might be considered
tenant improvements, where that's all included in our costs. And like I
said, it has to do with impact fees and design fees, construction
management fees, all those kinds of things. So we talk about project
costs, which are often almost double the cost of the actual construction
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October 16, 2007
when you add all of the things into it.
MS. HARRISON: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any other questions on
page 126? Did you have any more, Janet?
MS. VASEY: Before Skip gets away, I had a question on the jail
that -- could I ask him that, or would you rather I hold it till later?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, no, jail's already -- we can go
back. That's not a problem.
MS. VASEY: Okay. We've had several discussions over the
years on the Immokalee expansion of, I think it's 64 beds, and they
were estimating the cost of 4.2 million or so to do that, but at several
points Chief Smith has said that there was a whole lot of prep work
done when they did the original construction and that there wasn't
going to be a lot of work required to do the additional part.
And I was wondering if you had a realistic estimate of what it
was going to actually cost, not the kinds of contrived costs that we get
through the AUIR methodology.
MR. CAMP: Chief Smith is an armed individual, so I don't want
to contradict anything he says, but I tell you that we have new current
estimates that -- we just finished the jail master plan this summer, and
we have very good -- we hope are accurate -- costs estimates for the
expansion of the Immokalee jail.
And one of the things that he may not have taken into
consideration is, originally the building was built for an extra 64-bed
addition to it, but what has happened since that time, because of the
inmate population, they have gone ahead and they have, what I'll call
double-bunked.
Now, this is a dormitory-type prison so they don't have cells. But
they have doubled the amount of beds in it, what that means is they've
doubled the amount of stress on the kitchen and laundry and those
support services.
So originally all that was taken care of. All they had to do was
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October 16, 2007
actually build a dormitory because the support services was there --
were there. But now that they've doubled it, they're going to have to
go in and do things to the kitchen and the laundry facilities that he
may not have remembered, but that's included in this new estimate.
MS. VASEY: Okay.
MR. CAMP: And that's a big thing.
MS. VASEY: Okay. You think a realistic estimate is close to
the 4.2 million?
MR. CAMP: Absolutely. Was it 4.2 or 4.6? I have the numbers
here. I just reviewed them this morning.
MS. VASEY: Oh, yeah. You came out with 4.6, but I think in
our book it was estimated at --
MR. BOSI: 4.503.
MR. CAMP: Yeah. And again, this was a recent update that we
just got, and I'll be happy to share.
MS. VASEY: Yes.
MR. CAMP: The reason we haven't gone out of our way to share
this yet -- because we haven't shared it with the board yet. We have a
master plan for the buildings coming out, and we were going to do a
workshop with the commission with the master plan of the building
and a master plan of the correctional facilities at one time. But that is
public information. I'd be happy to share it.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Thanks again. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
Okay. We're back into the libraries. Libraries and jails, they
must have something in common.
Page 126; do we have any more information on 126, or any
questions. I mean -- I'm sorry. You mentioned the Marco Island
library. Is that in the City of Marco Island?
MS. TOWNSEND: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Do the cities cooperate at all
with the coverage of the library as far as costs go or anything like
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October 16, 2007
that?
MS. MATTHES: In our case, no. All our libraries are
county-funded libraries. In the case of the Marco addition, the Marco
City Council has voted to give the Friends of the Library $200,000
toward that addition.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: What's the total price ofthe addition?
MS. MATTHES: That's the good question; 1.7, 1.8,2 million.
We're not really sure. We went out for bid once and couldn't afford it,
so we had the board reject the bids, and we've done some more
fundraising in the meantime, and we're waiting to hear about a grant
also.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: In the case of the library that's in the
City of Naples, does the City of Naples participate in any kind of
financial help?
MS. MATTHES: Not financially, no.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there any indirect way that they
contribute? I mean --
MS. MATTHES: Well, their citizens pay taxes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: To the county as well as the city? I
don't know how -- I've never lived in the city, so I'm not sure how tax
structure works.
MS. MATTHES: I'm not sure either.
MS. RAMSEY: Marla Ramsey, for the record. The general fund
001 is paid by all Collier County, including those in municipalities,
and the library is funded out of the 001 fund.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. That's what I was looking for.
Thank you.
Okay. Page 127, Janet's recommended action, page 128,
population tables, and page 129 ends the library facilities, buildings at
least, and then next on page 130, and I know it was covered in the
presentation so we'll move right into that.
Any questions on page 130 for library materials?
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October 16,2007
Brad, is that hand up or you just reading --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I was scratching my head, I
think.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, that's okay. That counts.
Page 131?
MS. HILLER: Can I ask a question about library materials?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Georgia.
MS. HILLER: One thing I have seen is more and more
stand-alone computers in libraries for the public to use. Is that
anticipated in your budget? Are you planning on, you know, putting
additional -- in equipment like that? Because I mean, they're a
fantastic resource tool. Like, for example, the one at Orange Blossom
has two desktops that you can use in the reference section. And you
know, you've got all sorts of, you know, research tools on those units.
MS. MATTHES: Certainly we're always trying to add more
computers. We've recently gone through a network upgrade. And
until that is completely finished we don't have the band width capacity
to add any additional computers anywhere, and that's been in process
for about a month. And we're still working out a few of the kinks on
that.
With the South Regional construction and the Golden Gate
construction, in particular, we have planned more computers into
those two buildings than we currently have at any other library
location. So, yes, we are adding more computers for public use.
MS. HILLER: What's the maximum number of units you're
planning now for those two new libraries?
MS. MATTHES: Golden Gate is about 20 public Internet
computers.
MS. HILLER: Capacity.
MS. MATTHES: And I think about a similar number for South
Regional. I'm not really sure. I haven't seen that recently. We have a
couple other areas in South Regional that I haven't really counted the
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October 16, 2007
number of computers that will go there. We have a separate teen area
that will have some additional computers and a separate children's
area that will also have some. So it could be 20 -- 20 plus.
MS. HILLER: That's great. Thank you.
MS. MATTHES: You're welcome.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We're on page 130 with those
questions, and going to 131. Any comments on 131?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Page 132 is a single-line chart. Can't
make it any simpler. Page 133 is a map system, and then page 134 we
have our inventory sheet.
Any questions on those pages? Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Relative to the East Naples
branch, the 6,600 square feet, given the situation we're in
economically, I know that the intent was, especially in satisfaction of
some community needs, to keep that open after the South Regional is
opened. Do you still plan on doing that, or is that something you
might consider having to close?
MS. MATTHES: That's still the recommendation of the Library
Advisory Board to keep East Naples open for at least a year after
South Regional opens to evaluate how the use of the East Naples
library is. Certainly that's dependent upon budget available and will
likely be a decision of the Board of County Commissioners.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And would you then transfer --
if you are going to keep it open, you're going to take away some
items, I suspect. Would you transfer some of the equipment over to
the new library such as computers?
MS. MATTHES: If East Naples stays open, we definitely will
take part of their book collection as a starter collection because the
East Naples branch is so overcrowded with shelves and books right
now that it's really hard to find what you're needing. So, yeah, we will
take some of those books to the South Regional, and we'll do probably
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October 16, 2007
the same thing of -- with some other overcrowd libraries and --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Good, good savings.
MS. MATTHES: -- and make it easier to find things
everywhere.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any other questions on page
134?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Page 135? Page 136? 1377
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We've got a lot of tables starting on
page 138. 139? 140? And 141?
Terri, I bet you like the speed at which this is going.
142? 143? 144? 145? 146?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And the last two pages is a continued
table of 147 and 148, and that wraps up the document. Are there any
other questions on any of the remaining parts of the document?
Well, that was simple. Are there any questions from members of
the public? No, so --
MS. HILLER: Can I raise one?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Georgia.
MR. SCHMITT: Georgia, can you speak into your microphone,
please?
MS. HILLER: Yeah, 143, page 143, you've got registered
borrowers, cardholders. It's interesting to look at the trend. Can you
explain, you know, in fiscal '02, there were 190 -- almost, you know,
200,000, and it seems to be on a downward trend.
Can you explain what's happening there?
MS. MATTHES: The number of cardholders is also just a
picture in time. In fiscal '02, we opened the headquarters library, and
we had a huge influx of new cardholders. First week we signed up
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October 16, 2007
more than 5,000 new library cardholders.
Our cards expire -- at that time they expired after five years, now
they expire after three years. It helps us keep a better address base of
our users. We also provide statistics to the state library, and if we do
not weed out our borrower database every three years, we're in
noncompliance with their regulations.
MS. HILLER: I see.
MS. MATTHES: So we do try to weed those out if -- the expired
ones and the ones that we know are no longer active. So it's -- it looks
like it makes no sense and it just buries so much.
MS. HILLER: How much is a juvenile card right now?
MS. MATTHES: Excuse me?
MS. HILLER: How much is a juvenile card at --
MS. MATTHES: There is no charge for any library card as long
as you're a resident of Collier County.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any other questions?
Ms. Vasey?
MS. VASEY: I just had one sort of after the fact. On the Marco
Island one, you showed in there $1.7 million of donations in your
revenue chart. Are you expecting to actually get the full amount of
money through donations, or do you think you'll have to go to any ad
valorem?
MS. MATTHES: No. We will either get the money through
donations or a grant or two, or we will not build.
MS. VASEY: Okay. And I guess the reason I wanted to check
on that is last year we asked the government buildings people to
reduce their program because their -- they were well beyond their five
years in level of service standard, and I noticed you're a little -- you're
a couple years over your standard, but as long as you're not planning
to use any additional ad valorem money, I don't see that necessarily as
a problem, but I would recommend that you try to stay within the
donation.
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October 16, 2007
MS. MATTHES: I think we have about one -- .1 million in
donations now, and of that, $500,000 is from one donor whose money
will revert back to him if we don't build within a certain time period.
We also have some pledges of some other funds and a state
construction grant that I've applied for too that we should be hearing
about shortly.
MS. VASEY: Okay. And I think Joe Swaja has his checkbook
with him today, too.
MS. MATTHES: Great.
MR. SW AJA: I've already paid.
MR. SCHMITT: The ballast is ringing, yeah.
MR. SW AJA: Why isn't that process --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mike, did you --
MR. SW AJA: -- used more often in libraries?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe, next.
MR. SWAJA: I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That's okay.
MR. SW AJA: The process of donating by communities to add
facilities at the libraries, why isn't that adopted more in other
communities?
MS. MATTHES: We're certainly willing to take those donations
at any time. We've not had many large donations like this. We had a
$100,000 donation from the Sugdens. We've had some other 25-,
$50,000 donations, but haven't typically gotten those kinds of
donations. We still have some naming rights available for South
Regional Library if anybody would like to make contributions.
MR. SW AJA: Janet will take care of that.
MS. VASEY: I live in the north.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I was just told also that Susan Usher is
here, and since we've more or less asked most of our questions from
the documents, maybe she could come up and address Ms. Vasey's
concerns.
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October 16, 2007
MS. USHER: Good afternoon. I'm Susan Usher. I'm from the--
MR. SCHMITT: Sue, speak into the microphone, please.
MS. USHER: Good afternoon. I'm Susan Usher. I'm from the
budget office.
MR. SW AJA: You're here to help us, right?
MS. USHER: I'm here to help you to answer any questions, yes.
MS. VASEY: Good. Thank you, Susan. Janet Vasey. Over
here in the dark.
I had -- there's several areas -- two of them we've covered already
-- where we have loans coming in from the general fund. The first one
that I'd like to mention is the library. There's a loan for the general
fund of almost $3 million, and I wanted to know how we're planning
to pay that back and where is the money coming from since, under the
tax reform legislation, things look to be tighter in the future than they
are right now.
MS. USHER: The current policy of the board is one-third ofa
mill gets set aside during the budget process, and that's to fund capital
projects and to payoff debt that there is no other revenue source for.
For instance, we -- you know, the county complex has quite a few
number of buildings down there, and they were built long before we
had impact fees.
Well, that debt needs to be paid every year for the next 30 years,
so that one-third of a mill helps payoff that old debt. That third of a
mill also helps fund capital projects for, like, facilities like huge
maintenance type projects. It helps IT with our computer
infrastructure, and then like miscellaneous things that other
departments need.
For instance, the one where we bought the bus for the emergency
management people -- or it's not really a bus, but it's like an RV-type
unit where they keep everything in there. So that one-third of a mill,
that is what is earmarked for these loans, and these loans are for quite
a few of these impact fees.
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October 16, 2007
If the impact fee is not here and available to payoff debt, we
cannot ignore the debt. We need to make that payment. So if there is
no impact fee to make that debt service payment in that particular
year, then we will go to the one-third of a mill money and take some
of that money to payoff -- to pay that debt, that debt service payment
for that one year. So that's where the money is coming from.
Eventually we're hoping that our economy, our little housing
economy, will change and that we'll start making money again and
impact fees will become flush again, and at that point in time when the
impact fees start having some revenue on hand where it's not going to
-- you know, over and above debt service and over and above
construction, then that -- those impact fees will pay back our one-third
of a mill money, that little pocket of money, so --
MS. VASEY: So this is not where we've actually borrowed
money from anybody else; this is just our own one-third mill general
fund money.
MS. USHER: Yes.
MS. VASEY: And then the impact fees, they're generally being
used right now for long-term debt that may go out, I guess, on the
libraries, probably 15 years or more.
MS. USHER: I believe for the two libraries we didn't do a bond.
We got commercial paper, and I believe our intent was 20 years -- I
believe 20 years we're going to amortize that. Commercial paper is
done in five-year term segments, so we're just going to roll four years
-- or for four periods, so we have 20 years, but we're going to amortize
that debt over 20 years.
MS. VASEY: Okay. So you're expecting then that the --
anything that's collected over and above what's needed for that
commercial paper debt payment is what you're going to be paying the
loan off?
MS. USHER: Right.
MS. VASEY: Okay. And you've done some kind of analysis
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October 16,2007
that shows that there's, you know, going to be money for that?
MS. USHER: Well, the loan's coming from the one-third of a
mill, so yes, there's money sitting there.
MS. VASEY: I meant from the impact fees to pay that off.
MS. USHER: Well, if it takes 20 years, then the county will
have to wait 20 years before they get reimbursed from what they've
given to these impact fee funds as far as loans are concerned.
MS. VASEY: And is this a new procedure; have we done this
before?
MS. USHER: It's been here for the last few years, yes. You--
when debt service is needed to -- when you need money to make a
debt service payment, just because you don't have the money in the
bank and the impact fee fund, you can't turn around and say, no
money, sorry. We can't do that as a county. So plan B has always
been looking at that one-third of a mill money to be plan B to help
make those payments in case something were to happen with the
impact fee funds.
MS. VASEY: And then holding that facility responsible for
making the payment back?
MS. USHER: That impact fee fund, yeah, because if they had
the money, they would have made that debt service payment.
MS. VASEY: Right. Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Steve?
MR. HARRISON: Susan, I'm Steve Harrison. From our budget
reviews, we are familiar that there's a give-back program of unspent
monies each year. Is this fund, this third of a mill, have we been
spending all of it or do we give back some unused portion each --
MS. USHER: No. We've been spending all of it. That gets
budgeted during the budget process. Like I said, the first things that
get paid out of that one-third of a mill are all our debt service
payments.
We do -- I mean, we have impact fee debt service and then we
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October 16, 2007
have other debt service. We have quite a bit of debt service out there
that impact fees can't pay for. Those bonds -- that money was
borrowed so long ago that these impact fees weren't here at that time
so that old debt gets paid out of the one-third mill, and then what's left
over, that's when the departments negotiate and get that money.
MR. HARRISON: Just curious if there's a cost savings here to
not spend the monies at all.
MS. USHER: You mean, do away with the one-third ofa mill?
MR. HARRISON: No. But we don't have to go looking for
projects to use every bit of it every year.
MS. USHER: Well, I do believe that we have a huge
infrastructure, not only down at the campus but here and everywhere.
MR. HARRISON: No doubt.
MS. USHER: And I know that facilities management has to
maintain the buildings, and they're a primary user of that money. And
now that we live in the electronic age, IT is a major user of that money
also.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Susan, I have a question,
something you said earlier about the use of this money. It goes to pay
back the impact fee account. Does that mean we're spending ahead
with our impact fees? We're spending them before we receive them?
I mean obviously I think that's what it does mean.
MS. USHER: I mean, it would be nice if we could save up for a
building and then say, okay, I've got $20 million. Let's go build that
building. But I don't believe that we're doing it at this point in time
right now, no.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. So I mean, we've -- the idea that
growth pays for growth, it really doesn't all the time. It does
eventually pay for that, but we actually supplement it in the beginning
and then it pays it out after we get it back in.
MS. USHER: I believe when all these products were being
discussed and were being planned, growth was paying for growth.
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October 16, 2007
And I don't think any of us anticipated such an economic downturn as
it has been. Everybody knew it was coming sooner or later, but I don't
think anybody knew that in 2007/2008, that we were going to see such
a downturn in the housing and in the building industry.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Fair enough. Thank you.
Is there any other questions? Michele?
MS. HARRISON: My question kind ofleans towards a
follow-up to your question as well. Weren't most of these capital
projects that impact fees are supposed to be paying for figured on a
much larger population number, estimated number? And if so, should
some of these capital projects be cut back?
MS. USHER: I think a lot of our projects that we're discussing
right now are in progress. That means we do have laborers on site
building stuff. So with population numbers decreasing this year, I
don't know how to stop --
MS. HARRISON: I don't mean population numbers decreasing
this year. I'm talking about the projections of where our population
was going to be in, say, 20/20 were not accurate numbers. We've seen
that in pretty much all of our paperwork here. The numbers were
skewed or not correct.
So they were based on phantom houses, et cetera, et cetera.
There's a lot of different numbers that factored into it. But I think our
projects were figured on going forward, were figured on the larger
population numbers. So are we readjusting?
MR. BOSI: Mike Bosi. Let me address that. The Annual Update
and Inventory Report is the one-year, the one-year -- that's the next
five-year capital improvement project. So when we were utilizing the
BEBR high numbers and the numbers that were projected for 2025,
you're right, we're 300,000 -- 300,000 higher --
MS. HARRISON: Right, right.
MR. BOSI: -- than what we're currently projecting. Where that
end-up number ends up being at 2025, I have no idea where that's
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going to be. Separate issue.
But the five -- every year we add the fifth year. So as the
conditions change, next year the numbers may be revised even lower.
And as we come back, we may see projects that are in the year three,
four, five in this year's AUIR start being pushed out even further into
years, say, four, five or even out of the current five-year window.
So in the respect that, yeah, a lot of these projects that you see
coming -- that are coming right out of their ground today, being
finalized today, might have been based upon population numbers that
were higher than what we're actually reflecting.
After we start a construction project, we're obviously not going to
pull back. We will live with the surplus that we have for whatever
category that may be and every year continually try to adjust the
numbers to get more in line with reality. But it's always -- we're
always trying to catch up a year behind.
But that's the -- that's the kind of -- maybe not the correct word,
but the wisdom of our Annual Update and Inventory Report is every
five -- every year we're adding that fifth year, so we're looking to see
how our conditions are changing, so we're looking to see where we
need to either push out projects or where we need to accelerate
projects, so --
MS. HARRISON: But that change just took -- from the high to
medium, just look took place; is that correct?
MR. BOSI: This past summer. And this is the first -- this is the
first AUIR where you -- where you'll find the population
methodology. And actually, I had just responded to an email from
Brad Boaz related to -- he had a couple issues related to why there was
inconsistencies with the population numbers for what we see within
this AUIR, and some of the -- and some of the support documents, and
I had indicated to him, every capital improvements element that this
county has on the books, every AUIR, every master plan, every
impact fee study, is based upon our old population methodology
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number.
So everything that you're seeing has a little -- is somewhat
skewed because this is the first year that we are utilizing the new
population methodology. Now, those discrepancies will become less
and less as we move out and get a little bit further away and new
plans, new master plans, new impact fee studies, are based upon our
methodology that we're now going to use forward.
But until that time, this place right now, we're in that transition year.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You need to slow a little bit, Mike. You
hardly take a breath in all that, and I know Terri's got to type as fast as
you talk.
MR. BOSI: I'm sorry, Terri. And this being the transition year
and it has really -- it has placed a great -- a tremendous amount of flux
in places -- a high degree of stress upon the consistency from what we
were doing last year to what we're doing this year.
MS. HARRISON: So I guess a follow-up to that is, where do we
meet with the impact fee and collection? Are we always going to be
behind due to those changes in calculations?
MR. BOSI: That's the thing about an impact fee collection. The
impact fee collection is a snapshot of time when that study -- when
that study was taken. And I'll defer to Mr. Tindale on this. But in
2005 when we did the law enforcement impact fee study, they had
determined at that time we were providing 1.96 officers per 1,000 of
population, and that's what that study was based upon.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Before Mr. Tindale starts, Joe, did you
want to comment?
MR. SCHMITT: Yeah, I was just going to say, Mike spent five
minutes expressing the answer, Michele. You asked when do we
adjust. This is the process of adjusting. Our AUIR is when we look at
capital investments and we look at infrastructure needs and we make
that adjustment. You all make that proposal to the board based on this
process.
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MS. HARRISON: But how do we affect what's already in the
pipeline, I guess, is really what I'm trying to get at?
MR. TINDALE: Let me break it down in two or three different
questions. Number one, the impact fee rates versus just projecting
revenues in the future. The impact fee rate is based on the population
at the time this study's done. It's not based on any future projections.
So future projections do not affect the impact fee rate.
So the impact fee rate is correct, as correct as we can --
remember, we got the 2000 population, and we only have to estimate
for four, five, six years. So the impact fee is fixed, it's done, it's
calculated on a current estimated population.
Now in the next question, what happens when projections
change? Well, when projections change, two things change. If the
population growth rate goes down, impact fee revenues go down, and
you don't over and build (sic). Ifprojections are incorrect and you get
a very high population growth, impact fee revenues go up and you
build more. Now, that's the second -- that's the standard way of
looking at it.
Now, what's happened? Someone has decided to give you a loan
and build something, the decision is made to loan you money and you
build something. Well, it's lumpy. You can't build a -- 10 percent of a
library.
So you went out and you bill it to a couple libraries. Well, we
got this projection of revenues or projection of population and this
lumpy item comes up and all of a sudden you're exceeding your
standard. That's what this graph shows.
Well, all the projections do, they don't change the impact fee.
They change how long that loan will last. So in theory, you built these
libraries and it said, wow, you're going to be deficient in eight years
with this loan and the impact fees can't pay it. Well, now the
population projections come down.
Well, now what you've overbuilt will last you 15 years. Maybe
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what's happened is you've got 15 years now before you have a level of
service problem. The problem is, during that 15-year period, if your
population is going down, the impact fee revenues are down, so you
still don't pay it off.
So I mean, it's balanced. It's a closed system. Nobody's been
overcharged, the impact fee's correct. The revenue projections swing,
and how much you've overbuilt and how long it lasts changes.
But there's two different issues. The impact fees are correctly
calculated. They were based on a snapshot in time, and all we're
dealing with now is this loan we've got, how long does it exceed the
standards? Is it a long time or a shorter time, and that has a lot to do
with your growth rate. Two distinct, different issues. Correct impact
fees, correct charges, variation of what this loan does to your program.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Ms. Vasey?
MS. VASEY: I have a question for Susan. On the libraries I can
see where we eventually might have enough impact fees to payoff
some of this loan, but if you'll take the example of the EMS, right now
EMS is planning to borrow almost $6 million from the general fund.
And each year EMS is planning to build a station. If they own it, it's
3.5 million. If they lease it, it's 2 million, and they only collect a
million dollars a year in impact fees. How will they ever make that
one up to pay off the loan?
MS. USHER: Once those four station are up and running, once
those four stations are paid for, it affects how much the impact fee will
be charged to new buildings, new construction, and the impact fee will
grow -- will increase. But you need to have -- you need to have the
inventory on hand -- I believe when you do an impact fee rate study --
and Mr. Tindale probably can explain this a whole lot better than me.
But somehow the inventory has to be here, it's based on the rate study,
and that will increase the fee, which eventually they could pay for.
MS. VASEY: Well-- I do want to hear you talk, Steve. But one
thing I'd like you to address when you do, you have already explained
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that philosophy of how you get more into your base as things are paid
off, but that takes a long time. But this is never going to get better if
we build one every year and it's always more.
MR. TINDALE: This is clearly different. The EMS is clearly
differently than the sheriff. If you have an impact fee rate per person
and you adopt it and you use impact fees to payoff loans, your asset's
not going up because the revenue you get per person is equal to what
you're charging, more people come on-line, the assets come on at the
same rate. The only way the impact fee goes up, is when you infuse
the tax.
Well, what the sheriffs doing is you're spending taxes to build
capital. You're putting impact fees in and existing people are paying
taxes, so each year -- excuse me -- the inventory value goes up faster
because you're not only just using impact fees.
So you're right, if EMS doesn't infuse some tax base or the
county give it the information -- I mean the inventory, EMS is in a
hole and they're not going to dig their way out of it. The sheriffs
digging his way out of a hole with taxes.
EMS at this point in time has no taxes going into the facilities.
They're not going to dig theirself out of the impact fee hole. It will
just stay level. I mean, ifthere's 34,000 people per equivalent unit, 10
years from now it will be 34,000 people per equivalent unit because
the impact fee revenues will come on-line and the asset will come
on-line, but so will people. So the only way EMS digs its way out of
the hole is to infuse some other revenues into the program.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Thank you.
Susan, we're coming back with the EMS on the 26th, is that --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, 26th.
MS. VASEY: On the 26th. Perhaps you could take another look
at the financing between now and then and see what might need to be
done, because it is going to result in a different number of stations.
Instead of this backlog we show here of6.8, they're now talking about
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one per year, so it will drop down to four that they're looking to
finance, which will obviously change the numbers. But maybe you
could take a hard look at the loan structure at that time.
MS. USHER: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It might be helpful, Susan, if during that
morning -- we're going to start -- we'll probably be in this room at
8:30. If you were available for the morning meeting -- because I'm
sure there'll be questions based on whatever comes out to us at that
point. It might be helpful and it would save having to find you, if
that's okay, so --
MS. USHER: Okay.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Thank you very much for coming.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Joe?
MR. SW AJA: I have one concern. I haven't heard yet how
anybody can shut things off when we're digging ourselves in a hole
with building more and more things, and the revenue's not going to
change dramatically over the short-term. When are we going to reach
the point where we're not going to have enough money in the ad
valorem taxes to cover this one-third and all the other things that we
have and begin to shut things off?
Now, in the business world, I have seen buildings shut offwhen
walls are already up and roofing ain't there because there wasn't a
demand for the product, and there's not going to be a demand for some
of these products and the money to pay for it. When do we shut it off
and how do we do it?
I realize the government's different, that in government, expenses
are difficult to control and revenue's easy, which is just the opposite of
the business world. But at some point we've got to make rational
decisions in the government world, too. We can't afford to do all these
things that we've seen so far.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I agree with you, absolutely.
Joe, and then Georgia.
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MR. SCHMITT: I don't know if we're there yet. When you're
looking at government buildings, we may be -- if you look at the
library issue, and that's maybe what you're referring to -- but those are
policy decisions that have been directed and that staff is carrying out.
I --
MR. SW AJA: I recognize that. That's the fundamental
difference between a person sitting as -- a person in a BCC position --
MR. SCHMITT: That's correct.
MR. SW AJA: -- with unlimited revenue coming in and you
make a decision to increase your revenue with no restraint by the
market --
MR. SCHMITT: Yes.
MR. SW AJA: -- which is just the opposite of the business world.
MR. SCHMITT: But when we're looking at -- when we're
looking at buildings needed to house the sheriff or the judges or
administrative functions, I think -- and that's something you're going
to get into next. I mean, you're going to see that we're playing
catch-up.
MR. SW AJA: I have no problem --
MR. SCHMITT: In some areas we may be. And I think we did
this with Mr. DeLony -- or at least when utilities gave their
presentation. It was clear based on the change in population that they
now bumped out some of their capital improvements one and two
years, and three years in some cases, based on utilities, specifically the
north plant, so --
MR. SW AJA: I'm not trying to say we should shut everything
off.
MR. SCHMITT: Yes.
MR. SW AJA: There's obviously things we have to do. We have
to build more capabilities for the sheriff, we need to have capability
for the judges, we need an emergency operations center. No
argument. But when you put that in the context of, do you need
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another library, do you need another this, another that, something has
to fall off the bottom of the list.
MR. SCHMITT: I don't argue that.
MR. SW AJA: So I'm not picking on just libraries.
MR. SCHMITT: Yeah. I mean, that's something that both these
committees certainly can come up and make a conclusion and we'll
send to the board.
MR. SW AJA: The librarian is not going to make a call on an
EMC (sic) call.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Georgia?
MS. HILLER: This is a question directed to our impact fee
expert, wherever he is.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Susan.
MR. SW AJA: Mr. Tindale again.
MS. HILLER: Could you clarify for me what you started
explaining before? And I think I've missed something, so if you could
help me, I'd really appreciate it.
Going back to the sheriff, we said that part of his budget was
operational, part of his budget is capital. We also said that the capital
was going to be funded from two sources, from ad valorem and from
impact fees. And at that point is where I start to get a little fuzzy.
You said that the sheriff was going to be able to keep himself out
or dig himself out of a hole by reaching into ad valorem dollars to pay
for the debt service on the capital improvements.
MR. TINDALE: Or construction.
MS. HILLER: Or construction. And then you said that
afterwards he would reach into impact fees to make up the difference.
MR. TINDALE: Well, the impact fees will go up because the
asset -- the impact -- you've got an asset per person we're charging for.
MS. HILLER: Right.
MR. TINDALE: And the impact fees are based on the current
ownership.
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MS. HILLER: The impact fees are based on--
MR. TINDALE: Current--
MS. HILLER: -- ownership.
MR. TINDALE: Current inventory.
MS. HILLER: But here's the thing. I mean, an asset, like work
in progress is an asset. You have ownership of that asset. The fact
that it is coming out of the ground and it's not complete doesn't mean
you don't have an asset.
MR. TINDALE: Well, we -- if you have -- if you have cash in
the bank to pay for construction, we include that as if it is already built
in the impact fee calculation.
MS. HILLER: And so what you're -- in the impact fee
calculation you're considering it as already built?
MR. TINDALE: Sure. If it's under construction, we'll put on the
inventory when we do an inventory --
MS. HILLER: Then you don't need that impact fee. If you've
got cash in the bank to pay for the asset, why do we need the impact
fee?
MR. TINDALE: Here's what happens. First of all, you usually
don't put taxes and cash in unless your infrastructure is deficient,
because if the infrastructure's not deficient, the impact fees will
maintain it.
So first of all, when you see a combination of impact fees and
taxes, someone has decided that the current buildings where --
substations, there's deficiencies or you wouldn't be using taxes, and
that's what they've -- you've decided policy-wise when you combine
impact fees and continue to support the sheriff with taxes, you've
decided that the current inventory that he has is deficient or you
wouldn't be using taxes.
MS. HILLER: Right. And that's where the growth pays for the
growth. In other words, you've got --
MR. TINDALE: Well--
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MS. HILLER: That's why I want to reconcile. Reconcile the
statement growth paying for growth with what you're describing
because I don't see --
MR. TINDALE: Well, growth is paying for one level of service,
and taxes are starting to increase that level of service because --
MS. HILLER: Growth is paying. So the impact fee is paying--
MR. TINDALE: The impact fee's paying for the current
standard, current level of service.
MS. HILLER: Right.
MR. TINDALE: And the impact fee, if you take in the future, if
you use no taxes, that level of service --
MS. HILLER: And then as the population base increases, you've
got --
MR. TINDALE: -- same level of service --
MS. HILLER: Same level --
MR. TINDALE: -- because the asset and the person -- the asset
and person just match. So you've got half as many buildings today as
you need and you double your population, when you get through
you'll have half as many buildings as you'll need, so growth pays for
half of what you'd like to have, and that's the way it maintains for that
whole time period you double your population.
Now, you decide, I don't like having just half the buildings I
have. Okay. I need to double the number of buildings I'm off. Well,
you use taxes. Well, existing people pay those taxes. So you take that
tax, you collect the impact fee and the next year you've got the asset to
maintain the current deficient standard, and the tax then improves the
inventory.
MS. HILLER: So--
MR. TINDALE: Well, that next year or two you take that
increase in assets and the new people that's moved in during that time
period or the next people have to pay a little larger fee, so you don't
maintain for 50 years this poor impact fee with taxes. Eventually, as
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you -- as behind -- after the fact, as the taxes increase the level of
service standard, new development pays a higher fee because they're
receiving and have already achieved a higher standard.
So it gets this kind of visual of a poor standard that would last
forever, and over time, the existing people improving the standard and
new development in the future paying more for the new standard.
That's what you're doing with the sheriff.
When you're doing a department or a service that does have --
that has no taxes and you're only charging impact fees, wherever you
are today and the impact fee calculation is calculated right, if you
double your population, that's where that standard's going to be in the
future by law.
You can't improve the level of service standard with the impact
fee. You can with taxes. And once it's achieved, then the next set of
developers can be required to start paying the new standard.
So what's happening with your libraries, and he's got a good
point, you've made a policy decision to put an asset in there with a
loan. I think they're probably going to leave the impact fee constant,
you know, because one, you don't own that, you're -- see, the policy is
one they built -- they built the buildings, but they're setting a policy
that they're not going to consider that building paid for. They're only
going to charge a standard fee.
So you're going to run out there 15 or 20 years before you build a
new library building. I mean, that's the upshot of that policy decision
to call it a loan. Now, if you didn't call it a loan, then you would have
built a new building, popped the fee up, and now you'd be out doing,
you know, very high quality of service.
But I think what the county has said is, we're going to call that a
loan and, therefore, yeah, it's lumpy and the service went up for a year
or two. We decided to do it, but it's going to be 15 years before we
put any more -- we're not calling that -- that tax is not being used, or
that ad valorem tax is not being used as part of the inventory, so that
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standard is going to come right back down over time.
So that's the difference between having a service you're providing
that you're using taxes and saying that adds capital and it adds equity
-- that's what you're doing with the sheriff, and I think people think
that's the right thing to do, but what you're doing in the libraries is
you're giving them a loan and you're saying that's not new equity. I'm
not going to allow you to increase the impact fee.
You know, it doesn't have the priority that the sheriff does. So I
think you have set two different standards here. You've set a sheriffs
standard where you're using taxes and saying it's cash and it creates
the equity because you need to put it in there, and you've got a library
where you're calling it a loan. It's a little lumpy, but over time you're
going to be right back down to the same standard you were today
when you -- so if you double population in the library system, it's
going to be back to where you are today.
That's not the case with the sheriff. You're actually improving
the level of service because you're calling that tax and investment and
not a loan.
So the truth's somewhere in between. The question is, why did
you make the loan to begin with? At least they called it a loan and
they're going to have that quality of service back down to the current
standard.
MS. HILLER: Well, I see that because when we reviewed the
budget, I mean, it's very clear that the library scenario seems to be the
more prevalent scenario in terms of policy in this county.
MR. TINDALE: Well, almost all your fire, EMS, libraries, have
zero credits and zero taxes going in. The sheriffs is the one that
you've got -- I think the sheriff and maybe administrative buildings
had a little bit of crisis, and you put some money in there and called it
an investment rather than a loan.
But the only services I've seen where you're putting investment in
and not calling it a loan, I think, is sheriff and maybe the buildings.
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Other than that you're calling them loans --
MR. SW AJA: That makes sense because we started with the
sheriff.
MR. TINDALE: -- and the rest of them are calling them loans
which are very --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe? No, I just wanted to make sure the
recorder heard your voice.
MR. TINDALE: Go ahead, excuse me.
MR. SW AJA: That makes sense since we didn't have the impact
fee for the sheriffup until recently.
MR. TINDALE: And you were --
MR. SW AJA: Playing catch-up.
MR. TINDALE: And you were clearly paying -- playing
catch-up on what I think you consider as a critical service.
So from my perspective -- and I work all over the state -- the
strategies that you're using are really legitimate strategies. You're
calling things loans on the non -- quote, nonessential services, but
you're still providing the issue of a lumpy, you know, process that's
going on and issues with revenues, and on the critical services, such as
maybe like the jails or sheriff, you're taking taxes and you're not
calling it loans. You're making investments, and I think that's a very
good strategy that's developed in terms of how you plan out your
growth.
MS. HILLER: Here's my concern. What I hear you saying, I
mean, we've got two crises. We have an impact fee crisis and we have
an ad valorem tax crisis right now. And what you're describing is
taking in the debt scenario is a situation where the ad valorem is
supposed to make up the deficiency where the impact fee is not rising
as anticipated. Now you've got deficiencies in both and you run into a
very real possibility of having a shortfall.
MR. TINDALE: I think it's two years ago when the lib -- and
this is my -- I'm giving an opinion here. And this is based on just
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watching all the other government work you all have done, because
I've watched you.
I think if two years ago someone could have look in a crystal ball
and saw what was getting ready to happen, they may not have made
the loan to the libraries. You may not be under construction. But I
mean, that's where are you today.
You did call it a loan, which was really smart. You were very
conservative in not giving libraries the money. You did it, it started,
and now the revenues are down and now that loan is going to have a
much longer life out there.
One, the population is going to be slower, but the loan's going to
have a much longer life to -- you know, before you have to reinvest,
and because it -- because you're growing slower, that excess capacity's
going to last longer and you're not going to need to build libraries, so
it still balances.
You know, it's an interesting way that it balances because rather
than having a seven-year life on that loan, if you grow slower, your
standard's going to be lasting for 15 or 18 years, and because the
revenues are down, it's going to take you 15 or 18 years to pay for it.
So it really still balances.
It would have been a seven-year loan with good impact fees or
15-year loan with slow impact fee revenues, but the standard is just
gradually being pulled down because it's a loan.
MS. HILLER: However--
MR. TINDALE: But you only did that, as far as I know, in the
library services. And in some places you do it -- your goal is to use
impact fees to pay for it if you have yourself a short-term issue, you
reach in the pot, and you loan it money and it pays it back. It's still a
loan. That's a very conservative way to deal with all your facilities
except your essential facilities.
MS. HILLER: And with any debt, the longer you drag out the
payment term, the more it costs.
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MR. TINDALE: Well, in theory it does, and it's interesting
because if you're a business, you'd be charging interest, and the
county, I don't believe, is charging interest.
So, yeah, it is a little more costly, but with the way construction
was going and the rate construction was going up, these were really
good loans. Because I can tell you, I would much rather borrow from
the county, build something three years ago than not borrow from
them and build it now, because the cost doubled.
So those loans created assets that were very valuable during a
time period that if they hadn't loaned it -- and again, they called it a
loan. It wasn't -- it wasn't a policy, I'm going to throw more money
into it. They didn't put the money into it. They're going to use either
a short-term growth because you're growing faster or long-term
growth to pay it back, so it's still a good -- I think it's a good business
decision. It looks like it's not. But the reality, I think, calling it a loan
and what they've done was a good business decision.
MS. HILLER: May I ask just one last question, and this ties
everything you said back to what Joe said. I mean, given that we're
looking into the future, we see that the, you know, debt repayment
term is going to be prolonged because impact fees are down and ad
valorem taxes are down, is it prudent as we're going through this
whole process to be adding all these additional projects when we
already know that, you know, we've got an extended debt service
horizon?
MR. TINDALE: I think they're being very careful. For example,
if you ask me in EMS, the answer is, I probably would continue to try
to use this technique in the next year because they are -- they need
some help. I would maybe make it a policy, not only make it a loan,
but an investment, where in another service area I'd be more careful
with it. So I think from this point forward, the next cycles, they will
be very careful with the loan.
MS. HILLER: Which service areas do you think would warrant
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being conservative in?
MR. TINDALE: Well, that's a policy decision.
MS. HILLER: Right. But I mean, you're experienced--
MR. TINDALE: All over the state that I see, public safety is
always almost undebatable. I mean, everybody -- and, again, I'm an
ex public works director, that used to have to put up with the fire and
the police getting everything. You know, I have some bias towards,
there is a limit to leaning on public safety, but I've never seen public
safety, one, remember, is not that capital intensive, so it's a good--
you know, there's two reasons to deal with public safety, one is
politically and everybody likes, it, and another reason, it doesn't take a
lot of cash because they usually have deficiency because they don't
need it to begin with and they get behind, and it doesn't take a great
amount of cash loans or even investment to bring them up because
they're not that capital intensive.
So what I see all over the state is fire, law enforcement, and fire
and fire rescue keep continuing to get infusion and you're responsive,
and everybody pulls -- and transportation. Transportation's always a
big issue. It really has an economic impact. I mean, not being able to
move around and goods moving to people creates a major issue.
Transportation and safety --
MR. SW AJA: Don't forget water and sewer.
MR. TINDALE: Well, I always -- that's the other one I didn't
have. Water and sewer just cranks their rates up and, you know, you
can have 20 people die in a car, but let one person die from sewer
backing up, and everybody's going to lose their job. So water and
sewer, usually --
MS. HILLER: Make--
MR. TINDALE: -- is taken care of. But that's really safety.
That's public health and welfare. So it's transportation, you know, fire
and EMS, and the health programs are usually taken care of, and then
what you've done is loan -- you've used the loan process for the
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nonessential programs which, again, I still say is a really good
business decision because you're not infusing capital. You're basically
loaning it and dealing with kind of the lumpy issues, and you'll
probably be more -- may be more careful with that with what's going
on as you move forward.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Steve, you had a question earlier, did
you?
MR. HARRISON: For Amy Patterson, please.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. HARRISON: Amy, it seems like we've got a couple things
here to ask you for the next time we do an update on our runoff for the
various impact fees, so if we haven't shifted by policy from using
these loans from a short-term function to a long-term function, it
seems like we ought to include them when we're looking at, you
know, our sources and uses and when we run out of fees.
MS. PATTERSON: Okay.
MR. HARRISON: But more broadly than that -- and I know it's
not particularly to your issue -- I don't think the Productivity
Committee is comfortable saying the way out of the hole here is to
raise impact fees further by exceeding it up front with loans from the
general fund.
MS. PATTERSON: Right. That would go to raise the impact
fee.
MR. HARRISON: I think our attitude is we need a cap on the
total package of impact fees where if there's something that goes up,
something's got to go down.
MS. PATTERSON: No, I understand.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. SW AJA: Excuse me?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe?
MR. SW AJA: Is there someone in the organization that's
keeping track of all this to find out when we're going to eat up that
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one-third mill that sits there and pays for all these loans?
MR. SCHMITT: I'll have to turn to Susan.
MS. USHER: Can you repeat that again?
MR. SW AJA: You've got this one-third mill set aside for
servicing of loans. Who's keeping track of the revenue coming in, that
one-third mill and how we're using it up month by month or quarter by
quarter?
MS. USHER: That's done annually once a year during the
budget process.
MR. SW AJA: Once a year.
MS. USHER: We get the taxable value, we calculate what
one-third of the mill will raise out of the taxable value. That money is
set aside. Old debt -- the old bond issues we have that impact fees
can't touch, that's paid off first, then the monies left over is given to
the departments --
MR. SW AJA: How much --
MS. USHER: -- to do major capital projects.
MR. SW AJA: How much of that one-third have we used up so
far?
MS. USHER: Well, every year you use it all up. I mean, that's
the appropriation that's given out every year. It's an annual process. I
don't know what the dollar value is off the top of my head though.
MS. VASEY: I think, perhaps, what he's asking is, of the
one-third mill, how much of it is already tied up in debt?
MR. SW AJA: Tied up in debt.
MS. VASEY: That would be -- you know, couldn't be touched.
MS. USHER: I'll be able to give you that answer at the next
meeting. I don't have those work papers with me. I only brought the
AUIR information. I didn't bring any of my budget books with me,
but I have that information.
MR. SW AJA: I think we ought to see that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you, Susan. Do we have any
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more questions of Susan today so if we don't she can head back to her
office, or do you need her the rest of the afternoon here?
MS. VASEY: I have another question on government buildings,
which we're going to be going into.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Next. Yeah, okay. As long as we're -- I
didn't want her sitting here if we didn't need her, so -- okay. We've
finished up the discussion on the library buildings and library
materials.
The Planning Commission needs to come to a conclusion on that.
Is there a motion from the Planning Commission? Mr. Vigliotti?
(Michele Harrison left the hearing room.)
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Motion to approve.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Let's start one at a time. So that motion
to approve is for the first one, library buildings?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a second?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I will.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer seconded.
Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All in favor, signify by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a motion on library materials?
Bob, you're getting to be the nominee today.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I am.
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October 16, 2007
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion to approve?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Motion to approve.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a second?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'll second it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Second by Commissioner Schiffer
agam.
Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All those in favor, signify by saying
aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries on both items. And we
need --
MS. VASEY: We'll do ours.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Pardon me?
MS. VASEY: We'll do ours, too.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good, go ahead.
MS. VASEY: Motion to approve the libraries for Productivity
Subcommittee. Any second?
MR. SW AJA: I'll second it.
MS. VASEY: All those in favor?
Aye.
MR. BOAZ: Aye.
MS. VASEY: All those opposed?
MR. HARRISON: Nay.
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MS. VASEY: Okay. Georgia? Okay. Well, so far we've got
two for, one against, and then Georgia is a not-sure yet.
MS. HILLER: I'm not sure because what I would really like to
see is Steve -- not Steve, but what Joe is asking for, and I'd also like to
see the analysis of the impact fees as well as it relates to the debt
service. I would feel more comfortable if we did that before we drew
a final conclusion just because this area, like parks, may be an area
where projects may be well deferred and those monies put to, you
know, where they might be more needed like EMS and, you know,
police and jails and areas like that.
MS. VASEY: Well, I think on this one they've already awarded
the contracts --
MS. HILLER: Have they? Everything -- oh, I'm sorry.
Everything -- then it's my misunderstanding. Well, if it's awarded,
then we don't have a choice.
MS. VASEY: And there's nothing even programmed in the
second five-year period which means -- which, to my way of thinking,
would suggest that they might actually have the impact fee money to
payoff some of the loans. So it's walking the line, but I think, you
know, financially, it looks --
MS. HILLER: I think you're right.
MS. VASEY: -- possible.
MS. HILLER: I mean, it's my misunderstanding if, in fact, all
those projects have been let then, it's too late.
MR. HARRISON: Janet?
MR. SW AJA: After her point I'd like to reconsider my vote.
MS. VASEY: Okay. You want to try it again? Is there a motion
on the libraries?
MR. HARRISON: I'll make a motion.
MS. VASEY: All right.
MR. HARRISON: I'll make a motion.
MR. SW AJA: Second it.
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October 16, 2007
MR. HARRISON: What's your motion?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That was clever.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Trusting group.
MR. HARRISON: You made a motion that asked us if we would
approve the proposal for libraries.
MS. VASEY: Okay.
MR. HARRISON: That's the motion.
MS. VASEY: Okay. All right. Motion to approve the libraries.
Second? I'll second it.
All those in favor?
Aye.
Vasey, opposed.
MR. HARRISON: No.
MS. HILLER: Nay.
MS. VASEY: You're a nay?
MR. SWAJA: Like sign, nay.
MS. VASEY: Okay. It's one for, three against. I guess we'll
have to discuss it in full committee. What would you like from the
libraries between now and our productivity meeting?
MS. HILLER: I would like exactly what Joe has asked for. I
think his question was really valid. I think we need to look at the debt
service analysis and make sure that we understand exactly, you know,
what we are approving.
MS. VASEY: Okay.
MS. HILLER: And I think maybe it's -- you know, maybe
should qualify my no as being, I just don't feel I have enough
information to say, yes, and there isn't anything else I would like to
add to how all of this is, you know, working out. So it's kind ofa
qualified no.
MS. TOWNSEND: Let me ask for just a little bit of clarification.
I think we're looking for two things. One is an analysis of the
one-third mill that goes to pay down debt, both, and also part of this
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October 16, 2007
loan from the general fund to pay down debt and to look at, over time,
how that is broken down among the various projects that it's funding.
That's number one. And then number two, to look at library impact
fees over time and how they will repay the portion of that one-third
mill that's going to pay down debt before those impact fees make up
the difference; is that correct?
MS. HILLER: Yes.
MR. SW AJA: You were paying attention.
MS. HILLER: You are really good. That was beautifully said,
perfect.
MS. TOWNSEND: We have our direction.
MS. HILLER: And it may very well just be an education process
for us, but I think it's something we need to get an understanding of.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And just so that libraries are clear, that's
a request from the Productivity Committee. You could save
yourselves and us time by addressing them at their meeting, because
what they do with the finances is not something we're necessarily
involved in from planning, so --
MS. TOWNSEND: That would be fine.
MS. VASEY: Yeah. If you would provide the information to
Mike Sheffield, he'll get it to us, and we'll review it prior to the
meeting on -- I think we're meeting on the 31 st.
MS. TOWNSEND: Okay. Thank you.
MR. HARRISON: Thank you, ma'am.
MS. VASEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: And I have one other thing I'd like to
clean up before we take a break, and yesterday we were discussing
parks. We were going to make a motion on parks and it was
recommended we wait till we finish jails and EMS. And EMS is off
till the 26th, but I think we're in the position to deal with the parks
issue if everybody agrees on the Planning Commission side.
Ms. Caron, it was your recommendation to hold. Do you see the
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need to hold any longer or are you willing to -- do you think we
should get into -- make a recommendation on parks at this time?
COMMISSIONER CARON: No. I think you can get into it if
you'd like. That's fine.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Yesterday in the discussion of
parks we had community parks and we had regional parks. And
during the discussion we came up with some concerns that -- and I had
made notes of three of them; that the Delnor- Wiggins and the Collier
Seminole Parks weren't accounted for appropriately in either one of
the categories; that the unit cost was inconsistent with appraisal rates
and that maybe we ought to be looking at more realistic appraisal
rates; and the actual level of service due to the use ought to be
factored in some manner in regards to the standards.
During that discussion, there was also some talk about
considering recommending that a reduction in the impact fees be made
to this particular category so that -- the more room in the impact fee
cap to move to other sources and not increase the impact fees 10 in the
county and the other items that would be needed are like jails and
possibly EMS after we discuss with EMS on the 26th.
That was the result that I made -- that was the conclusion of notes
that I had. I don't know if anybody else had any more. But if
anybody has any ideas or thoughts on it, I'd sure like to hear it because
-- Joe?
MR. SW AJA: In addition to Delnor- Wiggins and Collier
Seminole, we also have Rookery Bay, Everglades, and Ten Thousand
Islands, which are massive parks available to all the citizens of Collier
County and encompass hundreds of thousands of acres.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Agreed, that's a lot of open space that
can be used. Is there any discussion?
Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, what's the advantage of
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you bringing those in? Because, I mean, obviously there is some
minor lack of control, but what Joe just said there, when you go on
Keewaydin Island, all these other places that are really open to the
people, if we start counting those, we're really going to diminish our
parks requirements to the point where there's no way we'd ever be out
of compliance. But I mean --
MS. TOWNSEND: IfI can address a little bit about what we
keep in inventory and what we don't. It may help because I'd sort of
like the committees to look at this issue historically.
There was a time when both Delnor- Wiggins and Collier
Seminole State Park was included in the inventory, and I believe that's
probably from the inception of this process somewhere in 1989 until
somewhere in the late '90s.
And what we've found was that we had a need for regional parks
with an active focus, and we had a large amount of acreages in
ecologically sensitive areas that were satisfying the need on the
regional park acreage side and not allowing us to address active
recreation needs on the regional park side. We took Delnor- Wiggins
and Collier Seminole specifically out of inventory in order to allow us
to fill that need for active recreation areas.
At that point we basically established a policy under which a
park was or was not included in inventory, and that was if that park
was maintained for the general public use by Collier County Parks and
Recreation, we kept it in inventory. And if it wasn't, we didn't. It
made it very easy for us to decide what goes in and what goes out.
That's why the schools collocated facilities were in inventory. We
maintained it for public use, so we put it in the inventory. Ifit was
maintained by somebody else or owned by somebody else, it was out.
Now, last year when we visited the AUIR process, these
committees rightly noted that we were using a countywide population
but we weren't counting park facilities within the municipalities, and
we were given direction and we did include those, not for the
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community parks as we've already discussed, but for regional parks
and for facilities type.
Now, what changing on policy of what we include and didn't
include in the inventory revealed was that, oh, well, if you're going to
include facilities within the municipalities, then why are you not
including facilities provided by the state?
And so while it's certainly -- it's certainly understandable why
Delnor- Wiggins and Collier Seminole should be included in the
inventory based on some of the rationale we've been talking about, it
would be best for staff if we came back to what does and does not get
included in the inventory at a sort of policy-type level rather than
looking at individual parks.
And I don't have necessarily a clear suggestion for what that
determinant would be, but sort of ask these committees' input on that
because I think it would be very helpful for us to decide, rather than
taking parks on a case-by-case basis.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Do you --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Do you have any control over
what goes in Delnor- Wiggins Park?
MS. TOWNSEND: No, we do not.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That's a pretty good determinant.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MS. HILLER: Do you have control over --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Sorry, Mr. Schmitt?
MR. SCHMITT: Do you want to take a break? We have a
maintenance guy to fix that ballast. I think you're close, aren't you?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, we can take a 10-minute break
and come back and go forward. Let's do that right now. Be back at
quarter of three.
(A brief recess was had.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, everyone. Ifwe could bring the
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meeting back to order. The noise on the ceiling has stopped. Thank
you for facilities, whoever does that kind of work.
And we left off before with a discussion by the Planning
Commission concerning our motion or potential motion for the
community parks and then for the regional parks. And I have to go
back and ask the committee -- and this is the Planning Commission
because we're the ones that have to vote on it at this point -- what their
preferences are in regards to community parks lands first, and then
we'll do regional parks second. Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: You had listed three separate items
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right.
COMMISSIONER CARON: -- as possible stipulations here for
a vote. Can you just run down those one more time?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes. The question came up about the
inclusion of parks such as Delnor and Collier Seminole. Now, I don't
know where they'd be included, whether it would be community or
regional, but the point was, and was testified to, that those aren't
included, and then, of course, we've heard that some others may not be
as well.
We also had a discussion yesterday about the modification
needed to the unit cost, that the $230,000 per acre seemed out of
context from what the pricing is actually going for out there.
And the third thing we discussed yesterday that was questioned --
that we questioned, was the actual level of service due to the use of the
facilities because we had pretty good use data supplied to us based on
yesterday's review.
So those are the three things that I remembered -- or that I made
notes on from yesterday. And also I'd made notes concerning the
issue about impact fees and that we might want to reallocate impact
fees, not that we can legally do so, but the suggestion would be reduce
these impact fees under the intention of seeing impact fees increase for
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jails and/or EMS after we get done with the EMS project. Well, and
throughout the whole time never raising the maximum ceiling that's
already established for impact fees. That was the --
COMMISSIONER CARON: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- items that I remember, and I still-- I
think we have two categories to go through, one is community parks
and the other is regional parks, and we're going to need a motion from
the Planning Commission on each one.
COMMISSIONER CARON: It seems like the whole issue of
whether parks like Delnor or Seminole should be included is really
more an issue of what kind of facilities we need as opposed to whether
we should have them in park inventory or not and that that's probably
why they were taken out, because you needed to get at building more
facilities, and having those parks in there was preventing you from
doing that because then you would have shown a level that was too
great or an inventory that was too great, so you took those out. Is that
really basically what happened?
MS. TOWNSEND: Let me -- I had one more comment before
we --
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah.
MS. TOWNSEND: -- before we broke, and that is that when we
did the level of service workshop in the spring and prepared those
materials and the board looked at them in June, we made a proposal in
there, and I had -- I slightly misspoke a moment ago when I said that I
didn't have a good idea of what a policy criterion for inclusion or
exclusion should be because we proposed one in there and the board
gave us direction to use it, and that is that a park is included in
inventory if Collier County Parks and Recreation maintains it for
general public use or if it is maintained by another public entity for
general public use and we have some sort of mechanism to ensure its
use into the -- by the general public into the future.
For example, ifthere is a Florida Recreation Development
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Assistance Program Grant or a Florida Communities Trust Grant or
another mechanism like that where the state has funded improvements
to that park in such a way that we know the state has asked for a
commitment from that managing entity to provide that for the public
into a certain -- certain period in the future.
Also, if we have an interlocal agreement with the owner of that
facility so that, for example, we have funded improvements to Naples
Landing within the City of Naples. We funded improvements to City
of Naples beach accesses historically, and the interlocal agreements
that we've executed on those -- on that funding have guaranteed that
those parks would be -- those facilities would be available to the
general public for a specific amount of time. Same is true with
funding that we've done for parks in Everglades City. So that is the
mechanism that we're using. If we have some sort of guaranteed that
that facility is going to be available to the general public into the
future, then we can -- then we feel comfortable including it in
inventory .
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, that just kind of begs the question,
why didn't you include the state parks? Because I mean, if anybody's
more secure in their tax base, I think it would be state over the county,
so --
MS. TOWNSEND: And again, for -- prior to last year, our
policy was that it was only if Collier County Parks and Recreation
maintained for general public use. Last year we were given very
specific direction by these boards to include parks within the
municipalities, and we simply took the direction we were given and
did that, and that's now opened up this new sort of direction of
thinking, and if it's the direction of these boards that those -- the parks
be included in the inventory, we will do so.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I'm just wondering if you got the
direction last year that was to open up the parks for more of these to
be included, why wasn't Delnor and Collier Seminole, as an example,
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included?
MS. RAMSEY: It's actually -- Marla Ramsey, for the record.
It's actually a little more direct than that. We have to have an
interlocal agreement with the managing entity in order to include it,
and there is no interlocal agreement or management plan over the state
park or Collier Seminole. So Barefoot, for example, is included and
half of that parcel is state owned and we have a management plan over
the top of it, and we manage that particular parcel, so all 350 acres are
included in our inventory.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Is there -- Mr. Kolflat, then Mr.
Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Well, I think the thrust of your
comments yesterday, Mark, as I recall them, pertain to the relative
impact fees of what we might call more essential services such as
police and emergency medical services --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: -- as compared to the parks.
And can you recite again those differences? I think one was $1,000.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, the -- when I asked staff yesterday
for the estimated impact fees they said parks is about $3,000 per
residential unit, and that's for community and regional combined;
$240 for the jail and $130 for EMS. And we now know we have
deficiencies in jail and EMS that could be funded possibly through
impact fees and thus new impacts are increased through impact fees,
and I think that in order not to increase the impact fees countywide
any higher than the top level is right now, that we need to free up
some space in there so that jail and EMS could possibly increase
based on the outcome of new studies.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: And that could be done by
reducing the impact fees on parks?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Right. That was -- that's my suggestion.
And to get there, we have to deal with the level of service, but the
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level of service could be improved simply by including all the parks
that are really being used in Collier County instead of just particular
ones. Whether we have an interlocal agreement or not, anybody in
this county can go to Delnor- Wiggins Pass State Park and use it. So
it's irrelevant of the agreements. We can use it. It's there. We should
count it.
And as far as the rate of the acreage, you made it very clear
during discussions yesterday that $230 an acre may be fine
occasionally for the county's coastal areas, but that's not the way it
really is when they go out and buy property, and we wanted to look at
a better rate of -- or better criteria to show what that acreage cost
really is.
So those were the three suggestions that I came away with from
yesterday, and that's what we'd been trying to discuss, and I know
Brad had a comment after you, Tor. So if you're -- if that answers
your question, we'll go on to see what Brad's got to say.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Marla, can go.
MS. RAMSEY: Again, Marla Ramsey, for the record. Just one
clarification. I hear you talking about reducing level of services so
that you can get to a reduction in impact fees to the parks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: No, I wasn't going to suggest to reduce.
What I'm saying is that by adding the other parks in, you
automatically have somewhat diluted the level of service, because
now you've got more parkland in -- to meet that level of service that
you don't have to create out of more private lands.
MS. RAMSEY: I understand that scenario except the other side
of that is, is you really haven't increased any growth opportunity to the
public in general by doing that because those assets that you're asking
me to place into my inventory are currently available to the public
through another agency.
To include them into ours doesn't gain anything for our
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community or for the betterment of our community as far as parks are
related. So, you know, I guess if that's the recommendation you want
to make, that's fine, but I don't really think it gets to the end that, you
know, we -- and I'm going to speak to the parks side at the moment, I
mean, we're looking for a quality of life in Collier County, and a lot of
people move here because of the quality of life that we provide, of
which parks is a very big part of that.
And so just to include existing facilities because you can reach an
end is not necessarily the best way to go about it. If you're interested
in reducing impact fees, then why not simply just tell the board that?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Because I think that if you reduce
impact fees and you leave the level of service, then you're going to run
into a deficiency in the amount of monies, then the next thing you
know we're going to be looking at ad valorem to cover a deficiency
that I don't believe is needed, and I certainly disagree with you on the
amount of availability of needed parks in this county, and that's
proven more or less by the closing of the North Naples Park. Ifit
really was intended to meet a very specific level of service, we
wouldn't be shutting it down during the week for a continuous week
after week after week, so --
MS. RAMSEY: Again, I think I addressed that yesterday. The
Collier Regional Park never closes. It is the Sun-N-Fun Lagoon Water
Park. We'll also state that the 951 study that we have been doing is
now to address parks east of 951. We currently have no large parks in
that area, and so we have two parks coming on-line right now that
we've pushed out. One of them is the Kaufman property, which is the
Vanderbilt extension, which is outside of our five-year because their
impact fees have been reduced because of the down that we're into.
But we know that given the population that's out there, people
want to do more than just walk or sit in their back yard. They want to
play athletic games and we want them to play those in the area east of
951. We do not want them to have to drive all the way into North
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Collier or the Vineyards or other urban areas in order to have those
recreational opportunities.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: It's closer to the people outside the
county to utilize, too.
Go ahead, Ms. Caron.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Well, I was going to say, and I
agree with that, Marla. That was the point I was trying to get to in
saying that it seems to me that perhaps we need to be looking at what
we really want to build, and then perhaps this discussion wouldn't get
to where it's going, because I doubt there are very many people who
wouldn't say that there aren't ball fields that are needed east of 951;
however, do we just need, you know, more parks there.
I mean, once you get east of 951, most of these people have land.
They have their own built-in parks, as we joked with Georgia
yesterday about the people in the Estates. But -- so maybe we're just
not -- we're not seeing this.
MS. RAMSEY: And what I can -- you don't necessarily -- you
do kind of see in your inventory what we looked to putting on in our
park facilities. You see the number of ball fields in your lists.
I'll tell you right now that the Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park,
which is over by the fairgrounds, just on the other side of the
fairgrounds, it has five soccer fields in its inventory as we speak. It
has a community room that will hold 250 people, which is a request
by the community out there.
We have done the design of that park through a committee out
there for over the last year and a half. It has basketball, outdoor
basketball, tennis courts, racquetball courts, all the active facilities that
are needed in the Orangetree area in order to accommodate the
growing population in that area.
So the parks that we're putting on are not passive green space.
That is not the kind of things that we are buying. Weare into the
active recreational element. Conservation Collier is taking care of the
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preserve side of it. Weare not involved in that process, nor do we
include those in our inventory. Active is where we're trying to get to.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Mr. Schiffer, then Mr. Kolflat.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And Mark, I think if we want to
vote on this, can we break it up into different components, you know,
this being one of the components, because --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Brad, we just got to -- we have two
categories. I mean, I hope those are the components you're talking
about, community parkland and regional parkland?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, no, I think the issue of
bringing -- pulling Wiggins in and Seminole in. I wouldn't mind if we
just kind of do at least a straw vote on the Planning Commission
before we make that part of the motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, make a motion. Or Mr. Kolflat,
did you have a discussion or are we ready for a motion from Brad?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: I think we're ready for the
motion, however -- well, let me just make a comment. There's a lot of
benefits in ball parks and so forth to the community, but there's also a
benefit to the community to apply taxes appropriately and where
they're really needed for essential services.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I agree. Brad, did you want to make a
motion?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'll make a motion.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Not the one you want, but it's --
I'll make a motion to approve as submitted.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Which, the community park?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Regional, I guess we'll start first
-- I'm sorry. Community first.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Just the way it is, just approve it
the way it is?
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October 16, 2007
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The way it is, yes.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'll second that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion has been made and seconded to
approve the community parklands as submitted. Discussion?
Well, I mean, I'm -- my position on this has already been stated
many times. I will not buy into such an item.
Go ahead. Mr. Murray, did you have anything you wanted to
say?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I was going to defer to Mr.
Schiffer, ifhe wanted to go first.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: No, you can go.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: You've been quiet.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I've listened very carefully, and I
recognize where we're trying to get, but I remember the preamble to
this whole thing is, we were intended to look at whether or not the
numbers were appropriate for the purpose, and the parks people are
coming to us representing their own -- the needs of the public as they
are charged with it.
And unless I see something that they are telling us that is not
correct, which we've certainly vetted, I don't see a reason why we can't
use this as a basis. A good gesture to offer that, perhaps, the
commissioners might want to consider using some money from X to
go to Y, but I can't see taking it away here. I don't know how we
would take it away, number one. So I can't -- I have to support a
motion to go forward as they've put it forth.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other discussion? Mr. Schiffer, did
-- Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I will also vote for it based
upon the fact that if they don't control it, I can't see how they could be
responsible for taking it into their inventory.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
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October 16, 2007
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I think if anything, Mark --
it may be my naivety, but I'm having trouble linking this with EMS. I
mean, I think -- I'm looking at the parks all by itself. If there was a
way to take money out of the parks and put it in EMS, maybe I'd think
differently, but I don't know -- I mean, I think as -- the judgment we
should be making here is focused on each element standing alone.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I wasn't linking it with EMS, Brad.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: So what I was simply saying was that if
we didn't increase this thing with impact fees, we provided some room
in there, maybe some other more vital element of this could be raised
where there was room, and we've got to create the room. And the way
I was suggesting creating that room could suggest a lowering of
impact fees here.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. I mean, what I've
learned today is, send the librarians over to EMS, you know, teach
them that trick, because it's -- anyway.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Well, that's -- I think we've had
all the discussion. We'll call for the vote. All those in favor of Brad's
motion to support the AUIR for community parks land as submitted,
please indicate by raising their hand.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: (Raises hand.)
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: (Raises hand.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: One, two three ayes.
All those against, same sign?
COMMISSIONER CARON: (Raises hand.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: (Raises hand.)
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: (Raises hand.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Three against.
Okay. We'll go forward with no recommendations from the
Planning Commission.
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October 16, 2007
Regional parks. Is there a motion for regional parks?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'll make it. I'll move to
approve regional parks as presented. The Wiggins Pass, Seminole
thing, I think when you look at the chart, we're not going to be in a
shortage of land. There's no need to scurry up any acreage to make
the thing look good. It looks good all by itself.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I'll second that, and also what
occurs to me as well, we talked about double counting. If the state
counts available parkland and we count the same parkland, then the
public has been cheated by it being counted twice.
COMMISSIONER CARON: I mean, I would have to say, Mr.
Schiffer and Mr. Murray, I think that staff has answered that question
very nicely. I don't think there's a need to put those in. It was my
attempt at trying to help the situation that we are actually -- the goal
we're trying to get to, which is to, perhaps, help funding of some more
essential services than -- and that was the only point of bringing it up.
I think they've more than answered why they didn't put it in, you
know. And I don't have any problem that they haven't put it in.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I had no idea that was being --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer -- Mr. Murray, Mr.
Schiffer had indicated he wanted --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah. I had no idea that was
being construed personally. I made no --
COMMISSIONER CARON: Oh, no, no, no.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You guys. Mr. Schiffer, you were next.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Well, actually he was saying
what I was going to say. Is -- I guess I'm naive. I can't get the link as
to what we could do here that would cause benefit there. If somebody
could explain that to me, maybe I --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I can't explain it any more clearer than I
already have, Brad. So if I'm not doing that good of a job in
explaining it, then I'll just have to, at this point, let it ride.
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October 16, 2007
Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: I believe one of our charges was
to review the standard of services in making our review of this
document, so we're certainly within the bounds of reviewing the
standard of service. And no matter how we're approaching it, we
should address that standard of service. And if there's reason for that
standard of service to be changed, we ought to support that.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I don't disagree with you, but -- there's a
motion on the floor that would approve the document as it's been
submitted, and we're into discussion. And is there any further
discussion on this particular motion?
The only thing I have to say is that the state has offered -- has
demanded certain rollbacks and cuts, and it certainly seems like
everybody must do that. And in my opinion, parks and rec is one of
the fattest departments in the county, and it certainly could be one that
could be cut. But if that's not the feeling of this board, then that's the
way it will go forward.
So with that, I'll ask for the vote in same manner in which we
asked for before. All those in favor of the motion made by Brad
Schiffer to recommend approval as this document stands, please
signify by raising your hands.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: (Raises hand.)
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: (Raises hand.)
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: (Raises hand.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Three in favor.
All those against? Same sign?
COMMISSIONER CARON: (Raises hand.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: (Raises hand.)
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: (Raises hand.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Same conclusion. This will go forward
with no recommendation of the Planning Commissioner.
And with that, Georgia, did you have something you wanted to
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October 16, 2007
bring up again?
MS. HILLER: Yes.
MR. SCHMITT: Mr. Chairman, just to clarify, when we send
this to the Board of County Commissioners, we will make sure the
board understands why there was a split decision and the differing
opinions between the -- both entities so that it's clear that there were
folks that basically had an opinion in regards to the parks and how it
turned out. So we'll make sure that's clear.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I was certainly relying on that, sir.
Thank you.
MS. HILLER: Janet, can we is we discuss what the Planning
Commission has just discussed, and then afterwards, can you give me
permission to readdress libraries? I want to clarify something,
because I think I've made a mistake, and I'll tell you what my mistake
is after. But if you'd give me permission to do that, I'd appreciate it.
MS. VASEY: Sure.
MS. HILLER: Sure.
MS. VASEY: Would you guys stay? We're going to do the
productivity part of it, too.
Does anyone want to take a position on the parks at this point?
MS. HILLER: I would like to make a few comments about it. I
paid very close attention yesterday to all the discussions that we had,
both comments from the Planning Commission as well as the
Productivity Committee, and tying that in, again, with what Mr.
Teasdale (sic) has said, I find myself very concerned. And the
concern I have is whether legally, based on the arguments that were
raised, if, in fact, we do have a satisfaction of the rational nexus test
that's required to establish a legitimate threshold for the impact fee in
this area.
I think that Brad made a very important legal argument which
raises the question of whether there is some arbitrariness in the
calculation of the parks impact fee. And what he said, which I think
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October 16, 2007
was very intelligent, is he said, you know, from year to year we raise
the same issue, and that is, why aren't we using real appraisals?
And that is a very, very important observation because the other
arguments that came out as a result was that the $230,000-per-acre
figure seemed to have been somewhat -- let me repeat the same word
again -- arbitrarily calculated.
Further, Brad Boaz went on to say, you know, that the weighted
average cost calculation didn't seem to be correctly calculated. That
concerned me as well.
And then Janet brought up the issue that we have lands included
in these parks that are not really usable lands and whether those lands
ought to be, you know, reclassified somewhere else. So basically the
whole analysis of the impact fee comes into question when all these
issues are raised.
So having said that, I have some concerns about whether the
current threshold of the parks impact fee isn't higher than it needs to
be in order to satisfy the level of service.
Mr. Teasdale made it very clear yesterday that no argument
needs to be made to lower the impact fee. The argument that needs to
be made is with respect to the maximum. So if we want to see the
impact fee lowered we can, and there seems to be enough justification
there to suggest that if we lower the impact fee, that the level of
service will not be adversely affected, because I think when all the
numbers are recomputed, you will find that what we have right now is
a cushion.
So I would like to make a motion that we not approve as
presented and that this be further investigated and that all the
questions that have been raised as a result of our discussions be
completely vetted and that we determine that, in fact -- and that's
something that should also be turned over to the legal department to
make sure that, in fact, we have a, you know, legally defensible
impact fee in this arena.
,
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October 16, 2007
MS. VASEY: Is there a second?
(No response.)
MS. VASEY: Okay. There's no second right now, but I would
like to address a couple of your comments.
The impact fee, when it was done, was done very, very -- with a
lot of data. The decision to go with $200,000 an acre was based on a
separate study done out in the Golden Gate area, I'd say, two years
ago, and the study was probably this thick where they looked at
actually what was spent on properties out in the areas where the
regional parks would be -- would be going, so they were looking in
the specific areas. Of course, we all know that the land prices were
very inflated at that time.
I think that the impact fee that we currently have is defensible for
the time that it was prepared, but I also believe that that's not exactly
current anymore.
The new impact -- the -- a full update is scheduled for 2009. If
we feel strongly that the -- that this data's incorrect, we could ask for
them to move it up in a year and have it -- have it done next year and
take another look at the property values and, you know, move forward
that way.
I do think that at the time it was prepared it was defensible.
We've inflated it based on history. All this is based on history. And
they took the last three years, looked at it to see what they should
inflate it at. And having a full update, I think, is reasonable if we want
to suggest that, and it could come up with something different at that
point.
MS. HILLER: I think that's an excellent recommendation. And
you know, what was done historically, you know, is a different issue
than where we are today, and I want to make that clear. I think looking
at the facts as presented today, I have concerns based on, you know,
current market conditions and --
MS. VASEY: Yeah. It's not clear in my mind whether it would
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October 16, 2007
increase or decrease, but it's certainly worth having a new study done
if you want to and -- or recommend that.
MS. HILLER: Exactly.
MS. VASEY: That would be a commissioner's decision. But I
would support that.
MS. HILLER: Would you like to make the motion then, you
know, restate what I said in a manner that incorporates your
recommendations?
MS. VASEY: Okay. I can try. And I have one
recommendation, too, that I'd like to see in it. But recommend
approval of the program for this year's AUIR with the -- with the
additional recommendation that we conduct an impact fee update in
2009 to take another look at what the costs are.
MS. RAMSEY: Is that 2008 or 2009?
MS. VASEY: I'm sorry, 2008, yeah. It was supposed to be
2009, and I'd like to move it to 2008. And was there something else
that you wanted in addition?
MS. HILLER: The only concern I have is that we've got, you
know, a possible commitment to projects that are five-year projects,
and we're kind of -- you know, we're getting back into that, you know,
possibly changing the impact fee but then having these projects that
are being committed to now for the five-year term and, you know, that
whole timing issue.
MS. VASEY: On that one I think we have some time because
what's coming up next is the land donations which will not involve
any money . We'll have a chance to take another look at it. And
perhaps we should specify that we have the impact fee study
completed before next year's AUIR, so we're sure we have that
information rolled into the AUIR.
MS. HILLER: And maybe before any commitments for any
future acquisitions till we know where we stand on the impact fee
level.
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October 16, 2007
MS. VASEY: Okay.
MS. HILLER: That makes sense.
MS. VASEY: Okay.
MS. HILLER: I agree with that.
MS. VASEY: And that -- also I would like to recommend
inclusion of data to evaluate the financial feasibility of park facilities
in the AUIR even though those facilities will not -- that facility
information will not be needed for the CIE going to DCA, if that's not
enough alphabet soup for you.
Is there anything that you guys want to includes?
(No response.)
MS. VASEY: Okay. That's my motion?
MS. HILLER: I'll second it.
MS. VASEY: Discussion? All in favor? Aye.
MR. HARRISON: Discussion.
MS. VASEY: Oh, okay.
MR. HARRISON: What you've really talked through here is like
a stand-still order until you're done with the next impact study. If
you're saying no new commitments, right?
MS. VASEY: Well, other than, the donations should proceed. I
mean, that costs us nothing.
MS. HILLER: Right. Donations are different.
MS. VASEY: But no new acquisitions.
MR. HARRISON: That's fine.
MS. VASEY: That won't hold you up.
MS. RAMSEY: Well, it could. I mean, we have a direction
from the Board of County Commissioners to continue to purchase
lands in the Bayview area to help with boat ramp facilities. And as a
matter of fact, we purchased one about two weeks ago, and we've got
three more that we're working with currently.
So we do have some land acquisitions and existing projects that
we're trying to accomplish.
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October 16, 2007
MS. HILLER: How much is it?
MS. RAMSEY: Well, it depends on the lot. They've been
running about 285- a lot.
MS. HILLER: And how many are we proposing to purchase?
MS. RAMSEY: About four more, I think.
MR. HARRISON: A million.
MS. HILLER: I mean, based on the numbers that we're looking
at here, that's not really a material acquisition, so I don't think it
makes, you know, much sense to hold up a small project like that. I
mean, when you're looking at total expenditures of 124 million, I don't
think one is --
MS. VASEY: Well, their impact fee collections in a year are 32
million, so a million plus or minus is --
MS. HILLER: Oh, a million relative to that, but still it's not --
you know, we're not talking like 10 percent of the total budget
acquisition. It's still less than one percent, so --
MS. VASEY: So that would be all right?
MS. HILLER: I think so, yeah.
MS. VASEY: Okay.
MS. RAMSEY: Clarification? Do you -- are you suggesting to
the board that we not move forward with any new park projects
because -- and clarification, or just acquisition of lands?
MS. VASEY: Oh, I was just thinking acquisition oflands while
we check on prices and things. I was not thinking that we would hold
up facilities.
MS. HILLER: I think we should hold off on -- I mean, what
facilities do you have in the pipeline?
MS. RAMSEY: We are going out for a -- construction
documents on Manatee Park, which is east of951 in Commissioner
Fiala's district. That's the next one that we have. We're currently in
design plan of the Big Corkscrew Island, but we will not be building
that probably until, I don't know, 2010; is that what we have?
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October 16, 2007
MS. HILLER: How much money are we talking about?
MS. RAMSEY: We've got the Goodland boat ramp that's
coming on. I mean, they're all listed in your -- about $9 million in
2008 and then 3.7 in 2009. But for this fiscal year, we've got -- and
most of those have already been board approve. Not all of them, but
some of them.
MS. VASEY: I don't really think we can hold up the program.
MS. HILLER: Agree.
MS. VASEY: We'll take a better look at it next year with better
information and --
MS. HILLER: I agree.
MS. VASEY: -- be able to address it then.
MS. HILLER: I think what's in the pipeline for this year has to
go. I'm with you on that.
MS. VASEY: Gentlemen, did I see a hand over here?
MR. SW AJA: You did, mine. Are we going to separate
community parks and regional parks?
MS. VASEY: We can if you want to.
MR. SW AJA: Yeah. Planning Commission did. Are we going
to separate land acquisition from buildings?
MS. VASEY: No.
MR. SW AJA: Okay.
MS. VASEY: Okay. My motion is initially for community
parks, and you seconded?
MS. HILLER: I seconded.
MS. VASEY: Okay. All those in favor?
Aye.
MS. HILLER: Aye.
MS. VASEY: Opposed?
MR. SWAJA: Nay.
MR. HARRISON: No.
MS. VASEY: Okay. We'll take no action here.
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October 16, 2007
Regional parks. All those in favor? Aye.
MS. HILLER: Aye.
MS. VASEY: Opposed?
MR. HARRISON: No.
MR. SW AJA: Nay.
MS. VASEY: Okay. No action here either. Thank you all.
MS. HILLER: If I may --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Oh, Georgia, you had one more. That's
right. Sorry.
MS. HILLER: Steve and Joe.
MR. SW AJA: Just one comment. I would have voted differently
if we'd have separated facilities from land acquisitions.
MS. HILLER: Facilities from land acquisition?
MR. HARRISON: Let's take this up at our next board.
MR. SW AJA: We'll take a separate vote.
MS. VASEY: Yeah, we can do that.
MS. HILLER: Steve and Joe, I made a mistake. You know, in
the last discussion we had about libraries, even though Janet said, you
know, I guess it's because it's just proceeding late into the day, I wasn't
thinking clearly. She made it clear that the library projects that are on
the table have already been let.
MR. HARRISON: Yeah, yeah.
MS. HILLER: So it's kind of moot to oppose what's being
presented if that's already committed to and there's nothing we can do
to change it, so I'd like to --
MR. SW AJA: I have this fatal flaw called integrity, and ifI don't
agree with something, even though somebody made a decision, I don't
agree with it.
MS. HILLER: Well, the thing is that, I understand, but I mean
they have presented the numbers. And quite frankly, the analysis that
you want, I'd like to see in every area that we have this debt service
issue -- I mean -- and this is just among us as members of the
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October 16, 2007
Productivity Committee. I think it's a finance issue, a public finance
issue, that we should be looking at, look at the impact fees, you know,
the ad valorem dollars, debt service, thinking about all that. I mean,
we really take a close look at that.
But I really do have to reconsider my vote because, you know, I
have integrity also, but I also know that, you know, the dice are
thrown so it doesn't serve to, you know, look back at something that's
been done. And quite frankly, it will do a great deal to promote
education in the area, so I would like to change my vote on that, if I
may.
MS. VASEY: Okay. How about, let's handle it this way. We
can't make a final decision anyway. This would just be -- would have
been subcommittee recommendation to the full committee. We'll go
ahead and get the information that we asked for, and then -- and then
we will be taking it up on the 31 st, so we'll have a chance to vote on it
again then.
MS. HILLER: Okay. Then I'll just retract my vote and hold off
till that point in time.
MS. VASEY: Okay.
MS. TOWNSEND: If I could make one point of clarification on
parks. The community and regional parkland are the portions of the
AUIR, are land acquisition only. Park development is not part of what
you are considering when you're looking at those two programs.
MS. HILLER: Does that make a difference?
MS. VASEY: That's why I said no, that we were just doing it on
the two acquisitions. But we'll work it out on the 31 st. And I hope
you will be able to attend our meeting. You're invited.
MS. TOWNSEND: Thank you.
MS. VASEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I think we finished up with a
whole bunch of stuff, and we can move on to the government
buildings.
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October 16, 2007
MR. CAMP: Good afternoon. If I could just introduce myself as
Skip Camp, your Facilities Management Director. Roger Hovell (sic),
who has given this presentation for years or answered your questions,
has left the county unexpectedly and recently, and in his absence,
we've asked Hank Jones to fill in. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Thank you.
MR. JONES: For the record, Hank Jones, Facilities
Management.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Good morning. Afternoon now.
MR. JONES: Afternoon.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Did you want to make a presentation or
just want us to ask you questions?
MR. JONES: I think, why don't we go right to your questions.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Boy, I tell you what, after Jean came up
here yesterday, Phil picked up on the routine, and it's been going
pretty smooth since. Okay.
Well, why don't -- we normally go through page by page, and I'm
sure we probably have some questions of him.
Page 173 is a summary form of the 2007 AUIR for government
buildings. We'll start with that. Are there any questions from either
panel? Ms. Vasey?
MS. VASEY: Okay. My first one has to do with the revenues,
and maybe Susan Usher will end up being the one to do it, but I'll start
the question anyway.
The loan for the general fund is for 8 million -- about 8 million 6.
I'm concerned that we will not really have the capability to repay that
loan.
When you look at the program that is planned, it's 92 -- $92
million in this five-year period. It's 120 in the next five-year period,
years six through 10. The impact fees that are collected are about 20
million in this five-year period.
So you're going to be behind in paying for these new facilities,
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October 16, 2007
and that's why you've got the loan for 8 million 5,8 million 6.
And I don't think it's financially feasible to assume that the
impact fees in the next period will be able to make up the next year's
program. So I think that this is not -- this program with the loan in it
is not financially feasible.
And Susan is going to address that on the EMS on the 31 st with
us. If you would like, you can deal with this again with -- now or on
the 31 st.
MS. USHER: The projects that are -- the loan is being made for
the projects that are under construction today. So like I said earlier, if
debt service is due, we already borrowed the money, debt service is
due, somebody has to pay.
If the impact fees are not available or have not arrived to make
that payment, then one-third of the mill will make that payment. So
we can recalculate, you can push off projects, but the trouble is, all
these projects are under construction as we speak today.
So there are no projects -- I mean, the fleet building is almost
complete.
MR. JONES: Yes.
MS. USHER: The courthouse annex, the fourth floor, I think the
fifth -- I think they're working on the fifth floor today as we speak, and
the EOC, we just awarded -- was it in April -- the GMP to start that,
and site construction already started many, many months ago on that.
MR. JONES: The building is 20 percent complete.
MS. USHER: Twenty percent complete. So those three
buildings that this loan is making is because the impact fees are not
coming in; somebody has to make that debt service payment, and
that's why the general fund or the third of a mill is being used to make
those payments.
MS. VASEY: And I do understand that you do -- the county
does have the money to make that payment.
MS. USHER: Yes.
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October 16, 2007
MS. VASEY: That's not really so much my issue as how will
this -- if you characterize this as a loan, how will this facility ever
repay the loan? Because each -- each five-year period they're going to
go deeper into the hole. There will never be impact fees -- like in the
case of the libraries, there will be a possibility to recover, I think,
because there's no more construction for the next 10 years. But in this
one, you have not only your program of 92 million now, but you have
a program of 120 million in the next five-year period.
So the reason you need a loan now is because your current
impact fees won't take care of the current program, but you've got
another program coming up that will not allow any excess -- there
won't be any excess impact fees then to apply against this loan. So it
-- my issue is with the characterization of this as a loan because it will
never be repaid, and I'm not sure that this is the right way to balance
the program.
MS. USHER: If our current economy stays the way it is, then
these projects that are listed on page 176, I am sure that some of those
projects will be pushed back even further. But we have to first wait to
see what happens in the future. Like when we go to the '08 AUIR and
the '09 AUIR. Every year these projects get looked at.
Unfortunately the three that are being represented on page 173
under that loan, they're under construction. They can't be pushed
back. We've already bitten into that apple. We have to go through and
we need to finish up those projects.
But those other projects in 176 that say planned projects beyond
2012, those projects can be pushed back if truly Collier County is not
going to grow any -- well, if we -- if the current economy of our
housing market, our construction market, if this is the new reality, then
these will get pushed out also, I'm sure.
Now, as far as paying back, if that happens where we never pay it
back, then we never pay it back. It will always be on the books as a
loan. As was stated earlier, it's 0 percent. We didn't go to an outside
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October 16, 2007
source. All we do is we take some internal money and we make that
payment so -- but if for some reason the impact fees start coming in
good and there is the ability to pay it back, then the expectation is to
pay it back. But the key word is ability to pay it back. That will be
paid back. But for now, we made a notation that it's a loan.
MS. VASEY: Okay. You're already going to come back to us
on the 31 st with a total package of what kind of debts you're paying
out of the one-third.
MS. USHER: Actually I was able to use somebody's computer,
and I have some of that information right now if you're interested.
MS. VASEY: I think maybe we should just -- you're not too
interested in this part are you, Mark?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Personally, you guys could talk
numbers all day long and I wouldn't be too much interested, no.
MS. VASEY: Let's just go ahead and save that till the 31st.
We'll go over it just as part of the Productivity Committee and --
because that's more our issue than Planning Commission.
MS. USHER: Okay.
MS. HILLER: Janet, may I ask a question that when we have
that meeting, could we invite Mr. Teasdale, or is it presumed that he's
going to be there? Because I think -- or what's his name?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Tindale.
MS. VASEY: Tindale.
MS. HILLER: Mr. T. We're just going to call him Mr. T. Can
he join us, please, because I think we're going to need a lot of
clarification and edification in these discussions about, you know,
characterization of, you know, debt versus --
MS. VASEY: Okay. We'll ask Amy since she owns his contract
and see if that's possible.
MR. BOSI: Just a clarification. You had invited Susan back to
the EMS discussion, which is going to happen on the 26th of October.
You have yet to invite her back -- and I guess just to -- this would be
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October 16,2007
your official invitation to the 31 st meeting of the Productivity
Committee.
MS. VASEY: I think probably the whole committee, the whole
Productivity Committee. That's what I'm thinking now needs to hear
the discussion, since we're kind of more responsible for the financial
part.
MR. BOSI: But for your ability to take action on the 26th when
we are going to hear specifically EMS and their master plan, you
would -- I would still think you probably would like to have that
information related to the debt service from Susan as well.
MS. VASEY: Yes, please.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And Amy, you were going to
answer a question, then Mr. Schiffer has a question.
MS. PATTERSON: Oh, Amy Patterson, for the record. You
wanted Steve for the 26th and the 31 st, or just the 31 st?
MS. HILLER: I think if we could just have him as an adjunct
member would be great. I mean, if he could be there for both, I think
it would be wonderful, because I think there will be a lot of questions
that are going to be raised that I think we're going to need his expertise
on.
MS. PATTERSON: I'll have him -- and he is on an annual
contract --
MS. HILLER: Good.
MS. PATTERSON: -- so as far as that side, that's okay, but it's
him checking his calendar to see his availability.
MS. HILLER: Good. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Brad, did you have --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Just a couple things. One thing,
what was that amount of money -- and you may know it, the one-third
-- one-third --
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Mill.
MR. SW AJA: One-third of a mill.
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October 16,2007
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Of a mill?
MS. VASEY: Of a mill, yeah. Susan would know how much
that is. Is that what you're asking?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah, I was just curious as to
what amount of money that was.
MR. HARRISON: Susan, I need to ask you a question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Susan?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Because I thought you were
saying one-third of a million. I was going to say, she's stretching it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You guys have got to talk one at a time
because it's getting hard for the court reporter to take notes. So after
Brad, Susan, if you could answer Brad's question, then Steve will have
a question.
MS. USHER: I'm sorry. What was the question?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: The question, what kind of
dollars is that one-third mill?
MS. USHER: The one-third of a mill is on taxable values of all
Collier County. That generates approximately $27.5 million this year.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Steve, did you -- same question,
okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: That was it. And then this is a
question on impact fees anticipated. When you figured these out, are
you figuring the slump we're going through, or what kind of data
caused that 19 mill number?
MS. USHER: The impact fees that are calculated in each one of
these AUIR pages, basically this information's requested from our
office in about June. What I did is I looked at the '08 budget that was
at that time just a preliminary number, and I just based it off of that
what the next five years are going to look like, off of the '08.
So with the slump, then the rest of the five years, there's
assuming a slowdown also. All I do is just take the '08 budget number
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October 16, 2007
and apply the percentage increase of population, and if there is
anything else, like if I know a fee increase is coming where the board
says retro -- as of a certain date we're going to increase an impact fee,
then I know it's going to take nine months to a year before I see the
realization of that impact fee.
Because as you know, when you put in a building permit, you're
locked in the day you put in -- you request your building permit. So if
subsequently the board approved a higher fee, you're locked into the
old rate, so that's why I wait nine months to a year before I realize that
revenue, that increased revenue in my revenue stream over the five
years.
So all I do is just take the next year's budget, which happened to
be in this case the fiscal year '08 budget, and just increased it by the
population. Now, I knew Amy did an indexing that was becoming
due, so I threw that indexing in fiscal year '09 and let the population
growth increase that.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay.
MS. USHER: So it's a very simple calculation. My degree's in
accounting, not economics, so this is just an estimate. This is a
five-year estimate. If you looked at the '06 AUIR, you would see
those impact fee estimates were a lot higher because the '07 budget -- I
mean, did we really know this was going to happen over a year and a
half ago? So the '07 budget had higher numbers in it.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Do you think in your
calculation of this, that you did take into the fact that we're in a bit of a
dip here or --
MS. USHER: In '08, yes, a bit of a dip, but I probably should
have dropped those numbers even further. But that's hindsight. In
June when I was preparing these numbers, April, May, June, I didn't
realize it was just going to continue going down, down, down.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I just wanted to see -- I mean, if
you had thought that things were going to slow, I mean, that's better
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October 16, 2007
than if you thought things were going to rocket through this thing.
MS. USHER: No. I knew they weren't rocketing. I did put a dip
in, but I should have -- hindsight, I should have brought them down
even further.
MS. HILLER: And I think--
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We're on page 173. Were there
any other comments? Janet?
MS. VASEY: Yes. Susan, one more thing. Since you gave us 25
million being one-third mill --
MS. USHER: Yes.
MS. VASEY: -- how much are you -- do you have right now
that's going to debt service?
MS. USHER: Okay. I want to clarify. I have two different debt
service. I have the old bonds that impact fees cannot not pay. I don't
care how many millions we have in the bank, impact fees could never
pay this debt. So this old debt, there's about $8 million worth. Okay.
So impact fees can never touch that.
Now, the other half where some of my impact fee funds -- they're
not doing -- they weren't quite as healthy in fiscal year '08, I have
transfers to them in the amount of about 5.2 million. That's on top of
the 8 million. So those two numbers combined at total debt service,
that's coming out of my one-third of a mill for capital.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions on page 173?
I guess the gentleman who's -- was it Steve?
MR. JONES: Hank.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hank, I looked through on your level of
service at 1.7 square feet per capita, and it looks like you have a
higher required inventory, so I was checking your inventory, and I
couldn't find any of the buildings in the City of Naples, the City of
Marco or City of Everglades. So they are all government buildings
and they are all used by the countywide population. I didn't see them
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October 16,2007
included in the inventory. Are they included in the inventory?
MR. JONES: City of Naples definitely not. Those are only BCC
buildings.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I thought you'd say that because that's
what you said last year. And as last year occurred, unfortunately I
disagreed with that position. I think if government buildings in this
county exist, they're used by the people in this county, and if we're
going to countywide population on which to base our calculations, we
should be crediting all the countywide government buildings. So that's
just a statement. I know where you guys stand. You told me that last
year, but I'm just going to go on record again this year.
Having that said, is there anything else on page 173? Mr. -- Steve, go
ahead.
MR. HARRISON: Could somebody tell us what residual motor
pool, capital recovery is?
MS. USHER: A few years ago the motor pool, our fleet -- we
used to collect money from all the departments. If you had a car, we
assumed your car would be good for five years, and then after five
years or six years or seven years, that car needed to be replaced. So
you as a department had to pay in, like a depreciation.
So if you had a car, you also had to pay a fee to replace your car.
So when it came time to replace your car, the money was already in
this bank account waiting for you. So we stopped that practice a few
years ago. Janet, you might remember some of this more than I can.
And what we did is when we paid, we had a lump sum of money
in that fund. We paid back all the departments and we kept 600,000 --
I think it was 600,000 out, and we used that 600,000 as start-up money
for the replacement of an existing fleet building. So that's what that --
that's why that says residual motor pool, capital recovery money
because it was that leftover money we kept aside to start that capital
project. Does that help?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any other questions on page
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October 16,2007
173?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: 174. Questions page 174?
Hank, the only question I have is, why didn't you use the
unincorporated population for the county? Obviously my question --
MR. JONES: Same.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I know. If you're using the county
population, then I think you ought to be counting all the facilities in
the county, but if you're using the -- if you want to get to what this
document, I think, should pertain to, you should be using the
unincorporated county population. I understand why you're not. I just
want to be on record. I object to that. I will object to it in the closing
statement for today, so -- any other questions on page 174?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Page 175, it's the chart.
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Page 176 is the improvements plan. Mr.
Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Hank or Skip, it pertains to items
that are the total CIE, FY-'08-12, and it's the BCC building, and it
relates, I think, as well to page 177 to the item where it says building
B, human resources. And the BCC building, I think, is to replace that
building, if I'm not in error.
MR. CAMP: Again, for the record, Skip Camp. On your first
page, 176, the BCC building is a general government building that
was by the master plan, supposed to be done by now. It's
11O,000-square-foot proposed building for general administrative
services. The one you're talking about on page 177, building B, is
actually the current human resource building, and it has about 7,000
square feet.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: So those thing are separate
entities, are they?
October 16, 2007
MR. CAMP: Yes.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: That BCC building, is that the
one they were talking about moving the BCC organization up to the
north?
MR. CAMP: In the original 1998 master plan, the BCC building,
as we refer to it, was actually going to be set over the old HR building,
the old building B, on that footprint. Now there is some discussion--
which we have a master plan revision that will take about six months,
we have, as you're referring to -- have secured 7.7 acres of Heritage
Bay, and ironically 110,000-square-foot building could go very nicely
on that lot, but there are some questions that we're reviewing. For
instance, can the county seat be moved there. Those are the types of
thing we're looking into right now.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And I'm aware of those issues,
and I suggest caution.
MR. CAMP: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions? Janet?
MS. VASEY: Just a small one, Hank. You scared me with that
total line talking about the total cost for the 1 O-year period of $305
million, but it -- when I looked at it more closely, it looks like you're
double counting the 92. You've counted it from a subtotal twice, I
guess, or from the subtotal, and them from the CIE easement program
for eight through 12 and then you picked up 120. You see what I'm
saying? It just -- it's --
MR. JONES: Yes.
MS. VASEY: That line is not totaling properly.
MR. HARRISON: Ninety-two and 120 doesn't add up to 305.
MS. VASEY: Yeah. So I just mentioned it because you scared
me.
MR. CAMP: Yeah, thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. We have some tables of
inventory that start on page 177 and through 178. Any questions with
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October 16,2007
the inventory pages?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: On page 177, isn't the
transportation building a leased building as opposed to an owned
building?
MR. CAMP: No, ma'am. It's owned.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Where transportation is is an
owned building?
MR. CAMP: It's an owned building, yes, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any questions? Joe?
MR. SW AJA: These are all buildings we have in the county?
MR. HARRISON: Owned.
MR. CAMP: No, sir. These are the ones that are -- that are
related to general buildings, not EMS or fire or those covered under
others.
MR. SW AJA: No way we could add that all together and get a
total square feet, total number of people together in one place, is
there?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Joe, we'll need the mike a little closer to
you when you talk.
MR. SW AJA: Is there any way we could total all those facilities
up in the different categories and to count the number of people that
go in there and kind of like express number of square feet per person?
MR. CAMP: We could provide something like that. We have
about three million square feet, 660 buildings countywide. They
house our employees and they also house other people -- other
employees of like state agencies, but we could put something together.
I'll get with you off-line and find out exactly what you're looking for.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions on the inventory
page for owned buildings?
(No response.)
Page 175
October 16, 2007
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: On page 179 we have the inventory
page for leased inventory. Any questions on that? Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Ms. Caron?
COMMISSIONER CARON: What about this building?
MR. CAMP: This building is an owned building, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER CARON: It's an owned building? Where is it
on the --
MR. CAMP: This is a fee -- this was paid for by fees, so it's not
on here.
COMMISSIONER CARON: But we own it.
MR. CAMP: We own it.
COMMISSIONER CARON: So it's not in the inventory though.
MR. CAMP: It's not in this particular inventory that has to do
with government impact fees because it was purchased by fees.
MR. SCHMITT: This entire building, the garage and everything
in and around this camp -- this campus here was purchased with
permitting fees. It is a county asset but it is not part of the impact fees.
It's paid and funded, operated solely with permit fees collected.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Brad?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Talk about that. So that means
that we can't count this building for our level of service? In other
words, this is not an asset that we have to maintain?
MR. CAMP: Not under this general government buildings, just
like EMS stations or sheriffs substations. They're addressed in other
impact fees.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: All right.
MR. SCHMITT: And I -- and most people don't understand, but
as far as monies and budget, Skip bills me for everything that he has to
do out here. I have to pay for that out of my budget. That light today
will cost me, because he's a nice guy.
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October 16, 2007
MR. CAMP: But it's a good deal.
MR. SCHMITT: But it's a good deal, yeah.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anything else on page 179?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Yeah. How many buildings are
like that? Let me just stay on that.
MR. CAMP: Well, again for the record, Skip Camp. You have
EMS stations, you have sheriffs substations. Again, we have a total
of around 600-plus buildings, but you're only seeing the ones that have
to do with impact fees for general government buildings that are not
covered by anything else. Like EMS stations we would not cover
under this one.
MR. SCHMITT: And just so you understand for the record, for
budgeting purposes, those general fund type activities, code
enforcement and other activities in this building pay me rent to
reimburse the costs for this building, so there is a rent that's part of my
budget.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I don't get it. I'm done. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Donna?
MS. CARON: Just one more question then. You just said EMS
was not part of that? Well, EMS is showing up here under leased
inventory. It's the last one on the page.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Leased.
MR. JONES: It's leased.
MR. CAMP: Yes. That should not be there, ma'am. We'll take
care of that. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Okay.
MR. SW AJA: Mark?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh. Good catch.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Joe?
MR. SW AJA: Joe Swaja. The sheriff, during his presentation,
stated that he doesn't own any buildings. They're all county buildings.
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October 16, 2007
MR. CAMP: That's correct. Florida law provides that the Board
of County Commissioners must provide the space and maintain the
place for all the constitutional officers and the judges.
MR. SW AJA: So his buildings should be on here then,
substations?
MR. CAMP: Well, they're covered by a different impact fee.
EMS -- I mean law enforcement impact fees.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Steve?
MR. HARRISON: For the benefit of the Planning Commission
members, I believe next year, 2008, productivity is going to look at
the entire inventory of all land and buildings owned by the county
with an eye toward their utilization, and there are things in there we no
longer need. But that would include the 660, plus land bank -- you
know, inventories of land that are owned by the county.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That will be an interesting study, yeah.
MS. HILLER: Can I?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah, Georgia?
MS. HILLER: Why is the state attorney's economic crime unit
and the public defender included in the lease-based inventory?
MR. CAMP: We provide -- again, per the Florida law, we
provide space for the public defender and the state attorney and their
tentacles, if you will, as it relates to court systems.
MS. HILLER: Oh. We're required to by statute?
MR. CAMP: Yes.
MS. HILLER: Thanks.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anything else on page 179? Move on to
the map on page 180; a chart with way too many lines on it for Brad
on page 181, on page 182, another chart on page 183 with lines and
columns. Brad, you're going to have a field day with that one.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: As long as they line up right,
I'm happy.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And then we have a final-- a
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October 16, 2007
report that goes from page 184 to page 189. That's the first report and
there's a second one after that, so let's take the first one first. The
report that starts on 184 through 189. Do I have any questions on any
of the areas of that report?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. The second report is starting on
page 190. It's titled General Space Requirements. It goes for two
pages through 191, and that would be the end of the government
buildings sector.
Are there any questions on the last couple pages or the entire
document?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any members of the public
that wish to speak or talk about this particular element? Joe?
MR. SW AJA: I have just one comment. Joe Swaja. Making
level of service based on square feet per capita is beyond my
comprehension.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. CAMP: I totally concur, for the record.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: We're all getting there, but it's a matter
of how we have to deal with it.
Okay. Are there -- ifthere's no other questions at all on this
document, then at this point we need -- the Planning Commission
needs to make a recommendation. Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: I make a motion that we
recommend approval to the county commission.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: There's a motion made by
Commissioner Kolflat --
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: (Raises hand.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: -- seconded by Commissioner Vigliotti.
Any discussion?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I do.
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October 16, 2007
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Mark, I think the thing you
pointed out, the populations being so far off kind of make it difficult to
really review what's going on here. I mean, that's a, you know, 88
percent essentially. These charts are useless, the data's useless, so I
kind of think we should table it till we get those accurately portrayed.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I don't think that you're going to
get them. See, that's the point I was trying to make. Last year we
made the same -- we came to the same -- I shouldn't say
recommendation or conclusion. We brought up the same issue last
year. We brought up the issue that they were using countywide
population. Why aren't we counting countywide facilities. In lieu of
that, why don't we use unincorporated population. And as you can
see, it hasn't changed, and I'm not sure it will change. I mean -- so we
could ask for it, but I'm not sure the mindset is there to provide it.
Mr. Tindale?
MR. TINDALE: I think I can help. Steve Tindale. Part of that's
driven by -- you adopted an administrative building impact fee and
instructions were to be very careful, and in all situations, if we're
going to err, err on the side -- if we have a court case, we'll lose it.
A question came up, we took the county's inventory, which you
own, and divided it by the countywide population because everybody
in this county can come to one of your buildings.
What we didn't do and could not do is take a city's building,
because it is not a city impact fee -- and the law doesn't allow us to
adopt a city impact fee. We didn't take the city's buildings and put
them on the inventory, have anything to do with it.
So this is driven by a county program, managed by the county,
controlled by the county, and that's the reason it's structured that way
to where we're dealing with that. And at this point in time I don't
think the county wants to get involved in, you know, a court case
where we start mixing in multiple government agencies and how
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October 16, 2007
they're planning out their facilities and charging impact fees.
So I think that was one of the reasons this thing's driven by a
county inventory and a county, full county, you know, population,
which means that a developer is not being charged for the city
facilities. So that's somewhat of a -- as far as capital fees.
Now, if the city wanted to charge a city administrative billing
fee, they then could adopt that. So it's driven by that, and I don't think
it's going to change.
Now, if you want information regarding, you know, a different
makeup, countywide plus city inventory and et cetera -- but we took
the county population, which is a larger population, and divided it in --
which is the total county, including the city -- and divided it into the
county's inventory, which reduced the fee.
If we take an unincorporated population with an unincorporated
ownership, the fee would be much larger. We didn't want to do that,
specifically because city residents can and do use the county's
facilities. So it is -- it's a little twisted in terms of, from a business
plan, on how you would like to see it, but I don't think there's any out
in terms of how it can be structured to manage a revenue program and
an impact fee program and a county impact fee program with a county
administrative building.
So you pretty well-- now, if you want the information for some
comparative purposes and other reasons -- but I think the structure is
driven quite a bit by our care in making sure that we had a structure in
terms of development fees that couldn't be questioned in terms of the
denominator being pretty large and the numerator only being what you
have control over.
So any request you have to change that structure, I think, can be
met. But the way this plan's going to continue forward will be what
the county government has control over, and we will use a total
population to be conservative.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: But here's the problem I have is
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October 16, 2007
you're not dividing the population. This is a per capita. There's no
denominator --
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: You guys can't talk at the same time.
One of you has to be quiet.
MR. TINDALE: Excuse me.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: There's no -- it's not a
denominator. It's a --
MR. TINDALE: The impact fee is -- and this is -- again, there's
an issue of staging these and timing. The updated impact fee, the
actual per capita, is 1.52, not 1.7.
So since you pull this out of one document, which you have to --
and we've done an update -- the actual square footage that we think
you own that is active buildings is 1.52, not 1.7. So the next update in
terms of doing this, that will even be changed. But we'd have to take
in the total population and we have divided it into what we think is
active buildings, and it's 1.52 per thousand people.
MR. CAMP: Does it matter that the services that we offer are
separate also, that our services are not in their buildings, that they're
only in our buildings?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: That they're ours?
MR. CAMP: What I mean is, we provide certain services in our
buildings, that we don't necessarily provide our services in city-owned
buildings.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Right.
MR. TINDALE: County services.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The city people, though, aren't going to
use our buildings completely for their services. Obviously they don't
because they go to their council chambers, they go do their -- they've
got building departments. They've got everything.
For -- just to exclude that population from -- I mean, if you
exclude the ability for that population to have those buildings but
include the entire population without weighing it into ours is an unfair
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burden on the taxpayers of this county.
MR. TINDALE: No. It reduces -- it reduces the impact fee. It
doesn't increase it. It takes a population that is being totally served --
now what happens is the city -- the city people are getting two
services. They're getting the county service and the city service. And
from a capital investment, if the city doesn't adopt an impact fee, then
the development in the city is getting a much better service and only
paying a county impact fee, and that's a city -- a city's decision to
provide that service and not charge the capital, but it reduces the fee.
It doesn't increase the fee, and is somewhat -- you know, that's up to
the city to decide whether they're providing more buildings per unit in
that area and not charge a development fee for that increased service
delivery. That's the city's choice.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other questions? Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'm still not clear, and I'm not
really clear on the fun with math part of it. If the -- we're multiplying
this number. So when you came up with the impact fees -- and we're
not here to do impact fees. We're here to do level of service, so this is
where it's even more confusing. Then if you're multiplying this
square- foot number -- so when you are looking at an office space,
you're coming up with how many people in there and you're using that
number, why is it helpful? Why is it helping us? Because what you're
saying is if you use these -- the county's numbers it would be 1.5, and
thus it's 1.7, and now that you're --
MR. TINDALE: Yeah. If you divided the county's ownership
by owning unincorporated population, the number of square foot per
person you're providing will go up dramatically, and when you're
providing more service per person at the same cost per square foot, the
fee would be up by -- say if you reduced the population by 20 percent
or whatever it is in the city, the fee would -- the fee and the costs per
square foot would go up 20 percent in terms of person and service. So
we are saying, here's the county buildings and they're servicing every
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October 16, 2007
person inside the county, including the city.
So the 1.5, if you subtract it out and didn't include the city
residents, it would be like maybe 1.9 per unincorporated population,
which then is a much higher quality of service and the fee would go
up dramatically. And we just wanted no chance of having a debate
about that in your first implementation of the process, and I don't think
there's any indication that's going to change.
The other thing we -- again, from an impact fee perspective and a
cost is we did not include all your furnishings and fixtures. And when
you do an update and you include that, that would be another
increment that will make the revenue flow seem much better in terms
of the revenues you would generate because you're really now from --
again, being conservative on that one fee of not charging the full value
of your asset.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. I fold.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Well, I mean, I gave up 15 minutes ago,
Brad. So I already know -- we've already made our -- any further
discussion on the motion made to recommend approval of government
buildings category B?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Hearing none, I'll call for the
vote. All those in favor of the motion to approve, signify by saying
aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All those against? Aye.
I'm against for the reasons stated earlier in the record.
Okay. With that, did you guys want to discuss it at this point?
MS. VASEY: No. I think our only issue is the financial one on
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October 16, 2007
the loan, so we'll wait and take it up on the 31st.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. And I think we could take a
break right now and be back here at 4:15, and we'll probably end at
about 5:00.
(A brief recess was had, and Georgia Hiller is absent for the
remainder of the meeting.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Because the Productivity
Committee was late from lunch, we can start 30 seconds early.
And the next exciting chapter of today's meeting will be the Isle
of Capri Fire and Rescue Control District.
Chief, how you doing?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Pretty good, sir. How about yourself?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I hope that you've watched the
presentations before you.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, sir, here. I will be short, brief and
to the point. For the record, my name's Emilio Rodriguez, Chief of
Isle of Capri Fire/Rescue, and I just would like to remind the board
here that we are an ad valorem tax-based department and we are not
funded by general fund, so we operate strictly from ad valorem and
impact fees.
With that, I'd like to ask the board if you have any questions on
our AUIR. We are postponing from last year that I came to the board
where we asked -- we needed to put a second station up at Main Sail
Drive due to the tax cuts and also with the development out in the
Main Sail Drive area that has slowed down, we are postponing the
Main Sail Drive station there till 2013.
With that, I open it up and I'm here to answer any of your
questions.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. This is a rather short section of
category B. So rather than go page by page, let's just open the entire
document up and ask for any questions from the book, and as soon as
someone has a chance to look at it. Mr. Murray?
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October 16, 2007
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yes, I misheard you. I thought
you said that you're not -- you're ad valorem revenue?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: But I see impact fees on here, so
I'm confused.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. I did say that we are ad valorem
as well as impact fees.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Oh, you did. I missed that part.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: We do collect impact fees. Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I misheard that.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: One question.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: What is your response time to
the Main Sail area or actually the Fiddler's Creek area, which do you
covered?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, sir. We cover the first mile of
Fiddler's Creek from 951 in. Right now we are outside of our
response time, which is a four-minute response time within a 1.5-mile
radius of our current station. So we're looking -- we are looking at,
right now, at a response time to the Fiddler's Creek area above five
minutes.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. And what elevation are
you at? Your station's at -- and the concern is, during the storm surge,
you would be essentially wiped out, wouldn't you?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: It would depend if it's a storm that hits us
directly from the Gulf side and what the category is. Right now we
could withstand up to category one, but depend on what type of tidal
surge.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. But is your building--
I'm not familiar with your building. Is it a two-story building? I guess
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October 16,2007
. ,
It s --
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: No, sir, it's not a two-story building, but
we are above -- we're three feet above the actual floodplain.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Any other questions on Isle of
Capri? Ms. Vasey?
MS. VASEY: Yes. Chief, on page 194, you talk about the
funding for the additional station being contingent upon the donation
of land and availability of funding. You're looking for an additional
1.5 million. Will you be getting donation of the full amount or what
kind of money would you need in addition to a donation?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: No, ma'am. We are looking at the
donation of the land alone, and then for the actual funding of the
station, we would look at financing that portion like we did in the past
with our current station. When we expanded the current station back
in 1992, we had a mortgage payment for seven years.
MS. VASEY: Okay. And you think you could do it without
increasing taxes?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: At this point we are not able to do it
because of the tax rollback, and we don't know exactly what is going
to happen in January, and that will determine whether we need to cut
further or if we're at the same rate as we are now, but we did have to
lower our -- we went from a 1.5 millage rate to 1.459. So it's going to
depend on what happens in January.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Because as I recall last year when you
were talking about it, you said you would not be increasing this -- or
adding this additional station until you could do it with, I thought,
donations because you said you would not increase your taxes.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: No, ma'am. What I did say is that we
will not be doing this station unless we receive the donated land at the
time. Once we receive the donated land, then we would look at the
funding for our half of the station that we're going to share with EMS.
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October 16, 2007
MS. VASEY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: One quick question, Mark.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Schiffer.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Looking at your Main Sail, is
that where you really will locate yourself, far into the things? Could
you not try to find a site that's closer to 951 ?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Well, there's two areas on Main Sail,
which the first area that we actually discussed with WCI was at the
entrance to Main Sail Drive, but with the construction halt right now,
they are not looking at removing that sales center for several years.
So our other alternate area is 2.73 acres that WCI currently owns that
we are looking at right now and actually researching to find out if we
could actually build anything on that 2.73 acres, which is located by
the airport.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any other questions?
Joe?
MR. SW AJA: Chief Rodriguez, is the move-up to other fire
departments, does that include your support to Marco Island? Because
I know you guys support them a lot.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes, sir. We actually do a lot of
move-ups for the City of Marco Island.
MR. SW AJA: Okay. Do they -- do they fund you for that?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: No, sir.
MR. SWAJA: No.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Isn't there an interlocal agreement?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes. We have a mutual aid agreement
that we all follow within the county between all nine fire districts.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: They help you out when you need help
and you help them.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: That's correct.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Ms. Vasey?
MS. VASEY: And right now, East Naples, which is just a little
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October 16, 2007
east of you, east of the Main Sail, are they taking care of -- or helping
in that area if you have fires?
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Yes. We all help each other. We help
them in their area and they also help us in our area, and that all falls
under the mutual aid agreement that all nine fire districts have in
place.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Are there any other questions of the Isle
of Capri?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, are there any questions
from the public?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none. Is there any comments
from the Planning Commission or Productivity Committee before we
ask for a vote? Okay.
Mr. Schiffer?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I mean, my only comment is
that it would be nice to see them get a new station, so -- but I guess
next year maybe we'll talk about that.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Well, we will probably end up revisiting
it depending on what WCI comes back with on that specific piece of
land and after the research is done to see if we could actually build on
that piece of land. So it's an ongoing process right now.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Write Carl Icon a letter.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah, that's the new guy.
Okay. Well--
MR. SW AJA: My only comment is, I'd like to thank the chief.
Everything I heard from the Marco Island Fire Department, you do a
great job.
CHIEF RODRIGUEZ: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Is there a recommendation from
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October 16, 2007
Planning Commission? Mr. Vigliotti?
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: I'll make a recommendation for
approval.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a second?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: I'll second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Second by Mr. Schiffer. Is there any
discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: All those in favor, signify by saying
aye.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries.
Did you want to discuss it with your group, Janet?
MS. VASEY: Would you all like to do anything now, or
approve it or -- no? I think we'd like to wait.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay.
MR. SW AJA: I don't have any problem with it.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay, wait?
MS. VASEY: Yes.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Next item is the Ochopee Fire Control
and Rescue District. It's a similar situation. A lot of charts, a lot of
graphs, so I'd just as soon we take the whole document at once, and
sir, if you'd got anything you'd like to --
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Nope. For the record, my name's Alan
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October 16, 2007
McLaughlin. I'm the Assistant Chief with Isle of Capri, currently
acting as the interim chief for the Ochopee Fire Control District.
Again, we are an ad valorem-based district, and if there are any
questions I could answer.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Looking at the whole document, are
there any questions from the committees? Mr. Kolflat?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLA T: Looking at this map, I'm sure
you would like some more territory, wouldn't you, to cover?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Yeah. Since we're the largest fire district
in the State of Florida, we'd like to have a little more.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mr. Murray?
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: It does say in the
recommendation that, subject to the identification of the revenue
source, to fund it -- have we identified the record -- identified a
source?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: I didn't hear the question, I'm sorry.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Bob, could you pose your question
agam.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: I couldn't hear you.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Yeah. Just reading on page 206
that the recommended action was, the staff recommends to go forward
with it subject to the identification of revenue sources to fund the
interim station that has a revenue shortfall of 106,900. So I don't
know, isn't that our job to find that? Do we have that? Do we achieve
that on this?
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: I don't know if it's our job to find the
money. Ifwe could succeed in doing that with the Board of County
Commissioners, we'd be in really good shape. I think they're more
looking at us to see if the level of service is appropriate and the other
-- the unit cost is acceptable and things like that.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Well, that would appear to be
okay from what I can see. It's just that it leaves it open. Okay.
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October 16, 2007
MR. McLAUGHLIN: To answer your question, we do have
several large construction projects coming into that district, an
II-story, nine-story high-rise into the Port of the Islands, and that's a
considerable amount of money in impact fees.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: And you can use that money?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Good.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: New development.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Janet?
MS. VASEY: Is it more than what you already had here in your
revenue? You have -- you show $193,000 of revenue from impact
fees both unspent and anticipated. Are you saying there's more
coming in than that?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Those impact fees have not yet been
posted. The permits are just being pulled, and the estimated impact
fee for those two structures is somewheres around 170,000.
MS. VASEY: So that would make up your shortfall?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Absolutely.
MS. VASEY: Good news, okay.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Yeah, that is good news.
Any other questions? Yes, sir, Steve?
MR. HARRISON: Earlier today with EMS, we -- they shared
with us the number of rollovers that happen on the interstate.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Yes.
MR. HARRISON: Would your station that you proposed be able
to service that need?
MR. McLAUGHLIN: The Port of the Isles station -- is this the
one you're referring to, or you referring to the I -7 5?
MR. HARRISON: I-75.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Okay. I-75 is a needed facility. That
station, along with the ALS engine, which would be part of the EMS
system, would service the I - 75 corridor for vehicle accidents, vehicle
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October 16,2007
fires, commercial HazMats, and pretty much everything else that's
going to happen in that area. Medical calls that happen on the Alley
that are non-vehicle related. I believe we had 23 medical calls this
year already that were non-vehicle related where people either have
heart attacks or trouble breathing in the middle of nowhere.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Are there any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Hearing none, are there any questions
from the audience, any members of the public?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I guess the Planning
Commission, and maybe the Productivity Committee, will take a
position on it. At least the Planning Commission.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Move to approve.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Second.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Commissioner
Schiffer, seconded by Commissioner Murray.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: I would like to make a comment.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead, sir.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: In light of the fact that these two
gentlemen from their respective fire departments have been here for
two days and it seems that there (sic) wasn't terribly challenging with
regard to this, I would recommend that next year they be given the
opportunity to come rather early in the program so as not to take two
days out of their lives and their jobs. I would hope that that would be
acceptable to the commission and to the committee.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Any other discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Motion's made for
recommendation of approval. All those in favor, signify by saying
say.
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
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October 16, 2007
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Anybody opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion carries. Thank you, sir.
MR. McLAUGHLIN: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: That wraps up the elements that we can
discuss in the AUIR through today's meeting. The meeting will have
to be continued until the 26th at 8:30 in the morning at this facility to
discuss the EMS.
Is there a motion for that?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Not -- I'll just discuss one thing.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: And I'm somewhat serious --
I'm really serious. Mike, are we able to have somebody go through
the GMP, pull out the time-sensitive, goal-sensitive items and invent a
category C, so we can -- like for example, you know, we don't know
how many affordable houses were built. Could there be another water,
you know, shed program floating out there that we're not reminded of
yearly? I mean, can't somebody do that, or do I have to do that?
MR. BOSI: Well, an individual from the comprehensive
planning department can certainly strive for that endeavor, but during
the AUIR process, it deals with capital improvement programs within
the county for hard infrastructure. I'm not sure quite -- I'm not sure
how that fits --
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Okay. And whenever we bring
it up we bring up a reason we can't do it. So invent something new.
It's not the AUIR. It's a twin sister that comes along with it, okay? It's
just a way to -- you know, what we're doing here is reviewing what
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October 16, 2007
the Growth Management Plan does. All these things come out of the
Growth Management Plan that come out of the capital element. But
let's look at the other stuff at the same time.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Mike, a solution to this might be for you
and Brad to have this discussion so you can get a better idea exactly
what Brad means, and then Thursday's meeting of the Planning
Commission, which will be here, why don't we have a late agenda
item just to discuss what the outcome of your synopsis is and whether
or not you can or cannot provide something different if it's needed.
MR. BOSI: Absolutely. As a suggestion and as the -- as an
individual member, I would definitely want to have this discussion
with Mr. Weeks, whose purview is over the GMP as to our ability to
provide that type of information and further consultation with the
county's (sic) attorney's office to make sure this is the appropriate time
and place to have that discussion, but I most certainly will.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. I think it would be better to do it
outside the meeting to see where -- how viable it is, and then we can
worry about beating it to death if we get that far.
MR. BOSI: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Okay. Is there anything else to discuss
today?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Is there a motion to adjourn -- or to
continue to next Friday?
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: So moved.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: (Raises hand.)
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Motion made by Commissioner
Schiffer, seconded by Commissioner Vigliotti.
All those in favor?
COMMISSIONER KOLFLAT: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SCHIFFER: Aye.
COMMISSIONER CARON: Aye.
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October 16, 2007
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: Aye.
COMMISSIONER MURRAY: Aye.
COMMISSIONER VIGLIOTTI: Aye.
CHAIRMAN STRAIN: The meeting is continued to Friday.
Thank you all.
*****
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 4:30 p.m.
COLLIER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
MARK STRAIN, CHAIRPERSON
These minutes approved by the Board on
as presented or as corrected
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY
COURT REPORTING SERVICE, INC., BY TERRI L. LEWIS,
NOTARY PUBLIC.
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