BCC Minutes 11/05/2007 S (AUIR)
November 5, 2007
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida
November 5, 2007
LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Collier County Board of
County Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, having
conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m. in SPECIAL
SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples,
Florida, with the following members present:
CHAIRMAN: Jim Coletta
Tom Henning
Donna Fiala
Fred Coyle
Frank Halas
Also Present:
Jim Mudd, County Manager
Jeffrey Klatzkow, Chief Assistant County Attorney
Leo Ochs, Deputy County Manager
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AGENDA
Monday, November 5, 2007
9:00 a.m.
James Coletta, Chairman, District 5
Tom Henning, Vice-Chairman, District 3
Fred W. Coyle, Commissioner, District 4
Donna Fiala, Commissioner, District 1
Frank Halas, Commissioner, District 2
NOTICE: ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON ANY AGENDA ITEM MUST REGISTER
PRIOR TO SPEAKING. SPEAKERS MUST REGISTER WITH THE COUNTY MANAGER
PRIOR TO THE PRESENTATION OF THE AGENDA ITEM TO BE ADDRESSED.
COLLIER COUNTY ORDINANCE NO. 03-53, AS AMENDED, REQUIRES THAT ALL
LOBBYISTS SHALL, BEFORE ENGAGING IN ANY LOBBYING ACTIVITIES (INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ADDRESSING THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS),
REGISTER WITH THE CLERK TO THE BOARD AT THE BOARD MINUTES AND RECORDS
DEPARTMENT.
ALL REGISTERED PUBLIC SPEAKERS WILL RECEIVE UP TO THREE (3) MINUTES
UNLESS THE TIME IS ADJUSTED BY THE CHAIRMAN.
IF YOU ARE A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY WHO NEEDS ANY ACCOMMODATION IN
ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROCEEDING, YOU ARE ENTITLED, AT NO COST TO
YOU, TO THE PROVISION OF CERTAIN ASSISTANCE. PLEASE CONTACT THE COLLIER
COUNTY FACILITIES MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT LOCATED AT 3301 EAST TAMIAMI
TRAIL, NAPLES, FLORIDA, 34112, (239) 774-8380; ASSISTED LISTENING DEVICES FOR
THE HEARING IMPAIRED ARE AVAILABLE IN THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' OFFICE.
I. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
2. REVIEW OF THE ANNUAL UPDATE AND INVENTORY REPORT ON PUBLIC FACILITIES,
CA TEGORY A AND CATEGORY B.
A. AUIR OVERVIEW - MIKE BOSI
B. IMPACT FEES RELATED TO TIlE AUIR- AMY PATTERSON
C. COUNTY ROADS - NORM FEDER AND NICK CASALANGUIDA
D. DRAINAGE CANALS AND STRUCTURES - GENE CALVERT
E. POTABLE WATER SYSTEM - JIM DELONY/PHIL GRAMATGES
F. SEWER TREATMENT & COLLECTOR SYSTEMS-
JIM DELONY/GEORGE YILMAZ/ PHIL GRAMATGES
G. SOLID WASTE - JIM DELONY/DAN RODRIGUEZ/ PHIL GRAMA TGES
H. PARKS AND FACILITIES - MARLA RAMSEY/AMANDA TOWNSEND
I. COUNTY JAIL - CHIEF GREG SMITH
J. LA W ENFORCEMENT - CHIEF GREG SMITH
K. LIBRARY - MARILYN MATTHES/MARLA RAMSEY/ AMANDA TOWNSEND
L. EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES - JEFF PAGE
M. GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS - SKIP CAMP /HANK JONES
N. DEPENDENT FIRE DISTRICTS
ISLE OF CAPRI- CHIEF RODREIGEZ
OCHOPEE - CHIEF McLAUGHLIN
3. RECOMMENDATIONS AND ADOPTION OF 2007 AUlR
4. ADJOURN
INQUIRIES CONCERNING CHANGES TO THE BOARD'S AGENDA SHOULD BE MADE TO
THE COUNTY MANAGER'S OFFICE AT 774-8383.
LUNCH RECESS SCHEDULED FOR 12:00 NOON TO 1:00 P.M.
November 5, 2007
MR. MUDD: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd please take your
seats. Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, you have a hot mic.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you, Mr. Mudd.
I'd like to welcome everybody to the annual update inventory report
and public facilities. The date is November 5th. And would you please
stand for the pledge of allegiance.
Commissioner Henning, would you lead us?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes, thank you.
(Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, I'm turning it over to Mike Bosi this
morning. And he's going to start with the AUIR overview.
MR. BOSI: Thank you, County Manager, Chairman. Mike Bosi,
comprehensive planning, AUIR project coordinator.
I have a short AUIR overview presentation that I've prepared.
MR. MUDD: You're prepared now. That should be coming up.
Sue, can you turn it on, please?
MS. FILSON: What am I turning on?
MR. MUDD: The screen behind you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Before we begin, there's one thing I'm
going to -- there's been a request at least from one person that they might
be able to address us before we begin rather than at the end of our
process. So I'm going to at this point in time open the floor to public
speakers. Do we have any -- I'm pretty sure you got one person. Ms.
Filson?
PUBLIC SPEAKER- STEVE HART
MS. FILSON: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not awake yet today.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: That's okay.
MS. FILSON: I do have one speaker, Mr. Chairman, Steve Hart.
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November 5,2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you.
Mr. Hart, welcome. We have a three-minute time limit.
MR. HART: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll try to adhere to that.
And thank you again, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners.
Just very briefly, you were all given a letter on Friday from the
board of directors of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, I hope
you've had a chance to see that by now, respectfully requesting that you
consider delaying the scheduled increase in impact fees now set for
January, that you consider delaying it for six months.
The board of directors asked me to come and ask you that. The
thinking of these community and business leaders is that delaying the
increase in impact fees will be a boost to the local economy, that as we
all know is suffering a little bit now, and that it would send a clear
message from our elected leaders that you believe in the confidence of
this market and believe in the workers and the people and the many
businesses that are hurting a little bit and that this will help. So we
respectfully ask you to consider that. Thank you.
Any questions?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, let's start with Commissioner
Coyle.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah, I've considered it and
categorically reject it, but -- I'm just kidding you.
I would ask that the chamber consider one other issue, and that is
that impact fee levels are determined by the people who do the work for
us, by the people who supply the rock and the asphalt and the concrete
and the steel and the labor and who build the infrastructure for us. They
are the ones who really determine how much it cost to build those things.
Ifwe get more competitive bids from people, we can easily afford
to reduce impact fees. The problem is that we haven't been doing that.
Perhaps more recently the prices are coming down, and maybe we can
take a look at what we can do with that.
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November 5, 2007
The one thing that I'd like to make sure that everyone understands is
that we always subsidize at least the road impact fee fund with general
fund dollars with cuts by the legislature and general fund revenues. We
probably will not be able to subsidize it as much as we have in the past,
so that puts us in a bind.
We have contractors who are charging us pretty high prices for the
things we get, and people who sell us the land for building an extra lane
of roads or water retention pond. They're charging us very high prices for
those things, those services, and the only way we can pay them is to
have the impact fees equal those charges, and that's really all we've ever
been doing.
And then we always have a shortfall because those prices always
seem to increase. And we make that up with ad valorem property tax
money. And now we're not going to be able to do much of that.
So I would ask that the chamber try to understand that it's a lot like
pushing down on a water bed. You push down one place, it's going to
pop up somewhere else. You take away ad valorem property taxes, it's
very difficult then to lower impact fees.
So there probably could be a more coordinated effort among us all
to try to get more competitive fees to do this work so we can lower the
impact fees. But otherwise, it's going to be very difficult.
MR. HART: Thank you, Commissioner Coyle. And your points are
very well taken, indeed. And I think as all of you are aware, the chamber
has been working along with some of our fellow organizations, CBIA,
EDC, NABOR, looking to pool collective talents and collective
expertise to find a way to help you all as the decision-makers, the policy
makers, look at the broader view of county revenue and how we go
about running this county. And we've been in some discussion about that
and we'll continue to be doing that. But we're here to help.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, once again, the way you can
help is to talk also with legislators who don't --
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November 5, 2007
MR. HART: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: -- seem to -- they do not seem to
understand those issues at all.
MR. HART: Absolutely, yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning, then
Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Mr. Hart, I believe Commissioner
Coletta articulated his feelings when we indexed the impact fees. And I
agree with him. And he said is (sic) we're going to end up collecting
less impact fees by the increase by indexing. Although indexing is a
good idea with the economy down and many, many people have been laid
off from that industry, we shouldn't hamper that.
In fact, he also said that -- feels that we ought to freeze those impact
fees except for transportation impact fees. And I think that's really the
goal of the majority here, if not all of the Board of Commissioners and
the community.
So I am going to put on the agenda for next week to do exactly what
you said, with the caveat of what Commissioner Coletta articulated a
few months ago.
MR. HART: Excellent. Thank you, Commissioner.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you, Commissioner Henning. I
always like to be quoted.
And please add my name to that also.
Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, I wanted to ask, if we acquiesced
and then some of these bills were passed in the legislature in January __
or rather by the voters in January, toward the end of January, would that
then prevent us from increasing impact fees if we needed to?
MR. MUDD: Jim Mudd for the record, just in case you don't
remember. I haven't seen you in a while.
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November 5, 2007
The -- right now there is no bill that -- you know, there's some
shells, but there's nothing substantial for impact fee bills coming up in __
during this legislative session.
I believe there will be. My issue -- my fear in this dialogue, when
you -- you've already postponed it until 1 January where it was going to
come on in 1 September.
If you postpone it for six months, it will get you at the end of the
legislative session. And normally the legislation goes something like
this: Impact fees that are already on the books are grandfathered in.
Those that aren't at the time of the passage of this bill therefore will be
lowered to that level where they can't increase.
So the six-month piece, I wish it didn't coincide with the end of the
legislative session is the only thing I can say to you, Mr. Hart, on that
particular one. You know, that one bothers me just a little bit because of
what they normally throw as far as caveats in the bills as they pass them.
But that's the only piece that I would tell you.
Now, there's nothing on the January 29th ballot at all that deals with
impact fees.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And that's what I was concerned about.
So they have been talking about capping the fees and so forth, and if we
-- if we freeze our impact fees -- and I think we're all very concerned
about impact fees going too much higher, we've all said that in one form
or another. However, we also need to function as a community and we
need to have the dollars to build the infrastructure in order to do that.
And ifthere's something that comes into place that then does not allow
us if we need those impact fees to increase them because we hold off for
six months, that's my concern. And you've expressed it as well, thank
you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas, then
Commissioner Coyle.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah, I guess I'm going to take a
different stand here. I'm not in favor of putting a freeze on impact fees. I
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November 5, 2007
fees. I believe that the legislators up there in Tallahassee have done
enough damage to all the counties here in the State of Florida. And ifthe
proposed amendment, if it gets approved and gets on the ballot with the
double homestead exemption, that just takes away from some additional
ad valorem taxes that we need to build infrastructure here in the county.
And if that passes, and I know that there's -- that the state is going to go
after impact fees. That's pretty much been an ongoing issue with the
Florida Association of Counties.
We realize that that's going to take place, and we've got a
commitment here to build the infrastructure. And as Commissioner
Coyle said, that at the present time I think about $24 million is set aside
each year to address growth of our roads.
And I don't foresee the price of doing business going down. In fact,
if anything, it's going to remain the same and most of our impact fees
are behind the times. So it's not that we have the impact fees ahead of
time, it's always we're in a catchup mode.
So I'm sorry, but I feel that I've got an obligation here to make sure
that we build the infrastructure and that it's here for the people here in
Collier County. Thank you.
MR. HART: I understand, thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Coyle?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah, I would just like to wrap that
up by suggesting that if there is anything that can be done to make
impact fees more accurately reflect the needs of the community, the
starting point is today at this meeting with the AUIR hearing. Because
we have to decide what levels of infrastructure are necessary. And then
our capital improvement plan sort of comes with that.
I f we can find ways of streamlining and making our capital
improvement plan more adaptable to the needs of the people of Collier
County, then perhaps we can save some money from impact fees. But
that work starts today.
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And so I would urge all the commissioners to be very sensitive to
the standards that are established in the AUIR, because they're going to
determine what our capital improvement element is going to be and that's
going to determine how much we need -- how much funding we need.
So ifthere's a way we can meet our needs at less cost, we ought to
try to find a way to do it. Ifthere isn't, we shouldn't be willing to
sacrifice the quality of life in Collier County in order to get some
politicians elected to higher office.
MR. HART: I understand. Thank you all for your comments. And
thank you, Mr. Manager, for your comments.
And I would only perhaps caution about making decisions now
based on what the legislature mayor may not do. It's a little hard to
predict these days.
I think one thing is certain, however. In the private sector, the
businesses, the people the chamber represents, one thing is for certain
that in these times is that by and large they have had to undergo some
significant belt tightening. We all have to do that. These are uncertain
times. I just -- I paid gasoline this morning, I paid over $3.00 a gallon of
gasoline at Costco. I don't believe that ever happened. I don't recall that
ever happening.
These are very uncertain times. And I think belt tightening all the
way around is just simply something prudent that we're all going to have
to do. And I would encourage you to think about the actions here and
how they resonate and ripple out through the rest of the community.
And you are the leaders that we look to for encouragement, and I know
you will provide us that.
Thank you very much for this opportunity.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you.
Next speaker?
PUBLIC SPEAKER - TAMMY NEMECEK
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MS. FILSON: Mr. Chairman, I have two additional speakers.
Tammie Nemecek. She'll be followed by Janet Vasey.
MS. NEMECEK: Good morning. I walk in the door and Steve is
standing up here, so I appreciate the opportunity to put my name in and
address this issue. Because I did see the letter from the chamber that
came out requesting for the six-month -- not to increase the impact fees
for six months.
And you have seen me up here a number of times talking about
what economic development is all about and the companies that we deal
with. And it becomes a competitive issue. And so any reduction of cost
in my viewpoint is a great item for us, because it does help us attract
businesses or allow businesses to stay here and grow.
That being said, I think Commissioner Coyle's comments are well
put in the fact that it does start today with this AUIR. And shame I think
on me and maybe the business community for over the years not getting
more involved in the AUIR process and helping to work with the county
commission, with the county manager and the county staff in order to
have a more direct understanding and input into this process. It's
complicated.
I was reading it, and God bless the folks that go out there and do
this work and put the numbers on the paper and analyze the information.
Because it is complicated.
But I would tell you that going through the process this year and
probably getting started late in the process, a recommendation that I
think we would have that does affect the impact fees and the cost of
doing business is that the process be extended next year with this AUIR
component, allowing for more time for public analysis of the document.
I know we got it only two weeks before the planning commission
meeting. And for us to be able to have some time to analyze it or have
an opportunity to work more directly with staff along the way,
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November 5, 2007
along the way, something along that way that I think can help us all.
But what we see in regards to the cost here in the county of being
able to provide the services and maintain not only quality of life but what
we call a quality of place. And that's important to the companies that
we're trying to attract or trying to grow here is what is this quality of
place that we call Collier County, and can it be maintained over the long
term? And that's the ultimate goal for what we're trying to do here today.
And whether or not it's funded through impact fees or sales taxes or
gas taxes or ad valorem taxes, there's only so many options for county
government to be able to fund the infrastructure that we all want here.
The question is what is that level of service that we want in the
community, and are we sure that we are prioritizing those levels of
service for the various components of this AUIR process?
And again it comes down to not only impact fees but property taxes
at the end of the day.
So I think more public input on this process, you know, can benefit
us all. And again, all the things have been advertised as they have, are
they supposed to be. But I think more dialogue, sitting around the table
having more dialogue with the community can help with that.
We can have some, you know, suggestions and that kind of stuff,
but I don't think we've spent enough time analyzing this document in its
entirety to just be able to say, oh, let's do it this way or let's do it this
way. I think we can spend the next year in making sure what we do next
year is meeting the needs of the community.
But again, it comes down to desires. And as I started from the
beginning, any cost reduction is going to benefit your economic
diversification efforts. I mean, that's an easy, simple solution. But you
do have to maintain sustainability of the community as a result.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you.
Commissioner Coyle?
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah, just a very quick comment, try
to put all this into perspective.
F or 10 years prior to year 2001, impact fees were not updated at all.
They were not increased for an entire decade. In fact, there are
examples where impact fees that were due were not even collected.
This commission has spent the last six years trying to get us to the
point where we can afford to build the infrastructure that everybody
needs. We were severely -- or the commissions were severely criticized
in the late Nineties for not building infrastructure when there were no
impact fees to speak of coming in, and now when we try to get the
impact fees to build the infrastructure, there's complaints that the impact
fees are too high.
There is a happy medium somewhere, but it cannot be achieved if
you've got the legislature pipelining all of these projects that violate our
concurrency procedures. We have to build as fast as we can possibly
build the infrastructure. Ifwe have to build the infrastructure fast, it
costs more money. We can't do that if we lower impact fees. There are
tradeoffs here.
And Steve is absolutely right, it's going to take an even larger group
of people other than just the business people in Collier County to resolve
this issue. People have to understand that all of this stuff is
interconnected, and infrastructure is not going to get developed until --
unless we have enough money to do it.
MS. NEMECEK: I don't disagree at all.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: So you cut back on ad valorem
property taxes, you reduce the funds that are available to build some of
the infrastructure. You reduce the impact fees, you reduce the funds
available to build the infrastructure. So we stretch it out and we build
infrastructure more slowly. That slows down the pace of development,
people are going to complain about that too.
We need to get to the point where we have sustainable
development, rather than these huge bursts that result in inflationary
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November 5, 2007
pressures that cause the problems we're faced with right now. The
problems we have right now were not caused by impact fees, they were
caused by a runaway growth period, fueled by greed and speculation
and easy money. And that's what caused us the problem. We need to
have a sustainable level of growth. And I'll just leave it at that.
MS. NEMECEK: I always come back to economic development
as, you know, one of those things that you look at for the sustainability.
I mean, you're talking about businesses that are here year round that are
supporting the community around. But in order to get them here, I
reiterate the fact that it does come back to cost at the end of the day from
a business standpoint.
And like I said earlier, I think there's a lot more analysis, a lot more
input, a lot more public/private collaboration that can happen with this
AUIR process, and I see that the business community is willing to sit
down at the table and help going forward. So that's what we're offering.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: That's good. That's good.
PUBLIC SPEAKER - JANET VASEY
MS. FILSON: The next speaker is Janet Vasey.
MS. VASEY: Good morning, Commissioners, Janet Vasey for the
record.
I just wanted to bring a couple of things to your attention as you
start the AUIR review that bear on this problem of impact fees.
I know you've seen the copy of the productivity committee's report,
and there are some financial issues in there that you need to consider as
you think about impact fees.
One of the biggest ones is the $25.5 million ofloans that these
facilities are getting from the general fund. And in several instances we
question whether they ever will be able to repay those loans. So you
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November 5, 2007
you have that kind of a funding issue.
Plus if you look out to the second five-year period, financing is
going to be a very serious issue, because a lot of your impact fees now
are already committed to 15 and 20-year loans. So your next building
program won't have any impact fees to draw on except those that have
been increased over that period. Because the current levels have already
been committed.
So just as you go forward, think about those kinds of things in
relation to the impact fees.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Ms. Vasey's been a tremendous
advocate for good government, and she's served on our budget
committees for over the years. I'd like to be able to keep her available as
a resource during our deliberations the next two days. Would you be
able to stay?
MS. VASEY: Yes, I would like to. And I'm here to answer any of
your questions on the productivity remarks or anything else. I'd be
happy to.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: At any time point in time that we're in
deliberations and you'd like to have Ms. Vasey come up and explain the
fact from the productivity standpoint and her own background
experiences, whatever, please feel free to address it to me and I'll invite
her up to answer the questions.
Thank you for being here and for all that you've given to Collier
County.
MS. VASEY: Well, thank you. And the productivity committee
has worked very hard on this whole issue with your staff, so all of this is
our work. Thank you.
I tern #2A
AUIR OVERVIEW
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November 5, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Mike, we're back to you.
MR. BOSI: Thank you, Chairman.
Within the Land Development Code Section 6.02.00 requires the
county to provide that public facilities and services meet or exceed the
standards established in the CIE required by Section 163.3177 Florida
Statute, and are available when needed for development.
Basically this is a section within the Land Development Code that
mandates concurrency for public facilities within the county. And the
AUIR is the blueprint for concurrency and is the preparatory document
for the annual update to the CIE element.
As I was looking at the various counties throughout Florida, this
county is the only county that has an annual update and inventory report
that has a public vetting process to talk about the projects that are going
to go into the CIE before the public hearings for the CIE actually occur.
So this county is unique in the sense that the AUIR project is a
simple local decision to say we need more planning and we need more
discussion about the projects that are going to form the basis for
concurrency as we move forward in the future.
The AUIR identifies capital needs for both new facilities to serve
projected population growth, as well as for replacement of public
facilities that will no longer be adequate in the five-year AUIR time
period.
The one distinction I will add about that is anything that is a
replacement project because of a worn down facility, impact fees cannot
be utilized for those expenditures. Impact fees are strictly related to
expenditures related to new population growth.
And the AUIR is an annual one-year snapshot in time with the
projected needs and required improvements from all infrastruction (sic)
service providing departments and divisions based upon projected
population increases against the BCC adopted level of service standards.
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November 5, 2007
And it should be noted that this snapshot changes on a daily, weekly
and monthly basis as the changes in population or changes in demand
portion of the equation evolve.
And that sentence is really relevant and is very true. Because the
picture that this county is experiencing six months ago changes where
we're at right now, and in six months from now there's a little variation.
And that's why we do this on an annual basis, to look at the demand
factors, look at all the factors that make up capital improvement projects
and growth within the county and make sure we're on track to meet
those demands as we see them and as we see them evolving.
As mentioned, the AUIR will provide the basis for the update of the
GMP annual update of the CIE. It also serves as a general planning tool
for the FY '09 budget and beyond.
And this year the 2007 AUIR will incorporate the new population
methodology reviewed by the planning commission and approved by the
BCC during the GMP EAR-based amendment process.
As you can see, we had -- prior to the change in policy we were
utilizing BEBR high numbers for our projections. We have now agreed
to utilize the BEBR medium.
And you can see within this slide the effect that that change has had
from the population for 2010. It's a reduction of 22,000.
But as you go out to the later years, you're talking close to a
200,000 difference within projections for 2030.
So that change has had a tangible effect upon the programs that
you're seeing within this year's AUIR, and because of that, the
population slowdown or the decrease in the projections and the changes
to medium, you're seeing a lot of projects that were maybe in years one,
two or three in last year's AUIR being pushed back to years four, five or
even outside of that five-year window because the population is not
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November 5, 2007
population is not projected to be there, therefore the demand won't be
materialized, therefore the facilities will not be needed till a later time.
Just as a remainder, Category A, which is the categories that form
the basis for concurrency within the county are roads, solid waste,
drainage canals and structures, parks and recreation, potable water, and
sewer collection treatment.
The Category B facilities are jails, law enforcement, libraries,
emergency medical services, government buildings and the two
dependent fire districts, Ochopee and Isles of Capris.
Within the AUIR workbook, you'll have --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: May I interrupt you for one second,
Mike?
MR. BOSI: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala's got a question.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Back to the last slide. The Category A
facilities seem to be mostly facilities that are public services in one form
or another, but yet the libraries aren't up there, they're down in B. How
come that is like that?
MR. BOSI: That is the -- I mean, that direction comes from the
State of Florida as to which categories are determined to be Category A
facilities. The legislator in the administration for -- and I can just
speculate, had decided that the amount of libraries that a locality
provides is strictly a local decision, and therefore they didn't see the
merits of placing libraries as a component that they want to annually
monitor to make sure that they are being provided to the public.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: For goodness sake. Thank you.
MR. BOSI: But that's the direction that the state has provided as to
what the -- the distinction between the two categories.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Can we ever change that category, or
do we have to follow the state direction?
MR. BOSI: I'm not sure if this body would like to surrender more
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November 5, 2007
more control to the state in terms of reallocating libraries to A. But the
decisions that you make on B is 100 percent the decisions that come
from the dais.
MR. COHEN: For the record, Commissioners, Randy Cohen,
Comprehensive Planning Department Director.
If you recall, all of your Category B facilities that used to be in the
comprehensive plan in the CIE, you made a decision to take all of them
out of there because you didn't want them scrutinized by DCA and by the
state. The Category A facilities are part of concurrency management and
regulated by the state. And because you wanted local control in those
state involvement whatsoever, they were removed as part of the EAR
process.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Very good. Thank you. You've
answered it beautifully.
MR. BOSI: As I was saying, within the workbook there are two
Exhibit A and Exhibit B to the executive summary. Exhibit A is the
recommendations upon each of the components of the AUIR from the
planning commission. And Exhibit B are the recommendations from the
productivity committee.
And I would say, I know Janet has indicated that she will be
available throughout the day for individual questions upon the
recommendations. Specially from the productivity committee, there are
recommendations about capital financing as a whole, more on a general
basis. And I think it would behoove the commission to at least exchange
in the dialogue with Ms. Vasey concerning those annual
recommendations as well.
As I mentioned a number of times, the AUIR is basically future
capital projects that are determined by a pretty straightforward and
linear equation. It's new population times the level of service standards
that are adopted, and that equals your capital expansion.
And really, this is the only equation that is the justification required
for the capital improvement projects that you see within your AUIR. As
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November 5, 2007
AUIR. As an example, for libraries, between 2005 and 2006 in the 2006
AUIR, we had projected that 21,161 people were going to be added.
Well, the adopted level of service standard that the board has for libraries
is .33 square feet per person. You multiply the population that we're
projecting times our standard, and it basically comes out to 6,983 square
feet is required for that five-year period.
That is the only justification. That is the requirement that's being
placed upon the library system from the Board of County
Commissioners saying that we will provide .33 square feet of library
space per person. And if you look at what your total of your population
numbers are for anyone year or for any five-year period, whatever that
equation computes out to, that is what we are being required to build --
to provide for the new growth.
At the June 26th, 2007 BCC hearing, the Board of County
Commissioners indicated that this body was looking for an evaluation of
the standards that are contained within the AUIR from the two advisory
boards, the planning commission and the productivity committee.
The question being asked is basically how appropriate are current
levels of service. Is .33 square feet of library buildings per capita an
appropriate standard, based upon the present usage of the library system?
And within the AUIR that went to both the advisory boards and also to
the Board of County Commissioners, you'll notice that there's an
additional portion within this compared to last year's AUIR, and that's
some of the operational demands that are being placed upon the various
components.
During the three-day workshop, the advisory boards forwarded a
recommendation to revise one level of service. And that basically
related to EMS. It was a recommendation from both bodies that there is
a revision to the current level of service to one -- right now the current
standard is one station per 15,000. The recommendation is for one
station to 16,400. We'll get into the specifics of that during the EMS
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November 5, 2007
EMS section of this presentation.
There were no other components that were recommended for a
revision to a level of service standard. There was one area for parks.
The planning commission was split for a recommendation to revise the
level of service for community parks and regional parks, but there was
no majority, so that recommendation was not forwarded. And we will
get into that as well during the parks and recreation component of the
presentati on.
Getting to the earlier discussion before my presentation, it really
mimicked a lot of the concerns and a lot of the dialogue that went on
between staff and the advisory boards related to ad valorem taxes and
impact fees. And the level of service standards that we have identified in
our AUIR, they're not always what the level of service standards that we
have identified in our impact fee study.
The level of service that -- the level of service standard that you
have in the impact fee study is at the time of the study what the
consultants found that we were providing against the population at that
time. For example, EMS and government buildings are both examples
of where the level of service standard established within the impact fee
study is lower than what's identified within the AUIR.
And what happens when you have those specific cases is you have a
-- or results in supplemental funding from another source other than
impact fees to pay for the entire cost of your capital expansion.
Once again, going back to EMS, which will be a point that will be
made, EMS right now, because of leasing and owned discrepancy and
how those two commodities are treated by impact fees, we collect -- our
impact fees are collected at one station per 34,560. But we have a
standard right now in our AUIR that says one station per 15,000 we will
provide.
So we're collecting less than half of what it takes to build a new
station. So based upon that equation and based upon that discrepancy
between what we have as our level of service for our impact fees and
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November 5, 2007
what we have as our adopted level of service, it results in a continuing
need for supplemental funding other than impact fees to help provide for
the level of service that this board has deemed appropriate for the
county.
The last component on this slide, Amy Patterson and Steve Tindale
were to be available to discuss impact fees. Steve Tindale, our outside
consultant related to impact fees, is ill today, but Amy is more than
capable and she has indicated that she will be here for whatever
questions or whenever the issues surrounding impact fees will be
addressed.
And like we say, the three-day meetings with advisory boards, there
was a heavy sway in discussion related to impact fees and/or
relationship to the overall capital improvement program within the
county.
Based upon the change from last year, the revenue required from
the 2006 compared to 2007, last year we had a deficit projected at
$21,822,788.
This year, based upon the standards that we have contained, we
have a shortfall of $26,855,402. Basically a $5 million difference.
The one note I will say, that that deficit has been revised if the
board was to accept the revised level of service standard that's being
recommended from both the planning commission and the productivity
committee. That takes the deficit from 26 million down to 16 million. It
basically would shave $10 million off the projected deficit for EMS.
So if that standard was adopted by the Board of County
Commissioners, we basically would have $16 million worth of unfunded
capital improvement projects contained within this AUIR.
And I will further point out that all those revenue deficits at $16
million are solely within the Category B facilities, where the decision to
either -- to build to your level of service standard or come close is
strictly a local decision within the purview of the Board of County
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November 5, 2007
Commissioners, it is not obligated at the state levels as roads and park
lands and public utilities are. So that's a pretty important distinction
amongst those facts.
And finally, just a couple of the staff recommendations. Staff asked
the board to find upon analysis and review actions taken and directions
given based upon the 2007 AUIR that adequate drainage canals and
structures, potable water, water treatment and collection, solid waste,
and parks and recreation facilities will be available as defined by the
Collier County Concurrency Management System as implemented by
Chapter 6.02.02 of the LDC to support the development order issues
until presentation of the 2008 AUIR.
And that basically says that there is sufficient funding in the
programs within the Category A facilities are (sic) appropriate to
maintain our concurrency management system for the following year.
Also find that there is sufficient road network capacity in the
transportation concurrency management data base for continued
operation of the realtime declining balance ledger to support
development order issuance until the FY '07, '08 end of the third quarter
status report.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Before you continue with the next slide,
Commissioner Henning, do you have something you want to address?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, actually, you're going to
have to go back to the population slide. So maybe after the presentation.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, fine. If you want to put your light
back on, Commissioner Henning, so I --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Oh, sure.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: -- won't overlook you.
MR. BOSI: Just four more recommendations, and this will wrap up
the presentation.
Accept and approve the attached document as the 2007 annual
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November 5, 2007
update and inventory report on public facilities.
Accept and approve the project and revenue sources contained
within the A facilities set forth within this AUIR for inclusion of the
update of the CIE.
Also, recommend that Collier County staff -- we're asking that the
board recommend to the staff to carefully scrutinize the actions taken by
the state legislature prior to the preparation of the 2008 CIE, which may
result in necessary changes to all the Category A facilities set forth
within recommendations above.
Basically what we're saying is right now as things exist within the
Category A facilities, the revenue and the projected programs that we
have identified, they meet, they balance out and they're whole.
But before we prepare our CIE that's going to be submitted to the
Department of Community Affairs, that we constantly or continuously
monitor the state actions as to what any of those actions could possibly
have to interfere with the revenue streams to provide for the capital
improvement projects. And if that would occur, that we would pull back
whatever projects to make sure that we are financially solvent,
financially whole, to make sure that the ends do in fact meet.
And then the last -- and this relates more -- or back to the issue of
local control. We recommend that the Board of County Commissioners
provide a policy direction that hurricane shelters with an alternative
revenue source identified are not included within the five-year schedule
of capital improvements.
Basically what we're asking, within the EAR-based amendments
within the coastal management element, we said evaluate whether we
should include hurricane -- the provision of hurricane shelters as part of
our CIE.
And as I worked with emergency management, they currently are in
the process for -- provision of hurricane shelters are covered by a
five-year plan. It's annually reviewed by the Board of County
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November 5,2007
Commissioners and it's looked at at the state every five years, but it's a
coordinated effort with the state. And basically how hurricane shelters
are provided with in this county, it's a collaborative effort between the
public school system and Red Cross in the county, and it's provided by
interlocal agreements.
We're asking you that we maintain the current status of how we plan
for them and not add hurricane shelter provision as a part of the CIE,
which would open up for further review from the Department of
Community Affairs.
And I'm sure Dan Summers, during the EMS component, if you had
any questions related to the hurricane shelter issue, would be more than
happy to address them for you.
With that, that's the wrap-up of the overview. We do have -- and I
guess I would open myself to any questions that the board -- before we
go further with the agenda.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Sure. Let's go to Commissioner
Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can you go back to the slide
predicting the population.
Is there any reason why we don't have '07, '08 and '09 in there?
MR. BOSI: No, there's not a particular reason. The reason why I
put April I st was because that's the last estimate that we had from
BEBR in terms of the actual population in the county. And then I just
showed five-year increments to show what the difference between the
BEBR high, the BEBR medium and the BEBR low were.
But no, there's no reason why I don't have those populations. And
those populations are addressed within every component of the AUIR
book. But no, there wasn't a reason I specifically omitted it.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. We went from permanent
to weighted last year, correct?
MR. BOSI: We went from a weighted to a peak season for
calculation to account for the seasonal increase within the county.
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay, I'm going by 1995, and it's
on your website. It says permanent population.
MR. BOSI: The numbers we get from BEBR are all permanent
populations. The way that we used to calculate the seasonal increase was
a term we used as weighted, and that was taking your permanent
population and adding an 11.6 percent increase to account for that
seasonal increase.
Well, now that we've gone to a BEBR medium, we utilize the
BEBR medium permanent population, not an 11.6 percent increase for
seasonal increase, we actually now use a 20 percent increase to account
for the seasonal influx and the demands that that seasonal influx places
upon the services.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay, on the chart in the book on
Page 4, which one are you using to figure out your capital improvement
plan? Which line?
MR. BOSI: The second line. The new methodology is what we
will now use for the CIE.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay, you're using the peak
population.
MR. BOSI: Yes, correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So that -- and maybe I'm looking
at the wrong chart on your website, because using that, we're actually
looking at about a 50,000 increase population as we go on.
But what effects -- so actually there's a change in the methodology
added. And I'm trying to go by what you said, a 20 percent increase?
MR. BOSI: Correct, a 20 percent--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So we're going to be
showing shortfalls as we go on our capital improvement plan by adding
that --
MR. BOSI: The way that it works, there is -- the population
numbers in years one, two and three are higher with our new
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November 5, 2007
methodology. As before we had BEBR high medium in their permanent
numbers, and we added 11.6 percent. Well, now we utilize BEBR
medium, which is a little bit lower, but we're adding a 20 percent
markup.
So for your early years, your first three years, the new methodology
shows a greater population number. But at the end of the five-year, it
shows less and at the end of the 10-year it shows less and at the end of
the 20 years it shows a dramatically declining population. So that's just
a nuisance of when we went to the BEBR medium changing from an 11
percent markup to a 20 percent markup. And that results in a higher
number in the first three years, and that's why you see those numbers as
they exist.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So we didn't go by permanent
population prior.
MR. BOSI: Well, permanent population has always been our base.
Then we've always marked it up to account for the seasonal influx that
we expenence.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Based upon the permits that we see
in 2007, this year, can we honestly say that we're going to increase that
population from 2006 to 2007 to be 20,000?
MR. BOSI: You know, I'm going to defer to my director who has
much more interaction with not only BEBR but for DCA. So I will defer
to Randy on that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. Here's the question, I'll
restate it again. 1 want to know from 2006 to 2007 -- or actually, 2007
permits, did you see a 20,000 population increase?
MR. COHEN: Commissioner, what you're going to see -- again,
Randy Cohen, Comprehensive Planning Department Director.
At the beginning of every year we receive estimates from BEBR
with respect to what they expect and how they expect us to grow. We
projected from April of2006 to April of2007, 12,000 people.
Just about a month ago we received correspondence from BEBR
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November 5, 2007
that said you way overstated what you were going to grow in 2006 to
2007, based on what they looked at, which are two factors primarily,
which are previous past trends and electrical hookups. Statewide they
looked at electrical hookups way more than in the past.
And by looking at our electrical hookups, what they noticed and
which everybody would notice, we have a lot of vacant buildings and a
lot of vacant structures around. So they came back and they asked us to
revise our population for that period of time by down 6,000 something.
We realized that they looked at it from a period of time way before they
gave us that number, and we had an absorption rate.
As some of those units were sold, a lot of the builders were
discounting their buildings along the way. And as a result they settled on
a number of around 9,000.
With respect to this year, to be frank with you, when we get the
April numbers I'm expecting a number anywhere probably between four
and 6,000. I think the number's going to be way down, based on our
C.o. data. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I didn't get my question answered.
I guess I really want to know the projected permits of new homes.
Because when you talk about the vacancy rate --
MR. COHEN: They're way down, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right, the vacancy rate is, correct?
MR. COHEN: In the COs data, the COs are way down as well, too.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The permits, okay.
MR. COHEN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But just because you've got a
vacant structure, whether new or used, doesn't mean that you haven't
collected impact fees or taxes from it. So I want to try to correlate the
permits, the new home permits for this year.
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November 5, 2007
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir, we're looking that data up right now. And
we'll multiply it by 2.3 and that's what you get for the number of bodies
that are coming on board.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Great, thanks.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you.
Commissioner Coyle?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: You have used these adjusted
population estimates across the board throughout the AUIR, right?
MR. BOSI: Correct.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Why is that? Why is it necessary that
you use the BEBR medium projections for all categories of facilities
when it is clear, at least to me, that all categories of facilities don't
respond in the same way to increases or declines in population figures?
Let me give you an example: Public utilities is particularly
sensitive to any fluctuations in population. Whereas I would say to you
that stormwater canals and drainage are not. They do not have much to
do with the population. Nor does the jail population and law
enforcement have as direct a correlation as would public utilities.
So my point is this: Public utilities is concerned about reducing
their actual peeks of 28.6 percent, if I remember correctly, in the most
recent year, to 20 percent to conform to the BEBR.
Why don't we let public utilities forecast their growth rates at what
they can justifY, which apparently is at least 28.6 percent increase,
independent of the medium BEBR numbers? Because it is critical that
they have sufficient water and sewer support. And use either low BEBR
numbers or high BEBR numbers for some of the other categories of
facilities.
MR. COHEN: Commissioner, your point is extremely well taken.
If you recall, as part of the EAR-based amendments, public utilities used
to have a separate mechanism for calculating population.
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November 5, 2007
State statute requires that we have one population methodology
across the board. It's in the statutes, it's in the Florida Administrative
Code.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: There's the state again, trying to tell
us how to run the county.
MR. COHEN: It's in their infinite wisdom.
So what we've done in working with Mr. DeLony, and he can
correct me if I'm wrong, in trying to provide public utilities with some
type of pad, as part of the EAR-based amendments, you directed us as
the county commission to go ahead and provide -- it was Commissioner
Halas that made the recommendation that you give public utilities some
type of padding to make sure that when the rough times come up or we
experience some type of spurt in growth or something along those lines,
that they have a little bit more leeway in there.
Their planning will be done in time but they'll be ready to get going
with respect to the building aspects of it if that transpires. So we have --
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah, I understand we've accelerated
the capital improvement process for them. But the point is that the
long-range planning is really based upon an incorrect application of
population, peak population numbers, because of state mandates.
MR. COHEN: Yes, sir, you're correct.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: And what I would prefer to do is to
try to call this problem to the attention of the state government and get
them to understand that we need some flexibility if we're going to do
reasonable planning. What we're doing now is an end run. What 1
would prefer to do is do it the right way and project it the right way.
And if Mr. DeLony believes and can substantiate a peak increase of28.6
percent, he ought to be able to use 28.6 percent in his projections rather
than the 20 percent that would be mandated by the state.
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November 5, 2007
MR. COHEN: And ironically, Commissioners, this provision by
the state is extremely antiquated. It was part of the original 1985
Growth Management Act, and it would probably be a good idea for them
to take a look at it, because one size doesn't fit all. Obviously one
county doesn't fit --
COMMISSIONER COYLE: That's the concept 1 don't quite
understand, isn't it?
But my point is I don't think we can change that right now. We do
what you've got here, as long as Mr. DeLony feels comfortable that he
can respond to the peak demands as they occur. So I'm not going to
object to that for this purpose.
But can we reach agreement as the Board of County Commissioners
to ask the staff to surface this issue with the state and see if we can't get
something more reasonable out of them? Because I don't want to run
short of water and sewer services, and I'm sure you don't either, Mr.
DeLony.
MR. DeLONY: For the record, Jim DeLony, Public Utilities
Administrator.
Absolutely not. I've always viewed AUIR as the base, you know, as
the minimum to sustain concurrency and provide the level of service.
You know, it's just the first indicator.
And I always felt that if we had the justification to go above that
minimum, that we would find -- you know, we would come to this board
and express that.
The challenge then that Randy has is taking that above the
minimum to the state for their approval has been problematic. Because
typically we will use another methodology to justifY something above
that baseline. Just as we have done in the past and you described before.
Working within those constraints, though, as we indicated in our
comments back to you, we will continue to provide you not only what is
prescripted, but we also will provide our judgment from that and it will
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November 5, 2007
will allow you to take which course of actions you want to direct us to
take.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: That would be okay for me for public
utilities, but I personally believe the same thing applies to transportation.
Transportation is showing substantially higher forecast of traffic than
we had previously thought.
So if we use a medium BEBR number rather than a high BEBR
number, we're going to under-forecast traffic impacts.
So it appears to me that we've got to surface this issue to the state
legislature to make them understand that tourist seasons, heavy tourist
seasons and seasonal residents during peak seasons of the year for a
county like Collier, that those peak populations have a bigger impact
upon us than if those were year round populations. And I won't go into
the reasons why, but it's true.
Now, can we at least do that? Can we at least surface this issue and
try to get it resolved?
MR. COHEN: Commissioner, one of the things that you have that's
an advantage for you, we added a policy as part of the Growth
Management Plan, and in that policy where it establishes the seasonal
rate at 20 percent, you're allowed to revisit every year, as part of the
capital improvements element, that particular seasonal rate.
Right now we're sitting here with BEBR medium and a 20 percent
seasonal rate. If you think, in your wisdom as a board, that that seasonal
rate is higher, what you can do, you may want to move the seasonal rate
up; however, that's going to have a cost associated with it, because it's
going to increase your numbers for your other public facilities.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: But you see, if you don't do it, the
effect is we don't plan for that increased cost, we don't provide for the
necessary capacity, and then the people in Collier County do not get the
essential services they need.
But I'm bringing this up not -- I am confident that Mr. DeLony has
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November 5, 2007
has this issue addressed properly in public utilities. But I think it is a
problem that affects other things, and I've mentioned transportation, and
there are perhaps some others, but certainly those two should be able to
adjust the effects of the peak population higher than the 20 percent that
we apparently are forecasting in this case.
MR. COHEN: Commissioner, the one advantage that we do have,
the CIE says that we have to build it, for example, by 2017. That
doesn't mean that Mr. DeLony can't complete it by 2015.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah, but it takes more money to do
that.
MR. COHEN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay, that's the problem. And if
we're getting squeezed on the one hand with less money opportunities by
the state legislature, how can we accelerate these very expensive projects
when the costs for the projects are going up every year? It's a very
difficult problem. I'd rather get out ahead of this thing and know today
what it's going to cost us in 2015 or 2017 to accelerate a project, at least
as best we can.
MR. COHEN: Like I said, your point is well taken. One size
doesn't fit all with respect to level of service. And the only way to
modifY that is have the state take a look at it and have the legislature take
action on it.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay, then I would like to suggest
that we give the staff guidance to at least pursue that. Define the
problem more clearly.
I am not saying that we apply a 28.6 percent increase across all of
the A and B facilities. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying pick the
facilities that are most directly affected by the seasonal population and
adjust those a little higher. We can leave some of the others alone or
maybe we can even reduce them, okay?
MR. COHEN: And as a point of emphasis again, the Category B
facilities state has no regulation over. What we're talking about
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November 5, 2007
basically is the public utilities, transportation, drainage, sanitary solid
waste, and also parks.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Have you applied this change to
drainage?
MR. COHEN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Why does the peak population affect
drainage?
MR. COHEN: You're going to have to ask the state that question,
SIr.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: They tell us that we've got to do it
that way, right?
MR. COHEN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: That means money, doesn't it?
MR. COHEN: That means a whole lot of money, sir.
MR. MUDD: But, Commissioner, you could go to low -- you could
go to low BEBR for drainage with the peak into it, okay, because, you
know, peak happens during the high season. High season happens to
correspond with the dry season, okay, where there's no drainage needed.
The key here is -- but if the houses exist, but you might decide in
drainage you want to do low instead of do medium BEBR.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: That's my question. But we've used
medium BEBR throughout this AUIR, haven't we?
MR. COHEN: Yes, sir. And to clarifY the issue, you could only
have one population methodology. So you couldn't use one for
drainage, one for parks, and apply the population differently for library.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Even though they're clearly affected
differently.
MR. COHEN: Even though they're clearly identified, you have to
have one.
And that was a major point of contention in the EAR -- in the ORC
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November 5, 2007
ORC response from DCA. Because we did have a substantially different
methodology for Mr. DeLony's shop. We used high BEBR numbers
plus the 33 percent factor for his facilities.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: And when the state mandates that we
have to use that BEBR, it means that that translates into additional
millions, tens of millions of dollars that we've got to spend when we
know that drainage isn't affected by peak population figures.
MR. COHEN: Yes, sir. And what a lot of governments have done
is they've looked at their levels of service in some of those areas and
they've reduced their level of service in some of those areas to account
for those extra expenditures.
And that's how when you realize well, yes, the demand for public
utilities is up here but the demand for drainage is down there, you can
change your level of service, you can obviously deal with it in that
manner. And that's what a lot of local governments have done.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay, I'll just wrap this up. We can't
solve this problem today.
Mr. Chairman, could I just make a suggestion that we provide
guidance to staff to evaluate some alternatives to how we can do this,
whether it's by adjusting levels of service or whether we go to the state
and try to get permission to use different peak values? Because it's clear
that not all of these facilities are impact facilities.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I agree with you. How about you, Mr.
Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Good luck.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, we need to give further
guidance, because we need to figure out as a body what our goals and
objectives are for these capital improvements.
You know, another factor that is played into this is what the level of
service is. Norm Feder has counters out there, Jim DeLony knows what
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November 5, 2007
knows what his demand for water and what -- you know, how much stuff
he's putting in the tank, so--
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Let me come right back to you. I just
wanted to see if you agree in partial. But you don't think we've hashed
this out all the way.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No, we need to give specific
guidance.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I understand and I agree.
What I'd like to do is take the liberty of asking Ms. Vasey to come
up here, because the productivity committee has discussed this for a
considerable length of time. And I'd like to hear their particular spin on
it, because they've spent a lot more time with it than we have, to be
honest with you.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I agree with that.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I'd like to ask a question.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Before we do, if I may, if in any way
I'm imposing upon you and you feel uncomfortable coming up, you just
have to state so and we'll throw you out of the building. I'm just
kidding.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Let's double her salary.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: We'll double your salary if you do a
good job.
MS. VASEY: We would appreciate that, thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Once again, so people understand what
we're doing here, the productivity committee is a volunteer committee
that is made up of, oh, what do you want to call it, people from the
industries, people that were leaders of the industry from throughout the
country that have come here, settled in Florida, retired and we use their
expertise.
You yourself were very involved with the U.S. Army as a -- not an
accountant, you were a cost analysis?
MS. VASEY: A financial analyst.
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November 5, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Forgive me for understating your
position.
But I just wanted the listening public to understand what we're
doing here and why you're being called on. You're not a member of
staff, you're not an elected official. You're a person of a committee
who's been very influential in the decision-making process for this
commission for many years now.
MS. VASEY: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Would you please go ahead and take us
along the process that the productivity committee has gone through as far
as the weighing of the different factors to reach the determinations for
the AUIR.
MS. VASEY: Well, on the utility ones, I have to tell you that we
were quite shocked at the change, based on what happened with BEBR.
We had already seen last year a very significant building program
planned over the next 10, 15, 20 years, and it was cut way back. And so
we asked the same kinds of questions that you're asking: Is this going to
cost us, you know, sewage in the streets or what are the implications of
this.
And basically staff assured us that even though they aren't -- they
don't include all of these facilities in their current building program, they
are actively proceeding with the design of the facilities which are a lower
cost fund -- a lower cost part of the building process, and that this would
ensure that we're okay for the near term future.
And then we would evaluate how the BEBR numbers actually come
out over the next couple of years to see if that is a more realistic way, or
if we do have to find some other methodology. And that basically is as
far as we went during the review process.
But we were quite shocked that so many of the facilities were
pushed way out.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah, and you hear the direction we're
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November 5, 2007
we're going. We're trying to give staff direction as to what to look
towards for several different options, and I'm going to let Commissioner
Coyle direct the questions that we're trying to come across.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I'm next.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I know you are. But we're going to
handle this one issue.
You led the particular direction on it. And why we're trying to
define it, as per Commissioner Henning's request.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I don't have any other questions, I just
wanted to address one of the issues that Commissioner Henning brought
up, since it was a continuation of the question I had asked earlier.
There's no contradiction here between specific guidance and general
guidance. We're going to give specific guidance as we go through this
document today. We're going to take it piece by piece and we're going to
give them specific guidance on this.
My objective is to provide general guidance for the staff to go
research solutions to the problems that I just raised and suggest to us
how we can best address that problem.
We can't come up with all the guidance necessary to tell them what
to do now. They have to do the work and advise us what is the best way
and give us some alternatives, and then we will at a later point in time
make a decision on that. That is my -- was my intent.
MR. COHEN: Commissioner, Mr. Chairman, one of the first things
that we'll do prior to the next AUIR is we'll do a comparative analysis
across the board of all capital facilities, levels of service, and have that
available. That way you'll have a better understanding -- we'll have a
better understanding on how those standards are actually applied
statewide. And we'll specifically look at similarly situated counties.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: If! could suggest a modification to
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November 5, 2007
that. Ifwe wait until the next AUIR to try to get that clarified, and if it
requires some action by state government to give us permission to
achieve the solution we want, there's a huge lead time to do that.
I would ask that somebody take on a special study soon so that we
can -- we can go ahead and pass this AUIR with our recommendations
and modification as they come up today, but immediately after that, I
think we need to start an action program to specifically address how we
apply the population figures and the peak population figures to specific
government facilities. Because it's clear that government facilities are
impacted differently.
MR. COHEN: Commissioner, if that's your direction and the rest of
the board's direction, we'll do that starting immediately after this AUIR.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I think so.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: We've got three nods?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes, you do.
Let's go to Commissioner Halas. Please stay available someplace
close by. Appreciate it. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: There was a discussion about
stormwater and that it may not impact during the peak season.
The concerns that I have is that people build houses and we got
rooftops. So therefore we have impervious surface areas. And it does
impact the area when people aren't here. So that can't be looked at as,
well, we don't have any storm flooding or anything else, because the
peak season the people aren't here. Off season. But their homes are still
here. So it does have a big impact in regards to stormwater.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: No, it's just --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But those homes being built are
being built in areas that they have to have stormwater retention. I don't
know of any cases where they don't.
And the board just passed an amendment, Land Development Code,
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November 5, 2007
Code, it says, you know, if you're going to do some rebuilding or
something in Naples Park or whatever, that you need to have that
stormwater storage or you can't build, expand or whatever.
So I think we got that covered. Commissioner Coyle is correct that,
you know, peak season doesn't have a impact of stormwater.
MR. MUDD: The only -- Commissioner Henning -- if! may, Mr.
Chairman?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Please, sir, go ahead.
MR. MUDD: To answer Commissioner Henning's earlier question,
there were 2,762 new residents in -- by the end ofFY 2007. We
normally go with 2.3 people per dwelling. That gives you 6,352.6 -- we
won't count the .6, we just say it's 6,353 as far as increase in population.
And if you even went as high as three persons per dwelling, it would be
8,286.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So we're way off on what
we're showing.
MR. MUDD: Mud based on building permits and what BEBR
basically gives us, we're off base, yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And in turn you have less money
to make those improvements, but you're basing it upon projected
population. So that just presents a problem, wouldn't you say?
MR. MUDD: I would say in down turns you're probably going to
be off from estimates that are given to you a year prior. And as I believe
Mr. Cohen mentioned, he believes that there's going to be an adjustment
to the BEBR projections that we are given for the next AUIR.
And if we don't get that, then we need to raise the flag as a staff and
say, hey, look at, building permits and what you're giving us don't make
sense in Collier County, and you're inflating what we're getting.
But I see what your -- what you're getting at is what they gave us
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November 5, 2007
last year, this year's projection, and what we finally finished up the year
with we have a lag period of time.
MR. SCHMITT: Last year was based on 5,753.
MR. MUDD: Yeah, and last year projection we got was based on
what we ended with '06 with, which was 5,753 as far as new units were
coming on board. So they are off by a year, just as is taxes are off by a
year.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay, thank you.
MR. MUDD: The other thing that I just want to add to the dialogue
is if you're in a PUD, you have stormwater. If you're building on an
individual lot that isn't in a PUD, maybe Naples Park or the Estates or
Pine Ridge, north of that, when you get into that particular area you're
building individual homes, and most are above elevation. And
Commissioner Halas can tell you from his site visits that they do have an
impact upon the local neighborhood, because the local neighborhood was
built normally below the ball of the road, the crown of the road. And
these newer homes are coming up 18 inches above the crown, and the
water is affecting those low-lying homes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And then what Commissioner Coyle
said yesterday about the numbers, it's hard to be able to transpose
population numbers in every instance that would really work for this.
Something like drainage should be based upon the square footage of
rooftops that they displaced. It would be much more applicable than
using it on a population basis. Then again, I'm not too sure we could
ever get to that point.
Commissioner Coyle?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, you can. As a matter of fact,
the City of Naples has done that. And the County Manager has a draft
copy of that ordinance which deals with the retention of runoff water on
your own property. It's not allowed to run off on to some body else's
property. So there is a way to do that.
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November 5, 2007
And hopefully staff can take a look at that draft ordinance and see if
there's a way we can adopt it here.
But let me make sure there's a clear understanding of what I'm
talking about. Ifwe have an average population of379,000 people and
we have an extraordinary tourist season that adds another 10,000 people
to that, that's not going to require a capital improvement to a drainage
canal. If you build a house that is going to divert more water into the
drainage system, that will certainly cumulatively have an effect, but you
deal with that through impact fees and/or ordinances. You don't
calculate the need for drainage systems on the basis of whether or not you
have a good tourist season, you know. It just doesn't compute.
So that's what we're getting at. If you have a good tourist season,
there's a big impact on Mr. DeLony's water and wastewater treatment
facilities. There's a big impact on Norm Feder's transportation system.
But there's not an impact on the drainage system, the canals.
So that's all I'm trying to do is get an understanding that we ought to
apply these things in a way that makes sense for the facility that we are
considering. And so I think we've got at least three nods to do that, so
I'll --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: You have enough to put that in your
directions.
Before we again, let's go ahead and take a 10-minute break and
we'll be right back.
(Recess.)
MR. MUDD: Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, you have a hot mic.
Subject to no further questions from Mr. Bosi, Mr. Feder --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Good job.
MR. MUDD: -- will start Category A with transportation.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah, Mike, thank you.
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November 5, 2007
Item #2C
COUNTY ROADS
MR. FEDER: For the record, Norm Feder, Transportation
Administrator.
I'm going to be fairly brief and I'm going to hand it over to Nick
Casalanguida to go through the specifics on the roads portion.
What I do want to point out, though, I think the discussion today is
excellent. We had very good participation and input from the planning
commission and the productivity committee and I think the product is
better for that, as well as I think it will be from the discussions today.
I do need to point out in transportation, we don't use directly
population as you saw up on the slide there, let's say on the library
example. In reality what we use is traffic counts out there on the road, as
well as modeling that basically utilizes population, also socioeconomic
data and spacial distribution to evaluate trends and needs.
On the roads, we came to you last AUIR, we identified a potential
$180 million shortfall. The board took that information and through the
budget cycle gave us some good direction that is reflected here in the
new AUIR, as well as obviously in the budget that we have for fiscal
year '08.
Specifically our impact fees have taken up, with a 30 percent
increase expected to come in in January, will hit about half of that
shortfall need through that increase as well. We removed County Barn
four-laning, and have added two additional lanes be the Santa Barbara
extension. That was a sizeable savings, and gave us the capacity needs,
although we are still production ready on County Barn and expect to go
with that both for L.A.S.J.P. and for the road needs in the future.
Page 41
November 5, 2007
needs in the future.
We also were given 50 million in general obligation bonds. They
are shown in our fiscal year '08. But we will not take any of that money
out, any portion of it until in fact it's needed to meet the letting
requirements within the plan.
So we did address that shortfall. We appreciate your actions
previously. And I think what you'll see in the transportation is we do
have a cost feasible plan that meets our needs. Our deficiency segments
are greatly reduced. They still reflect heavily the state highway system
components of the network. And I'll have Nick go through that in detail.
The only other thing that I wanted to note to you is we were
discussing impact fees and other revenue sources. One thing that we're
going to be bringing to you during the budget cycle that goes a little bit
beyond the AUIR which is predominately to look at concurrency
capacity needs is that our growing needs relative to the bridge program
where we have about 110 bridge structures, if you will, more than 20
feet over water body approaching the 50-year time frame. We are
studying a number of them right now where the deficiency rating is
getting to a point where work, repair at least, and renovations are
required. That area is going to need to be budgeted.
As well as, as we add more and more lane miles we need to
maintain that investment in that lane miles and resurfacing. And right
now we have a fairly small resurfacing program that doesn't in any way
meet basically the life cycle expectations of paving.
So our 0 and M costs are going to go up, none of which can be
covered by impact fees. And yet what we're facing right now is about 24
million a year, if that can be maintained out of ad valorem. And then
we're facing a gas tax that although everybody talks about gas going up
to $3.00 a gallon -- Jim DeLony just asked me how long I think we're
going to be experiencing that and I said until it goes to four.
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November 5, 2007
But that does not increase our revenue stream. We are not set on a
basis of cost, we're set on a per gallon. And as the cost goes up, people
are I guess fortunately finding ways to be a little more fuel efficient in
their vehicles, reduce number of trips and so we're not going to
experience as a gas tax revenue that's also supporting our subsidy of
transit and all of our areas that we can't use impact fees on.
So that's going to be the major issue we're going to have to address
beyond this five-year and start with our budgeting processes to look at.
The capacity end, I'm going to let Nick walk you through that. We're in
good shape.
I will point out on the teleprompter here, you have basically -- what
this board has done in its support of transportation in adding lane miles
since 2000, we have over 200 lane miles added to the system on different
facilities that are either completed or about to be completed throughout
the network. That has greatly assisted, and I think you'll see it as Nick
goes through the details, the deficient segments are reducing over time.
Our focus of course now is on maintaining what we have within the
urbanized area, its sufficiency, not losing that capacity and then moving
out to the Estates where we have the opportunity of a grid system but
still have some significant needs as we continue to grow.
With that, I'll ask Nick to go and we'll be happy to answer any
questions.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Before you do, sir, Commissioner
Henning has some questions, and then Commissioner Halas.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: On your projected capitals, are you
seeing $67 million in impact fees?
MR. FEDER: Yes. As a matter of fact, our impact fees are up.
Our gas tax is close to what you see in the projection. Our impact fees
are up.
Remember also in our impact fees, we have a provision for 50
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November 5, 2007
percent upfront and then 50 percent within three years. It's anticipated
that what we call COA, but those other 50 percent dollars, and what we
were actually realizing in collections are showing that we're tracking
pretty well. But it does assume that 30 percent increase is coming up in
January, if that is maintained.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: On Vanderbilt Beach extension--
if you want me to wait for Nick, I mean, I just have some questions on
the scheduling on that. Did you want me to wait?
MR. FEDER: I'll be happy to discuss it or we can wait, whichever
you'd like to do.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: All right, since you're there.
VBR extension from Collier to Wilson. I see a lot of acquisitions
out for this AUIR.
MR. FEDER: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The construction is not there.
When do you plan on the construction to be there?
MR. FEDER: Right now it would probably be in the sixth or
seventh year. We see that we were required as we had direction from the
board, we're requiring the whole takes throughout the corridor all the
way out to DeSoto, and we're well along in that process.
We are getting closer to our design standards, 60 percent, before we
can start pursuing the right-of-way acquisitions basically in that first
segment, as you said, from Collier out to Wilson. These dollars reflect
that pursuit of the right-of-way and we would expect that we'd be in a
position to seek construction if the funding's available in year six or
seven.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: In year six or seven, so that's 13 or
14.
MR. FEDER: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Do you know how much you
anticipated spending for right-of-way on that -- for this year?
MR. FEDER: I think what you see in the plan here is pretty close to
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November 5, 2007
close to what we expect relative to the portion out to Wilson.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
And that's my last question.
MR. FEDER: Thank you.
Nick?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yes, Norm, a question I have for you.
As we move through getting more fuel efficient vehicles and obviously
as the price of gas goes up, people are being more cautious in regards to
trips.
Do impact fees, do they -- are they used for establishing bus lines?
MR. FEDER: No, Commissioner, the bus services right now are --
come through federal grant monies. The county is right now subsidizing
about two million a year out of your gas tax revenues.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay. So there's no way that road
impact fees can be used for establishing bus lines as the price of fuel
continues to go up.
MR. FEDER: Right now it is not utilized that way, and that's
something we could try to explore, but the state provisions are added
capacity, and that is typically seen as additional lanes.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Mr. Feder, what is our deficit on our
five-year program?
MR. FEDER: We do not have a deficit in our five-year program as
noted. What you have is about 36 million, as you'll see at the end, that is
held in abeyance. But you'll also see that while we don't bring forward a
construction phase until I actually have a contract that's approved by this
board, we didn't program a lot of new projects in the fourth and fifth year
of this program, waiting to make sure that the revenue streams as
expected through increased impact fees and other issues are realized.
And I would hope that we would be in a position in the next AUIR, the
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November 5, 2007
in the next AUIR, the one to follow, to add some additional projects in
what would be years 2011 and '12.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, let me rephrase the question.
Ifwe wanted to meet our objectives, going out five or 10 years, for
the money stream that we have coming in, how short will we be?
MR. FEDER: If you want to meet it relative to capacity at a level
of service D and E, which is your level of service in transportation, it is
met with this capital improvement element, including that $50 million
barn that we will pursue, only when and if it's needed.
MR. MUDD: If you take a look at Page 9, sir, of Norman's
presentation, you've got the chart which at the top it says, Attachment C
proposed five-year work program CIE. If you go down the first column
under FY '08, almost down to the bottom of the page and it says
short-term loan commercial paper, that's that $50 million.
He says he's going to be 36 up at the end of the five-year period of
time, but he's got a shortage over that period of time where that loan
bridges the gap and he pays it back as those proceeds comes in.
But in the first couple of years there's a shortage versus the monies
that he's got in order to build the program. That's why he needs that
loan.
And we talked about that before in front of this board. At one time
it was up to 100 million, we got Norman to acquiesce to 50. And if! can
get him to 25 and still get the program accomplished, I will.
MR. FEDER: At 50 it's covered.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you.
Commissioner Coyle?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: The productivity committee has a
general recommendation that all future capital improvement projects be
limited to their impact fund balance plus anticipated collections and not
be subsidized with loans or general fund revenue.
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November 5, 2007
Have you adopted that position for anything beyond the five-year
plan?
MR. FEDER: First of all, all you have here is the five-year plan.
The five-year plan does rely on 24 million a year, which has been
historical from general fund revenue stream. It also relies on that 50
million, as I mentioned, of that general obligation bonding when and if
it's required.
So in answer to your question, no. I think the issue they were
raising was likelihood to be able to repay. I think your five years shows
that that general obligation will be paid back. But it is utilizing 24
million a year of ad valorem, and it continues to require that to not only
meet your capacity but to address some of your operations and
maintenance. And that's the critical area.
A lot of your capacity is being handled, the bulk of it, by impact
fees, assuming we do our increase and continue to do that. But I have a
lot of operations and maintenance which is growing, whether it be my
traffic operation system, support for the transit, resurfacing, those issues
and now bridges that are becoming a bigger requirement that I still
maintain that ad valorem support of the program, because my gas tax
revenues as you know are already at max, have been maxed since the
beginning of that opportunity by this board, and that stream is not
growing. As a matter of fact, its actual buying power has been going
down.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: How important is an impact fee
adjustment for transportation?
MR. FEDER: It is very important. As I said here on balance, based
on 24 million a year and 50 million, if! assume almost 96 million have
increased over five years of impact fee collections. So far that seems to
be tracking relative to our current rate what we expected, and we would
hope that that would continue.
But that's also why I left 36 on the table at the end of the five years,
in case we don't realize that level of impact fee collections so we can
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November 5, 2007
we can adjust throughout the five-year period.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, if we don't achieve that level of
property tax revenue support, what are you going to do?
MR. FEDER: Well, first of all, that would hit a number of areas. I'd
probably have to hit some of the capacity, but I couldn't use my impact
fees on my operations and maintenance requirements, which is a rapidly
growing requirement where predominantly I'm utilizing that 24 million
of ad valorem.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: What would be the impact, though?
MR. FEDER: The impact would be that instead of an assumption
of almost 45 years of useful life of pavement, which basically should be
about 11 years on average, depending on the nature of the facilities,
some a little less, some major and some a little more on the others, I
would be further out, further elongating.
If you in fact let pavement go to the point where you crack and you
start hitting your subbase, then you've lost your investment. That's like
the little leak in the roof that you let go there until it becomes a big leak
and then you've got major problems.
I will have bridges, but right now I have five that I have to respond
to I know based on their deteriorating condition. All of them are safe,
all of them are structures that aren't going to come down based on
people's concern. But that's what we need to do is make sure that they're
maintained so they don't --
COMMISSIONER COYLE: And what would be --
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, he never answered your question.
And I'm not picking on Norman. He talked about operational because
he's worried about operational right now. Because if you take a look at
the 24 million in ad valorem going here, there's another 24 to 26 going
into his operation for operational sides, roads and bridges and things like
that.
And as we tweak this budget down and down, based on some
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November 5, 2007
mandates that we're getting, he's getting less and less ofthose dollars in
order to maintain. So he is really worried. He's got five bridges right
now that need to be -- have major work on them. And we're going to
talk about that some more.
But what he would have to do is have to slip. This program would
have to slip out to the right based on less building, less impact fees
coming in. And you do have things in FY 'II and '12 on your program
that have some significant amounts of money on them. He would have
to slip one or two of those projects --
MR. FEDER: I would have to do that. But your question was ifl
lost ad valorem as opposed to reduced impact fees.
And understand that while Jim is perfectly correct, I would look to
slip the capacity project further out and that might create a concurrency
Issue.
If it is impact fee funded, I could not use that to replace the 0 and
M. And that's why I focused on than that in my answer.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: But if you slip it out beyond the five
years, under -- the state's Growth Management Plan development can
continue.
MR. FEDER: If they pay a proportionate share.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: If they pay a proportionate fair share,
which we know is not enough to cover the --
MR. FEDER: It's not what we wanted. Under our terms we would
consider a concurrency issue and seek not to move on that development
along with this board's assistance.
But yes, you're right, there are escape patches that have been set up
by the legislative action.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Now, you're going to have to start
planning -- well, you already have started planning for years after the
five years.
Is it your planning guidance to your staff that they should not expect
ad valorem property tax contributions to support your capital
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November 5, 2007
improvement project?
MR. FEDER: With all due respect, Commissioner, and I know it's
not the answer you're seeking, I would probably tell them that I have to
have another source of funding beyond impact fees, beyond the
decreasing valued gas tax, and that is either additional ad valorem or
some other source of funding, whether it be the penny that requires
referendum of sales tax or some other source.
I can tell you that we are not sustainable further out based on simply
the income streams that we have today.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: So if we do not increase impact fees,
you are negatively impacted, not only for the five-year program but for
any programs beyond that.
MR. FEDER: Definitely. We will find ourselves much like we
were when I came here. From the mid Nineties to 2000 we didn't build it
and they came. We didn't increase the impact fees, they built it. But the
infrastructure was not built.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Norm, a question I have. You keep
talking about maintenance levels that are going to increase.
Approximately what is the amount of ad valorem taxes that you presently
are using to repair roads, and what is your projected outlook for the next
five years in road maintenance?
MR. FEDER: Commissioner, that's a very valid question and I'm
going to need to look at that before I mislead you in specifics. And I'm
going to bring that during the budgeting process.
I can just tell you right now I only have about two million a year
towards resurfacing. And I have one million a year essentially as you
can see in here towards bridges. Both of them are woefully inadequate.
And yet I'm balanced out based on my concurrency needs generally.
So I'm going to need to come to you in the budget cycle to
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November 5, 2007
understand how we're going to cover this 0 and M cost as it increases.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I think that's very important that we
have that information.
MR. MUDD: And Norman said $2 million for resurfacing, that's
resurfacing an existing hard type road.
MR. FEDER: That's not--
MR. MUDD: Okay, he's got -- out in the Estates he's got about five
million or so to do limerock to asphalt.
MR. FEDER: And that's part of the discussion we'll have.
But yes, as far as actual already paved roadway, maintaining that
and upgrading it, about two million a year.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Just one question. You had mentioned
five bridges. And according to this system line capacity that's on the
overhead, I see three. Could you tell me where the other two bridges
are?
MR. FEDER: No, understand, those are new bridges that have been
added into the system for capacity and for mobility improvements. What
I'm talking about is we've got about 110 bridges on our system, and so
most people need to understand that any time I have a box culvert of a
water body of more than 20 feet in span, that is considered a bridge.
So about 20 or 30 of those are just basically box culverts, and the
others are what you might more routinely consider a bridge, and an
awful lot of them out in the Estates.
The key issue is most of them are starting to get closer to their
generally considered useful life of 50 years, and so I need to do what I
can to repair and rehabilitate rather than get in a position of replace,
which is much more expensive.
MR. MUDD: Now, how about giving the Commissioner an
example of one of the bridges that you just had to do a quick fix to
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November 5, 2007
because we decreased the tonnage that could transfer over the top of the
bridge.
MR. FEDER: On Immokalee Road east of29, not a heavily
traveled section of roadway, but nonetheless we had a structure that we
worked with the state. Based on its condition rating, it started going
down rather quickly. We didn't want to leave ourselves in any position
of failure.
And so we got with the state, we reduced the weight on it, or placed
a restriction to what size vehicles go across it. We've gone in, made the
repairs that were required, particularly to the support columns.
That work has been done. We had it inspected by the state.
Reinspected. They concurred that the repairs were good and the weight
restriction's been taken off of that section of bridge.
We have some others that were in that position. We have others we
hope not to get into that position, based on an ongoing bridge program,
knowing that our bridges are starting to age.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So that works me into my second
question, which is, all of the dump trucks that are traveling to and from
the mines, I'm sure that they're detrimental to those bridges, yet we're
not collecting a dollar a load on those. Only the brand new ones that
we've approved recently. But we're not getting anything to help you
rebuild the bridges that I'm sure the dump trucks are helping to weaken.
MR. FEDER: We are going to bring a resolution to you hopefully
supporting that idea of one dollar per truck you've applied most recently
to developments that have come in. But by resolution we'd like to get
that issue addressed so that you don't have to address it on a one-per-one
basis.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You'll be bringing it up pretty quickly,
right?
MR. FEDER: Yes.
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
MR. FEDER: We'll be bringing it to the board.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Mr. Feder, I'm sorry to interrupt you
again, but didn't we have this issue come before us about six years ago?
MR. FEDER: Oh, yes. About six years ago we were trying to put a
fee on dump trucks. We were working with Lee County. It was
proceeding with something at the time. They ran into a number of
problems as they were trying to update their impact fees and issues.
What we're talking about is not an impact fee, it's a per truck load,
acknowledging the damage. And it's not just to bridges, it's also to the
roadways themselves, based on heavy loads.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: But we would just be able to collect that
within Collier County, though.
MR. FEDER: Yes. That's what we're seeking is a local fee item
relative to the number of trucks coming out of mines within Collier.
Obviously somebody is mining in Lee and the trucks are driving through,
but that's not something we can collect on.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, thank you.
Item #2C
COUNTY ROADS
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Good morning, Commissioners. For the
record, Nick Casalanguida, with transportation.
And I'll take you to Page 6 of the AUIR for transportation. We'll
start there.
A couple of clarifications. You had asked Mr. Feder about the
dollar fee per truck. We're looking as part of our spring update that's
going through right now the impact --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm sorry, Nick. When we refer to a
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November 5, 2007
page, could we put it on the visualizer, Mr. Mudd, so the public can see
what we're talking about?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Sure. Swipe my page. I'll have to look at
that from time to time.
MR. MUDD: Here, take the page. We'll work mine.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: As part of our impact fee update that we
have going forward, we're looking at a fee per truck, an impact fee for
heavy hauling facilities. So it's a correctional resolution that might be in
your spring update for your impact fee. And we're trying to rationalize
between a one-time fee or an annual fee. And we're working with
Tindale-Oliver to work that out.
We're also working with the school district to look at an impact fee
increase for them as it relates to capacity improvements for each school
that's installed as well, too. So we're looking at different areas to
mitigate for some of those impacts that we receive.
On Page 6, the biggest thing that probably sticks out at the top of
the page is your unit cost variable average per land mile. Up to almost
$8 million.
Now, it's a lagging indicator. So when you look at that, you're
seeing numbers that reflect the Santa Barbara project or the Collier north
project.
We've started to receive projects coming in right now that are
bringing that cost down, but we use it as a lagging indicator. And we
have to. It's the way we regulate our impact fees as well, too.
Approximately 500,000 to a million of that could be utilities as
well, too. And as we go to the rural areas, that may decrease as well. So
note of that.
Recommendations from the planning commission, productivity
committee were positive.
And again I'd like to caution and echo what Mr. Feder has pointed
out, we do not recommend delaying your impact fee increase for roads.
We thought it was a detriment delaying it when we had done it in the last
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November 5, 2007
done it in the last quarter of last year, and we think going forward it may
hurt us if we do that. So we recommend installing that per your last
guidance ofthis spring coming up, or actually January.
Mr. Feder also pointed out that as gas prices go up, you may see a
lower gas revenue. Because you'll see people consolidating, commuting,
public transportation. So we consider that as well too when we review
our AUIR.
Going to Page 8 now, if I could, we do --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Before you go, Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You just mentioned public
transportation. Have we noticed -- and I realize Diane Flagg isn't here,
but have we noticed an increase in the people using our public
transportation system since the gas prices have gone so high?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: She has had a steady increase in
ridership, but it's too early to tell because of that correlation of gas prices
to ridership.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
MR. MUDD: There have been -- the increase overall to the system
has happened every year since it's been on board. There are some
sections, segments, routes, okay, that's had a decrease in ridership. And
we're trying to analyze that to see if that was because we added another
route and those are competing as we go through it.
So when you look at route by route, it doesn't all have the same
increase level, but overall it's increased as far as ridership is concerned.
And we're analyzing those routes and just exactly what's causing the
decrease to them.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And you're also trying to figure out as
you're analyzing whether there's some correlation between the gas prices
and the ridership increase. I mean, we understand that it's increasing, it's
because you have a wonderful service, we have a wonderful service.
But it would be interesting to see if somehow gas prices directly relate to
that, which of course then as you guys are both saying which then
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November 5, 2007
both saying which then decrease our gasoline taxes. That's where I'm
coming from.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: And anecdotally we're seeing employees
already talking about commuting. As gas prices are going to approach
$4.00 a gallon, we talk, staff, in our department about commuting
together. So you'll see that drop.
I mean, it's good on one hand, but on the back hand you've got
decreased revenues.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Nick, before you go on, for our viewing
public, are these documents available on-line?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Yes, sir. Comprehensive planning
website. Mike Bosi can probably put that on the record, if need be.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. So anyone that would like to go
back and view these documents and ask questions at a future meeting,
they're ready and available?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Yes, sir, they are.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: With that, I thank you.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: We've spent a lot of time with the
stakeholders going over this as well, too.
We're on Page 8. And most interesting about reviewing traffic
counts, and it's the mundane part of our job, they're done quarterly and
we have some permanent count stations, is there's a lot of trends that you
notice real quick when a certain road goes under construction. You may
see an alternative route pick up. And when a facility opens up, you see
that road start to pick up and a parallel facility start to drop down.
So when you look at quarterly counts, some of the observations that
you've seen, some go up, some go down. Typically when you look at an
overall system-wide count, we've gone up about two percent throughout
the county . Your rural area has gone up a little bit higher, which is
expected. It's not affected by construction traffic in some of the road
construction that's going on in the urban area currently right now.
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November 5,2007
currently right now.
So at the bottom of the page it gives you a breakdown of some of
the count stations, and there were anomalies in there, but they were
explainable. We could see when the overpass opened up or the
interchange opened up, we saw jumps in certain volumes on certain
roads. Like Pine Ridge Road would drop down when we had the Golden
Gate Parkway interchange open up.
Going to your next page, Page 9 --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Before you go forward, Nick.
Commissioner Coyle, did you want to address something on that?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah, I just want to make a request.
Nick, can you give me a copy of the data that shows the stations and
the percentage decreases from 2005?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Sure.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: At a later time.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Be happy to do that.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Thank you.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: As we get into your five-year plan on
Page 9, according to the note, that we took out County Barn, as you
know, and replaced it with Santa Barbara. Overall savings of
approximately $40 million.
While we expect Santa Barbara as a six-lane facility to replace the
additional two lanes on County Barn, you're not going to realize that
improvement for two or three years.
We also want to note, although you show the commercial paper in
your first year, and as Mr. Feder pointed out it will be borrowed as
needed and hopefully, as the County Manager also pointed out, hopefully
we won't get to it in the first year and the second year impact fees will
come in, our prices will come down and we can defer that loan.
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November 5, 2007
And it should be noted it's not a bond, it's a commercial paper loan.
Are there any questions on this page?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Please continue, Nick.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Okay. Next page is pretty much a
summary page, Page 10. And it shows, as Mr. Feder pointed out, a
surplus in the final year of$36 million. We are cautiously optimistic as
we are -- as you get out into your outer years of projecting revenue
streams, you pointed out how comfortable we are with impact fees.
Well, in year, one, two, you're pretty comfortable. In year three,
four and five you get a little bit nervous. And that's why my boss said
leave 36 million on the table, to make some adjustments. Hopefully
when we put out the next three projects that we bid they'll come down,
some of the costs will come down.
And we're starting to see a lot of competition, a lot of interest in
road projects.
I'd like to point out Page 12, because in front of the MPO board--
MR. MUDD: Well, let's not go to 12 yet. Take a look at the chart
that's up on the visualizer right now, and we basically say that the $50
million isn't necessary in the first year. It's because when you finish out
the first year, you've got $51 million in surplus. So why would you
borrow $50 million when you're going to end up with a surplus? You
really don't need it. You start getting a shortfall right here in FY '11
when you go $94 million in the drink. That's when you need to have the
$50 million locked in.
And then you phase out and go through that shortage and you go to
that 36. So he's got a little bit of weighing to do and some moving a
little bit, but you don't want to strike that $50 million right off the get-go.
Because you don't want to be paying interest on money you're not going
to need. But he's showing it there so that you understand it's based on
impact fees coming into it.
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November 5, 2007
MR. CASALANGUIDA: And I don't want to prove the big boss
wrong, but if we're optimistic and we can bring some of the projects in
earlier, we will get to that $50 million earlier.
There are projects out that we show in the tenth and eleventh year
that we're permitting, hoping to be construction ready next year. So if
we are aggressive with permitting, we'll do that early.
And the good note to take advantage of that is now while the
construction folks are aggressive with jobs, if you can bring these jobs
forward and have bidders where you have six, seven, eight, nine bidders
on one job, your prices are better.
So if we're going to be optimistic and say that we want to borrow
that upfront, but our program right now shows it in the outer years.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: It was answered, thank you.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Page 11 and -- pages 11 through 14 are
your detail breakdown of the links. I won't get into a lot of that, except
for Page 12 I want to touch something out over there.
What we've done this year in the AUIR, and it was the intention of
me and Mr. Scott last year to do it as well, too, we're starting to break
down some of the longer links because some of the facilities have opened
up.
Where Livingston Road is now running parallel to 41 and Airport,
you're going to want to break down those links into smaller links,
because that -- those are your points where traffic is starting to divert.
On Page 12, a note of caution. We were at the MPO meeting on
Friday and we discussed the interchange project with the MPO board.
That interchange is a DOT project. We don't control the schedule of that
project. That interchange is critical to the capacity on Immokalee Road.
So if you look at the top of Page 12, and I know it's fine print, we
have linked 42.2 and 43.1. We have broken down Immokalee Road into
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November 5, 2007
Road into sub-links because of Livingston Road and Logan Boulevard.
We're showing a six-lane capacity. Our recommendation to the
board today would be we should drop that down to a four-lane capacity
and reduce the ability for projects to permit in that area until that
interchange is done.
We don't control that area. You will have zoning, SDP
development order applications that will come on line. And if we show
that capacity there, it wouldn't probably be a good idea.
So one of the guidance we'd like to get from the board is to say
maybe we knock that down to the most restricted number of lanes that
operate. Right now that's currently four lanes. So if we get concurrence
on that, that would be good.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can we put that on the executive
summary?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm sorry, if we could, let's go to
Commissioner Coyle first and then we'll come to you.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: That's okay. Go ahead,
Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can we put that in a regular board
meeting?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: We have the interchange coming up at
the next board meeting and we can discuss it then. It's programmed on
the 13th board meeting. So we could get a little guidance today, but we
could probably take final action on the board meeting based on your
discussion.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I agree.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Coyle?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: And because you don't have control
of it, you don't know when it's going to be completed.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I'm optimistic. Again, we've had really
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER COYLE: No, no, don't use optimism and FDOT
in the same sentence.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I don't control that project. Collier
County does not control that project.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, Ijust want you to know, I
would support your recommendation.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I also would support that.
My understanding is that we're probably looking somewheres in the
time frame of about 2010, 20 II for that to be completed; is that correct?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I would say towards the end of2011,
you're correct.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: So four lanes is the maximum
capacity on there.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Once again, I do believe that we're
going to have this coming back before us the next meeting?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: A week from tomorrow.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: 13th.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And at that point in time we'll be in a
deep discussion about it. Thank you. Please continue, Nick.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Sure. Again, we've broken down the
links accordingly. We get down to the deficiency page, which is Page
15. And that's more of a table versus the graphic that's on the next page.
But I'll run down the table real quick.
Your first deficiency is based on traffic counts, which is Golden
Gate Boulevard. We anticipated our ready -- construction ready in
2008, 2009. Weare working on that right now going through 60 percent
plans getting ready to do property acquisition on that project. That is
based on counts.
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Your deficiencies in the next form of the table are based on vested
trips that are in the area and then projected deficiencies going down.
Other than going these line-by-line, it's probably easier just to go
through the map that's on the next page. And that is Page 16, attachment
F. I'll start in the northwest quadrant of the county and work our way
around and we can take questions as we go.
We have Old 41 in the northwest corner. Most of that capacity or
transportation is because of an intersection problem, and we're
addressing that now. We're adding an additional left turn lane, an
additional northbound right turn lane at that intersection, and we think
that will take care ofthe problem, but we're going to keep an eye on
that. We're showing that a 2009 deficiency.
It's currently in our TCMA, and that TCMA is running well. There
are no issues to report in that area, so --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Nick, before you leave that subject, too,
Commissioner Halas would like to address a question to you.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I thought he would.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: We did, too -- I did, too.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: We've got a couple of large shopping
centers that are presently being developed there. How much has the
developers contributed to increasing the capacity on Old U.S. 41?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: The developer is the one providing the
additional southbound westbound/turn lane, left turn lane. He is
building that as part of his project.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I'm talking about the length of that
road all the way up to Lee County.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Sir, there are no scheduled improvements
to widen that road to Lee County.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: But we have a huge area that's
presently being cleared as large boxes are going to be put in there.
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Obviously that's going to draw traffic into that location.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Unfortunately some of that is vested
development that was -- I don't know the term that was used, but it was
concurrency that was purchased through the old system prior to us
having that ability to stop them from growing.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: So that's been on the books for a
number of years then you're telling me?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: It's been on the books for a number of
years.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: What intersection improvements are
-- is going to be there? I know we addressed an issue there at 41 and Old
41 right-hand turn lane. How quick is that going to be addressed? Since
the FDOT in their infinite wisdom didn't put a right turn lane in.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: We're hoping to have it done in 12
months. We have found some finances. As part of one of the developer
commitments he paid to put money towards intersection improvements.
We'll use that funding and then probably have our internal design team
take a look at that. But our goal is to have it done within the next 12
months.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Thank you very much.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: You're welcome, sir.
As you go down the page, you look at Immokalee Road. We just
discussed that. It is in yellow in this link, but it's not broken down the
way we'd like it broken down. But we have shown it in the tables in the
prior pages. Again, that recommendation we just discussed, and we'll
bring it back on the 13th.
I'd like to note that that improvement that's programmed or being
brought forward is part of our joint cooperation with DOT. Will more
than suffice to capacity -- to take care of the capacity problem that's at
that area. But again, it's not realized until it's actually completed, and we
don't control that.
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We have Oil Well Road in the northeast part of this diaphragm, and
that's going to be construction ready in 2008. We're working through
some permitting issues right now, but we're looking forward to bringing
that on-line next year. Although it's not expected deficient until 2010.
As you know, so we have an agreement in hand that we have to provide
capacity improvements there.
Any questions?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes, Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Do we have the funds to proceed with
the construction of this?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: The first phase is funded, sir. As you
look down the page and slide south, we talked about Golden Gate
Boulevard being construction ready. It's shown in red. We're moving
forward on that project.
We also show Golden Gate Boulevard. Now, what the rule is --
what normally happens, more that it happens in the urban area. Your
peak traffic is peak peak traffic.
What I mean by that is that is that you have a real specific half hour,
45 minutes in the morning where that road is over capacity. And the
same as well in the p.m. And if you notice, when the school (sic) comes
on in the boulevard, because I happen to live in that area, it's detrimental
for about a 45-minute period. Most of the times during the day that
roadway runs -- you could drive down that road and not see another car.
Weare looking, as part of that, doing the Collier Boulevard
intersection with Golden Gate Boulevard, taking advantage of an
additional left turn lane as we modifY that road, so that we expect to
normalize that volume on by doing that. Although we may show in outer
years again over capacity in that p.m. peak hour, it is a peak, peak
overcapacity problem, not a problem you would feel during the day.
We also have Vanderbilt road in the long-range plan to take care of
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of that capacity problem as well, too.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, Nick, isn't it pretty standard most
of the roads don't fail all day long, they seem to go through the rush
hours in the morning, in the afternoon, and the rest of the day, I mean,
you can travel those roads without any problem? So, I mean, I just
wanted to make sure that this isn't something that we're trying to say is
unique to Golden Gate Boulevard.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Well, it's more unique than your urban
area. Because you don't have any services on the boulevard. It's pretty
much a computer road. As opposed to your urban area, you have
shopping, retail in the area that takes up a lot of trips.
If you looked at the trip counts throughout the day in the urban area,
it gradually rises and sustains for quite a bit of time and then gradually
declines.
On the boulevard you get a much sharper peak. In other words,
there's that time where people are getting out of work or going to work
and a very concentrated time where that road goes overcapacity.
So your rural area is different. I live out there, I see it.
Your urban area, it's prolonged. So again, you don't build your
roads, as Mr. Feder pointed out, for that peak, peak season factor.
We should also maybe keep an eye on Golden Gate Boulevard and
see what it does. If it goes over capacity only for a very short half-hour
window in the future we're going to keep an eye on that.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: We're still going ahead with
construction of this?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: It's a needed facility.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Absolutely.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, I just wanted to make sure there
was no misunderstanding on it.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: I'm selfish. I live out there. So there's no
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November 5, 2007
there's no --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: You and I got to stick together on this
thing.
Commissioner Halas, then Commissioner Coyle.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: The -- do you know what the
build-out of the Estates is at this point? What we have for residents and
how many more potential build-out or potential residents that could
move into this area?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Well, I think our comprehensive
planning department, 50,000 -- 80,000 total. We're at 50. Potentially 80
to 90,000. That doesn't include --
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Eighty, 90,000.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: And then you've got to keep in mind,
some of those could have guest homes and things like that, so we're kind
of keeping an eye on that.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: But right now we're about 50,000?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's about what I'm told.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: And you're looking at that as
permanent residents; is that correct?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Those are more permanent residents than
the other part of the county, yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Coyle?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: What do you mean by construction
ready?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That was one of the things we worked
with you on. What we had said was it will be ready in a certain year but
it's in an outer year program. If we have the funds to bring it forward,
that's the year that we'll probably be ready to bring it on line. And from
a prior board direction, we talked about keeping something out until we
actually knew we could pay for it. Construction ready is the year that
we think we'll have it permitted, programmed, ready to go and funding in
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November 5, 2007
programmed, ready to go and funding in place to actually do the process.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, wait a minute. Does that mean
that might be the beginning of construction?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: That's when we let construction. That's
the year we might do construction.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay, that's not when it's going to be
ready for traffic?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: No, sir.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: What must we add to these dates to
get an understanding of when it will be actually ready for traffic?
MR. CASALANGUIDA: It depends on the length of the segment.
You're looking at 24 to 36 months, depending on the length of the
project. Twenty-four is typical. So you may look at about a two-year
addition to that.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Mr. Feder?
MR. FEDER: Just for further clarification, I think we've got it, but
whether you call it production readiness or construction readiness, what
this is talking about is we follow the phases of the planning studies, the
design, the right-of-way acquisition and the permitting. Save letting it
out to construction and bringing a contract to the board, it will be done
and ready to go to that letting at that time.
Now, we have to have the funding, I have to have the board approve
that contract, and then I can have that construction move in.
So as we discussed before, we have some projects we expect to
have ready to go to construction, hopefully let them bring it to this board
for approval, that are shown later, but production readiness or
construction readiness will be on us in '08 and some in '09.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you, Mr. Feder.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: As you continue down the map you have
Collier Boulevard south of Golden Gate Boulevard in orange,
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November 5, 2007
construction ready in 20 I O. And that map doesn't tell the complete
story. We're looking at doing the approaches on Pine Ridge Road and
east on White and expanding that intersection and max it out. So we
expect a big benefit out of that project.
That is anticipated to go all the way down to Green Boulevard as
part of construction. We are doing 60 percent plans continuing south.
Our goal is to try and have a project between Green Boulevard and north
of the canal design/build ready in the future so that we can take
advantage of that.
As you continue south you're in a TCMA, which is intact. Your
Golden Gate Parkway and your Collier Boulevard and that link, we
expect to do interim intersection improvements and continue to work
with Mr. Tipton's office on doing timing and intelligent traffic
management systems to try and squeeze out some capacity on some of
those roadways.
Continuing south, we're going to 60 percent plans from the canal
underneath 1-75 to Davis. That's a county project. We're looking at an
eight-lane section underneath the highway, similar to Immokalee Road,
with drop rights both north and south. We expect to permit that and
build that as one project with a state-designed project on Davis
Boulevard from Radio Road to Collier Boulevard.
Right now they're on track. If one of them falls out or one falls
behind the other, we could bid them and construct them separately, if we
wanted to. Our goal is again to do them together.
The state has the remaining portion still in their work program from
Radio Road west to Santa Barbara in 2011, 2012.
And what's not shown here is that we plan to do Santa Barbara
heading south from Davis Boulevard, which is parallel to County Barn
Road.
Again you're going to have zoning application maybe on County
Barn that will count on that capacity on Santa Barbara. We'll give the
board recommendations until you have Santa Barbara in place and
November 5, 2007
you've shown that you're pulling traffic off County Barn. The board
may want to cautiously review those projects as they come forward.
But it's a tremendous savings to be able to put two more lanes on
Santa Barbara and push out County Barn. We would not have been able
to balance our program.
But we are still looking at that. And if bids come down and impact
fee revenues maintain or go up a little bit, we'll be looking at bringing
that back in in the future.
As you head south, you're at the intersection of 951 and U.S. 41. On
the south of 951, the state road section, we have done an improvement.
We're going to reevaluate that link. We expect capacity to have gone up
because of that improvement.
More importantly, FDOT has just finished their PD&E and done an
analysis of what needs to be there. Weare looking at the ultimate at
grade intersection build-out. And then that link on 41 from 951 heading
east right now is on the November 13th agenda for the developers to
fully fund that project. So we're looking at that possibility as well, too.
What's not shown here is that as you get out past your five years, we
are doing a corridor study east of 951, the Wilson Boulevard, Benfield
Road corridor study. Because we realize once you get five years out and
into the later years you're going to need some additional relief on the 951
corridor.
I think we've been fortunate, the combination of this year of bidding
and letting some good projects that we've been able to kind of get caught
up in this five-year program. Again, we're cautiously optimistic about
impact fee revenues, and we don't recommend deferring those increases
out any longer.
Your next two reports are pretty much your TCMA reports. They
just show that the TCMAs are intact and they break down volumes,
based on individual links. The only ones that are shown failing are
addressed as part of our improvements.
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November 5, 2007
With that, I'll entertain any questions you may have.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I don't see any new questions. Thank
you, Nick.
MR. CASALANGUIDA: Thank you.
MR. MUDD: Mike, are you going to take votes on each element, or
MR. SCHMITT: Commissioners, if we could vote on this element
before we go into county drainage, canals and structures.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: We have a motion to approve by
Commissioner Halas, second by Commissioner Henning.
Any discussion?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Would it be appropriate to try to give
guidance to staff at this point in time concerning adding future years to
this and their reliance upon ad valorem property taxes?
MR. FEDER: Commissioner, I think we want to stay with the
five-year capital improvement element. I don't want to go to a 10 years
the state's trying to get me to. But we will come back to you with some
idea of those issues and what you've asked for, and would obviously
entertain and appreciate any guidance from the board.
MR. MUDD: Just an add-on to Norman's statement, you go to a
1 O-year plan, you get proportionate share to development on 10 years
instead of five, and now you're giving guarantees that you might not be
able to give, and development's going to happen at day zero.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: But you're going to have to go at least
one year further out. You're going to be having to plan beyond the
five-year plan. You're going to start that --
MR. FEDER: We've got a 30 year long-range plan and we'll
continue --
COMMISSIONER COYLE: But I'm not talking about those.
You're going to have to come up with another five-year capital
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November 5, 2007
improvement element. So you've got to look at another year.
And all I'm suggesting is that it might be appropriate if we gave
some guidance to the staff about how they can rely -- how much they
should rely on --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Could we do the guidance separate from
the motion?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Sure, that would be fine with me.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Let's go ahead and vote on the motion
and we'll continue with the guidance.
All those in favor of the motion, indicate by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The ayes have it 5-0.
Sorry to interrupt you, please continue.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: That's all right. It's appropriate to do it
separately.
The only thing I would suggest is that when the County Manager
and the staff has an opportunity to assess the potential impact of
legislative budget reductions, that we make some determination about
how much you should be relying on future ad valorem property tax
subsidies of the road program.
MR. FEDER: We understand fully. Right now you're assuming 24
million a year. That may not be the case in the future as what --
COMMISSIONER COYLE: It might be zero.
MR. FEDER: Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: It could be considerably more.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: It could be if we've got it, that's
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November 5, 2007
correct.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, just another statement, just to give
you what happened the last budget thing. $14 million is recurring of
that 24, and 10 million was one-time money, okay, that we basically
figured in the short term because of interest that would continue in order
to go.
So we understand that. But you've got to understand, 14 million is
on a loan that goes out to 2023.
MR. FEDER: And Commissioners, what I will assure you is we
will work within whatever revenues and resources are provided. I will
tell you that we will make sure that you understand the implications of
that. Actually, our item was probably moving the other way. Reality
may not allow that.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: And just one final request: What is
your recommendation about delaying the road -- or transportation impact
fee?
MR. FEDER: It was when I came here today that I need to move
on it. We were concerned that we delay it up until January. We need to
move on it. It's assumed in balancing. And from the discussion I'm
hearing today, I will even more strongly tell you that I need to have that
happen in January.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: If I may comment, I believe that what
Commissioner Henning and I were both saying is that if we hold the
increases to where they are now on impact fees, it doesn't include
transportation.
Am I correct with that, Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. That's what was said.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Just to clarifY that point one more time.
With that, what's the -- well, let's see. Well, no, we'll keep going.
We're going to ]2:00.
MR. MUDD: You're going to drainage. That's part of Norman's
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November 5,2007
outfit.
Item #2D
DRAINAGE CANALS AND STRUCTURES
MR. FEDER: Stormwater -- and I'll be brief, and then I'll ask Gene
Calvert to walk you through the exact AUIR.
Some good discussion this morning. First thing I want to do is
make sure you realize that while stormwater was a Category B up until
not too long ago and now it's a Category A facility, a class A, the
program, the ability to define level of service is only now growing.
We had some discussion with you last time that we had had,
discussion about how many miles of canals I had, how many structures.
That really didn't answer any question as to truly what my needs were
and my supply and therefore my deficiencies. We've taken some steps
towards that. We're not there yet.
The other one I need to define for you is we are not working under
the basis of purely population. I think the discussion was good this
morning and Commissioner Coyle is quite correct, the tourist season
doesn't mean that all of a sudden storm water changes at 20 percent or 18
or 28.
What we do have though is as we continue to grow, as we continue
to have more impervious surface as we have new design standards and
other issues for all the areas, we do have different implications.
Particularly while we allow new development, as Commissioner
Henning pointed out, new development must meet our standards, which
is basically a three-day 25-year event, storm event, and they incorporate
that within a PUD.
A lot of new development goes outside of the PUD's, and in
particular out in the Estates. Right now they are not required to handle
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November 5, 2007
handle their stormwater, and that's going to become a growing issue for
us.
Having said all that, the real critical issue for stormwater is it is a
resource. And I think we've shown ourselves over time that draining the
swamp as quickly as you can is always not the best answer. The issue is
we need to address both the ability to control flooding, in other words, to
convey stormwater particularly during storm events, which is basically a
CFS or a cubic feet per second concern, as well as our ability to recharge
the aquifer to improve water quality, which is an acre foot calculation.
And what you'll find is in stormwater, while we're new to the game
of being a Class A, we only have within the Growth Management Plan
four facilities or four projects, if you will, in the capital improvement
element.
Those four are first and foremost L.A.S.I.P. or Lely area
stormwater. The one that we spent 19 years studying and are now
implementing with the board's assistance.
We have the Gateway Triangle. We have the Gordon River. And
then last we have North Belle Meade, which we really don't have a lot of
data on.
The first three have some extensive stormwater master planning
efforts that were undertaken and are the basis for the improvements that
we're working on now.
What we didn't really have is an idea of what does our system have
in capacity in those areas in both, as I mentioned, CFS to convey the
water and in acre feet to promote some level of retention for basically
recharge of the aquifer, as well as water quality.
What you have in the AUIR, I'll let Gene go through with you, is an
analysis based on those standards rather than just miles of canals and
number of structures. And that's how we're moving away [rom the old
orientation of stormwater to one that's going to give us information.
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November 5, 2007
We also have an issue that came out through our legislative actions,
and it seems to be a theme for us these days, and that is based on their
action, if you formulate an MSTU, then you have to reduce your ad
valorem to a corresponding level from whatever revenue stream you
might bring in from that MSTU.
So we had a funding policy that was looking on major projects for
one-third to come from MSTU's. We had issues of implementation
before, but now it's become a policy constraint.
We're going to bring back to this board a new funding policy. What
I'm hoping to share with you through this AUIR process is an idea of
where we're trying to go with that, and then we'd be happy to get your
guidance. And essentially what we're looking at, it's somewhat parallel
to the road system. I've got a primary system which is Big Cypress
Basin maintained, I've got the secondary system, our arterials, if you
will, that the county maintain, as well as the tertiary system, almost like
the local roads.
The .15 mill of ad valorem dedicated to stormwater by this board
needs to be concentrated at that secondary system, that one that collects
the water off of the tertiary, the local streets and gets it out to the
primary system and then effectively hopefully well treated out into the
bay and outfalls.
So the emphasis of the funding policy needs to be that that .15 mill
is for capacity improvements, and that the only time we spend it on
tertiary system is where either one of the two activities takes place: One,
I've got a concern for the health, safety, welfare of the community on
those local streets, so to speak, on the tertiary system where possible
flooding in the homes, concerns relative to the septic tank systems and
other issues come to play, or roadways are inundated where vehicles
can't get in and out on a long basis.
Other than that, the only time you would spend part of that .15 mills
on the tertiary system would be where you show, and I'll get back to this
in a second, but that you need on the secondary system to be more
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November 5, 2007
be more effectively efficiently handled by an improvement to the
tertiary. For instance, if the secondary paralleled secondary, you didn't
have enough right-of-way to make the expansion needed for
conveyance, you might be able to use a portion of the tertiary, use the
two together and then downstream where you do have the capability,
bring it back into the secondary system.
The reason I'm raising this is because as I said the MSTU issues are
out there; two, we did not and have not had a level of service for
stormwater as it became a new Class A facility.
What we're going to do is take that secondary system and look at
what we have both in CFS and in acre feet capabilities for conveyance,
for treatment and retention, identifY that as we're continuing to work with
CDES on the watershed master planning to define what our needs truly
are. And then we compare our needs versus what we have and then be
able to address specifically where our deficiencies are and drive the
future capital improvement elements.
The good news is, or the bad news is, whichever way you want to
look at it, L.A.S.l.P., the Gateway Triangle and Gordon River will be
multi-year projects under our .15 mill and the grants that we'll be
receiving and are pursuing.
So we've got the time for that watershed master planning and for
these effort to get us to where we need to be that we can truly
graphically and spatially define where the needs are in our system, either
for better conveyance or for additional storage based on the watershed
master plans that are being undertaken now.
If we find that we move forward and we have spot areas, we can do
sub-basin storm water studies, as we did for those other three that we're
working on as we wait for the watershed master plans to come.
But that would be the basis for the need side of the equation. We're
trying to define our current supply side, and then we'll compare for
deficiencies over time.
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November 5, 2007
So that's a quick overview. If there's any questions raised out of
that, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Otherwise, I'll have Gene walk
you through. And I think you'll see on the three capital improvement
element items how we're trying to bring forward this effort of level of
service indication and the policy.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Let's go to Commissioner Fiala, then
Commissioner Halas, then Commissioner Coyle.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, youjust mentioned collecting all
of the storm water and then it goes through the system and then
eventually out to the bay. Is there -- can we ever take that stormwater
and use it for reclaimed water rather than --
MR. FEDER: We're looking at issues like for instance in the
Triangle, possible recharge. We're looking at it in issues of ASR, I
guess it's called, is a technology that we bring it down, hold onto it and
then bring it back up during the dry season.
And that's critical. Because the reason we can't just look at CFS,
how quickly can I get rid of it, is during the wet season that's what
everybody wants. But during the dry season, somebody wants it back.
So we're trying to look at how we recharge and different options.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So you are looking into that?
MR. FEDER: Yes. Even the Caribbean Gardens area in some
we're looking at, we're looking at some of that technology.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: It certainly would help us during our
dry season. And secondly, it would cause less pollution into the bay. So
it's as win/win there.
MR. MUDD: Yes, ma'am. The big issue there is how do you store
it from wet season to dry season. And the surficial water ASR is the
biggest issue right now with the comprehensive Everglades restoration
program and the 333 ASR wells that they're going to surficially recharge
and the standards that need to be met before that water goes
underground.
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November 5, 2007
And right now the state has not got that down yet. I've got to be
honest with you. They've got potable water ASRs. Mr. DeLony is
mixed on the reclaimed water. We think we've got it on the reclaimed
water ASR, but we keep running into another hurdle on ours because
we're out there in front.
But the surficial ASR, I know of no one except for Marco Island
that has a surficial ASR. They take it down, they bring it back up again,
and then they take it to the water plant and purifY it before it goes out to
the customers. That's the only one, and it was done on a demonstration
project.
And I'd love to know how they got permitting in order to go do that.
But it's on our radar. But it was a demo project. And the large-scale
pieces is a little bit harder, but you're absolutely right, hold onto it and
minimize the point discharge out to our estuary system and we'll increase
the health of our estuary system. And the Caloosahatchee River is a
perfect example of that. It's not getting any discharges from Triblaco
(phonetic), and everything's a lot better. They don't have anymore blue
slime on top of the river and that kind of business. The tide business is a
little bit different. I'm talking about red tide. It's changed dramatically
this year because of the low water levels at Layco (phonetic) and the
lack of discharge.
So it will help our estuary system. We've just got to get the
permitting issues done and the details and requirements out.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: But you are working on that.
MR. MUDD: Yes, ma'am.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: That's great. Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I believe one of the other things that
we have to address this year also on the stormwater is total maximum
daily loads. So that's going to put a crimp on our budget in regards to
addressing those issues with the storm water.
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November 5, 2007
MR. FEDER: Yes. And when Gene goes through it, I think you'll
see we have a component of that already in our overall capital
improvement element.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: And that's mandated by the state and
federal government.
MR. FEDER: That's correct, sir.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Coyle?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: The productivity committee has
recommended that you remove $6.8 million in grants from your budget
because of the uncertainty of federal funding. What's your reaction?
MR. FEDER: My reaction is I have to concur with them because
until you have the grant it's hard to rely on it. We've done so, we've
taken it out. Having said that, we're going to pursue as hard as we can
any and all grants. But once we have them, we'll bring it into the public.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Good.
Now, with respect to the MSTU's, are MSTBU's treated the same
way?
MR. FEDER: What I'm hearing is I can possibly work with BUs.
The difficulty then is knowing the direct benefit one-for-one. And it's
usually very difficult on the stormwater to get to a BU calculation. But
my understanding as to your question, no, I don't have that same
constraint relative to ad valorem I have with the TUs. The difficulty is
then the ability to show the direct benefit one-for-one.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay, thank you.
Are we going to be voting on these individually, by the way? Then
I make a motion to approve with the changes that you've just explained.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Motion by Commissioner Coyle, second
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November 5, 2007
second by Commissioner Fiala.
Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Clarification on the motion. Is that
including productivity committee recommendations?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yes. The recommendations were the
elimination of $6.8 million in federal fund grants out in I think years
four and five, if! remember correctly.
MR. FEDER: And I believe they're already included in the
document you have in front of you from that meeting, yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala, you agree with
that?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Urn-hum.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Any other comments?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor, indicate
by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The ayes have it 5-0.
Item #2E
POTABLE WATER SYSTEM
MR. SCHMITT: Commissioners, the next area we'll be getting into
is county potable water. And I do not see Mr. DeLony and his team.
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November 5, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Could we skip over to the next item, if
we're prepared for that?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, it's -- there's -- what's the
recommendation from the productivity committee? I don't think --
COMMISSIONER COYLE: They recommended approval.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- they had any concerns.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: They didn't have any problem.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And the planning commission
didn't. And it is what it is. And I'll make a motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I'll second.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'll second the motion.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning made a motion,
it was seconded by Commissioner Fiala. Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor, indicate
by --
MR. SCHMITT: For clarification, that is for potable water --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MR. SCHMITT: -- on the record.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Correct. And with that, all those in
favor, indicate by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And the ayes have it 5-0.
Mr. DeLony, wonderful presentation.
MR. DeLONY: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Winning.
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November 5, 2007
Item #2F
SEWER TREATMENT & COLLECTOR SYSTEMS
MR. SCHMITT: Next one we'll get into is the county sewer
treatment and collection system.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Motion to approve by Commissioner
Henning, second by Commissioner Coyle.
And Commissioner Halas, you have a comments or question?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: How are we coming along with other
water systems that were in the process of taking over and also package
plants?
MR. DeLONY: Sir, for the record, Jim DeLony, Public Utilities
Administrator.
Sir, we have no acquisitions in this AUIR plan as directed by this
board except for in 2012 we will assume the service area currently of
that of the Orangetree utility per an agreement between the county and
Orangetree that's been back since the mid Eighties and ratified a couple
of times since then.
And this AUIR presentation, or this concurrency document reflects
the execution of that agreement.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: So it does reflect it.
MR. DeLONY: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay, that's the question. Thank you
so much.
MR. DeLONY : Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: We have a motion and a second. Any
other discussion?
(No response.)
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November 5, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor, indicate
by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And the ayes have it 5-0.
Item #2G
SOLID WASTE
MR. SCHMITT: The next area then is on Page 49, starting on Page
49, county solid waste.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Motion to approve by Commissioner
Coyle, second by Commissioner Fiala.
Discussion?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Go ahead, Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I'm on the right page now.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: 49.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah, I wanted to see what our
historical and projected tons per capita.
MR. DeLONY: Sir, if you look at I believe Page 54.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: 5 I I have.
MR. DeLONY: 51. Excuse me, 51. Yes, sir.
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Looks like it's out years we're at .7.
2008 we have -- no, I'm sorry, 2006 we have .6. So we're looking at
increasing your solid waste per capita.
MR. DeLONY: Sir, as is noted in the notes below, the way we
generate that go-ahead rate is we look backwards three years and we
average those three years. And so that's what you see is an average of
those three previous years. And that's the reason.
In this case we've had a really good experience here in terms of
2007. Hopefully we'll continue to have a reduction. But to plan with
only a one-year trend would not be my recommendation, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Good enough. Thank you.
MR. DeLONY: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Do we have a motion?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Urn-hum. And a second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: We have a motion, we have a second.
All those in favor, indicate by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The ayes have it 5-0.
MR. DeLONY: Thank you, Commissioners.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And thanks to the productivity
committee we're going through this, and the planning commission.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And the planning commission, too.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: We're just moving right on through
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November 5, 2007
this. They get all the work done, we sit here and say okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Isn't it great they all work for free, too?
Item #2H
COUNTY PARKS AND RECREATION FACILITIES
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, the next item on your agenda is
county parks and recreation facilities. It's on Page 57.
MS. TOWNSEND: Good afternoon. I'm Amanda Townsend,
Operations Analyst with your public services division.
I wanted to go through a few changes that you'll see in your 2007
AUIR for Parks and Recreation over what you saw last year. In
particular, some changes that came out ofthe level of service workshop
that happened and this board approved in June.
We have changed the former level of service for parks facilities
value, and that is now represented as a level of service guideline for
facility type. What that means is that level of service is now an internal
benchmark and it will not be part of the CIE that gets transmitted to
DCA with the other elements of your AUIR.
This change is based on your direction and the difficulty that we
had last year in expressing facilities value and keeping those values up
with the increasing cost of construction.
This change will not become permanent until the CIE is transmitted
and accepted by DCA. However, we have had talks with DCA staff and
they saw the problematic nature of facilities value and are expecting this
change and seem to be in support of it.
Couple of minor changes that you'll see in this year's AUIR are a
leveling off, if you will, of the numbers that we use to express our level
of service for community and regional park lands. These are -- represent
a very slight increase in the level of service, but mostly were done to
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November 5, 2007
were done to make the numbers a little easier to use. And that is that
we've changed from 1.2882 acres of community park land per thousand
to 1.3. And the same goes for regional park lands, you'll see it change
from 2.9412 to 3.0.
Another slight change that you'll see from last year's AUIR is that
within the regional park numbers we have at your direction included
land within the municipalities in the inventory. And also, when we're
looking at those facilities types, we are including facilities within the
municipalities in the inventory when we measure against those
guidelines.
This is because we use a county-wide population in looking at those
facilities and regional park lands. So we've accepted into the inventory
those city facilities as well.
However, you will see that community park land is not included in
the inventory, and that is because we use an unincorporated population
when measuring ourselves against our level of service standard for
community parks. So since we're not including those cities' populations,
we're not including their community park lands.
We had discussions with the planning commission and the
productivity committee about whether or not it would be appropriate to
include state and federal lands in the inventories. We would recommend
against that. It was addressed in the level of service workshop.
In general, those lands are very, very large in acreage, in contrast to
the recreational amenities that they provide. In general, those types of
lands, those state and federal parks, their primary public benefit is an
ecological one and not a recreational one, and I think it would skew
terribly what we -- the real public demand for recreation facilities that
we are meeting.
One further change that you'll see in this year's AUIR is an increase
in the unit cost of acres of land from the 200,000 per acre that we've
been using for several years, as a result of the study that was done in
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November 5, 2007
was done in conjunction with the last impact fee study, to $230,000 per
acre. And that's simply a reflection of the 15 adjustment that was done in
your impact fee study update.
Again, we had conversations with the productivity committee and
the planning commission about the appropriateness of this figure, and
the suggestion was made that the next impact fee study update be done
prior to the completion of next year's AUIR. Of course if that's this
board's direction, we'll be prepared to do so.
In general, the five-year program for community park lands in this
year's AUIR attempts to give just sort of ajust-in-time delivery, as this
board has directed, of community park land, noting of course that that
just-in-time comes generally in 30 to 60-acre chunks for a community
park. The school parks allow us to pick up that community park land in
a little smaller chunks.
And you'll see that we're anticipating within the next five years to
make one cash acquisition of a community park somewhere in the east
of 951 area.
The regional park land element that you see in our five-year work
program is projected to be satisfied by the South Florida Water
Management District commitment to provide 625 acres for use for A TV.
Other than that, you'll see a couple of projects that will be cash
acquisitions of land in conjunction with our beach and boat access
program.
The facility type guidelines that you'll see in this AUIR is of course
a new program and something that we'll be working on. But you'll see
our projected -- the facilities we intend to build in the next five years and
how those will meet the guidelines we've established in the five areas,
those being athletic facilities, hard courts, indoor recreation facilities,
beach and water access and pathways.
Finally, of course, as Mr. Bosi mentioned, there's operational data
and level of service comparison data included in the packet, and I'll
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I'll answer any questions you have on those as we go page by page.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Start with Commissioner Henning, then
Commissioner Halas.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: What -- on your existing capital
improvements, which one pays -- comes out of the general fund or how
much is the support?
MS. TOWNSEND: We have no projects that will be supported of
the general fund.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Do you have them today?
MS. TOWNSEND: I'm sorry?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: North Regional Collier is strictly
paid by impact fees?
MS. TOWNSEND: For development, yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right, capital improvement.
MS. TOWNSEND: Yes, correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay, thank you.
MR. MUDD: No operations, you know, to maintain it, operate it,
staff it. That's all ad valorem monies.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Geez.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: You talked briefly about the 625 acres
that South Florida Water Management was going to dedicate for us as a
park, a recreational park for A TVs. That's still up in the air. And I don't
know if we can really put that on our inventory or not.
MS. TOWNSEND: I have had discussions with comprehensive
planning regarding that, and because we do have a signed agreement
with them and there is a guarantee there, comprehensive planning staff
has said that they feel comfortable forwarding that within the CIE.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: But we don't know when this is going
to come on-line. I mean, we may have a signed agreement, but we've
been playing around with this thing for three or four years now, maybe
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November 5, 2007
now, maybe five years, and obviously we're not going to get our hands
on it any time too soon because of the fact that they got some problems
out there addressing the water levels so they can continue to dredge Lake
Trafford.
So what's your best time line of when you think that we'll be able to
put this really into the inventory?
MR. RAMSEY: For the record, Marla Ramsey, Public Services
Administrator.
That's a very good question, Commissioner. And what you have
stated so far is true, is that the water levels are too low.
As a matter of fact, they have pulled all the piping out at that
location to relocate it to someplace else until the water levels come up.
And with the drought that we have currently going on, it really is going
to be a guess at this. But I'm assuming that they have about 12 more
months of pumping, give or take, and then another 12 months probably
of it sitting and settling before we could actually get out there and do
any work on it.
So we're going to have at least two years from the date that they
come back and start dredging.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: That's not the answer I wanted to
hear, but I guess that's the best that you can provide us at this point.
MR. MUDD: Well, the other choice is that they give up that piece
of property and they go find another one in order to put the spoil
material on for the second phase, because this has languished too long
and you get it.
Now, if the board wants to press that, it's going to increase the cost
of the dredging for Lake Trafford, and probably will cause the second
phase to not happen, because they don't have the federal dollars, nor the
local dollars in the Big Cypress Basin in order to do that. But that's an
option.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I guess we need to bring this back and
discuss it in more detail, really. Thank you.
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November 5, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Do I hear a motion? Commissioner
Coyle?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I'd like to hear what Janet Vasey has
to say about what she's heard so far.
MS. VASEY: Janet Vasey, for the productivity committee.
Basically Amanda has identified a lot of our issues. We didn't have
any strong recommendations other than things that didn't seem to look
right. That's why our main recommendation is to move up the impact fee
study that is scheduled for 2009 to 2008 and talk to the consultant ahead
of time so we can address some of these issues of whether state parks
should be included or not.
There wasn't a strong indication that we felt it had to be included,
but it used to be included. And that is a resource out there that the
community can use. So to the extent that that's not counted, are we
over-servicing the community?
There was a general concern, and it's mentioned in our report, that
either the way we account for some of these things is flawed, and that's
probably the case, because we get these big chunks of land, like 625
acres, that then shows that we have much more level of service than our
standard requires us to have over the AUIR period. And in fact I would
draw your attention to Page 62 for the regional parks. Our five-year
surplus is almost 290 acres and $66 million. Well, that's because of this
A TV land that's been transferred. And does that really fit our use?
So we didn't have a lot of answers, but we had a lot of questions.
And we were hoping that some of those issues we could get to under the
impact fee study and have it before the next AUIR.
I think those are the basic issues that we had. We did want to see --
we would really like to see the financial data for facilities, because that's
really where your money is. A lot of these level of service standards for
the acreage are kind of not very well defined. It's just kind of out there.
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November 5, 2007
But the real money is in the facilities, and we wanted to see when
the facilities were planned to come on line over this period for all this
land that we're getting. You can have all the land in the world but, you
know, until you've got some facilities and some public access, that's
really important to you. And while you may not want to send that in the
CIE up to DCA, it's something we felt we would really like to look at.
And, let's see -- oh, and then the other one was the acreage cost of
$230,000 per acre. The study that was done a few years ago was done
looking at prices of land in the areas where major regional parks were
possibly going to be planned. And that's what the study came out with
at that time, that no one believes that to be true in this environment,
economic environment, and so we felt like it would be a real good idea to
have that part of the impact fee study to take another look at the cost
that's associated with that. And that's pretty much what we had.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas, then
Commissioner Coyle.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah, my concern is putting the state
park into the inventory. The state park is pretty much regimented in the
sense of level of service that they'll allow people in there. And of course
we've tried to establish some cooperation with them, and they pretty
much want to run their own basis. So I don't believe that we should
incorporate state parks as far as part of our park service, because they
are totally different. They're a different breed of cat.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Coyle?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I think we probably have one of the
best park systems in the state. And you're to be congratulated for doing a
really great job of creating it and operating it.
But I feel ifthere's any chance anywhere in Collier County
government where we can find reductions in impact fees, it's here. And I
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November 5,2007
And I am concerned that we have changed the level of service upward
rather than downward.
I believe -- I don't quite understand yet the logic and I want you to
explain it to me again, the logic for not including the -- and I think you
said the city's regional parks or community parks in the -- community
parks in the inventory. I need to understand that a little better.
I have always maintained that we need to take into consideration the
nature of our community when we are developing recreational facilities.
And all of the recreational facilities that exist, not necessarily for the
public, but to those members who have those recreational facilities as
part of their property owners association facilities. I'm not suggesting
that those are public facilities, but what I am suggesting is that we need
to adjust our population based upon those facilities that are available to a
percentage of the population.
And with respect to state parks when it comes to beach access, I see
no reason in the world why we shouldn't include state parks for that sort
of thing. We are listing our parks that provide beach access as public
amenities, I see no reason we shouldn't take into consideration similar
state parks.
For those state parks that are located inland, however, I agree
wholeheartedly with Commissioner Halas, that they don't necessarily
offer a lot of recreational activity of the type that you generally provide.
And I also agree with Janet Vasey and the productivity committee,
that it is premature to add the 625 acres to our inventory. I don't think--
it's not operational, we can't use it for anything, why would we want it as
part of our inventory?
Have we actually signed an acceptance of the property? I don't
know why we'd want to put it as inventory at the present time, quite
frankly.
But anyway, that's a whole list of questions. I don't know if you can
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November 5, 2007
can answer them all today. But can we get started on it?
MS. TOWNSEND: Sure. Amanda Townsend.
As far as addressing community parks within the municipalities,
this is the one place in the AUIR where you will see different population
numbers, and that is in the community park level of service.
The reason for that is that we are looking at the unincorporated
areas only when we look at community parks. We have an expectation
that the municipalities will take care of the community park needs within
their jurisdictions. We remove their population from our equation when
we're looking at level of service and community parks, and that's why we
also exclude their -- the parks that they provide.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: But we know that they are serving
more county residents in Fleischmann Park than they're severing city
residents. How do you account for that?
MS. TOWNSEND: That is the information that the city has
provided to us. However, we only assess impact fees on the
unincorporated area of Collier County for community parks, and that's
where we're reinvesting that money and that's where we're -- that's how
we're measuring that particular level of service.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah, but because you're excluding
the city park availability, you are overbuilding in the county and
therefore overcharging impact fees. You could lower impact fees if you
didn't -- if you took into consideration the facilities that are available in
the city for use by members of the unincorporated area.
MR. RAMSEY: Well, I'm not sure that I can argue that one with
you one way or another, because I'm not sure what the outcome would be
if you included the inventory into our level of service and the population
in and what does that look like at the end and then how much would that
affect. Because at that point then we would be charging community park
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November 5, 2007
charging community park impact fees in the community itself, the Marco
Island's, the Everglades City's and the City of Naples.
So as part of our impact fee study we have eliminated them, also
because we don't control what happens in those municipalities and how
they program them and how they charge for them, et cetera.
And I know that there's the ongoing debate between the city and the
county about the Fleischmann -- you know, it's been debated at the
community advisory areas in the city, as well as the parks and recreation
advisory board here. And how do you address that particular park
because its location is right next to the mall? And I think that's one of
the biggest draws that it has is its location.
So, you know, we can look at it if you want us to in the future as to
what does that do to our level of service. Our level of service is -- what
we've done is we've looked at it historically, what is it that the public is
asking us, and we've tried to maintain that level of service.
We also note, we haven't built very many tennis courts in the last
few years. In the 10 years that I've been here, we haven't built very
many, because they're all being built within the communities themselves.
I f we were to add those to our level of service, then our level of service
would have to be something different than it is today.
So I think we do address those items that we do inventory, the hard
courts, specifically, that are being built in the communities themselves
by not having a level of service that makes us build an outrageous
number of those within our community parks themselves.
I don't know if that answers your question, but --
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, I am concerned that we've
asked for that kind of evaluation before, we asked for it this past year,
that is a clear indication as to whether or not there is reason to include
the city's community parks in the inventory, or at least to adjust our
population downward or our level of service downward, because those
parks do exist to be used by county residents. We know that they're
being used by county residents.
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November 5, 2007
I can understand your reluctance to accept the city's data on that
because there's been some friction between the two about who's using
what and how much. But it seems to me that that data can be accurately
obtained. And I would have hoped that it would have been done before
now.
But another question I have is how do we account for differences in
demographics in a place like Collier County where there are a large
number of retirees, a large number of seasonal residents? And
comparing them with some other county in Florida might not be an
appropriate thing to do.
I see, in going through the tables here, that other counties have
substantially different levels of service for different levels of parks, and
they're quite low, going from .87 to as high as 3. It's -- (microphone
noise) feedback.
So I'm concerned about these things, and I'm particularly concerned
about the increase in level of service that requires the expenditure of
additional monies that I quite frankly don't believe is necessary.
Because it's going to have to be made up in impact fees, and
ultimately ad valorem property tax money for operations cost. And at a
time when we need to be conserving on those things and trying to find
savings where we can get the money, I find it unacceptable that we're
going to a more luxurious level of service in this particular report. So
thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you.
Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Do you measure activities at the
park?
MR. RAMSEY : Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: How do you do that?
MR. RAMSEY: You see some of the data that you have included
in your packet. We do it through class registrations, we do it through
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November 5, 2007
through visitor counts.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Visitor counts, by people driving
In or --
MR. RAMSEY: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- or just people there?
MR. RAMSEY: Could be either/or. Could be ours and then a
multiplier, or it could be the number of people that we hand count as they
come through to an event, et cetera.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Did you count at the safety
MR. RAMSEY: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes. That's what those people are
doing --
MS. RAMSEY: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- up there.
And that's a part of the overall usage?
MR. RAMSEY: That's park users, that's correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Park users. But that was just a
one-time event.
MR. RAMSEY: It would fall into a monthly category and then that
would all roll up into a year as the number of users that have come
through a specific park or a park in total.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But you only have that event once
a year.
MR. RAMSEY: Well, that particular event, yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Country Jam?
MR. RAMSEY: Correct, do the same thing.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Once a year?
MR. RAMSEY: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: How many other programs do you
do?
MR. RAMSEY: I couldn't imagine to tell you, standing here right
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November 5, 2007
right now.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah, there's quite a few of those.
Ice cream socials --
MR. RAMSEY: I mean, there's big ones, there's little ones, there's,
you know, egg hunts here and there, there's, you know, halloween
events, there's the haunted house. I mean, I could go on and on. There
are a lot of one-time events.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: How many of those are really
recreation?
MR. RAMSEY: I think all of them are.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Is the safety program recreation or
is that educational?
MR. RAMSEY: It's both, recreational and educational. We do try
to tie into our -- to the various agencies. In that particular case there are
I think 40 different vendors that were there from the community to try to
get the word out about child safety.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Child safety. So that's really an
educational --
MR. RAMSEY: It has a recreational element to it, though, if you
recall. I think you were at that event, and there were all kinds of
activities for the kids to participate in while they were there.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. Well, in my opinion it was
educational. It was good educational.
Country Jam is considered recreational or entertainment?
MR. RAMSEY: I think it's recreational. Or be entertainment. You
could use either word you want to, I guess. It's a benefit I think to the
community .
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well I, like my colleague, see a
need for change. There are several communities in -- gated communities
that offer recreation, and you can't do them both. You can't golf, you
can't play tennis at the same time.
So I agree, this one category I think needs to be changed. And I
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November 5, 2007
would like to see change. If you compare it with other communities -- if
you take this community versus others, you never see so much internal
recreation as any other community. And myself, I would like to see an
adjustment. So I agree with Commissioner Coyle.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, would somebody like to make a
motion? And we've got Commissioner Halas that's still to hear from. Or
do you want to wait on that?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I'd like just to weigh into this.
I believe that we take care of the people here and the county. I
know that we've had people come before us that want additional
baseball diamonds, additional soccer fields. I feel that the level of
service that we presently use I think is adequate.
Now, to get back to the state park, one particular park that I've had a
number of discussions with, and they won't increase their level of
service, and that's Oelnor- Wiggins State Park. And they have a
load-carrying capacity and then that's it.
And so even though it's an access to the beach, it's very limited on
the amount of people. And I've had discussions with them and I think
county staff has had numerous discussions with them. So I'm not sure.
And then as far as recreational activities and gated communities, I'm
not sure that we should be counting that. They have the tennis courts
and so on, and maybe bocce ball courts, but we sure don't have that, and
I'm sure that those same people that are in a gated community and have
facilities, I'm sure they come to our parks, like the water park or
whatever else. So it leaves a lot to be desired here in regards to the
direction that we need to go.
I'm satisfied with what I read in the information that has been
presented to us, both the -- by what staff has to say and also weighing in
on what the planning commission had, and also the productivity
commission. I believe that the 625 acres shouldn't be included in it.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'd like to weigh in now, too.
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November 5, 2007
And I agree in good part with Commissioner Coyle. As far as the
facilities like private communities have and tennis, why should we be
providing tennis courts for people that already have it on their premise?
So you make a small adjustment to allow for the fact that the 5,000 some
people within one community aren't going to be traveling to other
communities to use a tennis court. So there needs to be an adjustment.
As far as the state parks, yeah, I agree with you, they are a limited
resource and they kept it that way, but still, we could prorate it for what
the amount of the facilities do offer our residents.
I think it's a fair trade-off. I agree, you can't compare apples to
apples. It's not. But still, there's a real value to our residents. And we
want to make sure we don't provide a surplus that won't be utilized by the
public. I believe that's the biggest concern of this commission, that we
get the biggest bang we can for our buck.
And there have been very cooperative arrangements with the City of
Naples over recognizing certain parts of their facilities, and we've been
underwriting parts of the costs of it. And we should be able to pick them
up in our AUIR, as far as the inventory goes. That's my own personal
feeling.
Ms. Vasey, did you want to comment on this discussion? I see you
standing there very patiently.
MS. VASEY: Well, just we were hoping to get at these kind of
issues in an impact fee update, to look at exactly the kinds of things of
what's counted, what's excluded and try to see what possibilities make
sense.
And with the help of the impact fee consultant who knows how
other people do it and how we can, you know, count the different
activities.
So that was our recommendation, to try and come to grips with
some of these issues.
And then with impact fees, you know you always have the option if
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November 5, 2007
option if you believe that the impact fees are too high, the study can
come in at whatever level and you don't have to accept it at that level.
But you have at least a level of what's supportable and a clear rationale
of what's included and why it makes sense to do it that way.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Now, I'm going to leave it up to this
board. We can either go ahead and make a motion now and tailor that
motion to fit what we're going for, or we can take a break now for lunch
and continue the discussion afterwards.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Motion for approval.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: For approval as is.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Urn-hum.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Do I hear a second to that
motion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, the motion fails.
Commissioner Coyle -- I'm sorry, I didn't see you, Mr. Mudd. Go
ahead, Mr. Mudd.
MR. MUDD: One of the things that I've heard, real quick, is first of
all, staff started and said they rounded up, okay. They went where it
was 2.94 something or other, they went to 3.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: 2.88.
MR. MUDD: Where it was 1.2 something or other, they went to
1.3. My recommendation is you round down, you don't round up, based
on what I just heard from the commissioners, at least from three on the
dais.
And the next piece is that you direct staff in your motion to do this
impact fee update now instead of2009, to get at those issues and make
sure that we engage the productivity committee as we do that one.
Because there are some serious issues that we need to get while we do
that particular study.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Coyle, you want to try a
motion?
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah, I'll make a motion to approve
with the following modifications: That the level of service is rounded
down to the nearest one-tenth, and that the 625 acres is not included in
our inventory until such time as we actually take possession of it and it
can be used by county residents.
That state parks, particularly beach access parks, to the extent they
offer an opportunity for real recreation, should be included in our
inventory .
The staff should begin the impact fee study immediately and take
into consideration all of those issues plus the inclusion of -- I said take
into consideration, I'm not saying that you include them, I'm saying take
into consideration the inclusion of all municipal community parks and
the recreational facilities which exist in communities themselves, either
include them or adjust the population, so that we're not double-serving
those people, okay.
And including them is not possible in a gated community, so you'd
have to adjust the population.
And I would also like that demographics be considered in the
impact fee study. And I think that's probably it.
MR. RAMSEY: Can Ijust address one thing there, Commissioner?
In regards to things within gated communities, the only thing that's
really a recreational element there is tennis. I mean, there's some hard
courts, but there are no ball fields, there are no little league, there are no
soccer facilities in those locations.
If you look at what we bought -- we have been building over the last
probably eight years, there aren't a lot of tennis courts being built. I
think I've built two so far. So we've already taken into consideration in
our level of service what is already going on within those gated
communities, because there's not a need. They're not requesting, we
don't have the courts -- the courts tell us when we need to put out a new
court. It's when they get full and when we've got waiting lists and we
know that we need to have a court in this particular area.
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November 5, 2007
particular area.
I believe that our level of service currently is adjusted to include
those facilities that you're talking about, mainly hard courts, because
there are no other -- that's all they ever offer. There are (sic) nothing
that's larger than that except for swimming pools.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I would be willing to bet you that you
don't get that many little league participants out of gated communities.
You don't get that many soccer participants out of gated communities.
But you are including those populations in your level of service
standards.
That's why demographics are important. You've got a lot of older
people who would rather go out and play golf on their own golf course
rather than go out and play soccer somewhere. But you're including all
those old people in your level of service population standards. And so I
don't believe it is adjusted properly.
So that's what I am suggesting to you is let's see if we cannot get the
consultant to take these things into consideration. If it looks like it's
been accounted for, fine, I'm happy with it. But I don't get the feeling
that anybody's really taken a lot of time to take a look at this. And we
gave the same guidance last year.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I think there's one possible fatal flaw to
what we just discussed. Is there a possibility that if we tried to say that
the gated communities are exceptions to the need, the actual need of
parks or rec that all of a sudden they might want an adjustment to their
impact fees to reflect that? At which case it's going to be pandemonium,
because even people that have swimming pools could come back and
say we provide for our own family with our personal swimming pool.
That's a concern I got.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: No, it doesn't work that way.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Let me weigh in on --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Let's go around the room.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: On your comment.
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November 5, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: On my comment. Please do. And then
we'll --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: On his comment. He's just talking
about weighing in and gated communities.
I just felt -- we discussed Manatee Park about a year ago,
remember, and we were going to make it a soccer park at the time. And
then we decided to make it more of a passive park instead.
And what we found when we polled the people there, the gated
communities especially knocked our socks off, because they wanted
tennis courts and they wanted a place to fish with their grandchildren and
they wanted places to go picnicking and picnic tables. We didn't even
realize the needs that they wanted.
And when we build that, we're going to answer needs for those
gated communities in that area. So there's a counter look at that. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, anything else staff wants to add to
that?
MR. RAMSEY: Yeah, one other thing. In your Growth
Management Plan that has been approved, there is a request that by 2010
that we come up with a master plan. So we will be bringing forward to
you in the next year a request for that consultant to do the master
planning, which will include a lot of the issues that you brought up
today.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So I second your motion.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, go ahead. And then we'll --
MR. COHEN: One major point. The motion includes taking out
the acreage for the A TV park. If that transpires, you're not going to
retain your level of service and be financially feasible. If that occurs,
we're going to get an ORC from DCA with one of the CIEs that finds us
not meeting our level of service and not being financially feasible. And
that would probably transpire not this CIE, but probably the next one.
But it could possibly transpire in the CIE we transmit this spring coming
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November 5, 2007
spring coming up. Very good possibility.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: At that point in time, maybe we could
sue water management for damages.
MR. COHEN: What I might recommend is Commissioner Coyle
made a very good point, and what we could do is put an asterisk next to
that particular item at the bottom, include in the language that he used in
the motion, if the Commission would be agreeable to that.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm sorry, explain that one more time
what we're going to do.
MR. COHEN: Well, we're depending on an outside agency.
Obviously we have an agreement, but we don't have a transaction that's
transpired. We may include in the CIE itself that we programmed it for a
specific year, but it's not guaranteed in that particular year, because
we're still waiting for that outside other party, which I believe it's DEP,
to come through with their end of the year agreement. And as a result of
that, there's no guarantees that it's going to transpire in that year.
But DCA, when they look at comprehensive plans, if they know
that it's going to happen eventually, they have a level of comfort. That's
why we sent up the agreement with the package that we had this past
year. And they're okay with the 626 acres, based on the agreement that
Ms. Ramsey gave us. So they had no problems with that, as long as the
agreement was in hand.
So I need, from a comprehensive planning standpoint, to leave it in
there to show that it's financially feasible. Ifwe need to push it back
further if we don't have it and we let them know, well, this is what's
happened with OEP, they're not going to have a problem with that. As
long as they know it's going to transpire, and that's the key.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Coyle, I'm going to want
you to respond, but first I'm going to go to Commissioner Henning, he's
been waiting for some time.
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah, and for me to support the
motion, that would have to be in there.
But Mr. Coyle, let me ask you a question. In the EAR-based
amendments that we said that the AUIR and the impact fees need to
correlate together, are we going to get a consultant, impact fee
consultant to say well, no, we can't do what the board wants because
Growth Management Plan says that this needs to be tied together?
MR. COHEN: Well, all of your impact fees and elements in the
comprehensive plan don't correlate. Transportation's a primary example.
I guess one of the best ways to explain it -- and Ms. Patterson's back
there as well, too -- a lot of times the minute you adopt one of your
impact fees, you have that lag factor, and it starts diminishing. In other
areas such as EMS where we don't own everything, which you'll get to
probably this afternoon or tomorrow, because of the lead stations and the
co-located stations, that impact fee is only going to reflect what you
own. So there's situations where they're not going to be exactly the
same.
The key with the impact fees, and Ms. Patterson would probably
state it the best way she could state it, is that your level of service cannot
go below your impact fee adopted level of service.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. And that's the correlation
with the EAR-based amendments and the AUIR?
MR. COHEN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. All right, thanks.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Is that it?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yep.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah, I'm a little perplexed here.
Everybody has the opinion that gated communities only hold older
people such as myself. But I think --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: That's older, older people.
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER HALAS: That's right.
But I think that we're also finding that more and more families are
moving into gated communities. They may have tennis courts and stuff
of this nature, but they don't have ball parks. So I don't think we should
cut ourselves short in saying that gated facilities have their facilities.
But because of the fact that more and more -- as I said earlier, more and
more families are moving into a gated community.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And I don't want anyone to ever think
that I was referring to your wife as older. She's still very young.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Just him?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah. I had to cover that real quick.
Commissioner Coyle?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: And that's not what we're saying.
We're just saying that the uses are different. You don't have the same
number of small children that you would have in other non-gated
communities. The ratios are different, so the numbers should be
adjusted. And they need to be studied. So that's all we're saying.
I don't have any problem modifYing my motion to include the 225
(sic) acres, as long as it's footnoted. And I think that's the proper way to
do it, quite frankly. We know we're going to get it some day, so let's put
it in there and footnote it.
I would raise a question, though, about whether or not we would
meet our level of service.
Mr. Cohen, wouldn't the inclusion of certain state facilities that are
recreational facilities help us do that, even if the 225 wasn't included?
MR. MUDD: 625.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I'm sorry.
MR. MUDD: 625 acres is a lot of acres, okay, and it's over $150
million of --
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah, but remember, remember, it's
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November 5, 2007
it's not the number of acreage that makes the difference, it is the number
of people who will be using it. And I'll be willing to bet you there are
more people at the state beach parks using that state beach than there are
on that 625 acres running around on all terrain vehicles and four-wheel
drive trucks.
MR. MUDD: I'm not arguing with that point. But your level of
service is based on acreage.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: You see, that's the problem.
MR. MUDD: I'm not arguing with you. That's not -- you've got two
knobs: You've got a population knob and you've got a level of service
knob. And the problem I've got is the population knob, we've been
playing around with it a little bit. And Mr. Bosi basically said you take
your population times your level of service and you come up with what
you need. And that's the algorithm you're dealing with.
The other knob you can turn down as your level of service.
We did a level of service workshop, which she inventoried every
gated community and every asset that they had, and we're still -- and
we're back to level of service again. I'm not arguing with you.
What Randy's telling you is if you take out 625 acres worth of stuff,
you're going to have to spend maybe $70 million trying to find that
acreage. And that's all he's trying to tell you, based on your level of
service --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And we already changed the motion to
reflect that.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: It's going to go in there.
But the point is, we have been trying to get you to take a closer look
at how you calculate levels of service, okay? And that is a perfect
example why it is inappropriate to use acreage for the calculation of
levels of service. You'd be lucky I think if you got 1,000 people on this
625 acres. On any weekend.
MR. RAMSEY: Well, Commissioner, you could not include that in
your level of service, if you so wish. I mean, just because we have that
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have that land and it belongs to the county doesn't mean it has to be in
the inventory of the parks and recreation.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, that's not my point. My point is
that if you're trying to calculate a level of service based upon acreage
and you're assuming the same intensity of use of that acreage that you're
assuming for all the other acreage in Collier County, you're simply
making the wrong decisions. And it doesn't make sense.
So what the Planning Commission tried to get you to do and what
I'm trying to get you to do and what we tried to get you to do last year is
to find a better, more sensible way to calculate levels of service. And
we're not there, okay? And so now we're going to do it for next year. I
hope. Okay? So you've got the motion.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I got the motion. Do you amend your
second to reflect it?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Any other discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor, indicate
by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Let the record show the vote was 4-1
with Commissioner Halas being in the opposition.
With that, we're going to break for lunch now. We'll be back here
at 1 :30.
(Luncheon recess.)
MR. MUDD: Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd please take your
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seats.
Item #2I
COUNTY JAIL
Commissioners, this brings us to Category B. And your first --
Michael, are you going to talk about the general level of service
comparison spreadsheet?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I hope not.
MR. MUDD: No?
MR. BOSI: No further advisory boards.
MR. MUDD: Okay, so first item of discussion is county jail.
Who's going to present, Mike?
MR. BOSI: Chief Smith.
MR. MUDD: Chief Smith.
MR. SCHMITT: That's what I call on-time delivery, right here.
Here he is.
MR. MUDD: He's looking pretty good.
This would be on Page 99 of your book.
CHIEF SMITH: I haven't been following along this morning, so I
really don't know what level of detail you've been used to by the
presenters up here. But what I'm custom to doing, just standing for
questions you have in the report in front of you.
MR. MUDD: Commissioners, the way this thing -- we had done a
study out of facilities. The consultant came back with a recommendation
of3.8 beds per 1,000 population. We chose, based on the committee
that we have that's in existence that has the Sheriff, Commissioner Coyle
as your representative and the judges, we seem to be holding our own
pretty much on population, and so our recommendation is to keep it at
3.2 beds per 1,000.
There is a deficit, five-year deficit of 61 beds to the tune of about
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November 5, 2007
about 4.2 million dollars. But again, we're going to keep our eyes on
that as we go forward as far as how the committee's working.
And what we're trying to do is move prisoners through the docket to
get final sentence or some kind of adjudication on their particular case.
And then if they have more than a year time to do, then they'll go the
state penitentiary system instead of being in our wonderful county jail.
And so that also frees up space.
We've been pretty good about it. I look today at the jail counts and
we're at 1,215, and we were at 1,215 in 2005. So we've been able to
hold that level. And I think it's been a cooperative agreement with the
judges and with the Sheriffs Office, the state attorney, public defender.
Again, Commissioner Coyle is the chair of that particular group,
and it's been quite successful.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: It just proves that capital punishment
for red light running works.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Maybe because a lot of the illegals
aren't coming.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: With that, we'll go to Commissioner
Henning, then Commissioner Halas.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Commissioner Coyle, I heard of a
concept -- and Chief, you can help me out -- that a lot of beds are taken
up for weekenders, people who have DUIs or have to serve some kind of
jail time is that is non a criminal -- well, they're criminal offenses, but
they're non-risk people. And they take up a lot of your spaces on
weekends?
CHIEF SMITH: Well, not as much as they've done in other years.
About probably six years ago I was still the jail administrator when we
started this program, but we recognized that there were a lot of
individuals coming into custody situations just on weekends. And we
did what you now probably have witnessed out in communities, some of
them, is the Sheriffs weekend work project, where we take about 200
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November 5, 2007
about 200 individuals -- now, this is how big the program's grown -- but
we take 200 individuals, and instead of locking them up, they report
here to the government complex on 8:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday
and we take them out and work them for 10 hours a day. And that's how
they get their jail credit taken care of.
But there are still a number, and I would say that number is
probably higher than 50, that aren't suitable for that program. The
judiciary feels they're not suitable for that program either. It's a
determinate sentence that's mandated by statute for certain levels or
categories of offenses, or because they've tried other sanctions and these
people are just not conformitive (sic) with what's required under policy.
So you're correct, on the weekends we probably do have at least 50,
sometimes upwards to 100 offenders who come in just for the weekend.
But that's in spite of our efforts to try to mitigate that the best we can.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: They're really not a risk then of
fleeing; is that correct?
CHIEF SMITH: A much lesser degree than other types we come
into contact with.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Would it be possible in the future
instead of putting them, housing them in the jail system is put them in
temporary tents?
CHIEF SMITH: That's certainly one thing that we can look at. But
it's still going to have a direct bearing on your population. It's still going
to roll into the numbers as presented.
But absolutely, you could do that with much lesser degree of
housing, something much--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Less cost.
CHIEF SMITH: Less costly, absolutely.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And I'm sure that the committee
will look at ideas like that.
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November 5, 2007
That's all I have.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas, then
Commissioner Coyle.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I just hope that when we're releasing
these people from the jail that they're not the type of people that are
going to be out in the community conducting their business because they
were thrown in jail the first time. So I hope we're not getting too lenient
with releasing prisoners.
CHIEF SMITH: We're not really in the releasing prisoner business.
We're in the business of making sure they get locked up and stay locked
up.
The judiciary at times I know grants certain leniencies, but I guess
that's their ability to do so. But--
COMMISSIONER HALAS: So I was wrong in addressing that
question to you.
CHIEF SMITH: There's a very good reason why the Sheriff, even
though empowered to do so, doesn't come before the Board of County
Commissioners to ask for getting time credits off of prisoners sentences.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Before we go to Commissioner Coyle, is
there any way we can get the federal government to pay for the illegal
aliens that we have to house in the jail?
CHIEF SMITH: We're looking at that right now, as part of our
287(g) program that once we file detainers on them and they've
exhausted what's required under the local sentence, then that kicks in
and they can start reimbursing.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you, sir.
Commissioner Coyle?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Just as a matter of interest, the public
safety coordinating council is meeting with other public safety
coordinating councils in Southwest Florida in early December, I think it's
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November 5, 2007
it's the 5th or 7th, because there are possible federal or state funds that
we could get to help in diversion programs to get people who are not a
threat into treatment programs, maybe at David Lawrence or some other
places.
And we can't -- we don't have as much influence with legislators
acting alone as we might if we acted with other public safety
coordinating councils.
So we're sort of banding together and we're going to try to develop a
coordinated front and go after some of that funding. Because
Commissioner Henning is right, the more people who are not a danger to
the community we can get out of the jail and into a treatment program of
some kind, the better off we're going to be.
And we've already begun a program to try to expedite the handling
of people who are arrested to determine whether or not they should be
released on their own recognizance or retained in jail. And the judiciary
is working fairly well in that respect. So a lot of progress has been
made. And hopefully we will get more progress in the future.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing no other lights on, did you want
to make a motion?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I'll make a motion that we approve. I
would like to clarifY one thing. The 3.2 beds per 1,000 population is a
reduction from 3.8 that was previously recommended; is that true?
CHIEF SMITH: The 3.8 was the recommendation of the consultant
study.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay. And we're sticking with 3.2.
CHIEF SMITH: We're sticking with 3.2, which is where it's been
for I think the past five years.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Second.
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November 5, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: We have a motion by Commissioner
Coyle for approval, a second by Commissioner Halas.
Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, that was one of the questions I
was going to ask about, 3.8 versus 3.2.
And the other one is it says that you are now already taking the time
to identifY and acquire land to build a new jail. Are you in the process
of doing that now?
CHIEF SMITH: That's correct. Recent dialogs have begun with
Skip Camp and the county manager's staff regarding where that possible
site may be.
One piece that looks particularly promising is one that's adjacent to
the current Immokalee jail. There's formerly some landfill. That could
have a lot of promises. The core facility is already there and we could
just service that out of one -- we'll get some bang for the buck regarding
construction costs.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Being that we've outgrown this one
already, I think we just finished building it and so forth, are you going to
build it a lot bigger?
CHIEF SMITH: That's part of the design team that would go in and
determine. But absolutely, you'd want to build it big enough so where --
you know, as soon as the doors swing open you don't outgrow it.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, you're going to want to -- you're
going to build it, ma'am. You provide his facilities, okay, but with his
expert advise, we're going to make sure. You're probably we're going to
make sure that this jail -- you're probably going to have an adjoining
courthouse with it, too, okay, at a separate location so that you can do
both things. You have your incarceration population and you have a
courthouse that's there that can adjudicate and then --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: That makes sense.
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November 5, 2007
MR. MUDD: So we're trying to make sure it's a big enough
postage stamp, footprint that we can get things done that we need to
there. And ifthere is some areas that we can reclaim out of that the
landfill, that would probably be good.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, when you build Commissioner
Fiala's jail -- he did say it was your jail.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. They can call it the Fialajail cell.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, at least something's named after
you.
Is there any possibility we could do like Orange County did and
have a shared facility with other counties to bring the cost down further?
CHIEF SMITH: That's something that we can look at during the
course of that design implementation study. Regional jails is something
that's absolutely not a new concept, something that's been looked at.
Obviously the real advantage is to the host county. So if we could
be the host county, we'd absolutely be interested in it. So that's one thing
that I think we should look at.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Because I took a tour of one. I think it
was last year, Florida Association of Counties, we had a meeting there,
and this was a side trip. But their cost of doing business was
considerably less than all the surrounding counties combined, just by the
fact they did it.
They also too privatized the jail part, that part of it, which may be
something for consideration too in the future. If it's going to be a shared
facility, we could come up with a whole different concept.
Okay, we have a motion, we have a second.
Any other discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor, say aye.
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November 5, 2007
aye.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And the ayes have it 4-0.
Item #2J
LA W ENFORCEMENT
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, that brings us to our next item, which
is county law enforcement. Chief Smith will present again.
CHIEF SMITH: Again, there's no real departure from what we've
presented previous in other years.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Go ahead, Mr. Coyle.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Mr. Chairman?
I only have a question about the productivity committee's concern about
the $8.1 million loan from the general fund, and the possibility of
delaying the second five-year facilities expansion.
Would you want to hear from Janet Vasey on that?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes, please, very much so.
MR. MUDD: Before she does that, take the loan so you don't have
to give your impact fee a credit.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yep.
MR. MUDD: Okay? You're already not collecting enough. This
impact fee you can use to outfit new deputies, okay, but we've never had
enough money into this impact fee outside of paying for the physical
facility for you to do that.
And as you look at the second five years, you have an admin.
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November 5, 2007
building and you have an Orangetree substation. The only thing I look
at in the second two years to do, I look at the admin. building getting
pushed out to probably 11 through 15. The Orangetree substation is a
possibility, but that's predicated on having Mr. OeLony in with a new
water/sewer plant out there so I can get a water/sewer hookup to that
particular facility.
Because that's the long pole in the tent at this particular juncture as
far as getting the Orangetree substation. Because I've got the plans on it.
We've got it 100 percent designed. I just need a water/sewer hookup
and I can't get one right now, so that's what precludes me from --
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Make a contract with the City of
Naples.
MR. MUDD: Out at Orangetree, sir? Yes, sir, why not?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Do I hear a motion?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Not yet. I was going to listen to
Janet.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: She gets her time. We got a motion to
approve.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: No, this is Janet, she's here.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Janet, forgive me. I got distracted by
the county manager again. I think that was intentional. Please, go ahead.
MS. VASEY: Janet Vasey, for the record, and the productivity
committee.
Basically this is the first time, if you look at Page 109. This is the
first of four facilities that have loans from the general fund to assist with
commercial paper loan debt service payments.
And as Jim Mudd said, the possibility exists to pay this off if you
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November 5, 2007
you push these new facilities into the -- past 2017.
Because on Page III that table shows your capital improvements
coming in in the second five-year period. There's $29 million there.
Most of that is for the admin. facility, and then a little bit is for the
Orangetree substation.
Now, if you push those out of that five-year period, you probably
could payoff this loan. But this is the first one of several that it's
looking like the requirement for the next year's AUIR, we saw it first
time last year with EMS. Now this year we've added one more new
year, and it's in four facilities, these loans, and it's looking like we're
getting into an area where impact fees are really not enough to pay for
the new facilities, and we're coming up with other ways of coming in
with the money.
And we were concerned with the tax reform legislation that as we
start bringing more and more requirements in for ad valorem dollars that
you might run into problems, so we wanted to bring that to your
attention.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: What is the impact of delaying these
facilities until after FY '177
CHIEF SMITH: Well, obviously the main concern we would have
is the facility at Orangetree. That's critical. That's in one of the highest
growth areas in the county, and we've needed one out there for years.
And our presence out there right now is by virtue of a partnership we
forged with the Collier County public school system to let us site a
modular double wide there on the middle school property.
That's bought us some time and has put our presence in there and
basically has allowed us to get out there and do some really good work in
that community.
If you look through these numbers and you see that, you know,
crime went up in ~istrict 4, which is the Estates, over 100 percent, well,
that's because we finally put law enforcement in the area and told them,
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November 5, 2007
told them, go out there and do what you do, guys. And they found grow
houses and they found chop chops and truck theft rings and all that other
stuff. And we've made some huge inroads in bringing that activity
under curtailment.
We need a presence out there. Although we've worked with the
county manager's staff and we understand that you can't build a
government building and hook it up to a sprinkler system if you have 15
pounds of water pressure.
So we're going to have to have a water treatment plant, we're going
to have to have sewer in the area. But just as soon as that's laid in, we
really need to give some thought to doing a permanent presence, sheriffs
substation or --
MR. MUDD: Of that $27.9 million, sir, 27 million is the admin.
building. And you could push that out, okay? The Orangetree substation
represents 2.7 million of that 29.7. Kind of give you an idea.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah, but if we push it out, what are
we doing for the Sheriffs Department?
MR. MUDD: The admin. building? The admin. building sits over
on Horseshoe Drive.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Oh, I see.
MR. MUDD: It already exists. It isn't here on the compound, okay.
So we can hold on to that, all right? And we still have room in there,
Chief, if my recollection -- so he's still okay there. It's just -- it's getting
to the point in time where our master plan has it located on this
particular table.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: So you can shift the admin. building
out to beyond F Y 17 --
CHIEF SMITH: You can.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: -- and get enough money to payoff
the loan and still get the substation built in Orangetree.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir.
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November 5, 2007
CHIEF SMITH: That's correct.
Yeah, that's why I didn't even address the admin. building. I started
offwith Orangetree. You know, that's our concern. Admin., we have
space right now, and we're okay with that.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay, then I make a motion to
approve.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah, we'll come back to you.
Motion by Commissioner Halas, second by Commissioner Fiala for
approval.
And what we got is Commissioner Henning, Commissioner Halas,
then Commissioner Fiala.
Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: County manager, is there any way
to change the loan payments? I mean, stretch them out? You know, I
agree with Janet, we are -- I don't want to cut service to our existing
residents by -- and I see this as one way to provide to the existing
residents with that $17 million loan payment.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. We're going to stretch it out as much as we
can.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
MR. MUDD: And the reason for the loan, and I just want to make
sure -- and you were out when I mentioned it to the board just a second
ago. The reason for the loan is to keep the impact fee pure. Because if
you give them the money out of ad valorem it's a credit. And that means
the impact fee is going to be less because of that credit than it would be
to help you pay off the facility.
So we've said hey, if they're going to be short, we're going to loan it
to you. This way it's not a credit, this way your exact fee is where it's
supposed to be. And then as they bring their building permits in, then we
pay it off. But we'll try to push those out as long as--
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Maybe I misstated. I didn't say
give the law enforcement impact fee from the general fund, I'm saying
how can we remove this from the repayment.
MR. MUDD: The impact fee is going to pay it back and that's the
way we're going to get this one down.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Now, in that motion, does that
need to be a clarifYing motion? Anticipated that these funds will go
back into the general fund, it won't be a loan to this impact fee category?
MR. MUDD: No, you're going to have to make the loan to the
impact fee category, but when the impact fees come in, they're going to
pay the loan off and come back to the general fund.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. But in the meantime they're
going to come out of the general fund.
MR. MUDD: It comes out of301, which is that third mill that you
have for facilities, and that's where I account for it. It doesn't get into
the other operational pieces. That has to do with facilities, and that's --
and I watch that like a hawk.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So that's still an internal policy.
What I want to get at is I'm not going to -- or during the budget process
I'm not going to look at raising fees for services or I'm not going to be
cutting services to our existing residents, I want to make them whole
first. So do I have an opportunity to do that at the budget time with this
$17 million?
MR. MUDD: No, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay, we need to do it now then.
MR. MUDD: Then I'm going to -- then you're going to tell me to
stop construction right now on the EOC, the special operations building
and County Barn. That's what you're talking about in order to get at
those particular dollars.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But these jails, this is for future.
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MR. MUDD: If you don't want to build the jail, that 64 beds -- we
finished with jails, but we can go back to it. There's a 64-bed expansion
out at the Immokalee jail, and that's the last wing that didn't get build
built. And that's the only addition that you have on there, and you have
61 -- you still have a 61-bed shortage based on our estimation of
population.
And the recommendation is you let the 61 beds stay short, relook at
place for the new jail in order to get that done, and we're already doing
that particular issue. But that's jail.
Now we're in the county law enforcement side of the house. There's
three facilities that are in your five-year plan right now, and I mentioned
them to you. They're County Barn. Motor pool shop for the Sheriff, he's
got stuff all over the county, a lot of places are closing down, your rental
agreements. You've got the special operations facility that sits on the
Naples Airport. And you have his piece of the emergency operations
center for his 9-1-1 and his substation.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. But we -- that's not being
built next year, so we can still continue this discussion to try to make the
existing residents whole.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. We're going to try to do that, that's
absolutely the case. The piece that's puzzling for me as the manager is
the freeze that we have on. The temps, outright on 1 July we let around
35 people leave -- I let them go -- because of a decision we made in
order to try to get a quarter jump on this FY so that we could stretch it
out a little bit because we're looking for $5.8 million. I know the
Sheriffs doing particular issues with his staffing. I don't know if you
have a freeze on, but we have a freeze.
We have 176 vacancies right now, and it's growing. And I'd say at
least 85 percent of those vacancies are frozen. And we're going to
continue to see people leave.
You haven't got libraries yet, but when Marilyn gets in here she'll
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she'll tell you that she's got eight vacancies now and she's got two within
next month or so that's already given her paperwork that they'll be
leaving and she's frozen.
So sooner or later, those shortages, unless there's volunteers to take
it over, we're going to start adjusting times that facilities are open and
that kind of business in order to make the cuts, just from the last budget
approval that we received and the mandate you got from Tallahassee.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Then maybe my concerns need to
be brought up in the budget then, okay.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right?
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Good. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I believe Commissioner Fiala, you're
next?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: No, I wasn't, but Commissioner
Henning's first question was my question, so you can --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah, I just want to make sure that
we're doing the right thing here in making sure that we continue to have
a good level of service for our citizens that are here.
So I hope that -- the other thing is, I guess my main question, and
this is basically to Janet.
Janet, did you -- not looking at just the financial aspect of this, but
the level of service, did you address this level of service as far as the
productivity group?
MS. VASEY: Yes, we did a little bit. We didn't make any strong
recommendations. This is what it's been, this is what it is in the impact
fee study, so it is consistent.
It does create some odd situations where it's difficult to explain, but
we have -- well, look at Page 109, at the officers. We are at a surplus of
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surplus of 87 officers at the end of the five-year period. And that's not
actually how many officers would be hired, it's because of the fact that
you're spending so much money on construction on these three facilities
that Jim just talked about, and they're tied to people. So--
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I'm still looking at the level of
service. Do you feel that the level of service is adequate for what we've
addressed here? The financial end of it, I think that's going to be the
responsibility of the county manager. I'm just trying to make sure that
you feel comfortable with the level of service or that the productivity
group feels comfortable.
MS. VASEY: The 1.96 officers per 100,000, is that the level you're
talking?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I'm talking about the whole level of
service as far as law enforcement. I think the -- as far as officers, I think
that's going to take care of itself as far as people that are going to be
leaving. And since there's a freeze, I'm not sure where the Sheriff is on
it, but I think that's going to probably take care of itself.
MS. VASEY: Yes, I think we're okay with the level of service.
CHIEF SMITH: Commissioner, if I could, we have long held that
if you're looking at just a pure level of service and a ratio to attain that,
you probably want to look more at the federal LOS, the average of 2.4.
We've always held that 1.96 is okay when we're dealing with AUIR,
because we understand that AUIR is primarily for facilities development.
And most of the times you'd prefer your deputy to be in a car on patrol
rather than sitting at a desk in a facility.
So if you look at it from a sterile point of just managing when you
bring your facilities on-line, then absolutely, we can live with the 1.96.
But the reality is if you want to provide a level of service to the
county that we've become accustomed to doing in the like manner in
which fashion that we've done it historically, then 2.4 is really the
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number.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay. Thank you, Janet.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, we have a motion, we have a
second. Any other discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Hearing none, all those in favor, indicate
by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The ayes have it 5-0.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, just for clarification, part of that
motion was to move out the admin. building past 2016, correct?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Was that in your motion?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And that was in your second?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes.
MR. MUDD: Thank you.
Item #2K
LIBRARY
That brings us to county libraries, collection and facilities. It's on
Page 126.
You're up.
MS. TOWNSEND: Good afternoon. Amanda Townsend with the
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the public services division.
The library AUIR for 2007 has once again a couple of changes from
the AUIRs you've seen in the past. And I'll address those briefly.
You have two levels of service standards established. One is .33
square feet per capita. And that level of service has remained the same
since this spring when we took a look at levels of service.
The other is your level of service for Materials. Formerly the
library looked at a standard of 1.75 books per capita. And we made the
recommendation and this board gave us direction to now look at all
materials and all formats per capita. The library is currently carrying a
1.87 materials in all formats per capita, and we have adopted that as -- or
are proposing that as the level of service here.
This does not represent an increase in level of service whatsoever.
This simply reflects that we used to count only books and we have now
added A V materials such as CO's and OVO's into what we're including.
You'll see in this year's AUIR a unit cost increase in the square
footage for a library building. Last year you saw $341. This was
indexed in the impact fee study to $376.
The unit cost that you will see in this year's AUIR is $421. And
what that represents is the total project cost; that is, land acquisition, if
that was necessary, design, permitting, construction and outfitting of the
buildings for the two contracts that we recently let.
So those figures are a reflection of the actual business that we're
conducting in building libraries today.
You'll see that your unit cost per item has remained static at $25 per
volume. And that is appropriate for those DVD's and CD's that we've
included in that inventory, as well as volumes of regular hard-bound and
soft-bound books.
And you'll see that we have a work program in the next five years in
which we have three projects we'll be undertaking. One is the addition
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the addition of 17,000 square feet at the Golden Gate Library, and that
project is well underway. The other is the 30,000 square foot South
Regional Library, which we've recently let the construction contract on.
And then you'll see the 4,000 square foot addition to the Marco Island
Library, and that is a project that will be 100 percent funded either by
grants or donations.
As you'll see from the graph also, these projects satisfY that level of
service well into the out years.
You'll see in our program for materials acquisition, last year we
came to you and we were behind in replacement books. Those are the
books that we purchased with ad valorem dollars for materials we lose,
generally lost or stolen. We were behind on that. It's a good news story
in that we've caught up much faster than we told you last year that we
would be able to. So we'll be able to get out of that little hole that we're
in by 2009 with what we're projecting in our five-year program.
Beyond that, the acquisition program for library materials will
deliver books and just in time with population increases.
And of course once again your packet includes information on
levels of service and library operating statistics. And I'll do my best to
answer those, if you have questions on that.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Questions?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Go ahead, Commissioner Coyle.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Your door counts in a number of
cases have shown a decline between 2005 and 2006, and in other cases a
relatively modest increase. What accounts for that?
MS. MATTHES: October of2005 was Hurricane Wilma. That's
the hurricane that took forever to come, and we were down in October.
It happened in October. That's -- our children's programs were down for
that year, too. And I attribute that to a busy time for kids programs in
October.
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And the hurricane prep time that people were leaving and getting
ready to leave and then cleaning up afterwards, we lost a lot of people
that year.
THE COURT REPORTER: May I have your name, please.
MS. MATTHES: Marilyn Matthes, Library Director.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, I understand what you said, but
I just can't make sense of it. Let me try the question a different way.
Let's take 2004 and compare it to 2006. You experienced a decline
in the Naples branch, you experienced a decline in the Marco Island
branch, you experienced a decline in -- no, I'm sorry. That first one was
a headquarters branch. Naples branch, then Marco branch. You
experienced a decline in Golden Gate. You experienced a slight gain --
well, a considerable gain in Immokalee. Almost the same over those
two years in Vanderbilt Beach. You experienced a decline in East
Naples. And you experienced a decline in the Estates branch. So from
FY 2004 to 2006 you experienced a decline in head counts in virtually
every facility. Why is that happening?
MS. MATTHES: Overall, for '05 we were ahead of'04, though.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I'm not talking about '05, I'm talking
about '04 and '06. You just told me that '05 was an unusual year because
of the hurricane, so I just eliminated that from consideration and we're
going from FY --
MS. MATTHES: I'm sorry, October, '05 was part of fiscal year '06,
and that was Hurricane Wilma. I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: You could even go back to FY '03 if
you wanted to and compare it to FY '06, and there's hardly any change in
door counts at all. So I guess I'm a little confused.
MR. MUDD: Let me just help a little bit. FY '06 -- October 24th,
2005 we got hit with Hurricane Wilma. That's FY '06. And for that
whole quarter, just about up to February, people were cleaning up their
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up their yards, cleaning up the other issues. I'm not too sure the libraries
were closed except for the week that we got hit actually by the hurricane,
but the community wasn't going to the library, they were moving stuff
out to the curbs and getting stuff cleaned up. I believe that's what she's
trying to tell you. The first quarter of FY '06 was a real anomaly for our
library system.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: What do we know about the first
quarter of FY '077
MS. MATTHES: But we're up slightly on door counts over FY '06.
That's not part of this. The figures weren't available when this was
printed. Our circulation is also up about seven percent over fiscal '06
circulation.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: What is the percentage increase in
population from, let's say, FY '04 to FY '05? Do we know?
MS. MATTHES: I don't have that figure handy.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: All right. I quite frankly feel that
door counts is probably a better indicator of the potential use of our
libraries than is population, particular peak population. I don't know that
a lot of tourists come here and spend their time in the libraries.
MS. MATTHES: Actually, we do have a considerable number of
people buying non-resident cards. And not just the three-month
residents. The people who are down here for a month, we have those,
too. Percentage-wise it's not a huge amount compared to their
population, but five to 10,000 people a year on temporary cards.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah, I have the same concern with
that as I had with other population counts. You don't really have the
same percentage in those peak population periods. And part of the peak
population really isn't necessarily people who come here and spend four
or five months. I mean, we have part-time residents who are here, you
know, four, five months a year, and I understand they would probably
use the library just like regular residents would. But tourists who are
coming here to Collier County, and we have quite a few of those, I doubt
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quite a few of those, I doubt seriously if many of them go to the library
and spend time at the library.
But again, I'd just like to find a way to refine these levels of service
standards so that they begin to make sense for us. And I really like door
counts. You know, those are -- you can't very easily argue with door
counts. They either came in or they didn't. And that just seems like a
good way of using -- or calculating a level of service standard.
MS. MATTHES: We have no door count for Everglades City,
which also is probably a minor usage. We also have some pretty
primitive door counter mechanisms. And we are looking into upgrading
those that really give us a better door count. Ours, if you have three
people abreast, it counts one person.
So these are -- you know, they track the same thing over time, but
are they 100 percent accurate? Of course not.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I would also be interested, and you
don't have to provide that to me right now, but maybe you have it here
and I just missed it. The percentage in increase in funds to be spent on
maintaining our level of service, compared with the percentage of
increase in door counts. That would be very helpful for me in
determining whether or not there's a close correlation.
MS. MATTHES: Okay, we'll look at that.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Can you explain what the graph
circulation is? It's on Page 142.
MS. MATTHES: What page was that?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: 142. Says circulation.
MS. MATTHES: Thank you.
The circulation is the check-out of any materials going through our
automation system. And for the jail we do a manual count. We have
collections in several jails. And those are counted manually and we add
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and we add them into the circulation.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: So this is books that are going out and
coming in?
MS. MATTHES: Books that are going out. We don't have a count
of what comes in. But the majority does come back. Some they're lost
and paid for, that kind of thing.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Commissioner Coyle, maybe I can
help you out.
If you look at FY '01 versus FY '02, you had a new library.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: What page are we on?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, the same page you were on
before, 142, with the door counts. And by the way, I agree with you, this
is good information that needs to be taken under consideration as we go
on.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: 142 is not the one I was referring to.
That's just the door counts and circulation for things that were checked
out, I think. There are door counts --
MR. MUDD: Page 143.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: 143?
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I mean, you could use the
same stats as the new library. The Orange Blossom came on line --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm sorry, could you put that page up on
the visualizer, please?
Go ahead, Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And you see some decreases in
some of the other libraries, like Vanderbilt Beach.
MS. MATTHES: When we opened the Orange Blossom library in
February of2002, which is fiscal '02, the door counts went way down at
a number of the libraries, other branch libraries, because everybody
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November 5, 2007
everybody wanted to come to the new building and see that.
We also experienced a large increase of number of users that had
never had library cards when we opened that building, too.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You see what I mean?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah, it's hard to deal with it like that,
because you'll have a new library and then that will take away some
people from another library. But if you look at the bottom line number,
1.6 million, and you compare that with, well, pick one, even FY '05,
which was pretty big at one point, nine million, that gets you about
three-and-a-half percent per year increase, which is a relatively small
percentage increase. But it might also be almost exactly what the
population increase is. I would guess the population is increasing about
that much. I don't know. What do you think?
MR. MUDD: I asked Randy a second ago, and he said population,
based on BEBR now, okay, is around six percent a year.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay. So the library utilization, that's
all true. And you have to check those figures to see if we're really right
about this. If you check those figures and the library head counts or door
counts don't match with the increases in population, then population is
not a good way of measuring the level of service standard. And door
counts might be more accurate.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I took some of your time, but--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Absolutely. That's where you need
to go. Because it's all about the product that you're providing. It's not
about the wish they will come in your door.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah.
MS. MATTHES : We're also starting to provide a number of items
that you don't really need to come into the library to get. Our on-line
data bases help students throughout the county with their homework.
You can use them from your office, too. We're also providing
downloadable audio books and downloadable E-books that you don't
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you don't even have to come into the library to get. And the circulation
and the usage of those items is starting to increase also.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. In can continue, I think
what we need to do in this category is provide that -- not just the
weighted population, but the door counts as part of an indicator of the
level of service. Level of service should be not by population, it should
be by the service that we're providing. You know what I mean?
MR. MUDD: The level of service is -- you've got to watch out.
You can't use an impact fee for door counts. It doesn't pass the legal
challenge. And that's part of our -- it's kind of a problem with parks a
little bit.
And I don't want to go back and get Commissioner Coyle's ire up,
but that's kind of the dilemma that we're in that we talked about when
we had the level of service workshop we had with the board on this last
year.
But yes, door counts should be used as far as is the level of service
correct or not. I mean, one of the disturbing things I have from a library
standpoint is if you talk to some folks, librarians in particular, they will
tell you most of their business is done on video take-outs, you know,
movies. Not necessarily books, but it's rental of movies.
I had one person tell me one time during one of our five or 10-year
award breakfasts, he said, I feel like I'm Blockbuster versus a librarian
anymore.
And that's an issue. And it might be one that when we get real tight
on dollars, do we want to keep providing that particular service, or do
we want to do something a little bit different? But -- and I believe if you
took away movie rentals and I don't know if they charge for them or are
they free rentals, I haven't done -- it's not one of those things I do.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Source of revenue.
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MR. MUDD: You could -- your door counts are going to go way
down. If they're doing over 50 percent of their circulation, whatnot, on
movies and not on books, that becomes a really big issue.
MS. MATTHES: It can't be a source of revenue unless we give up
state aid to libraries, including construction money. That's based by the
state library on free library core services to the public.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: To all the public?
MS. MATTHES: To residents.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Just to residents.
MS. MATTHES: That's why we charge for a non-resident card,
and why you suggested that we increase our charge for non-resident
cards.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, there must be a way to figure
in the uses of the system as far as a level of service. And I think that's
just a better way of providing -- getting closer to provide what we need
to do.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, I was just wondering in the door
counts, just in the year 2006 just for Immokalee, they jumped up 137,000
people that one year and then they went back down.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I got that question too.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You, too.
That's wonderful, except that I thought maybe there might be a little
error there or something.
MS. MATTHES: No, we were closed part of the low year for the
construction of the project. We were closed a couple of months, and
then we had a large increase in people coming to see the library again.
And the more children's programs we do, the higher our door counts
are.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Well, it dropped back down 90,000
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people the next year, so I thought those are a lot of thousands. You think
that's really a correct figure. Especially because you were talking about
the hurricane and --
MS. MATTHES: As accurate as the mechanical door counters are,
yes. It's as accurate as we can get. The door counters are read daily and
reset daily. Power goes out, we might lose door count.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Maybe you could gain a few hundred
thousand. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas, then
Commissioner Coyle.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah, I'm looking here at volunteer
hours. Why are they all down at all the libraries?
MS. MATTHES: We're not -- we haven't done any campaign to
increase volunteers. Many of our volunteers are aging and they are no
longer capable of volunteering. And it's something that we would like
to work on in the coming year, but they are down everywhere.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Yeah, I noticed that everywhere. And
it's surprising, because people have the idea that libraries are very
important, but yet I look at the volunteer hours, and starting way back in
2000 and looking at what's happening, and it's a great -- it's a slide.
MS. MATTHES: It is.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Coyle?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: As Randy Cohen has explained to me,
the way the state requires that we do this thing is to utilize the
population figure and utilize the level of service figure and you adjust
them to arrive at the appropriate level.
So I would encourage you to adjust the level of service level so that
you meet the demand of the libraries from the standpoint of door counts.
Now, please understand, I know the difference between somebody
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somebody who walks in a door and somebody who inquires over the
Internet. And you've pointed out that you're having more and more
people accessing your data bases, both from inside and outside the
library .
I think that will be a continuing trend. And so I can't tell you what
level of service you ought to use to adjust for that. But you're not going
to require the same amount of square footage for facilities and you're not
going to require the same level of service for hard copy books. You
might need another media of some kind.
But I would encourage you to adjust the level of service somehow
to account for that, because I consider the way the state requires us to do
this to be inaccurate and wasteful. If you're looking for a reason to
suggest that impact fees are too high, this is certainly one of them. Ifwe
had the ability to say how many books are we having checked out every
week or every year and set the level of service standard on the basis of
what we're really doing, rather than some fictitious number like
population, then we could get a lot closer to what our needs are and
refine impact fees a little bit better.
So I would -- I would just like to encourage staff not to be so
complacent about accepting what the state told us we need to do. I think
we need to start going to the state and saying look, here's a better way of
doing it; can you give us approval to do this. We can save our taxpayers
money and we can do a better job of meeting their needs. And I'd just
like to see us start questioning these things.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Commissioner Coyle, are you saying
basically that we should lower the level of service?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I think so, yeah. If it's justified. You
see, the problem is I don't have as much information as the staff does on
these things, and I don't have an appreciation for what people demand
when they walk in the door. But the staff understands that.
Since we already know right now that the door counts don't
correspond with increases in population, why use population for
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calculating it then? Then you tell me you have to because that's what
the state tells you you have to do. Then our alternative is to adjust that
other dial, which is level of service standard to arrive at what we need to
get.
And so that's all I'm saying you are to do is adjust the level of
service to arrive at what we think we need to have in order to adequately
serve the public. And it would seem to me that what you're going to do
is dial down the level of service for hard copy books and dial up a level
of service for electronic media and access, and you'll adjust it that way
and we'll have a more accurate capital improvement program and
maintenance program. And that's what I would suggest we do.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: May I piggyback on that for a moment?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Sure.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah, I think that's very interesting. It
mean, you already have statistical data of what's taking place, such
things as adult programs. They fluctuate with the year, but I mean, one
program to another. It might vary from library to library, but still you
come up with some statistical data when you add them altogether.
How much adult education do you need? Well, what's the demand
that you can meet and you've been meeting? Maybe having that as your
basis to be able to come up with what your needs are based upon these
charts here having everything from children's programs right on through.
I assume that your children's programs, maybe I'm wrong, that
they're open enrollment, they're not closed?
MS. MATTHES: They're open to anybody in Collier County.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: So in other words you're meeting the
demand.
MS. MATTHES: Yes. At some of our locations we always have
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have demand for more than children's program hour or half hour will
hold. We have waiting lists for some, we have sign-ups at many of our
libraries, so not everybody gets into children's programs.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: There goes the point. That's what
Commissioner Coyle was saying. You've got various factors that are out
there by what the demand is. Now, maybe it's a particular thing, like
books themselves might be an outgoing issue anymore. People might not
be into books, they might be into the videos, they might be into
whatever.
If you can come up with some way that's used as statistical data to
be able to adjust it rather than population, I agree with you. When you
say 1.7 books, is it, 1.5 books?
MS. MATTHES: 1.87 items per capita.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Oh, per capita, items.
MS. MATTHES: Items.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Would items also be included, such
things as children's activities?
MS. MATTHES: No, those are materials that we check out, 1.87
items per capita. Books, videos, music, books on tape, all those kinds of
things.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: With the other services you provide, is
there something in there that we have, an indicator that determines how
much you're going to do?
MS. MATTHES: No, we don't have a level of service for children's
programs.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, then I'm kind of missing the point.
I would think that children's programs would be just as important as
books.
MS. MATTHES: Yes, but there's not a level of service for impact
fees or the AUIR.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay, you want to add to that?
MR. BOSI: Could I add one thing? The one thing we always have
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have to remind ourselves as we go through the AUIR process is what
we're trying to do for every single one of these categories is what is the
appropriate fee we're charging for each new household that comes into
this county.
So what I hear a lot about are operational aspects. And this is the
capital improvement program. And one of the things that -- and it's
related to Commissioner Coyle's point, and we intend to continue to
provide operational data from each of the service providers, so the
advisory boards and the Board of County Commissioners can every year
look at the levels of service standards that we have and see are they
appropriate.
One of the -- one of the components of the AUIR process is making
sure that whatever the demand is being placed upon these services are
appropriate. So when we use population -- when we use population,
that's just to say at this time .33 square feet is appropriate per person.
Now, we look at the operational statistics and the advisory bodies
look at the door counts. They look at some of the things that the
demands are being placed upon this department, or the division, and they
say, you know, really, we see a downward trend. Maybe .33 is not
appropriate anymore. So every year you have that opportunity to adjust
the level of service.
And another point, staff does not set level of service standards.
That is the sole prerogative of the Board of County Commissioners. So
we could look at trends and see how those trends relate to what our
current standards are to help allow the advisory boards and the boards to
the make I guess better informed decisions on that question.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I understand what you're saying, and
that's fine. But why do you offer us data that's not relevant to the
discussion that we're coming up with and the determinations? If we're
not going to be making the determination on children's services or adult
education, why even include that data in here?
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MR. BOSI: That -- I think the library director probably offered that
to show the breadth of activities that were being offered within the
service provisions for libraries.
MR. COHEN: Let me go ahead and -- earlier, Commissioner
Coletta, you piggybacked Commissioner Coyle, I'm going to piggyback
Mr. Bosi over there.
Commissioner Coyle made a statement about state regulation with
respect to the libraries. They're not regulated by the state. This is
something that comes under your purview, you set the level of service.
The one place that it does come into effect is with your impact fees.
You've got to be careful not to lower your level of service below your
impact fees. If you do, then you're going to have to lower your impact
fees accordingly and downward to that amount as well, too.
The information that you received, like Mike Bosi indicated, is that
operational data that you can rely on for trend analysis to make a
determination when you want to lower that level of service or increase
that level of service, depending on what's transpiring. Right now you're
seeing a downward trend in some areas, and obviously in some of our
facilities we're seeing an upward trend. This happens to be in an area
where we're seeing a trend where things may be going down.
What I might suggest in the AUIRs to come is that we do a trend
analysis for all of our components in the AUIR where possible. We do
traffic counts, obviously, and transportation, we do things in different
areas as well, too, and we track that data, just like some of the
operational data that we provide to you. That way you can make that
informed decision whether or not you want to increase or decrease the
level of service.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes, two things, please. The
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genealogy, I didn't -- I guess I didn't realize we had a genealogy
program. That must be at the new library, the Orange Blossom?
Because it starts about the same time.
MS. MATTHES: Actually, no. The genealogy department's at the
Naples Regional Library. It did move to the headquarters library on
Orange Blossom when we first opened, but we've run out of space at that
location and we had to move it back to where it was, because we had
more space for the genealogy books at the Naples Regional.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And is it a class or books or --
MS. MATTHES: It's a collection of materials, including data bases.
We have a large number of genealogy volunteers who help do research
in the -- on your own personal family tree.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah, I notice you have a lot of
volunteers.
I also was pleased to see at the East Naples Library, although it's the
tiniest library in the system, it's got a great deal of volunteers. And I'm
very, very pleased to see that. That's wonderful. So maybe we'll be able
to keep that library open with so many volunteers, right? Just a thought,
thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The data that we have before us
today is very important. It's similar to what Norm Feder does. And I
figured out about five -- per person, there's five visits to the library per
year.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: For every man, woman and child?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Correct. Just a rough math.
So, you know, we need to count that -- this stuff in with it similar to
what Norm does. Is that possible, County Manager?
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir, you can take a look at the door counts and
adjust it, and if your door counts are going down across the county, you
can adjust what you're stocking in those libraries. In other words, how
many books you carry on the shelves, that's where you really get into it.
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you really get into it.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, what I'm talking about is
capacity. Norm has capacity out there. Is it reasonable for each man,
woman and child of a residency to visit the library five times? You
know what I mean?
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. You could -- if you -- for instance, the first
thing that comes to mind as I mentioned just a second ago was you deal
with the stockage of books and materials that you have that can go out
into circulation. If you're getting reduced door counts in your libraries,
then you're not going to have to stock the shelves full of those materials
to get-go.
If that continues -- and so the places that you really have an increase
in your door counts, that's where you provide more materials to. The
folks where you've got a reduced door count, you don't have to keep the
shelves so stocked. I'm not saying you don't offer the book, just the
book may not be there when you get there, but it's in her inventory and
therefore we can have it delivered the next day to the library where that
person can come back and pick it up.
But if we get a decrease in door counts coming into our libraries,
then you adjust your square footage, because you're not going to need to
build as many or they won't have to be as big when you build them, and
then you can get at that.
But I would -- before you adjust your square footage, I would make
sure that you've got 'em a couple of years consecutive with a decreasing
trend and you don't have just an outlier just because of Wilma or
whatever that popped up in the county.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And that's fine. But I think there's
some data out there to show what the national average is of visits or --
MS. MATTHES: Certainly. There's some in your book, too.
Compares -- Page 138 compares Collier to some other Florida counties.
And 139 compares us to the State of Florida and the national average
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national average where there is a national average.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay, thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Coyle, and then maybe
we can get a motion.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay, just very briefly. I don't want
to try to impress you with my ignorance, but it seems to me if I were
operating a facility, I would want to know what every person who
accesses that facility wants and needs. I'd like to know how many people
check out audio books or videos, I'd like to know how many people
come there just to read books in the library, how many people check out
books to take them home, how many people access the reference
material remotely through the Internet.
And then once I had all that information, I would know where to
devote most of my effort and spend most of my dollars to make sure we
had the services to meet the demand. And that's quite different from just
using a population figure and a single level of service. I think there's a
level of service for books, there's a level of service for audio or visual
material, there's a level of service for Internet access, all of those kinds of
things. And I guess I'd like to -- for us to get to that point where we're
collecting that kind of information and we can make more precise
decisions about how best to serve the people of Collier County.
And this isn't something that just applies to library. We've talked
about this for a number of different issues today.
So with that, I would be willing to make a motion to approve with
guidance to the staff that they analyze the level of service standard with
a view toward, number one, becoming more specific about the various
types of services provided at the libraries and, number two, adjusting
those level of service standards to a point that assures that we're
addressing the right kinds of services for the people who want to use our
libraries.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: So we have a motion.
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Second?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: We have a second from Commissioner
Fiala, motion by Commissioner Coyle.
Commissioner Halas?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: In read this chart right on Page 138,
right now we have -- our level of service is .33 square feet, correct?
MS. MATTHES: Correct.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: And I think that you have in here, tell
me if this is right, .14 (sic) square feet.
MS. MATTHES: .41 is actually -- the .33 we use on the adjusted
population. This chart uses the straight BEBR population. And it's from
'05 statistics, because that's the most recent statistics I can use that I have
all of the counties listed.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: So what it tells us is that we've got
more capacity than we really need.
MS. MATTHES: According to the state population, we have .41
square feet per capita.
According to the population that we use that you've discussed here
today, we don't have quite that much.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: We got--
MS. MATTHES: It's .36, I think. It's slightly higher than the .33.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I thought they said it was .33.
MS. MATTHES: The standard is .33, but in actuality we're a little
bit higher than the standard. And if you look on the chart --
COMMISSIONER HALAS: And you're saying we got .36, you
think?
MS. MATTHES: Page 129. I seem to remember it was .36. I don't
see that written here.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: So what's this.4l then?
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MS. MATTHES: That's compared to the population that the state
uses that doesn't include any peak BEBR medium or any adjustment for
seasonal population.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay. So I guess what I'm saying is
we've got more libraries than we have -- it exceeds --
MS. MATTHES: Slightly, yes.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay, that's -- it exceeds what our
requirements are.
MS. MATTHES: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: With that, any other comments?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor, indicate
by saying aye.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The ayes have it 5-0.
Item #2L
EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, that brings us to our next item, and it's
Collier emergency medical services.
And may I make a recommendation that you take a break before
you start that particular item.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: What, two hours?
MR. MUDD: No, sir. How about 10 to 15 minutes, sir.
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Could we vote on that?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Take a 15-minute break. Be back here at
two minutes to three.
MR. MUDD: The next item on our agenda is county emergency
medical services, and Mr. Dan Summers is here, director of the bureau of
environmen -- or emergency services environmental -- emergency
services will present.
MR. SUMMERS: Thank you. Commissioners, good afternoon.
Dan Summers, for the record, bureau -- for the bureau of emergency
services and emergency management. Just a couple of opening remarks.
I don't want to take your time, but I wanted to get right to the
experts. I wanted to let you know that EMS and your AUIR has adopted
and supported the revised level of service that it shows in your report.
That was also the by-product of an enormous amount of effort that we did
this year with a review of our level of service bringing on board a
consulting firm to help us in what we call an EMS master plan review.
Excerpts of that review were in your -- as an executive summary
were made available to you. Just to let you know, if any questions do
come up, our consulting team is here. Mr. Phil Cowie (phonetic) is here
and, also, Kent Green from Emergency Services Consultants,
Incorporated, ESCI. This is their last visit with us as this winds up our
particular effort.
I want to tell you that, also, with the productivity committee and,
most importantly, with discussions with our -- our own emergency
medical services advisory council we've gone through a lot of detail and a
lot of discussion on this particular activity.
We're not asking for anything new. We've adjusted that with our
discussion that's enclosed in the document. And Chief Page is here if you
would like to get into any particular question and has a presentation
available, but I think we'll hold off on that just to see if you have any
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you have any questions.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Appreciate that, Mr. Summers.
MR. SUMMERS: So I'll bring it up to Chief Page. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Mr. Summers, Commissioner Coyle
would like to address a question.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Actually, I would like to ask Janet
Vasey if she has any concerns other than the concern with respect to
paying off the loan.
MS. VASEY: Yes. Janet Vasey, for the record. We -- we did have
a concern on the whole EMS master plan. We didn't have enough time
really to review it. We don't know that we disagree with it or anything
yet. We -- but we did want to offer to you that we'd like to review that, go
over in particular the counting of the units.
Last year we brought to you some concerns on how the ALS fire
units were counted, and we'd still like to pursue that as well as other areas
of the study. We were also -- we -- we got a letter from the MSAC
saying that -- that they would like to participate with us on that, if you --
if you assign it to us. That's totally up to you, but we did want to offer.
I think in general the only thing we had was the -- the loan issue.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, Mr. Chairman, I would just like
to ask for clarification from county manager and his staff about
repayment of that $5.9 million loan. What's the story there? Are we
going to be able to do it?
MR. MUDD: No.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: No.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, I'm not being --
COMMISSIONER COYLE: That's not a good answer.
MR. MUDD: I'm not being flippant with you. I just want to make
sure that you -- that you understand. And I -- and I want to draw your
attention to page 151, and I want to draw your attention to the top line.
The level of service that you have on your impact fee is based on one unit
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based on one unit for 34,652 in population, and your level of service, if
you're going to adjust it this time to the recommended, would be one unit
over 16,400.
You are -- you are gathering in your impact fee less than 50 percent
of what's required. And let me tell you what's hurting you. What's
hurting you is when you co-locate with the fire district and the fire district
owns the station and you have to rent it you get no credit toward your
impact fee.
So the key here is if you're going to co-locate you co-own, and if
you can't do that don't do it because you're never going to get the impact
fees that are going to be able to cover the cost of your EMS in this
county, and you will have to subsidize them as far as their capital up to 60
percent.
And so the reason there's a loan is because you want to keep what
you have as far as impact fee as pure as you possibly can, but with this
rate you'll never catch up. Okay. And I'm going to be brutally honest
with you. And that's why I said no, and that's why I drew your attention
to that particular page.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, if you go to one unit per 16,000
-- or 16,400, how is that going to change the situation?
MR. MUDD: You would be able to pay -- your impact fee for EMS
would double. The problem is all your rentals that you've got out there
with fire districts don't count, so you get no credit for those particular
facilities. Now -- and the reason the fire districts don't want you to do it
is because if -- if they're co-owning then their impact fees can't be as high
as they -- they -- they are.
And, so, you know, they're -- they're sitting there fighting for those
dollars, too, and that's -- and that's why you have this -- this bit of an
arm-wrestling match. And so far we haven't been winning.
But I -- I would tell you a good thing for -- policy from this board is
if you're going to co-locate co-own, and -- and when you do that you will
start getting your one-over percentage a lot closer to what the necessity is.
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necessity is.
And the one thing -- the other -- the other piece that I would mention
in here that hasn't been presented yet is the change to level of service
from one over 15,000 to one to 16,400. Okay. That's based on an
8-minute response travel time 90 percent of the time in the urban area and
a 12-minute travel time response 90 percent of the time in the rural area.
Okay. And there has been a change to the level of service, and what
that has done by that small change, that -- that one thousand six hundred
and -- or one thousand six hundred and forty -- forty folks -- what it's
basically done for you is it's -- it's decreased the amount of monies that
you need for your capital infrastructure by $10 million, and that was
brought to your attention by Mr. Mike Bosi at the beginning. It went
from 26 million down to 16 million as far as need is concerned in your
Category B.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: With the new agreements negotiated
with the -- the fire districts, are -- are -- are we getting an appropriate
level of service that is an improvement over the situation that existed
before those new agreements?
MR. MUDD: Oh, yes, sir, absolutely. I mean, your ALS engines--
you had a guarantee of 5, I believe, from before, and now you have close
to 17. Is that correct?
CHIEF PAGE: It was 14 guaranteed.
MR. MUDD: Four -- fourteen guaranteed. So it's been a significant
improvement, almost triple what you had on ALS. The issue is -- and it--
and it's one that I keep pestering Mr. Summers and Mr. Page here is, how
does the response work? What's the protocol? What's the process to get
the response?
An ALS engine and a paramedic vehicle all responding to the same
emergency getting there at the same time doesn't help you much. It
doesn't get your assets spread out as much as you need to, and that still is
a bit of a dilemma for us, but we're working on it.
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COMMISSIONER COYLE: Is there any way to -- to reach
agreement with the fire departments that -- that you should decide who's
going to respond?
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir, and -- and I believe -- I believe this chart
that's up here right now is -- is our first attempt to -- to get this straight, to
figure out who responds during what kind of emergency. And I'm going
to let Mr. Page talk about it a little bit.
CHIEF PAGE: For the record, Jeff Page with emergency medical
services. Commissioner, this is what we've worked out with the medical
director and the fire chiefs, and this should be implemented later this
month. The direction I gave was the 11 th of this month.
What this does is it indicates which units on different type of
responses would respond solely by themselves, either -- where it says
"hot" that would be lights and sirens. Where it says "cold," as in here,
that would be no lights and sirens.
But you can see there's about 23 responses that have been changed
to where we were both going in the past to where now only one unit is
responding, so we were able to work that out. But, again, that -- this only
deals with the five districts that work under the ALS engine agreement.
We have no jurisdiction over the -- the other independents.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay. Let -- I'm -- I'm confused. It
says an engine response, and in almost every cases -- case there is an
engine response from diabetic problems to --
CHIEF PAGE: Well, we're -- it says nontransport unit only. That's
an engine only, and the ambulance stays in house.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Now, when you sayan engine, you're
talking about a fire engine?
CHIEF PAGE: An ALS engine.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: A fire truck?
MR. MUDD: Uh-huh.
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CHIEF PAGE: With a paramedic on it.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Is going to go out when somebody has
a diabetic problem?
CHIEF P AGE: Well, it's because typically a diabetic -- you give
them the glucose, no transport. They administer the glucose. The person
signs out, and there's no transport involved. So on -- on a lot of these
calls -- another one would be an elevator rescue. Typically, there --
there's no medical issue there. Why would EMS want to respond? A fire
engine goes by itself.
Convulsions and seizures, this particular one is a person that's had a
seizure as late as six hours previously, no dizziness. It's typically -- the
ones that you see in pink are calls where there's no -- there's no issue at all
and it doesn't look like it would result in a transport based on what the
dispatcher's getting on the telephone call.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, a lot of these have both the ALS
and the EMS responding.
CHIEF PAGE: Yes, sir, the more critical calls.
MR. MUDD: They're the more -- the -- the critical calls would
require in most instances a transport, so you've got to get the only per --
the way -- only way the patient gets to the hospital is with -- with that
paramedic vehicle, and so the engine would go and -- and so would the
paramedic vehicle in that particular case. Now, one might get there
sooner than the other, but our probability -- on this particular protocol, it
would be high that the transport would be required; therefore, you need
the paramedic vehicle there.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay.
CHIEF PAGE: It is -- I -- it may not look like a lot, but this was a
big step getting them to agree to this. Now, like I said, it's one step.
That's not to say that this can't be tweaked further down the road, but I
think -- I think both sides are suspicious of the other.
Originally when this was brought forth two years ago, it was -- the
thought process was EMS is trying to reduce our number of calls so it
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so it doesn't look like we're doing as much. Eighty percent of the calls
that they respond to are medical in nature, so to them it's a -- it's a tough
thing to adopt, but I can tell you in the field both -- both EMS and fire
personnel were not very receptive initially to this, although the -- at the
chiefs' level they understood why.
And it -- we started this before we actually got the consultant's
survey back, but this was something they recommended as -- as a better
way to go. But in the field their -- their basic response is if somebody
calls for 911 they expect us to come. So it's a learning curve, and we're --
we're going to get there.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, if -- if this works as it should
work, it should improve your overall response time because it distributes
your assets over a broader area rather than having both fire and EMS
assets at one location.
CHIEF PAGE: Well, it may help in response times, but where we
really expect to see a significant impact are the concurrent calls; in other
words, where both units were on the same scene before the second call's
dropped so it didn't have to come from another zone.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Uh-huh.
CHIEF PAGE: Now we're going to be able to backfill that call.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay. All right. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The -- this is going to help
tremendously on -- on your calls, calls for service. And, like you said, is
-- is you're not going to have to pull one unit out of a zone to cover
another zone; correct?
CHIEF PAGE: Well, these are, let's say, 23 to 33 calls, and they're
all, basically, alpha calls.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Uh-huh.
CHIEF PAGE: The percentage of alpha calls are very small.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
CHIEF PAGE: So, I mean --
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COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
CHIEF PAGE: -- it's not going to have a significant impact initially.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The reason that the fire
departments respond with a fire engine -- what -- what we know is -- is
they need to run that engine, and, also, they might not have a rescue unit
to respond to that. But the question that I have -- in your capital
improvement plan, how many dollars are going to units versus buildings
to house that unit?
CHIEF PAGE: Okay. Let me -- one of the slides that I had for you
in this presentation was -- when we're talking about this -- this -- the next
three units that are coming up on line of that 10 million that would be at
the one -- or one to 16,400, we already know that at Ave Maria -- there's
no land or building costs. They're providing that to us, so, obviously, that
three -- three million five would just encompass maybe the five, six
hundred -- well, actually, the cost of one ground unit and the personnel
associated with that, but that's not the capital side.
But all we'd be providing for that Ave Maria unit would be the unit
itself as far as a capital expenditure. When we get down to Fiddler's
Creek, that land is already provided for us, so we'd have just the cost of
the station, and that could be ajoint station with East Naples. That's yet
to be determined. And then Big Cypress, they're doing a -- a project, I
think, off Desoto.
I -- I talked to Chief Greenberg last week. Her board has directed
that they would not agree to let us provide -- or help in the cost of that
facility; however, they would allow us to be there rent free. We'd just pay
a portion of our utilities.
Now, this is where we'd get into problems in the past. It's kind of
hard to say no when I can avoid that $3 million hit, but if I have no lease
and there's no operating expenses other than electricity -- in previous
times we've always gone that route because it seemed the right thing to
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right thing to do. That's -- that's going to have to be a board decision if --
if we're to co-locate in a position like that, but--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: You -- now, I guess we can get into
that discussion later on, but -- but there's opportunities to expand
facilities, maybe put the -- the sleeping quarters on top of the building, on
top of the garage, or something like that. Is there -- is there any way to
get more -- or is there a need to get more units in a particular area where
you already have units?
CHIEF PAGE: Well--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And -- and is there a way to
provide that type of building -- expanded building within the existing
facility?
CHIEF PAGE: The -- the co-location that we have planned for the
North Naples Water Regional Park -- they're going to have the second
floor of that building that -- that we're going to have. That's the proposed
design. So when we have an opportunity to do that we do it.
The -- the building that we're looking at at Old 41 and New 41, that
will be co-located with North Naples, so they will have a fire engine
operating out of there with us. I mean, those -- those are some of the
options we have.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well -- okay. Thanks.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Now, in may, let me see in understand
this correctly. The reason we don't want to co-locate in a building where
somebody's going to give it to us rent free is because we can't get the
impact fees?
CHIEF PAGE: I'm not saying that that's my position. I'm just
saymg --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: No. No, I'm just -- I'm using logic. You
-- you can stand out there as a third person, you know, as far as this goes.
I didn't mean you. I'm talking about the way we're set up.
CHIEF PAGE: Well, it's -- it's come to haunt us because we've done
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done it that way in the past; that's why our impact fees only cover one to
34,000 in population; that's why there's --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: But still, I mean, there's a -- there's a net
of savings, isn't there, to the public? They're already paying for the
station. I mean, I don't give a darn if it's the fire department collecting the
taxes or we're collecting the impact fees. The whole thing is is what can
we provide as a better service for less cost, whether it's them paying for it
or us paying for it, but just because we can't get the money I -- I -- tell me
why it's wrong to be able to take on a building where they're not going to
charge us rent.
CHIEF PAGE: I'm not saying it is, Commissioner, but there are
times that -- you know, fire bases their station location on fire load. EMS
usually goes back to the -- the map where we have all the dots on the
page so that when I'm looking at this page here all of these dots represent
calls in excess of 10 minutes. Where I need a -- where I need an EMS
station may not be where they need a fire station. And it's vice versa, so
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, let's --let's go back to the one that
we were talking about out there in Corkscrew.
CHIEF PAGE: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Is that the one you just served as an
example?
CHIEF PAGE: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: That -- those two dots there were the
ones that -- and so, in other words, we're going to spend millions of
dollars to be able to gain two minutes' time or something; is that what I'm
hearing? Help me with this a little bit. I'm trying to find the best I can
possibly do with the amount of money that's available. I personally don't
care if they're impact fees or general revenue or they come from the fire
department. A dollar's a dollar no matter where it is. Why do we need to
have a building in our inventory if we can use somebody else's building
free?
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CHIEF PAGE: Well, again, the AUIR is, like, the worst-case
scenario where we're going to try and build as much as we can. You're
going to have opportunities like Ave Maria come up, Big Corkscrew
making that offer where we may choose to do that so that that money's
not expended.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: No, we may choose, the commission.
CHIEF PAGE: Correct.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I think many times in the past we gave
directions to you to pursue this every avenue you get, and it seems like
every time they come back with the scenario of events how it works
there's reasons why it won't work. There's got to be some cooperation
taking place because the day's got to come when there's one unit and it's
all the fire departments and EMS into one, and I -- I feel like we're getting
farther and farther away from it.
CHIEF PAGE: Commissioner, I'm the one that pursued the
Corkscrew deal. I'm the one that pursued the one at Jeepers Drive. I
mean, we do that.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. But the Corkscrew deal is a bad
deal, I'm being told, because we're not going to be able to collect the
impact fees.
MR. MUDD: No, sir. What -- what we're basically saying to you is
-- you made a -- you made a statement. You said you don't care where the
dollars come from.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I don't.
MR. MUDD: Well, is it -- is it -- well, there's taxpayers out there
that basically say, "Growth pays for growth, and my ad valorem dollars I
want to have to go to library operations" or "I want it to go to
landscaping. I don't want to have to offset the impact fee dollars that
should -- that should transpire when you have to build a new unit or put a
new unit on because you've got increased population in your county."
And that's the dilemma that we're in right now. You can't interchange
those dollars.
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CHAIRMAN COLETTA: No, I hear you, Mr. Mudd, but the truth
of the matter is you've got a station that you're going to be able to access
for -- for nothing except for utilities, and in turn you don't have to collect
the impact fees for it to cover it. I -- I -- I'm lost on this. There's
something I don't understand here --
MR. MUDD: So--
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: -- and you need to explain it to me.
MR. MUDD: Yeah. So your ad valorem dollars -- you're telling me
that you get the unit with the -- almost the million dollars for the new unit
to -- to head it up with the staff that you need, and you're going to take
that all out of ad valorem as far as that growth unit is concerned.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I thought salaries couldn't come out of
impact fees.
MR. MUDD: Well, you take your growth unit up. As you bring it
on board with all the equipment and stuff, you bring it out.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: So, in other words, if you use this fire
station, you can't -- you can't take -- and your fire equipment can't be
purchased with impact fees.
MR. MUDD: That's -- your impact fees don't cover it. That's right,
SIr.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: If you use somebody else's building?
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. Because you're using it, you don't get the
credit for it. You're giving -- you don't get the credit for it for your
impact fee. You're giving them a credit in the impact fee calculation.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Who's they? Who's they?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: The fire department.
MR. MUDD: No. Well--
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The fire department, another -- another
government entity. I --I'm just trying to make sense of this whole thing.
I see where we're going to spend extra money.
MR. MUDD: Your impact fees that you're collecting --
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CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes.
MR. MUDD: -- okay, do not cover the cost for your growth units in
EMS, may it be station and/or -- and/or ambulances, and equipment that
-- you need to outfit those ambulances and your -- your paramedics, okay,
when you bring the growth unit up. And the reason that it doesn't is
because you rent facilities, and when you rent facilities you can't count
them, okay, as a demand for your impact fee calculation.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: But we're not renting it. We're getting it
rent free. I'm sorry, Mr. Mudd. I -- I am trying awful hard to understand
the point of view you're putting across, but I don't.
Let's see. Commissioner Fiala, you came last.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Let's go to Commissioner Coyle,
Commissioner Halas, then back to you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You're confused.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Huh?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: You're confused.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, maybe. I mean--
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, I'm -- I'm confused too. You
don't -- you don't get a credit for your income to -- I mean, your -- your
impact fee because you haven't expended any money building the
building.
MR. OCHS: That's correct.
MR. MUDD: That's correct. You have to spend it to get it.
MR. OCHS: That's right.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: But you can -- you can establish an
impact fee that will create a fund for you to build a building just like we
did with the government building impact fee. So why -- if -- if you are
going to need a building two years or three years from now, why -- why
can't you say we're going to set the impact fee so that we can get some
money to build this building in a few years?
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CHIEF PAGE: I'm going to phone a friend.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yeah. Okay. Now, I -- I think I know
what the answer is. You can only justifY the impact fee ifthere's been an
increased demand placed on you.
MR. MUDD: Uh-huh.
MS. PATTERSON: You can -- Amy Patterson for the record. You
can only charge new development for what you have paid for in the past,
and that's why EMS has gotten into a little bit of trouble because they
don't own half of what they have. They have leased stations.
We don't own those; and, therefore, you can't charge new
development to reproduce something that you don't physically -- you
don't own. If we owned all those stations, then your impact fee would
cover re-creating those stations for the -- for new development.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: I understand that part, but are you
telling me we cannot create an impact fee for building a facility in the
future --
MS. PATTERSON: You can't use--
COMMISSIONER COYLE: -- based upon current increased
demand?
MS. PATTERSON: You could -- right. You can do that, but you
just can't use your impact fees to improve your level of service. That's
what the problem is is your impact fees establish one level of service in
EMS, but you happen to have a higher level of service as your adopted
level of service. That gap between the two is what your impact fee can't
fund.
Your impact fee can cover all the demands of new growth relative to
what you've done in the past but no more than that. The improvements to
a level of service have to come from another funding source, be it ad
valorem or grants or whatever you might have. And so --
COMMISSIONER COYLE: So -- so that means forever and ever
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ever we will never be able to get an impact fee established that will help
us build an EMS facility anywhere in Collier County?
MS. PATTERSON: Well, there's a couple of different ways that
you could approach that. One would be to throw a whole lot of money at
the problem to actually improve your level of service giving a credit, and
-- and then because those stations would be immediately owned -- if you
took a pot of -- of taxes and built a couple of EMS stations -- we own
them outright -- and you put them on the inventory, you could increase
your fee that way.
Or the other way our fees have increased is we've built with -- based
on what the impact fee demand because of growth, we've built stations,
and as they're paid for as -- as -- as we collect money we pay them off,
and we add those -- those buildings onto the inventory. It's a slower way
to do things, but it gets you out of this credit problem as Mr. Mudd had
talked about earlier.
So it's just -- our impact fees are behind, and they always will be
because of these leased stations. It's going to take a long time to get away
from that, and the first thing is to stop leasing. There -- there can't be -- in
order for your impact fees to cover what you need, you can't -- you can't
lease anymore. And then you're just going to have to work your way out
of the problem.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Halas.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I believe what -- what we have here
today is -- right now we have a level of service one for every 34,000, and
what we really need to obtain is one for 16,400; is that correct?
MS. PATTERSON: That -- that's correct.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay. So because of the fact that
we've been -- since the -- since we've been co-locating but not co-owning,
that's put us in the dilemma.
MS. PATTERSON: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Now, when it comes, as Commissioner
Coletta was saying -- he said, well, you know, whether it's coming out of
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it's coming out of one pot or another -- the problem is it's coming out of
our pot, the -- the one that's under the county manager, and who's reaping
the real benefits is the fire -- the different fire districts, and so I've got a
problem with that. I think that we need to go after and make sure that we
are -- have co-ownership.
MS. PATTERSON: That works out the best.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: That way we can justifY why we got
the impact fees, and then I think this is where we run into a problem
equipping these new facilities because we don't have the impact fees to
buy the necessary ambulances to address the growth issue. Am I correct
on that?
MS. PATTERSON: That's correct.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: In can address one more thing on the Ave
Maria station, should Ave Maria elect to give you land and to build you a
building, that's a different -- you need to set that apart from leased
stations. That's different because if you're going to own it, they're going
to give it to you free and clear, we handle that differently for the purposes
of impact fees. That's not the same situation as leasing. That becomes
ownership. It does go on the inventory, and we calculate a different type
of credit for a contribution.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Good.
MS. PATTERSON: So those are good. If you get more of those,
that's better. Those are not to -- you shouldn't shy away from those like
leases.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. I, too, am having a problem.
Don't go away, Amy. I'm still having a problem understanding it myself
MS. PATTERSON: Oh, sorry.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- because I'm thinking the same thing.
If you can save the taxpayer dollars and -- and you can pay for your
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your equipment -- do we -- do impact pea -- fees pay for new transports?
MS. PATTERSON: The -- the ambulance itself?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, they can pay for new -- anything new
attributable to growth. That would be the station, the ambulance, and its
initial setup.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Now, say, for instance, you
don't have to pay for the station. Will it pay for the ambulance?
MS. PATTERSON: That would be -- you'd prioritize the money
you have.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
MS. PATTERSON: And then you would have to pay for what you
could.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: So, in other words, if somebody gave
us the station, whether it be that we're co-locating and they say, "You can
have the space. All you have to do is pay for utilities" or "Here, we'll
build you a station. You can move in," we can still get the transports to
run it. Certainly, I'm -- impact fees don't pay for the personnel to operate
them; right?
So we've got the transport and we've got the station, and I'm having
a problem understanding why we'd want to put out extra money if we've
got it.
MS. PATTERSON: You -- you would still have a gap between your
adopted level of service and your achieved level of service.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. Now -- now we have, just as we
were learning before and -- and -- and Jeff showed us how the transport --
or the -- the ALS engines were helping us out with that; right? They can
go to a lot of these things where they don't need a transport there. Doesn't
that help reduce that number, that one in thirty-four thousand to one in
sixteen four because now we have two engines whether it be a transport
or that going to them?
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MS. PATTERSON: We -- well, that ALS engine can't be counted
against -- in our impact fee inventory because we don't own it.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yeah, but if we don't need the impact
fee -- we're still giving the level of service. We don't need the impact fee
because it's just paid for the transport. We didn't need to pay for the
facility because it's already paid for. Now we're trying to get the level of
service down to one in sixteen thousand four rather than one in thirty-four
thousand. So we've got an extra ALS engine going out. So you've got
your -- your -- your transport paid for. Your ALS engine's going out as
well. So you've got all of this service. Why do we need to pay a few
extra million dollars again? I just don't understand. I don't know why I
can't get it through.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I -- I'm not very smart either, I guess.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I guess.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm having a hard time. Commissioner
Henning might be able to help us.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Does it come --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, I -- I think where you're
coming from it's theirs versus ours, and -- and the bottom line -- I think
you're thinking it's not either ours. It's the -- it's the residents. And you're
absolutely right, I mean, in my opinion. I'll -- I'll stick by that, but it's --
it's about serving the residents. It's not -- it's not the county versus the fire
departments.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: No, not at all.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. So I agree with that.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: So here we are --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So, you know, the staff still needs
to come to us about co-locations; correct? You'll still come with those on
all those proposals, and we can make that decision?
CHIEF PAGE: (Nodded head.)
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And so, therefore, I make a -- I
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make a motion to approve. And then I have a question for the county
manager.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. We have a motion for approval.
Do we hear a second?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I don't know what your motion is.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And the approval is for the
recommendations that staff has given us; is that correct?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Correct. There is none. Okay.
Then I have --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: There is -- well, go ahead. Motion to
approve -- I'm sorry -- the Collier County Planning Commission's
recommendations or --
CHIEF PAGE: We do have staff recommendations. It's on page--
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I see it.
CHIEF PAGE: -- 151.1.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: 151.1, the last item.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Could we hear from Janet Vasey what
she thinks about this?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Sure. Janet, do you have anything -- I
mean, you don't have to speak on it, but if you have something to offer
we'd -- we'd like to hear it.
MS. VASEY: Okay. Just one quick thing. You don't have to -- to
buy the -- the stations. It's just that's the only way you will help increase
the impact fee collections is by buying your stations. Does it make sense
to do it if somebody's going to give you a place to work rent free? No, it
doesn't really make sense to -- to try to buy it yourself then, but that --
that is just something that you need to think about. You're not going to
make yourself well on impact fees if you do a lot of that. So just a
comment on that.
One more thing. It sounds like from what things -- from what Jeff
was saying was that that $10 million requirement -- by the time you
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you factor in Ave Maria's gifts and the Corkscrew good deal, it might
come down to about 7 million. Is that about right?
CHIEF PAGE: Yes.
MS. VASEY: So just so you know that that's -- that's what the
bottom-line additional revenue would be instead of the 10 million.
And, also, one last thing on the -- the general fund loans. I just want
you to understand that this will be a continuing problem because you're
only collecting about a million dollars a year. And you're planning to add
a new station every year, and the new station either costs you 3.5 if you
have to pay for the land and the building and -- and the equipment or it's
going to cost you about 2 million if you get some of that con -- through
contributions, so you are always going to have -- every year this line is
going to go up on general fund loans. I just wanted you to understand.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I wished it was that easy.
Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes. Janet, you had mentioned before
about the productivity committee maybe moving forward with that study
and possibly including E -- MSAC into it.
MS. VASEY: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I would -- I would like to ask my
fellow commissioners if they would agree that you move forward with
that study, by the way.
MS. VASEY: We particularly would like to because we've -- we've
recommended as a sort of interim measure using the one unit for 16,400
people based on where we are currently, and the study supported that
general level, so until we have a chance to really review it for the long
term, you know, it's just sort of a temporary "we can agree to that," but if
we could review it in more detail, look at the ALS units, and even, if you
want, get into some of the operational issues we would really like to do
that.
The -- there seemed to be a lot of interest on the productivity
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committee for doing that and working with MSAC.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Got my nod.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Mine too, but we still have a
motion on the floor that we have to discuss too. I don't know. We got one
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I'm going to remove my motion.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: We got all that. No, don't withdraw your
motion yet. I think just Staff Recommendation 151.1 -- for the 2007
AUIR staff is proposing no new growth units. Based upon findings and
conclusions contained within the recent completed EMS master plan,
staff is recommending a level-of-service standard of one unit per 16,400
population for inclusion in next year's AUIR. This loss is derived from
the allocation of units to the population that currently exists and the
per-unit ratio contained within the master plan. The executive summary
of the EMS master plan is contained with the EMS component of this
AUIR workbook. Okay. That -- that's the motion that you made; correct,
Commissioner Henning?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I removed my motion.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: That's -- okay. I -- but any case is there
-- do I hear a motion on the floor so we can deal with this?
Commissioner Henning, your light is on. Is that just dealing with
something from before?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. I have a question and possibly
a motion.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The -- it looks like -- correct me if
I'm wrong, but the general fund enhances or loans to the impact fees for
this -- this working area is about $3 million and above and beyond the
transportation --
MR. MUDD: Are you talking about trans -- as Norm Feder
transportation?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. Let's -- let's forget Norman
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Feder. Let's talk about a loan to the -- to the capital program for parks,
libraries, EMS, all the -- all others except for -- except for transportation.
What do we loan to -- to those?
MR. MUDD: We're going to give him right now in -- in loan
payment, it looks like, in '08 it's -- it's $814,000 to -- to EMS. So over --
over the five-year period of time you're -- you're -- you're looking at
around 4 million doll -- a little over $4 million.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: But the overall is five million for
all of them according to the productivity committee.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. It's sitting on page 154.2.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. It's $5.8 million.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Per year?
MR. MUDD: No, that's -- that's total, five years.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Is -- is that for all of the impact
fees?
MR. MUDD: No, that's just --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Just the EMS.
MR. MUDD: Just for EMS, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. I'm trying to get an overall
picture of it.
MR. MUDD: Janet, was it about 17 million?
MS. VASEY: We'd identified 25 million total that was part of the
loans from the general fund, if that's what -- if you --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right.
MS. VASEY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Absolutely.
MS. VASEY: There was eight point one million for law
enforcement, two point five for libraries, five point nine for EMS, and
eight point six for government buildings for a total of twenty five five.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And that's over a five-year period.
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MS. VASEY: That's for the five-year AUIR period, yes.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Right. And what do we pay now?
Are we looking at an increase of general fund monies?
MR. MUDD: I'm sorry, sir?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Are we looking for an increase of
general fund monies of what we're paying this fiscal year versus what
we're talking about for this?
MR. MUDD: No. I've got that worked out in the 301 fund where
that -- that money is covered in that particular case. Now, we are waiting
for impact fees to pay us back in the majority of cases. In two out of the
four cases we believe our chances are good that we'll recover those
dollars. EMS is in one place where we don't think our chances are good
that we're going to recover, and we mentioned it. The impact fee is set at
one to 34,000, and your -- and your level of service is set at one over
16,000.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So it's all coming out of301?
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. I agree that it doesn't make
sense to -- in the case of Corkscrew to -- to -- to -- to not partnership with
them and pay -- pay the -- I think that we need to partnership with the --
the other emergency services fire -- fire districts whenever we can and --
and try to co-build, but, you know, if you can't you can't.
I mean, I -- I just can't accept -- the most important part is to get
those units on the ground, so I'm going to make a motion to accept the
productivity committee's recommendations.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'll second that motion for discussion
until I can find what their recommendations are.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. A motion by Commissioner
Henning and a second conditionally by Commissioner Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Could -- and I'd love to add that -- if
this is okay with the motion maker, that we ask the productivity to move
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move forward with this study and invite MSAC, if -- if that is their wish.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: May -- may I make a suggestion?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Sure.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I think that would be a direction to staff
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: -- we might want to keep separate from
the motion.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Skip that.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: But I think we're going to have a lot of
support for it when the time comes. We'll finish the motion first.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. With that discussion,
Commissioner Halas.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Do we have the money to put the units
in service? I think we're -- I think the -- the motion maker said that we
need to go forward and make sure that we can put the units in service that
we need to take care of the requirements of the citizens in Collier County.
Now, my question is, how -- who's going to pay that? Is it -- do we
have the impact fees to pay for this new equipment?
MR. MUDD: Well, let's--
COMMISSIONER FIALA: That's what they said.
MR. MUDD: I want to make sure I'm not reading this wrong
because when I -- when I look at these --
COMMISSIONER HALAS: We have a shortfall.
MR. MUDD: -- two charts on 154.3 in particular -- because that has
to do with the new level of service --
COMMISSIONER COYLE: It has shortfall.
MR. MUDD: -- I don't see when Janet says a new -- a new unit's
supposed to -- a new unit's supposed to come on and -- but the
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November 5, 2007
recommendation is that no units come on new for that five-year period of
time from '07 through '12, and I see a big goose egg that sits right there
on page 154.2 where it says units.
So you're basically going to have a deficit of 3.4 units at the end of
this three -- at the end of this five years. That's what that chart tells me.
So I want to make sure that we're not -- we're not mixing apples and
oranges here. You're -- you're still going to have a $10 million shortfall,
okay, even with adding no new units.
So, yes, sir, we've got the money in order to pay for that shortfall out
of that 301 loan, but you're going to have a deficit at the end of this five
years of 3.4 units unless the MSAC subcommittee and the productivity
committee can find a golden egg someplace with this study that was just
done by our consultant that took a look at ALS engines and our EMS and
the new protocols that Mr. -- that Mr. Page described to you just a while
ago.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: And the motion is -- is to -- what is the
motion again?
MR. MUDD: The motion is to -- to -- to follow the productivity
committee recommendation, which is pretty much the staff
recommendation, approval of the emergency medical services program.
We recommend acceptance of the new level of service standard of one
unit per 16,400 population for the 2007 AUIR.
This LOS is consistent with the actual current level of service as
well as recommendations provided in the EMS master plan. Since no
new stations are required in FY '08, there will be time to fully evaluate
the EMS master plan before additional capital resources are committed,
and that's verbatim.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Any other questions?
COMMISSIONER HALAS: So that tells -- that -- that's saying that
we're going to go ahead and purchase this equipment?
MR. MUDD: No, sir. It's basically saying we're not going to do
anything in '08. We're going to go through further study to see if -- if we
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November 5, 2007
we can find something else to squeeze out, and then we'll come back to
the board at the next AUIR or sooner, depending on -- with this joint
committee between MSAC and productivity committee what they,
basically, determine.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Okay. But right now our level of
service is one per 34,000.
MR. MUDD: No, that's what you're collecting as far as your impact
fees are concerned.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Your impact fees. Okay. All right.
MR. MUDD: So you're collecting 40 percent of what you need to
bring on new units.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Got you.
MR. MUDD: And that's our problem.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Any other questions?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor indicate
by saying "aye."
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And the "ayes" have it five to zero.
Thank you so much. I know we put you through quite a bit. This has
been a contentious issue.
Now, Commissioner Fiala, you wanted a direction to staff.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, yes. I would like staff to -- to have
the productivity committee meet and invite -- invite the MSAC group, if
they'd like to, to study this issue further regarding -- regarding the whole
EMS issue with the -- with the transports and the impact fees and so forth.
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November 5, 2007
impact fees and so forth.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Shared stations.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: And stations and -- yes.
MR. MUDD: Ma'am, those are your committees as the Board of
County Commissioners. I would suggest that you have the chairman
write a letter to both and let them know the board's desires as far as that's
concerned so that that can happen.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you. Mr. Chairman, would you
do that?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'd be happy to if I can get one more nod.
Yeah, I got them. We've got -- we've got enough nods. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you, Mr. Mudd.
Item #2M
GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, the next item is county government
buildings. Mr. Skip Camp will present.
MR. CAMP: Good afternoon, commissioners. For the record, Skip
Camp, facilities management direcor -- director. This year it's pretty
unremarkable. I will tell you that the planning commission had one
comment. They did approve it, but their comment was, "Why don't we
add -- why don't we include Marco Island and the City of Naples, their
government facilities?"
And the answer, quite frankly, is just that we don't offer those
services in those facilities. And the -- the productivity committee also
recommended approval. They did have a comment also about
technology. I'm happy to announce that this year since -- since the last
AUIR meeting we do have now a policy on working from home. We are
also looking at what's called hoteling, people sharing desks, so we -- we
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November 5, 2007
-- we are looking at technology and those kinds of things that we haven't
really looked at in the past with any great degree of success, but we're
looking at those more aggressively now. With that I'll answer any
questions.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I don't see any questions at this time. Do
I hear a motion?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Motion for approval.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Motion for approval by Commissioner
Halas, and I'll second that. Second by Commissioner Coletta. Any
discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: All those --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Go ahead, Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: We have no other capital
improvements in this five-year plan except for what we're doing right
now?
MR. CAMP: That's correct, Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. So this is kind of a
no-brainer.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, where it really gets dicey in the
facilities piece is what happens in the second five-year period of time.
We're going to have to watch that very, very closely, and there's some
things that'll probably slip out from that particular plan because of that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah. Well-- yeah.
MR. MUDD: That's where the issue is.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: We'll worry about that when we get
there.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: We'll all be here anyway.
MR. MUDD: You won't mind if I worry about it a little bit ahead of
time.
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I expect you to. We'll all be around to
help you. We're staying for another 10 years along with you, so --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. That's enough discussion. All
those in favor indicate by saying "aye."
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The "ayes" have it five to zero.
Item #2N
DEPENDENT FIRE DISTRICTS: ISLE OF CAPRI
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, the next item on our agenda is the Isle
of Capri Fire Control & Rescue ~istrict.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Move to approve.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Motion to approve by Commissioner
Henning, second by Commissioner Fiala. Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor indicate
by saying "aye."
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
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November 5, 2007
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTE: The "ayes" have it five to zero.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Nice report, chief.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Great. Thank you. Glad you stayed
around.
Item #2N
DEPENDENT FIRE DISTRICTS: OCHOPEE
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, the next item on our agenda is the
Ochopee Fire Control & Rescue ~istrict.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Motion to approve by Commissioner
Coletta, second by Commissioner Fiala. Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor indicate
by saying "aye."
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The "ayes" have it five to zero.
MR. MUDD: Commissioner, while we're here and before I let Dan
leave, I just want to make sure that you're aware that -- that we've been
approached by the Department of Transportation to -- to set up some kind
of a, I'll call it, permanent but semi-temporary site on -- on 1-75 midway
be -- Broward's got one on one side. We'll have one on the other, but
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November 5, 2007
the other, but we'll have some kind of a law enforcement/EMS presence
at one of the rest stops.
We're investigating that still with them, but it -- it seems like the
land nor the facility outside of maybe a trailer that would have to be put
on station would be any cost to the county. And then you have to do the
manning and whatever. That will significantly increase our response
times on I -7 5. I -- I will tell you if you take a look at the stats from
Ochopee and you -- and you -- and kind of take a look at the out-of-sector
responses, out-of -- out-of-Everglades-City responses, there's a significant
portion of those that are on 1-75, and I believe when you -- and you talk
about response times. As far as the county is concerned, that will
significantly increase our response times in -- in that part of the county.
The other -- the other piece that's still out there and we're still
coordinating with has to do with Port of the Isles. And they -- and they
have a -- they have a -- a desire to have some kind of presence, may it be
an ALS engine and/or EMS presence at that particular location.
And all of those things are working in dialogue, and -- and you
might hear something about those. I just want to make sure that you
know that we're talking about them. Before we do anything, we'll be
back to the board to -- to get your approval on them, but those discussions
are transpiring, and they specifically have to do in and around the
Ochopee Fire Control & Rescue ~istrict.
Did I miss anything, Mr. Summers?
MR. SUMMERS: No, that's it.
MR. MUDD: Okay. Now, Mr. Bosi, I think we've done them all.
Now it's your turn to wrap it up and get the votes that you need, sir.
Item #3
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November 5, 2007
RECOMMENDATIONS AND ADOPTION OF 2007 AUIR
MR. BOSI: Thank you, commission. One thing I do ask -- and
within the executive summary there are six specific recommendations we
ask for you to take upon the AUIR as a whole. I -- I -- I went over them
within my -- my PowerPoint presentation, and, Commissioner, if you'd
like me to go over them verbatim --
MR. MUDD: Can you give me the page numbers that they're on,
sir?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Page 9.
MR. BOSI: Page -- page 9 within the executive summary.
MR. MUDD: The annual update and inventory report, after that tab,
page 9.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Number 1, you're saying
that we have adequate facilities?
MR. CAMP: Correct, Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yeah, I'll make a motion to do so.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Motion by Commissioner Henning,
second by Commissioner Fiala. Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor indicate
by saying "aye."
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The "ayes" have it five to zero.
Page 1 77
November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The second one you're saying that
we have significant road network system?
MR. CAMP: Correct, Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Maybe we should ask our
constituents.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I can comment on that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I -- I haven't had a complaint about the
road capacity in over three months, so I'll make a motion for approval.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Motion for approval by Commissioner
Coletta, second by Commissioner Fiala. Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor indicate
by saying "aye."
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The "ayes" have it five to zero.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: The next one is to accept and
approve the attached documents, not that we agree with them. You just --
okay. I'll make that motion.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Motion by Commissioner Henning,
second by Commissioner Fiala. Any discussion? Go ahead,
Commissioner.
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Could I suggest that -- that the motion
be modified by saying that we accept and approve the attached
documents with changes as previously discussed?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I'm going to because it wasn't clear.
A head shake wasn't clear from Mr. Bosi, so we'll do it that way.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Okay. And that will be included in my
second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Any other discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor indicate
by saying "aye."
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And the "ayes" have it five to zero.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I'll make a motion to accept
Category A as amended.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'll--
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Second?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: -- second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Second. Motion by Commissioner
Henning, second by Commissioner Fiala. Any discussion?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Mr.--
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November 5, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: ~iscussion?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Randy wants to talk to you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Randy, go ahead.
MR. COHEN: Commissioners, I just wanted to point something
out. Normally, we bring the CIE back to you for a vote in March. Given
the action that's going to be taken in January by referendum and, also,
what the legislators do this particular session, we would like to as a staff
bring it to you a little further in the process in case something runs askew
with respect to your revenue stream. And I would just like that direction
to bring it to you after the legislature actually takes its final action.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. So we don't want to take
any action on 4 then?
MR. COHEN : You want to take the action with further direction to
actually postpone bringing the CIE back to you as a body until after the
legislature adjourns.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Are you talking about their -- their
'08 --
MR. COHEN: Yes, sir, where normally we would come to you after
going through the planning commission in -- in March of '08, but we
would probably wait to go to the planning commission probably until
March or April and to you probably April or May.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Well, the -- the session --
the legislation session doesn't end till May, so how do you want to work
that?
MR. COHEN: It's going to be tough.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: A suggestion, by -- by April you're going
to know if they have anything--
MR. COHEN: Pretty much I think we're going to know. We're
going to -- you know, there's two ways to do this. I mean, if we bring it
back and your revenue stream is low, what you're going to be actually
implementing is something that -- that's -- that's not going to work.
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November 5, 2007
work.
If I -- you know, this is snapshot in time. The CIE's a snapshot in
time. I think we're going to know after January what's going to transpire
with that revenue. The key is what is the legislature going to do.
Obviously, you know, as a -- as somebody, you know, in the
planning profession, I don't have to send them this book until prior to
December 1. Okay. We're -- we're very early in the process, but I didn't
want to mix, you know, apples and oranges and have you reviewing an
AUIR for the next year while still having this CIE in process and confuse
the two processes together.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah. Go ahead, Commissioner
Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Well, how about if we bring it back
to the board in July? And that way you'll have enough time to get it to
the productivity committee and the planning commission.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, I don't -- July -- yeah, we have a
meeting the end of July.
MR. MUDD: You could get it July or the last meeting in June. That
will give us enough time to do that, sure.
MR. COHEN: That would be fine. The CIE, you know, because--
you know, the only thing that's going to transpire is if we have some
massive changes in taxation we're going to have to go modifY this AUIR
that you approved, and I just wanted to make sure you knew that at --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. I'm going to make a motion
to direct the county manager to bring back to the Board of
Commissioners no later than the July meeting.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Now, is that included in your motion
that we have on the floor?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. I removed it and amended it.
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Oh, okay. Fine. Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. We've got a motion by
Commissioner Henning, a second by Commissioner Fiala. Now,
Commissioner Halas.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: And I think another thing that we need
to put into this equation, too, is it's my understanding there's a possibility
that there may be another special session in January.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: January. Okay.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: So that adds a little more to the -- to
the information here.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yeah, but the -- the date we got will
cover that too.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Well--
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir, it will.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: I'm just letting you know.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. With that, any other comments?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: All those in favor indicate by saying
"aye."
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The "ayes" have it five to zero.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: And No.5.
MR. MUDD: No, sir. Category--
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Do you want to do Category B?
MR. MUDD: You have to do Category B before.
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November 5, 2007
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So we want to bring that back too.
Well, it doesn't have -- even have to report to him.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So it's just a motion to approve.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Second.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Second.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Motion to approve by Commissioner
Henning, second by Commissioner Halas. Any discussion?
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Motion to approve as amended?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: As amended.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: As amended, right, Commissioner Fiala?
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. All those in favor indicate by
saying "aye."
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The "ayes" have it five to zero.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Now, you want to look at an
alternative revenue source for hurricane shelters?
MR. BOSI: No, this was asking whether you believe that hurricane
shelters should be included within the schedule of capital improvement
element.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: No. It's -- it's not a board of one.
That was my opinion.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I know. We -- we understand that,
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November 5, 2007
Commissioner Henning. Thank you for --
COMMISSIONER HENNING: I guess nobody else in --
COMMISSIONER FIALA: We haven't challenged you on it.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Okay. Recommend that the Collier
County staff carefully scrutinize the action taken by the legislators, which
we're doing, in 2000 ACA, the result of Category A. So we already did
that.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: We already did that.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: So we're all done.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, wait a minute now. We've got to--
5 doesn't require a motion one way or the other?
MR. OCHS: You gave us direction in the past the possibility of
including it. In our executive summary, we asked that it not be included,
and that's what we're asking you in -- in the recommendation --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
MR. OCHS: -- that it be -- not be included as part of the five-year
CIE.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: But you --
MR. MUDD: What -- what you're going to get -- what you're going
to get in here if you get into this business -- this is another one. Be
careful what you ask for. You have other counties that have separate
MSTUs that are set up to do hurricane shelters. You don't have it in this
county. Okay. We've worked very well with our school district.
And evacuations have been -- we've worked very good on routes,
and we're -- we're still working on our timing business a little bit with the
state study that's being done. Commissioners, if you start looking for a
standard on this thing, and it -- it -- it could get very expensive for the
county, and I don't think it's a -- I don't think we're -- I don't think we've
got a problem. I think we're doing pretty good as far as the system that
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November 5, 2007
the system that we've got set up.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I'm not arguing, but I -- shouldn't we
have a motion since it's part of the agenda?
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. The recommendation is that -- that we not
include this within our five-year schedule of capital improvements.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay.
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Motion to approve.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Motion -- second staffs
recommendations.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Motion by -- motion by Commissioner
Halas, second by Commissioner Henning. Any discussion?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Yes. Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: We'll just send you out to say, "Get
out of here. Get out of here."
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: No, we're -- we're going to let them come
to your house. And with that -- no, we're doing an excellent job in Collier
County meeting this need. I don't -- we're not coming from far behind.
The homes -- most of the homes that we have built in Collier County
would stand up to just about anything short of maybe a Category 5 or a --
or a -- or a tidal surge along the coast.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir, and we've got --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: So we're better prepared than most areas.
MR. MUDD: Yes, sir. And, again, we've got a great working
relationship with the school district. Mr. Summers talks to anyone of the
new PUO folks that if they're going to have a clubhouse that they -- they
develop it in such a way that it can at least house the people if they need
it within their communities, so we're -- we're working -- we're working
through that. And -- and we've got a lot of community help and -- and
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November 5, 2007
help and -- and support in this regard.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Now -- go ahead, Commissioner
Fiala.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: On that -- on that subject are there any
grant dollars ever available to those mobile home communities who are a
little bit older, really nice communities, and they have their clubhouses
but to harden up their clubhouses?
MR. MUDD: Uh-huh. That's this ORI business is that we had on
the agenda last time. We had to take it off because of a payment
schedule. We had a little problem with the clerk. They're all back on for
the 13th, and I'm reviewing them right now.
And it's basically to put grant monies out there. It's CDBG money
that's hooked right into hurricane recovery, and it gets into those mobile
home communities hardening their clubhouses so that they have a place
to go into, yes, ma'am, exactly like that.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thanks.
MR. MUDD: You'll have an opportunity to approve that real soon.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Good. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. We have a motion. We have a
second. Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Seeing none, all those in favor indicate
by saying "aye."
COMMISSIONER COYLE: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HALAS: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER FIALA: Aye.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Aye.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: The "ayes" have it five to zero. Number
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November 5, 2007
Number 6.
MR. MUDD: Sir, you already did that when you did the Category
A.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Great.
MR. MUDD: And that was part of the -- and that was part of the
motion.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, I -- I think we really need to thank
staff. Michael, Ran -- Randy, Joe, you did a tremendous job with this. I
know it's been a very, very long process. I mean, the planning
commission, the -- the productivity committee, not to mention us, and
you -- I -- I -- you seem to be well versed. Probably every question we
asked has already been asked two or three times, but thank you.
MR. COHEN: Well, commissioners, thank you very much. And
one of the things I wanted you to do -- you -- we -- you always look at the
persons behind some of this stuff. All your graphics and all your tables,
that's Beth Yang out there, and she's done all that as far as the AUIR.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you.
MS. YANG: Thank you.
MR. MUDD: And I -- and I think the best compliment that could
ever be made to these folks comes from Mark Strain. And Mark Strain
wrote a little -- a little e-mail to Mike and to -- and to Randy, basically
said this is the best AUIR as far as detail is concerned that -- that they'd
ever had to review in preparedness of staff, and they -- and they have
done an exceptional job with this.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Fine. Commissioner Henning.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Can we direct you to write a letter
to the planning commission and the productivity committee to thank them
for their --
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I think that's an excellent idea.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: -- tremendous amount of work?
Page 187
November 5, 2007
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: May I make one suggestion in addition
to that?
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Sure. You take them out to dinner?
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Well, I was going to do it with your
credit card, but my -- my suggestion was -- I've -- I've already -- this isn't
an original one that came from me. It came from another person, which
-- who I won't -- won't mention at the moment, but his name -- his last
name is Strain -- that maybe we do a proclamation and write the letter.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Oh, that's excellent.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: This has been -- this has been
phenomenal. I mean, we've been so many years with this process, and,
boy, has it been contentious. And, I mean, you dealt with it. Nobody
committed suicide. It's been wonderful the fact that we got to where it is.
And I was going to deal with that on the side, but since we already
suggested that I think both would be appropriate.
COMMISSIONER HENNING: Yes.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: I don't think anybody has any objections
to that. Yeah, you -- no, I'm not going to let you go if you have an
objection. Okay. With that I think we've covered everything.
Mr. Mudd, is there any last-minute thing that you need to cover?
MR. MUDD: No, sir, we're done.
CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Thank you very much. We're done.
*****
There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting
was adjourned by order of the Chairman at 4:04 p.m.
Page 188
November 5, 2007
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPE~CTSlJNDERITSCONTROL
(fH:
JIM COLETTA, CHAIRMAN
ATTEST:
DWIGHT E. BROCK, CLERK
~ ~rOc.
Attest II to eN .
,
ligutln .1.,.-'
Thes~utes approved by the Board on
or as corrected
, as presented
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF GREGORY COURT
REPORTING SERVICE, INC., BY CHERIE' NOTTINGHAM AND
KAREN BLOCKBURGER, RPR, NOTARY PUBLIC.
Page 189