Agenda 06/11/2024 Item # 2B (BCC Minutes from May 14, 2024)06/11/2024
COLLIER COUNTY
Board of County Commissioners
Item Number: 2.B
Doc ID: 29046
Item Summary: May 14, 2024, BCC Minutes
Meeting Date: 06/11/2024
Prepared by:
Title: Management Analyst II – County Manager's Office
Name: Geoffrey Willig
05/29/2024 4:24 PM
Submitted by:
Title: Deputy County Manager – County Manager's Office
Name: Amy Patterson
05/29/2024 4:24 PM
Approved By:
Review:
County Manager's Office Geoffrey Willig County Manager Review Completed 05/29/2024 4:24 PM
Board of County Commissioners Geoffrey Willig Meeting Pending 06/11/2024 9:00 AM
2.B
Packet Pg. 14
May 14,2024
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, May 14, 2024
LET IT BE REMEMBERED that the Board of County
Commissioners, in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as
the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such
special districts as have been created according to law and having
conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:00 a.m., in
REGULAR SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex,
East Naples, Florida, with the following Board members present:
Chairman: Chris Hall
Rick LoCastro
Dan Kowal
William L. McDaniel, Jr.
Burt L. Saunders
ALSO PRESENT:
Amy Patterson, County Manager
Edward Finn, Deputy County Manager
Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney
Crystal K. Kinzel, Clerk
Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations
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May 14,2024
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to
the commissioner meeting. I want to welcome everyone online, and
we want to say a special "good morning" to Ms. McDaniel. We
know you're watching. We all love you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Everybody wave to Mother.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: She just sent me a text. She
said, "Bill, sit up straight."
CHAIRMAN HALL: Oh, I want to remind you, if you have
not done so, please silence the cell phone. It's kind of embarrassing
when it goes off, and we'll try to save you that trouble.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You got yourself off?
CHAIRMAN HALL: I better check.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I was just checking with him.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Ms. Patterson, what have we
got?
Item # 1 A
INVOCATION BY PASTOR JOE NEGRON, GROW CHURCH —
SOUTH NAPLES (ESTEY AVE.) - INVOCATION GIVEN
MS. PATTERSON: Good morning. We'll start with our
invocation and Pledge of Allegiance. Our invocation will be by
Pastor Joe Negron from Grow Church, South Naples, and leading the
Pledge today is Captain Jack Fullmer, U.S. Marine Corps, treasurer
of the Southwest Florida Military Officers Association.
PASTOR NEGRON: Good morning. Let us pray.
Lord, we invite you to take your place as king, as sovereign
king, as supreme ruler. We recognize that your ways are higher than
your thoughts, are higher than ours; therefore, we call on your divine
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May 14,2024
wisdom, your divine strength. We ask for your perspective, Lord.
Lord, as we pray, we ask that you would give wisdom to our
commissioners, that you would guide them to all truth. Lord,
therefore, we ask that you would just give us discernment, that you
would even allow us to preserve your word as we do so. Lord, that
everything that we do is driven by love and compassion for others.
We ask that you would give us even the strength and courage to
be able to defend our county, Lord, and preserve it as one of the best
places to live in America. We thank you, Lord, as we proclaim
anything that the enemy has stolen from us, and we declare that no
weapon form against us will prosper.
In Jesus name we pray, amen.
MR. FULLMER: Please remain standing, face the flag, hand
over your heart or salute, and recite the Pledge with me.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: Don't you just feel better in yourself after
saying the Pledge of Allegiance and praying?
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, agenda changes for
May 14th, 2024.
Continue Item 4B to the May 28th, 2024, BCC meeting. This is
a proclamation designating May 2024 as National Foster Care
Awareness Month, and this was at the applicant's request.
Move Item 16H2 to 4C. This is a proclamation designating
May 2024 as Stroke Awareness Month.
Move Item 16F 1 to 11 E. This is a recommendation to approve
a resolution establishing an outdoor burning ban in the incorporated
areas of Collier County in accordance with Ordinance No. 2023-38,
as amended, the regulation of outdoor burning and incendiary devices
during drought conditions. This is being moved at Commissioner
Saunders' request.
And continue Item 16A8 to the May 28th, 2024, BCC meeting.
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May 14,2024
This is a recommendation to approve final acceptance of the sewer
utility facilities and accept the conveyance of the sewer facilities and
appurtenant utility easement for Seychelles offsite utilities, and this is
being moved at staff s request.
We have court reporter breaks scheduled for 10:30 and at 2:50.
With that, County Attorney.
MR. KLATZKOW: No changes. Thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that would be any
changes to the agenda -- any further changes to the agenda and any
ex parte on the summary, which we don't have any, or the consent.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Before we do ex parte and
changes, I think we've two registered speakers that we want to hear
real quick for one of the agenda items.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, yes. Consent Agenda Item 16K11,
we have two registered speakers. Laurie Harris will be followed by
Eva Front.
MS. HARRIS: Good morning, Commissioners.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Good morning.
MS. HARRIS: Good to see you all.
I understand from Commissioner Saunders that you have chosen
me to be the representative on the Domestic Animal Services
Advisory Board. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart that
you have chosen me for that position and your faith in me to do it
properly.
As Commissioner Saunders so eloquently put it, "I caught the
car."
So my first order of business is to thank you for your support so
far. Ms. Patterson, Mr. French, and Ms. Williams and their staff
have been all over the county shelter. And the steps that they have
taken have had an absolute immediate positive effect. It is joyous
now to go there.
May 14,2024
So these positive changes, they need to be continued and, as you
know, the most pressing item that's coming up is the budget, and that
budget will include staffing and enforcement. I am aware that
enforcement -- the ACOs are moving to code, but that still needs to
be addressed in the budget.
So I am sensitive to that budget process, and I'm asking you to
keep an open mind about increasing DAS's budget instead of
decreasing or maintaining. We do not want to go back to where we
were. We've come so far in a very short period of time, and that
momentum needs to keep going.
The advisory board has a May 20th meeting, that's this coming
Monday, at 4 o'clock in this room. To date, an agenda has not been
issued for that meeting. I am assuming -- I do not know. I've not
spoken to anybody on the advisory board, but I am assuming the top
item on that agenda will be the budget. So hopefully we will come
to you at some point in June with budget information and requests.
So I look forward to working with you, keeping this phenomenal
momentum going. If you have any questions for me, please let me
know. And I'm very excited for the future of DAS. For the animals
who have no voice, we are their voice.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you, Ms. Harris.
MS. HARRIS: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next and final speaker on this item is Eva
Front.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And just as a point of
clarification, Laurie, you're not in yet until we vote.
MS. FRONT: Good morning -- good morning, Commissioners.
I'm here today to ask for your consideration in possibly
changing the composition of the Domestic Animal Services Advisory
Board to better serve our community.
Position of veterinarian or veterinary technician, given the
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shortage of veterinarians in the United States, the existing
professionals are overwhelmed with the amount of animals they care
for, leaving very little time for extra activities. Sadly, it's estimated
that by 2030 our country will be short of 40,000 veterinarians and
over 100,000 vet technicians.
Please consider replacing this position with a Collier County
resident with a proven record in animal welfare, commercial
construction, and/or business.
The second position, also replacing the general county law
enforcement representative position with an animal cruelty officer
from our sheriff department.
Maybe next slide, please.
Animal cruelty unit was created to investigate, in particular,
crimes on animals in Collier County. The officers are better versed
on local and state laws pertaining to animal abuse. Most likely, 20
years ago when the ordinance on DAS Advisory Board was created,
this department did not exist. Involving law enforcement that
specifically deals with animal cruelty investigations would allow for
more transparency and responsibilities as where DAS competency
[sic] ends and it's time for law enforcement to step in.
And also allow me to express my gratitude to you and our
Collier County management for taking steps in updating our county
animal shelter as well as adopting an ordinance establishing the
Collier County animal abuser registry. Please know that these
actions are being noticed and appreciated.
Thank you again for your vision and dedication.
MR. MILLER: And that is our final speaker on the consent
agenda, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right, great.
We'll get on to changes and ex parte. Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I have no changes and no
May 14,2024
disclosure or ex parte.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No changes and no ex parte
as well, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No changes; no ex parte.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No changes, but I want it to
be noted that I'm a "no vote" on Items F10 and 11, and no ex parte
either.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. I have no changes and no ex
parte.
Item #2A
APPROVAL OF TODAY'S REGULAR, CONSENT AND
SUMMARY AGENDA AS AMENDED (EX PARTE
DISCLOSURE PROVIDED BY COMMISSION MEMBERS FOR
CONSENT AGENDA.) - MOTION TO APPROVE BY
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER KOWAL - APPROVED AND/OR ADOPTED
W/CHANGES — (EXCEPTION FOR ITEMS # 16F 10 & # 16F 11;
APPROVED; COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL OPPOSED)
MS. PATTERSON: If we could get a motion to approve
today's regular, consent, and summary agenda as amended with the
ex parte, or not.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So moved.
aye.
COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Moved and seconded. All in favor, say
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May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed.
(No response.)
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I said F10 and 11.
CHAIRMAN HALL: F 10 and F 11.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, sir.
Our County Attorney's hearing was amiss when I spoke.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Well, I'm certainly not casting any
stones.
0•
May 14,2024
Item #2B
APRIL 23, 2024, BCC MINUTES - MOTION TO APPROVE AS
PRESENTED BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED
BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO — APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Item 2B is approval of the minutes from
the April 23rd, 2024, BCC meeting.
COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL: So moved.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Moved and second to approve. All in
favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: Motion passes.
MS. PATTERSON:
proclamations.
Item #4A
All right. That brings us to
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING MAY 2024 AS NATIONAL
DRUG COURT MONTH. ACCEPTED BY JUDGE JANEICE
MARTIN, PRESIDING JUDGE, COLLIER COUNTY DRUG
COURT - MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER
MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO —
ADOPTED
May 14,2024
Item 4A is a proclamation designating May 2024 as National
Drug Court Month. To be accepted by Judge Janeice Martin,
presiding judge, Collier County Drug Court. Congratulations.
(Applause.)
JUDGE MARTIN: Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, good
morning and thank you, again, for the honor of coming into the
chambers here and being welcomed and for this proclamation.
I have learned in my work in this field that addiction is isolation
and recovery is community. And the five of you serve as the face of
our community, and so when you welcome all of us in, that speaks
volumes in terms of your support, your endorsement of what we do in
trying to help these folks turn their lives around.
What they are doing with us takes tremendous courage and
commitment. They will be quick to tell you that it is a whole lot
harder to turn your life around than it is to just go do your time. And
every now and then -- I've got a probation officer here -- somebody
will say, "Just take me to jail. This is exhausting," and she'll say,
"No."
I'm incredibly grateful to our team. We've got probation and
public defender here and some of our alumni as well who continue to
support the ones who are still in the program. We are so, so, so
grateful for your support, and we believe very strongly that this is a
great use of resources.
We are helping people reconnect with their families, helping
them become productive members of our society. We've got sons
and daughters, moms and dads, employees and even some employers.
We've got some small business owners.
And so what you're doing is making a difference, and we just
wanted to say thank you. Thank you for having us in today.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you. If you're alumni, can you
raise your hand. Thank you for supporting them.
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(Applause.)
fiM.
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING MAY 2024 AS NATIONAL
FOSTER CARE AWARENESS MONTH. ACCEPTED BY RICK
JACOBS, 4KIDS SOUTHWEST FLORIDA EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR, AND KAROLE DAVIS, 4KIDS SOUTHWEST
FLORIDA PARTNER ENGAGEMENT OFFICER — CONTINUED
TO THE MAY 28, 2024, BCC MEETING
MS. PATTERSON: Item 4B is a proclamation designating
May 2024 as National Foster Care Awareness Month. To be
accepted by Rick Jacobs, 4KIDS Southwest Florida executive
director, and Karole Davis, 4KIDS Southwest Florida partner
engagement officer. Congratulations.
(Applause.)
MS. PATTERSON: Wrong. Well, that's the one that got
moved, as I just went ahead and read it. You know --
CHAIRMAN HALL: Stroke Awareness.
MS. PATTERSON: -- if I'm not massacring somebody's name,
I'm forgetting things that I moved myself. So sorry. Apologies.
So we'll see them next meeting.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Not allowed today.
MS. PATTERSON:
Item #4C
All right. Here we go.
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING MAY 2024 AS STROKE
AWARENESS MONTH. TO BE DELIVERED TO SARAH
STRZALKA, DIRECTOR OF STROKE AND QUALITY,
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PHYSICIANS REGIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS - MOTION
TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED
BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO - ADOPTED
MS. PATTERSON: Item 4C is a proclamation designating
May 2024 as Stroke Awareness Month. To be accepted by Scott
Lowe, CEO of Physicians Regional Pine Ridge, and Karl Leistikow,
CEO of Physicians Regional Collier Boulevard. Congratulations.
(Applause.)
MR. LOWE: And just very quickly, I'll be very brief, but I just
wanted to thank you all for the proclamation today and the
recognition and awareness for stroke. It continues to be, you know,
a challenge for many, many families in our area and across the
country as far as stroke care. But there continue to be advances in
treatment that are making some significant differences in the lives.
And the time is of the essence, you know. So as our healthcare
community continues to grow and advance and develop that care, we
just want to make sure that the community knows of, you know,
what's available to them at Physicians Regional, with the
comprehensive stroke at Pine Ridge and the primary stroke
designation at Collier. As I said, time is of the essence, and getting
that care in an immediate way makes a huge difference in the
outcome of those patients.
So, again, thank you for stroke awareness. We just want to
continue to develop that awareness across the community. So thank
you for today.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you all.
(Applause.)
Item #5A
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ARTIST OF THE MONTH — FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH SWAT (STUDENTS WORKING AGAINST TOBACCO)
PROGRAM - PRESENTED
MS. PATTERSON: Item 5A is Artist of the Month. If I can
turn your attention to the back of the room, I will tell you about our
May Artist of the Month.
The Florida Department of Health in Collier County is the
presenter of the May Artist of the Month display spotlighting their
SWAT, Students Working Against Tobacco, prevention program.
The Collier County SWAT chapter maintains two active clubs at the
middle and high school levels. SWAT students speak before local
decision -makers and legislators on behalf of the Tobacco Free Collier
Partnership. In addition, this partnership hosts an annual summer art
contest that gives students an opportunity to show off their creativity
with positive and healthy messages.
Item #7
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE
CURRENT OR FUTURE AGENDA
That brings us to Item 7, public comments on general topics not on
the current or future agenda.
Troy.
MR. MILLER: We have four registered speakers at this time.
Your first speaker is Tom Despard. He will be followed by Carol
DiPaolo.
MR. DESPARD: Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you
for your service to our community.
I'm Tom Despard, a biker and resident of East Naples and a
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retired civil engineer, builder, and developer.
I have dealt with asphalt paving my entire career. I'm here this
morning to bring attention to how the county can improve the way
asphalt bike and pedestrian trails are maintained in our county park
system.
I've been in contact with staff regarding the trails in Sugden Park
and East Naples Park that have recently been overlaid by three to four
inches of new asphalt paving, leaving the edges of these trails with
drop-offs, creating unsafe conditions for bikers, walkers, joggers,
baby carriages, and wheelchairs.
Staff has indicated that this issue will be addressed in both parks
by sand filling installed around the edges of the new paving.
Hopefully this work will include soil and seeding or sodding.
Due to its urgency and scale, I have recommended this work be
done by outside contractors rather than park maintenance personnel.
However, the larger issue is how to most effectively maintain the
asphalt trails in our county parks. Best practice dictates that these
trails need to be smooth and also at the same level as the surrounding
grade and lawn areas and all done in an economical way.
Having ridden these trails for the past seven years, I believe that
they could have been repaired by scarifying; that is grinding or
milling with a scarifier the size of a lawnmower as well as patching
their surfaces as needed. A one -inch topping might have been
applied to parts of these trails after scarification and patching.
Asphalt trails that have been totally -- that have totally failed need to
be removed and replaced with new asphalt.
Keep in mind that this extra -thick overlay was not a structural
consideration but was done to result in a smooth trail surface. To
have overlaid these two trails with three to four inches was expensive
and now requires a lot more work to fill in and seed or sod the edges,
and the new trail surfaces will remain above the surrounding grades
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and will thereby adversely affect drainage, erosion, appearance, and
mowing operations.
I would be glad to interact further with staff about their
approach to maintain our park trails. I told them I would be here
today and will send them a copy of this transcript. I will send
you -- a copy to all -you upon request.
Are there any questions or comments?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No. Thank you for bringing
that to our attention. I see the manager's kind of shaking her head
"yes."
And I apologize, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN HALL: No, go right ahead.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: But I thought maybe a
comment from the manager might be appropriate because I can tell
you, I've been on trails where I've stepped off, and there's a 2- or
3-inch drop-off. And if you're not really paying attention, you will
fall down. If you're riding a bike, I can't even imagine if you'd veer
off the trail a little bit, so good points.
MR. DESPARD: I just don't think it's necessary to do what
they did, that's all.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. If I -- if I could have you see
Mr. Rodriguez in the back of the room, he'll get your information.
He's in charge of our Public Services division as well as other areas,
and he can chat with you. Thank you.
MR. DESPARD: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Carol DiPaolo. She'll be
followed by Darlene Santos.
MS. DiPAOLO: Good morning, Commissioners.
I'm going to thank all of you for your service. I'm not here
really for an ask at all. I'm here actually for an invite.
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You know that there's a certain issue that's taking place, our
open borders. We have over 170 countries that are sending in their
mentally ill, criminals. We have cell -- you know, terrorists, cell
terrorists that are coming in within the throng.
We met with the Sheriff several times already, my husband and
I, and he is extremely concerned about what's going on. You know,
we have critical sites that we have to make sure are secured. We
have to make sure that there are people, in case we do get a hit, that
will be able to secure our county lines.
So what we're doing is we are having an -- we are having a
forum on June 5th. We'd like to invite each and every one of you to
come out that night to be a part of this, to show your support, you
know, for the Sheriff. We'd like to invite also the community to
come out to learn that this is not a time of fear, because fear is not an
option. But preparation and protection, they are options.
Unfortunately, once these people are in the interior of our
country, they have access to every single state. You know, they can
cross state lines. So every state becomes a border state.
So we'd like to invite each and every one of you to come out that
night to perhaps, you know, really understand what's going on at the
border. We're going to hear from Ann Vandersteel, who is a
journalist who has covered the border. We have a border agent
named Christopher Harris. He works out of San Diego, and he
would like to actually tell us what is going on and what they see
coming over the border.
Unfortunately, there are over 300 terrorists already on the
terrorist watch list that are here in our country, and these are the ones
that we know.
So I'd like to invite every one of you to come out to be our
guest, you know, to be there and to try to really understand where do
we go from here. You know, how do we protect our community?
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You know, is it the guardian program that we have put into schools?
I'm concerned about our Jewish community, you know, because the
synagogues and our Jewish residents, they are going to be targets
also.
So June 5th over at the NABOR conference center, so we'd like
to have you come out and join us. Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Darlene Santos. She'll be
followed by Uriel Trej o Villegas.
MS. SANTOS: Good morning, Commissioners. Glad to be
here.
I had to make a decision. I either, you know, go to work or
come here. So I thought a presence would be better than donating
the money I would have made. And it's all for the animals.
Anyway, I am Darlene Santos, a Collier County resident for the
past 12 years, and a big-time animal lover. I've been fostering since
2016, and then I just, you know, recently sort of began to learn about
Domestic Animal Services. And I -- you know, I just want to help,
which is why I'm here. I want to learn what's going on. I hear
things, and I don't know what's what.
But I know there was a need for a vet, and I'm very happy to
hear that that happened, that you were able to get a vet, as I'm hearing
it's very hard. So -- and I hear that's going well.
And anyway, I'm grateful. I've heard of changes. I'm not sure
exactly what's what with some of the changes and -- which is why I'm
here to learn, to support -- be a support for the people helping the
animals.
And the other thing, like, I've heard about is, you know, the
budget, TNR, all these issues, and it just sounds promising that things
are going to be looked at and tended to now that change is going to
be possible with different board members, hoping -- you know,
certainly hoping.
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But, anyway, I am a voice for the voiceless and just happy to be
here and be a part of this and learn. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you, Ms. Santos.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Uriel Trejo Villegas, and
he will be followed on Zoom by Nikolay Marinov.
MR. TREJO: Hello, Commissioners. Thank you for your
time.
I'm here today because these people behind me, they are food
truck owners, and before they've even opened their food trucks here
in this county, they've wasted time as well money. As you know, it
is hard to come by for people like us -- and stress, on permits -- on all
of that stuff that you need. They did everything by the law, as it
should be, on paper, everything. Serve Safe, you know, all those
recommendations that they need.
And before they even did that, nobody from the county, nobody
from, I guess, what it is, Serve Safe, nothing like that told them, "You
guys are going to have a hard time," or "You guys are not allowed to
open a business here in this county."
And now that they have all these permits, their food trucks,
everything, they are not allowed to operate under this county. And it
is hard because of the time, especially money that they have -- that
they have wasted, and all for nothing.
And it's not like they're selling, obviously, nothing bad. It's just
food, you know. And it's from where they also have to eat from.
You know, it's money that they're getting.
And -- well, it is hard. I think that if they were going to open a
business here, somebody should have notified them that they are not
allowed. And once they've actually been running their business, the
inspectors or, you know, all those people have been coming by
saying, "Hey, you're going to have to close down. You guys can't
operate," but they haven't really given us a paper or nothing that's
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May 14,2024
sealed saying by law or by the county saying, "You guys cannot
operate herein this county." They've just been telling us, "Close
down, or you're going to get fined."
And if we weren't allowed in this county, it's fine, but give us
some sort of paper on ink or something, but they're just leaving us out
here in the open. You know, they aren't people that break laws. We
aren't people that break laws. We follow the law. We're going to
follow the county, whatever you guys state, as long as you let us
know. If it's against, let us know by paper, something that's sealed,
something important. If not, I don't want these people coming by
into these -- fine people's trailer, food trucks, and letting them know
that you guys cannot operate but not telling them exactly why, kind
of sort of threatening them.
I think since they've wasted their time, their money, stress on
following the county's laws, you know, getting all these permits, I
think what they deserve at least is some sort of paper or something
from, I guess, here, something stating if they can or cannot operate.
That is all.
Thank you for your time.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Don't go away. What's your
name?
MR. TREJO: My name is Uriel Trej o, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Hello, Uriel.
MR. TREJO: Hello, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: There are two gentlemen in
the back. One is the director of Code Enforcement. He's in the
back of the room, and when we're done speaking here, you'll go out
in the hallway with your friends, folks, and he'll explain to you
what's, in fact, transpiring.
You're not wrong. If there's anyone listening and a code
enforcement officer approaches you with regard to what you're doing
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May 14,2024
and how you're doing it -- food trucks are allowed in our community.
If someone said that they're not, that's an incorrect statement. But
you should always get, in writing, a citation, if nothing else, as to
what you have done that is incorrect and where you can, in fact, go.
Food trucks are allowed, but they're not allowed on every
corner. They're not allowed on intersections that aren't properly
zoned. They're not allowed where there isn't sufficient parking.
They're not allowed in certain areas, but they are allowed and
oftentimes welcomed. I think the county actually even owns their
own.
So I'm going to ask you to turn around, and the fellow in the
pretty pink tie in the back, he's going to be the one to explain to you
with regard to how, what, when, and where these folks can, in fact,
transact their business.
MR. TREJO: Okay. Thank you, sir, so much. I really
appreciate it.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Hang on, Uriel.
Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No. I think Commissioner
McDaniel covered it completely. I was going to basically say the
same thing, that there's -- there may be some miscommunication
here, because we do have food trucks.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: We have, actually, by the
courthouse.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Go have a great conversation with him.
I'm going to tell you that I'm all for people making a living and doing
something creative and government being out of the way, but we do
have some things that are in place that are for the good of all. So
have a good conversation with Tom back there, and I think that you
will --
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May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And it's about equity. It's
about fairness.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You're -- you can't -- you
shouldn't be allowed to open up a business that is prohibited in a
particular area. I mean, we're all about getting government out of
the way, but you can't take away from a business owner who is
properly licensed who's paying rent, who's paying sales tax, who's
doing all those things and degradating an existing business already.
So the information that's been provided that they're not allowed
is -- as Commissioner Saunders said, it's misinformation, and that
fellow in the back will help straighten things out.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I was going to add, the
biggest confusion in my district with food trucks is having a permit
doesn't give you a blank check to just park your truck wherever you
want, and that's the biggest misconception. "Hey, I got all the
paperwork, and then I heard there was a soccer game over there,
there's a bunch of people at the beach over there," and so the truck's
going where the people are.
I mean, as a business owner, that's what you do, you know,
where you can sell. But some of those places are not permitted.
They're not permitted. So it's not a matter of just parking the truck
wherever you want. But, you know, we're here to work with you as
well.
But I've had a similar issue in my district where the trucks had
the right paperwork, as you said, and then they park somewhere and
they're told they couldn't be there, and their takeaway was that they
couldn't be anywhere. And it's like, no, there's very specific places
where we just can't arbitrarily, you know, let a truck park wherever
they want, you know, just to sell.
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May 14,2024
So there are some specifics, but I think the feedback will be
good between them. I'm really glad you're here, and you're here with
your fellow business owners. It will help us separate rumor from
fact and give you some very definitive guidance as well.
MR. TREJO: Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate it.
And, yeah, that's what they've been telling us, you know, we can't
operate anywhere in the county --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, that's not true.
MR. TREJO: -- in Collier County.
CHAIRMAN HALL: That's not true. That's misinformation.
MR. TREJO: That's what they've been telling us. They
haven't told us -- they haven't given us no paper, nothing like that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's just incorrect. So go
see that fellow --
CHAIRMAN HALL: You have a good conversation.
MR. TREJO: Thank you so much. I would appreciate it.
MR. MILLER: Mr. Chair, our final public comment under
Item 7 comes to us on Zoom.
Nikolay Marinov, you're being prompted to unmute yourself, if
you'll do that at this time. Mr. Marinov -- there you are.
Mr. Marinov, you have three minutes, sir.
MR. MARINOV: Good morning, Chair and Board Members.
I appreciate this opportunity. I'm going to be really quick.
I'm a resident of Island Walk, which is at Vanderbilt Beach
Road and Logan, northeast corner. A couple years ago, our
association converted one of our tennis courts to four pickleball
courts right across from multiple residences. They're separated only
by a road, a community road.
Now the association's planning to submit an SDPI application
with Collier County for expanding and building additional pickleball
courts next to the existing ones. And the plan is to take a green area,
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May 14,2024
green space that is -- the people use for recreation, kids playing,
people walking dogs, they're planning to build additional tennis
courts there. They're in the process of preparing that application
with the county.
The existing courts already are very close to the residences, and
they're creating a nuisance right now with excessive noise, parking
congestion, multiple other concerns that we, as residents, have. Our
board has not done a good job communicating this. It's kind of
down on the hush-hush basis.
So we expressed our numerous concerns in front of the board
and the racquets committee. And we feel that it's falling on deaf
ears. They're planning to proceed without getting input from the
residents of the community. So it is a big quality -of -life issue for us.
You're constantly hearing the noise all day long, and it's really -- it's
stressful, to be honest with you.
So I'm speaking with you today because my understanding is,
and our understanding that this is an administrative process, when we
file that application, and they could probably get approved. So I
would like to ask you what our options are to express our concerns
further to the county and basically stop this nuisance. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'm going to be at Island
Walk at 3 o'clock on Friday for a town hall meeting. If you will
make arrangements to get me some information -- and this is Burt
Saunders. If you'll make arrangements to get me some information
and/or attend that, we may be able to start to address the concerns.
MR. MILLER: That's all the speakers we have at this time, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Great.
Item # 1 OA
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May 14,2024
THE COUNTY MANAGER TO AMEND THE CITY GATE
COMMERCE PARK PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT (PUD),
ORDINANCE NO. 88-93, AS MOST RECENTLY AMENDED BY
ORDINANCE NO. 2021-15, AND BRING BACK AN
ADVERTISED ORDINANCE TO AMEND THE PUD. THE
AMENDMENT SHOULD SPECIFICALLY ADDRESS SECTION
3.2(A)(3) OF ORDINANCE 2021-15, TO ALLOW AMPLIFIED
CONCERTS TO BE HELD AT THE AMPHITHEATER AT THE
PARADISE COAST SPORTS COMPLEX, RESTRICTED TO THE
CAPACITY LIMITS OF THE AMPHITHEATER AND GREAT
LAWN AREAS, WITH SUCH CONCERTS LIMITED TO FRIDAY
AND SATURDAY BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 6 P.M. AND 10
P.M. (DISTRICT 3) - DISCUSSED; MOTION TO CONTINUE
THIS ITEM TO THE MAY 28, 2024, BCC MEETING
W/DIRECTION TO STAFF BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS;
SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL — APPROVED
TW qqmb
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that bring us to Item 10A.
This is a recommendation to direct the County Manager to amend the
City Gate Commerce Park Planned Unit Development Ordinance
No. 88-93 as most recently amended by Ordinance No. 2021-15, and
bring back an advertised ordinance to amend the PUD.
The amendment should specifically address Section 3.2(A)(3) of
the ordinance to allow amplified concerts to be held at the
amphitheater at the Paradise Coast Sports Complex restricted to the
capacity limits of the amphitheater and great lawn areas with such
concerts limited to Friday and Saturday between the hours of 6 p.m.
and 10 p.m. This item is brought to the agenda by Commissioner
Saunders.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders, you want to
shed some light on it?
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May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah, just real quickly.
And I wanted to have a conversation not necessarily resulting in this
type of an amendment being approved, but I wanted to have a
conversation concerning concerts at the park. And I think we've all
from time to time attended concerts there. And it has always seemed
to me, rather, that the best place to have a concert at that park is in the
stadium so that the fans -- you know, the people that are there for the
concert will have a comfortable place to sit, and everything is much
easier there. But for some reason, we've not been able to kind of
solidify that, and I think part of it is because of just the expense.
And I thought, well, maybe there's some other alternative. I
don't know that this is a viable alternative because, quite frankly, the
sound from concerts has to be directed, I believe, to the south, and
this would change that. That's part of the PUD. And the reason we
did that was to protect from noise some of the neighborhoods around
there. So this would be a controversial issue that we would have to
explore with the neighborhood that would be affected.
But I think the main thing is let's start a dialogue on how we can
facilitate concerts at the -- in the stadium. I think that's really the
end result. And I know we have some folks here, I think, from the
Paradise facility that might be able to shed some light on that.
But I'm just trying to find a way to accommodate what our needs
are in terms of protecting the fields and the stadium but also to
facilitate having concerts in a location that makes more sense to me,
and that would be the stadium. And this is just one possible
alternative, but this is a very controversial alternative.
So, Mr. Chairman, my goal is to start a dialogue on how we can
facilitate the use of the stadium primarily and, if not, are there any
other alternatives for us to explore.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So is the recommendation just to have
staff come back or --
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May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: That certainly would --
CHAIRMAN HALL: -- or actually amend the agreement?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, I think if -- there's no
urgency in getting this advertised now, so maybe the motion or the
discussion would be for staff to come back and let us know how we
can better accommodate those types of events at the Paradise Coast
park.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. We can look at our options, and
then we can come back to you and make sure that that meets with
what you see as the needs and then we can -- that way we're
advertising once to make the changes, if that's --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, that
would -- with that, I would agree that we don't need to move forward
with this ordinance at this point in time, but we do need to find a way
to accommodate those types of activities at the sports park.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Which way does the sound move from
the stadium?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It depends which way the
wind's blowing.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: It depends which way the wind's
blowing.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Assuming no wind, I think
that is to the south, which is what the ordinance requires. The
problem is that's very expensive to accommodate a concert there.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Adrian, can you come
forward, please. So I brought this -- this is not rocket science. We
have this gigantic stadium, and then every time we have an amazing
event, we shoehorn it into a place that isn't the stadium.
The issue -- my understanding was the issue was protecting the
grass, and especially if we have a soccer team that's on the way.
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May 14,2024
When you put a stage and you put chairs and you put all that stuff on
the grass, much like when Raymond James does it, they put some sort
of protection down on the field so that when the Buccaneers play the
next day, the field isn't trashed.
I've said in this meeting before, I think we should research what
investment we'd have to make to buy that protection because, for
instance, the Legends concerts -- you know, we've all -- we've all
dealt with Mike Randall and have even gone to those concerts. And
one of the things he has said is if the cost is put on me to protect the
field and maybe I'm just going to have one or two concerts, it's not
worth it.
I've said before, if we own that stadium and we're trying to
attract concerts, sometimes just onesie, twosies, and we already
owned the field protection -- and it's not -- like I said, it's not rocket
science. It's big giant boards. They put it on top of hockey rinks
when they have -- when they bring in a Billy Joel concert. They do
it everywhere. I don't know what that cost is, but I think now that
we're attracting so many more events -- just as Commissioner
Saunders said, if I was going to a concert, I don't want to bring a
folding chair and sit in the mud and then look at this beautiful,
amazing stadium that has beautiful seats in it, and it's sitting empty.
So I really think the homework assignment here is what would
our investment be to protect the field so that if you attracted some
sort of concert, the stadium would be the default location.
Now, if it's something smaller and the stadium is not the
location, that's where we have the amphitheater -- we have some of
those side fields, so it's trying to match the size of the event to the
different locations we have.
But I think it's worthy of exploring. And I remember in one of
the conversations it was, we can buy the protection for the stage and
all of that, but then when you start putting folding chairs on the -- on
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May 14,2024
the field, you know, those need protection as well. Well, who says
we have to put chairs on the field? Put the band on the field and put
everyone else in those beautiful chairs that sit empty all the time.
Do you have an idea, Adrian, of the cost it would be for us to
invest in field protection and then we put it away in some warehouse
somewhere, and every time you get a customer that wants to do some
sort of concert, you know, we roll it out? And maybe it's part of
their cost. You know, the cost for field protection is this much, and
we charge every, you know, customer that wants to use the stadium a
small amount because they're basically renting the field protection.
Not just that question, but give us some -- this is good, healthy
discussion, and I couldn't agree more that we have this beautiful
stadium; chairs, field, but it just seems like we're always having
events that are squeezed into another area because we're trying to
protect the field. And I just -- I just think we can protect it with
material and then utilize that.
I mean, I even have concertgoers that come up to me and go,
"Why aren't we sitting over there?" And we saw during the
fireworks we allowed people to sort of wander, and that's different.
It's not a big stage and all that. But we see how beneficial it was to
sort of use that main area for seating and whatnot.
Give us a little bit of a shoe -- and I don't want to make this, you
know, a big, long soliloquy, but, you know, you're really the expert
that's out there. What are your thoughts so we can attract more
things and have it in the right location when it's the size of something
that the stadium would really fit?
MR. MOSES: Good morning. Adrian Moses, for the record,
Sports Facilities Companies representing as the general manager of
the Paradise Coast Sports Complex.
We've done the research on the floor protection, but there's a
couple of other items that we need to create the full story around use
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May 14,2024
of the stadium for concert events. The first is the value of the
stadium has been -- has been created. You know, we have -- we
have a market now, and we've got proof that we've got signed deals
that people are prepared to pay a market rate for the stadium. That is
looking at similar but not comparable facilities such as Hertz Arena
up in Lee County. It's cheaper to rent the stadium from us, but it's
obviously not inside, and there's limitations with that. There's -- so
there's that point. That if we're going to rent the stadium, the
market's been set, and we need someone who's prepared to pay the
rental rate that we've -- that's been developed for the stadium.
The second part of this is the design of the stadium. It's very
difficult to create a stage on the field in the stadium because the
actual field is recessed. There's a slope that goes down from the
walkway, which makes it tricky, and only a very specific type of
stage can be built on the actual stadium field.
In terms of the covering of the field, absolutely. The purchase
of the type of flooring that would be required, we've done the
research into that and provided staff with the cost of it. The cost
doesn't just remain with the purchase of the flooring. We have to
store it, and we need to find somewhere to store it.
Now, there could be somewhere on the site that we could, but it
would probably be outside, which means that the flooring may
become compromised if it's not used for months and months at a
time.
And there's the absolute cost of the installation and removal of
the flooring. That's timely, and it's -- it's time-consuming, and it's
expensive in terms of the amount of labor that's required to do so.
With that in mind, the initial conversation was about the use of
the amphitheater. With the use of the amphitheater, we can provide
medium- to small -sized concerts a more appropriate location for them
to have their concert without all of these additional overhead costs.
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May 14,2024
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
Well, this is a perfect example of poor planning, I think, on the
design of this particular facility. I mean, we build an amphitheater
we can't have amplified sound in because it's facing the wrong way.
I guess if we never built the amphitheater, we'd have enough money
to buy the protection for the field.
So, I mean, I get it, but at some point -- like I said, sound travels
with the wind. You know, we don't know which -- the wind's going
to be blowing, in which direction on the day of a concert anywhere in
the park. If it's blowing north, guess who's going to hear it? North.
Regardless of where your ordinance says it should go or not go.
I mean, it makes no sense to have an amphitheater we can't have
amplified sound at, that we spent taxpayer dollars to build. So I
mean, I just -- and I know how -- you know, the labor to put down on
the field, these protection things, it's a lot of cost and a lot of
manpower to us as a county every time somebody wants to rent the
stadium. And if you put the direction of the sound, as Commissioner
Saunders is saying, to the south, that means you have to put the stage
in the far left end zone from the stadium seating. And if somebody
goes to a concert, you don't sit to the left of the stage. You sit
directly in front of the stage.
So to have the south -facing music, everybody would have to be
on the field, and you wouldn't really utilize the really nice seats in the
stands as much because it would be to the left of the stage and not
directly in front of it.
So I think, to me, common sense, you have an amphitheater, I
think an amphitheater should have amplified sound, and I think the
citizens of Collier County deserve that, to use it. They spent the
money to build it. So I don't know why this is even an issue, but
that's my opinion.
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May 14,2024
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, I've heard
today -- Commissioner Saunders, thank you for bringing this up. It
sounds to me like we have some administrative planning that are
requisite here.
Commissioner Kowal and I both said it at the same time, "Sound
travels with the wind." It doesn't matter which way you point them,
whichever way the wind's blowing is going to hear the amplified
sound.
Commissioner Saunders, is it requisite that we change the PUD
to adjust the hours?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: It would be a requirement.
And Mr. Bosi, I think, is there. The PUD document provides that
amplified sound can only be directed, I believe, to the south, if I'm
not mistaken.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's correct. But the hours
of operation is my question, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And the hours of operation,
they're a little bit broader, I think. If we were going to move to have
amplified sound at the amphitheater, then we do have a neighborhood
that's impacted.
And so the initial request is, well, if we're going to have an
impacted neighborhood, then we need to be restrictive in the hours
and days that you can have concerts. We don't have a concert every
night till midnight. So that was why I limited it to that. But, again,
the main thing is to have that conversation on how we can fix this
problem.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Go back to my original
question: Do we have to amend the PUD to limit the time until
10 p.m.? Because that's a great idea. I mean, that's one of the
issues. I have friends and neighbors that live in the North Belle
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May 14,2024
Meade up there.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: The time limit may already
be in the PUD.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm not positive.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I think it is.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Mr. Bosi.
MR. BOSI: Mike Bosi, Planning and Zoning director.
Specifically from the PUD, we do have hours of operation for
outdoor activities, Sunday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and
then Friday and Saturday, 7 a.m. to midnight. So we do have that
level of specificity --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We have to amend the PUD
to adjust those hours, or can we do it administratively to a lesser
hour?
MR. KLATZKOW: The ordinance also states you can get a
special event permit for a one-off that can change the time.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And the ordinance also says
the sound has to be directed to the south.
MR. KLATZKOW: Yes.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So that's why you have to
amend it.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Which is contrary to the plan,
when the clamshell's facing north.
So, now, all that notwithstanding, it would be -- I'm happy to
amend the PUD to bring those hours of adjustment in.
Commissioner LoCastro brought up a really bright idea about
the field covering for the actual stadium itself, and then -- and it
sounds like our operator has given staff a plan about the cost
associated with that, installation, storage, da, da, da, da, da. We
need to put that into a budget format and have a look as to how we
can rent that facility to operators that want to utilize the stadium,
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May 14,2024
which will also help along the way. That's business -- that's
just -- you know, as he stated, if the cost is so exorbitant, one user's
not going to pay for it, but if we have it, it can be a fee associated
with that use, so...
Then third -- Adrian? Stop talking to Ed while I'm talking.
MR. MOSES: Sorry.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And, third, there are
sound -buffering apparatus that can be put to the north to help
mitigate any sound that's coming from this facility. There's
sound -reflecting apparatus, I've seen them, that can be -- can be
maybe utilized as well that we can -- that we can have a discussion
about as well while we're -- while we're talking about the plan for
implementation for the field cover and the hours of operation.
MR. MOSES: Yeah. I think -- I would encourage there to be
someone who really knows sound, a sound technician, to come and
do a report on amplified sound from the --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Of course.
MR. MOSES: -- from the amphitheater area. It's interesting
that the PUD says to the south when all we have to the east is --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Yeah.
MR. MOSES: -- Kari's property over to the east.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, there's going to be
people to the east eventually as well. Irrespective of where you
point it, the sound is going to travel with the wind. So the bottom
line here is the reduction of negative impacts from the utilization of
this facility by any of the people. If we point it to the south, the
people in Forest Glen are going to hear it.
If we -- so all that notwithstanding, maybe additional buffering
from landscaping. I mean, I know that -- I'm working on our rifle
range way out east. I'm working on sound -buffering plantings on
top of the berm just to help mitigate the sound of the gunfire that's
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May 14,2024
coming from our county rifle range.
So those are my comments.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, I think that
what I would like to suggest is that we table this particular item until
the next meeting, or continue it to the next meeting, but have staff
evaluate the alternatives with Adrian, and let's see what the
alternatives are. Now, the distance between the amphitheater and
the nearest homes is a pretty good distance. I don't know the exact
amount of distance, but it's a pretty long way. And so I don't know
how much of an impact there really would be. But I think having
some evaluation of that and getting back to us as to what the
alternatives are -- and the alternative may be we amend the PUD and
move forward that way. But I'd like to have the opportunity to
explore some other options.
And would a two -week delay be enough time for you to put
some things together or figure some things out based on the fact that
Adrian's already said they have a lot of research already done on this?
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, yeah. Let us -- let us get
all of the information that we have now. And we've been working
on this for a little while. We'll pull that together so that you can look
at what we've done so far, and then if you feel like, as Adrian
suggested, we need to go further and hire somebody to really evaluate
the sound and give us options, we could do that as a follow-on step.
But at least we can lay on the table the costs of protecting the field,
the options for using the amphitheater, and then we can -- you -all can
pick kind of those things.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And what is the real
potential impact on the neighborhood if we use the amphitheater?
MS. PATTERSON: Correct.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: My recollection is that
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May 14,2024
became a very controversial issue at the time.
MS. PATTERSON: At the time and --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I don't recall the details of it.
It was six or seven years ago, so...
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. And that may require us to -- as
Adrian said, to really hire somebody that knows about sound to help
us out with those options to be able to protect whoever may be
affected based on wind direction and other things so that we can
really maximize the use of the complex.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. Well, does the
Board have any objection to the two -week delay just to ferret out
those different options?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No. I'll second that.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. Then I'll make a
motion to continue this item until the next meeting in May and direct
staff to come back then with some discussion on what our
alternatives are.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Is there any other discussion?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
Adrian, just for historical purposes, when I was first elected,
around that time, 2020, I saw three concerts in that stadium. I saw
Ben Allen. I saw the Elton John impersonator, and I saw Shane
Duncan. They were dead center on the field. We all sat in the
chairs, and it was a perfect view, just like you would find if you go to
Raymond James. When I saw the Rolling Stones there, we weren't
below the stage. We all sat in, you know, raised seating.
So I think the design of our stadium is just -- is miniature
compared to every other stadium in the universe, and those three
bands -- I don't know how they protected the field or what they did.
There was a handful of people sort of standing on the grass, but the
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May 14,2024
vast majority had filled the seats.
And I remember getting rave reviews. You know, I was
surprised there wasn't actually a bigger crowd, but it was in the early
stages of having events there. But, you know, those are the three.
So maybe in the historical documents, we could figure out what was
done. And maybe it wasn't done correctly. Maybe they tore up the
field, and after it was over, you know, the thought was, we'll never do
this again. But I remember distinctly Ben Allen -- I remember
texting Ben Allen from the stands -- the Elton John impersonator that
does the Legends concert, and then the Shane Duncan Band, you
know, played there, it was -- you know, like you said, there's more to
it, but with some tweaks, it actually was the perfect venue. And, you
know, for the bigger events, it's something to definitely explore.
So hopefully in two weeks we'll get a little bit more detail. But
there have been, I know, those three for sure, because I attended. So
I thought I would just add that.
MR. MOSES: Those events were all prior to --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
MR. MOSES: -- Sports Facilities managing the complex?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Absolutely.
MR. MOSES: And there's probably a reason for that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. And you might look
into it and go, "Wow, we would have never allowed that," or we
would have -- you know, "We needed a lot more protection." You
know, they just allowed it, and then, you know, they had to face the
consequences after. But it's been done. And what I would just say,
esthetically, it worked great. You know, the next morning, maybe it
was a disaster, but for the ticket buyers, it was a great setup, so just a
thought.
MR. MOSES: Okay.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
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May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
Yeah. I just didn't want to be misunderstood. I wasn't trying
to say -- because I found out today that, according to our PUD, sound
can only go to the south. Amplified sound can only go to the south.
And in that configuration, what you're talking about, Commissioner,
that would be sound going to the west. And that -- that's why I
wasn't even thinking. You know, if you live with what we have
now, you just put a covering on the field, we have to send the sound
to the south. So they wouldn't use the stadium seating. They would
be sitting off to the side of the stage. That's what I meant by that,
not to say anything -- that the stadium's not a great idea. I think the
stadium would be a great idea. But, of course, it's going to cost us
more money to get it in a configuration to where it can use it on a
regular basis, and we still have to change the ordinance.
According to the ordinance, we're not supposed to send the
sound to the west. And every concert I've been there, we send the
sound to the east. You kind of answered that question a little earlier.
You kind of made that comment that the concerts we've been having
this past season have all been facing the east.
So, in reality, we basically have been not following our own
ordinance itself already. And I don't know if we've had any
complaints of that yet or not. But I think we've faced just about
every direction, so I don't know why north is left off at this point.
So -- and it would make sense to use our amphitheater because
that's what it's designed to be used for, and that's what we spent
money to build it for. So I hate to be the common-sense, again, guy
up here, but sorry. Thanks, guys.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: There's no sorries for
common sense.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Well, I'm fixing to put some more in
there.
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May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. Me, too.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Here's the deal.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Wait, wait, wait. You going
to call on me?
CHAIRMAN HALL: I am. Just a second.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Or are you going to jump in
front of me?
CHAIRMAN HALL: I haven't even chimed in yet.
If we want to use the facility, we've got to change the ordinance
for the hours. We can't direct the sound. But if we don't want to
use the facility, then we can kick this thing down the road. We can
spend money for a sound study that they're going to come back and
say, "You can't control the sound." And I'm all -- I'm all for saying,
"Just fix the PUD and use the facilities." And there's no reason why
we need to come back in two weeks and make the same decision.
Now, I understand -- if you want to get some more information,
I'm all for postponing it. But I'm going to make the same decision
next week. I'm going to -- I want to use the facility as the taxpayers
have built it.
Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And interimly, while we
either continue this item and vote again on it in two weeks or make a
decision today, administratively -- unless you're committed already
on previous contracts, administratively shut it off at 10 o'clock p.m.,
period, and then -- and whatever we do with regard to sound
mitigation, field protection, and such, that administratively can be an
assistance all the way across the board.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. Why don't we
go ahead and continue this for two weeks, because my initial intent
was to bring this up at our second meeting in May, and I kind of
May 14,2024
jumped the gun here a little bit to get a dialogue started. And so
we'll have plenty of time to amend the PUD before the next season if
we move in that direction.
But I think this will give our manager a greater opportunity to
evaluate what the options are. And then if we -- we may still very
well proceed with this, depending -- even with other options, but I
think this will just give us a couple more weeks to let this percolate
through the community and give our manager some time.
So I'll make a motion to continue this item for two weeks, but at
the end of that two -week period, the intention is to move forward
with a solution to the problem.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll second it.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. We've got a motion and a
second to postpone this till the next meeting. All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: Motion passes.
Thanks, Adrian.
MR. MOSES: Thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, before we go to the next
item, just housekeeping, we need a motion to accept the
proclamations.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Oh. So moved.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
Page 39
May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
MS. PATTERSON: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Ms. Patterson, could I just
clarify something? So when this comes back in two weeks, let's
make part of that discussion not just the amphitheater, but all the
other additional things that we talked -- because I agree with
Commissioner Hall, we built this amazing stadium. Let's use it to
full capacity without going overboard.
To answer Commissioner Kowal's question, we've had some
loud events there, football games, announcements. I mean, my
phone didn't ring off the hook. Yeah, I got one or two e-mails from
some people down in Forest Glen a little bit. "Oh, I hear
something." Well, you know, I mean, when the Tampa Bay Bucs
play, everybody hears something, you know, for three miles. I
mean, we don't have a concert every day in the stadium.
So I just want to make sure we're having a broader discussion.
Because I agree with Commissioner Hall. I'll vote on the
amphitheater right now, but I think it's bigger than that. So anyway.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. We're going to -- we'll talk
about the floor protection -- or the field protection and the other
things.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, ma'am.
Item # 1 OB
ADOPT AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING THE COLLIER
COUNTY ANIMAL ABUSERREGISTRY. (ALL DISTRICTS)
DISCUSSED; MOTION TO CONTINUE THIS ITEM TO THE
May 14,2024
MAY 28, 2024, BCC MEETING W/DIRECTION TO STAFF BY
COMMISSIONER HALL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER
SAUNDERS — APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: All right. That brings us to Item 1 OB.
This is a recommendation to adopt an ordinance establishing the
Collier County Animal Abuser Registry. This item is brought to the
agenda by Commissioner Saunders.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I brought this forward back, I think, in January for some -- just
some general discussion and direction in terms of having the County
Attorney draft an ordinance. And at that time I presented the Lee
County ordinance, which was adopted and has been implemented.
And the sheriff in Collier County had nothing but praise for the
effectiveness of their ordinance and the community support for it, and
I thought, I like copying other counties when they do good things,
and this seemed like -- to be a really good thing.
We have a tremendous number of folks in this community that
are animal advocates, and we also have, unfortunately, people in this
community that abuse animals. And we want to make sure that
animal abusers are -- when they're identified, that it's more difficult
for them to get other animals to abuse.
I have spoken with the Sheriff s Department a couple times on
this ordinance, and our County Attorney has been working with the
Sheriffs Department and their legal counsel. They have no
objection to what we have here. They support this.
They did indicate that there may be some minor tweaks between
now and adoption of this type of an ordinance, and I suggested that if
they have any minor tweaks, to get with Mr. Klatzkow. And I don't
know, Mr. Klatzkow, if you've had any conversations with the
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May 14,2024
Sheriffs Office in terms of their issues. But if you haven't, reach out
to them, because there are a couple little minor tweaks.
MR. KLATZKOW: We can do that, but the item is recommend
to adopt an ordinance, so you wanted to bring this back at the next
meeting?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I think the recommendation
is to advertise this.
MR. KLATZKOW: Adopt an ordinance.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'm sorry?
MR. KLATZKOW: It's "adopt an ordinance."
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Oh, okay. So you're not
going to be advertising?
MR. KLATZKOW: This was advertised.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. Then what we'll
have to do is we'll have to continue it for you to have that
conversation.
MR. KLATZKOW: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Colonel Bloom, I spoke with
him yesterday. No objections or anything. Just they said that there
may be some minor tweaks. But we have some folks in the audience
that want to speak on this, and I think, if we're going to have any
objections or anything from the Board, I think this would be a good
time to air that, and then we'll talk about continuing it for a couple
weeks. I thought this still had to be advertised.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: How was it advertised; in
what way?
MR. KLATZKOW: We're advertising through the Clerk's
Office now.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. And then it sounds
like we don't know what those tweaks are. I mean, I read through
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May 14,2024
the ordinance, and I'm in full support of it, no objection, only I want
one of the experts to take a look at it, and, you know, if it's working
great in Lee County, that's great. But maybe we can improve on it
before we vote on it. It's pretty detailed, which is great. But I agree
with you, like, let's get a little bit of feedback. If there's -- like, I'll
ask our County Attorney, do you have any issues with how this is
written, or we wouldn't be seeing it if you did?
MR. KLATZKOW: We wouldn't be seeing it if I did.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, okay. All right. And
is this written exactly as -- the way that Lee County's is, or did we
already make some tweaks to it?
MR. KLATZKOW: It's word for word what Lee County did.
And one of the reasons I did that was that if we want to share
databases with Lee County, having an identical ordinance --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Identical, yeah. I don't think
we need to overly wordsmith it too much, which sometimes we're
guilty of doing. I mean, the things I see in here are really big, major
positive things that I'd be a huge supporter of. So unless there's
something in here that legally it's like, well, Lee County passed it, but
you know, there's three paragraphs that are hard to enforce or could
be made stronger -- but I didn't see anything that jumped out at me.
I'm very impressed by it and have been reading all the stuff in the
news about it. So I have no objection, but...
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Do we have any speakers?
MR. MILLER: I have one registered speaker for this item.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: If you don't mind,
Mr. Chairman, why don't we hear from the speaker, then I'll make a
few comments.
MR. MILLER: Your speaker is Laurie Harris.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Who's she? What does she
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May 14,2024
have to do with any of this? Did we vote on anything?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Now you're in, so be careful.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: There we go.
CHAIRMAN HALL: She's legit.
MS. HARRIS: Have a great day. No.
I want to thank Commissioner Saunders for bringing up this
animal abuse registry. It is working phenomenally in Lee County.
What I would love to see is this go through every county in
Florida, have it cross-referenced so when someone comes in to adopt
an animal at Collier County DAS -- what they do is a quick
background check. They're looking for anything out there, court
dates, stuff like that. If nothing is glowing, this person adopts an
animal.
And there are some times we know that animal's coming back,
or we know it's a bad adoption. We do our best to kind of weed
them out, but this would help tremendously.
As the pastor said, Collier County's a model county for Florida.
I need it to be the model county for the animals of Florida as well.
So I ask you to support this. And what I would love to see is in
addition to this registry going out countywide being the model for
Florida, why not also have our Domestic Animal Services be the
model for every other county in Florida? Lee County we call the
slaughterhouse. They put animals down there at an alarming rate.
They just don't have the services.
Same with Hendry County, Seminole, Marion County. I can go
on. Clewiston. I mean, they just put them down. So if we can get
some policies and procedures, incorporate an animal registry and roll
this out all over the state of Florida, it would be amazing. So thank
you for your time.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you.
Commissioner LoCastro.
May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Ms. Harris, just a little bit of
a sidebar. First of all, thank you for stepping forward and taking a
volunteer leadership, you know, position. I know that you've been a
huge advocate of animal rights for quite a long time, and we've
spoken.
The one thing I just want to say about the board is now that
we're adding a few fresh faces, you know, we'll have a new chairman,
we've got some new different leadership down there, what I think all
of us really want from the board and we never -- I'll just say, I never
felt like we really fully got it -- were homework assignments and
action items. I attended board meetings where there was great
chatter. There was great discussion, even valuable, but nothing
came out of it. So the board is an action arm.
Like, a perfect example is Commissioner Hall chairs the
Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, and I used to chair it
before him. We didn't sit in those meetings and just say, you know,
"We need affordable housing," and everyone said, "Yep, we sure do."
"Dismissed. See you in a month," you know.
So it was like, what are the four things that we're going to do?
And I can tell you, I personally said multiple times to the former
DAS director and even other people that held leadership positions
there, the chairman of the board, you know, doesn't need to say,
"Mother, may IT' or to get anybody's permission. I mean, yes, you
work through the County Manager, but I was disappointed that we
didn't hear from that person on a, you know, fairly regular basis.
Yeah, getting an e-mail every once in a while, but taking that
podium, maybe standing side by side with the DAS director and
giving us some of the big nuggets. You know, we would hear so
many complaints about DAS but, you know, nothing would really
sort of come back to us.
Or we would hear, "Oh, the Board cut the budget," and then, you
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May 14,2024
know, we would sort of look at each other and say, "We didn't do
anything," you know. We didn't keep a veterinarian from being
hired down there.
So, you know, anything you can do to put some juice into the
board. And they need to be a working body that drives things to the
director, that drives things to the County Manager, and in the end, if,
you know, you want to drive things directly to the Commissioners
here, sometimes more than an e-mail is -- does a lot. And so you're
famous for that, so make that contagious. I just wanted to sort of
mention that.
MS. HARRIS: I appreciate that guidance very much.
Having -- I've been at the Domestic Animal Services for years
volunteering, so I have an insider perspective that no one on that
board has had. No one on that board was a volunteer there. So I'm
hoping, with my experience and my relationship with the other
volunteers there, we will bring forward the issues. We do know
what they are. We live them every day. So I am hoping we will
continue the positive progress that Ms. Patterson has put forth. It's
been amazing.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Let me just add, too, the
recommendations -- you know, one of the -- one of the critiques we
had for some other groups -- and there again, I'll use Affordable
Housing Advisory Committee. Senior leadership on the board just
coming here and telling us, "DAS is horrible, everything's bad" -- the
board is -- when you're a volunteer on the board -- and you know this,
so I say again, make this contagious to the other board members.
You are the county. So when you wear a polo shirt or whatever that
says you're DAS, you might not be the paid employee, but you are
the county.
So just saying -- you know, denigrating the county for not doing
the best job possible at DAS and having board members do that is
May 14,2024
actually not helpful. What's helpful is the board identifying things
with their expertise and then coming up with recommendations,
solutions, an ask, but not just -- you know, the board's job isn't to just
tell us how bad DAS is and -- you know, or Affordable Housing
Advisory Committee's job isn't just to tell us we need more affordable
housing. We already know that.
So, you know, I think you're going to be a great new, fresh voice
that's really not fresh. Like you said, you've been down there, but
now you have a position. So, you know --
MS. HARRIS: I appreciate that --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- go get it.
MS. HARRIS: -- vote of confidence, and I look forward to
bringing you solutions. There's a bunch of them that we know of
already and, of course, it goes back to the budget. So I am asking
you, once again, keep an open mind on that budget. The positive
changes are tremendous. We have come so far so quickly; I don't
want to go backwards.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thanks, Ms. Harris.
MS. HARRIS: Thank you so much.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
I guess this question may be to the County Attorney. The
ordinance itself, does it -- does it outline who's going to be the keeper
of the registry, or is it going to be the Sheriffs Department? Is that
why we're going to -- maybe Commissioner Saunders talking to
Colonel Bloom. I don't know what the exact concerns were. Was
it -- had anything to do with recordkeeping of the registry outside of
FCIC and NCIC, or --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No. He called me yesterday
and said that their legal department, they've reviewed everything.
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May 14,2024
They don't have any problems with it. There's no objection to it, but
they said they may have one or two minor little tweaks.
And based on that conversation, I told him I would advise the
Board, and we would have this continued until they got their tweaks
figured out. I had asked him to have his legal counsel get ahold of
the County Attorney.
But no objection from the Sheriffs Department, the Sheriffs
Office. They are 100 percent behind it, but apparently there may be
one or two issues that they want to -- like I say, minor tweaks, is the
way it has been described.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: All right. If we tweaked it,
would that affect the ability to share it with the other counties?
MR. KLATZKOW: (Shakes head.)
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No. It's nothing
substantive, from my understanding, but that wouldn't -- and, again, I
don't know exactly what their issues are, but...
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: The bulk of this, though,
shows them as the responsible agent.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: They absolutely are.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Yeah. I mean, they're probably
going to keep it in their Wing system. I assume they'll add it to that
and create a registry.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah. And they had no
objection to that. That was not an issue for them. But, again, I
don't know the exact details of that, and that's why I think we need to
go ahead and continue this for a couple weeks.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So would there be any objection to
postponing this for two weeks and getting the tweaks from the
Sheriffs Department and putting this on the consent so that we don't
have to sit here and beat a dead horse?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's a good point.
May 14,2024
me.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: That would be fine with me.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, it would be fine with
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Based on some of the folks
in the audience, we probably shouldn't talk about beating horses, but
that's --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: It's already dead.
CHAIRMAN HALL: It's out -- it was --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: We're killing two birds with
one stone.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Killing two birds with one stone. We're
killing birds.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Oh, come on. I'm a bird lover.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So there you go.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Approve this without
objection.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Second.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Would it be crazy to say, can we
have somebody from the Sheriffs Department maybe come later
today, and if they're willing to kind of shed some light on what the
tweaks are?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's been advertised. We'll
bring it back with the adjustments. We do it all the time. Make the
tweaks, and we see what the tweaks are, make sure they're
highlighted, and then we'll adopt it and do it on the consent, and I'm
fine with that.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I'm going to move to postpone it, put it
on the consent with the tweaks and --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Unless there's issues, we'll
pull it.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Unless there's issues, we can pull it off
May 14,2024
then.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Sure.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'll second that.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Moved and seconded to
postpone it with the tweaks for the consent agenda for the next
meeting. All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved.
MS. PATTERSON: That brings us to Item 11A. Chair, I don't
know if you want to take a court reporter break a couple minutes
early so that we don't run her over on this one.
CHAIRMAN HALL: That's great. Let's take a break, and
we'll be back at 10:25.
(A brief recess was had from 10:17 a.m. to 10:26 a.m.)
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Ms. Patterson, what's next?
Item # 11 A
PROVIDE STAFF DIRECTION ON THE BOARD'S REQUEST
FOR STAFF TO GATHER INPUT ON THE COMMUNITY'S
DESIRE TO ALLOW FOR THE LEGAL RENTING OF
GUESTHOUSES WITHIN THE URBAN ESTATES ZONING
DISTRICT BASED UPON THE CONCLUSIONSPROVIDED FOR
WITHIN THE GUESTHOUSE RENTAL WHITE PAPER. (MIKE
Page 50
May 14,2024
BOSI, DIRECTOR, ZONING) (DISTRICT 1, DISTRICT 2,
DISTRICT 3, DISTRICT 4) - MOTION TO APPROVE WITH
CHANGES BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER HALL - APPROVED (COMMISSIONER
SAUNDERS OPPOSED)
MS. PATTERSON: We are now at Item I IA, which is a
recommendation to provide staff direction to the Board's request for
staff to gather input on the community's desire to allow for legal
renting of guesthouses within the Urban Estates zoning district based
upon the conclusions provided for within the Guesthouse Rental
White Paper.
Mr. Mike Bosi, your director of Zoning, is here to present.
MR. BOSI: Good morning, again. Mike Bosi, Planning and
Zoning director.
I'm going to give you a brief overview of the request that the
Board of County Commissioners made of staff on February 14th of
2023. They discussed an item about potential renting of guesthouses
within the Urban Estates. Not the Rural Estates, but the Urban
Estates. Those are the ones that are west of 951.
The BCC asked Commissioner Hall to bring the topic before
AHAC and to direct staff to assess the options and ramifications of
allowing the rental of guesthouses.
We hired ABB to assist with the study. On May 15th of last
year, we presented the topic to AHAC, and they were supportive of
looking at the rental of guesthouses as a possible solution to the
overall housing shortage and housing affordability shortage within
the county. AHAC directed staff to gather feedback from the
residents on the topic.
And they had a good discussion, not only what the value of
renting of guesthouses is if they were income restricted, but also just
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May 14,2024
of renting of guesthouses in general. And the sense was anything
that could add to the supply would have a positive effect potentially
upon the rents that could be charged in regards to that
supply -and -demand imbalance.
Staff held three public information meetings. The first one was
October 11 th at the North Regional Park and then a week later,
October 18th, at Heritage Bay Government Service Center, and then,
finally, the 25th of October, we were at the South Regional Library.
We sent postcards to every Urban Estates lot owner, that's 3,559
property owners were provided with the postcards. And traffic signs
were also placed to make the general public aware of these meetings
that were coming on.
At the presentation, we stated the objective of the meeting was
to request feedback on the topic. There was no decision -- we let
them know this isn't a -- wasn't a decision made. They just -- the
Board of County Commissioners was looking for feedback on the
issue.
Gave a little bit of background on the study and showed the map
of the area and explained what a guesthouse is and the current LDC
regulations that prohibited the renting of guesthouses.
We talked about ramifications related to affordable housing, the
Property Appraiser's homestead exemption versus non -homestead
exemption and how that could have an effect upon the individual
property's tax implication and state statutes.
We also had a survey question that we asked the people to
participate in, and each one of the public information meetings
included in -person and interactive survey to gather feedback and
opinion from the attendees. Like I said, we had our three -- we had
59 responses from the individual meeting. We had more people
attend, but only 59 chose to respond back.
And so then -- so we left the online question available for
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May 14,2024
anyone who wanted to participate. We did have a request that they
have to provide their address so we could confirm that they had a
relationship to the Urban Estates. And we got an additional 76
survey responses.
Overall, 134 surveys came back. It's a 3.8 percent response
rate. Not the greatest, but, you know, we did everything we could to
try to participate -- or to try to solicit more participation within it.
The questions were: Currently, do you have a guesthouse on
your property or under construction? If, yes, would you be
interested in renting your guesthouse on an annual basis? If no,
would you construct a guesthouse on your property if you were able
to rent it on an annual basis?
Would you participate in the renting of the guesthouse or
construct one if it was only for income restrictions? And should
guesthouses have the ability to be rented as a short-term rental?
Sidenote on that, if the Board does direct staff to move forward
with the renting of guesthouses, the state statutes preempt us from
putting a timeline or duration upon it. So just -- we were just trying
to get the feedback, because we wanted to make the participants
aware that if we did move forward, if the Board did direct to move
forward, that they could not restrict it to say six months or one month
or even a week only. The state statutes just would prevent us from
placing that type of a regulation on there, and we wanted the people
who are participating in the survey to understand that so they would
understand the full ramifications of what their responses were related
to whether they supported the initiative or not support the initiative.
The first question that we received: Currently, do you have a
guesthouse on your property? The majority of the
people -- 75 percent of them who attended did not have guesthouses
and responded did not have guesthouses on their property.
Of those that did have guesthouses, 31 percent was in favor of
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renting of guesthouses. The ma j ority of -- half of the responses, it
was not applicable because they did not have guesthouses, but then
that leads to this question: If no, would you construct a guesthouse
on your property if you were able to rent it on an annual basis? And
the people who did not have guesthouses said, "If we were allowed to
rent our guesthouses to a market rate, I would build a guesthouse," so
that was a positive endorsement related to the renting of guesthouses.
This question was pretty resounding in terms of the response.
"Would you participate in renting of the guesthouses or construct one
if it was only for income restricted tenants?" Again, the majority of
people, 75 -- 76 percent of them said that they would not support the
income -restricted guesthouse units.
And then, like I said, the question was, "Should guesthouses
have the ability to be rented as a short-term rental?" And the
majority of folks said less than six months, they were in favor -- or
they had no issues related to that.
Some additional public comments received: "Why not allow
the rental of guesthouses in Rural Estates East of 951 or other areas
of the county?" It's one of the things that we -- in each one of our
meetings, we had members from the Rural Estates show up, and they
were wondering why it was only restricted to the Urban Estates. I
explained to them -- we explained -- staff explained to them that this
was a test pilot that the Board of County Commissioners was, one,
seeking feedback from the community as to whether this would work
or not, and, two, if that they wanted to -- if they were to move
forward with it, they -- they could have a better evaluation of the
effectiveness and some of the issues that would be associated with it
before they could extend it to the Rural Estates.
Also, the question was, "Possible to defer impact fees associated
with the new guesthouse?" And we provided information that we
got from the Property Appraiser's and the Tax Collector, as well as,
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May 14,2024
"What benefits could a property owner receive if they rented it as an
affordable unit?" There are some tax breaks that are allowed for if it
is income restricted.
But there was concerns that were expressed about property
taxes. And then, also, obviously, I think everyone would recognize
the possibility of nuisance and code -enforcement issues were
something that was an underlying concern for some of the folks who
participated within the public information meetings as well as
responding to the surveys.
In December of last year, we took the results and the white
paper that was an attachment to the executive summary to AHAC.
Commissioner Hall made a motion to recommend that ADUs,
rental -- that it's the desire to increase the supply and allow ADUs in
the Urban Estates, also recommended exploring the idea within the
Rural Estates; that it be offered to homestead properties, and the
homestead exemption remains. And this is key, I thought, and it was
part of the discussion that we had with the -- with the general public:
If we make these -- if the guesthouses are allowed to be rented, but
they're only allowed to be rented on homestead properties, the
majority of the community felt that you have a built-in interest of
making sure that these guesthouses are kind of operating within the
acceptable -- acceptable demeanor of the neighborhood, because the
property owner who owns that land is living and has a homestead
exemption for the primary house. And because of that, you have
almost a gatekeeper to make sure that the guesthouse that is being
rented, that the behavior and the actions are somewhat monitored by
the property owner of the homesteaded exemption. So that was
another key component, and it was one of the recommendations that
came from the recommendation of AHAC.
And also one of the things they also asked for was for staff to try
to get rental ranges and the percentage of homestead properties out of
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the 3,559 targeted properties. And it was a unanimous
recommendation from the AHAC.
And just on that last question about -- there was 2,752 improved
single-family parcels within the Urban Estates; 57 percent of them
were homestead properties. So basically, right now, what you're
saying is, if you made the decision to move forward with the renting
of guesthouses on homesteaded properties, 1,560, potentially, would
be -- would be the max that would be allowed so -- because of that
restriction, because it has to be homesteaded.
So the order of magnitude is not a flooding of the market in
regards. There is a limitation in terms of the impact this can have.
Rental rates were a little bit tougher to come by. One, because
you can't rent guesthouses, so we had to look at the primary -- the
primary house that was in the Urban Estates, and the rates were -- and
these rates were generated last year so I think maybe -- there may be
somewhat of a pullback. But $4,770 for a two -bedroom unit; 5,870
for a three -bedroom; and then 6,323 for a four -bedroom unit.
Most of these are within -- most of these are Urban Estates or
some Rural Estates, but they're the primary house. So it is a little bit
overinflated compared to what we would expect of the rental of the
guesthouses, because the guesthouses are obviously only allowed to
be 40 percent of what the square footage of your primary structure is.
So that corresponding reduction in square footage will have an effect
upon what the market would command.
And then that -- staff is seeking direction from the BCC to
amend all relevant codes to allow for Urban Estate guesthouses to be
able to be rented and coordinate with the Tax Collector and the
Property Appraiser.
And the last bit I would seek some direction is -- because the
Board of County Commissioners did ask us to open up the Golden
Gate area, the Rural Estates master plan, and we have -- right now
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we're servicing the East of 9512.0 committee that's dealing with
issues relevant to that area.
Staff would seek direction from the Board, would you like us to
bring this as a public policy question to both of those efforts, to the
Golden Gate Master -- the Rural Estates Master Plan update as well
as the East of 9512.0 committee in terms of their perspective to talk
to the community to see if renting of guesthouses within the Rural
Estates would be something there would be an interest in?
Just seeking direction from the Board on that, but primarily what
we're looking for is a direction from the Board to allow for the rental
of guesthouses within the Urban Estates with the limitation of it
being only applicable to homestead -exempted properties.
And with that, any questions?
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: For -- before I go, do we
have any public speakers on this item?
MR. MILLER: I have no one registered to speak at this time.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: All right. I am
wholeheartedly in support of this. To me, this is simple economics,
supply and demand. If we have more units available, the
opportunity for housing affordability will inevitably transpire.
I am wholeheartedly in support of the homestead provision that's
been brought in here just to -- again, as you identified, give us
someone that's more accountable for what's, in fact, transpiring with
the utilization of their property. I would like to suggest that upon
your consultation with the Tax Collector and the assessor's office,
that a survey could be done to draw out the rental property from the
homestead so we don't conflict with the homestead exemption
portion. It could be served out -- or surveyed out and taxed at a
different rate to allow that.
MR. BOSI: And just to let you know, we have had some
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preliminary discussions with both of those offices, specifically for
that -- for that -- that case of how the guesthouse itself would be lifted
from the homestead exemption, but the rest of the property would be
maintained within that. So we've had some tentative discussions
with that.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Good.
And then the last, but not least, as far as the Rural Estates, I still
believe we don't have the infrastructure yet to support an increase in
the allowable densities that are already existent in the Rural Estates.
And so I would suggest we move this forward and monitor -- because
you've got numbers. You've got real number how many
homesteaded properties, how many people -- how many people
already, so on and so forth.
I would suggest we move this forward positively and then use it
as a pilot program, if you will, to explore as we continue with our
efforts in directing infrastructure, roads, bridges, transportation
efforts and such in the east, to explore it at a later date. Once we see
what the jump actually is. I mean, when I say "jump," the increase
in ADUs.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Chairman.
One of the things Mr. Bosi and I spoke about -- I have no, you
know, issues with this, but sometimes when you approve something
like this, you kind of don't know what you don't know. So if you sit
here and do the math and go, man, if you could charge $6,000 a
month for a house, I'd build as many of them as I could, and a
guesthouse isn't a million dollars to build, and so, you know, the
return on investment is huge.
So what we had talked about was some sort of -- in the verbiage
here, as we've done in the past with things like this that we're sort of
testing out in print, some sort of review, a one-year or two-year
May 14,2024
review to come back here and say, "So what has happened?" You
know, just -- and we can do that any time. It doesn't necessarily
need to be in writing. But when you put it in writing, it shows that
we thought about it. We're not just rubber stamping this, and then
we're going to watch it go wild. You know, it's similar to some
things that we've talked about when it came to, like, food truck parks
and other things that we were sort of throwing out as, like,
Commissioner McDaniel said, it's sort of like a test case.
We just did that recently with the rock -crushing lot that's in my
district that's out in the boondocks. Yeah, but we still -- in a year,
we want to make sure everything we assumed was going to be okay
was.
You know, I look at this, and I just think, "Let me think
worst -case scenario," and worst -case is this could explode a little bit
more than we thought. There could be some loopholes that we aren't
really -- we didn't really think of that get caught and brought to us
back by citizens.
So just an ability to be able to review it and make some
adjustments to it, maybe even significantly. You know, we were
sort of talking. You know, that was the conversation you and I had,
and I thought that that was the only thing that I thought would be
relevant, you know, before just passing it blindly.
MR. BOSI: And, Commissioner, what we can do -- as you
know, everything is a public process. So there's going to be an
amendment to the Land Development Code to specifically allow for
the renting of the guesthouses.
So as we're developing that Land Development Code
amendment, we could write in a two-year check -in, a three-year
check -in, whatever the Board's comfortable with. At that point in
time, I think it would also be an appropriate opportunity to let you
know how the program's working, and then we can touch base to see
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if -- well, if there was a lot of positiveness around it, we may want to
explore -- as Commissioner McDaniel says, as we're building out our
infrastructure to the east, maybe we think about extending it beyond.
But we'll see -- we'll write in a two- or three-year check-up with
the Board of County Commissioners as a progress report to be
able -- to make sure that the program is working as functionally and
as effectively as the Board has -- would direct it to do.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Great.
Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Bosi, if the Board
directed staff to proceed with this, what would be the time frame for
all of this to take place, and what would be the steps?
MR. BOSI: The steps would be we would start with the -- I'd
go back to my Land Development Code team and say, "We've got a
pretty specific -- we've got a specific direction from the Board of
County Commissioners to allow for the rental of guesthouses," so
we'll draft the -- we would draft the modifications to the Land
Development Code, we'd throw those through staff review to make
sure all staff was weighing in on all the potential implications and the
concerns.
Then we would have to take it to the DSAC subcommittee, we'd
take it to DSAC, we'd take it to the Planning Commission, and then
we'd take it to the Board of County Commissioners. So you're
talking a five- to six-month process before we would be back with the
Board of County Commissioners. So you're talking probably the
spring of next year that we'd be back with the Board.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. And I've got a
couple problems with this. And I find it interesting there are no
Urban Estates in any other commission district. They're all in
District 3.
And so the issues that I'm dealing with with these properties, it's
May 14,2024
all in one district, so I probably hear more stuff about this than the
rest of you do.
And, Commissioner McDaniel, you said that the infrastructure is
not in place in the Rural Estates, and that's why we're looking at only
the Rural -- the Urban Estates right now.
But if you look at the Urban Estates, we have the same types of
issues. You have kind of a rural atmosphere there because lots are
three acres, some of them are larger than that, some are a little
smaller, but it's kind of a rural type of an environment.
And the folks that -- at least the ones I've talked to want to
maintain that. And by opening up all of these units to potential
guesthouses, that will impact the existing infrastructure there. For
example, there isn't water and sewer at most of those locations. Just
like in the Rural Estates, there's not water and sewer. The roads, if
you look at the roads in the Urban Estates, they're very narrow roads.
And there's -- you know, there are problems with traffic on those
roads with school kids, just like you have in the Rural Estates. You
have the same infrastructure issues in the Urban Estates that you do
in the Rural Estates.
In terms of transportation, obviously you have roads. The
major collectors are very heavily over -trafficked right now, if you
look at Immokalee Road and Santa Barbara and Logan and Pine
Ridge. All the roads that would be impacted by this are very heavily
impacted.
And then I also have an issue in terms of this could not be
restricted. If you permit the use of these guesthouses, how do you
keep them from becoming short-term rentals now? Now, I think you
can't, and I think Mr. Bosi has said that, and he's indicating that is
correct.
And if you look at Question No. 6 on the executive summary,
"Should guesthouses have the ability to be rented as a daily or weekly
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rental?" And the answer is overwhelming "no." People don't want
daily or weekly rentals in the Urban Estates.
Well, I can tell you that's what you're going to have. You
cannot stop it. You cannot say, "well, you can only rent for a month
or six months."
And so I think that this is a -- once you open the door -- I know
you're talking about having periodic reviews every year, every three
years, but once you open the door to this, you're not going to close it.
And so I would say if you're going to do this in the Rural
Estates, why aren't you doing it in -- I'm sorry. If you're going to do
this in the Urban Estates, why not in the Rural Estates?
And I think that this is kind of shortsighted. I don't think the
folks out there really fully understand that if you open this door,
you're going to destroy the quality of life in the Urban Estates, in my
view.
I live in the Urban Estates. I could certainly build a guesthouse
and charge $5,000 a month if I wanted to, but I don't think that the
street that I live on, if everybody did that, that would be at all
compatible with the capacity of those roads and the quality of life that
we have in those. So I object to moving forward with this.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Well, just a couple of thoughts.
Fifty-nine people responded out of 359 -- I mean, 3,559 people.
Less than 2 percent responded with what I thought was a great effort
to notify the public and get some public feedback.
So, you know, we've got a -- I think it goes to the adage, you
know, if you build these -- if you build this housing complex, you're
going to turn this road into a parking lot. You're going to turn this
into Miami. It's the same song, same dance over and over and over.
And there's 1500 and something homes that were potential to do rent
house -- or to do guesthouse rentals.
Being out there, you're not going to get beachside short-term
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rentals. I think the majority of the people would be looking for
supplemental income, which were working-class people, to live there,
because a guesthouse that's 40 percent of the square feetage -- square
feetage -- square footage of the main house is going to be a small
rental. It's not going to be $6,000 a month. So I think being out
there and at the market -rate rents, they will be affordable.
Are you going to increase people living out there? Sure, you
are, because the workforce is going to be there. Are they -- are they
coming through there now? No, they're not. We talked about all of
this at the AHAC.
Short-term rentals, it wasn't my desire to do short-term rentals.
I would like -- wanted to be able to say, "Hey, you have to rent it for
at least six months," because that encourages the working- class
people to live out there, but state preempted us; said we can't do that.
So do we throw the baby out -- there goes one of
those -- another colloquialism.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Don't say it. Don't say it.
CHAIRMAN HALL: But, you know, I'm willing to take -- I'm
willing to increase the inventory out there. I don't think it's going to
be the Wild, Wild West that the naysayers say it could be. And if it
is, we'll correct it.
But we've got to do something to -- to increase inventory for our
working-class people, and I think that this won't be the Wild, Wild
West. I think it would work out fairly well with us. It normally
does. For the people that say, "These complexes are going to turn us
into Miami," well, we're not Miami, not even close. I've been over
there, and I've been here, and here is better.
Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, sir.
I -- you know, Commissioner Saunders, you made mention
about the similarities between the Urban Estates and the Rural
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Estates, and I don't disagree. The one -mile -long road -- roads off of
our main arteries are similar and constrained. But contrary to what's
going on in the Rural Estates, the ability to move people east and
west and north and south is greatly enhanced in the Urban Estates
than it is currently in the Rural Estates.
You know well we're bringing forward Vanderbilt Beach, its
extension, all the way out to Everglades Boulevard. You know well
that we have plans of extending Wilson Boulevard south and
interconnecting with -- potentially. We don't know. Trinity may
object, but we don't know. We have the opportunity of
interconnecting with City Gate, which comes in past the park and all.
You know well, last week I was in D.C. talking specifically
about Everglades Boulevard's capacity to be opened up as a partial
interchange. Those are infrastructure improvements in the east that
are forthcoming but not here yet.
And so my suggestion here is -- and I understand your concerns.
I don't agree with the overlap of the -- of the character of the Urban
Estates with regard to changing that character, but I do agree there
are similarities between the two with regard to the limitations on the
infrastructure but certainly different than what we currently have in
the Estates.
So my thought process is similar to what Commissioner Hall
and LoCastro have shared; let's move this forward. Let's continue to
explore. I would suggest that we keep the online survey open to
maybe -- because as is usually the case, we all know what's going on,
but the average homeowner may not. And so we have the -- we have
the opportunity to further explore and then go through the public
processes of these necessary amendments and then utilize this as the
pilot program as the infrastruct -- because as the infrastructure
improvements in the east are ultimately quantified, then we can have
these discussions about potentially allowing for the legal renting of a
May 14,2024
guesthouse in the Rural Estates at the same time.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
Mr. Bosi, can you -- is there any way you can bring back the
graph that had the actual people that already have a guesthouse
versus -- the ones in the survey that actually responded? You know,
I kind of -- from the lines of Commissioner Hall, I mean, how many,
3,000-some people were exposed to this, and a number of 50 or so
actually participated in the surveys? So that means an awful lot
don't care.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Or didn't see it.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Or, I mean, if you -- we know at
least 3,000 at some point was reached out.
So it sounds like a large number didn't have an opinion one way
or the other.
And I get it, Commissioner Saunders, it's your district, and you
say that people -- a vast majority may be against it. Well, then it's
good, then the vast majority don't build a guesthouse on their
property, and that will limit it to whoever already has one that wants
to participate, I guess.
I mean, it's not like people don't live in the guesthouse, like
brother -in-laws, mother -in-laws, things like that that have cars that
drive and go back and forth. So I don't know if we're going to
100 percent increase traffic.
And like you said there's 70, what, currently -- I don't know
what percentage of the 75 percent's going to run out and hire an
architect and get the permits and start building a guesthouse, you
know, to add to that inventory.
So, I mean, I don't -- I mean, it's -- we're talking about people's
private property. You know me, I'm not big on overreach in
government to begin with, and I don't like the fact that we limit a lot
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of people what they can do with their own private property anyways,
you know, because of other people's feelings or things like that.
You know, I think -- will it fix the overall problem we have here
in Collier County? No. But will it throw a little bit more into the
inventory and move in the right direction? Yes.
So I kind of support this and definitely putting some sort of
revisit in the language, you know, so if it does get to the point where,
I think, if we see an explosion, which I doubt, you know, then we
have an idea how to revisit those issues in the future and tweak some
things. I know we used the word "tweak" a few times today.
Yeah, I don't -- I don't -- I don't see much difference than what
we already have out there other than people taking advantage of their
own property and having a little residual income, you know, to
subsidize the cost of living today, especially in this country the way it
is and it's been recently. A lot of people are hurting in both sides.
People are hurting for places to live, and people are hurting to make
ends meet.
So if you already had invested your own skin in the game and
you built a piece of property and you built a guesthouse on your
property out of your own money and your own hard work, I think you
have a right to maybe turn a little profit on your investment at some
point. So I kind of support the idea of moving forward.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Just a quick question for
Mr. Bosi. When you say, "Revisit the issue after one-year period or
two-year period," from a practical standpoint, if you have this plan in
place, what does a revisit actually mean? Does that mean that the
Board can change the ordinance and say "no more," or what does a
revisit mean?
MR. BOSI: I would say that the Board would have that ability.
The Board sets policy. The Board's -- it's the Board of County
011 =1
May 14,2024
Commissioners that implemented the policy that guesthouses can't be
rented.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Would that result in a Bert
Harris claim? You've got a right to do X on your property, we
revisit it and we eliminate the right to do X, is that a Bert Harris?
MR. KLATZKOW: My general advice has been you don't
diminish people's property rights if you want to avoid Bert Harris.
You can expand on them, but once you start diminishing those, you
open yourself up to a claim.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So the answer is that we can
revisit, but we've got to be careful about retracting or going
backwards on a proposal; is that --
MR. KLATZKOW: Yes. Once you give somebody a benefit,
it's hard to take it away.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So I understand and I just
want everybody to be clear, a revisit is not necessarily really a revisit.
It may be an evaluation, but then there are impacts, maybe some
unintended consequences to saying, "Well, wait a minute, this was
not a good idea. Let's don't do it." So I just wanted that --everyone
to be clear on that.
Then in terms of notification, I agree that perhaps there should
be some additional -- I mean, obviously, the Board's going to move
forward with this today, but I think there should be some notification
in the community that this is coming forward, but I also think that
there should be, in that notification, information concerning whether
this -- whether those rates can -- those rentals can be restricted in any
way, because I think people need to know that if they support doing
this, they very well could have a short-term rental in their neighbor's
yard.
I understand that you'll have the neighbor living there, but that
doesn't prevent the short-term rental.
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So perhaps in the notification, that if we move forward with this
and the Board is moving forward with this, what that means is that
you'll be able to rent your unit to anybody that wants to rent it,
including short-term rentals, so that people know that this is not
going to be duration restricted in any way.
MR. BOSI: And understood. We --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I would just suggest the
Board at least let the public know that that's what the proposal is,
because we're going to be dealing with the same thing in the Rural
Estates, because if you do this in the Urban Estates, there's no reason
not to move forward in the Rural Estates.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You know, this is a perfect
example of the challenge that we face where you have over 3,000
people that are affected; 3 percent reply. I don't agree that the
number was low because the other people don't care. Pass this thing
today, and then we'll find out how many care. And we've done this
before where we had something that -- oh, it seemed like there was
no pushback. You know, 30 people showed up at the meeting.
Then we passed it, and we all got 400 e-mails, you know, in two
hours.
So to me this one's a little bit of a dice roll unless Commissioner
Saunders and/or our staff think it really isn't, that, yeah, 3 percent
showed up, but the majority maybe don't have a dog in the fight.
But, you know, to Commissioner Saunders' point, what he's
trying to eliminate is turning streets into, you know, where there's
like, you know, motels in the back of everybody's house. Now, I
don't think that that's going to happen.
But I am disappointed with the low turnout because it doesn't
give us the feedback we need to really make a definitive decision on
the impact, you know, to this community. But it's not enough for me
May 14,2024
to not, you know, support this. I think we've got to really keep it
under close scrutiny. But I think the minute we pass this in any way,
shape, or form, that's when all of a sudden we get the feedback,
which is disappointing because, you know, having three meetings and
mailing out 3,000 postcards, you know, you'd hope you get more than
3 percent.
If that low turnout means that the majority of the people don't
care, they're not going to build a guesthouse, they don't care if their
neighbor does, I don't -- I actually don't think that's probably the case,
and we're going to hear some feedback, especially Commissioner
Saunders will. But it's not enough for me to not support this, but I
think we've got to just really watch it carefully.
Do you have any feedback, Mr. Bosi, you know, on your
concern with, you know, low citizen turnout at the meeting
or -- sometimes people don't come to the meeting but we still get tons
of feedback. I haven't heard one thing on this. Maybe
Commissioner Saunders has, you know, gotten an overload of
feedback. But I just want to make sure we're getting as much
information as possible before we approve something that maybe is
going to have some sort of residual effect that we didn't anticipate,
negative residual effect that we didn't anticipate.
MR. BOSI: Mike Bosi.
I would remind the Board that this is not going to be
instantaneous. We're not coming back in a month with the LDC
amendment.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right.
MR. BOSI: There's going to be DSAC subcommittee, DSAC
meetings, Planning Commission meetings, then ultimately the Board
of County Commissioners. This will circulate the awareness, I
think, with the discussion.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, yeah.
May 14,2024
MR. BOSI: And then when we come back for the actual LDC
amendment hearings, you're going to get much more participation, I
think, from -- on both sides. Just the -- just the invite to come out
and discuss renting of guesthouses is a tough -- is a tough ask to get a
lot of feedback in.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
MR. BOSI: But if we're in the process of amending the code to
allow it and it becomes more of a reality, I think you'll get much
more participation from our citizens.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. I'm still in support of
moving this forward. I want specific language in regard to the
revisit. I want -- I want specific -- I want -- I know you -- I know
this is all being recorded, but it's disconcerting when you two are
over there conversing and I'm trying to maintain my thoughts, which
is tricky all by itself.
But at the revisit point, I want specific reports from Code as
well, and that's going to -- I don't agree with Commissioner Saunders
that we need to delineate the potential negativities. We just need to
be very specific that when we send a notice, it says, "There are no
limitations on the ability of a property owner to rent their facility in
the manner that they see fit." But I want it to be on an annual basis
on the premise that eventually, when there is better infrastructure and
better capacity to move folks in the Rural Estates, that while
we're -- we have a basis for discussion when that inevitably transpires
in the east, at least is looked at in the east.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
Would it be possible, Mr. Bosi or maybe the County Attorney,
that -- you know, we're all talking about in two, three years down the
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road revisiting or reevaluating, the people that do have the
guesthouse, that do participate in renting them to nonrelatives, that in
there that they are subject to -- because it sounds like stress on
infrastructure, stress on roads, or some of the concerns of
Commissioner Saunders, that they will automatically participate in a
type of special taxing district to put monies towards fixing or
up -keeping those infrastructures or increasing them?
MR. BOSI: That's a little -- that's a little trickier. One of the
things that we did talk about with the Property Appraiser is if that is
a -- if you have a guesthouse that is rented at a market rate, that no
longer qualifies for a homestead exemption so, therefore, a portion of
your property tax will be increased based upon the increased
valuation that that structure that can be -- that is being rented is
producing. So there will be a corresponding increase within
property taxes. What you're referring to is the impact upon the
infrastructure.
One of the other aspects that we'll have to explore with the Tax
Collector or the Property Appraiser is the way that they -- the way
that guesthouses are accounted for from an impact fee standpoint,
they're just -- the square footage of your guesthouse is included with
the square footage of your main house, and wherever -- that total
square footage shows you which side of the line you are in terms of
your impact fees -- your impact fees are.
But if you have a guesthouse that is -- that is a market rental,
that would be -- potentially that would be a structure that is assessed
in impact fees separate from the main house. And so that -- we
could -- we could see guesthouses that move forward that -- moving
forward that are going to be -- that are going to be rented would be
assessed an impact fee in a different manner than they currently are
assessed. But those would be things we would have to work out
with our impact fee office as well as the Property Appraiser and the
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Tax Collector.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. So once they -- say they
participate in the renting of the guesthouse out to a stranger for
whatever, six months, a year lease, they're no longer -- that portion of
the property then will not be protected under the --
MR. BOSI: Homestead exemption.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- homesteading. So then that
will be able to be taxed at a higher millage rate?
MR. BOSI: Yeah. And it's got a -- it's got a maximum. I
think it will be -- 10 percent is the non -homesteaded properties. The
homestead properties have a 3 percent cap. So that portion of their
property will be decoupled from that homestead exemption.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So then in reality, then, they'll
actually be paying more towards --
MR. BOSI: They're going to pay more in taxes if they had a
guesthouse that they were renting.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bosi.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And just one more question
for the County Attorney, just so I fully understand. The idea would
be this would only be available to homesteaded properties? So if
you have a homesteaded property and you decide to build a
guesthouse and you rent it out in the general public, you'd have a
separation of that guesthouse for tax purposes from the main house.
My question is, if you start off in that structure where you have a
homesteaded house, home, and an accessory unit that's now a
commercial unit and you decide to sell that house to -- let's just say
to, you know, some company that wants to expand their footprint
with the short-term rentals, could that -- what would happen at that
point, or could that even happen? I mean, you're in a residential
community. Someone other than someone living there buys the
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May 14,2024
house for short-term rental purposes and intends to use the accessory
dwelling unit as a short-term rental as well.
MR. KLATZKOW: We need to explore this issue with the
Property Appraiser, Tax Collector, and it might -- it might require lot
splits in order to save the homestead.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I understand that you're
going to have some difficulty with dealing with how to split that.
That's not the question. The question is, once you permit this, and
the owner of the main house sells that house to someone who is in the
short-term rental business, can that house -- the main house be used
as a short-term rental?
MR. KLATZKOW: These are accessory uses right now. The
guesthouses -- so the concept is you have one lot. You've got the
main house, then usually a family would stay over in your
guesthouse. We're completely changing the thought process on this,
making this a commercial property that's not really accessory
anymore to the main house. It's going to require a complete re -think
of how we do guesthouses in these areas. And I think it's going to
require a lot split.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. Again, I'm just
trying to just decide -- or understand, can the main house at some
point be turned into a short-term rental by simply transferring it to a
company that's in that business?
MR. KLATZKOW: Your main house can be a short-term
rental now. You'll lose your homestead but, yeah.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So that is the -- I mean, the
answer is that we're talking about this being limited only to
homesteaded properties, but is that really a limitation?
MR. KLATZKOW: I don't -- I don't know why you would
limit it to homestead. I think you just grant it to everybody whether
it's homestead or not.
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May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Well, I mean, the idea, I think, is
it's limited to homesteaded properties, and that kind of keeps it
limited, to some extent. You have the homeowner living in the
house and making sure that the short-term rental is not being abused.
That's the idea, I think, that staff was pushing. And the point that
I'm making is that sounds good, but in reality, that main house could
become a short-term rental and -- or just a general rental. Somebody
could buy it and rent it out and have the short-term rental next door.
When we say it's going to be limited only to homesteaded property,
we're not really limiting it?
MR. KLATZKOW: No, because there's nothing to prevent
somebody from renting out their own house.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: That's the only point I
wanted to make was that it's not limited in that regard. Now, that
may not make any difference but, again, it's not a limitation. It
sounds good, but it's not a limitation.
MR. KLATZKOW: Yeah. These things have implications.
It's like throwing a pebble in a pond. And, you know, Mr. Bosi and I
and the Property Appraiser, we have to go through this.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I think -- wasn't the plan to allow
accessory dwelling units to homesteaded properties?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Yeah.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So if you're not a homesteaded property,
then you don't get the privilege of accessory dwelling unit.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct.
CHAIRMAN HALL: But if you don't have a homestead
exemption on your property now, you can still rent your home.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So it would limit it as to the accessory
dwelling unit --
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May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct.
CHAIRMAN HALL: -- to the homestead exemption.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Correct.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I'll make the motion here, but before I
do, everybody's lit up.
So, Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I just wanted to clarify
something. So we're -- and I think you said it in a way that the
public might misinterpret what was said. We're not rezoning these
properties from residential to commercial, right? They're allowed to
have a commercial entity on the back -- in the guesthouse, but we're
not rezoning the property to turn a resi- -- you said something about
you're making them commercial.
MR. KLATZKOW: It's a commercial -- it's essentially a
commercial use, but you're going to have to rezone this anyway to
allow these things, and you might require a Comprehensive Plan
amendment.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. And my second
question, just for more clarification, I think, and it comes off of what
Commissioner Saunders is saying.
If somebody's allowed -- their property's homesteaded, and
they're allowed to do this, and the minute they build the guesthouse,
they sell it to a new owner who is seasonal and, you know, is in
totally different, you know, type of situation, they still get to take
advantage of renting the guesthouse on the property they just bought,
or it automatically stops?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Not unless it's homesteaded.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. So that's important
for people to understand that somebody couldn't build a guesthouse
and then immediately start flipping, you know, their property to
somebody that wouldn't qualify for a homestead exemption, correct?
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May 14,2024
Do you understand my question?
MR. KLATZKOW: You can structure it any way the Board
wishes.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MR. KLATZKOW: What I will tell you, you have an
enforcement difficulty because people are simply -- people will
simply sell their homes or rent their homes, and they won't notify
anybody.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yep. I think the smartest
thing said in this room was that -- what Mr. Bosi said, we're
not -- this has -- this has a ways to go. It's going to be vetted through
a lot of different avenues before it comes back to us for a definitive,
you know, vote to move forward, correct?
And that vetting process will definitely readvertise this. I
actually just got a -- you know, when we get into these kind of
discussions, I sort of monitor my e-mail. A lady who lives in the
district we're talking about, said, "We live in Rural Estates and never
got a survey regarding a guesthouse. No one is even blogging about
this in our neighborhood. Who did they mail these to?"
So this is just one person but, you know, we didn't have very
many people that actually came to the meeting, and she gave her
address, and I'll wind up forwarding this to you.
But, you know, to your point, the more we sort of talk about
this -- I'm for moving this forward, but we'll have plenty of
opportunities now to hear from more people to get e-mails like this to
see if we missed something, so --
MR. BOSI: And remember, we didn't -- this is only the Urban
Estates. If she's Rural Estates, she would not have received that.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: There you go. Yeah.
MR. BOSI: So, I mean, because that's not the audience we
were talking to.
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May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right. Okay. So hopefully
she's listening, and that's why she wouldn't have gotten it. But, you
know, we'll alleviate all of that confusion as we move forward on
this, if we do.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. I don't need to
belabor the point. Do you want to make -- I'll make a motion for
approval with the -- as recommended by staff with the provision in
writing of the one-year revisit and a specific report from Code.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Second. Motion and second to move it
forward. All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS : Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved.
Item # 11 B
AN AGREEMENT FOR SALE AND PURCHASE UNDER THE
CONSERVATION COLLIER LAND ACQUISITION PROGRAM
WITH MARIO J. RODRIGUEZ AND GISELA RODRIGUEZ FOR
TWO PARCELS TOTALING 5.46 ACRES AND AN
AGREEMENT FOR SALE AND PURCHASE WITH THE
WHITTINGHAM CORPORATION FOR ONE PARCEL
TOTALING 1.59 ACRES AT A COST NOT TO EXCEED
$2081230. (JAIME COOK, DIRECTOR, DEVELOPMENT
REVIEW) (DISTRICT 5) - MOTION TO APPROVE BY
COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY
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May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO - APPROVED
Item 11 C
AN AGREEMENT FOR SALE AND PURCHASE WITH 1, THE
BEVERLY JEAN MURAWSKI TRUST AND KONNIE LOUISE
SCHROEDER AND, 2, THE DELORES C. VOLPE REVOCABLE
TRUST UNDER THE CONSERVATION COLLIER LAND
ACQUISITION PROGRAM AT A COST NOT TO EXCEED
$1491850 MOTION TO APPROVE BYCOMMISSIONER
MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO -
APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to
Item 11 B. I'm actually going to read Item 11 B and 11 C together
since Ms. Cook has them together in her presentation.
So Item 11 B is a recommendation to approve an agreement for
sale and purchase under the Conservation Collier land acquisition
program with Mario J. Rodriguez and Gisela Rodriguez for two
parcels totaling 5.46 acres and an agreement for sale and purchase
with the Whittingham Corporation for one parcel totally 1.59 acres at
a cost not to exceed $208,230; and Item 11 C is a recommendation to
approve an agreement for sale and purchase with 1, the Beverly Jean
Murawski Trust and Konme Louise Schroeder and, 2, the Delores C.
Volpe Revocable Trust under the Conservation Collier Land
Acquisition program at a cost not to exceed $149,850.
Ms. Jaime Cook, your director of Development Review, is here
to present.
MS. COOK: Good morning, Commissioners. Jaime Cook,
director of Development Review.
So today before you, you have four purchase agreements for a
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May 14,2024
total of five parcels. These purchase -- these parcels were approved
as part of the Cycle 12A Active Acquisition List that was approved
by the Board on October 10th, 2023. Item 11 B is the parcels within
the Panther Walk Preserve, and Item 11 C is the two parcels
within -- adjacent to the North Belle Meade Preserve.
The Panther Walk Preserve is in the northern Golden Gate
Estates, mostly west of Everglades Boulevard, and protects the
north/south linear drainage through the Golden Gate Estates as well
as providing aquifer recharge within the Horse Pen Strand area.
This area has high -quality habitat for listed species, including
the Florida panther, black bear, and listed wading bird species.
Additionally, it provides an important wildlife corridor connection to
CREW lands to the west as well as private conservation lands both to
the north and to the west.
The two Rodriguez parcels total 5.46 acres of forested
scrub/shrub wetlands and consisting of 100 percent hydric
depressional soils. The purchase price is $158,400, which is
100 percent of the appraised value.
These two parcels are depicted in the map on the right in yellow,
and the northern one along 64th Avenue qualifies for the Florida
Wildlife Corridor Foundation memorandum of understanding that
was approved by you at your last board meeting in which FWCF will
pay 50 percent of the purchase price for any parcels that the program
acquires within the Panther Walk Preserve at the full purchase price.
They are also willing to contribute up to $1.5 million this year
towards Conservation Collier acquiring parcels in the Panther Walk
Preserve.
The Whittingham Corporation is the parcel highlighted in red
towards the bottom of the preserve. This parcel is 1.59 acres.
Similar to the other two, it is forested scrub/shrub wetlands and
marsh wetlands as well.
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May 14,2024
The purchase price is $45,990, and the management will consist
mostly of exotic removal on the site.
The second two parcels, which are Item 11C, are adjacent to the
North Belle Meade Preserve in the southern Golden Gate Estates just
north of I-75. The North Belle Meade Preserve, again, provides
habit [sic] for wildlife, including the Florida panther, Red -cockaded
woodpecker, black bear, gopher tortoises. It's within the bonneted
bat consultation area and also provides habitat for the Big Cypress
fox squirrels.
This preserve provides a connection to the wildlife corridor both
to private conservation lands as well as state and county conservation
lands, including the Rural Fringe Mixed -Use District Sending Lands,
which are private conservation easements, the Gore Preserve to the
east, RLSA lands, and the Panther Wildlife Refuge, as well as
Picayune Strand to the south. This preserve contains native plant
communities and upland and wetland habitats as well.
The two parcels that you are considering today are highlighted
in the map with the dark blue circle as well as the purple circle in the
map on the left.
The Murawski Trust parcel is 4.8 --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Can you go back one slide,
please.
MS. COOK: Sure.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I didn't
light up.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You have big squares on the
right. Where are those two parcels on that map? Because over here
on the left where you've got circles, that doesn't tell me anything.
MS. COOK: They are, essentially, right here along the
boundary of North Belle Meade and the Sending Lands.
May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. That's what I was
looking for. Thank you.
MS. COOK: You're welcome.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: If you could, as you're going
forward, delineate that with bigger pictures so we can actually see
where we're piecing these together.
MS. COOK: Absolutely.
The Murawski Trust parcel is 4.87 acres of cypress, mixed -use
scrub/shrub habitat, and pine flatwoods. It is adjacent to the North
Belle Meade Preserve as well as private conservation lands to the
south. The purchase price is $42,750 and, again, mostly consists of
exotic removal as the management.
And the last parcel, the Volpe Trust parcel, is eight and a half
acres. It is directly east of the easternmost portion of the North Belle
Meade Preserve and part of the Rural Fringe Mixed -Use District
Sending Lands. The purchase price is $103,550, which is 95 percent
of the appraised value of the property.
So looking at the costs to Conservation Collier, again, these four
purchase agreements total five parcels for a little under 20 and a half
acres, and the total purchase price is $358,080. As a reminder, if
approved, for the northern Rodriguez parcel, $39,600 of funding
assistance would be coming from the Florida Wildlife Corridor
Foundation upon approval by you -all for purchase.
With that, staff recommends approving items both 11 B and 11 C.
And with that, I would take any questions you may have.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, before I make my
motion for approval, do we have public speakers, Troy?
MR. MILLER: We do.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
MR. MILLER: Would you like me to call them?
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May 14,2024
We have one speaker. And, Brad, this is going to be for both
items. Brad Cornell.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Brad, remember, we're
probably leaning towards approval, so, you know, I mean -- you
know, you don't have to beat us up, you know, too much, maybe.
MR. CORNELL: I never beat you up.
I'm Brad Cornell, and I'm here on behalf of Audubon Western
Everglades and Audubon Florida and appreciate the opportunity to
address you on both of these -- all four of these parcels, 11 B and 11 C,
the Whittingham, Rodriguez, Murawski, and the Volpe parcels.
I just wanted to highlight a couple things of reasons for all of us
to be supportive of this. In the Panther Walk Preserve, and also
known as Horse Pen Strand, there's a really important value of flood
protection by investing in places to put stormwater in these wetlands
to rehydrate these wetlands but also push back on the catastrophic
wildfire risk that we see in the Golden Gate Estates, North Golden
Gate Estates area.
So this is so valuable that the South Florida Water Management
District and the Big Cypress Basin have strongly supported
Conservation's Collier work -- Conservation Collier's work on this, so
we should be collaborating with them to continue this.
And in the North Belle Meade area, these parcels are important
for some of those same reasons. It allows us to protect habitat and
also manage wildfire risk in an area that's over -drained because of the
I-75 canal and the State Road 29 canal. These canals have been
over -draining this area for a long time, and we've seen bad fires move
through North Belle Meade and Golden Gate Estates in this same
area. Some really, really, big fires. So this is an opportunity, as we
consolidate these, to manage for that wildfire risk.
And I also want to point out that we have some dysfunctional
policies in the Rural Fringe Mixed -Use District that is -- that these
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May 14,2024
are part of in that these parcels are not only adjacent to Conservation
Collier preserves but they're also adjacent to thousands of
conservation easements, thousands of acres, excuse me, and those
were established through the Rural Fringe Mixed -Use District TDR
program, Transfer of Development Rights program, which has four
credits available, but only two of those have been actually severed.
The other two, a restoration credit, No. 3, and a conveyance credit,
No. 4, have not been taken advantage of on these. And so they're
not being actually managed for the conservation value -- full value
that they have.
So I think this underscores an opportunity that we all have to
address that dysfunction in those third and fourth credits. So thank
you for considering that, and we -- Audubon urges you to move
forward with support.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Brad, you just talked me out
of my vote. No, I'm just kidding.
I have one question for you, and it's something that we've all
raised from time to time. When Ms. Cook puts up the picture and it
shows, basically, you know, these puzzle pieces, we own nothing
around the yellow piece, but we just bought this little sliver for
40,000. You know, the goal is to try to piece some of those things
together, and not necessarily buy everything, but we've all sort of said
it in one way, shape, or form that, wow -- I mean, is there an effort to
try to connect some of these?
Is there anything your organization is doing or other
organizations are doing -- and I'll also say that to Ms. Cook -- that
when we look at the surrounding land that we're making offers -- if
we think it's viable. It doesn't mean, you know, it's wide open; let's
buy everything and connect it all. But sometimes when we just have
a little strip in the middle surrounded by private property, I sit here
May 14,2024
and say, "Okay, Conservation Collier's great, you know, we just spent
40,000 for apiece of property." The animals don't know what's
Conservation Collier land and what's private land, so they're just
walking right through it. What did it really do? And it did a few
things. It allowed us, now that Conservation Collier has secured that
property, to do some things with it, maintenance, and like you said,
there's some wetland type of issues.
But, you know, the connecting of some of these lots to really
build some sort of corridor or have it be much more valuable, that
we're trying to puzzle -piece this together, I mean, I sort of ask both of
you, is that -- is that sort of a behind -the -scenes thing that it's one of
the goals to try to formulate some form of puzzle that connects and
we actually truly do own something and we're not just sort of
jumping all over the map and patting ourselves on the back because
we bought, you know, a small piece of property in the middle of a
whole area that isn't Conservation Collier? So what did we really
do?
MR. CORNELL: Absolutely. That is the strategy. And if
you look at both of these projects, they're called multi -parcel projects
that have been designated for that, and so they're trying to accelerate
and facilitate that very thing of filling in all the puzzle pieces. And
that's, indeed, how some really major restoration projects, like
Picayune Strand, assembled 19,000 parcels from people. That was
the south Golden Gate Estates, and they assembled it from people all
over the world, and now it's going to be complete next year. I mean,
we're going to have a ribbon cutting that you -all should be invited to.
And this is, you know, 55,000 acres of assembling exactly what
you're describing.
And so if you look at the map that -- that was -- Jaime was
showing you, you'll see that these are not isolated. They actually are
contiguous to others. And, in fact, if you look at the Panther Walk
May 14,2024
Preserve, you'll see there's actually a big lineup starting to happen
where they're all contiguous. And so, over time, we're going to fill
in those pieces with your support.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. Thanks.
MR. CORNELL: Sure. Thanks.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Well, Brad brought
forth something that I'd like to expand on just a moment, and that's
the dys functionality in the Rural Fringe Mixed -Use District and those
credits. And it leads me to the question: Have the credits in the
North Belle Meade properties been severed from these sites yet?
MS. COOK: No, they have not.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So in the event that the
Conservation Collier acquires these sites -- and I'm going to make a
motion that we do -- those -- we could, then, perform the restoration,
and we could sever those credits and allow those to be utilized in
other -- in another manner within the allowances of the Rural Fringe.
And the revenues associated with those credit generations and
disposition would then come back to the benefit of Conservation
Collier?
MS. COOK: Correct. And during the revisions to the
ordinance, I believe that was your direction that --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, it was, for a reason.
MS. COOK: -- would require us to do that GMP amendment.
So, yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. And so I'm really
happy to see that.
And one thing that I want to also -- since this picture's up right
now, Brad, you and I have spoke at length about the wildlife crossing
that inevitably was going to be -- was set in the original plan from the
846 Land Trust and that the --
May 14,2024
MS. COOK: That one may help you better.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: What are you doing?
MS. COOK: That one may help you better.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You're doing great. The
picture -- so what I want to talk about is just the fact that as we're
acquiring these lands, there is certainly a huge environmental positive
that comes along. Fire control, rehydration efforts, all of the things
that Brad mentioned, but also the wildlife corridor and the
connectivity that transpires with movement of our four -legged friends
from the Panther Preserve through and across.
I want to explore some creative fencing techniques that can be
utilized, especially in the Estates, where we can help start to move
our four -legged friends to where the path, inevitably, is going to go.
So as we're acquiring these lands, I just want it to be a
forethought that we are utilizing these creative fencing techniques to
help our four -legged friends maneuver through and not get in harm's
way.
four.
So with that, I'm going to make a motion for approval of all
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL:
help me out, Ms. Cook.
MS. COOK: Sure.
CHAIRMAN HALL:
depressionable soil?
Okay. I just need clarification, if you'll
What is hydric -- 100 percent hydric
MS. COOK: So hydric soils, basically, the water doesn't drain.
It's going to hold the water. It may be flooded, but it doesn't drain
through. Typically, most uplands are built sandy soils. The water's
going to drain. These ones don't drain as well.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Can I give him a Texican
May 14,2024
answer?
MS. COOK: Sure.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's got a lot of clay in the
soil.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. So I'm just -- you know, I want
to be talked into this, but I have -- I have concerns. You know, the
animals, they don't care who -- the name on the deed. They're using
it right now. The appraisal said that, for permitting process, it's very
difficult, if not impossible, to do anything with this property. So in
reality, the property's doing what we want to buy it to do. I don't see
the difference.
Like I said, I'm trying to get talked into this. And it may not
matter anyway, but I just want to bring that up.
Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Every piece of property is
developable for a home with mitigation.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I agree.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So a private property owner
can -- and I understand your rationale. But a private property owner
can mitigate a portion of the -- of a cypress head. The cypress dome,
if they chose to, can pay -- if they want to pay enough money, they
can buy mitigation credits to be able to utilize that property.
CHAIRMAN HALL: That's very, very, very, very true. That
was three very's.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But what Commissioner
Hall's saying is, is that realistic? So, I mean, I think the question has
merit. Is it realistic?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It certainly does.
MS. COOK: It is.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: The one thing I would say
is -- you know, getting back to the puzzle pieces, sometimes the piece
I
May 14,2024
we buy, the chances of it being developed, even though, like you say,
everything is buildable, it might be very, very small, but it connects
to some pieces that sometimes become very buildable. And so I
think -- that's where I'm saying, isn't part of our goal to try to create
these corridors, and some of these puzzle pieces might be less
buildable, but they're connected to other pieces that could be. Some
of them that we've purchased actually had homes on them already,
so...
MS. COOK: So this -- I guess, Commissioner, to your
question, right where the arrow is on the screen, that really is in the
middle of the slough, and someone paid mitigation credits and built
their house there.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Built something there.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And if I might add,
Commissioner Hall, just so you know, this is part of a puzzle. And
if you look at what's outlined in red, it comes just shy of Immokalee
Road which lines up with the huge slough that flows all the way
down from Lake Trafford that's in the middle of -- or just to the east
of an approved subdivision called Brightshores right now, and it is all
part of a wildlife corridor water flow system --
CHAIRMAN HALL: Sure.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- all the way across the
board. And, ultimately, I envision a wildlife crossing up there on
Immokalee Road just to help with both water conveyance and -- I'm
not going to say critters conveyance, but our four -legged friends have
a better opportunity to traverse.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Sure. I just --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You hate it less?
CHAIRMAN HALL: No. I don't -- I don't get the -- it doesn't
make good fiscal sense to me. We are accomplishing -- there's
wetlands -- I'm talking about 11B. It's wet anyway. As far as
I
1m
May 14,2024
helping with fires and wildfires, that's helping with fires and
wildfires. It's wet.
The animals use it. They don't care who owns it. We're
creating -- we're buying something to create maintenance on it for
years to come. And to me, that -- to me that -- those parcels already
accomplish what we really want to accomplish with Conservation
Collier. I'm all about 11 C. Those are --I seethe value there.
So we have a motion and a second to approve. Are you going
to say 11 B or all of them?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: All 4. 11 -- 11 --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: A and B. B and C.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: B and C.
CHAIRMAN HALL: 11 B and C.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: 11B and C, all four parcels.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So we have a motion to approve all of
the parcels, 11 B and 11 C, and we have a second. So all in favor, say
aye.
you?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: Congratulations.
MS. COOK: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: You did it.
MS. COOK: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Did we sufficiently persuade
CHAIRMAN HALL: No.
011=
May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: He hates it less.
CHAIRMAN HALL: It didn't matter.
MS. COOK: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Jamie, one thing I will say is
thanks for continuing to bring these to us, like, as they come and not
like what we were doing. You know, I know we've said that before,
but, you know, bringing one giant list once a year, eegh. Thank you.
MS. COOK: Thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, if it's okay with you, let's
take Item 12A. We're getting kind of close to whether we're going to
take a lunch break, and I think 11 D's going to take a little time. We
do have representatives from AshBritt here for 12A. So if it's all
right with you, we'll go with that one.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Sure.
MS. PATTERSON: All right. Item 12A is a recommendation
to approve the third amendment to Agreement No. 15-6365 for
disaster debris management removal and disposal services with
AshBritt, Inc., adjusting core disaster debris service fees by 3 percent
and secondary camp and comfort service fees to current market rates,
clarifying disputed line items for debris haul -out, designating the
contractor as the primary vendor, waiving any purchasing
irregularities, releasing the county from disputes or claims related to
Hurricane Ian debris haul -out, and authorizing the Chairman to sign
the amendment.
With that, if the county -- it actually appears on the County
Attorney's area of the agenda, if he has any opening comments before
Mr. Finn begins.
MR. KLATZKOW: No.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm going to go ahead and abstain from voting on this, and I will file
May 14,2024
a voting conflict with the County Attorney. I have no financial
interest in this issue at all, but my law firm does do some work for
AshBritt. And just to avoid any -- even the appearance of any
impropriety, I'm going to abstain.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Sure.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: Mr. Finn.
MR. FINN: Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Ms. Patterson,
Mr. Chairman. I'm Ed Finn, Deputy County Manager.
Today's objective is to approve the third amendment to
Agreement No. 15-6365 with AshBritt, Inc., for disaster debris
management, removal, and disposal services.
This amendment proposes a 3 percent increase in core disaster
debris service, adjustment of secondary camp and comfort services
fees to current market rates, and clarification of a billing for debris
haul -out. Additionally, it aims to designate AshBritt as the primary
vendor. Accordingly, it seeks to waive any purchasing irregularities
and ultimately release the county from any disputes related to
Hurricane Ian debris haul -out, and authorize the Chairman to sign the
agreement.
AshBritt is a key partner in our hurricane response. They have
been responsive and generally have exceeded our expectations over
the last three events I'm familiar with: Wilma, Irma, and Ian. Staff
is recom m aiding approval of this item.
With that, I'll be happy to respond to any questions.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commssioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. I don't have any
questions. I'm going to make a motion for approval with one
proviso/question, and it is -- I'd like to shorten the agreement from
the two-year recommended to a one-year approval and allow for us to
be able to clear up potential questions/commalts from previous
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May 14,2024
experience with AshBritt.
CHAIRMAN HALL:
comment?
Okay. Mr. Miller, do we have public
MR. MILLER: Yes, sir. I have two registered speakers for
this item. Jason Santiago.
MR. SANTIAGO: I'll pass.
MR. MILLER: He's going to pass.
Brittany Castillo.
MS. CASTILLO: Good almost afternoon, Mr. Chairman,
Commissioners, staff.
I am just coming to say that AshBritt appreciates our ability to
partner. I believe we're the only contractor to ever have partnered
with the county in disaster response and emergency management.
We're proud to work with your staff, which, certainly, I think a theme
of the meeting was Collier being a model, and certainly your Public
Utilities and Solid Waste and leadership are leaders amongst the
state. I think people look to what Collier's doing, and we're proud to
be partners in that. I appreciate Mr. Finn's commentary that we
continue to exceed and -- or meet and exceed operations and
experience, and I'm available if there's any questions.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I have a question.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Ma'am, so Commissioner
McDaniel just made a clarification that he'd like to go to one-year
instead of two-year. Do you have any concerns about that, or do you
have a comment?
MS. CASTILLO: Yeah.
record, Brittany Perkins Castillo
AshBritt.
And I appreciate -- and for the
. I am the chief executive officer of
We've worked long and hard with the county on the best
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May 14,2024
interests of planning, response, operations. Ensuring the two years,
which is allowed under the current contract, I think, is best for Collier
County. It allows us to ensure adequate resource allocation to the
county. We're very thoughtful when we bid and procure other city,
county, state contracts particularly in Florida and in a hurricane path
of where you might get an impact to Collier County. And in having
the two years, again, which is allowed under procurement rules in the
contract, I think would ensure the best training exercise and
operational readiness for Collier County.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. I was just going to
say that I -- I mean, I understand the advantage of a, you know,
one-year check, and -- but, you know, there's not a thousand
companies that do it the way that you -all do it. I was very impressed
with what happened during Hurricane Ian.
I don't look at 12A, our decision here as some sort of a -- and I
heard this term in some casual conversations. "Well, this is like a
settlement." This isn't. This is conversations that came to a fair and
equitable agreement.
And so maybe I just need to hear a little bit more from
Commissioner McDaniel as to the pros and cons. You know, there's
always pros limiting the years so we always have the chance to sort
of take a look at it, but I would expect -- we don't have all the
verbiage in front of us, but we always have the chance to back out of
pretty much almost any contract. What would be the pros and cons?
Kind of like what Commissioner Hall said at the last one, I need to be
convinced a little bit more to make that change.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm not throwing myself on
the sword.
No disrespect. Totally happy with what AshBritt has done.
The audit trail for some of what was done during Ian, a lot of
what was done during Irma, was not as clear. It was as clear as mud.
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May 14,2024
And so the thought process I had was rather than automatically
renewing for two years, do it for one year. That gets us through this
hurricane season and prompts our staff to have a hard look at this in
between the systems, timing when systems can, in fact, arrive and
have a -- have a greater opportunity for review of the processes and
procedures from the audit portion.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But if we leave it for two
years, don't we always have that chance at the one-year point to say,
"Wow, they still haven't cleaned up the mess," or whatever, and we
have an issue? Because, I mean, the signal we're sending to them is,
you know, hey, every 12 years -- every 12 months we're going to
dangle the carrot, and we're not -- you're not saying that literally, but
I thought two years was -- you know, it's sort of, you know, company
standard. But we always have the right to be able to say, if we
have -- you know, if we're having an unfortunate hurricane this
season and they don't cross every T and dot every I, we have the
chance to come back into this room and go, you know, break, break.
"Hey, the final year we're going to go with someone else," or do we
not have that option?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: What was your original
question?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO:
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL:
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO:
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL:
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO:
after a hurricane this season.
joke.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL:
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO:
Well, my question is --
I'm joking. Forgive me.
If we left it as -is --
I'm sorry.
We always have the chance
I got it. I was making a
Your mom just sent me a text
and said, "Stop joking around with LoCastro so much."
May 14,2024
MS. CASTILLO: May I, Mr. Commissioner?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, you're out of this now.
I -- if I may, he brought you up here, but I don't have anything to say
to you. This discussion is --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, and you've already
said the two years is your preference. So I just wanted to get more
clarification from the commissioner.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And hear me very carefully.
I'm not dissatisfied with AshBritt whatsoever. Please. I ostensibly
love everything that you folks have done for our community, okay.
To you --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- you said it before in the
previous hearing on another subject matter with regard to the ADUs.
If it isn't in writing, yes, we have the opportunity to look at it every
single time. But if we -- if they have direction that we want this
reviewed in 12 months -- it doesn't mean that we're not going to just
rubber stamp it. It doesn't mean that we're not going to review it.
Yes, we do have the opportunity to review at any particular point in
time. Most of the contracts that we have, we can fire them for
convenience if we choose. We're not gonna. We have no intention.
My precept here is set this up for a one-year, agree to the terms
and conditions within the one year, and that will give direction to our
staff, our senior staff, to make sure that they're going through the
processes, they work with the Clerk, and take care of some of the
circumstances with regard to the audit review. That's the reason that
I'm making this motion.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So then I would have a
question for you. Would that change your dedication, loyalty, you
know, team partnership with us if we made that change for the
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May 14,2024
clarifications that Commissioner McDaniel said? It might not be
your preference, but would it cause you some sort of, you know,
heartburn, heartache issue? Would it change -- would it change
anything, or it's merely semantics?
MS. CASTILLO: Myself, as the CEO of the company, has
spent a lot of time in Collier County working with staff on this issue
to continuously ensure that county staff, county leadership, and
hopefully citizens in the community where we engage know that this
is a top priority for our company. We are the largest company that
does this nationally, and our relationship with Collier County and
ensuring that Collier County has the best support that you could find
in the nation is my personal priority and our company's priority.
It would not change our relationship with Collier County. I
would defer to Mr. Finn. We've worked very hard over the last eight
months on this. I will respect your interest in not engaging me
further and simply note that I believe Mr. Finn can speak to that our
amendments are clarifying what I think both parties were -- was, you
know, admittedly poor drafting of certain line items. So I don't think
there will be challenges, but I will respect that you don't want to
speak to that, sir.
MR. FINN: And I will speak to that. One of the core things
we did was fix the section of the rate tables that created the
confusion, created the dispute in payment last year. Certainly, I am
aware of the Clerk's concerns about the administrative procedures in
general on this contract, and I'm going to quickly say the last thing I
want to do is negotiate with myself here.
But having said that, it is also my commitment, sir, to work with
the highest levels of AshBritt to facilitate the administrative
streamlining of these processes so that when they submit things, it
meets the Clerk's requirements as close to the first time around as
possible.
May 14,2024
CHAIRMAN HALL: I think it's clear that AshBritt is -- does
the county an amazing job when it comes to debris removal, and
there has been a few issues, and with the two years, I think it's in
everybody's best interest to do things smoothly. I don't think
anybody's looking to do anything wrong, so I'm going to make a
motion to pass this as recommended.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I have --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I already made a motion to
pass with a one-year provision.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Oh, okay. Sorry. I missed it.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's all right.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So we have a motion to pass it with a
one-year revision.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And that motion fails due to a
lack of a second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So that motion failed for lack of a
second.
So we've got a motion to approve it as recommended, and we
have a second for that.
All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: (Abstains.)
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: Motion passes.
Good job.
MS. CASTILLO: Thank you very much.
Page 97
May 14,2024
MR. FINN: Thank you, gentlemen.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Burt voted. I wanted it
noted that Commissioner Saunders voted when he already abstained.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah. Ignore that.
CHAIRMAN HALL: It was a Freudian slip.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: It was a bad habit.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, let's take a look -- it's
11:49. We have the Williams property and the burn ban to go, or do
you want to push on?
CHAIRMAN HALL: Let's do the burn ban.
Item # 11 E
RESOLUTION 2024-92: A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING AN
OUTDOOR BURNING BAN IN THE UNINCORPORATED
AREAS OF COLLIER COUNTY IN ACCORDANCE WITH
ORDINANCE NO. 2023-38, AS AMENDED, THE REGULATION
OF OUTDOOR BURNING AND INCENDIARY DEVICES
DURING DROUGHT CONDITIONS. (ALL DISTRICTS) -
MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL;
SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER HALL - ADOPTED
MS. PATTERSON: All right. Okay. Item 11 E, formerly
16F 1, is a recommendation to approve a resolution establishing an
outdoor burning ban in the unincorporated areas of Collier County in
accordance with Ordinance No. 2023-38, as amended, the regulation
of outdoor burning and incendiary devices during drought conditions.
This was formerly Item 16F 1 and is brought to the regular
agenda at Commissioner Saunders' request.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And, Mr. Chairman, I pulled
this off the consent agenda with the knowledge that we would only
May 14,2024
have 10 minutes left before the lunch break, and this would be a
perfect item for that consideration and, secondly, because it is a -- it
is a big deal, and I thought that having an explanation for the public
as to why a burn ban today and not one a month ago and just what the
burn ban means, and that's why I pulled it, Mr. Chairman.
CHIEF CHOATE: Commissioners, right before lunch, thank
you. Michael Choate, your executive director of Public Safety.
So just for a quick little visual, they update this every day. This
is dated Sunday. So this is our drought index. As you'll note,
Collier County is clustered with Lee and Hendry as well. We're
between the 400 and the 449 range in terms of drought, which is, you
know, not great, but it's not terrible at this time, so -- but we are -- we
do have -- do you want to push it up, sir?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: One second. Slide it up so
we can see the bottom part where -- there you go. You're talking
about numbers that we can't see. There you go. Thank you.
CHIEF CHOATE: Gotcha.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We'll blame Amy for that.
MS. PATTERSON: Failure.
CHIEF CHOATE: Yeah. So with that said, you see that we
are currently within the 400 to the 449 range. I've taken the liberty
to reach out to the comm center just to give you some local data in
terms of what we've actually ran year to date starting January 1 st.
When I use the term "working fire," that means -- that doesn't
mean the little roadside stuff or anything else. That simply means
that it's required upon the initial dispatch. It's required us to trigger
additional resources, and sometimes elevating all the way up to what
we call a strike team, which is clusters of five. It could be brush
trucks, it could be water tenders, et cetera. So it could come from
Lee County if we don't have enough resources from ourselves.
So year to date we've had 19 working fires, and the Florida
May 14,2024
Forest Service has responded to over 120 acres of burned property
within Collier County since January 1 st. And so with -- you know,
with the weather the way it is and with the unseasonably dry, you
know, fall, winter, and spring, we are facing increasing fire risk.
And so in your packet, you'll note that there was a letter of
support from the Collier County Fire and EMS Chiefs Association.
We have collaboratively gotten together and determined that now is
the time to ask for this from the Board.
And with that, I'll take any questions that you may have, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Commissioner Saunders, you
want to go first?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, I was just going to ask,
could you explain what the burn ban means? Because there may be
people listening or may go on our web page --
CHIEF CHOATE: Certainly.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- and they may not fully
understand what it even means.
CHIEF CHOATE: Certainly. It just -- it's not
non -permitted -- any uncontrolled burning -- or any burning
whatsoever in the unincorporated areas of Collier County, is what
that means. And this can be rescinded, should we start getting rain,
should we -- you know, I understand this is sometimes controversial.
Just remember this doesn't affect big agriculture. Big agriculture can
always seek and get their burn permits and so forth should
the -- should the, you know, "big ag" need to burn for
whatever -- you know, like they do seasonally.
So this is for the nuisance stuff that always turns into something
major that happens. You know, it's the backyard stuff that most
often than not turns into something that requires a tremendous
amount of resources from your emergency services.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. First of all,
Page 100
May 14,2024
Commissioner Saunders, thank you for bringing this forward. This
is a subject matter near and dear to my heart.
I want you to be aware that we amended this ordinance years
ago. I used to fight with previous administration because of the
hocus-pocus that went into the enactment of a ban, and it had to be
approved and six of them had to stand there and say it was -- all the
stars lined up for it to be put in place.
I want to also say out loud that contrary to what the chief said,
we had an overly wet winter, far more rainfall than we typically have
had in the past. It hasn't been that way.
The County Manager and I spoke about the necessity of a burn
ban in excess of a month ago. I want it to be said out loud that the
county manager should, can, enact a burn ban when the powers that
be all say so in conjunction with consultation with our Chair.
And so this burn ban is late. It should -- it could have been
done and enacted a month ago when it was required. We have had
multiple brush fires that have popped up since, and I would suggest
that we follow our ordinance, enact a burn ban when the powers that
be all say so, and consult with the Chair, put the burn ban in place, do
the public notice, and have the Board ratify it at the earliest
convenience thereafter.
In consultation with the County Attorney yesterday, there was
some discussion about -- because unlike other ordinances, this is a
Sheriff -enforced ordinance, and the prosecution of someone who is in
violation of it could be in question if it isn't actually ratified by the
Board.
We're not looking to arrest anybody. We're just looking to
protect our citizenry and if, in fact, the prosecution is a question, then
we can deal with that. It's more important that when the stars line up
and it's necessary, that the ban is effectuated by the County Manager
in consultation with the Chair and the emergency service people.
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May 14,2024
aye.
So with that, I'll make a motion for approval.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Motion and second. All in favor, say
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: Good job, Chief.
CHIEF CHOATE: Thank you, Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN HALL: You talked us right into it.
All right. With that, it's lunchtime. We'll be back at 1 o'clock.
(A luncheon recess was had from 11:56 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.)
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Ms. Patterson, lead us into the
most exciting part of the day.
MS. PATTERSON: That's right.
Item # 11 D
AN AGREEMENT FOR SALE AND PURCHASE OF 21247 +/-
ACRES OF PROPERTY AT WILLIAMS RESERVE AT LAKE
TRAFFORD, LOCATED IN IMMOKALEE, AT A PURCHASE
PRICE NOT TO EXCEED $23,000,000 FOR USES SUCH AS
CONSERVATION, PARKS AND RECREATION,
TRANSPORTATION, STORMWATER MANAGEMENT,
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, AND POTENTIAL CO -
LOCATION OF FIRE OPERATIONS WITH IMMOKALEE FIRE
Page 102
May 14,2024
AND RESCUE DISTRICT; AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY
BUDGET AMENDMENTS. (JAMES FRENCH, DEPARTMENT
HEAD, GROWTH MANAGEMENT & COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT; JAIME COOK, DIRECTOR,
DEVELOPMENT REVIEW) (ALL DISTRICTS) MOTION TO
APPROVE W/BID OF $20,770,000.00 AND OTHER CHANGES
BY COMMISSIONER HALL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER
SAUNDERS - APPROVED
Item 11 D is a recommendation to approve an agreement for sale
and purchase of 2,247 plus -or -minus acres of property at Williams
Reserve at Lake Trafford located in Immokalee at a purchase price
not to exceed $23 million for uses such as conservation, parks and
recreation, transportation, stormwater management, economic
development, and potential collocation of fire operations with
Immokalee Fire and Rescue District, and authorize the necessary
budget amendments.
Mr. Ed Finn, your Deputy County Manager, is here to present.
MR. FINN: Thank you, Ms. Patterson, Mr. Chairman. Ed
Finn, Deputy County Manager.
With me today are Ms. Belpedio and Mr. Leonard from the real
property division; Mr. French; Ms. Cook; Mr. Bosi from Growth
Management Department; and Ms. Ashkar from the County
Attorney's Office.
I'm going to try to lead the Board through this item. There's a
lot of moving pieces to it. There's the property itself, there's the
contract, and there's the things that we want to talk to the Board about
as we go through this.
And with that, we'll commence.
The Board is being asked to consider the purchase of Williams
Reserve covering approximately 2,247 acres in Immokalee at Lake
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May 14,2024
Trafford. This strategic acquisition is designed to enhance
ecological connectivity linking wetland habitats to Lake Trafford and
restoring adjacent sloughs to strength flood defenses and support
aquifer recharge.
The initiative is part of the Conservation Collier program
principally but will also address diverse community needs including
parks and recreation, housing, transportation, stormwater
management, economic development. The acquisition will also
establish a partnership with the Immokalee fire district relevant to
public safety.
Bring the Board into the location. You can see Immokalee and
Williams Reserve relative to Immokalee. The vicinity, Williams
Reserve is identified there in red outline and the yellow, Immokalee
is identified, as is the Pepper Ranch, which is about 2700 acres under
the Conservation Collier program currently.
Give you a sense of the timeline. In August we approached the
Board. The Board gave us direction to have the County Manager
issue a letter of interest on the property, which we did. At that point
in time, our internal review appraiser, Mr. Leonard, had established
an initial value of $20,225,000.
Our letter of intent also indicated the statutory requirement
which is "or the lower of two independent appraisals."
In March, the Conservation Collier staff dug into the property
and looked at it quite closely, and we also received the appraisals in
March of this year.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And what did they find while
they were digging?
MR. FINN: They did not dig. They scratched. They didn't
dig. I appreciate the comment.
April '24, Conservation Collier submitted their initial screening
report to the CCLAC, and the CCLAC put this property on the A List
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for acquisition.
Letter of intent, representatives of the property owners
approached the Board, approached staff. As I discussed, the
Board -- the Board gave us direction in August of '23. As I noted,
the $23,000 figure came from the owner.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Twenty-three million.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Twenty-three million.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Twenty-three million.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Buy it tomorrow.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Twenty-three thousand, sold.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Buy two.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Just for the record, I just
wanted to --
MR. FINN: Put that green eye shade back on.
CHAIRMAN HALL: We dug into this and saw that.
MR. FINN: That's it. We found a big savings.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: We thought 23,000 was a
little low.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We scratched it.
MR. FINN: That's it.
In any event, the seller came back with a price of $23 million
and a condition stating they have the right to rescind the agreement if
the Board approves a price of less than 23 million.
A little bit about the property. This map endeavors to show the
wetlands that run through the property and its relationship to Lake
Trafford and the slough. The ecological connectivity is kind of
demonstrated by this, links with state conservation areas, including
Stewardship Sending Area 13, Conservation Collier's Pepper Ranch
Preserve, and the lands managed by South Florida Water
Management District, and Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem
Watershed.
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May 14,2024
The property links wetland habitats to Lake Trafford.
Restoration of the adjacent sloughs will bolster Immokalee's natural
flood defenses and contribute to aquifer recharge.
Relative to Conservation Collier, you can see, in concept, the
Conservation Collier portion is highlighted in yellow. You'll see
towards the top of the map outlined in red is Williams Farm's PUD,
which is an entitled piece of property, 336 residential units, and some
indication there of a potential site for the fire station.
Relative to Conservation Collier, it features at least eight distinct
habitat communities. This diverse landscape supports numerous
protected species; air plants, Florida panther, black bear, caracara,
and various wading birds, as well as habitat for other wildlife such as
turkey and deer. The preserve offers a variety of recreation
opportunities for us to develop, potentially including hunting, as is
done at Pepper Ranch.
Finally, the other uses of the property include affordable
housing. You'll see there the Williams Farm RPUD is entitled for
residential development of 336 residential units; Immokalee fire
district fire station location; there is, in concept, an earmark for
transportation and stormwater management; approximately 250 acres
for Parks and Recreation and additional passive recreation; and
250 acres for additional housing or other uses. In our minds, the
Conservation Collier, there would be some level of -- some level of
development to ensure public -- public access to this property and
public utilization.
Just a recap on the conceptual uses and a couple of
nice -to -look -at drone shots kind of showing the Board the property.
And I'll just move through these quickly.
Purchase price and appraisals. As mentioned, the purchase
agreement signed by the sellers and the county effectively reflects 23
thousand -- $23 million was the average of two appraisals. The
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average of two appraisals is $20,770,000; however, if the price
approved by the Board is lower than 23-, the seller reserves the right
to rescind the agreement. A price greater than the average, the
$20,770,000, is subject to a supermajority Board approval for any
excess amount. 2,274 acres, significant portion suitable for
conservation. The Williams Farms RPUD portion, 336 entitled
units, as well as other potential uses that we have discussed.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Mr. Finn.
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: How many acres is the Williams Farm
PUD?
MR. FULLMER: The Williams Farm, the RPUD document
has it at 168.2 or .02 acres.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: About right, yeah.
MR. FINN: The fiscal and financing approach, on the left-hand
side is a concept of the Williams property acquisition and just an
overall average cost per acre both at the average of the two
appraisals, as well as the $23 million price. Below that is showing
the Conservation Collier acquisition budget. So this is starting at
available $24 million. I've already taken out a couple of million
for -- 2 million -- 2.4 million for acquisitions that are either in process
or already on a list.
And you can see that relative to the proportion of Conservation
Collier in our initial -- initial evaluation, that still leaves a substantial
amount for additional acquisition.
On the right-hand side is kind of a breakdown of the initial
financing approach. This approach is going to be subject -- subject
to change not only before we get to the closing but also when the
ultimate uses of the property are determined, much like the golf
course. As those courses are developed and the properties are
allocated and leases or lease agreements are established, at that point
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the financing comes clear, and it's reconciled to the ultimate uses, and
we would propose doing that here.
The environmental inspection and reporting costs would be in
addition to the numbers shown on this sheet.
And I will focus just real quickly on the right-hand side.
Conservation Collier, somewhere between 12- and 13-, 13,4- as
allocated here. Parks impact fees, you can see what those amounts
are. The affordable housing, the entitled component, that's shown
there. The entitled per -acre value is substantially higher than the
balance of the property, which is valued at -- as ag, and then the
non -entitled affordable housing potentially could be supported by an
affordable housing fund that exists in our budget right now.
Environmental considerations. As you can see, the current use
is agricultural, including cattle and farming use and related fuel and
equipment; machinery sheds and shops exist on the property;
residential use. There is a residential home on the property as well
as an office; storage tanks for water and fuel; various wells and
ditches also exist.
Soil and groundwater testing are recommended throughout the
property.
Additional listed species also require additional testing and, of
course, there's always the likelihood that there's going to be
contamination from ag uses and fuel tanks, perhaps even the septic
systems presently on the property.
The agreement provides a six-month due diligence period for
conducting environmental evaluation and testing. The inspection
period may be extended by mutual consent. We did seek to achieve
a longer due diligence period, and we were, thus far, unsuccessful in
doing that.
Environmental reports. The seller possesses a Phase 1
environmental report and are obtaining or perhaps have a limited
May 14,2024
Phase 2 report. They've agreed to provide those reports within 10
days of this agreement being signed. Staff did, of course, ask to
have those reports. Those reports are kind of critical to us in
forming our scope for our studies for the due diligence period.
If the inspection is incomplete or reveals significant
contamination, staff may return to the Board during the inspection
period with a mutually agreed -upon time extension or a
recommendation that we exercise our termination rights.
Limited indemnification clause. A 6-month inspection period
has been agreed upon with potential extensions subject to mutual
agreement. We talked about the reports. Those are kind of critical
to us.
And we'll move on to liquidated damages. This is -- this is
essentially some hard money on our part. If all the other -- if
everything moves forward and for some reason budget isn't available
or the Board simply decides to change the direction they want to
move on this one, this hard money is all that's at risk at this point.
This -- the amount of money here and this approach is consistent with
the approach taken with Pepper Ranch, and the amount of -- amount
of money referenced here is in the same ratio as it was for Pepper
Ranch.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Can I ask one quick question
there?
MR. FINN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: We're only exposed on the
70,000 hard money, as you referred to it, if we go through the
inspection period, we go -- and we just decide, if our shoes come
untied, that we're not going to buy the property at all. If we -- but
per the -- my understanding is per the terms of the contract, if we are
in the inspection period, we get within 10 days, the Phase 1 and
limited Phase 2, and then make a determination that we wish to
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withdraw, we're not exposed on that 70-?
MR. FINN: Yes, I believe that's the case.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay.
CHAIRMAN HALL: That is the case. We're not exposed at
all prior to -- while we're in our due diligence period.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
MR. FINN: And this is a unilateral for our best interest, being
able to pull out.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I understand.
MR. FINN: There is a -- included in this agreement is a
naming -- naming component. Any conservation park established on
the purchased land is to be named James E. Williams, Jr., Preserve or
similar for a minimum of 20 years.
And this is our recommendation: Staff recommends that the
Board approve the sale and purchase agreement for approximately
2,247 acres of property at Williams Reserve. This approval includes
authorizing any necessary budget amendments and authorizing any
expedited procurement actions for environmental inspections.
Before the contract is approved, the Board must determine
appropriate purchase price. We talked about the supermaj ority.
And for the record, the deed will be prepared allowing for future
roadway and stormwater improvements on any land acquired under
Conservation Collier either in the short run or permanently.
With that, that completes my presentation. We do have
subject -matter experts here prepared to answer any specific questions
the Board may have.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Troy, do we have any public comment?
MR. MILLER: I have two registered speakers.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Let's hear them now.
MR. MILLER: Your first speaker is Brad Cornell. He'll be
followed by Daniel Zegarac.
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CHAIRMAN HALL: Do you know what to do, Mr. Cornell?
MR. CORNELL: I believe I do.
Brad Cornell on behalf of Audubon Western Everglades and
Audubon Florida. Mr. Chair, thank you for the opportunity to
address you on the Williams Farm acquisition.
This is no small effort and has a lot of facets to it, as we're
hearing from the Assistant County Manager.
And I want to first say that we're supportive of this purchase.
It's a strategic location. It's a really important wetland slough that's a
tributary to Lake Trafford. It's important habitat for a number of
listed species and imperiled species, and it complements the Rural
Lands Stewardship and the Conservation Collier and state and federal
efforts in conserving and managing our amazing resources in this
county, including in the area of Immokalee.
However, I want to emphasize what you heard in the staff
presentation, which is it's going to be really important that the county
get the Phase 1 and Phase 2 environmental investigation reports. We
know the history of this area. It's agricultural. It also is in a slough
that has conflicting land uses historically. There is an unlined
landfill that's in this same slough to the east. It's not in this property,
but water flows, and it's flowing towards Lake Trafford. So we need
to know what the consequence of that is.
Also, the process of the Immokalee Water and Sewer District,
you know, how they have managed their effluent and spray field, et
cetera, et cetera. We need to know what the consequence of all that
is, as well as agricultural operations. You know, historically, there
are cattle and cattle -dipping vats that everybody used in times gone
by.
So we need to know, is there DDT out there? Are there other
chemicals that would be a liability, that you don't want to put
affordable housing or parks or conservation uses? So those are
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things that, you know, we need to know that we're not getting set up
for some sort of unfair liability or a conflict.
The other thing I just wanted to underscore is the -- I went to the
Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Advisory Committee hearing
on this, and at the time it was 1167 acres, and now it's another
300 acres, and the price has gone up from eight million to 12 or 13
million. So I was surprised at that, and I'm not quite sure what that
math is, and it appears that there's some indecision about what
departments are going to be paying for what.
So I would just ask you that if there are lands that are going to
be purchased with Conservation Collier money but not used for
Conservation Collier purposes, that Conservation Collier be
reimbursed -- that they be reimbursed at the -- you know, whenever
that department has decided that -- is going to be in charge of that
land use. So if I may make that strong recommendation. And,
otherwise, we're supportive. Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next and final speaker for this item is
Daniel Zegarac.
MR. ZEGARAC: Good afternoon, gentlemen. My name is
Daniel Zegarac from Collier County.
It was nice to hear Mr. Cornell's comments about caution on
this -- on this property. And I would also add to that be careful
about spending money on things that don't necessarily have long-term
revenue resources to support the expenditures. Our debt has grown
substantially over the last couple of years, lacking a plan to deal with
it. Sound familiar?
Conservation Collier has great components to it; however, too
often it seems we overpay for property and keep it overpriced in the
market. This is the function of government.
Workforce housing also has some great components to it, but
does inclusion of it automatically make a project undeniable? I
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heard the other day that it did.
When was the value of this property originally discussed? I
heard today from Mr. Finn that the seller said it was worth
23 million. Did he give us a document that substantiates that
23 million? I don't know where -- these type of risks and the
location of this type of property, I haven't heard of 23 million.
When was the value of the property originally discussed? Is it
assumed that the value is 20- to 23 million because that's what the
seller wants? Is there another buyer for this property if the county
passes on the purchase? Somebody waiting in line to buy it,
perhaps? It doesn't seem that we know enough about this property
or that the seller is giving us enough information to complete the deal
on this land. Seventy thousand dollars in liquidated damages if
Collier leaves the deal.
It would seem to me that before Collier County spends this
amount of money on a potential project, even with Conservation
Collier as a partner, you should know a lot more about this land.
Thank you.
MR. MILLER: And that was our final speaker.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Well, first of all, in
respect to the last public speaker, Dan, I welcome you to come and
speak with me about this because a lot of the questions that you
raised I have answers to, and I'd be happy to share them with you.
I'm very intimate with this piece of property.
I did express some concerns with regard to the potential for
exposure in the remediation aspect of it, but I feel comfortable that
with the Phase 1 that's -- that's already been done and the limited
Phase 2 that we don't yet have access to but have been promised to us
within 10 days of an agreement, we'll be able to ascertain fairly
quickly whether or not there's a large exposure.
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I did -- I did also express some concerns with regard to the
$70,000 of liquidated damages, but they're not liquidated damages
during our due diligence period. So it's only if we walk from the
agreement after we've done our due diligence and such that we would
have that as an exposure.
My question, Ed -- and Jaime Cook apparently is -- oh, there she
is. She's right over there. She had a really nice map that I looked at
yesterday. If I'm not mistaken, we need to -- once we ultimately do
or do not make the purchase, we need to do a GMP amendment; is
that correct? Everybody's over there hitting buttons. There's the
map. We have to do a GMP amendment?
MS. COOK: Jaime Cook, director of Development Review.
Yes, the area outlined -- or shaded in pinkish red is within the
Rural Lands Stewardship Area. So to develop it as anything other
than ag uses, it would need a GMP amendment to remove it from the
RLSA.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And then the area in
green is not included in the RLSA?
MS. COOK: Correct. That is within the Immokalee urban
area.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. So -- and except for
the northern piece, which I think is the PUD for the housing --
MS. COOK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- that's -- and that's not
delineated on this map here?
MS. COOK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. So once we get to a
point of moving forward, I would like to make, as part of our motion,
that we give direction to staff upon the acquisition that we
immediately pursue the GMP amendments. And my proposition is
really quite simple, is that the area that's in pink be removed from the
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RLSA and the area that's in green be added into the RLSA. Since
we're doing a GMP amendment, we add in that slough area into the
RLSA, which can be an enormous benefit to Conservation Collier.
The other commalt is this access on this land lines up directly
with Little League Road in Immokalee proper, and this can be -- it's
rather circuitous, but there was talk about road -- or right-of-way
reservation for a road system and the extension of Little League south
could be -- with the obvious permission of other landowners to the
south, this could be an extension of Little League Road all the way
from Im m ckalee Drive to Im in ckalee Road itself, which would
greatly enhance for evacuation purposes and all kinds of wonderful
things for Immokalee proper.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I'm waiting for Troy to quit driving.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Somebody's -- somebody's
hitting a lot of buttons here.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Which one's Little League Road?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's --
MS. COOK: Commissioners, it's basically these two red lines
running through the center of the map north/south. It's an existing
FPL easement, but Little League Road lines up with that.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Gotcha.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And we have plans for -- if
you don't recall in the MPO at one time, there was plans in the
Long -Range Transportation Plan of extending Little League north all
the way up to 82 as well, and the potential for that does, in fact, exist.
FPL bought a large tract of land north up near 82 for a solar
field, and we've got right-of-way -- right-of-way reservation along
the east side of that property as well to allow for another ingress and
egress in and out of Immokalee.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Gotcha.
Commssioner LoCastro.
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COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO:
Mr. Finn, why do we have to
wait 10 days for the reports? Why can't we get every single piece of
information ahead of time before we even make an offer?
MR. FINN: Staff endeavored to do so, and we were
unsuccessful.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I know. So isn't that a bad
sign?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO:
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL:
No, that's what I'm asking.
Can I ask [sic] you?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, absolutely.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Can I answer it?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: If they give it -- if the seller
were to give it to us, it becomes public record.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, then everybody knows it,
yeah.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And if we chose to not buy
the piece of property, everybody would be able to have that. So I
wouldn't want to do that if I was the seller at this stage.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah, but I'm not the seller.
I'm the buyer, so I don't care what the seller wants. I'm about to give
the seller $20 million. So if they want the 20 million in a big bag
handed to them, I would think they had to take some risk and show
all their cards. I understand what you're saying. And if I was the
seller, I would probably do the same thing, but I'm -- we're not.
We're the buyer.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I was just sharing with
you the rationale for that which --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO:
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL:
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Yeah. I mean, it's obvious.
They promised to give it to
May 14,2024
us within 10 days. That's not an unreasonable request. And if I
were the seller, I wouldn't want that information becoming public
for --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Does that make you
suspicious in thinking there's something in that report that's more
than what it is?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, not at all.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So then why would -- why
would they be holding it back? So if everybody -- if the report
shows that that's the most perfect piece of property, why would they
care if every buyer out in the world got that information? It makes
the land more buyable.
I mean, I just get nervous that, you know, we're in another golf
course thing where we buy something, and then we figure out it's all
full of arsenic or the remediation is going to be millions and millions
of dollars.
And so we pat ourselves on the back on buying a piece of
property that's worth 23 million, and we pay 20 million for it, and
then we find out we need to spend another 10 million doing
something. I mean, I know that's worst -case scenario, but, you
know, the speakers and other people -- the comments have merit. I
mean -- and this isn't a $40,000 piece of property. This is a big
investment. If I was buying something for 20 million, I would want
every report up front. And if the seller wasn't willing to give it to
me, I'm not saying that would keep me from buying it, but it raises a
little bit of a concern, you know.
And we've done this before, as we've heard the speakers say, and
even other folks. I'm not saying that's the case here. But this is a
big ask, you know.
I understand the environmental positives with this piece of
property. It's not out in the middle of nowhere. This is, you know,
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a choice piece of property. But, you know, I just -- I just want to
make sure that we've done all of our due diligence and that the things
that we asked for that we didn't get, you know, do we have a
concern?
I realize if we get the report in 10 days and we don't like what
we hear, then the deal's off. But, you know, I'd feel more
comfortable if the deal was the seller is doing everything possible to
have the buyer feel comfortable. I mean, they're also asking us to
name this thing after their family, you know. So I mean, I see -- that
there, I go, if you want your name on the sign, maybe give us the
report, you know. I mean, I don't know if that's asking too much,
but...
MR. FINN: And if I may, sir, I will say that the golf course
certainly has some bumps to it, if you will. That didn't have any
indemnification when we acquired it. This, at a minimum, has some
indemnification, and we're going into it with our eyes open relative to
that, which is why we're proceeding the way we are.
We're going to get their report. That report with inform our
inspections, and then we will conduct our inspections.
With that, Mr. Ashkar has a com m ait that she'd like to make.
MS. ASHKAR: Good afternoon, Commssioners. Sally
Ashkar, Assistant County Attorney.
I just wanted to note an update that we made to the agreement
about the 10 days. It's actually been reduced down to three days.
I also had a conversation with the seller's attorney who already
has those reports in his possession. So once the Board approves the
agreement, we'll reach out, and they would provide us with those
reports.
And as Mr. Finn mentioned, there's an indemnification provision
for anything that comes up in those reports but, additionally, during
the inspection period, if there's anything that comes up in those
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reports that we don't like from an environmental standpoint, we can
terminate without penalty.
CHAIRMAN HALL: That answered one of my questions.
So this -- this piece of property, in my opinion, is exactly what
Conservation Collier is all about. This has real benefits to the
county. It has real benefits to housing. It has -- there's a lot of
benefits to it.
One of the things on the three-day deal, it's super customary,
you know. It's like going to a dance. You don't dance till the music
starts playing, and when the contract's signed, that's the music.
And in any deal, you want -- everybody wants to feel
comfortable. The seller wants to feel comfortable; the buyer wants
to feel comfortable.
I don't -- I'm just going to say right now I'm not going to be a
player on the $23 million. I will support this going at the appraised
values of 20,770 [sic].
I think we've done a fairly good job of trying to negotiate some
terms up front, but there's a difference between us making a decision
and staff making a decision.
I would like to see -- you know, we get -- we get the chance to
extend for six months if we don't have all of the reports in that we
want, and that's fine. But at -- the way it's written is that's upon
mutual consent. And I would like, with our offer back, to put some
kind of a phrase in there that says we can automatically extend if we
don't have reports that we require at no fault of the purchaser. And
I'm not saying an automatic six months' extension, but we could look
at, you know, a shorter term than that to -- and even if we don't have
those reports.
Our full intention as the purchaser is to get every report, look at
everything with super diligence. And I just want to -- I don't want to
see a good deal go bad because of some -- you know, for whatever
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reason, we don't get the information back that we really require. I
love the fact that we've learned from the golf course, so moving into
this we're thinking a lot better.
I know that there's some leases that are existing with this
property. And if those leases -- if Conservation Collier -- if we wind
up buying that with Conservation Collier, I want to make sure that
those leases could be assignable to the county or, if we choose, we
can keep that lease income to the Conservation Collier program as
maintenance. But I want to make sure that we take a look at that.
I'm good with the naming. They want to name it after their
family, so I don't think that they're trying to dump a dog on the
county. You know, I don't think that they're just trying to, you
know, get rid of this property for any reason.
I don't think that there's anybody else lined up to purchase this
property.
And as far as the environmental remediation, is there anything in
our written agreement that requires the seller to remediate anything
that's already known by them when they turn those reports over?
MS. ASHKAR: Yes, Commissioner. The Phase 1 and Phase 2
reports has an indemnification provision that survives closing for six
months. There's also an optional indemnification provision in there
which says if the county were to procure a report and that showed
that something came up, an environmental issue with the property,
then the seller would have the option to indemnify, or the county
could terminate without penalty.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. As far as Mr. Cornell's statement
about if the -- if Conservation Collier winds up purchasing a large
portion of this, and at some point, 10 years from now, yes, we will
definitely pay Conservation Collier back for any of those -- any of
that stuff that they own that we would want to develop on.
Say 10 years from now, just hypothetically, we want to put
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parks in the ag fields, then, yes, we would -- we would -- my
intention would be to pay -- to pay the program back any dollars that
they spent for those properties.
With that, Mr. -- Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
I agree with Commissioner Hall on a couple things. But I want
to -- before getting into that, I want to ask a couple questions. In
terms of the six-month due diligence period, I think we're entering
into this agreement knowing that six months is not enough time to
complete the Phase 2 and then evaluate any further environmental
studies that might be needed. Is that -- is that fairly accurate that
we're pretty certain we're going to need more time?
MR. FINN: We will --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: And I know we can get more
time, but I'm just asking the question.
MR. FINN: As we work through it, yes, sir, that was -- that
was one of staffs concerns is our ability to get it done, given that we
operate on government time around here for the most part.
So, yes, that is a little bit of a concern.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: So if we terminate within the
six months for any reason or no reason, then the $70,000 is refunded?
MR. FINN: We're not actually making that deposit, but rather
that would be a penalty.
MS. ASHKAR: Yes, Commissioner. The 70,000 is not an
earnest money deposit.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: What's that?
MS. ASHKAR: It's not an earnest money deposit. It's only a
liquidated damages provision. So it's only if the county defaults on
the contract, fails to close, a budget amendment happens, we can't
fund it. The Commission decides to reconsider the purchase and
decides to no longer purchase it, that is the time when the 70,000
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kicks in.
You have, during your six-month inspection period, ample
opportunity to terminate for environmental issues that come up. So
there is no issue with that. The 70,000 is not at play during that
inspection period.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. So in terms of the
purchase price, I agree with Commissioner Hall that we don't know
where the 23 million came from other than out of thin air, and we
have two appraisals that are both lower than that number. And so I
think that the proper response would be to offer up the 20.77 million.
And I don't have any other particular issues, but that's kind of where I
would be.
Now, it takes four votes to purchase this at 23 million, if I'm not
mistaken. So you've heard from two of us on the $23 million
purchase price.
CHAIRMAN HALL: It's supermajority if we go to the lower
amount.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No, no, no.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Higher amount.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: If we go above.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: If we go above.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Oh, more than. Okay. Gotcha.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: More than the 20.7.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
Yeah, I'm falling in line with Commissioner Hall and
Commissioner Saunders here myself on the -- I'm comfortable with
the 20.77 million as the offering price.
You know, I had concerns, and I kind of brought it up, but we
don't even have the answers, or maybe somebody has the answers
that, you know, they're telling us this Part I study's complete. A
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partial Part 2 -- or Phase 2 study was conducted.
Do we know who conducted these studies? Do we know, is it a
reputable organization? Because I know when we go into these, we
vet people, and then we -- you know, we decide who we're going to
have.
MR. FINN: Sir, I do not know. I am certain it's a reputable
company. And as Ms. Ashkar said, we're going to have it in three
days, not 10 days. Effectively, those reports sound like they're
almost held in escrow by their attorney at this point, so...
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: This is kind of a silly --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So I know -- and I'm sorry.
And just coming back full circle, you know, it's just like if I was
running a hospital or any kind of other organization, you know,
people do naming rights on a lot of things. You know, the Bakers
have their name on a lot of things at NCH, but that didn't come free.
You know, the Bakers donated a lot of money towards that
organization to get a name on a building or a park or something like
that.
So, you know, I get they're asking 23 million. We don't know
why or what that number's coming from, but then at the same time
they want naming rights on the Conservation Collier properties that
are going to be purchased by the tax dollars. That -- you know, to
me it's a push. 20.7- or 23-, you get the naming rights. There's your
contribution. So, I mean, I don't -- you know, I don't know if the
naming rights are free at this point. So I kind of like that tradeoff.
That's where I'm at.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I could be --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I can count.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I could be wrong, but I'm thinking some
of that 23 million, the higher price, is coming from the SSA credits
that are available. They're kind of banking on those to be an
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addition, but if we develop that -- if we develop that, then those -- to
my understanding, those credits are out; is that correct?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No. Call on me.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm going to help you -all
here, if you call on me, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. Commissioner McDaniel, would
you please.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: First of all, I like your idea
about some kind of an automatic extension for 60, 90 days after the
six-month due diligence as long as we haven't done anything
squirrely to push things too awful far other than the glacial speed of
government that we all operate at.
Today there is a plus -or -minus in excess of a thousand credits
that can be generated off of this site in the RLSA. Today -- there's
only been one transaction, and nobody can find out what the actual
dollar amount that went from a third -party to another -- all of the
other transactions in the RLSA have been intercompany. Barron
Collier did their own creation of credits. Collier Enterprises did
their own creation of credits, so it was an intercompany transaction.
There's only been one outside transaction where a property owner
who had credits sold those credits to a developer for the development
now known as Sky Sail in the RLSA, and no one -- they won't say
what those -- what that price was, but it's fairly well to be assumed
that it was somewhere between 900 and $1,000 per credit.
So I have two questions for Ed. Number 1, if we were -- and
I'm not sure that the Board's leaning in that direction right now. If
we were to go to the $23 million asking price, which is what the
sellers are asking for, is there sufficient funds in amongst the funds
that you've been talking about to be able to make this acquisition to
be able to get to that 2.2 million over the appraised value?
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MR. FINN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. So my statement is,
to my colleagues here, if we do what I'm suggesting, and that is the
GMP amendment, move the lands to the south that are in the RLSA
out of the RLSA to be able to develop for government purposes,
parks and so on and so forth, and include the highly environmentally
sensitive areas to the north in the slough area in the RLSA, the credit
generation in that area for Conservation Collier just doing its job,
doing the reclamation, doing the cleanup of the slough, enhancing the
water quality and water quantity for flood circumstances coming off
the tribal lands, which lie over to the east, and then, ultimately, flow
through the slough to Lake Trafford.
The credit generation within that environmentally sensitive area
is significantly higher. Do you want to say out loud?
MR. BOSI: And I'm sorry. It was just a question just related
to the Growth Management Plan and what is and who is not allowed
to participate within the creation of credits. And our GMP
specifically says that only privately owned lands are eligible to create
credits for the SSA purposes. Just -- so that would have to be
something that would have to be addressed as well.
MR. KLATZKOW: You're amending it anyway.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Say.
MR. KLATZKOW: You're amending it anyway. If that's
what the Board wants, four votes, and that's what the Board gets.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Because that's
what -- that's what my intent was in the beginning of the original
amendments that we were making to Conservation Collier was to be
able to allow these property right benefits to inure
to the benefit of Collier County and replenish, both from a
maintenance standpoint and replacement of funds, the creation of
those -- the creation of those SSAs and the credit generation to
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benefit Conservation Collier, slash, the taxpayers. So plus or minus.
MS. COOK: At least -- I would say around at least 5,000
depending on the type of restoration that you -- activities that you
choose to take on.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: On a conservative basis, that
5,000 credit generation has the potential of bringing back far in
excess of the spread between what the county appraised the land for
and what the sellers are asking for, and enhance a whole -- a myriad
of environmental benefits for water quality, water quantity, flood
control, so on and so forth, into Lake Trafford.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Can you pull up the slide that
shows all the different pots of money that are tapped into to get to the
20-plus million dollars? It was a couple slides before this. Yeah, I
guess that's it.
I mean, so it's not -- you know, Conservation Collier's a big
chunk, but it also is coming from some other big pots as well. So I
just wanted to sort of, you know, re -highlight that. If you need four
votes to go above $20.77 million, you won't get mine.
I actually would offer these folks 19 million, and then they get
the naming rights. I mean, like, you know, Commissioner Kowal
said, everywhere else in town, you know, if you get a park named
after you or a hospital -- I'm not looking to split hairs with the folks,
because I do see the value of this land, but, you know, maybe the
concession on their part is, you know, they'll take $20.77 million and
the naming rights. I mean, I don't think that's the longest pole in the
tent but, you know, normally when you get something named, you
know, in perpetuity -- only this one says for 20 years, but -- you
know, we've said before that we want to stick to appraisal price or
below. We bought four lots of land today. You know, we didn't
spend $20 million, but I think, two of them, we paid 95 percent of the
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appraisal price.
So, you know, I mean, we've got to use some due diligence here
in spending taxpayers' dollars, and this money isn't just coming out of
Conservation Collier. You know, you've got 1.8 million coming out
of Parks and Rec, and, you know, we've got, you know, water parks
and issues in our parks that need repairs that -- you know, we're sort
of tight on money. So, you know, taking anything out of our parks
budget is significant, but this is a -- a purchase that's valuable, so I
get it.
Is there anything that we can do -- and maybe I misunderstood
you -- and it's for the attorney or our County Attorney -- to protect
the 70,000? You know, I would hate to -- in negotiations, it sounds
like that's sort of, like, time sensitive. So if we go beyond a
certain -- if we bow out after a certain time period, that 70- is in
jeopardy. We would lose it, correct? There is a -- it would cost us
$70,000 at some point if a whole bunch of negative things happened,
correct?
MS. ASHKAR: It's not necessarily that the 70,000 would kick
in after a period. It's that if the county doesn't terminate according to
a provision, that authorizes that termination.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay.
MS. ASHKAR: So you've got ample opportunity to terminate
in the agreement as it exists.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Without losing it?
MS. ASHTON: Without losing the 70K.
Frankly, I think that the possibility of getting to that point is
probably pretty slim just because you have ample opportunity to
terminate for other reasons throughout the agreement. You can kind
of relate it back to when you buy a house and you put an earnest
deposit money down. This is just done a little bit differently because
this is county government, so it's structured as liquidated damages
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instead. And it's consistent with what we've done for some of our
other large Conservation Collier purchases as well, so it's not
unusual.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. And that's what I
wanted to hear, that there's -- we would see it coming, and we
wouldn't just let the 70- walk out the -- out the door.
And I think I'm in line with what the other commissioners have
said but, you know, I didn't necessarily get to say it first. But I
wouldn't vote for anything over 20.77. I mean, we've stuck to
appraisal price or below, and I don't see any difference, you know,
here. And if they decide, then, to back out of the deal, which is
their -- you know, their right, I also agree I don't think there's 10
people lining up to buy this property. I think, you know, it's a fair
deal for both sides. And, you know, hopefully they'll take the deal at
the appraisal price that we're possibly about to offer.
Okay. Thank you.
MR. FINN: If I may, Mr. Chairman.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
MR. FINN: Commissioner McDaniel had mentioned an
additional 90-day extension on our 180 days. I would,
if -- consistent with what Commissioner Saunders had asked me a
moment ago, it may well be desirable to have that as a part of the
contract with approval not unreasonably withheld by either party.
CHAIRMAN HALL: I'm going to make that -- when we make
that motion --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yep.
CHAIRMAN HALL: -- to send this forward, I want the 20,770
[sic] figure, I want the amendment to the six-month clause to where
we can auto extend for 90 days. If we don't have any reports -- I'm
putting this in Texican. If we don't have the reports on time, at no
fault to the purchaser, at no fault to us; if it's our fault, if it's
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negligence on us, then there is no extension.
And then I love the idea of moving the RLSA lands. And if
we -- but I don't think that should be a part of this sales agreement. I
think that should be something that we do once we get -- once we
get -- once we close we can change the Growth Management Plan
and make sure that government entities can participate.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And if I may, on that note,
just -- I wanted it to be part of this discussion so we were giving
specific instruction --
CHAIRMAN HALL: Sure.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: -- to our staff as to how to
proceed. We have to get to an offering price and a contractual
arrangement first, but I wanted that to be part of this discussion. If
we need to do that in a separate motion after we make the motion to
buy or not, as the case may be, fine.
I just -- I made the mistake of acquiring -- agreeing to acquire
three other pieces of property in my tenure without giving specific
instruction as to what staff needed to be doing with those assets, and
years transpired before we started making motions on doing things
that we needed to do.
So that was -- that's -- I just -- that was the reason.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Terri, are you correcting all
these $20,700, comments? I figured you're putting in the right
amount, right? Because we've all sort of said it.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I think we're getting to a
consensus here, because I agree in terms of the purchase price. But I
do want to ask one question that certainly will be, I think, relevant
coming up.
If we amend the Comprehensive Plan so that we can market the
credits, I don't know how many credits the county has, but does that
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impact in a negative way the market for those credits that other
property owners are relying on? Because when they evaluate the
value of their property, they're looking at a set number of credits that
are available. Now we're potentially opening up that number
to -- and I don't know how much larger that number would be.
CHAIRMAN HALL: We're dominating.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Well, I mean, that's what
we're doing, isn't it? When you say we can -- the government can't
market, can't sell those credits, can't use those credits today.
Tomorrow, we change the Growth Management Plan so that we can.
I'm just curious -- and for a later date -- what does that do to the
overall market for credits? Maybe it does nothing, but I think that
that's just a factor. Because there are a lot of people out there that
are relying on the value of their credits, and I don't know what kind
of impact this would have on them.
MR. KLATZKOW: Assuming this deal closes, which might be
half a year from now, staff will probably be directed by the Board to
come back with GMP amendments on this, and as part of his
analysis, Mr. Bosi will talk about the issue of the credits.
MR. BOSI: And just to add to that --Mike Bosi, Planning and
Zoning director.
This would be one we'd probably want to have the application
submitted by a third party because we're going to be reviewing it as
well for the Growth Management Plan amendment. But that would
have to be part of the data and analysis in terms of what's the number
of credits potentially that could be impacted by this? How does
that -- how does that work within the overall balance of the credits
available in terms of the overall impact to the program? So that will
be part of what has to be part of the backup that would become -- as
part of the GMP amendment necessary to effectuate that type of a
change.
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MR. KLATZKOW: But these credits exist today. I mean, the
current owner has these credits. We're just stepping into their shoes.
So I don't think it creates any increase or decrease of the credits
available in the market. But that's an issue that Mr. Bosi will look
into.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: That's not -- the credits that
exist in the RLSA don't exist until an SSA are, in fact, created.
There is no SSA created. So the credits that are here are, in fact,
available to the current property owner, but they're not in existence
today.
And, Commissioner Saunders, to your point with regard to the
value of the credits, there are not a lot of people that are involved in
the credit transfers in the RLSA. Even though it's a voluminous
amount of acreage, in excess of 200,000 acres, there's not a lot of
property owners.
Third, I know for a fact that there -- if you'll recall, when we
amended the RLSA several years ago, we capped both the credits and
the acreage to be developed, if I'm not mistaken.
MR. BOSI: Forty-five thousand acres, and 404,000 credits.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Total credits. And there are
lands within that accomplishable 45,000 acres that can, in fact, be
developed that are credit deficient; there's not sufficient credits within
the system to develop those lands.
So there's not going to be a large -- again, supply and demand.
There's not going to be a large decrease in the value of those credits if
we were to create the SSAs in those slough areas, because that's
where the low -hanging fruit is.
In the RLSA, you'll recall that based upon the Natural Resource
Index, you've got certain amounts of credits when you created an
SSA, and a portion of those credits come out of restoration, and those
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are the expensive credits that property owners are less likely to go
create because there's a fairly large expense associated with it. We
would be doing that credit creation just by Conservation Collier
doing its job per the ordinance of Conservation Collier with the
restoration efforts in those sloughs.
So it's what Conservation Collier already does. And so
receiving that benefit back to Conservation Collier, to me, far in
excess offsets the $2 million spread between what our county
appraisers have said the property is worth and what the seller is, in
fact, asking.
I -- and just to Commissioner LoCastro's point, not to belabor it,
but there isn't -- the seller's not doing anything nefarious by not
turning loose the environmental inspections. There is no transaction
right now. There's no benefit for the seller to give that information
up. The sheer fact that they've already alleged [sic] that we could
have it within three days when we do have a deal offers me assurance
that they're not withholding information. But it wouldn't be
beneficial for the seller to give that information in advance while
we're negotiating on an acquisition.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Oh, I agree. But we're not
the seller, we're the buyer, so I want it to be beneficial to us.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I don't -- I didn't say that you
didn't.
CHAIRMAN HALL: The seller wants it beneficial to them.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, and -- so having said
that, as far as the leases go, the existing leases, Commissioner Hall,
totally on board with that rationale. If I recall in this reading, there's
close to 500,000 -- between 3- and 500,000 a year in revenue that's
already being generated off these agricultural leases that are there,
and I certainly want those to remain intact as we're going forward,
even after we acquire the property. Because even after its
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acquisition, if, in fact, we do acquire it, it's going to -- we're going to
need money to offset our expenses from the GMP amendment, credit
generation and so on.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Are we going to change the
10 days to the three?
CHAIRMAN HALL: It's already changed.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No, we don't have to. Leave
it at 10, and if they'll give it to us in three, it's great.
CHAIRMAN HALL: The seller's attorney's already agreed to
three days.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So I'm going to make a motion that we
send this sales and purchase agreement forward 20,770,000 with a
change in the auto -extend language that if we don't get -- if we don't
get our reports that we need within that six months at no fault to us, at
no fault to the purchaser, that we extend automatically for 90 more
days, and that any leases to the property are assignable, and that
naming rights -- we're agreeable to the naming rights. Now, that's
my motion for the approval of the sales and purchase agreement.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'll second that,
Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. So it's -- outside of that, we have
the benefit of changing those RLSA rules. No other private
purchasers are. So I don't think that we should count that as value to
the seller just -- I mean, that would be like I have the knowledge to
rehab a house, but somebody else that purchases a house may not
have that knowledge to know how to do it. But when I do it, I create
more value to it, but that doesn't have to do anything with me
purchasing that house. That has to do with what I bring value to.
So that's the only reason why I didn't include that.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Do we want to -- I mean, I
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know this is a small point, but if they've agreed to give us the reports
in three days, do we want to change the 10 days to three or just take it
on good faith that we're going to get it in three?
CHAIRMAN HALL: Well, we can make the amendment to --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Well, I'd like to see it in
writing to say three days. It gives us more time.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yeah.
MR. FINN: We will endeavor to do that.
So I just brought up a slide here, and I just want to be clear what
the agreement says. The agreement says that -- they've signed the
agreement with a condition providing the right to rescind the
agreement if the Board approves a purchase price. What that means
is, your motion, sir, is fine. We just have to go back to the seller and
get them to agree to this --
CHAIRMAN HALL: Correct.
MR. FINN: -- counter agree to the same terms.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yeah. And you can tell them we're
unanimous on it, I hope.
I've got a motion and a second. We're going to vote in a
second.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: I just would clarify that
whoever's making that offer back to the seller, it's not that we're
sitting here quibbling over nickels and dimes. First of all, it's not.
It's millions of dollars. But we also have taken a position that we
pay the -- what's the word I'm looking for? --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Appraisal.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- the appraisal price and not
a penny more, and, in fact, we've been motivated to pay less than
appraisal prices for properties. So it's not a matter of we're trying to
stretch them a bit.
But I don't see anything special in this property to have an extra
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$3 million, you know, go to them just because they've kind of pulled
it out of the air and asked for it. And I'm sure they did their due
diligence. You know, they got an appraiser that was a little higher
than ours, but, you know, we've promised the taxpayers here that
we'll pay appraisal price, and then recently, you know, we've decided
that we actually want our staff to be motivated to offer less than the
appraisal, especially when it's a benefit to the seller.
So it's not a matter of, you know, we said no to their 23 million,
but our promise up here to the taxpayers has been appraisal price or
less. We're not going to overpay for properties, so...
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm going vote to support the
motion, but you're making an offer to fail. They have already said
out loud that they'll accept 23 million. Anything less, they have the
right to rescind. You can offer -- we can offer whatever we want.
And I understand everybody's rationale, but I do want you to
remember that this is a slated location for a direly needed park system
in Immokalee, direly needed field. That hasn't been reiterated by our
staff with regard to the terrible deficit that we're at with field space in
Immokalee, with the road right-of-way for the extension of Little
League Road, with a housing component that is direly needed in our
community, with the credit generation that can be, in fact,
accomplished and pay back three times the amount of money over
what our appraisal says, and last but not least, while my
appraiser -- my favorite appraiser's sitting over there, when the
government appraises a piece of property, it's not for retail value.
It's for the value from a government perspective.
And it doesn't bring into consideration all of the additional
values from an environmental concern, from a water quality, from a
water quantity, flood control, fire protection. I didn't even -- you
know, Chief Choate's sitting back there. I didn't even talk about the
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additional fire station that can go on this piece of property.
So though I don't disagree with what's been said, I think we're
making a motion for failure. I'll support it if you want to go down
that road, but I think we're going to get to talk about this again if we
decide to.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Is there anyone here from the
seller?
time.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I hear from the sellers all the
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: No, I mean anybody in the room.
MR. ROLLINS: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: There is --
MR. ROLLINS: I am.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: -- a representative.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah, their Realtor is.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Oh, okay. I just was curious if
there was somebody here.
MR. ROLLINS: I'm here. I made it clear that I'm here for any
questions that the Board may have on behalf of the seller.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: He's saying out loud, for the
microphone, that he'd be willing to answer any questions that we may
have of the seller.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Do you think that any part of our
discussion has been unfair?
MR. MILLER: He's going to need to come to the mic.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yeah. He can come to the podium.
MR. FINN: Why don't we bring Mr. Rollins forward, please.
MR. ROLLINS: Good afternoon, Commissioners. And for
the record, my name is William Rollins. I'm the senior broker with
LSI Companies.
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Just to share some information -- I understand where the county
is and what you can and can't do with sending and receiving;
however, this is private land. You can take land and take the
sending units and move it to receiving land and create roughly 4,000
units. I think even in one of the documents you -all had about 3,000
in there that you would be able to create. So that is value.
The reason we came up with the 23 million is because we took
into consideration those sending and receiving in what you could do
with the property as a private individual.
Now, I understand where the county sits, but if -- I could take
that piece of property -- or the owners could take that piece of
property and entitle it, probably two- to three-year period, it will
probably be worth 40-, $50 million as a huge mixed -use community.
And there again, also offering up lots of opportunities for the county.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yeah. My question was, do you think
any part of our discussion was unreasonable or unfair?
MR. ROLLINS: No, sir, I do not.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay.
MR. ROLLINS: But I wanted to tell you why -- how we came
to that value.
CHAIRMAN HALL: No, I gotcha. I appreciate you
explaining that.
MR. ROLLINS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you, Billy.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you.
MR. ROLLINS: And as for the person that's doing the
consulting work on the Phase 1, that is Stantec.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Good. That's a good company.
Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No. I was just going to say
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that, you know, we've talked over this past year about running the
county more like a business, so I don't think this offer is a chance to
fail. I think we're making a business proposal. We're making an
offer to the seller. And if they don't like it, they can walk and make
$50 million in four years, which I don't think is necessarily the case,
or they can come back to us with a counter.
But, you know, we've said what we will stick to, appraisal price,
and, you know, my vote is only going to be for the appraisal price,
and I don't think that means that the owners, you know, turn around
and run over $3 million.
They can come back and counter, or they can hear what we're
saying. We're trying to use our due diligence. This money isn't just
coming from Conservation Collier. It's coming out of several
different pots of money, and I think all's we're doing here is a
business transaction and we're making our first offer on the property,
and maybe our last offer. That's up to the buyers -- or the sellers,
rather, to determine.
But I look at this as a straight business deal. And, yeah, you
can look at the credits of having value and things down the road. I
think we've decided that when we want to turn into real estate agents
up here and buy property, we're not going to pay more than what the
appraisal price is that comes to us, at least that's my standpoint.
Unless there's some other intangibles -- and there's always
intangibles, but I think they're -- it's a bit more of a reach. So I feel
comfortable with my vote of $20,770,000 being our offer back to the
seller. It's business.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So we have a motion and a second to
send this forward as amended. Do we need to rehash that?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Okay. All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
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May 14,2024
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All opposed?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved.
MR. FINN: Thank you, gentlemen.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 15,
staff and commission general communications.
Item # 15A
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE
CURRENT OR FUTURE AGENDA BY INDIVIDUALS NOT
ALREADY HEARD DURING PREVIOUS PUBLIC COMMENTS
IN THIS MEETING
Item 15A is public comments on general topics not on the
current or future agenda by individuals not already heard during
previous public comments in this meeting.
MR. MILLER: And we do have one today. Garrett Francis
Xavier Beyrent.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: His name is getting longer
every time.
MR. MILLER: I told him I was going to use all four names one
day.
MR. BEYRENT: I need to be sworn in.
THE COURT REPORTER: Do you swear or affirm the
testimony you will give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth?
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May 14,2024
MR. BEYRENT: Yes, I do. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Did that briefcase go through
security?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, it did, and I've seen
what's in it.
MR. BEYRENT: For the record, Garrett FX Beyrent.
I'm going to give you a piece of my property. This is -- my
building is falling down. I did not build this building. It was built
in 1980, and the flood, unfortunately, pretty much, in my opinion, has
made the building very dangerous to live in. And I happen to be one
of the idiots that's living in the building.
What happened was, the flood came in in the last hurricane
about four feet into the bottom of our building, and it took out all the
cars. I lost two cars. FEMA never showed up. I did all the
paperwork. FEMA never showed up. Every time I've ever had a
hurricane, FEMA never shows up.
This is a perfect example -- this building now, the flood surge
hit the building behind us, came back and undermined what was, I
believe, the foundation, and now the building has a crack 200 feet
long starting at one end of the building to the end -- other end. The
building is three stories high.
The first is underbuilding parking. They eliminated half the
parking spaces when they sold their parking lot to the building next
door which was building another condo that was higher up. And
that's really where the problem was is the surge came in, hit the
building behind us, came back and undermined our building.
Our building problem has been going on for quite a few years.
Unfortunately, since the hurricane until last month, for the past how
many, two years or more, we have had no operational elevator, in
which case is it's tough for elderly people.
Most of the building is occupied by people that don't "habla
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May 14,2024
ingles," okay. This is -- I've watched people being smuggled in and
out of this building every month for the last few years I've lived
there.
The problem is is that it's one of these buildings that it's
basically -- it was never designed to be a condominium. It was built
as a hotel, okay. That's it. Simple as I can explain it. It's like,
when I leave it, I always play my favorite Elvis Presley song "In the
Ghetto" because that's basically what it is.
In any case, this is part of the building (indicating) which got
through -- everybody checks everything I bring in because of my
famous reputation. This fell off the ceiling above my car, okay. It
weighs -- this is -- when you take it out of the wrapper, you'll see
they -- after they started patching up the building as it's falling down
and they bolted stuff into the walls, the building -- they started
drilling holes to figure out how to get the water from the inside of this
hollow core.
The building was built on site and assembled. And,
unfortunately, what's scaring me is 1980 is the same year those
buildings fell down in Miami.
So I'm leaving this as evidence with the County Manager
because this is -- this came right down, dropped on my old junker car.
All I have is junker cars anyway. But it fell on my car. And I said,
"You know, there's something wrong with this building."
But the big crack bothered me. When it cracks from one side of
the building where you're abutting the next building over, and
200 feet long, somebody needs to do something. Don't give me
FEMA, please. I did the FEMA thing with Mike Bosi. FEMA
never called me back.
Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you, Mr. Beyrent.
MR. MILLER: And that is all -- the only speaker we have for
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May 14,2024
15A.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I'm curious where
Ms. Patterson is going to store that public record she just accepted.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Yeah, Exhibit A.
CHAIRMAN HALL: File 13. You can give it to Terri.
MS. PATTERSON: Keep it in a secret location.
MR. MILLER: I'm thinking the museum.
Item # 15 B
STAFF PROJECT UPDATES
MS. PATTERSON: Okay. That brings us to Item 15B. We
have no staff project updates today.
Item # 15 C
STAFF AND COMMISSION GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
MS. PATTERSON: So, Item 15C is staff and commission
general communications.
We haven't had a CRA joint workshop with the Board since
2022, so at your pleasure, we will work with the advisory boards as
well as your staff, your aides to come up with some dates that would
be a good summer meeting to have and look at a workshop with the
CRAs.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Can I -- do you want to make
a -- or hear an idea that I had? Because we're working year-round,
why don't we just do it on one of our regular board meetings since
we're already here, and time it for in the morning or something along
those lines so that we're not creating another meeting?
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May 14,2024
MS. PATTERSON: Perfect
Thank you so much. If that
works for everybody. Also, because those meetings won't have any
big land -use items, so we'll have time. Perfect. So we'll look at
those meetings and pick out one that works for the advisory
committees.
Secondly, just a reminder from the last meeting where we had
the valid election resolution, any input that you're getting from the
outside folks on that, if you could ship that over to us, because we
have a tasker to bring it back once we've gathered that -- any of that
information.
CHAIRMAN HALL:
MS. PATTERSON:
County Attorney.
MR. KLATZKOW:
MS. PATTERSON:
I'll bring it.
Okay. That's all I have.
Nothing, thank you.
Commissioners.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I'm good.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS : I don't have anything to add
as well, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm good, too.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So we had a major water
main break near Lely Resort recently, and one of the after -item -- or
after -action items between myself and the staff were, "Why didn't we
use Alert Collier faster or at all?" and we didn't.
I was going to ask Mr. Rodriguez to come forward if he
wants -- if you can, because he had mentioned to me that actually
there's something in the works that actually is going to be better than
Alert Collier. And so I wanted us to all hear what that is and then
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May 14,2024
also say while waiting for maybe something that's better, faster,
cheaper, smarter just to remind us all -- and it's not the
commissioners directing that Alert Collier to be used. Usually we're,
like, IOth in line to hear that there's a water main break. So we need
to have, you know, our senior staff on autopilot, that the second
something's affecting a neighborhood, we're not hearing about it
through Facebook and Nextdoor.
But having said that, can you educate us on what's being worked
on right now that -- is that true that it's going to be -- Alert Collier
will eventually go away and it will be a different -- a different -- you
know, program or --
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. For the record, Dan
Rodriguez, your Deputy County Manager.
Actually, Commissioner, Alert Collier won't be going away, but
we're actually going into a new program that we're bringing on board.
It's not a new operating system but a component within it that we use
in our Public Utilities billing.
And what it's going to allow us to do, similar to FPL, you'll be
able to contact your customers directly through their cell phone with
a text message saying, "You're being directly impacted by a water
outage."
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right.
MR. ROLLINS: So it's realtime, and it will give immediate
updates as soon as Public Utilities has the information needed to let
the folks know. Alert Collier is kind of more broad. It works off of
zoned areas.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Right.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: And this is very specific to the user that's
immediately impacted.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Kind of like what you get
from Xfinity. "Hey, we're Xfinity. We know that you have an
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May 14,2024
outage in your area," and then -- I mean, I get those all the time on
Marco.
But, you know, I'll just reiterate again, make sure that our senior
staff know it's not us giving the A -okay to use Alert Collier. Usually
by the time it gets to us, if Alert Collier hasn't been used, it's
already -- you know, it's after the fact. So, you know, when
something happens -- because correct me if I'm wrong, Dan, Alert
Collier has the ability to target very specific ZIP codes, right?
MR. ROLLINS: It does.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So it's not like, if we have a
water main break at Lely, people are getting bugged in Immokalee
saying, "Guess what? There's a water main break at Lely." We
have the ability to target zones.
What you're describing would be even better because it targets
actual people.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: That's correct. It will target the actual
resident and the number that they've provided to get those immediate
notifications.
But I will tell you it will offer better communication and another
layer for John Mullins and his group, who do a very good job of
getting information out when they get the correct information and
when we have information.
And, again, I have to remind everybody, Public Utilities does a
great job in the field responding. Some of these systems are very
large, and so when you get an outage, that pressure's decreasing
throughout the different lines through the county, and they have to
isolate where it's at exactly. So when information doesn't come as
quick as we like, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, there's a little bit of lull in
time. So Facebook's realtime.
But with this new system -- it's the Harris Corporation. We
also use it at Growth Management. They've served the community
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May 14,2024
very well the last, at least, 15, 20 years. And it's just one more
module that's going to raise that level of service for the county.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But even when we don't have
the level of specificity as to, "Hey, there's been a water main break,"
and we know exactly the effect, even just an initial blast saying we're
aware there's a water main break, you know, and targeting specific
people.
You know, when Facebook and Nextdoor are way ahead of us,
the signal we're sending to citizens -- and it may not be correct, but
the signal they're hearing is that we're behind the power curve.
They're doing out homework for us. And I got an earful of it from,
you know, folks that were affected feeling like they were spreading
the word faster than us, where, you know, if even though -- if we
don't know the extent of the break, just notifying people that there's
been a break maybe we're going to have an update through Alert
Collier, and then at least we're sort of ahead of it a bit.
MR. RODRIGUEZ: Understood.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But that's all I want to say.
Okay. Thank you. That's all I have.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Dr. George is right there.
Do you want to hear from him?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: No. He and I spoke already,
and so -- great job fixing the break, by the way. It was actually
pretty fast.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I do have one thing for him if
you're --
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. No. Go ahead, sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I just -- I would
like -- because, you know, Commissioner LoCastro brought it up.
I would like for -- irrespective of where there is a breakdown in
the system, I would like for this board to be some of the first notified,
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May 14,2024
of anybody, because nine times out of 10 -- I mean, you and I talk all
the time. Even though you're in District 1, I'm in 5, I'm expected to
know what's going on in District 1 as well. So I would like for -- to
be receiving those notifications immediately.
DR. YILMAZ: Absolutely and will be done.
And I want to thank our governing board and Board of County
Commissioners. You have approved a system today under consent
agenda. We're looking at 120 days execution. It's going to be as
good as FPL; in some ways better.
So I'd like to thank you. In the meantime, we will use all the
tools we have available, including Alert County [sic], 311, among
others.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay, thank you.
DR. YILMAZ: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you, Dr. Yilmaz.
With that, I have no further comments other than I enjoy
working with you -all.
And with that we're adjourned.
""Commissioner * *Commissioner LoCastro moved, seconded by
Commissioner Kowal and carried that the following items under the
consent and summary agendas be approved and/or adopted****
Item # 16A 1
EXECUTE THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO AN AGREEMENT
FOR THE COLLIER COUNTY HEARING EXAMINER
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May 14,2024
BETWEEN ANDREW W.J. DICKMAN, A.I.C.P., AND COLLIER
COUNTY TO PROVIDE HEARING EXAMINER SERVICES -
TWO ADDITIONAL TWO-YEAR EXTENSIONS TO JULY 131
2026, AND JULY 13, 2028
Item # 16A2
DIRECT STAFF TO ADVERTISE AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
ORDINANCE 2018-33, AS AMENDED, RELATED TO THE
AUTHORITY OF THE DIRECTOR OF DOMESTIC ANIMAL
SERVICES, AND BRING BACK THE ORDINANCE AT AN
ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARING — ALLOWS THE COUNTY
MANAGER OR DESIGNEE AUTHORITY AND PROPER
OVERSIGHT OF THE DOMESTIC ANIMAL SERVICES
DIVISION
Item # 16A3
A STAFF INTERPRETATION THAT THE LIMITED USE OF
PUBLIC ROADS ADJACENT TO THE TOWN OF AVE MARIA
SRA (TOWN) MAY BE USED FOR THE INTERMITTENT
HAULING OF FILL MATERIAL SO LONG AS THE MATERIAL
IS ONLY BEING RELOCATED WITHIN THE TOWN AND
THAT ANY DAMAGE TO THE PUBLIC ROAD IS THE SOLE
RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PERMIT HOLDER TO REPAIR
Item # 16A4
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER UTILITY
FACILITIES FOR BIG CYPRESS MARKET PLACEPARCEL B,
PL20240001064 - THE SUBJECT POTABLE WATER UTILITY
May 14,2024
FACILITIES ARE OWNED AND MAINTAINED BY THE
DEVELOPER
Item # 16A5
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND
SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE
CONVEYANCE OF A PORTION OF THE POTABLE WATER
FACILITIES FOR 7-ELEVEN AT RANDALL AT ORANGETREE,
PL20240001627 - STAFF CONDUCTED A FINAL INSPECTION
ON MARCH 27, 2024, FACILITIES WERE FOUND
SATISFACTORY AND ACCEPTABLE
Item # 16A6
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND
SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE
CONVEYANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND SEWER
UTILITY FACILITIES AND APPURTENANT UTILITY
EASEMENT FOR ESPLANADE BY THE ISLANDS — PHASE 3A,
PL20230013762 — STAFF CONDUCTED A FINAL INSPECTION
ON FEBRUARY 15,2024, FACILITIES WERE FOUND
SATISFACTORY AND ACCEPTABLE
Item # 16A7
FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER AND
SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE
CONVEYANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER UTILITY
FACILITIES AND APPURTENANT UTILITY EASEMENTS FOR
HAMMOCK PARK — PHASE 1, PL20230010600 — STAFF
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May 14,2024
CONDUCTED A FINAL INSPECTION ON NOVEMBER 16, 2023,
FACILITIES WERE FOUND SATISFACTORY AND
ACCEPTABLE
Item #16A8 — Continued to May 28, 2024 (Per Agenda Change
Sheet)
Item # 16A9
RESOLUTION 2024-73: A RESOLUTION FOR FINAL
ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVATE ROADWAY AND
DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE
PLAT DEDICATIONS FOR THE FINAL PLAT OF AVALON
PARK, APPLICATION NUMBER PL20160001983, AND
AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF THE MAINTENANCE
SECURITIES IN THE AMOUNT OF $55,205.39 — STAFF
CONDUCTED A FINAL INSPECTION ON MARCH 15, 2024,
FACILITIES WERE FOUND SATISFACTORY AND
ACCEPTABLE
Item # 16A 10
RESOLUTION 2024-74: A RESOLUTION FOR FINAL
ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVATE ROADWAY AND
DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE FINAL PLAT OF DEL
WEBB NAPLES PARCEL 102, PHASE 1, APPLICATION
NUMBER PL20130001940, AND AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE
OF THE MAINTENANCE SECURITY IN THE AMOUNT OF
$391802.07 - STAFF CONDUCTED A FINAL INSPECTION ON
APRIL 3, 2024, FACILITIES WERE FOUND SATISFACTORY
AND ACCEPTABLE
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May 14,2024
Item # 16A 11
RESOLUTION 2024-75: A RESOLUTION FOR FINAL
ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVATE ROADWAY AND
DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE FINAL PLAT OF DEL
WEBB NAPLES PARCEL 102, PHASE 2, APPLICATION
NUMBER PL20180002847, AN AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF
THE MAINTENANCE SECURITY IN THE AMOUNT OF
$314,998.81 - STAFF CONDUCTED A FINAL INSPECTION ON
MARCH 21, 2024, FACILITIES WERE FOUND SATISFACTORY
AND ACCEPTABLE
Item # 16A 12
RESOLUTION 2024- 76: A RESOLUTION FOR FINAL
ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVATE ROADWAY AND
DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE FINAL PLAT OF
ELLINGTON PARK, APPLICATION NUMBER PL20180002756,
AND AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF THE MAINTENANCE
SECURITY IN THE AMOUNT OF $1301865.32 — STAFF
CONDUCTED A FINAL INSPECTION ON MARCH 15, 2024,
FACILITIES WERE FOUND SATISFACTORY AND
ACCEPTABLE
Item # 16A 13
RESOLUTION 2024-77: A RESOLUTION FOR FINAL
ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVATE ROADWAY AND
DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS, AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE
PLAT DEDICATIONS, FOR THE FINAL PLAT OF AVE MARIA
UNIT 7, LIBERTY PARK (A/K/A AVALON PARK),
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May 14,2024
APPLICATION NUMBER AR-8940 AND PL20110001801, AND
AUTHORIZE THE RELEASE OF THE MAINTENANCE
SECURITIES IN THE AMOUNT OF $1591256.34 - STAFF
CONDUCTED A FINAL INSPECTION ON MARCH 15, 2024,
FACILITIES WERE FOUND SATISFACTORY AND
ACCEPTABLE
Item # 16A 14
RECORDING THE FINAL PLAT OF SANDY LANE,
APPLICATION NUMBER PL20220006390, APPROVAL OF THE
STANDARD FORM CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE
AGREEMENT, AND APPROVAL OF THE PERFORMANCE
SECURITY IN THE AMOUNT OF $819791350.35 - LOCATED IN
SECTION 9, TOWNSHIP 50 SOUTH, RANGE 26 EAST,
COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA
Item # 16A 15
RESOLUTION 2024-78: A RESOLUTION ACKNOWLEDGING
THE TERMINATION OF RESOLUTION 2008-330, AS
AMENDED, RELATING TO THE STEWARDSHIP SENDING
AREA WITH A DESIGNATION AS "CDC SSA 16" BASED
UPON THE TERMINATION DATE OF NOVEMBER 18, 2021, IN
THE STEWARDSHIP SENDING AREA CREDIT AGREEMENT
FOR CDC SSA 16 AND THE ESCROW AGREEMENT FOR CDC
SSA 16
Item # 16B 1
RESOLUTION 2024-79: 1) A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING
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May 14,2024
THE PURCHASE OF 5.46 ACRES OF UNIMPROVED
PROPERTY (PARCEL 112POND) REQUIRED FOR
INTERSECTION IMPROVEMENTS AT RANDALL
BOULEVARDAMMOKALEE ROAD (PROJECT NO. 60147); 2)
AUTHORIZE STAFF TO MAKE A PURCHASE OFFER BASED
ON APPRAISED VALUE IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION
73.015, FLORIDA STATUTES; AND 3) APPROVE A PURCHASE
AGREEMENT AT APPRAISED VALUE IF THE PURCHASE
OFFER IS ACCEPTED BY THE PROPERTY OWNER.
ESTIMATED FISCAL IMPACT: $634,000
Item # 16B2
A WORK ORDER WITH APTIM ENVIRONMENTAL
& INFRASTRUCTURE, LLC, TO PROVIDE PROFESSIONAL
ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR 2024-2025 PARK SHORE
RENOURISHMENT PROJECT UNDER CONTRACT NO. 18-
7432-CZ FOR TIME AND MATERIAL NOT TO EXCEED
$102,117.70, AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE THE
WORK ORDER, AND MAKE A FINDING THAT THIS ITEM
PROMOTES TOURISM. (FUND 1105, PROJECT NO. 90067) —
THIS CONTRACT EXPIRES ON MARCH 9, 2025
Item # 16B 3
THE CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO
THE TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL GRANT
AGREEMENT WITH THE CITY OF NAPLES BASED ON
UPDATED REQUESTS FROM THE CITY FOR FY 2023-2024 IN
THE AMOUNT OF $2,50000 FOR A TOTAL OF$2,900,000,
APPROVE THE BUDGET AMENDMENT, AND MAKE A
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May 14,2024
FINDING THAT THESE EXPENDITURES PROMOTE
TOURISM
Item # 16B4
RESOLUTION 2024-80: A RESOLUTION APPROVING AND
AUTHORIZING THE CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE THE PUBLIC
TRANSIT GRANT AGREEMENTS (PTGA) SECTION 5310 (FPN
448810-1-94-23), WITH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORTATION TO ACCEPT FEDERAL TRANSIT
ADMINISTRATION GRANT FUNDING IN THE TOTAL
AMOUNT OF $7211687 FOR THE PURCHASE OF FOUR
PARATRANSIT CUTAWAY VEHICLES, FOUR RADIOS, AND
FOUR TABLETS
Item # 16B 5
RESOLUTION 2024-81: THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN A LOCAL
AGENCY PROGRAM (LAP) CONSTRUCTION AGREEMENT
WITH THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
(FDOT) REIMBURSING THE COUNTY UP TO $624,388 TO
CONSTRUCT SIDEWALKS ON SOUTH 9TH ST. (DOAK AVE.
TO EUSTIS AVE.), NORTH 9TH ST. (IMMOKALEE DR. TO
LAKE TRAFFORD RD.), AND CARSON RD. (EDEN AVE. TO
GINGER LN.), (0.501 MILES); EXECUTE A RESOLUTION
MEMORIALIZING THE BOARD'S ACTION; AND AUTHORIZE
THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS, FPN:448125-1-58-
01. (FUND 1841, PROJECT NO. 3 3 902)
Item # 16B 6
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May 14,2024
FOURTH AMENDMENT TO AGREEMENT NO. 18-7266 FOR
COLLIER AREA TRANSIT MOBILE TICKETING, TRIP
PLANNING APPLICATION, AND ON- BOARD WI-FI WITH
MASABI LLC, TO EXTEND WARRANTY, AND UPGRADE OF
ADDITIONAL FEATURES FOR COLLIER AREA TRANSIT' S
(CAT) EXISTING MOBILE TICKETING WITH MASABI LLC, IN
THE AMOUNT OF $661,775.15 - THE AGREEMENT INCLUDED
A FIVE-YEAR WARRANTY, WHICH IS SET TO EXPIRE ON
MAY 13, 2024
Item #16B7
COUNTY ATTORNEY AND COUNTY MANAGER OR
DESIGNEE TO ADVERTISE AND BRING BACK FOR
ADOPTION THE CONSOLIDATED WATERWAYS AND
BEACHES ORDINANCE THAT REPEALS, CONSOLIDATES,
AND SUPERSEDES EXISTING ORDINANCES RELATING TO
THE REGULATION OF AND CONDUCT ON COLLIER
COUNTY WATERWAYS AND BEACHES
Item # 16B 8
CHANGE ORDER NO. 6 UNDER PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
AGREEMENT NO. 06-4000 WITH JACOBS ENGINEERING,
INC. F/D/B/A CH2M HILL, INC., ADDING 330 DAYS AND
$23400 FOR THE POST DESIGN SERVICES TASK FOR THE
"VANDERBILT BEACH ROAD EXTENSION FROM COLLIER
BOULEVARD TO 16TH STREET N.E.," AND AUTHORIZE THE
CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE CHANGE ORDER. (PROJECT NO.
60168)
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May 14,2024
Item # 16C 1
THE BOARD AWARD INVITATION TO BID ("ITB") NO.
24-8204, "NORTH COUNTY REGIONAL WATER TREATMENT
PLANT (NCRWTP) FEED PUMP REHABILITATION AND
MOTOR REPLACEMENT," TO LAWRENCE LEE
CONSTRUCTION SERVICES, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF
$1,603,000, APPROVE AN OWNER'S ALLOWANCE OF $3010001
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
AGREEMENT, AND APPROVE THE NECESSARY BUDGET
AMENDMENT. (PROJECT NO. 70277)
Item # 16C2
AWARD INVITATION TO BID ("ITB") NO. 23-8181, "RAW
WATER BOOSTER PUMP STATION GENERATOR
REPLACEMENT," TO EAU GALLIE ELECTRIC, INC., IN THE
AMOUNT OF $679,000.00, TOGETHER WITH A $5000
ALLOWANCE TO COVER UNFORESEEN WORK, AND
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
AGREEMENT. (PROJECT NO. 70069)
Item #16C3
THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN AMENDMENT NO. 1 TO
AGREEMENT NO. 21-001-NS WITH N. HARRIS COMPUTER
CORPORATION TO ADD THE DATAVOICE OUTAGE
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM MODULE TO THE CURRENT
IMPRESA SOFTWARE APPLICATION FOR A TOTAL NON-
RECURRING IMPLEMENTATION COST OF $148,418.001
ADDITIONAL RECURRING ANNUAL MAINTENANCE COSTS
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May 14,2024
OF $58,884.65, AND ESTIMATED ANNUAL TRANSACTIONAL
COSTS OF $30,000; AND (2) APPROVE THE UPDATED
EXEMPTION FROM COMPETITIVE PROCESS FORM FOR ALL
THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE AGREEMENT
INCLUDING THE AMENDMENT 1 IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO
EXCEED $1,250,000 PER FISCAL YEAR
Item # 16C4
AWARD 23-8183 "UNDERGROUND UTILITY PARTS
SUPPLIER" TO FERGUSON ENTERPRISES, LLC, AND
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE ATTACHED
AGREEMENT
Item # 16D 1
THE DOMESTIC ANIMAL SERVICES DIVISION TO
CONTINUE PARTICIPATING IN THE VETCOVE CASH -BACK
REBATE PROGRAM
Item # 16D2
AN UPDATED STANDARD COLLIER COUNTY PARKS AND
RECREATION YOUTH SPORTS FACILITY USE AGREEMENT
TO BE USED AS A STANDARD AGREEMENT AND
AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER OR DESIGNEE TO
ENTER INTO THESE AGREEMENTS
Item # 16D3
AFTER -THE -FACT FIRST AMENDMENTWITH THE AREA
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May 14,2024
AGENCY ON AGING FOR SOUTHWEST FLORIDA, INC.,
COMMUNITY CARE FOR THE ELDERLY GRANT PROGRAM
FOR COLLIER COUNTY' S SERVICES FOR SENIORS
PROGRAM THAT REDUCES THE AWARD AMOUNT BY
WOO TO $1,071,000 AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY
BUDGET AMENDMENT. (HUMAN SERVICES GRANT FUND
1837) - THE GRANT ENABLES CLIENTS TO REMAIN IN
THEIR HOMES AND LIVE WITH INDEPENDENCE AND
DIGNITY
Item # 16E 1
RATIFY PROPERTY, CASUALTY, WORKERS'
COMPENSATION AND SUBROGATION CLAIM FILES
SETTLED AND/OR CLOSED BY THE RISK MANAGEMENT
DIVISION DIRECTOR, PURSUANT TO RESOLUTION NO. 04-
15 FOR THE SECOND QUARTER OF FY 24
Item # 16E2
AN ASSUMPTION AGREEMENT ASSIGNING ALL RIGHTS,
DUTIES, BENEFITS, AND OBLIGATIONS TO CATALIS
PUBLIC WORKS & CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT, LLC,
CONCERNING COLLIER COUNTY AGREEMENT NO. 17-71279
"3-1-1 /CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)
INITIATIVE" AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN
THE ATTACHED ASSUMPTION AGREEMENT
Item # 16E3
AFTER -THE -FACT APPROVAL TO SUBMIT A LOCAL
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May 14,2024
GOVERNMENT CYBERSECURITY GRANT PROGRAM
APPLICATION THROUGH THE STATE OF FLORIDA
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT SERVICES FOR CYBER
SECURITY APPLICATIONS AND UPGRADES AND
AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER OR DESIGNEE TO
EXECUTE ANY REQUIRED DOCUMENTS TO ACCEPT THE
AWARD IN AN ESTIMATED AMOUNT OF $300,000
Item # 16E4
AN ASSUMPTION AGREEMENT ASSIGNING ALL RIGHTS,
DUTIES, BENEFITS, AND OBLIGATIONS TO LJA
ENGINEERING, INC., CONCERNING AGREEMENT NOS. 14-
6190, 18-7432-CE, 18-7432-LA, 18-7432-RB, 18-7432-SM, 20-
76789 AND 20-7680, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO
SIGN THE ATTACHED ASSUMPTION AGREEMENT
V.-
Item # 16F 1- Moved to Item # 11 E
Item # 16F2
DIRECT THE COUNTY ATTORNEY TO ADVERTISE AND
BRING BACK FOR A PUBLIC HEARING A PROPOSED
ORDINANCE REPEALING AND REPLACING ORDINANCE
NO. 81-751 AS AMENDED, WHICH ESTABLISHES UNIFORM
STANDARDS FOR CERTIFICATION OF AMBULANCE OR
ADVANCED LIFE SUPPORT SERVICES
Item # 16F3
CHANGE ORDER NO. 2, ADDING 21 DAYS AND UTILIZING
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May 14,2024
$14,780 OF THE OWNER'S ALLOWANCE FOR PURCHASE
ORDER NO. 4500229425 UNDER AGREEMENT NO. 23-8147
WITH QUALITY ENTERPRISES USA, INC., FOR THE "BIG
CORKSCREW ISLAND REGIONAL PARK PHASE 2A ACCESS
ROAD," AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE
ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER. (PROJECT NO. 80039) -
EXTENDING THE COMPLETION DATE FROM AUGUST 19,
2024, TO SEPTEMBER 9, 2024
Item # 16F4
AMENDMENT NO. 19 TO THE AGREEMENT WITH COLLIER
COUNTY DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD FOR THE DRIVER
EDUCATION PROGRAM, EXTENDING THE DRIVER'S
EDUCATION FUNDING COLLECTED UNDER THE DORI
SLOSBERG DRIVER EDUCATION ORDINANCE FOR AN
ADDITIONAL YEAR
Item #16F5
RESOLUTION 2024-82: A RESOLUTION APPROVING
AMENDMENTS (APPROPRIATING GRANTS, DONATIONS,
CONTRIBUTIONS, OR INSURANCE PROCEEDS) TO THE
FISCAL YEAR 2023-24 ADOPTED BUDGET. (THE BUDGET
AMENDMENTS IN THE ATTACHED RESOLUTION HAVE
BEEN REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS VIA SEPARATE EXECUTIVE
SUMMARIES.)
Item # 16F6
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May 14,2024
EXPENDITURES UNDER A SINGLE -SOURCE WAIVER FOR
FIVE YEARS (FY24 THROUGH FY28), IN AN AMOUNT NOT
TO EXCEED $100,000 PER FISCAL YEAR, TO OBTAIN
ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER ("OEM") PARTS,
AND NON -OEM PARTS, FREIGHT, AND SERVICES FROM
EVERGLADES FARM EQUIPMENT INC. D/B/A EVERGLADES
EQUIPMENT GROUP, NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN COUNTY -
OWNED AGRICULTURAL AND TURF EQUIPMENT AND
ATTACHMENTS
Item # 16F7
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, ACTING IN
ITS CAPACITY AS THE COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT
AGENCY, APPROVE THE ATTACHED FIRST AMENDMENT
TO LEASE AGREEMENT WITH SOUTHWEST FLORIDA
WORKFORCE BOARD TO PROVIDE OFFICE SPACE FOR THE
COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY STAFF IN
IMMOKALEE
Item # 16F 8
EXPENDITURES UNDER A SOLE SOURCE PROCUREMENT
WAIVER FOR A PERIOD OF THREE YEARS, IN AN AMOUNT
NOT TO EXCEED $150,000 PER FISCAL YEAR, WITH
SYMBIONT SERVICE CORP., FOR PARTS, SERVICES, AND
WARRANTY REPAIR OF SYMBIONT GEOTHERMAL UNITS
AT COUNTY AQUATIC FACILITIES
Item # 16F9
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May 14,2024
A WAIVER FOR THE SINGLE -SOURCE PURCHASE OF
WETLAND MITIGATION CREDITS FROM PANTHER ISLAND
MITIGATION BANK EXPANSION AS NECESSARY FOR
PERMITTING REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF
VARIOUS COLLIER COUNTY PROJECTS AS ADVERTISED IN
(NOI) 24-063-WV AND (NOI) 24-063-WV.
Item # 16F 10
ADMINISTRATIVELY APPROVE CHANGE ORDER NO. 3 FOR
A 98-DAY TIME EXTENSION AND TO ADD $154,920 TO THE
PURCHASE ORDER 4500217007 UNDER AGREEMENT
NUMBER 21-7911 WITH RG ARCHITECTS, P.A., FOR THE
DESIGN SERVICES FOR COLLIER COUNTY MENTAL
HEALTH FACILITY AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO
SIGN THE ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER (PROJECT NO.
50239)
Item # 16F 11
THIRD AMENDMENT TO VACANT LAND CONTRACT
BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND DAVID LAWRENCE
MENTAL HEALTH CENTER, INC., EXTENDING BY ONE
YEAR THE TIME TO OBTAIN THE NECESSARY
SITEPERMITS. THIS UNEXPECTED DELAY RELATES TO THE
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION DIVESTED AUTHORITY TO ISSUE STATE 404
PROGRAM PERMITS IN FLORIDA
Item # 16H 1
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May 14,2024
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING MAY 18 - 24, 2024, AS
NATIONAL SAFE BOATING WEEK. TO BE DELIVERED TO
JOE RICCIO, FLOTILLA COMMANDER AT FLOTILLA 95,
MARCO ISLAND
Item # 16H2 - Moved to Item #4C (Per Agenda Change Sheet)
Item # 16H3
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING MAY 19 - 25, 2024, AS
NATIONAL PUBLIC WORKS WEEK. TO BE DELIVERED
TO DANIEL FLYNN, DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE OF
THE LOCAL APWA BRANCH
Item # 16H4
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING MAY 5 - 11, 20241 AS
NATIONAL CORRECTIONS OFFICERS WEEK. TO BE
DELIVERED TO SHERIFF KEVIN RAMBOSK, CHIEF MARK
MIDDLEBROOK, CAPTAIN KEITH HARMON, CAPTAIN
DAREECE CANADA, DIRECTOR KATINA BOUZA,
CORRECTIONS OFFICERS AND NAPLES JAIL CENTER
STAFF
Item # 16J 1
REPORT TO THE BOARD REGARDING THE INVESTMENT OF
COUNTY FUNDS AS OF THE QUARTER ENDED MARCH 31,
2024
Item # 16J2
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May 14,2024
THE BOARD APPROVE AND DETERMINE VALID PUBLIC
PURPOSE FOR INVOICES PAYABLE AND PURCHASING
CARD TRANSACTIONS AS OF MAY 08, 2024
Item # 16J3
TO RECORD IN THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, THE CHECK NUMBER (OR
OTHER PAYMENT METHOD), AMOUNT, PAYEE, AND
PURPOSE FOR WHICH THE REFERENCED
DISBURSEMENTS IN THE AMOUNT OF $71913305.10 WERE
DRAWN FOR THE PERIODS BETWEEN APRIL 11, 20241 AND
MAY 11 2024, PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTE 136.06
Item # 16K 1
RESOLUTION 2024-83: REAPPOINT THREE MEMBERS TO
THE BAYSHORE/GATEWAY TRIANGLE LOCAL
REDEVELOPMENT ADVISORY BOARD — MICHAEL
SHERMAN AS A BAYSHORE BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVE,
JAMES TALANO AS AN AT -LARGE RESIDENT, AND
MAURICE GUTIERREZ AS AN MSTU MEMBER, EACH TO A
THREE-YEAR TERM EXPIRING ON MAY 22, 2027
Item # 16K2
RESOLUTION 2024-84: APPOINT JONATHAN WALSH AS A
MEMBER TO THE BUILDING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS
AND APPEALS - MR. WALSH BE APPOINTED TO A FOUR-
YEAR TERM
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May 14,2024
Item # 16K3
RESOLUTION 2024-85: APPOINT TWO MEMBERS TO THE
COASTAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE — ROBERT ROTH TO A
FOUR-YEAR TERM EXPIRING ON MAY 22, 2028, AND LINDA
PENNIMAN TO A FOUR-YEAR TERM EXPIRING ON MAY 221
2028
Item # 16K4
RESOLUTION 2024-86: REAPPOINT MR. CLAY CONE AS A
MEMBER OF THE EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES AUTHORITY -
TO A FIVE-YEAR TERM EXPIRING ON MARCH 23, 2029
Item # 16K5
RESOLUTION 2024-87: REAPPOINT YVAR PIERRE TO THE
IMMOKALEE LOCAL REDEVELOPMENT ADVISORY BOARD
- TERM EXPIRING ON APRIL 4, 2027
Item # 16K6
RESOLUTION 2024-88: APPOINT A MEMBER TO THE
PELICAN BAY SERVICES DIVISION BOARD - GREGORY
STONE TO FILL THE REMAINDER OF THE VACANT TERM
EXPIRING ON MARCH 311 2027
Item # 16K7
RESOLUTION 2024-89: REAPPOINT SONJA SAMEK TO THE
PUBLIC TRANSIT ADVISORY COMMITTEE - TO A THREE -
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May 14,2024
YEAR TERM EXPIRING ON MARCH 22, 2027
Item # 16K8
RESOLUTION 2024-90: APPOINT TWO MEMBERS TO
THE TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL — LAURA RADLER
BE APPOINTED, AS A NON -OWNER OPERATOR, AND
NANCY KERNS, AS AN OWNER/OPERATOR, EACH TO FOUR
YEARS TERMS EXPIRING APRIL 21, 2028
Item # 16K9
THE COUNTY ATTORNEY TO FILE A LAWSUIT ON BEHALF
OF THE COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS AGAINST ABIGAIL ARIAS PEREZ AND
ANY OTHER RESPONSIBLE PARTIES FOR $11904 IN
DAMAGES CAUSED TO A TRAFFIC SIGNAL POLE AT
GOLDEN GATE PARKWAY AND 47TH STREET SOUTHWEST
Item #16K10
A SMALL CLAIMS RECORD OF AGREEMENT FOR $2,205.92
TO SETTLE THE LAWSUIT STYLED COLLIER COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS V. YORDANKA
GONZALEZ TORRES, COUNTY COURT CASE NO. 23-SC-1800
- DAMAGES TO LANDSCAPING IN A COUNTY OWNED AND
MAINTAINED MEDIAN
Item # 16K 11
RESOLUTION 2024-91: APPOINT TWO MEMBERS TO THE
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May 14,2024
ANIMAL SERVICES ADVISORY BOARD — TO REAPPOINT
MEREDITH MCLEAN AS THE HUMANE SOCIETY
REPRESENTATIVE AND REAPPOINT SUE LAW TO THE
OPEN AT LARGE SEAT
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May 14,2024
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 2:19 p.m.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX
OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF
SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS CONTROL
CHRIS HALL, CHAIRMAN
ATTEST
CRYSTAL K. KINZEL, CLERK
These minutes approved by the Board on , as
presented or as corrected
TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF FORT MYERS
COURT REPORTING BY TERRI L. LEWIS, REGISTERED
PROFESSIONAL COURT REPORTER, FPR-C, AND NOTARY
PUBLIC.
May 14,2024
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