BCC Agenda 07/23/2024 Item # 2B (BCC Minutes from June 25, 2024)07/23/2024
COLLIER COUNTY
Board of County Commissioners
Item Number: 2.B
Doc ID: 29417
Item Summary: June 25, 2024, BCC Minutes
Meeting Date: 07/23/2024
Prepared by:
Title: Management Analyst II – County Manager's Office
Name: Geoffrey Willig
07/11/2024 4:53 PM
Submitted by:
Title: Deputy County Manager – County Manager's Office
Name: Amy Patterson
07/11/2024 4:53 PM
Approved By:
Review:
County Manager's Office Geoffrey Willig County Manager Review Completed 07/11/2024 4:55 PM
Board of County Commissioners Geoffrey Willig Meeting Pending 07/23/2024 9:01 AM
2.B
Packet Pg. 9
June 25, 2024
TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Naples, Florida, June 25, 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:
ALSO PRESENT:
Chris Hall
Rick LoCastro
Dan Kowal
William L. McDaniel, Jr.
Burt L. Saunders
Amy Patterson, County Manager
Daniel Rodriguez, Deputy County Manager
Jeffrey A. Klatzkow, County Attorney
Derek Johnssen, Finance & Accounting Director, Clerk's
Office
Troy Miller, Communications & Customer Relations
Page 1
June 25, 2024
MS. PATTERSON: Chair, you have a live mic.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to
the Commissioner meeting. This could be fun and exciting today.
It could be the things we have to talk about the most are the prayer
and the pledge and the recognitions.
With that, we'll do it.
Item # 1 A
INVOCATION BY PASTOR TIM REED, FAIRWAY BIBLE
CHURCH
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, we'll begin with our
invocation by Pastor Tim Reed from Fairway Bible Church. He'll be
followed with the Pledge of Allegiance by Army Lieutenant Colonel
Brian Markle. He served in the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf
War.
PASTOR REED: Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, this morning at the start of a new day, we
pause as we come before you, Lord, just to tell you that we love you
and that we need you, and we recognize our dependence upon you.
And, Father, this morning we pray for our land, we pray for our
city, our county, our country, dear God, that you would unite us in
purpose and spirit, Father, that we would be the people that you want
us to be.
God, I thank you for the commissioners here this morning.
Lord, I pray that you would give them wisdom beyond themselves as
they make the decisions that need to be made and, Lord, we just ask
that Naples would continue to be a place that would flourish and
prosper, Father, under the guidance of not only our county
government but, Father, as our dependence upon you as well.
Page 2
June 25, 2024
And so, Lord, we look to you this day and ask that you would
receive all the glory, and we pray it in the name of your precious son,
Jesus.
Amen.
(The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.)
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 MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO - APPROVED AND/OR
ADOPTED W/CHANGES
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, agenda changes for
June 25th, 2024. First, we have the correct placement of Item 16H I.
It actually should have been Item 16139. This is a recommendation
to award Invitation to Bid No. 24-8219, Forest Lakes Multiple
Service Taxing Unit grounds maintenance, to Ground Zero
Landscaping Services, Inc., as the primary vendor, and A&M
Property Maintenance, LLC, as a secondary vendor, and authorize the
Chairman to sign the attached agreements. This is being properly
placed at staff s request.
I do have one agenda note. We had planned to bring the library
visitation information back to the Board at this meeting; however,
we're still doing some work on those numbers, so we will be back at a
future meeting to give you that update.
We do have court reporter breaks scheduled for 10:30 and again
at 2:50 if needed.
Page 3
June 25, 2024
And with that, no further changes on the change sheet.
County Attorney.
MR. KLATZKOW: No changes, ma'am. Thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, any changes to the
agenda or ex parte?
CHAIRMAN HALL: Changes and ex parte, Commissioner
Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: No changes, and I have no ex
parte.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: I have no changes and no ex
parte as well, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
sir.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: No changes nor any ex parte,
CHAIRMAN HALL: Mr. LoCastro?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Same; no changes, no ex
parte.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Me as well; no changes, no ex parte.
MS. PATTERSON: With that, if I could get a motion to
approve the agenda as amended.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll move so.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Moved and seconded to approve the
agenda. All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved.
Page 4
June 25, 2024
MS. PATTERSON: Thank you.
mi
Page 5
June 25, 2024
Item #3AIa
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS — 20 YEARS GERMAN
HERNANDEZ — ROAD MAINTENANCE — PRESENTED
That brings us to Item 3, awards and recognitions. Let's begin
with our 20-year attendees.
Item 3A 1 a, 20 years, is German Hernandez from Road
Maintenance. Congratulations.
(Applause.)
Item #3AIb
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS — 20 YEARS - LIZ SORIANO
PUBLIC TRANSIT & NEIGHBORHOOD ENHANCEMENT -
PRESENTED
MS. PATTERSON: Our next 20-year attendee is Liz Soriano
from Public Transit and Neighborhood Enhancement.
Congratulations.
(Applause.)
Item #3A 1 c
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS — 20 YEARS - WALLACE
TYLER HORST - WASTEWATER — PRESENTED
MS. PATTERSON: Twenty years, Wallace Tyler Horst,
Wastewater.
(Applause.)
Page 6
June 25, 2024
Item #3A2
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS — 25 YEARS - SUSAN PETR
LIBRARY — PRESENTED
MS. PATTERSON: Moving on to Item 3A2, our 25-year
attendees.
We have one, 25 years: Susan Petr, libraries.
(Applause.)
Item #3A3
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS — 30 YEARS - CAROL DENISE
MCMAHON - LIBRARY — PRESENTED
MS. PATTERSON: Finally, Item 3A3, 30-year attendees. We
have one: Denise McMahon, libraries.
(Applause.)
RN
Item #4A
PROCLAMATION DESIGNATING JULY 2024 AS PARKS AND
RECREATION MONTH IN COLLIER COUNTY. TO BE
ACCEPTED BY JAMES HANRAHAN AND OTHER
DISTINGUISHED GUESTS - MOTION TO ADOPT BY
COMMISSIONER KOWAL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER
SAUNDERS — ADOPTED
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 4,
proclamations. Item 4A is a proclamation designating July 2024 as
Parks and Recreation Month in Collier County. To be accepted by
Page 7
June 25, 2024
James Hanrahan and other distinguished guests. Congratulations.
(Applause.)
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, if we could get a motion
to accept the proclamation.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So moved.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
MS. PATTERSON: Thank you.
Item #5A 016,
ARTIST OF THE MONTH - LEE COUNTY ELECTRIC
COOPERATIVE (LCEC) STORM SEASON PREPAREDNESS
PRESENTATION BY ALLAN RUTH, INCIDENT
COMMANDER, LCEC — PRESENTED
That brings us to Item 5A. This is a presentation by the Lee
County Electric Cooperative Storm Season Preparedness by Allan
Ruth, incident commander. Welcome.
MR. RUTH: Good morning. My name is Allan Ruth. I'm the
director of Business Continuity and also the incident commander for
LCEC.
On behalf of our members, our employees, our board of
directors, I'd like to thank you this morning for giving us an
opportunity to tell you about LCEC. It is a privilege and an honor to
serve the communities of Immokalee, Ave Maria, portions of Golden
June 25, 2024
Gate, Jerome, Copeland, Carnestown, Ochopee, Everglades City,
Chokoloskee, Royal Hammock, Port of the Isles, Goodland, and
Marco Island.
LCEC is one of 16 electric co-ops in the state of Florida. We're
the southernmost with the exception of Key West, and we're a
member also of FECA. FECA is the Florida Electric Co-op
Association. They represent all the co-ops throughout the state of
Florida.
LCEC, we serve six counties in the area. We have
approximately 245,000 -- probably now, by the time this presentation
was updated, it's closer to 250,000 members. We have 9,000 miles
of line. The breakdown's included. That's 26 substations. And
we're growing by probably two or three substations a year just
because of the amount of growth we have. And we have
approximately 430 employees.
We have a pretty robust vegetation management schedule. Our
transmission system, which consists of 179 miles of 138 KVA. In
Collier County, we do a reclaim of about 10 miles a year. That's to
bring the right-of-way back to its normal 60-foot easement that we
have. And then we do visual inspections, and then we also do any of
the corrections that we have.
Our distribution system, we have a three-year cycle on the main
feeders and a five-year cycle on the single-phase laterals.
We also have palm tree removals, customer requests, and outage
investigations, and we manage about 3900 miles of distribution.
Pole inspections, this is another part of our maintenance
program. We have approximately 2200 transmission structures.
We do a visual inspection on those, and we do a two-year climbing
schedule. One year we do the north system; the second year we do
the south system. And then we also do a visual inspection of the
entire system.
Page 9
June 25, 2024
The distribution system, we have about 167-, 168,000
distribution poles, and we do an annual inspection of 16,000, about
10 percent of the poles on the system, and then we target about 2500
that we change out on an annual basis. That's an ongoing
maintenance program that we have that will go on for the foreseeable
future.
And, basically, the ratio of poles that we have is about 150,000
wood, about 17,000 concrete, and then there's some other
combinations of poles.
Our service territory is identified here in yellow, and you can see
that the vast majority of it actually resides in Collier County. A lot
of it on the east side, that's pretty rural. It's out in that area with
relatively few customer accounts, but we do actually go all the way
out to the Broward County tollbooth on I-75 and then down to 11
Mile Road, or just a little east of that, on the east/southeast side of
Collier County.
Storm prep and restoration. So on an annual basis, we do drills.
We also participate with FECA at their statewide drills that they had.
I had the honor last year of attending FP&L's drill over on the other
coast. We have mutual aid agreements with not only FECA, but also
our contract vendors. Every year we do an update, so we have the
storm restoration contracts in place, and we have good relationships
with municipalities across the state.
In Hurricane Ian, Duke Energy came down and gave us a hand,
and FP&L, they helped us out with some substation expertise and
materials and equipment.
We also go through the process of looking at our material
issues -- or material levels throughout the course of going into storm
season, as everybody hears about the supply chain issues that we
have, so that we've got to pay special attention to the materials.
Communications with employees and our partners. We
Page 10
June 25, 2024
communicate when an event is coming closer onto our system to
keep everybody on the same page as to exactly what we're doing.
We do the prep so everybody has a role in the restoration process and
they know what they need to do. We also contact our vendors and
suppliers for not only materials but also resources.
Communications with our stakeholders. In the government
area, the EOCs, we staff the Collier County, the Lee County, the
Cape Coral EOC centers. And also at request, we're at Sanibel and
some of the other cities as well, Everglades City being one of those.
Resource requirements. So this is where everything builds
upon itself. So we have a storm estimator that we look at and we
determine what we believe the category of the storm and the impact
of the system is going to be, and then we start building with
personnel. So we have predetermined amounts of personnel that
we're going to bring into the system, and then that builds on the
equipment, and then the lodging, the food, the fuel, the materials, and
everything that goes into it.
So a few years ago, probably five years ago, when we would
pull the trigger to say, "Okay, bring these resources in," it was about
a 1- to $2-million decision. Today it's about a $10-million decision.
We're fortunate, being a not -for -profit cooperative, we do
qualify for FEMA reimbursement, but much as the county, if you go
through and you pull the trigger on an event and then a disaster isn't
declared, then you're going to have to roll that out and absorb those
costs. So we're very cognizant of those decisions that we have to
make.
The resource -- excuse me. The restoration process that we
have in place, the first thing you've got to have is source power. We
do not generate electricity. We buy our power from FP&L. And so
during Hurricane Ian, the east side of our service territory, which was
Lehigh and Immokalee, we did not lose source power. We had
Page 11
June 25, 2024
circuits that stayed in service out in those communities.
The north and the south system, we lost power, so we had to
wait until FP&L was able to restore source power to those
transmission lines that come into the switching stations. Then we
take service from there. The next step in the process is to restore the
LCEC transmission, then the substation, then the main feeders.
Everything being equal, then we concentrate on the key
accounts, which is government buildings, the shelters, the hospitals,
water plants, things of that nature, and then large customer accounts,
small customer accounts, and then all the way down to the individual
services.
This is a snapshot, actually, of the materials that we used during
Hurricane Ian. So Hurricane Irma was in 2017, which was
approximately -- I think it was five years prior to Hurricane Ian, and
to put things into perspective, that was a bad storm, and it came up,
and it really impacted, I know, the southern half of our territory,
Collier County, and down through the Keys. And in that event, we
changed out about 750 transformers. In Hurricane Ian, it was about
1950. Same thing on the poles; we changed out about a thousand
poles in Hurricane Irma; Hurricane Ian was about 3,000. So
everything was times three for that event.
So some of the lessons learned that came out of the storm,
when -- we always do a debrief after a storm, and we incorporate
those lessons into the plans as we move forward, and that's what we
drill on, and we make adjustments to them. So the first thing that we
realized during Hurricane Ian was after Hurricane Irma, the plan that
we had in place was to bring in 750 external resources to be able to
manage the storm of that magnitude. Hurricane Ian, our high-water
mark, we brought in about 2500. So we quickly had revamped the
plan to be able to accommodate that influx of that many additional
personnel.
Page 12
June 25, 2024
Something else that was new to us that we had not experienced
in the past was the impact on the employees. Twenty-five percent of
our employees had severe damage to their properties and their homes,
so that's something that we had to adjust and put into the plan to be
able to manage that. And to our employees' credit, you know, they
didn't miss a beat. They were there. They were having to manage
the home front, or their spouses were managing the home front, and
they were there working with us every day.
Customer outreach. There was areas that we did an exceptional
job of that, and it paid off, did really well. We got out into the
community before the storm and after the storm. There were other
areas we probably didn't do as good a job as we could have, and so
we're going to incorporate those lessons and move into the other
areas within the community.
Utilization of contractors, E&O, electrical operations, they've
always used contractors. I mean, right now we've probably got
about 200 line contractors on the system; probably another 100, 120
vegetation management. We also extended it out to the base camp
model. So we always housed our personnel in hotels and motels
when we would bring them in.
We didn't count on the damage that we saw to those
accommodations during Hurricane Ian. And then also there was a
lot of assistance that was coming into the area, and they
commandeered a lot of those facilities that were left. So we rapidly
had to move over to the base camp model, and the case camp model
is, basically, if you got a footprint of property, you can bring in this
housing. They house them; they feed them; they clothe them; they
do everything that we need to do. Basically, turnkey, they come in
and take care of them.
Also trucking, we ran out of CDL -- qualified CDL drivers, so
we had to bring in contractors for that, and also additional warehouse
Page 13
June 25, 2024
personnel.
And then last was the storm. This was the 24th storm that I'd
managed in my career with LCEC. Five of them have been major
hurricanes, and every time we saw a hurricane we always said, "Boy,
that was a hurricane." And now we can say we really saw a
hurricane.
And so what we learned from that is, I mean -- literally,
Hurricane Charley came in and hit us in 2004. Wind speeds were
almost identical. The difference was the size of the eye wall. They
were probably about four times bigger, Ian was, but it literally made
landfall within 300 yards of each other. We did not see a storm
surge in Hurricane Charley to speak of. Hurricane Irma did see a
storm surge down in Everglades City, Chokoloskee, but not so much
on Marco Island and on the north system, it didn't. But the one thing
that I will say is, going into this, I personally was not a believer of a
storm surge. I thought it was all hype, and I can tell you now I was
wrong, and it's real. And, you know, when they're projecting these
storms under the right circumstance, they can be devastating. You
know, to our fellow islands up in Lee County, I saw places on
Sanibel that probably put 15, 16 feet water across it. So it's pretty
devastating.
And with that, that concludes my presentation, unless anyone
has any questions for me.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First of all, thank you for what you do. LCEC supports a big
chunk of my district. So I wanted to just say a couple things. First,
I wanted to highlight a couple things that you said that I really
appreciate.
Citizens, I don't think, sometimes understand source power,
because I know during Hurricane Ian I got a lot of e-mails, "We have
Page 14
June 25, 2024
no power on our street, and we haven't seen an LCEC truck at all."
And the reality was, your street's fine. The source power is dead.
And then, of course, you know, you get an e-mail, "We never
saw a truck, but all of a sudden our power came back." So some
of -- education is important for people to understand how they get
electricity. It's not just the transformer on the pole, and if it blows
up, you lose power, and if it doesn't blow up, then everything's fine.
There's a lot of other things.
And also your comment about how Ian was three times as
worse. The takeaway there is water can be worse than wind. I
mean, because, obviously, Irma had the, you know, severe winds.
But just in a nutshell, we had a meeting here recently where we
talked budget, and Dan Summers was here from our Emergency
Operation Center, and one thing that I had said is I really gave a solid
shout -out to LCEC. You guys not only manned the Emergency
Operation Center, but you did it with a decision -maker, you know,
somebody that I could turn to who didn't just have the LCEC Yellow
Pages, which is what I had, but could actually make a phone call to a
leadership person and then come back to me and say, "Thanks,
they're going to be out there in 20 minutes" or "they're not going to
be out there" or, you know, I could actually speak to my constituents,
you know, eloquently rather than just, "Oh, I don't know anything
about it. Let me see if I can find out." And it's like, well, I can do
that.
So I hope that continues because a lot of other significant
players in the county, some were in the EOC, some weren't. You
guys were there religiously.
And then, you know, I specifically mentioned Tricia Dorn.
You know, she's the person I went to -- you know, her phone, it rang
one time, and she answered it, and, you know, the constant feedback
and whatnot was very important.
Page 15
June 25, 2024
The one question I have for you, and you -- you may not know
the answer -- I don't mean to put you on the spot -- but what's our
transformer inventory look like right now? I mean, I realize we just
had a major storm, but I just remember during Ian the big issue was,
yes, a transformer did blow up on Street X and that's why that street
has no power, but we have transformers that blew up everywhere and
we don't have 2,000 transformers sitting in a warehouse. And, oh,
by the way, there's tons of other counties that also need transformers,
so it's a high -value item.
Between Ian and now, have you been able to amass at least a
small -to -medium size inventory of transformers? It seems like that
was the high -value item that could either fix or not fix something a
little quicker if it wasn't a source power issue. Can you elaborate a
little bit on that?
MR. RUTH: Sure, yeah. The supply chain, as you had
mentioned, it's been an ongoing issue ever since COVID. The
inventory levels that we have, we've been able to keep up with the
shipments that we'd had. We do stock a bit of a safety stock for
storms and things of that nature. But I'll tell you, going into
Hurricane Ian, that was one of my biggest concerns. And to the
credit of our purchasing department and all vendors that we do
business with and the industry as a whole, everybody else got shut
down, and they shipped everything to us. And we did not have any
issues at all with materials during Hurricane Ian, which was pretty
remarkable, because I thought that was going to be our Achilles' heel,
and it didn't turn out.
Now -- and that was a major storm that we were able to manage.
Now, I don't know if there was capacity if there was two major
storms in the state or if they had happened somewhere else. You
know, that's -- that's to be seen. But I will tell you that if we have
one, everybody steps up and they help out. So that's less of a
Page 16
June 25, 2024
concern this year than it was back in 2022.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So are we sitting on a pretty
decent inventory of -- I mean, you can't never -- you don't have a
crystal ball.
MR. RUTH: Right.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: But having just had a major
storm and knowing that you probably emptied out most of the
warehouse during Ian, you've been able to, you know, replenish the
stocks to, you know, the best of your ability --
MR. RUTH: Yes, sir, we have.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: -- and feel like you're going
into this storm season at least, you know, not with empty shelves?
MR. RUTH: Yes.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. Thanks. Appreciate
it.
MR. RUTH: Thank you for the kind words and feedback.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yes, sir. I assume Tricia's
still working for you -all, right? Yeah. Oh, she was over here
waving at me, and I was -- I gave you a good shout -out at the last
meeting, Tricia. I don't know if you picked up on it. So there will
be a little extra in your envelope from LCEC this month, I hope.
Thank you so much for all that you do.
MR. RUTH: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you, Allan. And I did catch
"business continuity," that little play on words. I liked it.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: So, Tricia, you're waving at
me, and I was just, like, trying to put two and two -- I didn't
recognize you, like, quick enough, I think. Good seeing you.
MR. RUTH: Thank you.
Item #7
Page 17
June 25, 2024
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON GENERAL TOPICS NOT ON THE
CURRENT OR FUTURE AGENDA
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 7,
public comments on general topics not on the current or future
agenda.
MR. MILLER: I have two registered speakers at this time.
Katie Tardif will be followed by Joseph Guarino.
MS. TARDIF: You can still call me Katie.
This is a tough one, guys, because I'm going to address some of
the comments that were made in the last meeting, and I like most of
you quite a lot, and I respect most of you quite a lot.
And I still have to say that you had a lot of nerve. You had a
lot of nerve saying two things in particular that you said. I'm not
God fearing. God knows what's in your hearts. God doesn't need
you invoking your faith as a defense. She, he, or androgynous God
is, in my view, a spirit present there for all of us.
But I don't want to go down the religion path. I just want to say
using religion as a defense in regards to an issue that's a public
policy, public health issue is a misuse of your faith. And your faith
can't be a defense against the votes that you took two weeks ago.
I had the feeling sometimes that some of you were taking one
for your leader, and I admire that in a lot of circumstances, but this
isn't one. You don't throw your constituents under the bus, and you
know you did, because the last thing I said when I spoke two weeks
ago was that you cannot say you are taking care of those born that
would otherwise be unborn entities -- "entities," such a cold
word -- bodies when you know there is no local, city, county, state,
federal system that is, as yet, taking care of those people.
Does this mean -- oh, I see what's happening, okay.
Everyone who is anyone knows that in your hearts all of you,
Page 18
June 25, 2024
more or less, are like most of us, doing the best you can. And I
believe you're well intentioned, but you have got to -- if you're going
to take the position you took on that reproductive rights, reproductive
freedom message, you have got to meaningfully and substantially
step up to the plate and take care of those people.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you, Katie.
MS. TARDIF: One PS, there's an excellent program running at
a school here in Collier County --
CHAIRMAN HALL: Ma'am, your time's up. Thank you.
MR. MILLER: Your next speaker is Joseph Guarino.
MR. GUARINO: Good morning. How are you today?
CHAIRMAN HALL: Good.
MR. GUARINO: I guess this is more for District 5. I think
that's you, Mr. McDaniel; is that correct?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, it is.
MR. GUARINO: So I got the right guy.
I live out in the Estates, and I e-mailed, I believe, somebody,
Cristina, from your office.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: She is my aide.
MR. GUARINO: Okay. The commercial vehicles that are in
the Estates, there's no ordinance, there's no rules. They can do
whatever they want. I could be woken up at 4 o'clock in the
morning by the dump trucks, the 18-wheelers, and you're telling me
the Estates doesn't fall under Collier County for rules. And it's in the
e-mail.
So how do you want to address that?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I can address it now, or we
can address it afterwards.
MR. GUARINO: We could do both.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. The fellow that lives
next door to you is an owner/operator of the dump truck.
Page 19
June 25, 2024
MR. GUARINO: Of a commercial trucking company in a
residential area.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: He owns that dump truck,
and he is starting it and driving it to work every single day, sir.
MR. GUARINO: So there's no time refrain [sic]? Four in the
morning's okay? So I could ride my ATV at 2 in the morning?
Shoot my guns at 3 in the morning? That's what you're telling me?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: You can shoot your guns at
3 in the morning. You can't ride your ATV off of your private
property.
MR. GUARINO: Why?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Because you're trespassing.
MR. GUARINO: It's on my property.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: And I'm going to say this
with all due respect. This is not a time for us to be having this
discussion. Right now --
MR. GUARINO: This is a public meeting, isn't it?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes, sir.
MR. GUARINO: So what's the difference?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I am sharing with you, this is
a time for us to not have this discussion. You are here to express
your concerns --
MR. GUARINO: Which I did.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I have addressed those
concerns. You're not satisfied --
MR. GUARINO: You didn't address them. You basically said
there's nothing we can do; it doesn't fall under our rules.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So having said that, this
period of time right now is for you to address that.
MR. GUARINO: Okay. What about the public nuisance
laws?
Page 20
June 25, 2024
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: It's not a debate.
MR. GUARINO: Public nuisance laws, the smoke, the
vibration, EPA rules about dropping gas, oil, shaking my house. I
can't enjoy my quality of life. How does that work?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I've already said --
MR. GUARINO: That's exactly -- the same response I got in
an e-mail is the same response I'm getting now.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Sir, this is not a time for argument. This
is a time for you to express your views.
MR. GUARINO: You know what, I know what I got to do. I
know what I got to do. You guys are useless.
MR. MILLER: That was our final speaker for public comment.
Item # 1 OA
APPROVE A STATUS UPDATE FOR THE GOLDEN GATE
GOLF COURSE HOUSING PROJECT WITH RURAL
NEIGHBORHOODS, INC., AND RENAISSANCE HALL AT OLD
COURSE, LLC. (ALL DISTRICTS) — PRESENTED
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item 10.
Item IOA is a recommendation to approve a status update for the
Golden Gate Golf Course housing project with Rural Neighborhoods,
Inc., and Renaissance Hall at Old Course, LLC. This item is brought
to the agenda by Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, I put this on
the agenda because I -- as we started to approach the end of June, I
was concerned that there may be an issue involving the financing for
the Renaissance project.
I think, Mr. Chairman, your comment at that meeting that if
Mr. Kirk needed another extension, that it would cost him $100,000
Page 21
June 25, 2024
in a nonrefundable deposit, I think that might have gotten his
attention.
CHAIRMAN HALL: It was just a suggestion.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: No, I know. I know. And
I'm just kidding about it getting his attention, because he's been
working diligently to try to get this project going.
Mr. Kirk is here today. His message is -- and I want him to
deliver it, but he's got some good news today in reference to the
financing. And we have an e-mail from the County Attorney that
basically confirms that the financing condition in the lease has been
met, and so there is no need for another extension.
So I want Mr. Kirk to kind of fill us in on where we are with
that.
MR. KIRK: Good morning. Steve Kirk with Rural
Neighborhoods.
I'm pleased to inform the Board that -- thank you for the
previous extension. HUD was able to act. Their National Loan
Committee approved the financing for the project on June 18th
unanimously, and that resulted in their issuance of a June 20th firm
commitment for their insurance of the first mortgage. That
commitment is for approximately $58 million, and that is the piece
that was missing.
This was followed yesterday by Prudential, PGIM Real Estate,
who followed that up with basically updating and issuing their
commitment for that same loan. And I believe I provided by e-mail
copies of each of those to each of you as commissioners as well.
So we are pleased to have the financing in place to build the
project. We -- our next step is to move to what is essentially a
simultaneous closing, all the financing for the project. And so that
simultaneous closing we estimate to take approximately 75 days.
Our commitment from Prudential and HUD requires us to close
Page 22
June 25, 2024
by September 20th of 2024. So -- and then immediately thereafter,
we would issue a notice to proceed to DeAngelis Diamond.
Happy to take any questions.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Chairman, if I could ask
just one quick question. I think Mr. French is in the audience, if I'm
not mistaken.
CHAIRMAN HALL: He stepped outside to talk --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: He's talking to that fellow
about --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: The only reason I mentioned
that is I think that you're getting close to the point where you're going
to need some -- actually need building permits.
MR. KIRK: Well, we do, and we're going to require permits
for closing and we, as a result of a meeting we had yesterday, believe
that Cormac Giblin and Mr. French will work with us to assist and try
to expedite that.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. French, I was just
talking about the issuance of some permits for him going forward and
the review, and I think you're aware of the timeframe of all of this.
So I guess the question is, do you anticipate any delays in permit
reviews and that sort of thing, or are you getting the information that
you need for all of that?
MR. FRENCH: Thank you. For the record, Jamie French with
Growth Management.
I would tell you, Commissioners, not unlike any permit that
comes in, the quality of the work will determine, of course, the
review outcome. But we're currently turning around those type of
permits within probably two, three weeks at the most, but those are
on very complicated projects. On this one, I would tell you is that it
may be all of 10 days.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Page 23
June 25, 2024
That's all I have.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes. Good morning, Steven.
MR. KIRK: Hey, good morning.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'm good. My questions are
for you.
I think I heard -- and I just would like you to repeat it if you
could -- that you have -- you have a loan commitment from
Prudential. But do you have the final commitment from HUD?
MR. KIRK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Is HUD also one of your
lenders?
MR. KIRK: Yes. So if it hasn't been crystal clear, let me
certainly try to help.
PGIM Real Estate, which is a division of Prudential, is the first
mortgage lender of the approximately $58 million. In order for them
to make their loan, they require HUD to, in a sense, ratify that loan
and agree to insure it.
So HUD is not a direct lender in this project, but it has been
their firm commitment that has always -- that has made Prudential's
money contingent.
And so with the HUD firm issuance of their insurance
commitment on the 20th, that allowed Prudential to recommit their
money in the 24th letter. So they work hand in hand.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And closing, you
said, was estimated by the end of September; did I hear that?
MR. KIRK: Yes. We're hoping to be approximately 75 days.
Obviously, next week's going to be an efficient week -- inefficient
week to get started with the holiday, but we are required by
Prudential and HUD to close by September 20th.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. And then last but not
Page 24
June 25, 2024
least, when we were here before, the Clerk was asking for some
documentation having to do with the other contributors to the
transaction, the trust, the Community Foundation. Have you had an
opportunity to get those documents to her?
MR. KIRK: It's a very long list that she's requesting, and so I
can't say for certain that we have given her all of the things that she
wants.
Just to be clear, in regards to both the Moorings Foundation and
the Collier Community Foundation, we have a grant agreement with
them. It is one page. We consider it binding. I think many of us
find, both the Clerk and ourselves, that it's short and not particularly
lengthy.
We've talked with the two foundations to try to put a little more
meat into it. But that said, they consider it binding, and they have
advanced, for example, 1 million of their $10 million to us based on
that particular award letter.
In addition to that, we have award letters from several grant
sources from the county, which we've discussed before, and the
county is executing those grant agreements. So we look at those
issues as basically those things that are basically conditions to close,
and so I think that we'll be -- we'll continue to progress on that and
provide both the Clerk and the Manager's office additional
information.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: The question that has
regularly come up is you just now referred to those as grants from
those foundations.
MR. KIRK: And for the -- and particularly to the county, yes.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: From the county. But there's
also an agreement for repayment of those funds over a period of time,
assuming the prospectus numbers are met, and I think that was
the -- that was the deviation, if you will, from the loan commitment
Page 25
June 25, 2024
that calls it a grant in relationship to a pro forma that shows a
repayment of those funds.
MR. KIRK: Well, that is true for both the government funds
from local government as well as the Foundation. So from the local
government, for example, we do have one SHIP loan, which is a
forgivable loan that is in the form of a mortgage and a land -use
restrictive agreement, but we have three other grants that are related
to State and Local Fiscal Resource Funds, and they are termed grants
as the treasury indicated. Nonetheless, we have an income -sharing
agreement with the county.
Similarly, the monies from the two foundations are not
constructed as loans, and the funds that come back as the income
sharing agreement are not necessarily repayment of either the
county's grant or of the foundation's grant. It's an income sharing in
the project having both groups, the Foundation's and the county being
partners.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So the misconception, if I can
call it that, without it being a misconception, is the references over
here is a grant, that's what it is. And in the event that the income
parameters that are put forth in your prospectus are met, there is an
opportunity for income sharing as a separate contribution to those
foundations that have assisted over here.
MR. KIRK: That's true for both the Foundation and county
government. And it may be -- I don't know what the phrase is, a
difference without -- I mean, one could look at it in both ways. It is
confusing, but I think you expressed it well.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you, Chairman.
Good morning, Steve.
MR. KIRK: Good morning.
Page 26
June 25, 2024
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I guess this is on the lines of
what Commissioner McDaniel was speaking of the conditions, the 1
through 6 on the HUD form are the ones that, you know, you said
aren't secured so far, I guess was the grant, and there is an actual
money loan from HUD, not just a secured --
MR. KIRK: No. HUD is not a direct lender. Prudential is the
direct lender. HUD is the insurer.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I thought in the Conditions 1
through 6, HUD CPED grant --
MR. KIRK: Oh, yes. There is a HUD -- there is a HUD
CP -- what is called a HUD EDI --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: It's a million -dollar grant.
MR. KIRK: -- Economic Development Initiative and a
Community Project Fund. That is an earmark from
Commissioner -- excuse me -- from Congressman Diaz-Balart, and
that grant is in place and executed.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So that's already been secured
and --
MR. KIRK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Because it says "unsecured" on
the HUD paperwork.
MR. KIRK: I'm sorry. Which number? I have it with.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: The first one of the six
conditions. And each one of the conditions say "unsecured" yet.
Do you have to meet those within the next 55 days? And does the
HUD paperwork go away after that?
MR. KIRK: If you could just tell me the page number. I'm
sorry.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Page 6 of 27 of the HUD
paperwork you sent me. Okay. It says, "Additional funding
sources that have to be met within the next 60 days," but five days
Page 27
June 25, 2024
has already expired --
MR. KIRK: Yeah. If you could just -- I'm sorry. If you
could just raise the -- if you could read the sentence with "secured"
and "unsecured."
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Every one of them, all six, in
parentheses say, "Unsecured, unsecured, unsecured, unsecured,
unsecured, unsecured."
MR. KIRK: Yes. Those are unsecured loans, meaning they're
not -- they're unsecured grants. They're not secured by real estate.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So HUD's not -- but I mean,
HUD's not --
MR. KIRK: Not uncommitted. It's unsecured. So in a sense,
those grant funds are not secured by a mortgage.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. So they're not part of the
guarantee then, HUD guarantee?
MR. KIRK: HUD does not guarantee those funds. They're
simply guaranteeing the 58 million.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Got it.
MR. KIRK: And these are the -- these are secondary financing,
and I believe the reference to "unsecured" on Page 6 refers to the fact
that they're not -- they're -- they are grant income coming in and not
secured by a mortgage.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. So one of the other
provisions was in your Prudential paperwork, and it refers to -- I can't
remember the exact line. I guess I can find it -- that you have to
have a current survey done on the real property, and you can't be
older than 120 days old.
MR. KIRK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Do you have to obtain another
one now?
MR. KIRK: No, we have a survey that's --
Page 28
June 25, 2024
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: The date was back in 2023 was
the last one done.
MR. KIRK: We have a survey currently in progress by Grady
Minor.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So you already -- you started in
the process of that?
MR. KIRK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And does that have to also be
complete in the next 55 days?
MR. KIRK: Well, it will be complete in the next 55 days.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay.
MR. KIRK: I mean, it's actually -- we have been sharing title
exceptions and looking at easements with the County Attorney's
Office, concurrent to this.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And does HUD -- does HUD
have their own underwriter?
MR. KIRK: Yes, they do.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: And you have to meet their --
MR. KIRK: We met theirs. That was part of the process that
took place over the past month. When we were here a month ago,
the senior underwriter from HUD had expressed the fact that they had
reviewed all of the other credit underwriting, except their
environmental review had not been completed, and that's why we all
sought for the extension. It was then, in early June, reviewed by the
regional Atlanta office and their loan committee and then went to the
National Loan Committee between -- that ended on June 18th. And
so the National Loan Committee committed -- completed that
underwriting. So HUD's underwriting is complete.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So HUD's underwriting is
complete?
MR. KIRK: Yes, sir.
Page 29
June 25, 2024
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. So then you've got a
secured loan, you've got a secured rate and everything at this point?
MR. KIRK: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So you're a little closer than you
were before.
MR. KIRK: Oh, we are, I think, substantially closer than
before. But nonetheless, closing, as you said, has its conditions to
meet, and that is the task for the --
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Typically, an underwriter wants
that so he can say it's a good loan and a legal loan.
MR. KIRK: And they have done that.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay. All right. No more
questions.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you.
Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Steve, just real quick. I
know you've been, you know, putting out all of the fires and
answering a lot of, you know, questions from county staff, and even
from us, some of them after the fact and even last minute. But I
know what would be helpful to me and maybe my fellow
commissioners as well is it's great to know the current status right
now. "Hey, we checked this box. We checked that. We don't have
to worry about this."
I'd like to see a little bit of a look -ahead, a proposed timeline.
And not something to hold your feet to the fire as much, because I
know it's a fluid process, but we don't want to get off the track too
much. But just in my head -- and it could be something you send to
all of us. Like, you've been sending us valuable information which
is, you know, "I was questioned about this. It's untrue. Here's the
answer." So all that was helpful to separate rumor from fact, but I'd
like to see something at some point that, in an organized
Page 30
June 25, 2024
fashion -- you know, this is your number -one priority. We've got a
thousand number -ones.
MR. KIRK: Understood.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: And so in my folder that has
your name on it, I'd like to put a document in there that I can refer to
and track what are the milestones that are coming up, you know, if
everything was possible and everything worked. And like I said, it
could be -- you know, I don't want it to be too loose, but, you know,
something that would be helpful to give us visibility on, you know,
what's coming up, what milestone are you trying to hit. What do
you think a realistic timeline is?
You know, a couple of sub bullets could be, "but here is a few
landmines that we don't control, that we're waiting on," if it's
something by HUD or the State of Florida or something like that, to
just package it a little better with your feedback. And like I said,
you don't necessarily need to do it at the podium now.
But you sent what I thought were some very valuable answers
and documents that, you know, I looked over, and we all did, and it
begged some questions. You know, Commissioner Kowal just asked
some really good ones as well. But I'd like to see something with a
little bit more visibility when you have a chance to maybe put
something together. You don't have to build us a watch but -- you
know, as I always say is "I don't need you to build me a watch. Just
tell me the time." But it would be helpful to see.
This is a big project with a lot of eyes on it, and I think it would
be nice to have some sort of, you know, reference document that you
continue to update for us that shows us some of the big nuggets and
how they're moving or not moving or where we need to be
concerned. Because I feel like I have a lot of little parts and pieces,
but I don't have a playbook.
MR. KIRK: I'll be happy to summarize the timetable for you
Page 31
June 25, 2024
this week and get that information out to you. I think we
suggested -- obviously, we have one deadline that's very important,
which is September 20th and closing. Clearly, to move towards
construction, our construction contract with DeAngelis Diamond will
be 24 months. If you read through the documents, you can see that
Prudential's pretty harsh if we don't complete in 24 months. But
we'll be happy to provide that timeline.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: All right. Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Now, Steve, I'm proud of you. You're
doing -- I mean, I'm praying for you to sleep good at night.
MR. KIRK: Well, I'm in a folder of his, so that means I have a
lot of e-mails.
CHAIRMAN HALL: You've got five plates in the air with
only two to throw them, so you're doing good. So I appreciate the
update.
MR. KIRK: Well -- and again, I think -- look, I think that all of
us, when we read these commitment letters and we see the numbers
of pages of conditions, it gives all of us pause. Certainly, we have a
legal team that's redressing these.
But we and our lender is putting substantial dollars -- this is not
a small loan. This is a very significant loan. And so there are very
significant parameters. Much of what we see in the HUD conditions
are boilerplate that we expected. They relate to the environmental
conditions of the site, and so they were anticipated. But, clearly,
thank you for your support as a Board, and thank you for your
individual support and questions. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Oh, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I wanted to ask one more quick
question, because I appreciate you giving us a good timeline and, you
Page 32
June 25, 2024
know, breaking this down, because I know just enough to get in
trouble.
But I noticed Prudential speaks a lot of the construction loan
versus the mortgage, and there's a real finite date when one ends, one
starts. I mean, can you just kind of enlighten me on what exactly
that language pertains to and what --
MR. KIRK: So in this instance, Prudential is both a
construction lender and the permanent source of financing.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Okay.
MR. KIRK: And so unlike certain projects in which you have a
separate construction lender and a permanent lender steps in at the
end of construction and takes over the permanent loan, Prudential is
playing both loans.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: You're one house --
MR. KIRK: And so they are providing us a 24-month
construction loan, and at the end of 24 months of construction, they
anticipate the project to be completed, and they will convert that to a
40-year mortgage. And so that will be done internally, which
eliminates some risk of lenders disagreeing with each other, but it's a
hard date that they've basically put there to convert that construction
to permanent loan.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So when's that hard -- when's
that date start and the hard date end?
MR. KIRK: That starts at the start of construction, and I
believe you'll see there's penalties for not meeting construction
conversion 24 months into -- after the start of construction.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: So other than the penalties, if
you don't meet it, that hard date, like I kept seeing over and over
again --
MR. KIRK: Sure.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL:
Page 33
-- in there, are they not going to
June 25, 2024
finance your mortgage portion of it?
MR. KIRK: No, I believe they do. They provide many
months of penalty, unfortunately, but they do provide a fee for the
first three months and a fee for other months. Clearly, their
expectation is the construction will get complete. And we'll meet the
stabilization requirements of having occupancy, which is really -- the
key measure of conversion, obviously, is a certificate of occupancy,
but it's meeting what we call stabilized occupancy.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Thank you. Thank you.
MR. KIRK: My pleasure.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Mr. Kirk, just before you
leave, I just want to wrap up here real quickly. I don't think there's
anything that you need from the Board at this point, but I want to
make sure. You have an e-mail from the -- we have an e-mail from
the County Attorney that says that you've met the commitment. Do
you need anything from this board to recognize that, or are you all set
to go?
MR. KIRK: We're set to go. We do anticipate that -- the State
and Local Fiscal Recovery grants and the final grant agreements
between the county, and we will be presenting to the Board probably
at the last meeting in July. And so that's a steppingstone in terms of
getting towards closing. But I think other than that, I think those
actions are there.
I might mention that the Collier Housing Finance Agency,
Mr. Pickworth, is holding, as part of the closing for Collier's
International, a public comments session that's required to be done in
any issuance of 501(c)3 bonds. It's basically a requirement that the
public know that money will be used in their jurisdiction and,
because he is the local entity, he will hold that public comment
period on July 8th, and I believe that traditionally comes to the Board
after their action.
Page 34
June 25, 2024
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, based on that, we don't really need to take any
action on this. It's just a report that's been made to us.
Thanks, Mr. Kirk.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thanks, Steve.
Item # 1 OB
DIRECT THE COUNTY MANAGER OR DESIGNEE TO BEGIN
THE PROCESS OF PREPARING THE REQUIRED REAL
PROPERTY DOCUMENTS AND APPRAISAL FOR
CONVEYANCE TO THE STATE OF FLORIDA THE
APPROXIMATELY 22 ACRES OF GOLDEN GATE GOLF
COURSE PROPERTY PLEDGED FOR THE CONSTRUCTION
OF A STATE VETERANS' NURSING HOME IN COLLIER
COUNTY. (ALL DISTRICTS) - MOTION FOR STAFF TO
PREPARE THE DEED, ESCROW AGREEMENT, AND
APPRAISAL FOR CONVEYANCE TO THE STATE OF
FLORIDA BY COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS; SECONDED BY
COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL — APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to Item IOB
is a recommendation to direct the County Manager or designee to
begin the process of preparing the required real property documents
and appraisal for conveyance to the State of Florida the
approximately 22 acres of Golden Gate Golf Course property pledged
for the construction of a State Veterans Nursing Home in Collier
County. This item is brought to the agenda by Commissioner
Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, we know that this project is -- everybody is
Page 35
June 25, 2024
excited about this veterans nursing home, or I guess it's now called
the Collier County Long -Term Care community project because it's
more than a nursing home. Everyone's very excited about it.
And I've been trying to find ways to shorten some of the time
frames in terms of getting this project under construction. And one
of the steps that needs to be taken is that we need to have a survey
and a legal description of the property, and we have to have a deed of
that property to a state agency. It's probably the trustees of the
Internal Improvement Trust Fund. But whatever the entity is in
Tallahassee, they have to have the deed made out to them.
And my proposal is for our staff to develop the deed, develop an
escrow agreement so that property can be held in escrow by the state
agency. And then once funding's available, there's no delay in
providing that property. But it would be in escrow similarly to the
$30 million that's in escrow so that the title will not transfer until we
get federal approval of a project and we're underway. So there's no
risk to the county. That will be laid out in the escrow agreement.
The second part of this is we're telling a story to the federal
Department of Veterans Affairs that the county taxpayers have put
$40 million into that project, and the State of Florida's put
$10.5 million into it and, in addition, we have a piece of land that's
probably worth somewhere around 12- to $14 million.
And I think it would be appropriate for us to add that as part of
our story in terms of what the taxpayers are contributing to this
project. We have in-house appraisals -- appraisers, and so this
can -- an appraisal can be done -- kind of an informal appraisal can be
done. It won't cost us anything to do that. And we can just simply
add that to our story when we travel to DC or communicate with our
partners in Tallahassee and in Washington.
So, Mr. Chairman, the request is to direct staff to prepare those
documents, the deed, the escrow agreement, and the appraisal, so that
Page 36
June 25, 2024
we have those on hand, and we'll have absolutely no delay once we
get that federal approval.
CHAIRMAN HALL: It makes good sense.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I believe it does.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Motion to accept that?
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Yeah. I'll make that as a
motion, Mr. Chairman.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I'll second it.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Second. Any discussion?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN HALL: Good. Motion and second. 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.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you.
Item # 11 A
APPROVE AN AGREEMENT FOR SALE AND PURCHASE
UNDER THE CONSERVATION COLLIER LAND ACQUISITION
PROGRAM WITH 1) RICHARD E. LANGELL JR., AS TRUSTEE
OF THE RICHARD E. LANGELL TRUST, DATED APRIL 5, 2007
("LANGELL TR."), FOR A 2.81-ACRE PARCEL AT A COST OF
$589060 AND 2) MARTHA SARDINAS FOR A 2.34-ACRE
PARCEL AT A COST OF $531820, FOR A TOTAL COST NOT TO
Page 37
June 25, 2024
EXCEED $115,230 INCLUSIVE OF CLOSING COSTS. (JAIME
COOK, DEVELOPMENT REVIEW DIVISION DIRECTOR)
(DISTRICT 5) - MOTION TO APPROVE BY COMMISSIONER
MCDANIEL; SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO —
APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Commissioners, that brings us to
Item 11 A. This is a recommendation to approve an agreement for
sale and purchase under the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition
Program with one, Richard E. Langell, Junior, as trustee of the
Richard E. Langell Trust, dated April 5th, 2007, for a 2.81-acre
parcel at a cost of $58,060; and two, Martha Sardinas for a 2.34-acre
parcel at a cost of $53,820; for a total cost not to exceed $115,230,
inclusive of closing costs.
Ms. Jaime Cook, your Development Review division director, is
here to present.
MS. COOK: Good morning, Commissioners. Jaime Cook,
director of Development Review, for the record.
The two properties before you today are both within the Gore
Preserve multi -parcel project. And as you can see on the map on the
screen, they are both depicted in blue. And as a note, the eight Gore
Preserve properties that you approved at your last meeting are shown
in pink.
As we've discussed, this property -- this multi -parcel project
many times, the Gore Preserve was originally established in 2018
with an acquisition of 171 acres and officially established as a
multi -parcel project in 2023.
So to date, 36 percent of the multi -parcel project has been
acquired. The habitat is a mix of upland and wetland habitats,
including cypress, wetland hardwoods, and pine flatwoods, and it
serves as an important connection wildlife corridor for both private
Page 38
June 25, 2024
and public conservation lands, including the Conservation Collier
North Belle Meade Preserve, the Rural Fringe Mixed -Use District
Sending Lands, the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, two
Stewardship Sending Areas within the RLSA program, and the
Picayune Strand State Forest to the south. It is also adjacent to a
wildlife crossing under 75 at the Fakaunion Canal, and the preserve
area is utilized by a variety of listed species, including the Florida
panther, black bear, bonneted bat, and listed wading birds.
So the first of the two parcels is the Langell Trust parcel, which
is located along Desoto Boulevard. It is 2.81 acres of forested
wetlands and soils. It is surrounded on the north, south, and west by
existing Conservation Collier properties. And the purchase price is
95 percent of the appraised value of the property.
And the Sardinas parcel is just to the north of that. It is
2.34 acres of mixed wetlands -- mixed wetlands, vegetation, and
about a quarter of the property is hydric soils.
It abuts existing Conservation Collier properties both to the east
and to the west, and the purchase price is 100 percent of the appraised
value of the property.
So these two parcels would add 5.15 acres to the existing Gore
Preserve. And the total purchase price is $115,230.
And with that, the recommendation from staff is to acquire both
of these parcels at a cost not to exceed that $115,230 and to expand
the Gore Preserve.
With that, I'll take any questions you may have.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Move for approval.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: All right. Moved and seconded for
approval. All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
Page 39
June 25, 2024
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
MS. COOK: Thank you, all.
CHAIRMAN HALL: You talked us right into it.
MS. COOK: Thank you.
Item # 11 B
ACCEPT THE COLLIER AREA TRANSIT (CAT) CONNECT
PARATRANSIT SERVICE REPORT. (TRINITY SCOTT,
TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT HEAD)
(ALL DISTRICTS) - MOTION TO APPROVE THE
REPORT/UPDATE BY COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL;
SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER LOCASTRO — APPROVED
MS. PATTERSON: Item 11B is a recommendation to accept
the Collier Area Transit Connect paratransit service report.
Ms. Trinity Scott, Transportation Management Service
department head, is here to present.
MS. SCOTT: Good morning.
COMMISSIONER MCDANIEL: Good morning.
MS. SCOTT: At our last board meeting, we had multiple
public speakers come in to speak with regard to our CAT Connect
service, and Commissioner Saunders asked that we bring back a short
report on the overall item.
I have a few quick slides to go over and provide some
information. First off, our CAT Connect system is our door-to-door
paratransit system. It's for individuals with permanent or temporary
disabilities who cannot utilize our fixed -route transit system.
For our paratransit programs, we have two. One is what we call
Page 40
June 25, 2024
our Americans with Disabilities Act program. That is a requirement
from our fixed -route system. Those are individuals with permanent
or temporary disabilities that live -- that have a destination within
three-quarters of a mile of our fixed -route system and they're unable
to utilize that system.
We also have our Transportation Disadvantaged, which are
individuals who either reside or have a destination outside of that
three -quarter -of -a -mile area but, once again, they must have a
temporary or permanent disability to be able to qualify to utilize this
system.
As you can tell, over the past few years, we've had some
increase in our ridership. Going back to 2020, 2021, 2022, certainly
we were impacted with COVID where our ridership did go -- was a
little lower than what it had previously been. But in 2023, we
provided over 108,000 trips, and year to date, through May of this
year, we're nearly at 88,000 trips. We're trending to be -- to provide
a similar number of trips that we did last year.
So how the system works is passengers are -- they reserve trips
on this system, and they are given a pickup time. And depending
upon the length of your trip, that equates to an actual maximum travel
time that you can be on our buses.
So if your destination is within nine miles, your travel time
could be up to 60 minutes; nine to 18 miles, up to 75 minutes of
travel time; and 18 miles or more could be upwards of 120-minute
travel time. Remember, this is a shared -ride system. It is not
intended to be an Uber or a Lyft or a taxi. We are attempting to try
to group these trips to be able to get people from their origin to their
destination as efficiently as possible.
So I had the team look at our year-to-date travel times. So this
is a breakdown based on those parameters that I just provided you.
If someone's destination is within nine miles, our average travel time
Page 41
June 25, 2024
is approximately 22 minutes per trip; nine to 18, 42 minutes; and
18-plus miles is 18 -- or I'm sorry, 81 minutes.
An example of a trip that might be 18-plus miles could be
someone coming from the Immokalee area to dialysis within the
urban area. So those trips do certainly take longer. We experience
that when we drive that just in our personal vehicle as well.
So we looked at our peers. This is something that we analyze
on an annual basis, both with our fixed route as well as our
paratransit service. The team conducts what's called a
Transportation Disadvantaged Service Plan on an annual basis. We
do an annual update. And we have to look at our peers, and our
peers are determined based on our system size, our operating
environment, if we're urban or rural, our organizational type.
So we're a Board of County Commissioners. Other areas are
maybe small municipalities who are running this service. So we
want to have similar peers. And that we also look at if we're a
brokerage or not. So Collier Area Transit is a contracted service for
us. These are not -- our bus drivers are not county employees. So
other agencies, those hundred -plus drivers between fixed route and
paratransit are actually county employees. So we try to
have -- looking at how the systems are operated similarly. So our
peers are Bay County, Charlotte, Escambia, Manatee County,
Okaloosa, and Pasco County.
One of the things that you would note from our peer analysis is
that we do run our system with about 7 percent less vehicles than
what our peers do, and we certainly have more miles, but that is
because we are the largest county as well.
So one of the examples that was given during our public
comment was Sarasota County, and Sarasota County has it all
together. So I -- Commissioner McDaniel saw me in my vehicle this
morning looking up Sarasota County's operating statistics. Their
Page 42
June 25, 2024
land area is about 610 miles. They have three times the number of
vehicles that we have, and their cost per mile is more than ours
because their operating is much higher. They -- that's the type of
service that they provide.
So we are within operating -- for the most part, within our
operating guidelines. I'm not going to tell you that we don't have
times when the vehicle is stuck in traffic, if a vehicle breaks down, if
a vehicle gets into an accident. Those things happen, but we
certainly do our best to be able to optimize that service and, you
know, do that hot wash afterwards to figure out what went wrong and
how we can prevent it in the future.
But let's talk about some things that -- when we started looking
at the system as a whole over the past year, some of the things
that -- where we were getting complaints was our phone system. We
were having a tremendous amount of people who were sitting on hold
for an extended period of time or they were abandoning calls. So
we've really focused over the past year on our telephone system and
our customer feedback, and these are some of our statistics that we're
showing.
So on our customer service lines, between May of last year and
this year, we went from an average queue time of nearly two minutes
to 35 seconds. That was a 69 percent improvement. And the same
with abandoned calls, of calls not answered. We went from
23 percent down to 7 percent. So we're continuing -- continuing to
invest in our telephone system and our customer service so that we
can improve that customer experience.
There is nothing more frustrating for these individuals than
when they're trying to call in, they need to make an appointment, they
need to get to, you know, a necessary medical appointment, and to sit
on hold for that period of time. So it's something that's very
important to us from a customer service standpoint.
Page 43
June 25, 2024
Other things that Collier Area Transit and CAT Connect offer
are travel trainings. So for individuals that are within that ADA
corridor, working with them to have them have a comfort level to
perhaps have some of their trips be based on the fixed -route system.
Not every individual is a great candidate for this, but we certainly do
try.
And for those of you who may come in and out near our transfer
station, there is a -- I'm going to say a very experienced, mature
couple that go to Walmart a couple times a week to get their
groceries. They utilize that fixed -route system for those -- for those
services. And looking at them and actually having engaged with
them, they would probably qualify for our paratransit service, but
they like the latitude that the fixed -route system gives them without
having to call and schedule that trip.
We're also working with our vendor -- our contracted vendor for
our routing software. We utilize the software that optimizes our
trips. And so we are continually working with them to -- when we
have issues, where they're able to make modifications to the
parameters to better route those trips.
One of the things that we've been doing is making some
modifications to those first trips in the morning, so making sure that
we're going out and starting on the right foot, if you will, in the
morning. So our vendor's been working very closely with us. And
I know that they are -- our team just recently had another meeting
with them to -- continually to optimize that.
So our opportunities for improvements are, absolutely, we want
to continue that coordination with our software provider. We're also
merging our fixed route and paratransit dispatch to increase our
operational efficiency. This allows multiple individuals to be doing
similar jobs. You have backup, et cetera.
Hiring 11 operators to cover our current vacancies. Once again,
Page 44
June 25, 2024
this is a contracted vendor. I met with the vendor, Brian Wells, and
I -- the director of Public Transit and Neighborhood Enhancement
met with the general manager for our vendor to discuss our
vacancies. They have hired all 11 individuals. As you can imagine,
the drivers for our paratransit system go through a very rigorous
training process. We don't hire them and the next day put them out
with a vulnerable population. They were graduating four drivers this
week, and the other seven are in training and will be graduating from
the training program over the next few weeks, which will bring them
to fully staffed as far as the drivers go.
We continual -- we'll continue to coordinate with our local
agencies to address concerns. And I'll give an example for
Lighthouse. In my meeting with the general manager, one of the
things that they noted is sometimes the agencies have programs that
end every half an hour, and so passengers will schedule a trip every
half an hour, which means we have a parade of buses.
So when we start seeing those things and we start seeing how we
might be able to run more efficiently and also have a better passenger
experience, we work with those agencies to try to consolidate those
end times and also to have them end in different times. We -- this
service provides a lot of dialysis trips, so dialysis patients go early in
the morning. They get picked up at noontime, and then you have a
second, usually, group of folks who are going to dialysis. So if we
can get some of these agency programs to end at different times in
the day to where it's not all during those peak times, those are things
that we will work with them on.
Other transportation options that our passengers have, our
neighbors, family, and friends -- and we saw that last week with the
individuals came. They came with their neighbors and their family
members. And there are private providers; Naples Taxi, Uber, Lyft,
for example. There's also a non-profit volunteer driver program for
Page 45
June 25, 2024
disabled veterans that we will work with as well.
In addition, there are van service opportunities for the agencies.
And we are actually working with multiple agencies right now where
the agency can establish a coordinated agreement with Collier Area
Transit, and what that does is by them reporting their statistics to us,
it opens up their opportunity to be able to qualify for federal grants to
be able to purchase vans to be able to provide their own service.
And I'll use the United Cerebral Palsy here in Collier County.
We have worked with them for many, many years. They have
multiple vehicles, and they provide their own transportation. So
their trips are not intermingled with ours, and so they're able to give a
more direct experience to their clients.
So we're going to be working with the Lighthouse to see if that's
an option for them. The Lighthouse of Lee County does do that, so
it's not unheard of.
I also asked our team to pull the specific statistics for the
Lighthouse of Collier, and I just asked them to go back the last three
months to look at the -- our travel statistics that we had for the group.
And we provided over 800 trips to Lighthouse -- to or from
Lighthouse over the past three months. Our on -time performance for
our drop-off was 88 percent, and our pick-up was 78 percent.
The slides here show our average travel time with
regard -- compared to our max travel time. We did have two
passengers that were on the vehicle more than 30 minutes beyond
what their threshold is. And any time those type of things happen,
we go back, and we take a look at that. And in both of those
instances, the vehicles had been stuck in traffic. So, you know, if
Immokalee Road is shut down because there's an accident, there's a
fatality and FHP has it shut down, our buses are stuck in that same
traffic. And so sometimes we can't help those type of situations, and
those are the times when we're all getting phone calls going, "It took
Page 46
June 25, 2024
me three hours to get home." This impacts this system as well. But
certainly, we do our best, and we try to communicate that, you know,
to caregivers as much as we can as far as if we're -- if we're stuck in
traffic, we're trying to get that message out.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Well, your on -time performance is better
than American Airlines.
MS. SCOTT: We don't give peanuts, though.
So with that, I thank you. And what we're asking today is just
that you accept our report. And I don't know if we have any public
comment or not.
MR. MILLER: Yes, we do.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Go ahead.
MR. MILLER: Would you like that now, sir?
CHAIRMAN HALL: Let's do it, and then we'll go to
Commissioner LoCastro.
MR. MILLER: Your speaker is John DiMarco.
MR. DiMARCO: Good morning, everyone. My name is John
DiMarco, resident of Naples for 45 years. I'm also the chair of the
Collier Area Transit Advisory Board, and I'm here to speak about the
paratransit.
The paratransit is a very necessary thing for the visually
impaired and blind and disabled. I tremendously use it. I've never
had any problems with delays on it. As mentioned in the speech
before me, there is situations with traffic, and sometimes you get held
up, and it takes a little more time. But remember, it's a service that's
there for us, and we really enjoy the service, and we need the service.
Also, the public transportation system here is fantastic. I
looked into that, and I actually looked into the bus stop, considering
the Lighthouse, from Horseshoe, and it's approximately 13 minutes
from the Lighthouse. Now, the biggest thing of our OEM training
with a cane, of course, or a guide dog -- which I have a guide dog, by
Page 47
June 25, 2024
the way. He's retired now, so I'll be looking forward to getting a
new one -- is that part of the training is to teach us how to navigate to
certain points.
So if anybody's waiting that long for a para bus to pick them up
at the Lighthouse, maybe the OEM instructors need to show them the
way to the route, which is 13 minutes away. Now, I understand it
gets pretty hot here in the summertime, and I understand the
community is an older community, and as the community grows and
gets older, we're really going to need this service more than anything.
The two highlights that I really want to tell everyone about is,
what happened after Irma [sic]? Well, we lost the power. We had
about three feet of water in Naples. But guess what, the para bus
was there to take us to shelters. The drivers weathered through the
storms and came to get us to take us to shelters.
In Irma, after the storm, they contacted us, the Emergency
Management Services, and offered us rides to shelters to make sure
the disabled and visually impaired were all safe.
Also, the public transportation, I believe, was the first system to
be running back after Irma, so we all had a chance to go to Publix.
I just want to tell you the importance of this CAT bus is entirely
a thing that we really need in Collier County, and we should look up
to it because we're going to get more traffic, we're going to get more
people, and they're going to come. And the traffic jams are going to
come here, and the bus system's going to be the way to travel
eventually. We offer beach buses and buses to every location.
I just want to urge the Board and tell everybody how much I've
enjoyed the para bus, and thank you for letting me speak. Have a
great day.
CHAIRMAN HALL: No, thank you.
MR. DiMARCO: Thank you.
MR. MILLER: That was our only speaker, sir.
June 25, 2024
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Trinity, we got some good
feedback, obviously, at our last meeting. But one of the things that I
heard, we all heard, from one citizen -- and I'm probably
paraphrasing -- but they gave this example of -- they get on the bus
and that's Point A. They have to go to Point B, but they watch the
bus drive by Point B and drop everybody off at Point G, and then 40
minutes later the bus comes back to Point B.
In your analysis, have you seen that we have, you know, a
couple of routes that are a bit convoluted or their example has some
reasoning behind it where it's not actually as they presented?
Although they were pretty crystal clear that they felt they spent too
much time on the bus, they watched the bus drive right by their
location only to hit a whole bunch of further locations, and then the
bus had to come back to their stop. You know, what's happening
there?
MS. SCOTT: So remember with the system, it is not the same
route that is run every single day. That route changes every single
run that it does.
So I'll give an example. If I'm coming -- if a driver's coming
here to the government center to, say, pick up Commissioner Kowal
and Commissioner Hall, Commissioner Hall has a drop-off time, let's
just say, at 2:30, and Commissioner Kowal has a drop-off time at
3 o'clock. Commissioner Kowal actually lives closer. It is possible
that instead of going into a gated community and getting off route,
that the system would route to go up to drop off Commissioner Hall
first to meet his drop-off time, and then come back and drop off
Commissioner Kowal.
That is also -- it's not only -- it's looking at the parameters that
the system allows. The system allows for a passenger to be on the
vehicle up to 60 minutes. It's also about positioning that vehicle for
Page 49
June 25, 2024
its next pickup.
So certainly if there is a pickup that's at 3:00 near
Commissioner -- where Commissioner Kowal wants to be picked
up -- or dropped off at, we want to position that vehicle.
So it is -- there's a lot of parameters, and that's why we use a
scheduling software, because back in the day we used to do all this by
hand, and that's a lot, and also things happen. The other thing with
this new system that we have is it does optimize throughout the day.
So if a particular driver starts getting behind -- and when I say
that they're getting behind, it could be due to traffic. It could be due
to, you know, getting someone out. I mean, you have to understand
the population that we're dealing with. These are very vulnerable
individuals, and they might take some time to get out to the vehicle
and get loaded in, particularly if there are wheelchairs and all of that.
So if the system starts seeing that we're falling behind, it will
re -optimize, and we'll redistribute the trips throughout the day.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Is there a way to
communicate that better to the riders? Because talking to -- when
that citizen gave feedback, their expectation was they got on the bus,
you know, their Point B is six miles away, the bus drove 30 miles all
over the place, and then went back, and, you know, they felt like they
were sitting on the bus, and, you know, they weren't -- that wasn't
their expectation. Is there a way to -- because your example is
perfect as to how you used the commissioners as an example, that
that does happen. But, you know, if the customer doesn't know that,
we look -- in their mind we look stupid. You know, we look like we
just drove by their stop. Why didn't the bus just stop and let them
off?
MS. SCOTT: We actually -- and at least -- I know of at least
on one of the instances there, we had had that exact same
communication with the passenger. Unfortunately -- and I can
Page 50
June 25, 2024
appreciate they've had a long day at their program, and they just want
to get home. And so they want to be able to get home as fast as they
think that they should.
But it is a shared system. And like I said, from the travel times,
we do our best to try to keep those travel times at minimum, but
sometimes we can't.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah. And I know the other
suggestion was sometimes customers are on a bus, passengers are on
a bus. They don't -- the bus isn't full, and so one of their suggestions
was, you know, scrap a lot of the big buses and just get a whole fleet
of SUVs. And, you know, if you really work the algorithm, that's a
lot more drivers. It doesn't give us a lot of flexibility.
And so I know you're finding the sweet spot, and we do have
smaller vehicles as well. And so just making sure that we use those
to the best of our ability. But, you know, somebody came to the
podium and said, you know, if we had a lot more of those smaller
vehicles, it would be much more efficient, but that also -- it gives
some budget challenges as well.
MS. SCOTT: Well -- so a portion of our system we do
complete utilizing some vehicles from our vendor.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Yeah.
MS. SCOTT: And they've actually brought in minivans, which
has been the discussion from several of our passengers. So some of
the concerns that we're having with minivans -- and we're seeing this.
We have a very large area. A minivan that you go buy at the local
dealership does not have the chasse and transmission to withstand the
wear and tear on the vehicles that we put on these every single day.
So from a cost -comparison standpoint, they are spending a lot
more time in the shop, and so that means now we're down a vehicle.
And so it's something that we are -- we are working with but -- and
we also reached out to other transit systems here in the state and said,
Page 51
June 25, 2024
"Hey, how are these things working for you?"
And pretty overwhelmingly we're getting the same response
from them. They do work, you know, for your ambulatory
individuals being able to get them on the bus and move them along,
but from a wear and tear and a vehicle operations standpoint, they do
present some challenges. But we're going to continue to be working
through those items.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Thank you, ma'am.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. Just a couple
points.
On the -- I know you've got routing software. I don't know if
that is fairly new, if that can be upgraded. From some of the
discussion we had, it just seemed like the routing was really the
difficult part. So what's your comment in terms of the routing
program you have? Is that something that needs to be upgraded?
MS. SCOTT: No. Actually, this is a fairly new routing system
that we have brought on probably in the last year and a half, two
years. And so it's continuing -- we're continuing to work within it.
Some of the things that this new routing system does that our old
routing system does not is provide updates to passengers when the
vehicle is -- is approaching or, you know, going to be there within a
period of time.
So those were some of the things from the passenger feedback in
the past that was something that they desired, to know that the bus
was coming in. So it's all connected with our vehicle locators and
can do that.
It is a -- the challenges that we have is during season, our
ridership goes up tremendously, and so trying to get sometimes
upwards of 600 vehicles -- I'm sorry -- or 600 trips per day on the
vehicles that we have can be a challenge, and so those are things.
Page 52
June 25, 2024
But like I said, we're continuing to work with the vendor to optimize
that system more and more.
I think the software is working, but remember, the software is
based on the parameters that we put into it. And so we allow for a
passenger time of X number, and that's our adopted level of service
that we're providing. So the bus is trying to optimize the efficiency
of the overall system as well to keep your operating costs down.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Okay. Second comment. I
understand that if you bought a van from the local Chevy dealer,
that's not really set up for that type of travel; however, I'm sure you
could get vans that are made for that. They, obviously, would be
more expensive, so I think that might be part of the solution is
looking for smaller vehicles that are made for this type of transit, for
heavy use, so you don't have to worry about them wearing out. And
that's just a thought. I'm sure there are manufacturers that will
produce whatever you need.
And this was a very thorough report. And as I'm listening to
you, my thought was, it was two weeks ago when this was requested,
and you've put together a report that is pretty -- very thorough and
really very informative. I don't know how you do everything that
you do, but I appreciate it.
MS. SCOTT: I have a great team.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. Well, great.
Your team did a great job on this, so thank you.
MS. SCOTT: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. You know, you
brought up the -- and Commissioner Saunders brought up the idea or
the suggestion of alternative vehicles other than the big buses, but I
think it's also as important to educate the community that this isn't a
point-to-point service. It's not an Uber or a Lyft or a taxi.
Page 53
June 25, 2024
And I have often thought, is it more -- could it be more cost
effective for us to provide subsidation to riders on a more
point-to-point basis? Is there any -- is there any exploration going
on with regard to that?
MS. SCOTT: Yes. We actually -- probably about a year and a
half ago we received a grant to be able to provide same -day trips but
through an Uber or Lyft type process on demand. We'll tell you we
struggled to be able to get a vendor. Uber and Lyft aren't held to the
same federal requirements that the public transit system is.
So we struggled to find a vendor to be able to provide that
service. We did find a vendor to provide that service that provided
that more direct door-to-door service.
We ran that service for six to nine months. We asked the
vendor to extend it, because we did have a little bit more grant dollars
to be able to expend, and the vendor said, "Thanks, but no thanks.
We can't make it work from an operational standpoint, from a
dollars -and -cents standpoint."
So it was very difficult to be able to do that. So to be able to do
that subsidy, we have to be able to do that with individuals who can
meet those state and federal guidelines that we have, because we
would be utilizing grant dollars for that so...
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well, are there any income
verifications done for the ridership, the people that use it that
potentially may be able to pay a little bit more than what our typical
fee is to be able to help subsidize that and shorten those time frames
down?
MS. SCOTT: So for our ADA passengers, there is no required
income verification. We do -- typically for ADA passengers it's $3
per way. There is a provision that if they would like to provide their
income, they can qualify for a reduced fare, and that is looking at
their income based on poverty levels.
Page 54
June 25, 2024
For our paratransit -- our Transportation Disadvantaged service
that -- yes, it has income verification. And depending upon
those -- their income, their fare each way is either $1, $3, or $4, so $4
is the max.
What you will note in my budget discussion that we had, that
we will be updating our fare policy. We're going to be going into a
fare study over the next year, and I anticipate looking at particularly
the paratransit fares as well to see if there is a closer to an
unsubsidized rate, if you will, or a broader span for our fares for the
Transportation Disadvantaged service.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Well -- and the thought
process, as we're going through that, you know, maybe an alternative
to what's, in fact, transpiring is premium service where someone who
can afford to pay more than 3 or $4 per trip could subscribe to a
premium service and receive maybe an enhanced opportunity, and
that might be in conjunction with like what Commissioner Saunders
was saying.
I know my father had his -- she was my stepmom, but they were
married well after I was grown, so -- but she was paralyzed. She had
a stroke, and she was paralyzed, and he actually bought a minivan
that was equipped to be able to allow her wheelchair to wheel up in,
and took out the passenger's seat, and it was a couple of seat belt
straps, and she was put in. So just exploration in those regards with
those specialized equipments.
It was quite some time ago that he actually bought the van. But
I want to say it was 110-, $120,000 set up. So it had a -- it had an
automatic door, and the shocks went down, and the ramp
automatically came out, so...
MS. SCOTT: Our 12-passenger buses that you just approved
during last meeting are about $160,000.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Okay. Anyway, thank you.
Page 55
June 25, 2024
MS. SCOTT: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I agree with Commissioner
Saunders. Somebody -- are you writing that down? That was an
extremely thorough report. I appreciate you and your staff for doing
what you did.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Do you need a motion?
MS. PATTERSON: If we could get a --
CHAIRMAN HALL: Motion to approve the update.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So moved.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Second.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Moved and seconded for the update.
All in favor, say aye.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Aye.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Aye.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: Aye.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So moved.
Are you good to go?
THE COURT REPORTER: (Nods head.)
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
MS. PATTERSON: That brings us to Item 15, staff and
commission general communications. Item 15A is public comments
on general topics not on the current or future agenda by individuals
Page 56
June 25, 2024
not already heard during previous public comments in this meeting.
MR. MILLER: We have no one.
Item # 15 B
STAFF PROJECT UPDATES
MS. PATTERSON: All right. Item 15B is staff project
updates. And while we don't have any, I was going to just give you
a quick update, Commissioner Saunders, on the air purifiers. Let me
just go back to my e-mail. We got some news from Dan Summers.
As of last week, from Mr. Summers, they had five deliveries
scheduled for the donated air cleaners. David Lawrence, St.
Matthew's House, Humane Society, YMC of Naples, YMC of Marco,
also Glades County for their special -needs shelter. They have more
deliveries in the queue, as they await the completion of their
paperwork, and we have -- he's holding a couple of units for us for
our evacuation shelters and also for DAS once we are through some
of the painting and other things that are going on over there. So I
just wanted to give you that.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Do you know how many
units are left?
MS. PATTERSON: No, but I'll get an update from
Mr. Summers and come back to you with that.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you. Thank you.
MS. PATTERSON: You're welcome.
With that, that is all I have.
County Attorney.
MR. KLATZKOW: I have nothing, thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner McDaniel.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Good morning, sir.
Page 57
June 25, 2024
I have two points, and I'll be brief. Last week during our
budget hearing, I think it was Chief Smith was here. We were
talking about our public gun range out off of Oil Grade Road, and I
received another call from the garden. The Chief suggested that
inmate labor might be utilized in order to effectuate the plantings and
irrigation and all. Those plants are, in fact, available. So I would
like to not have to be the one driving the bus to go pick them up and
orchestrate that.
So if we could, I would like to have that moving forward.
Those plants are being contributed. I think Davenport Nursery is the
one that has the plantings to be contributed to us for free. So I just
want to make sure that staff is grabbing onto that and making -- and
working -- coordinating with the Sheriffs Department to be able to
get those plantings in.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. We'll reach out to Chief Smith
today, and if inmate labor is not a possibility, we'll deal with it with
our folks that are used to dealing with that type of work.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Outstanding.
Number 2, though I really appreciate the expeditious timing with
regard to our meeting today, I don't want to fetter away the summer
months and our board schedule. We are deep into a budget process.
We had a budget workshop last week. Our -- the company that we
engaged to assist us with our priority budgeting processes had an
enormous amount of information that was a first blush for me last
week at our workshop.
And so I would -- I would suggest that we schedule them and/or
some form or format with regard to the upcoming budget and the
budget policy that the Board put out in relationship to the budgets
that have been put forth by our departments and spend some time this
summer.
We've got four more meetings. I know we're going to consume
Page 58
June 25, 2024
a little bit in July for the setting of the millage rate, but I would really
like to engage with our consultant. He represented that there was
going to be a more formalized report. I asked some questions. We
all know -- it's nice to say that there's an opportunity for reallocation
and/or new monies, but without definition of those, when you're
reallocating funding, something's getting moved over here and off the
priority list, so -- and onto a different priority list.
So my suggestion would be, if it meets with the will of the
Board, that we utilize these meetings in the summer months to
become more educated and have more input with regard to our
upcoming budget meetings in September.
That's all.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner LoCastro.
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Okay. A few things. I
wanted to give a positive shout -out to the Paradise Coast team and
FC Naples. On the 15th of June, you know, they released the crest
and the colors and whatnot, so I think, you know, they're off to a
really great start. We have the Everblades, our triple championship
team. Last night the Panthers won -- last night? -- the Panthers won
in game seven, and FC Football Club Naples had even in -- in a
day -- on the 15th, when the weather wasn't so great, we had a great
turnout.
And Adrian and his team and Roberto and his team and
everybody that came together, we had a lot of county staff out there.
It was a really good start. So I know we're all really excited and
encouraged. And it was obvious they put a lot of thought into the
crest and colors. I mean, I think all of us got nothing but rave
reviews from the community, so that was really well done.
One of the things I've said is if any of us chair a committee, you
know, if something major is talked about at your subcommittee
meetings, you know, bring it back to this board. So we had a TDC
Page 59
June 25, 2024
meeting, and two things I just want you to know that we talked about
aggressively was 4th of July trash. Usually on the 5th of July we all
get e-mails saying how garbage cans were overflowing, and we didn't
have quick enough pickups, and it's always a challenge.
So I don't think we're going to get a million thank you notes
after every Memorial Day or 4th of July, but we're also not sitting on
our hands.
So I'll just give you the abridged version. There was a deep
discussion because we did have a lot of the people there that take care
of our beaches and whatnot that come to TDC meetings, and we
wanted to make sure the 4th of July wasn't overlooked, and it's not.
And there's a good plan in place, as there always is, but we learn
from every holiday.
The second thing that I had asked was there's a major plan for a
larger Paradise Coast sign to be put on 951. That's still moving
forward. There's an artist's rendering, and there's some permitting
involved. And so I don't want to give a specific date -- because,
actually, when I met with Trinity, she connected some other dots that
are -- you know, we don't want to install this giant sign, and then if
there's a stoplight or the road's being widened, then the sign has to be
removed because, you know, we put the cart before the horse. But
it's in play. The right people are working it with the right timing.
So those were two TDC takeaways.
And then, you know, we talked a little bit about July 6th.
There's a big -- you know, a drone show that's going to be at Paradise
Coast, and one of the things that I had said is the difference between
that July 6th show and our 4th of July show last year, if you
remember last year on the 4th of July, there was still plenty of room
in the stadium, but we sort of maxed out on parking spots. And, you
know, we don't normally have events that fill the stadium, so it's sort
of a little bit of an anomaly, but it wasn't lost on us, and there's all of
Page 60
June 25, 2024
the lessons learned.
The difference between that and the event we're going to have
on the 6th is on the 6th, that's the only game in town. So on the 4th
you had fireworks on Marco, you had fireworks in Naples, you had
fireworks other places, so Paradise Coast was one of several options.
Saturday, July 6th, I think we're going to have all of the people
descend on the sports complex.
So we talked a little bit about making sure that we have traffic
being directed in the right way. But I would just say to the
commissioners, if between now and then you're talking to your
constituents or you're sending out a newsletter, some things that were
stressed at the TDC meeting is please encourage people to carpool.
I mean, one of the things the Paradise Coast team said is that for
a lot of big events, they see these cars come in, you know, in a big,
long line with, you know, one person in each car, and they're all
together [sic], you know, driving their own vehicle. And that's okay
if we have a lacrosse cross tournament with 300 people, but on
July 6th, that won't cut it.
Trinity and I spoke yesterday and, you know, a few people at the
TDC meeting said, "How about the CAT buses?" And "Why don't
we run shuttles?"
And there might be something magical. She's going to look
into a couple things, but there's also some challenges which is, okay,
where do you have these people pre -park? You can't just say, oh,
everybody park in the Walmart parking lot, we'll pick you up.
Walmart doesn't love that very much. But there might be some
options.
But there's several improvements that are going to be put in play
for the 6th. But please remind people, carpool. Get there early
because cars will move slow into the parking lot no matter how many
we have out on the streets from our Sheriffs Office, and, you know,
Page 61
June 25, 2024
get a seat early, and there's a lot being done to maximum that.
And let's see. Oh, and then I'll just plant the seed with you -all.
Ed and I went to, basically -- sort of had a mini town hall meeting at
Port of the Islands. Port of the Islands, just as a reminder, if you
drive out towards Everglades City, before you hit Everglades City,
there's another major community there. You -all remember that's
where the haunted house hotel was for many years that, you know,
we tore down a few years ago.
But they have a unique community there where they have
community leaders, they have a CID, which is not unlike some other
communities, but they have all new officers. They've inherited some
things that are a bit dusty and a little convoluted. Ed and I went out
there, and we also had a Zoom call with them a few weeks ago, and
Amy was on the call, and we had senior leadership.
We're really working hard to help this new leadership team.
And the reason I just plant that seed here is if you're not familiar with
Port of the Islands, you will be because I believe several things are
going to come to us at some point for a vote of either support or
nonsupport or something in the middle.
But we're working really hard to address some dusty, neglected
things out there and doing it with community -- new community
leaders that have stepped forward that I'm really encouraged by.
They realize that they have a lot on their plate.
They're not unlike the municipalities we have with Everglades
City, City of Marco, and City of Naples where way back when their
developer made some command decisions to keep responsibility of
quite a few things, utilities and roads and beautification and this and
that. Now you're all the way down the road, and some of those
things are quite a bit dusty and dated.
And, you know, it's easy to say, "Well, we want to hand the keys
to the county and just have them take over everything and fix it for
Page 62
June 25, 2024
us." And Ed and I went out there and basically said, "That's not
realistic," but -- "you can't give us the keys to a car that doesn't run
and expect us to give you back a Mercedes."
But there are some answers in between, and we are really
working hard with them. So I just wanted to mention that. You'll
start to see at some point some Port of the Islands discussion, and,
you know, we're going to try to find some solutions as best we can
that make the most sense.
That's all I have. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Thank you, Commissioner.
Commissioner Kowal.
COMMISSIONER KOWAL: I don't have anything. Thank
you. IV
CHAIRMAN HALL: Commissioner Saunders.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I just have one item I want to bring up. The -- we've been
dealing a lot with issues over at the DAS facilities. Staff has done an
incredible job getting things back in order there and taking care of the
animals, but it's been brought to our attention, really, recently,
especially with the cat breeding season and the number of cats that
are out -- that are being picked up, that the real solution to our
problem in terms of overcrowding at our facilities is trying to prevent
the proliferation of animals in the first place.
I've talked to several people. We have a couple ordinances on
the books that apparently are not effective in controlling that. One
of them would be our hobby breeders ordinance. From things I've
been told and seen, there are situations where a lot of animals are just
simply let loose. Ultimately, they wind up in our shelter, and a lot of
that is coming from some of the hobby breeders that are just not
regulated.
It's not a very popular issue to bring up in terms of trying to deal
Page 63
June 25, 2024
with it, because it's a complicated subject, but I'd like our staff -- I'd
like the Board to direct our staff to take a look at our regulatory
scheme in terms of hobby breeders, in terms of the domestic animal
folks that are abusers, all of our enforcement mechanisms, but in
particular the hobby breeders, and see if we can get a handle on
beefing up our ordinances and making sure that we're addressing the
real cause of the problem, which is too many animals are out, stray,
and they're not spayed or neutered. And I think we need to look at
our regulatory scheme.
So, Mr. Chairman, I would like to have our -- with a nod of the
heads, if the Board is supportive, for staff to really look into
everything that we are doing in terms of the enforcement to beef up
our operations.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: I think it's a great idea. And
just on that note, I mean, I think there's some exploration going on
with our -- and didn't we have an agenda item today talking about the
fee structure and the waiver of those fees to incentive -- for a period
of time to incentivize people to participate in the spray and
neutering? So that can all fly in the same -- in the same path. I
hope that we'll get some data with regard to people that have chosen
to participate with the fee -waiver process.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. So that is the intent is to observe
how that works here during these summer months and then come
back to you with adjustments. We've got some ideas, but, of course,
we need to see what kind of information we can get and glean from
this.
And as far as Commissioner Saunders, yes, absolutely. This
has been a topic on and off now for the last several years. There's a
lot of people very passionate about this that have made
recommendations, so we'll go back to the ordinances, along with our
Code Enforcement folks who are newly involved, and look at all of
Page 64
June 25, 2024
this.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: All right. I appreciate that.
If you could sort of report back in a few weeks --
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: -- and kind of where we
might want to start making some improvements, that would be
helpful.
MS. PATTERSON: Yes, sir. Yep. And for anybody
listening, if you want to foster kittens, that's a real need that we have
right now, and we have a lot of kittens in the shelter, and --
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: There are a lot of young
folks in the audience that have been sitting there quietly. They look
like they would like to have a cat to take home with them, so...
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: Everybody who wants a cat,
raise their hand. We'll have them delivered right now.
COMMISSIONER SAUNDERS: Or even more than one cat.
No takers.
MS. PATTERSON: The nice part about foster is that the
county still continues to pay for the food and the veteran care. We're
just looking for them to be in a temporary placement till they get
older and are able to be adopted.
So, anyway, just a shout -out to anybody and everybody
watching. You could take some cats to your mom.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah -- no. She has one. I
have two. No.
MS. PATTERSON: Okay. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Is that it?
I have had the opportunity to talk to Chris Fabian with
ResourceX, and he needs another 10 days to two weeks to come out
with -- he wants to add to his report.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yep.
Page 65
June 25, 2024
CHAIRMAN HALL: And so with that, I've talked to senior
staff. We don't have any major items coming down the pike.
No -- there's no land uses coming. And so what I want to propose is
us to skip the July 23rd meeting. That'd give Chris time to come
back with all -- he's going to focus on two different areas. He's
going to focus on the low-cost, high -impact and the low-cost,
low -impact areas of the grid. Remember the grid that he had?
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yes.
CHAIRMAN HALL: And there was I don't know how many
programs were included in each grid, but those are the first things
that he's going to bring back to staff. The reason why I say let's
consider this is because that's going to give staff -- once the report
hits, that's going to give the directors -- that's going to give them time
to implement what changes that they may be able to meet so that they
can bring those back to us. We would have August the 13th, we
would have August the 27th to really dive in with those two -- you
know, with that report, and then we'd be prepared for our
September 5th budget hearing.
The major thing that we're going to do the next meeting is we're
going to set the maximum millage rate, and I'm hopeful by that time
we would have that report.
And I'm not saying that we're going to take off. We're going to
be working. We're going to be -- I'll be involved with staff. I'll be
involved in this budget process. I'm just saying, let's just don't meet
that day. It takes a lot of -- we're here. We're going to be less than
a two-hour meeting, and it takes a lot of preparation and a lot
of -- and a lot of time away from other things to do this. And I'm not
saying today's meeting wasn't productive. It was. But I'm just
going to propose that we skip the July 23rd meeting to allow
staff -- so that they can get with us. They're going to meet with us
individually. We can dive into this budget process.
Page 66
June 25, 2024
I'm going to say I'm excited about it, and I'm looking forward to
seeing what we can decide that's going to be wise and what we don't
need to decide on as well.
So what are you-all's thoughts about coming -- after July the 9th,
just skipping the 23rd meeting?
COMMISSIONER LoCASTRO: You know, I think one of the
things that we always said about meeting in the summer is we
had -- you as the Chair and any of us had the latitude to say -- look at
the agenda and say, you know, "The juice ain't worth the squeeze,
you know, for this meeting." So we have it on the calendar, and
it's -- we thought -- the majority of us thought it was smarter to have
the meetings on the calendar, and it's easier to take it off than to say,
"Oh, my God, we're on vacation over the summer but, oh, we need to
have a quick throw -together meeting because ResourceX has
something important to tell us," or another department.
So, you know, I think if that's the big heavy -lifting thing for that
meeting and nothing between now and then that is time -sensitive
pops up, it certainly is something that we talked about being able to
have the latitude to do if we saw an advantage to, you know, skipping
over a meeting for a particular reason.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: My question -- and I haven't
seen it come up -- is there was a discussion about the annual meetings
with the two CRAs, and I had suggested we do that on one of our
board meetings as well, since we're all here and everything's set up
for that. Has that been put on the schedule yet?
MS. PATTERSON: It has not been. I actually just asked the
staff to reach out to see what our date -- trying to herd the two CRAs
for a date, but that has not been placed on the calendar yet.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Henceforth, before we pull
trigger and don't have the 23rd meeting or announce it now that we're
not -- I'm okay with that, but I would rather -- I would -- there again,
Page 67
June 25, 2024
I would rather -- if ResourceX's report's going to be ready within the
next 10, 12 days, what's your rationale for putting them off until
August? To give staff a minute to digest that report?
CHAIRMAN HALL: Yeah. I didn't want to put ResourceX
off. When the report comes, I wanted to give staff the opportunity to
get their plans together to bring to us for major implementation or
major decision.
And I think that once that report comes, I'm definitely going to
dive in. I'll be personally involved with meeting with the division
heads and the directors to make sure that their -- that their plans are
going according to the -- I'm going to call it the programs that
ResourceX brings forward.
And I'm not saying that we're going to look at all of them, but I
want to be instrumental. So we're going to be working. I just -- I'm
just saying let's just not meet as a Board until we can get some
direction from that report to the staff and hear their plans and the way
that they would like to implement that so that we can make good
decisions. We don't have to decide today. We can decide on July
the 9th.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Yeah. I was just thinking,
let's -- before we pull the trigger on the 23rd, I'm okay if the -- I'm
okay with that if we want to, but, you know, I'd really like for us to
get the CRA annual meetings scheduled so those folks can come and
address the issues of the community, both Immokalee and Bayshore.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Is there a possibility to get that on the
9th?
MS. PATTERSON: I'll find out today and get back with you.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Perfect. I mean, that would be perfect
timing.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right. We just don't have
that data yet. And my thought to you, Mr. Chair, is, again, a lot of
June 25, 2024
this -- we all know this is -- a lot of this budgeting process is
staff -driven, but they're going to require a lot of the input from us,
because of the adjustments and the vision statement -- mission
statement, business plan, and budget priorities are going to require a
lot of input from us, and so that was why I was leaning up on
scheduling ResourceX to be here and go through those -- those actual
finished documents. I saw him taking notes like there was no
tomorrow last week.
CHAIRMAN HALL: He was writing like he was --
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: So I'm just hesitant on
pulling off of an actual meeting time where we can -- where
we -- and I know staff needs a minute to digest and look at the
proposals that ResourceX is putting forth.
But I said it yesterday when I was talking with senior staff,
reallocation sounds like a nice thing. New funding sounds like a
nice thing, but those are fee structures that are coming from
somewhere else, and reallocation is re -appropriation of budget
monies.
You know, I think Amy used the -- Ms. Patterson used the
example yesterday, you know, reallocating, re -prioritizing TDT
funding over to support beach parks would then free up General Fund
money. That's a nice reallocation that could really work, and then
we would have the decision -making power to maneuver those
reallocation funds.
But I don't know, his spread was 87 million to 157 million of
reallocation and new -- and new revenues. I really -- I really need to
see what all that is encompassed within those numbers. So I'm just
hesitant on coming off of our normal board schedule at this particular
juncture just because of the enormous amount of time that this is
going to take.
CHAIRMAN HALL: Nope, I totally agree. And I think that
Page 69
June 25, 2024
we're going to need some time.
Also in the report, we're looking at efficiencies, we're looking at
redundancies, we're looking at things that are low -impact, high -cost.
I mean, they don't really impact us very much, but they're costing us a
lot of money, so we need to make the decisions, do we need to
continue those things or do we not? And so what I love about
ResourceX is it's nonemotional. It's data driven.
COMMISSIONER McDANIEL: Right.
CHAIRMAN HALL: So when we get the data and we let staff
have the data, then they can say -- and I enjoyed the buy -in from
Mr. Johnson. I mean, he embraced the process, Mr. Finn embraced
the process, and I know the County Manager embraces the process.
And as the -- you know, the speed of the group is determined by the
speed of the leadership. And so I think with that we'll see some
positive things coming to us, some realistic things, you know, some
things that they -- yes, we probably can do without that or, no, we
have to have that. Those are the things that I think can come
forward to us from that report.
And if we come back on August the 13th, we'd have August the
13th and August the 27th all day long to hash those things out instead
of, you know, getting all dressed up and practice for the dance, and
we're done in two hours.
So that was -- that's just my comment. We can decide on that
next meeting, and I'm glad to have some other discussion about it.
But if there's anything -- nothing else, we're adjourned.
""Commissioner * *Commissioner McDaniel moved, seconded by Commissioner
LoCastro and carried that the following items under the consent and
Page 70
June 25, 2024
summary agendas be approved and/or adopted****
Item # 16A 1
RESOLUTION 2024-119: APPROVE A RESOLUTION
AMENDING THE GROWTH MANAGEMENT COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT SERVICES FEE SCHEDULE,
WITH AN EFFECTIVE DATE OF AUGUST 1, 20241 IN
ACCORDANCE WITH THE COLLIER COUNTY CODE OF
LAWS AND ORDINANCES, SECTION 2-13
Item # 16A2
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TEMPORARILY
WAIVE DOMESTIC ANIMAL SERVICES (DAS) DIVISION
ADOPTION FEES AND CITATION AND COMPLIANCE FEES,
PER RESOLUTION NO. 2018-1061 TO PROMOTE COMMUNITY
PARTICIPATION AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
FROM WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2024, THROUGH MONDAY,
SEPTEMBER 30, 2024
Item # 16A3
APPROVE FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE POTABLE WATER
AND SEWER UTILITY FACILITIES AND ACCEPT THE
CONVEYANCE OF A PORTION OF THE POTABLE WATER
FACILITIES AND APPURTENANT UTILITY EASEMENT FOR
BENTLEY VILLAGE — 64 UNIT MULTI -FAMILY BUILDINGS
(BLDG. #35), PL20240002044 - STAFF CONDUCTED A FINAL
INSPECTION ON APRIL 19, 20241 AND THESE FACILITIES
HAVE BEEN FOUND TO BE SATISFACTORY AND
Page 71
June 25, 2024
ACCEPTABLE
Item # 16A4
AUTHORIZE THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A
PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $818,2001
WHICH WAS POSTED AS A GUARANTY FOR EXCAVATION
PERMIT NUMBER PL20230002371 FOR WORK ASSOCIATED
WITH ESPLANADE BY THE ISLANDS — PHASE 3 - THE
LAKES WERE INSPECTED ON MAY 14, 20241 BY THE
DEVELOPMENT REVIEW DIVISION
Item # 16A5
4
AUTHORIZE THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A
PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $98,340, WHICH
WAS POSTED AS A GUARANTEE FOR EXCAVATION
PERMIT NUMBER PL20230013683 FOR WORK ASSOCIATED
WITH ESPLANADE BY THE ISLANDS - PHASE 3 (LAKE
EXPANSION) - THE LAKES WERE INSPECTED ON MARCH
18, 2024, BY THE DEVELOPMENT REVIEW DIVISION
Item # 16A6
AUTHORIZE THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A
PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $15014001
WHICH WAS POSTED AS A DEVELOPMENT GUARANTY
FOR AN EARLY WORK AUTHORIZATION (EWA) FOR WORK
ASSOCIATED WITH SANDY LANE ASSEMBLAGE,
PL20230015914
Page 72
June 25, 2024
Item # 16A7
AUTHORIZE THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A
PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $50,120, WHICH
WAS POSTED AS A GUARANTY FOR EXCAVATION PERMIT
NUMBER PL20210003057 FOR WORK ASSOCIATED WITH
SILVERWOOD AT AVE MARIA (PHASE 3 & 4) - THE LAKE
WAS INSPECTED ON MARCH 28, 2024, BY THE
DEVELOPMENT REVIEW DIVISION
Item # 16A8
AUTHORIZE THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A
PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $317,5001
WHICH WAS POSTED AS A GUARANTY FOR EXCAVATION
PERMIT NUMBER PL20200000344 FOR WORK ASSOCIATED
WITH SKYSAIL - PHASE ONE - THE LAKES WERE
INSPECTED ON MAY 13, 20241 BY THE DEVELOPMENT
REVIEW DIVISION
R MINK61 �
AUTHORIZE THE CLERK OF COURTS TO RELEASE A
PERFORMANCE BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $64,820, WHICH
WAS POSTED AS A GUARANTY FOR EXCAVATION PERMIT
NUMBER PL20210000285 FOR WORK ASSOCIATED WITH
SKYSAIL - PHASE 1B - THE LAKES WERE INSPECTED ON
MAY 13, 2024, BY THE DEVELOPMENT REVIEW DIVISION
Item # 16A 10
Page 73
June 25, 2024
APPROVE FOR RECORDING THE FINAL PLAT OF OPUS
STONE, APPROVAL OF THE STANDARD FORM
CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT, AND
APPROVAL OF THE PERFORMANCE SECURITY IN THE
AMOUNT OF $29305,053.81. (PL20230004058) - LOCATED IN
SECTION 36, TOWNSHIP 48 SOUTH, RANGE 26 EAST,
COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA
Item # 16A 11
APPROVE, PURSUANT TO RESOLUTION NO. 2023-90, THE
RELEASE OF A CODE ENFORCEMENT LIEN WITH AN
ACCRUED VALUE OF $233,423.89, FOR A REDUCED
PAYMENT OF $3,055.60, IN THE CODE ENFORCEMENT
ACTION TITLED BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS VS.
JOHNNY R. MOLLETT, RELATING TO FOLIO #41508600000,
COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA. CASE NO. CESD20190002904 -
THE PROPERTY WAS BROUGHT INTO COMPLIANCE ON
OCTOBER 5, 2023
Item # 16A 12
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TO AUTHORIZE
A BUDGET AMENDMENT OF $1201000 TO ALLOCATE
FUNDING TO THE PRESERVE AMENITIES PROJECT NO.
(80454) WITHIN THE CONSERVATION COLLIER PROJECT
FUND (1063) TO FACILITATE THE REPAIR AND
MAINTENANCE OF AMENITIES AT THE PRESERVES —
AMENITIES INCLUDE PATHS, BOARDWALKS, PARKING
LOTS. AND FENCES
Page 74
June 25, 2024
Item # 16A 13
APPROVE THE CYCLE 12B CONSERVATION COLLIER
ACTIVE ACQUISITION LIST (AAL) AND DIRECT STAFF TO
PURSUE PROJECTS RECOMMENDED WITHIN THE A -
CATEGORY, IN SEQUENTIAL ORDER, FUNDED BY
CONSERVATION COLLIER LAND ACQUISITION FUND
Item # 16A 14
ADD THE DIVELEY TRUST PROPERTY TO THE B-
CATEGORY OF THE CONSERVATION COLLIER ACTIVE
ACQUISITION LIST (AAL) AND DIRECT STAFF TO RE-
EVALUATE AND RANK THE PROPERTY AGAIN IN ONE
YEAR
Item # 16B 1
APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN A
LANDSCAPE MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT WITH
TAMARINDO COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, INC., FOR
IRRIGATION IMPROVEMENTS WITHIN SABAL PALM ROAD
PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY - THE ASSOCIATION WILL BE
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MOWING AND EDGING ALONG THE
SIDEWALK, DEBRIS REMOVAL, WEEDING, FERTILIZATION,
AND PEST CONTROL AS DEEMED NECESSARY
Item # 16B2
APPROVE A FIRST AMENDMENT TO AGREEMENT NO. 18-
7482, "REAL ESTATE APPRAISAL & CONSULTING
Page 75
June 25, 2024
SERVICES," WITH MULTIPLE VENDORS TO EXTEND THE
AGREEMENT'S EXPIRATION DATE FOR AN ADDITIONAL
SIX-MONTH PERIOD THROUGH AND INCLUDING APRIL 19,
2025
Item # 16B3
AWARD INVITATION TO BID NO. 24-8205, "TRAFFIC SIGNS
AND RELATED MATERIALS," TO MCCAIN SALES OF
FLORIDA INC., D/B/A UNIVERSAL SIGNS AND
ACCESSORIES, OSBURN ASSOCIATES INC., PARAMOUNT
ASSETS GROUP LLC., D/B/A MUNICIPAL SUPPLY & SIGN
COMPANY, VULCAN, INC., AND XCESSORIES SQUARED
DEVELOPMENT & MFG. INC
Item # 16B4
APPROVE CHANGE ORDER NO. 1 TO AGREEMENT NO. 22-
7944, "PROFESSIONAL DESIGN SERVICES FOR 16TH STREET
NE BRIDGE," WITH KISINGER CAMPO & ASSOCIATES,
CORPORATION TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL DESIGN
SERVICES AND ADD 365 DAYS TO THE CONTRACT
(PROJECT NO. 60212). THE CHANGE ORDER WILL ADD NO
ADDITIONAL COST, BUT FUNDS WILL BE REALLOCATED
FROM UNUSED TASKS TO COVER THE ADDITIONAL
SERVICES - THE PROJECT EXTENDS APPROXIMATELY 3.3
MILES ALONG 16TH STREET NE FROM GOLDEN GATE
BOULEVARD TO RANDALL BOULEVARD
Item # 16B5
Page 76
June 25, 2024
APPROVE CHANGE ORDER NO. 1 TO AGREEMENT NO. 21-
7901, "PROFESSIONAL DESIGN AND RELATED SERVICES
FOR IMMOKALEE ROAD AT RANDALL BOULEVARD
INTERSECTION IMPROVEMENTS," WITH HNTB
CORPORATION, ADDING 400 DAYS TO PROVIDE
ADDITIONAL DESIGN SERVICES IN THE AMOUNT OF
$263031 AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE
ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER. (PROJECT NO. 60147)
Item # 16B6
AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENT TO
REALLOCATE FUNDS IN THE STORMWATER CIP FUND
3050) FOR A TOTAL AMOUNT OF $399,328.00
Item # 16B7
APPROVE A WORK ORDER FOR CSA OCEAN SCIENCES,
INC., TO CONTINUE THE REQUIRED POST -CONSTRUCTION
HARDBOTTOM MONITORING FOR THE COLLIER COUNTY
BEACH NOURISHMENT PROJECT IN SUMMER 2024, FOR
TIME AND MATERIALS NOT TO EXCEED $368,494.04 IN
TOURIST DEVELOPMENT TAX FUNDS UNDER
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT NO. 22-8015,
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE THE WORK
ORDER, AND MAKE A FINDING THAT THIS ITEM
PROMOTES TOURISM (FUND 1105, PROJECT NO. 90033)
Item # 16B 8
RESOLUTION 2024-120: APPROVE A RESOLUTION AND
Page 77
June 25, 2024
AUTHORIZE THE COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE THE
STATE FY2024/25 TRANSPORTATION DISADVANTAGED
TRIP & EQUIPMENT GRANT AGREEMENT AND ANY
ANCILLARY DOCUMENTS WITH THE FLORIDA
COMMISSION FOR THE TRANSPORTATION
DISADVANTAGED IN THE AMOUNT OF $765,349, WITH A
LOCAL MATCH OF $85,038, TO CONTINUE OPERATION, AND
AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS.
(TRANSIT GRANT AND MATCH FUNDS 4034/4035)
Item # 16B9 (Moved from Item # 16H 1 (Per Change Sheet)
AWARD INVITATION TO BID ("ITB") NO. 24-8219, "FOREST
LAKES MUNICIPAL SERVICE TAXING UNIT (MSTU)
GROUNDS MAINTENANCE," TO GROUND ZERO
LANDSCAPING SERVICES, INC., AS THE PRIMARY VENDOR,
AND A&M PROPERTY MAINTENANCE, LLC, AS THE
SECONDARY VENDOR, AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN
TO SIGN THE ATTACHED AGREEMENTS
Item # 16C 1
APPROVE AN AGREEMENT FOR SALE AND PURCHASE FOR
THE SOLID WASTE DIVISION TO ACQUIRE 5 ACRES OF
UNIMPROVED VACANT LAND AS PART OF AN
ASSEMBLAGE OF PROPERTIES NEAR THE COUNTY
LANDFILL AND CONTIGUOUS TO OTHER LANDS
ACQUIRED BY THE COUNTY. (PROJECT NO. 59012) (TOTAL
COST NOT TO EXCEED $111,000.)
Item # 16D 1
Page 78
June 25, 2024
APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN A
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU) BETWEEN
COLLIER COUNTY AND MHP BEMBRIDGE, LLC, TO
FURTHER AFFORDABLE HOUSING INITIATIVES THROUGH
AN $893,826.24 LOAN; AUTHORIZE USING FEDERAL STATE
AND LOCAL FISCAL RECOVERY FUNDS TO REIMBURSE
THE AFFORDABLE WORKFORCE HOUSING (1075) FUND IN
THE AMOUNT OF $893,826.24; AUTHORIZE ALL
ASSOCIATED BUDGET AMENDMENTS; AND AUTHORIZE
THE CHAIRMAN TO EXECUTE ALL RELATED LOAN
DOCUMENTS. (FISCAL IMPACT $893,826.24, FUND 1075)
Item # 16D2
ACCEPTED A GRANT DONATION FROM THE EILEEN AND
CONO FUSCO FUND THROUGH THE FIDELITY CHARITABLE
GRANT PROGRAM IN THE AMOUNT OF $100, FOR GENERAL
SUPPORT OF THE COLLIER COUNTY LIBRARY. (PUBLIC
SERVICES GRANT FUND 1839)
Item # 16D3
RESOLUTION 2024-121: APPROVE A RESOLUTION
AUTHORIZING ACCEPTANCE OF A $4501000
NONRECURRING APPROPRIATION FROM THE FLORIDA
LEGISLATURE FOR THE COLLIER COUNTY PARKS AND
RECREATION ATHLETIC COURTS RESURFACING PROJECT
WITH A $350,000 COUNTY MATCH REQUIRED. (FISCAL
IMPACT $450,000 AND $350,000 FUND 3062)
Item # 16D4
Page 79
June 25, 2024
ACCEPT AND RECOGNIZE RESTRICTED DONATIONS FROM
VARIOUS DONORS IN THE AMOUNT OF $7,395, INCLUDING
$21700 IN FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD FROM A PRIOR
PERIOD FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE COLLIER COUNTY
PUBLIC LIBRARY AND TO AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY
BUDGET AMENDMENTS. (FUND 1810
Item # 16D5
APPROVE AN AFTER -THE -FACT THIRD AMENDMENT WITH
THE AREA AGENCY ON AGING FOR SOUTHWEST FLORIDA,
INC., AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT FUNDING UNDER THE
OLDER AMERICANS ACT GRANT PROGRAM FOR THE
COLLIER COUNTY SERVICES FOR SENIORS PROGRAM
RESULTING IN A NET INCREASE OF $58,000, BRINGING THE
TOTAL AWARD TO $1,254,888, AND AUTHORIZE THE
ASSOCIATED BUDGET AMENDMENTS. (HUMAN SERVICES
GRANT FUND 1837)
RMINKIr ol
APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN TWO
(2) RELEASES OF LIEN FOR FULL PAYMENT IN THE
AMOUNT OF $28,676.81 PURSUANT TO THE AGREEMENT
FOR DEFERRAL OF 100% OF COLLIER COUNTY IMPACT
FEES FOR OWNER -OCCUPIED AFFORDABLE HOUSING
DWELLINGS
Item # 16D7
=
June 25, 2024
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TO 1) ACCEPT YEAR
2 ALLOCATION OF OPIOID SETTLEMENT IN THE AMOUNT
OF $1,891,238.87 ($650,019.83 CITY/COUNTY AND
$1,241,219.04 REGIONAL ABATEMENT) AND AUTHORIZE
THE NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENT, 2) REALLOCATE
$289,151.06 FROM YEAR 1 REGIONAL ABATEMENT
FUNDING TO CITY/COUNTY FUNDING, 3) RECOGNIZE
$11310.30 OF INTEREST AND AUTHORIZE THE NECESSARY
BUDGET AMENDMENT; AND 4) AUTHORIZE THE
RECLASSIFICATION OF A CURRENT TIME -LIMITED, FULL-
TIME EQUIVALENT POSITION (FTE) TO A FULL-TIME
PROGRAM MANAGER TO SUPPORT THE ADMINISTRATION
OF THE OPIOID SETTLEMENT PROGRAM. (COLLIER
COUNTY -SERVICES FOR SENIORS FUND 1806)
Item # 16D 8
AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN AMENDMENT TO
THE DEPARTMENT OF ELDER AFFAIRS AGREEMENT FOR
THE GOLDEN GATE SENIOR CENTER EXPANSION AND
HARDENING PROJECT TO EXTEND THE END DATE FROM
JUNE 30, 2024, TO JUNE 30, 2025. (FUND 1835 HOUSING
GRANT)
Item # 16D9
APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN TWO
(2) STATE HOUSING INITIATIVE PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM
GRANT AMENDMENTS WITH RURAL NEIGHBORHOODS,
INC., (1) AMENDING SHOR 22-001 BY REVISING THE
PROCUREMENT THRESHOLD LANGUAGE, EXTENDING THE
Page 81
June 25, 2024
TERM, AND ADD GENERAL PROVISION LANGUAGE, AND
(2) AMENDING SHOR 23-001 TO DECREASE THE GRANT
FUNDING AWARD, REMOVE FISCAL YEAR 22-23, REVISE
PROCUREMENT THRESHOLD LANGUAGE, AND ADD
GENERAL PROVISION LANGUAGE. (SHIP GRANT FUND
1053)
Item # 16D 10
APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN A
STATE HOUSING INITIATIVES PARTNERSHIP SPONSOR
AGREEMENT BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND COLLIER
COUNTY HOUSING AUTHORITY IN THE AMOUNT OF
$5001000 FOR THE RENTAL REHABILITATION STRATEGY.
(SHIP GRANT FUND 1053)
Item # 16D 11
RESOLUTION 2024-122: APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE
CHAIRMAN TO SIGN THE SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE
AGREEMENT BETWEEN COLLIER COUNTY AND THE
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE DIVISION OF
HISTORICAL RESOURCES AND APPROVE AND ADOPT THE
RELATED RESOLUTION FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE
HISTORIC COTTAGES AT MAR -GOOD HARBOR PARK TO
EXTEND THE END DATE FROM JUNE 30, 2024, TO
DECEMBER 31, 2024. (PUBLIC SERVICE GRANT FUND 1839
AND PUBLIC SERVICE MATCH FUND 1840)
Item # 16D 12
Page 82
June 25, 2024
ACCEPT THE DONATION OF A 2022 HOBIE 16'7 GETAWAY
SAILBOAT FROM ROLAND AND MARY WERRES FOR
PROGRAMMING USE AT SUGDEN REGIONAL PARK WORTH
$125500 FAIR MARKET VALUE FOR THE PARKS AND
RECREATION DIVISION SAILING PROGRAM AT SUGDEN
REGIONAL PARK
Item # 16F 1
APPROVE A SECOND AMENDMENT TO AGREEMENT NO.
21-7883-ST, THE CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT AT RISK
("CMAR") CONTRACT WITH O-A-K/FLORIDA, INC., D/B/A
OWEN-AMES-KIMBALL COMPANY, FOR THE MAIN
CAMPUS UPGRADES TO CONFORM THE INSURANCE
REQUIREMENTS IN EXHIBITS E-1(1) AND E-2(1) TO THE
BOARD APPROVED GUARANTEED MAXIMUM PRICE AND
ASSOCIATED SCHEDULE OF VALUES WITH NO INCREASE
IN COST OR TIME UNDER THE AGREEMENT, AND RATIFY
AND AUTHORIZE PAYMENTS RELATED TO WORK
PERFORMED BY SUBCONTRACTOR NAUTI ELECTRIC, INC.,
THAT OCCURRED PRIOR TO THE ISSUANCE OF A BOND
BEING IN PLACE BETWEEN NAUTI ELECTRIC AND O-A-K.
(FUND (3018), PROJECT NO. 50214)
Item # 16F2
APPROVE CHANGE ORDER NO. 4, ADDING FIVE DAYS AND
UTILIZING $31,747.75 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
Page 83
June 25, 2024
ACCESS ROAD," AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO SIGN
THE ATTACHED CHANGE ORDER. (PROJECT NO. 80039)
Item # 16F3
AFTER -THE -FACT APPROVAL TO SUBMIT FLORIDA LOCAL
GOVERNMENT CYBERSECURITY GRANT APPLICATION
FOR 800 MHZ PUBLIC SAFETY RADIO SYSTEM
Item # 16F4
RESOLUTION 2024-123: ADOPT 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 # 16F5
CONSIDER THE DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD OF COLLIER
COUNTY REQUEST TO PLACE AN ITEM ON THE
NOVEMBER 5, 2024, ELECTION BALLOT FOR A TAX
NEUTRAL FUNDING SHIFT OF CAPITAL BUDGET FUNDS TO
OPERATING BUDGET
Item # 16H 1 Moved to 16B9 (Per Change Sheet)
Item # 1611
June 25, 2024
MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE JUNE 25, 2024
Page 85
June 25, 2024
Item # 16J 1
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS SERVE AS THE
LOCAL COORDINATING UNIT OF GOVERNMENT FOR THE
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT'S
FEDERAL FISCAL YEAR 2023 EDWARD BYRNE MEMORIAL,
JUSTICE ASSISTANCE GRANT (JAGC) COUNTYWIDE
PROGRAM AND 1) AUTHORIZE THE CHAIRMAN TO
EXECUTE THE CERTIFICATION OF PARTICIPATION; 2)
DESIGNATE THE SHERIFF AS THE OFFICIAL APPLICANT
AND THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE STAFF AS GRANT FINANCIAL
AND PROGRAM MANAGERS; 3) AUTHORIZE THE
ACCEPTANCE OF THE GRANT IF AND WHEN AWARDED;
AND 4) APPROVE ASSOCIATED BUDGET AMENDMENTS
AND APPROVE THE COLLIER COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
TO RECEIVE AND EXPEND THE GRANT FUNDS
Item # 16J2
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS APPROVES THE
FY 2024 SCAAP LETTER DELEGATING AUTHORITY TO
SHERIFF KEVIN RAMBOSK TO BE THE OFFICIAL GRANT
APPLICANT AND CONTACT PERSON, OR HIS DESIGNEE,
AND TO RECEIVE, EXPENDS THE PAYMENT AND MAKE
ANY NECESSARY BUDGET AMENDMENTS OF THE FY 2024
OF THE STATE CRIMINAL ALIEN ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
(SCAAP) GRANT FUNDS
Item # 16J3
AUTHORIZE EXECUTION OF THE BUDGET AMENDMENT
June 25, 2024
FOR $626,000 FOR COMMUNICATIONS CONSOLES
REPLACEMENT (9-1-1)
Item # 16J4
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 $68,849,249.97 WERE DRAWN FOR THE
PERIODS BETWEEN MAY 30, 20241 AND JUNE 12, 2024,
PURSUANT TO FLORIDA STATUTE 136.06
Item # 16J5
N IV
THE BOARD APPROVE AND DETERMINE VALID PUBLIC
PURPOSE FOR INVOICES PAYABLE AND PURCHASING
CARD TRANSACTIONS AS OF JUKE 19. 2024
# 6 Item 1 K 1 44
e
APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIR TO EXECUTE A
SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT IN THE LAWSUIT STYLED
VALEGENE SIRAVO V. COLLIER COUNTY, (CASE NO. 23-
CA-478), NOW PENDING IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE
TWENTIETH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR COLLIER
COUNTY, FLORIDA, FOR THE SUM OF $121500.00 - THIS
LAWSUIT ARISES OUT OF AN ACCIDENT THAT OCCURRED
ON MAY 21, 2021
Item # 16K2
Page 87
June 25, 2024
APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE CHAIR TO EXECUTE A
SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT IN THE LAWSUIT STYLED
WILLGUEZ MILFORT V. COLLIER COUNTY, (CASE NO. 23-
CA-984), NOW PENDING IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE
TWENTIETH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR COLLIER
COUNTY, FLORIDA, FOR THE SUM OF $361000.00 - THIS
LAWSUIT ARISES OUT OF AN ACCIDENT THAT OCCURRED
ON OCTOBER 20, 2022
Item # 16K3
RESOLUTION 2024-124: APPOINT WILLIAM SWANSON AS
A MEMBER TO THE BUILDING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS
AND APPEALS BE HEARD; AND 4) NO INDIVIDUALS ARE
REGISTERED TO SPEAK IN OPPOSITION TO THE ITEM. FOR
THOSE ITEMS WHICH ARE QUASI-JUDICIAL IN NATURE,
ALL PARTICIPANTS MUST BE SWORN IN — TERM EXPIRING
ON AUGUST 9, 2026
7 # Item 1 A
e
RESOLUTION 2024-125: ADOPT A RESOLUTION
APPROVING AMENDMENTS (APPROPRIATING CARRY
FORWARD, TRANSFERS, AND SUPPLEMENTAL REVENUE)
TO THEFY23-24 ADOPTED BUDGET. (THE BUDGET
AMENDMENTS IN THE ATTACHED RESOLUTION HAVE
BEEN REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS VIA SEPARATE EXECUTIVE
SUMMARIES.)
June 25, 2024
There being no further business for the good of the County, the
meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 10:57 a.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
FN
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.